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Edit: Formatting - Thanks /u/MrMagoo22 and /u/SeasWouldRise !!

Time itself. Jeff’s worst enemy. Seems the all night gaming frenzy had taken a toll on him. By the time he fell asleep after browsing Instagram on his phone, it was already 8 o clock in the morning.

Jeff’s parents had already bought Jeff an alarm clock but he never plugged it in. If he knew better he wouldn’t have tried to pull the all-nighter and he would realise that he is late for school, which starts in 30 minutes and is exactly 30 minutes away.

“Can you stop dissing me?” Jeff barks.

Well, it seems like Jeff didn’t get any sleep at all.

“Stop it.”

You do know its 8 o clock now?

“Yeah. I’m sure it is. Haha, wait a minute” Jeff looked at the time on his phone. 8:02. “OHCRAPOHCRAPOHCRAP”

Jeff jumped out of bed and threw the nearest pair of trousers on, and threaded his tail through the back. He threw a random T-Shirt on with “Quiet is not in my vocabulary!” printed on the front. He jumped down the stairs and rolled into the kitchen, slamming down some cereal and orange juice. He threw on his bag and sped through the door. He ran to Bank station and boarded the train to Stratford.

Chapter 1: The Class Clown

“We are now approaching Stratford, where this train terminates.”

Jeff bounces up and down by the door of the train, his paw on the button to open the door. “Come on! Open!” he whimpers. A girl waiting to get out giggled.
“Typical of a border collie like you. Very characterful.” Jeff smiled at the human. She was quite pretty, a Caucasian girl, about 14, Jeff’s age. They both step out onto the platform and begin running for the exit. “Same school?” Jeff asked. “Yeah! Names Sam, by the way.”
She smiles back to Jeff as she tapped her Oyster card on the barrier’s reader. “We talked in the canteen for a little bit.” “Oh yeah, we did. On Frida-AAH!” Jeff exclaimed as he got his tail caught in the now beeping barrier. Sam walked over to Jeff laughing. “Well, maybe you could ask the staff here to write you a late note.” Sam giggled.

After a conversation with the station staff, Jeff and Sam walked over to the school, walked their separate ways and went to class. Jeff had an IT lesson and he walked into class.
“Why are you so late, Ferguson?” Jeff looked at the teacher, a German shepherd.
“My name’s Jiff” Jeff laughed, as a reference to a popular film at that time. The whole class that were silent before all laughed. The German shepherd gave a disapproving laugh.
“I actually enjoyed that film, so I’ll let you off the hook.”

submitted by neonthewolf
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Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Story tips are always welcome. Site news: Super linty hugs for everyone, especially if you send Dogpatch Press from the Ursa Majors recommended list to the Award nominations (now open!) For the next few weeks, my posting will be sparse due to time demands.  Meanwhile, enjoy uninterrupted content from […]

Ah! The relationship between cows and their clouds….

Wat?

submitted by VentKazemaru
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submitted by spacemanspiff37
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submitted by Darachi
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Thief of Song Blurb, and Blurbs in General

by M. C. A. Hogarth

 

Here’s the blurb for Thief of Songs! Someone on Twitter asked me if I had any tips for blurb-writing, and this seems a good time to talk about that. Particularly since, unlike a lot of people, I actually enjoy blurb-writing. (Yes, I know. I am crazy.) The most memorable advice I ever received on this topic was from agent Don Maass, who gave a short lecture on “the elevator pitch” while promoting his book Writing the Breakout Novel. I don’t remember the book, but I do remember the pointers about pitching. Pitching, he said, is about “capturing interest, not telling the story.” It should include the three essential components: character, setting, and conflict. And it should answer the question: “Why should I care? What’s the emotional appeal?”

So the heart of blurbing, for me, is identifying the central conflict, the character most affected by it, and then ending with a leading question/statement that invites the reader to find out more.

In Thief’s case, the conflict in the story is Amet’s problems with the lowlands. He is the character most affected by that conflict. And the leading question is whether he’ll be willing to set those problems aside to love a lowlander. Easy peasy! But the art of blurbing is making those answers as succinct as possible, while also as exciting and mysterious as possible. Think of movie trailers: they give you only enough set-up to understand why you should care about the outcome, and then tease you by not revealing the ending!

Here’s the fun part of it for me, then: I want the whole thing to fit in 3-5 sentences. Fewer is best!

So, some more examples for deconstruction. Here’s Mindtouch‘s: Setting: The entire first sentence gives this context.
Character Most Affected: Jahir (who shows up in sentence #2).
Description of Conflict: the second part of the second sentence (“unprepared for… etc.”)
Leading question: “Will the two, etc etc.”
Sentence count: 3

Here was a rough one for me, the Black Blossom blurb: Conflict: First sentence!
Character Most Affected (or at least, most prevalent because Narration): “the gentle Calligrapher, etc…”
Setting: The third sentence.
Leading question: The last two sentences.
Sentence count: 4

Now, here’s an interesting exercise. When the sequel to Flight of the Godkin Griffin came out, both Sofawolf (the print publisher) and I wrote blurbs for it without consulting one another. It was a difficult exercise because we’re introducing the final book in a series, which means we have to allude, at least a little, to the first. And we handled it in very different ways! Here’s Sofawolf’s blurb:

Sent to oversee the most recent territorial acquisition in the Godson’s empire, Mistress Commander Angharad finds herself in an unexpected position. Rather than smoothly assuming control from the outgoing governor, she finds herself in opposition to violent factions of the occupying forces, the corrupt governor she is replacing, and unexpectedly even the Godson himself.

No doubt her unplanned adoption as the champion of the conquered province of Shraeven and the chosen vessel of its many native Gods has something to do with her sudden fall from favor.

Certain that Shraeven holds the final key to the empire’s goal of breeding a God of their own, the Godson himself arrives to regain control of the province. Angharad knows that a lasting peace will only come from a diplomatic solution, but with the Godson’s behavior becoming increasingly erratic, she is no longer sure he is capable of reason.

The Godson’s Triumph is the conclusion of the fantasy military adventure started in Flight of the Godkin Griffin, and takes Angharad to the brink of war with her own country on her way to truly understanding the Gods and the empire’s dedication to emulating them.

Meanwhile, here’s the one I wrote:

Mistress Commander Angharad Godkin hates politics… so of course, her ruler the Godson sent her to replace the Governor of barely tamed Shraeven province. She hates religion, so naturally, the native gods began to plague her the moment she arrived. And since she hates both, the gods started playing politics—and the politicians began playing at godhood. In Flight of the Godkin Griffin, Angharad, a creaky old veteran of the Godkindred Kingdom’s many wars of conquest, was dragged out of retirement only to discover her newest assignment—to rule a province in peace—might finally be the death of her. She certainly wasn’t expecting to face off against her own monarch in a battle that will decide not just her own fate, and not just the fate of Shraeven Province… but of the world itself.

The Godson’s Triumph returns us to the world of Angharad Godkin and her comrades and concludes their epic journey. But who will be left standing when the fires burn out?

The last piece of advice Maass gave was to “use one of the following words in your last sentence: love, heart, dream, journey, fortune, destiny.” I don’t follow the letter of this law, but you can see clearly what he’s aiming for with it: you should be pitching a hero’s journey to the reader, a story that really grips your heart. It has, as modern audiences can now say, ALL THE FEELS. If it doesn’t have all the feels, why bother? And if your overall blurb doesn’t operate on that level, it’s not going to connect to as many people as you hope.

So, in short:
1. Keep it short.
2. Keep it punchy—now is not the time to downplay the conflict.
3. Identify the most important conflict and the character grappling with it and put them on center-stage.
4. Give enough setting information that the conflict makes sense/feels urgent.
5. End with a question/invitation to find out more.

I am not the best blurb-writer in the world, but I think I do passably at it, and I enjoy doing it. If you have questions, leave ‘em here and we can continue deconstructing the process. Or if you have examples of great blurbs you like, bring them here!

This post first appeared at M. C. A. Hogarth’s blog. The original post can be found here.

 

Author: Hello, Papabear. Thanks for reading my letter, I think the work you do with this website is really amazing. So here’s the thing: I been feeling bad or nothing at all, I don’t get excited about anything anymore. I don’t want to do anything, so I do nothing all day. I have books I wanted […]

submitted by shroud_raven
[link] [11 comments]

Looking to do more art trades and commissions.

Trades- Looking for people roughly around my skill level to swap some art with. Characters I'd like done are a mix of human, furry, or feral, so lots to pick from depending on what people can draw. I personally like ferals the most, but I'm happy to draw furries, and I'm not bad at humans. Comment or PM for details.

Commissions- $10 for a full color digital piece, either a front-and-back simple reference sheet or just a basic full body thing. Clean content only, single character. $5 for a pencil drawing (not ref sheets).

Here's my gallery on Deviantart with lots of examples!

submitted by Greypuppy
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submitted by DerpyGrooves
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There's this one guy in Finland whose character is a helicopter. I'm not sure if he's joking, but I started wondering what a bit different 'sonas there are.

submitted by liskoturri
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submitted by Fluxwulff
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A new science-fiction role-playing game has appeared on the scene, called HC SVNT DRACONES (a variation on hic sunt dracones, or “here be dragons” in Latin). “HC SVNT DRACONES puts you in the body of a human experiment that outlived its creator, and has gone on expanding into the galaxy while trying to heed the lessons of a race that fell to ruin. It’s about exploration and fear, expansion and conquest, intrigue and subterfuge, and ultimately, it’s about you, learning to be you, when all the trappings of humanity you define yourself with are dead and gone. A unique character generation system allows you to assemble you Vector layer by layer, from their family to their species to the unique anatomy that defines their appearance. Interact with your story on two legs or four, from 6 feet up, or less than one. Explore new character interactions and problem solving possibilities when your party can range dramatically in size and shape from person to person.” After a (very!) successful Kickstarter campaign by HSD creator Pierce Fraser, the game manual is available now as a download at Drive Thru RPG — with the hardcover edition soon to follow. Also, make sure to check out HSD’s official page at Tumblr for updates.

image c. 2015 Pierce Fraser

submitted by richikitsune
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submitted by MRjarjarbinks
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submitted by Patricky5
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So... As the title says... My SO wants to quit drawing because they think their style is bad, and that nobody likes it. I, of course, don't want him to quit. I mean, he's really good imo, and I can't seem to convince him.

I... I wanted to come here to see if people would be kind enough to show him some love, to make him get some well-deserved attention. Please.

Cookieswithkiwi.deviantart.com

That is his deviant art, please, do see his drawings. I'd owe you all a big one

Thanks beforehand.

submitted by blackiehideaki
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Alright everybody Let's see what y'all have to say about fandoms. Why do people join them and/or why did you join the furry fandom?

Answer however you'd like but please let us know what to refer to you as (i.e. pseudonyms, fursona names, your real name, pick at least one.) feel free to E-mail me at skyoath.tipofthetail@gmail.com, pm me, or just respond in the comments bellow. Thanks in advance and have a good week fuzzbutts!

submitted by SirSkyOath
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I have just discovered the physical embodiment of cuteness that is Telephone. Holy crap I just want to hug her so much.

submitted by Samfiller
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