OK, as promised. I've gathered all my screenshots, post-it notes and general scraps with the novel advice I've received or found in the last few months. Everything in public domain, e.g. in tweets blog posts & I've credited people. I've paraphrased in some cases. Here goes!

Character
- what is my MCs dilemma? Keep the story tight. Cut away anything that eclipses this. Do this with all your characters. Look for patterns / mirrors. - Wiz Wharton
- Does this move the plot forward? What's the impact on the MC? How does the chapter end? - Helen French

- Is protagonist active enough? Do they have a clear and active goal? Are they trying to get it? Do they have real and intense obstacles? - Kirsty Logan
- Are they moving the plot or only reacting to it? Are they driving their own story?- Briston Books

- Where is the vulnerability for this character? In first drafts, don't withhold information to create tension - it's preferable for the release of tension to come from the dynamic between characters (or character's psyche) rather than release of information - Kaitlyn Greenidge

Plot (sort of)
- don't tie up things too neatly from one page to the next. Increase suspense and then start giving the reader something new to worry about your character. - Sophie Van Llewyn

This is a homophobic eugenics campaign conducted on an industrial level with a vigour and enthusiasm redolent of a busy abattoir

Frankly why aren't you in a state of moral panic?

You rather ought to be

🧵 NEW: How fair is Britain?

Wealthy families are surprisingly good at hanging onto their riches from generation to generation.

Our bank of mum and dad - one of the most generous in Europe - is making things worse... @thetimes

https://t.co/8PVzDjDw7y

A few years ago, researchers @NJCummins @GregoryClarkUCD tracked how the descendants of rich people who died between 1858-1887 got on.

Britain has since gotten more equal. But 5 generations later, those families who were rich in Victorian Britain were still rich in the 2000s!

It's therefore not surprising that the link between your parents' income and yours is strong in Britain, at least compared with other countries

In the Nordic countries, where wealth is distributed more evenly, it's harder to predict what you'll earn by looking at your parents

British families have always been good at passing down wealth.

But today, it matters more, even if millennials won't inherit until they're 61.

Young people are much less wealthy than their parents were at the same age..

How did this happen? Three things stand out..

💰 Final salary pension schemes - many of which are now closed - allowed baby boomers to accumulate huge sums of wealth

📈 Stock market performance since the 1980s

There’s been a lot of talk about TikTok waking up - especially women - on the gender/sex conversation.

Some of the language is still not ideal, but it’s definitely changing!

So I thought I’d do a wee 🧵 for you all to see what’s happening over there.

More and more trans men are speaking up and asserting their biological reality.

The word cis is being questioned. Many women are saying they don’t want to be called cis, they didn’t agree to it and it’s being imposed on them.

The issue of men buying tampons and making mocking videos has really got on womens nerves.

Men are getting annoyed with it all too.

The pity of it all is:

"in some contexts it's not a problem to treat TW *as if* they are women, and in others it's a *huge* problem, so let's talk about specifics"

is all that a lot of people been saying.

TWAW was always absolutist, and always false.

In this comment, I'm not trying to speak for anyone, or to say anything more that 'this is what a lot of people have been saying'. I realise that some people say much more than this, and will disagree with this attempt at encapsulating a view. I'm reading all the critical...

... comments. The point is to show how extreme and absolutist TWAW was, and how reasonable discussion of policy might be possible, once that is junked. I expect reasonable disagreement. I'm opposed to unreasonable absolutism. And maybe that's dying away.
If so, good.

@BrowngaGreg @runthinkwrite We’ve known VO2max falls off fairly quickly w T-Suppression, but it is never makes sport performance drop by the same %. Why? Because performance is a function of strength, power, heart-size, skeletal advantages, that don’t reverse after a decade on T. (Aka male puberty)

Here's a thread on just some of the males who have gone on to win women's sports events - including how they performed in the men's category before they started identifying as women

2017: CeCe Telfer is ranked 390th among male NCAA Division II athletes in the 400m hurdles category
2018: Telfer 'transitions'
2019: Telfer is national NCAA Division II women's 400m hurdle champion
2021: Telfer hopes to qualify for the US Olympics

1998-2012: Laurel Hubbard fails to qualify for a single international men's tournament as a professional weightlifter
2013: Hubbard 'transitions' (aged 35)
2014-21: Hubbard qualifies for 11 international women's tournaments, including the

2013-15: Hannah Mouncey made 22 appearances for the Australian men's handball team, scoring 0 goals
2015: Mouncey 'transitions'
2018: Amid controversy, Mouncey is allowed to play 6 times for the Australian women's handball team, scoring 23

Pre 2015: Golfer Hailey Davidson won 0 men's tournaments (in fact it doesn't look like Davidson even qualified for any tournaments)
2015: Davidson 'transitions'
2021: Davidson becomes the first male to win a women's professional golf

Powerful & emotional. This is a testament to the devastating impact that a biological male competing in women's sports has on female athletes.

@Riley_Gaines_ shares her story in Virginia in support of the "Fairness in Women's Sports" bill. This is why we must #SaveWomensSports.

One of my biggest pet peeves: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps.

A 🧵

might be interested in these!

and @simongerman600 of course!

Journalists from Deutsche Welle asked Moscow residents what they thought about the decision to supply Western tanks to Ukraine.

📹: DW

@CoeliacInExile Thank you! It’s Elegy by Jared McCunnie. We premiered the wind ensemble transcription and I’m pretty sure the only recording of it online is a brass ensemble version, but it’s super gorgeous as well!

Highlights from Women and Equality Committee on #GRRBill

Naomi Cunningham points out how the GRRBill changes the criteria for getting a GRC - there is nothing in the provision of the bill to stop men who cross dress for erotic purposes from getting a GRC

Naomi Cunningham how a GRC and S22 of the Act can be used to terrify service providers #GRRBill

Michael Foran explains the definition of sex in the Equality Act #GRRBill

https://t.co/lrf55Xbq2I

Paris recommends, where have you stayed recently that's been wonderful?

@soniasodha

Boris Johnson is speaking at US think tank, @atlanticcouncil, on 1 Feb about how to sustain support for Ukraine. Here are a few questions the hosts might like to pose to this stalwart "freedom fighter", Putin foe, and Churchillian "champion" of

In 2016, why did Boris Johnson blame the EU for Russia's invasion of

In 2018, why did then For Secretary Johnson spend several days at the private villa of a Russian oligarch and ex KGB spy without any aides, immediately after a confidential NATO meeting discussing the Skripal poisoning?

In 2020, why did Boris Johnson make media mogul, Evgeny Lebedev, the son of Alexander Lebedev, a peer in the House of Lords, against the advice of the UK's own security

Why, in the run up to the December 2019 general election, was so much Russian money allowed to flood into Conservative party

Gothic architecture wasn't just a single style.

It had hundreds of versions, some strange and some beautiful, in different places and at different times.

So here is a journey through the world of Gothic architecture...

Gothic architecture first appeared in the 12th century, when the pointed arch appeared in Europe.

Until then churches and cathedrals had been built with the round arch. This style, in imitation of Roman architecture and its round arches, is known as Romanesque.

The pointed arch is much stronger than the round arch - buildings rapidly became taller, larger, and more complex.

Whereas structural concerns had once dictated how cathedrals looked, aesthetics soon took centre stage.

An architectural revolution swept the continent...

The first phase of Gothic architecture in Britain was the Early English Style (1150-1250).

Windows remained slim and the overall design fairly simple, as embodied by Salisbury Cathedral. The tower, added later and more complex, contrasts with the simplicity of the older parts.

Next came the Decorated Style (1250-1350), so-called because it embraced detailing and complex, flowing ornamentation.

The Bishop's Eye rose window in Lincoln Cathedral and the crossing of Ely Cathedral capture this spirit, permitted by more advanced construction methods.