writing is so hard

m

[1800spoet-boy]

who would i be?

i wonder quite often

wandering in the footprints of another me

[mart-notes]

But it does make me sad that we've forgotten our names. Out of everything, this seems to me the most tragic. I miss my own and I mourn for everyone else's, because I'd like to love them, but I don't know who they are.

-R

(Excerpted from Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion)

I could talk about just about every paragraph in this book but y'all this one right here. There are things in it that are relevant the further into the story you go.

R never reclaims his name, not even as he finally learns to reclaim his memories. He says that he misses it and once he gets the chance to get it back he refuses it. His chosen name, the one given to him by someone he loves, means so much more to him than whatever name was assigned to him at birth. After all, the name from his first life, like everything else, failed him.

The empathy in these short few sentences... it's everything. Human's were made to love, despite everything. We were designed to care for one another. Isaac Marion is so good at expressing what the human experience is supposed to be. There is beauty in being alive, and it took a zombie to help me remember this.

[ellipsus-writes]

Collaborative writing is a labor of love. What if it could be easier? 

Think connected drafts, not disconnected files. 

Think effortless version history and control. 

Think in-document chat. 

Far away from the prying eyes of AI and LLMs.

Ellipsus is a new writing tool for people who write together!

Two new features have arrived this week: Comments and Dark Mode! :D

We’re looking for feedback from folks who care a lot about writing.

Check us out, and join the Ellipsus beta.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi! Questions!!

Trying to write a lengthy story, but I don’t know how to start. The plot is so messy in my brain, and I can't understand how to plan the outlines. I'm feeling really demotivated. It’s my first time attempting to write a novel/long fic. Sometimes, I imagine my characters and their romantic scenes, but damn! I just can’t seem to write. Another problem is that I'm writing the story in English (even though I've written many stories in this language before, it’s not my native language). I tried writing another story in my native language, but it feels like my mind is a blank slate, and I can't write anything.

Here are some posts to help you get started:

Guide: How to Turn Ideas into a Story Guide: Starting a New (Long Fiction) StoryGuide: Filling in the Story Between Known Events Guide: How to Outline a Plot Basic Story Structure Beginning a New Story How to Move a Story Forward Plot Driven vs Character Driven Stories Understanding Goals and Conflict Trouble Getting Started Writer’s Block Want to Write but Can’t Come Up with a Plot Have Plot, Can’t Write Deciding How to Open Your Book Finding a Story in Characters and Setting Finding a Plot to Go with Characters/Setting Where to Find Story Ideas Coming Up with Ideas and Plot

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

LEARN MORE about WQA

SEE MY ask policies

VISIT MY Master List of Top Posts

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[30-minute-memes]

Savage farmer

[2urban2fantasy-deactivated20241]

Get they ass

[lesbianholster]

What the hell, hyper-specific poll time

Have gone on a month-long kayak trip

Touched real brain at least 3 times

Own at least 5 books printed before 1990 (not published, printed)

Have met and gotten a photo with an EGOT winner

Lived in at least 5 different cities before turning 25

Never broken a bone yet (🧿🧿🧿)

5th generation photographer

Lost a parent before finishing high school

Know how to hand-chip ice

Almost exclusively write with fountain pens

More than one of these

None of the above

Voting ended onFeb 7, 2024

[zegalba]

Statue based on Leonardo daVinci’s famous concept for artificial wings.

[bruntalism]

[bruntalism]

[athingofvikings]

Years and years ago, I read a book on cryptography that I picked up because it looked interesting--and it was!

But there was a side anecdote in there that stayed with me for more general purposes.

The author was describing a cryptography class that they had taken back in college where the professor was demonstrating the process of "reversibility", which is a principle that most codes depend on. Specifically, it should be easy to encode, and very hard to decode without the key--it is hard to reverse the process.

So he had an example code that he used for his class to demonstrate this, a variation on the Book Code, where the encoded text would be a series of phone numbers.

The key to the code was that phone books are sorted alphabetically, so you could encode the text easily--picking phone numbers from the appropriate alphabetical sections to use ahead of time would be easy. But since phone books were sorted alphabetically, not numerically, it would be nearly impossible to reverse the code without exhaustively searching the phone book for each string of numbers and seeing what name it was tied to.

Nowadays, defeating this would be child's play, given computerized databases, but back in the 80s and 90s, this would have been a good code... at least, until one of the students raised their hand and asked, "Why not just call the phone numbers and ask who lives there?"

The professor apparently was dumbfounded.

He had never considered that question. As a result, his cipher, which seemed to be nearly unbreakable to him, had such an obvious flaw, because he was the sort of person who could never coldcall someone to ask that sort of thing!

In the crypto book, the author went on to use this story as an example of why security systems should not be tested by the designer (because of course the security system is ready for everything they thought of, by definition), but for me, as a writer, it stuck with me for a different reason.

It's worth talking out your story plot with other people just to see if there's a "Why not just call the phone numbers?" obvious plot hole that you've missed, because of your singular perspective as a person. Especially if you're writing the sort of plot where you have people trying to outsmart each other.

[athingofvikings]

#this has wrapped back around to reaching someone who cares about security more than writing#like this kind of thing is EVERYWHERE#anyways @op drop the title

@demo-ness, here you go:

The Code Book - Wikipedia

[yeoldenews]

Hi I was wondering if you know of any good resources to get good vintage names that aren’t typical and boring (Fred, Edward, Alfred etc)?

Some of the names in the Santa letters are certainly peculiar and it made me wonder what kind of names those “vintage baby names” lists are leaving out 😜

Thanks! And happy new year 🎊

One place to get a good general overview of what names were like in a certain era is the Social Security Administration's lists of popular names that go back to the 1880s. The further down the lists you go the less common they get. However these are still all names that had at least a few hundred occurrences, so you're not going to have any Gloyds etc..

I personally always try to find names from primary sources (newspapers, census, vital records, etc.) as you're more likely to come across unusual names that don't make the top 200 lists.

Also keep in mind that name popularity varied greatly by location. Just because there were a bunch of Juanitas in Tulsa in 1930 doesn't mean there were that many in Boston.

Honestly if anyone is working on a specific project and needs names from a certain location/era (i.e. you're writing a novel that takes place in London in 1627) feel free to message me and I'd be happy to work with you to compile a list from primary sources. I love this stuff and will use any valid excuse to spend an evening digging through 17th century baptismal records.

[blackheartbiohazards]

💫 It's okay to write fiction you would not want your grandmother to see.

💫 Different stories are for different audiences.

💫 You do not have to appeal to everyone.

💫 Don't sacrifice the story you want to tell for an imaginary audience or for imaginary critics.

[soy-sauce-and-mothra-deactivate]

Hey! Are there blacksmiths in your story? I'm a hobbyist blacksmith and I'm here to help!

Blacksmithing is one of those things that a lot of people get wrong because they don't realize it stuck around past the advent of the assembly line. Here's a list of some common misconceptions I see and what to do instead!

Not all blacksmiths are gigantic terrifying muscly guys with beards and deep voices. I am 5'8, skinny as a twig, have the muscle mass of wet bread, and exist on Tumblr. Anybody who is strong enough to pick up a hammer and understands fire safety can be a blacksmith.

You can make more than just swords with blacksmithing. Though swords are undeniably practical, they're not the only things that can be made. I've made candle holders, wall hooks, kebab skewers, fire pokers, and more. Look up things other people have made, it's really amazing what can be done.

"Red-hot" is actually not that hot by blacksmith terms. when heated up, the metal goes from black, to red, to orange, to yellow, to white. (for temperature reference, I got a second degree burn from picking up a piece of metal on black heat) The ideal color to work with the metal is yellow. White is not ideal at all, because the metal starts sparking and gets all weird and lumpy when it cools. (At no point in this process does the metal get even close to melting. It gets soft enough to work with, but I have never once seen metal become a liquid.)

Blacksmithing takes fucking forever. Not even taking into account starting the forge, selecting and preparing metal, etc. etc. it takes me around an hour to make one (1) fancy skewer. The metals blacksmiths work with heat up and cool down incredibly fast. When the forge is going good, it only takes like 20 seconds to get your metal hot enough to work with, but it takes about the same time for it to cool down, sometimes even less.

As long as you are careful, it is actually stupidly easy to not get hurt while blacksmithing. When I picked up this hobby I was like "okay, cool! I'm gonna make stuff, and I'm gonna end up in the hospital at some point!" Thus far, the latter has yet to occur. I've been doing this for nearly a year. I have earned myself a new scar from the aforementioned second degree burn, and one singe mark on my jeans. I don't even wear gloves half the time. Literally just eye protection, common sense, and fast reflexes and you'll probably be fine. (Accidents still happen of course, but I have found adequate safety weirdly easy to achieve with this hobby)

A forge is not a fire. The forge is the thing blacksmiths put their metal in to heat it up. It starts as a small fire, usually with newspaper or something else that's relatively small and burns easily, which we then put in the forge itself, which is sort of a fireplace-esque thing (there's a lot of different types of forge, look into it and try to figure out what sort of forge would make the most sense for the context you're writing about) and we cover it with coal, which then catches fire and heats up. The forge gets really hot, and sometimes really bright. Sometimes when I stare at the forge for too long it's like staring into the sun. The forge is also not a waterfall of lava, Steven Universe. It doesn't work like that, Steven Universe.

Welding and blacksmithing are not the same thing. They often go hand-in-hand, but you cannot connected two pieces of metal with traditional blacksmithing alone. There is something called forge welding, where you heat your metal, sprinkle borax (or the in-universe equivalent) on it to prevent the metal from oxidizing/being non-weldable, and hammer the pieces together very quickly. Forge welding also sends sparks flying everywhere, and if you're working in a small space with other blacksmiths, you usually want to announce that you're welding before you do, so that everyone in a five-foot radius can get out of that five-foot radius. You also cannot just stuck some random pebbles into the forge and get a decent piece of metal that you can actually make something with, Steven Universe. It doesn't work like that, Steven Universe.

Anvils are really fucking heavy. Nothing else to add here.

Making jewelry is not a blacksmithing thing unless you want jewelry made of steel. And it will be very ugly if you try. Blacksmithing wasn't invented to make small things.

If there's anything here I didn't mention, just ask and I'll do my best to answer.

[amygdalae]

From the US but i spell grey with an e because e just feels like a much greyer letter than a

[teaboot]

grey with an E is dusty neutral but gray with an A is bluish and darker

[ruinconstellation]

it really is, huh

[vmohlere]

Omg I’ve found my people

[helloelicia]

It's because GRAY is a West Saxon word for the quality of light, while GREY is an Anglian word for everyday objects. And everyday objects are typically earthy, warmer, or more neutral.

To explain: West Saxon and Anglian are both dialects of Old English. West Saxon was the politically dominant dialect, but Anglian was the more popular spoken dialect. So a lot of Old English texts are written in West Saxon, but what we know as Middle English and Modern English descended more from Anglian because it was spoken by more people.

So grey (the Anglian word) shows up when authors are describing everyday stuff. Like in this sentence describing a grey beard from Holy Boke Gratia Dei: "The hed of Petir is a brood face with mech her on his berd and that is of grey colour be twix whit and blak."

Any Middle English text you read, you'll find Anglian grey is the word the author prefers to describe everyday things. Grey wool, grey feathers, grey stones, grey horses.

By contrast, gray (the West Saxon word) shows up when authors are describing the qualities of light.

A gleaming gray sword, a deep gray lake, a misty gray morning, cold gray marble, sad gray eyes. Like in this sentence from The Siege of Jerusalem: "They glowes of graie steel that were with gold hemmyd." More often than not, gray describes an impermanent or glimmering quality of light.

There's even an instance where a Middle English author uses both, and you can see how one spelling is more about the quality of light while the other is more about the color of the animal: "The cerkyl or the roundel off the eye ys sumtyme graye lyke the ey off a catte, sumtyme blak grey lyke the eyn off doggys."

("The circle or round of the eye is sometimes gray like the eye of a cat, sometimes black-grey like the eyes of dogs.")

The reason Americans use gray and not grey is because Noah Webster hated the English. :)

[teaboot]

so freakin cool

[artschoolglasses]

Seen a couple posts on the dashboard lately about writing with ADHD. So, for the ADHD and neurodivergent folks who like writing but struggle sometimes… check out StimuWrite.

You can set it to make little sounds as you type (or leave them off), and emojis pop up in the corner. You can change the background, dark and light themes, set your word goal, and it gives you a percentage and total word count at the bottom. Though it’s more meant for getting a draft written up, so it doesn’t have spell check or anything like that. You’re meant to just copy and past what you write here into Google Docs or Word or Scrivener or whatever else you use and go from there. Honestly love it when I’m struggling to get words down, though. And apparently there’s an update now for StimuWrite 2?👀

Anyways, give it a try if it looks like it may help. It’s currently name-your-own-price.

[lazywitchling]

Yo I just downloaded this thing and hammered out 3000 words????? Which is more than I’ve written in years????????

[lazywitchling]

Hey I’ve accidentally written 20,000 words in six days.

[muddyorbsblr]

This might have cured my writer’s block.

I was supposed to sleep tonight. Like 10 hours full on sleep. Instead I’m finishing off chapters.

Someone take the app away from me I’ve entered dangerous territory 😳👀

[stopme]

Black Family prompt list

I want to do a prompt list this October, but I wasn't convinced by any of them! So! Decided to make a Black Family prompt list! thank you so much to my darling @fiendishfyre who helped me with this <3 <3 Decided to post it, to hype myself further into doing this and well, maybe someone around would like it too.

[peach-pot]

trans guy who doesn’t realize he’s turning into a werewolf because he assumes it’s all just normal side effects of starting testosterone

[concerningwolves]

Full offense but your writing style is for you and nobody else. Use the words you want to use; play with language, experiment, use said, use adverbs, use “unrealistic” writing patterns, slap words you don’t even know are words on the page. Language is a sandbox and you, as the author, are at liberty to shape it however you wish. Build castles. Build a hovel. Build a mountain on a mountain or make a tiny cottage on a hill. Whatever it is you want to do. Write.