writing is so funny because i could write nonstop for 9hrs and then hit a block where im like "how do i transition between this moment and the next?" and then i just dont touch it for 6 months
Serious advice tho if this happens, it's likely because you already wrote past the end of the scene and wandered too far from the more logical transition point, and you should go back to the last time the writing felt "unforced" and cut everything after.
You can also just skip the transition. Really good writing can span years in a single sentence, like you can just authoritatively state fact and your reader will go with it.
None of these are actually meant to be hateful, if any of these have truely offensive meanings (such as the r word) that I was unaware of, please tell me so I can remove it! Tried to avoid cursing, but it contains some!
My children, it is time! It took us a long ass century, but my friends and I finally finished setting up the Good Omens discord server and the bad boy is finally opening! *clears throat and grabs mic*
Are you a Good Omens enjoyer? A chronic reblogger of Crowley and Aziraphale gifs and overall crazy metas? Someone who whispers “no nightingales” at every depressing moment? Do you just really like celestial drama, gay yearning, and the ineffable chaos that is this fandom?
WELL THEN GUESS WHAT.
We've opened a Good Omens-themed Discord server and it is now officially LIVE!
👼 Heaven & Hell (and human)-themed roles
😈 NSFW (by request of spicy role) and SFW spaces
🕯️ Channels for fanart, fanfic recs, memes, cosplay, events & more
📜 Muriel-approved rules
🎉 Birthday shoutouts, community events, watch parties (!!), and daily shenanigans
💬 General chat, writing/art/cosplay rooms, and a Crowley-core corner of chaos and nice and accurate(-ish) memes
Whether you're here for the ship, the lore, the memes, or just some ineffable company, you're welcome.
Join us here:
Check out the Ineffable Discords community on Discord – hang out with 10 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
(Yes, this is your sign. Agnes said so herself. Check the book.)
🔁 Reblog to call upon other ineffable addicts via tumblr summoning circle💫
A new initiative was born in a Facebook group that was designed to highlight any and all fanfiction writers for Good Omens. Due to its success, we are now expanding this campaign to a larger audience.
Introducing the ✨️GO SPOTLIGHT AUTHOR✨️ blog, where we celebrate all of our talented Good Omens fanfiction writers.
If you write GO fanfiction or poetry, or any other written word, you are free to sign up to participate - all levels of experience are accepted!!! Or follow along to find out more about your favorite writers in this ineffable fandom 💕
We introduce a new author every 3 weeks (chosen completely at random from our voluntary signup sheet) and they share insight to their writing process, along with other info about their lives and their love for Good Omens.
Click here to find all of our final posts and keep track of when our next author will be featured!!
Here's the signup sheet if you have interest in being featured as one of our next Spotlight Authors:
Initial Signup Info for participation in "Spotlight Author" posts
Writers, here’s your reminder that you should be doing warm-ups!
Athletes need to warm up. Musicians need to warm up. Artists need to warm up. Heck, I even have to play a few matches in video games before I get into a groove every day.
Warm-ups help you get into the right headspace, give you more control of your actions and word choice, get you comfortable in your physical setting (eg: with your keyboard, notebook, tablet, or whatever you're writing with), and spark creativity.
Even if you don’t think you have spoons to write, sit down and do a couple warm-ups. If you still don’t want to, that’s alright. But. I think you’ll be surprised how often they help break that ice.
5-15 minutes is all you need. I personally set a timer for ten minutes each time and do not stop writing until the time is up. Your warm-up can be anything at all so long as it gets you writing and starts nudging those creative juices.
Here's some common warm-ups:
Journaling. Just jot down some notes about your day. Feel free to really lean into something that you noticed. We're going for description and details -- try to avoid settling into a spiral or focusing on something negative that will upset your creativity.
Short story prompts. Type that into Pinterest and pick the most ridiculous, cliche thing you can. Write a little scene, story summary, or even a rant about why you do or don't like the prompt. Just write.
Vocab challenge. If you like a bit more critical thinking to get you in the zone, have a random vocabulary word generator spit out five or so words. Check their meanings and jot down a little story or thought that includes all five. You get more familiar with beautiful and descriptive language, and it gives you a much narrowed prompt (which is lovely if you're like me and suffer each time there's an open-ended task assigned).
Character moments. Try putting your character into a generic setting and write down almost meticulously what their thought process would be. Follow them realizing they've just stepped in mud or dreading the start of the day. Pick a mundane thing and describe them working through it. This will not only get your writing going, but it will wake up the character's voice in your head.
Ongoing storytelling. Did you know that Whinnie the Poo was A.A. Milne's warm up story? He would jot down a quick little story with those very basic characters and did so every day. Whatever came to mind. He kept writing little tidbits on the same characters and eventually it turned into a series. Having that ongoing plot with isolated scenes and simple characters can help you feel more motivated to sit down and write.
Get-to-know-you-questions. Google a list of basic first-date questions (there are a million out there) and answer one yourself. Go into specifics. Where do you most want to travel and why? Let yourself ramble until the question is fully answered.
Writer's block blues. This is a favorite of mine. If you're truly stuck, write about being stuck. Eg: 'I'm supposed to write for ten minutse, but that feels so stupid and impossible. No one is goign to read this anyway. I have no ideas and the page is so overwhelming when its blank. I used to be able to write on and on and nothing could stop me. it was like breathing. but now I have nothign and do nothing and I can't even do a stupid prompt-' Even the rambling and ranting got me writing. It made things easier. It made writing this post easier. Also -- notice the typos? Yeah, don't fix those. You're in writing mode, not editing mode when you're doing this. If you edit while you write, you're forcing yourself to stay in your executive and calculating headspace rather than falling fully into creativity and dream. Ignore the mistakes. That's for future you to handle.
I've officially rambled far too much, but I hope that helps even a little bit. Live well and write often, my friends. Best of luck to you <3
Level up your writing skills in English - Dialogue Punctuation
A guide for those whose first language is not English (pro tips at the end)
Well, this is maybe the most that the new authors struggle with. As any other language, English also has its own rules for dialogues and I bet you could find them on the net as well, but if you want it short - here I am.
First things first, we use ‘’ and “” for dialogues in English and never ‘—‘ or ‘–‘ or spaces or just ‘start new line’. We need to indicate the people are speaking. ‘’ - for thoughts and “” - for speaking.
‘I was dancing with him.’ - I understand it’s in the character’s head.
“I was dancing with him.” - I understand the character says it out loud.
The next part is punctuation. I know, a lot of you maybe struggle with all these commas and no commas at the end, at the beginning, dialogue tags and stuff, but, believe me, it’s not as hard as it seems. So, what is important to remember is that we use commas with things that we do with our mouth or verbally and full stops with actions.
“It was quite interesting,” she said.
Look, comma is inside the “” and ‘said’ is something she does with her mouth or verbally.
“It was not so easy.” She moved closer to the table.
Look, full stops is inside the “” and ‘she’ is written in the capital, because ‘she moved closer to the table’ is not something she could do with her mouth or verbally.
Also, do not forget to start each character’s speaking from the new line, so it doesn’t look like a mess.
“I came here from the north.” He put his gloves on the table.
“Me too,” she agreed.
Look, 2 characters speaking, each of them having their own line. Also, notice that the first one is doing action, which is why there’s a full stop at the end, and the second one is agreeing - which is something we could do with our mouth or verbally and - which is why we have comma at the end.
The other thing to remember is that ‘…’ is not interrupting. It’s about the words slowly fading as the character speaks. If you want to show that the person was interrupted - use ‘—‘.
“I wasn’t sure whether to go…” Jake answered.
Look, there’s no comma or full stop at the end of “” and I understand that Jake’s voice becomes quieter and quieter as he speaks, showing that he’s really unsure of what to do next.
“I wasn’t sure wheth—“
“I will tell you!” she shouted.
Look, there’s no comma or full stop at the end of “” and I understand that the character is interrupted. Also, take a look at the second line: there’s an exclamation mark inside “”, but she is written with the small letter - yes, because shouted is something you do with your mouth or verbally.
One more thing: if your sentence finished with ! or ? there’s no need to add a full stop or comma at the end or after “”, ‘’.
That’s it for beginners. Practice with those above to sharpen your writing skills. Yes, you may think it’s too easy and want more, but believe me - I’m also using the rules above and rarely use the rules I’m gonna tell next in my own writing. Make small things look good first and then go to bigger things.
Well, my fellows, who are professionals in writing dialogues and the tips above were like a baby talk to you, fasten your seatbelts, you’re gonna find out some more tricks (I hope).
Okay, first things first, ‘’ and “” could be interchangeable. If you want to write thoughts in “” - you’re welcome, but don’t forget your choice for the rest of the story, so the readers are not messed up with what’s thought and what’s word:
“I was dreaming,” he thought.
And
‘I was dreaming,’ he thought.
Are both fine.
Next, using dialogue tags or actions before the words themselves:
Jake answered quietly, “What if I got it wrong?”
She pressed her hand to his chest. “It can’t be.”
It’s also okay. Just mind the punctuation: commas are for dialogue tags (mouth or verbally) and full stops for actions.
Depending on what you choose for your story, we use ‘’ inside “” and “” inside ‘’:
“I was surprised by ‘his’ behavior,” she stated.
If you have prolonged dialogue tag or action with dialogue tag, the tag should always come directly to the sentence (it’s easier to avoid any extra punctuation drama):
He answered quietly, smiling, “Of course.”
Julie laughed and asked, “What’s that?”
“I want this,” she replied, walking down the street.
There’s a difference when the words are interrupted by dialogue tag or action:
“We’d rather,” Jake said and lifted his arm, “win this auction.”
“I’ll never”—she pressed her finger to his chest—“let you do this!”
But personally I never use this rule, cause it’s just hard to punctuate and I believe that non-English readers may find it too hard to understand.
Well, that’s all for now, thanks for reading and I hope that was useful! <3
honestly, this phrase has been on my mind more times than i can count. i've kidnapped it, taken it as a hostage with no ransom money because i need it to live permanently in my head.
Weirdly Healing Things to Do When You’re Feeling Creatively Burned Out...
Write a fake 5-star Goodreads review of your WIP—as if you didn’t write it. Go ahead. Pretend you're a giddy reader who just discovered this masterpiece. Bonus: add emojis, chaotic metaphors, and all-caps screaming. It’s self-indulgent. It’s delusional. It’s delicious.
Give your main character a Pinterest board titled “Mentally Unstable but Aesthetic.” Include outfits, quotes, memes, cursed objects, and that one painting that haunts their dreams. This is not about logic. This is about ✨vibes.✨
Make a “deleted scenes” folder and write something that would never make it into the book. A crackfic. A “what if they were roommates” AU. The group chat from hell. This is your WIP’s blooper reel. Let it be silly, chaotic, or wildly off-brand.
Interview your villain like you’re Oprah. Ask the hard-hitting questions. “When did you know you were the drama?” “Do you regret the murder, or just the way you did it?” Bonus points if they lie to your face.
Host a fake awards show for your characters. Categories like “Most Likely to Die for Vibes,” “Worst Emotional Regulation,” “Himbo Energy Supreme,” or “Best Use of a Dramatic Exit.” Write their acceptance speeches. Yes, this counts as writing.
Write a breakup letter… to your inner critic. Be petty. Be dramatic. “Dear Self-Doubt, this isn’t working for me anymore. You bring nothing to the table but anxiety and bad vibes.” Rip it up. Burn it. Tape it to your mirror. Your call.
Create a “writing comfort kit” like you’re a cozy witch.
A candle that smells like your WIP. A tea that your characters would drink. A playlist labeled “for writing when I’m one rejection email away from giving up.” This is a ritual now.
Design a fake movie poster or book cover like your story is already famous. Add star ratings, critic quotes, and some pretentious tagline like “One soul. One destiny. No chill.”
Write a scene you’re not ready to write—but just a rough, messy outline version. Not the polished thing. Just the raw emotion. The shape of it. Like sketching the bones of a future punch to the gut. You don’t have to make it perfect. Just open the door.
Let your story be bad on purpose for a day. Like, aggressively bad. Give everyone ridiculous names. Add an evil talking cat. Write a fight scene with laser swords and emotional damage. Just remind yourself that stories are meant to be played with, not feared.
wish there was a place I could put my writings up lmao
I don't write for Fandom so ao3 is off the table-
AO3 hosts original writing as long as it's "fannish" (you get to decide what that means.)
There's literotica (.com) if you write original smut.
There's scribophile if you prefer a more "aiming professional" site, where you can post your novel and give and get reciprocal reviews and critique with other authors.
There's also wattpad and royalroad if you write original fiction and don't mind there being an algorithm measuring engagement. (These are the only two I haven't personally posted on but lots of people use them!)
And probably a lot more sites out there that I don't know!
just a heads up to my fellow writers out there that AO3 is currently fighting off bots commenting on people’s works to tell them that AO3 will delete their fics “due to the works being deprecated”, and the deletion will affect their accounts unless the authors delete the fics themselves first. IT IS A SCAM. AO3 will NOT delete your works. please do NOT fall for these bots!
I’ve been told the reason why these bots are doing this is due to copyright infringement issue where they’re trying to steal your works (possibly to train AI but this is just a guess) ‼️‼️‼️and once you deleted your fics, it will be either very difficult or impossible for you to claim ownership of your own fics when they were already deleted.‼️‼️‼️
a reminder that AO3 will never contact you through your comments section (in case they claim to be one of the moderators). AO3 will only contact you through your email address which you use to register your account, and it will be from AO3’s official handle. not some sketchy ass @
so if you get a comment telling you you should “delete your works to protect your account because AO3 is doing blah blah blah” report that comment. don’t delete your works.
PLEASE DO NOT FALL FOR THESE SCAM.
AO3 IS NOT DELETING WORKS.
DO NOT DELETE YOUR WORKS JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE CLAIMS THEY KNOW SOMETHING.
I love how we all collectively congratulate ourselves whenever someone starts reading Discworld books for the first time, it's like the Discworld fan equivalent of those guys in baseball caps and sunglasses who pose for a photo with a fish they just caught
