With the rise of censorship from groups like Collective Shout pressuring payment processors, I decided to write a poem about it since I feel like I would explode if I ranted in only words. Enjoy.
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Take It Away!
-
Take it away,
take it away.
Take it all away.
From us, angel of purity, godsent.
Take our hearts and weigh them,
to your cowl of lying merriment.
Your judging eyes shine from the hem.
Sweet divine dancer, spare mother and child.
From us, godsent.
Take it all away.
Force it that art be bent
Into an infant’s smile.
Hell exists with Cerberus' intimidation.
Keep the doors sealed, his only occupation.
To erase hell? Make him smile
A terrible while
So all sin may be erased
Make earth sinners punishment, sweet divine dancer.
What To Do When You Know Your Ending but Have No Clue How to Get There
congrats. you’ve unlocked the most ✨ cursed ✨ form of storytelling: knowing the destination but having zero map, no snacks, and one emotionally unstable protagonist riding shotgun.
aka: you know how your book ends. maybe even the Last Line™. but the middle? the plot? the scenes required to get there?
🦗🦗🦗
welcome to liminal writing hell. here’s what to do about it:
🚨 STEP 1: Write the ending anyway.
yes. even if you’re only on chapter three. write the ending now. not perfectly. not canon. just get it down while it’s burning in your brain.
this does 2 things:
gets you emotionally invested in where you’re headed
gives you a north star to align your scenes to
future-you will thank you when you're knee-deep in act 2, spiraling, and you need to remember what this mess was for.
🧩 STEP 2: Backwards logic it like a feral detective.
ask: what has to happen right before this ending can exist? then ask that question again. and again. until you’ve accidentally built a whole reverse-outline.
like:
✨ final scene: heroine stabs the love interest to save the world
→ she needs to know he’s the villain
→ she needs to see him do something unforgivable
→ she needs a reason to be in the same room as him when it happens
→ she needs to go to the city where he’s hiding
→ she needs to choose betrayal over loyalty
now reverse those like breadcrumbs through the forest of chaos.
🎯 STEP 3: Identify your mid-point emotional switch.
the best middles aren’t just “stuff happening.” they’re a turning point. a reversal. a Big Choice. often it’s the opposite of the ending.
ending = character sacrifices love
midpoint = character believes love will fix everything
this sets up contrast + emotional stakes. the midpoint shows how wrong they are. the ending proves how far they’ve come.
no midpoint? no tension. build the middle to break them, then rebuild toward the finale.
🧱 STEP 4: Stack up your themes like Jenga blocks.
what are you actually saying with this ending?
if the ending is: “freedom comes at a price”
then the story needs to explore:
what freedom means
who pays that price
how people deny the cost
how your protagonist learns to accept it
if your middle scenes aren’t touching these ideas? they’re just filler. start weaving the theme early, subtly, and repeatedly. make it hurt a little.
📦 STEP 5: Write “junk scenes” in the blank spaces.
not sure how they get from castle to climax? write a fake scene. not canon. no pressure. just vibes. let the characters mess around in the setting. argue. kiss. kill. eat soup. whatever.
you’ll learn what they want, what secrets they’re hiding, what tensions spark.
some of these junk scenes will turn out to be real. others will guide you to what needs to happen next. use them as scaffolding.
🧃 STEP 6: Accept that messy = forward.
you won’t always see the whole road. write the next landmark. write the next mistake. write the next bad scene and figure out why it doesn’t work.
knowing your ending is a gift. the rest? that’s the part where you dig.
you don’t need a perfect bridge. you just need enough planks to get across without falling into the river of I’ll-Fix-It-Later.
now go. write the scene where everything breaks.
P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:
✦ A free (and actually helpful) guide to leveling up your first 10 pages ✦If you're unsure whether your opening is ✨doing enough✨ to hook re
🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:
A gothic prompt pack for writers who love cursed universities, secret societies, and scholarly rot.✎ Write the Darkness ✎A 75-prompt horror
(no ✨vibes✨, just structure, stakes, and first-sentence sweat)
hello writer friends 💌
so you opened a doc. you sat down. you cracked your knuckles. maybe you even made a playlist or moodboard. and then…
you stared at the blinking cursor like it personally insulted your entire bloodline.
here’s your intervention. this post is for when you want to write chapter one, but all you have is aesthetic, maybe a plot bunny, maybe a world idea, maybe nothing at all. here’s how to actually start a book, from structure to sentence one.
—
🌶️ STEP 1: THE SPICE BASE ~ “WHAT’S CHANGING?”
start with this question:
what changes in the protagonist’s life in the first 5–10 pages?
doesn’t have to be earth-shattering. they could get a letter, lose a job, run late, break a rule, wake up hungover in the wrong house.
what matters is disruption. the opening of your book should mark a shift. if their day starts normal, it shouldn’t end that way.
🏁 opening chapters are about motion. forward movement. tension. momentum.
if nothing is changing, your story isn’t starting, you’re just doing a prequel.
—
⚙️ STEP 2: THE CRUNCHY BITS - CHOOSE AN ENTRY POINT
there are 3 classic places to start a novel. each one works if you’re intentional:
The Day Everything Changes
most popular. you drop us in right before or during the inciting incident. clean, fast, efficient.
pro: immediate stakes
con: harder to sneak in worldbuilding or character grounding
The Calm Before the Storm
starts slightly earlier. show the character’s “normal” life, then break it. useful if the change won’t make sense without context.
pro: space to introduce your character’s routine/flaws
con: risky if it drags or feels like setup
The Aftermath
drop us in after the big event and fill in gaps as we go. works well for thrillers, mysteries, or emotionally heavy plots.
pro: instant drama
con: requires precision to avoid confusion
📝 pick one. commit. don’t blend them or you’ll write three intros at once and cry.
—
🧠 STEP 3: CHARACTER FIRST, ALWAYS
readers don’t care about your setting, your magic system, or your cool mafia politics unless they’re anchored in someone.
in the first scene, we need to know:
what this person wants
what’s bothering them (externally or internally)
one trait they lead with (bold, anxious, calculating, naive, etc.)
that’s it. just one want, one tension, one vibe.
no bios. no monologues. no “they weren’t like other girls” essays. put them in a situation and show how they act.
—
⛓️ STEP 4: OPEN WITH FRICTION
first scenes should create questions, not answer them.
there should be tension between:
what the character wants vs. what they’re getting
what’s happening vs. what they expected
what’s being said vs. what’s being felt
you don’t need a gunshot or a car crash (unless you want one). you need conflict. tension = momentum = readers keep reading.
—
✏️ STEP 5: WRITE THE FIRST SENTENCE - THEN IGNORE IT
okay. now you write it.
no pressure. you’re not tattooing it on your soul. this isn’t the final line on the final page. you just need something.
tricks that work:
start in the middle of an action
start with a contradiction
start with something unexpected, funny, or sharp
start with a small lie or a weird detail
💬 examples:
“The body was exactly where she’d left it - rude.”
“He was already two hours late to his own kidnapping.”
“There was blood on the welcome mat. Again.”
“They said don’t open the door. She opened it anyway.”
once you’ve got it? keep going. don’t revise yet. don’t edit. just build momentum.
you can come back and make it ✨iconic✨ later.
—
📦 BONUS: WHAT NOT TO DO IN YOUR OPENING
don’t start with a dream
don’t info-dump lore in paragraph one
don’t give me three pages of your OC making toast
don’t try to sound like a Victorian cryptid unless it’s on purpose
don’t introduce 7 named characters in one scene
don’t start with a quote unless you are 800% sure it slaps
be weird. be sharp. be specific. aim for interest, not perfection.
—
🏁 TL;DR (but make it ✨useful✨)
something in your MC’s life should change immediately
pick a structural entry point and stick to it
give us a person, not a setting
friction = good
first lines are disposable, just make them interesting
and if you needed a sign to just start the damn book, this is it.
💌 love,
-rin t.
P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:
✦ A free (and actually helpful) guide to leveling up your first 10 pages ✦If you're unsure whether your opening is ✨doing enough✨ to hook re
I feel like I just blacked out and woke up with new social media accounts to manage. Am I overdoing the whole marketing thing for a story that’s only got 2 chapters so far?
Exactly the way you write male ones. Treat them the same. The beauty of it is, even if you write shit male characters too, at least it’s clear you don’t discriminate.
Hiii new blog! I’ll make an intro post soon but for now I have this
I’m an aspiring writer and I finally started serializing an idea I’ve had for a long time! It’s called Jackal of the Crucible which I’ve started posting on Royal Road if anyone wants to go check it out!
Expect more posts from me about my writing and just random stuff I think of posting :3