Writing Tips

Welcome to Alice's Writing Tips. Here you will find tips for planning and writing stories. If you have any questions for me, leave them in my ask box or send me an email at [email protected] and I'll answer them as soon as possible.

[aliceswritingtips]

Sorry to bother you, but I need some help. I have a story planned out, and one of the hero's squad members gets killed during a battle due to an explosion. The character is revived by the villain and turns against the hero, feeling that they have been betrayed. But I'm having trouble coming up with why he feels so betrayed that he attempts to kill the protagonist. Do you have any suggestions? Sorry again, have a nice day!

Well the obvious idea would be to have your protagonist selfishly get away, despite being able to save the other character. That idea might be a little too obvious and over done though, so maybe you could have the villain capture the character and turn them against the protagonist, perhaps telling lies or revealing the dark truth behind the protagonist (maybe they don’t have one but the villain may manipulate what your character already knows about them and twist it into something that makes the character want to get revenge somehow).

[aliceswritingtips]

Words are a lens to focus one’s mind.

– Ayn Rand

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Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.

– Henry David Thoreau

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Hey so I'm trying to come up with ideas for a character I want to create but my mind is completely blank and so far the only things I have come up with are a ghost and a necromancer. Could you suggest any more ideas?

Well, as I don’t know the concept of your story, I can’t really suggest much other than research. You could also try character generators online and notebook.ai is a good tool for you to start shaping your characters and the universe they live in.

[aliceswritingtips]

Writing Prompt

The year is 2158, the world is about to end, but your character has a device that allows them to go back in time for one day only. What do they do and are they successful in saving the world or do they just choose to use the device to relive one of their happier memories?

[aliceswritingtips]

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it to be God.

– Sidney Sheldon

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Keeping a dream journal is a good way to keep your mind creative and reading them back when your conscious mind has forgotten them can often serve as a source of inspiration for your writing.

[aliceswritingtips]

Hey hey! So I just came upon your blog and I was wondering if you could give me some pointers and tips on writing in third person PoV? I’m finding it difficult to find ways of expressing emotion and inner thought without using pseudo-dialogue via italics too much.. usually cause doing that makes me cringe a lil too much >_<

Body language is the best way to portray people’s emotions and feelings. You can also have them talk about how angry or upset they are or maybe you could just use the head bobbing technique, where the narrator can see into people’s heads and will in turn talk about their feelings.

[aliceswritingtips]

Hello! I have an idea for a story. However, it is a fanfiction and to fit the original characters, I would have to set the story in the 70s (the characters would be probably 16-18yo in late 70s). And I, being a 90s b*tch, have no clue how to write a story set in the 70s. I only know a little bit about fashion and music, but well, that is probably the least important thing for this story. I dont know whether i even should write the story since i know so little about the setting. Any tips? Thanks♡

Well the best thing to do would be to research as much as possible. Find out what the setting would have been like and what would have been built after that time, so you can try to make it accurate. You could also try reading people’s autobiographies that were set in that era and talk to people that would remember it. There are also plenty of TV shows and films from that time that will help you to paint a picture of how life would have been back then. It will probably take quite a bit of time and a lot of research, but as long as you’re passionate and remain interested, I see no reason why you can’t pull it off.

[aliceswritingtips]

If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.

- Somerset Maugham

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A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just begins

to live that day.

– Emily Dickinson

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Do you think a coward and gentle character could be considered boring as a main character? How could I make them more charismatic even when it's settled in a fantasy apocalyptic world and they have a lot of traumas? Thanks!!!!

As long as your main character is likeable and relatable, I don’t think the reader will find them boring. The main thing that people look for when reading a story is an ‘Every-man’, somebody that speaks for them. As long as they have good morals and ambition, then I don’t think you need to worry too much.

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It is perfectly okay to write garbage—as long as you edit brilliantly.

– C. J. Cherryh

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Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.

-Mark Twain

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Writing Prompt

The waves bashed against the sand and in the distance, the faint sound of a child calling out for their mother.

[aliceswritingtips]

Poetry creates the myth, the prose writer draws its portrait.

–Jean-Paul Sartre

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It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.

-Ernest Hemingway