The Witching Corner

Lexi | Female | 20 | English, Esperanto, Japanese, and French | Pagan witch | Reads tarot, oracle cards, and bones | Astrology | Aries Sun, Gemini Moon, Leo Rising

[90377]

Searching for light by Jorge Verdasca Instagram | Youtube | Website

[sartorialadventure]

Ancient Greek fashions

1-3. chiton 4. feast guest and dancer 5-6. himatius 7. mantle 8. peplos 9. warriors 11. woman in Phrygian cap, traveler

[k-eke]

Deserving artist.

[csenegb-deactivated20210520]

rainbow

[thatwritergirlsblog]

Writing great protagonists

So, I recently did a post on antagonists and thought I’d add my two cents on MCs:

1. Make the reader care

This is extremely important. The reader should want to follow this character’s journey, and should be interested in the character’s fate. The only way to do that is to ensure that your reader cares about the MC early on.

So, maybe your protagonist “saves the cat” or is an all-round good Samaritan. Maybe they’re really funny or smart or relatable etc. 

Just make sure that the character isn’t simply a vehicle for the story to happen to. They need to have qualities that people find endearing and interesting.

This doesn’t mean that your reader has to like your character all the time, it just means that there should be more than indifference.

Make sure to introduce some quirky or admirable characteristics in the first chapter (preferably the first scene). This will spark interest in the reader from the get-go and make them that much more excited about reading the story.

2. Arc

This is so important. I talked about redemption arcs in my post on antagonists, but people forget that the good guys should also change throughout.

Your protagonist should not be the best version of themself at the beginning of the book. Sure, they should be interesting and endearing, but there should be room for growth.

If the MC is already at their peak, what’s left for the reader to see?

So, identify the weaknesses in your protagonist, their insecurities or psychological blocks etc. Take that aspect of the character and imagine its complete opposite. Now, use the story to get your character from where they are to that opposite point where they are their best self. 

This development should be at the heart of your story.

3. Motivation

Once again, this is the holy grail of character. If your character doesn’t have a fundamental motivation, they will come across as boring and the reader will lose interest.

Is there something your protagonist really wants to obtain? Is something taken from them at the beginning of the novel and they want it back. Does someone kill their loved one in first scene and now they are out for revenge? Is some all-powerful demon trying to steal their soul and they’re on the run? Figure it out.

And introduce it early. There needs to be an identifiable motivation from near the start of the story that will get your reader invested. This character’s family has been abducted by aliens and she’s out to save them? Show me how much she loves her family in the early scenes and have them be abducted by the second chapter at least. Now I’m invested. I want to know what she’s going to do to get to the aliens, who’s going to help her and if she’ll manage to save them in the end.

Keep in mind that your character’s motivation can change throughout the story, but there always has to be one.

You can also consider what I’ve been doing with To Wear A Crown, where two of the MCs’ motivation is finding their motivation. Just make sure that there’s drive and a reason for that drive.

4. I don’t want to read about a piece of cardboard that looks human

And no one else does either. (Unless you’re thinking literally. In that case, go for it)

This links up with making the reader care. 

Don’t create an MC for the sole purpose of having someone who can take the reader through the story. Even if you’re writing plot-driven novels, the protagonist should be more than just a conduit.

The protagonist needs to have a unique personality. Just like any other character, their voice and mannerisms should be easily distinguishable from the rest of the cast. 

So, take the time to develop a character with a combination of cool traits and interests. A quiet girl with mousy hair and no brain of her own isn’t gonna cut it anymore - Twilight, I’m looking at you.

Basically, your MC should be a person, not an empty shell for the reader to climb into.

5. Think outside the box

Okay, this one is a little weird and this isn’t advice as much as a suggestion.

I would love to see books where a human being (or some other humanoid) is not the protagonist.

Maybe the story is told from the perspective of an animal or even a plant? Maybe Death narrates the story, or the devil, or God? What about a book about climate change where the Earth is the MC? A slice-of-life tale told by a statue? The Notre Dame fire narrated by a gargoyle? Whatever floats your boat.

We could go in so many interesting directions and I would love to see more people doing this.

That’s all I have for you for now. If you guys have any writing advice topic you’d like me to cover, please feel free to request it in my asks.

Reblog if you found this useful. Comment with your own ideas on out-of-the-box protagonists. Follow me for similar content.

[wordsnstuff]

Resources For Describing Emotion

Emotions

Without Making Your Character Feel Too Self Aware

Showing Emotion Without Telling About It

Emotions Associated With Body Language

Telling Readers What The Character Doesn’t Want To Show

Hiding Emotions

Expressing Cardinal Emotions: Masculine vs. Feminine

Writing Extreme Emotion Without Melodrama

Specific Emotions

Conveying Shock

Conveying Embarrassment

Conveying Disappointment

Conveying Love/Attraction

Conveying Annoyance

Conveying Relief

Conveying Uncertainty

Conveying Impatience

Conveying Shame

Conveying Resentment

Conveying Panic

Conveying Guilt

Conveying Desperation

Conveying Sarcasm & Verbal Disrespect

Conveying Confusion

Conveying Stubbornness

Conveying Frustration

Conveying Indifference

Conveying Indignation

Conveying Confidence & Pride

Conveying Smugness

Conveying Enthusiasm

Conveying Curiosity

Conveying Hopefulness

Conveying Unease

Conveying Reluctance

Conveying Worry

Conveying Humility & Meekness

Conveying Happiness & Joy

Conveying Amusement

Conveying Disgust

Conveying Resignation

Conveying Jealousy

Conveying Anticipation

Conveying Contentment

Conveying Defeat

Conveying Excitement

Conveying Fear

Conveying Hatred

Conveying Hurt

Conveying Being Overwhelmed

Conveying Sadness & Grief

Conveying Satisfaction

Conveying Somberness

Conveying Sympathy & Empathy

Conveying Wariness

Conveying Defensiveness

Conveying Desire

Conveying Doubt

Conveying Energy

Conveying Exhaustion

Conveying Hunger

Conveying Loneliness

Conveying Physical Pain

Emotional Wounds

A Role Model Who Disappoints

A Sibling’s Betrayal

A Speech Impediment

Becoming a Caregiver at an Early Age

Being Bullied

Being Fired or Laid Off

Being Held Captive

Being Mugged

Being Publicly Humiliated

Being Raised by Neglectful Parents

Being Raised by Overprotective Parents

Being So Beautiful It’s All People See

Being the Victim of a Vicious Rumor

Being Stalked

Being Trapped in a Collapsed Building

Being Unfairly Blamed For The Death of Another

Childhood Sexual Abuse (by a family member or known person)

Discovering One’s Parent is a Monster

Discovering One’s Sibling was Abused

Experiencing a Miscarriage or Stillbirth

Failing At School

Failing To Do The Right Thing

Financial Ruin Due To A Spouse’s Irresponsibility

Finding Out One’s Child Was Abused

Finding Out One Was Adopted

Getting Lost In a Natural Environment

Growing Up In A Cult

Growing Up in a Dangerous Neighborhood

Growing Up In Foster Care

Growing Up In The Public Eye

Growing Up In The Shadow of a Successful Sibling

Growing Up with a Sibling Who Has a Chronic Disability or Illness

Having Parents Who Favored One Child Over Another

Having To Kill Another Person To Survive

Infertility

Infidelity (emotional or physical)

Losing a Limb

Losing a Loved One To A Random Act of Violence

Making a Very Public Mistake

Overly Critical or Strict Parents

Physical Disfigurement

Rejection By One’s Peers

Telling The Truth But Not Being Believed

The Death of a Child On One’s Watch

Victimization via Identity Theft

Watching A Loved One Die

Wrongful Imprisonment

Spending Time In Jail

Suffering From a Learning Disability

Motivation

Achieving Spiritual Enlightenment

Avoiding Certain Death

Avoiding Financial Ruin

Beating a Diagnosis or Condition

Being Acknowledged and Appreciated by Family

Being a Leader of Others

Being the Best At Something

Caring for an Aging Parent

Carrying on a Legacy

Catching The Bad Guy or Girl

Coming To Grips With Mental Illness

Discovering One’s True Self

Escaping a Dangerous Life one Doesn’t Want

Escaping a Killer

Escaping a Widespread Disaster

Escaping Confinement

Escaping Homelessness

Escaping Invaders

Finding Friendship or Companionship

Finding a Lifelong Partner

Having a Child

Helping a Loved One See They Are Hurting Themselves and Others

Obtaining Shelter From The Elements

Overcoming Abuse and Learning To Trust

Overcoming Addiction

Protecting One’s Home or Property

Pursuing Justice For Oneself or Others

Realizing a Dream

Reconciling with an Estranged Family Member

Rescuing a Loved One From a Captor

Restoring A Name or Reputation

Righting a Deep Wrong

Seeking Out One’s Biological Roots

Stopping an Event From Happening

Trying Again When One Has Previously Failed

Support Wordsnstuff!

Request A Writing Help Post/Themed Playlist/Writing Tips!

Send Me Poetry To Feature On Our Instagram!

Receive Updates & Participate In Polls On Our Twitter!

Like us and share on Facebook!

Read More On Our Masterlist & See our Frequently Asked Questions!

Tag What You Want Me To See With #wordsnstuff!

Participate in monthly writing challenges!

[thatwritergirlsblog]

Writing great friendships

Some of the best chemistry/relationships in fiction exist between characters who are/become friends. Here are some tips for making friendships come alive on the page:

1. Banter

One of the most interesting aspects of fictional friendships is the way the characters interact with each other whilst important plot points are occurring.

If your characters have easy banter, teasing one another without missing a beat and managing to bounce off each other even in the toughest circumstances, it will be clear to the reader that these two are/should be good friends.

Friends know each other well. They know the other’s character so well that they can easily find something to tease each other over. However, this also means knowing which topics are off-limits.

If you want to write a good, healthy friendship, your characters shouldn’t use humour/sarcasm as a way to hurt the other. It should be good-natured and understood as such from both sides.

Different friendships will have different types of chemistry. Some friends may tease each other with facial expressions. Others may already anticipate a snarky remark and counter it before it’s been spoken. Others will have physical ways of goofing around. 

Some friends might not tease each other at all. Banter isn’t necessary; it’s just a good way to make your characters come alive and make their friendship one that is loved by readers.

What’s important is chemistry - the way they automatically react to each other.

Think Sam and Dean in Supernatural or Juliette and Kenji in the Shatter Me series.

2. Mutual support 

Unless you purposefully want to write an unhealthy/toxic friendship, your characters should both be supportive of the other. 

This means that, even if one is the MC and the other the side-kick, both should be cognisant of the other’s feelings and problems, and should be considerate in this regard.

Few things will make your MC as likable as remembering to check in and be there for their best friend even when they are in the thick of a crisis.

You need to show your characters being vulnerable in front of each other and being supportive in ways that are tailored to the needs of each friend.

So, if one of the characters really responds to physical comfort, the other should know to give hugs/rub their back when they’re not feeling well. Similarly, if one of them doesn’t like being touched and responds to material comfort, have the other bring them ice cream and join them for a movie marathon. Whatever works for your characters.

What gets me every time is when a character is falling apart and won’t listen to/be consoled by anyone but their best friend (but this is just personal preference).

3. Knowing the other’s past/family life

This really only applies to characters who have been friends for quite a while.

Good friends know each other’s backstory - the highs and lows and mundane details. They know they layout of their family home and they probably know their family members well.

Friends will often talk about these things, only having to mention a few words for the other to know what they’re talking about i.e. “The ‘09 Thanksgiving disaster” or “You know how Uncle Fred is”

This will instantly make it clear that your characters are close and have come a long way together. 

Perhaps there are issues at home/trauma from the past that the other character will immediately understand. So, if one character appears with a black eye, their friend might know that the father was probably drunk the night before and got violent. Or if the character has a nightmare, the friend might know that it was about childhood abuse etc.

This can also apply to good things i.e. if one of the characters gets a nice note in their lunchbox, the other might know that their grandma is in town.

Whatever works for your story should be used to indicate the level of unspoken understanding the friends have.

4. Being protective

Few things will make your readers love a friendship more than the friends being fiercely protective of each other (in a healthy, non-territorial way).

Has someone hurt one of the characters? The other should be furious and want to exact revenge. Does someone say something demeaning to one of the friends? The other should defend them immediately and vehemently.

This can also take on a humorous twist if one of the characters starts dating someone. The friend can make extra sure that said date is sincere and promise to exact vengeance if their friend is hurt.

This can also be a great plot device, since it could explain why the MC’s best friend joins the quest/goes along on the journey. Perhaps this is the main plot point: a character seeking to protect/avenge their friend.

If you want to go in a toxic direction, this can be taken too far i.e. a friend who never lets the other spend time with anyone else/stalks the other/is patronising etc.

5.  Common interest(s)

Even if the two characters are vastly different, there should be something that keeps them together besides loyalty.

This is especially important for characters who become friends throughout the course of the novel.

This doesn’t have to mean that both of them go hiking every weekend or want to become pilots one day. It could be something small, like a love of cheesy movies or a shared taste in music. Maybe they both enjoy silence/don’t like other people. Maybe they are both social justice warriors, but for different causes. 

This could also be common characteristics instead of interests. Perhaps both are very ambitious/funny/social.

There should just be some factor that ignited the friendship and brings the two of them together.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a big part of your story, but you should at least have it mentioned to make the friendship appear more authentic.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment if you would like a Part 2. Follow me for similar content.

[darkearthsuggestions]

How can I find myself when all that I see are glimpses? The ripple in the pool, a word caught on wind, traces of fur on the edge of a thistle– I am like a hunter tracking my own footsteps, but the path is old and the rain is coming, and soon all will be washed away. 

[dollopheadedmerlin]

I have … a tip.

If you’re writing something that involves an aspect of life that you have not experienced, you obviously have to do research on it. You have to find other examples of it in order to accurately incorporate it into your story realistically.

But don’t just look at professional write ups. Don’t stop at wikepedia or webMD. Look up first person accounts.

I wrote a fic once where a character has frequent seizures. Naturally, I was all over the wikipedia page for seizures, the related pages, other medical websites, etc.

But I also looked at Yahoo asks where people where asking more obscure questions, sometimes asked by people who were experiencing seizures, sometimes answered by people who have had seizures.

I looked to YouTube. Found a few individual videos of people detailing how their seizures usually played out. So found a few channels that were mostly dedicated to displaying the daily habits of someone who was epileptic.

I looked at blogs and articles written by people who have had seizures regularly for as long as they can remember. But I also read the frantic posts from people who were newly diagnosed or had only had one and were worried about another.

When I wrote that fic, I got a comment from someone saying that I had touched upon aspects of movement disorders that they had never seen portrayed in media and that they had found representation in my art that they just never had before. And I think it’s because of the details. The little things.

The wiki page for seizures tells you the technicalities of it all, the terminology. It tells you what can cause them and what the symptoms are. It tells you how to deal with them, how to prevent them.

But it doesn’t tell you how some people with seizures are wary of holding sharp objects or hot liquids. It doesn’t tell you how epileptics feel when they’ve just found out that they’re prone to fits. It doesn’t tell you how their friends and family react to the news.

This applies to any and all writing. And any and all subjects. Disabilities. Sexualities. Ethnicities. Cultures. Professions. Hobbies. Traumas. If you haven’t experienced something first hand, talk to people that have. Listen to people that have. Don’t stop at the scholarly sources. They don’t always have all that you need.

[heywriters]

Researching clinical explanations of PTSD vs listening to first hand interviews of children from war zones was eye opening.

[manon-pouetpouet]

POURQUOI on vit dans une société dans laquelle on ne peut pas venir en pyjama au travail !!!!!!

[dailyfrench]

le 31 mars   ⋮   le pissenlit   ⋮   dandelion

[darkearthsuggestions]

spring is not gentle

trembling towards tomorrow

trepidation of love now renewed;

it is a scab scraped over winter

and its bloody, weeping wounds.

[antaarf]

https://www.instagram.com/anta_rf - my arts A tarot commission If you want to order an illustration or portrait made by me - please, just write a message!

[antaarf]

One of requests  https://www.instagram.com/anta_rf

[jefaiscequejepeux]

moi : *passe 2h à essayer de dessiner mon rat jouant de l’accordéon*

[fuckyeaharchaeology]

Yusra (pictured left) was a Palestinian woman who worked under Dorothy Garrod, a British paleoarchaeologist (pictured right), at Mt. Carmel caves in Israel from 1929 to 1935. 

Yusra was not a formally trained archaeologist, but one of many local villagers hired by Garrod and her team to conduct the bulk of the work in the excavation.  Such practices were common at the time (and still are in some regions of the Middle East). Many of these villagers, despite no formal education on the subject, were skilled excavators who had decades of experience. Yusra was the most skilled of all the village women employed under Garrod. 

Yusra’s job during the excavations was picking out items before the excavated soil was sieved, and she became immensely skilled in recognizing lithics, fauna, and hominid remains. One day she found a tooth which turned out to be part of a crushed but mostly complete skull of a Neanderthal woman. The skull, now known as Tabun-1, dates to 120,000 years ago. It is of the most ancient human skeletal remains found in Israel.

Although she was a prominent member of Garrod’s excavation team and  responsible for the discovery of one of the most significant hominid ever found, very little is known about Yusra’s life except for what is written about her in the notes of Garrod and her students. She wanted to study at Cambridge at the encouragement of Garrod, but was unable to do so. It is unknown what happened to her after the Mt. Carmel excavations because her village was abandoned and destroyed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. 

Yusra is an example of a woman and a class of skilled laborers whose contributions to early archaeology went unacknowledged and largely forgotten. 

[blackwoolncrown]

pretty shitty how baseline human activities like singing, dancing and making art got turned into skills  instead of being seen as behaviors

so now it’s like ‘the point of doing them is to get good at them’ and not ‘this is a thing humans do, the way birds sing and bees make hives’.