always more mystery

flavia, 20s. writeblr. magic & mysteries. follows from bardolatrycore. header via localbookshop. avatar via the tickle picrew

[athingofvikings]

"But let me give you the dark side of writing groups. One really dark side of writing groups is, particularly newer writers, don't know how to workshop.

"And one of the things they'll try to do is they'll try to make your story into the story they would write, instead of a better version of the story you want to write.

"And that is the single worst thing that can happen in feedback, is someone who is not appreciating the story you want to make, and they want to turn it into something else.

"New workshoppers are really bad at doing this. In other words, they're really good at doing a bad thing, and they're doing it from the goodness of their heart. They want you to be a better writer. They want to help you. The only way they know is to tell you how they would do it, which can be completely wrong for your story."

—Brandon Sanderson, Lecture #1 Introduction, Writing Science Fiction And Fantasy

[polizwrites]

And this is why many writers (including me) don’t ask for concrit on their published  stories - they’ve told the story they want to tell. 

If that’s not the story you want to read,  you are welcome to write your own version. 😉

[coffeebeanwriting]

How to Balance Pacing

Slowing down the pace:

1) Confuse your protagonist. Is there a puzzle or obstacle that your characters have to solve in order to proceed? Can you make it harder for them? Or does solving one problem lead to an even bigger one?

2) Steal something away from your protagonist that they need for their next step. The dragon rider can’t find his dragon. The knight that is about to ride into battle broke his sword moments before.

3.) Add subplots. For seamless pacing, jump back and forth between your different plots. Just when something big is about to be revealed in the main plot, steer your readers off course into a subplot so that they’re on the edge of their seat waiting for you to return them to the main plot. Do this with your subplots as well for a back and forth game of suspense.

4) Make your sentences longer with more details. For a scene or moment that you want to highlight, drag it out with heightened details. Think of it as a slow motion scene in a movie. 

5) Introspection. Have your character think, reflect or consider their next steps. Inner monologues and consciousness can help the reader to understand misbeliefs, flaws and motivations of a character as well. (Doing this in the middle of a fast-paced scene will slow it down, so be cautious where you use this).

Quickening the pace: 

1) Set up a real ticking clock. The time is counting down and your protagonist needs to finish something in a limited amount of time. A tomb raider has only five minutes to find the relic and escape before they’re shut in the cave forever. 

2) Increase the pressure on your protagonist. Put obstacles in between them and their goals, have an ex return to town, cause drama between them and their friends, place their biggest fear right in front of them, increase the romantic/sexual tension between them and a love interest.  

3) Shorten your sentences/details. Quick action scenes should have short and to the point descriptions. The more details you add, the slower it will feel. Picture an action scene in a movie… punches flying left and right. There is no time to think or observe tiny details.

4) Add a loose cannon. A character who is unpredictable and that the characters worry most about. The tension of what they might do next can help drive your pacing, make the story feel more unyielding.

5) Balance your elements. Make sure you don’t write in huge chunks of just one element. Scenes need to be balanced with dialogue, narrative, action, setting, character, etc. Your pacing can get thrown out of wack if one whole scene is purely a monologue and then the next is solely dialogue. Weave them together!

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

Source: Plot Perfect by Paula Munier | Writersedit

[quinnandersonwrites]

writers be like "I'm going to work on my WIP." my brother in christ, you've already opened tumblr

[creativepromptsforwriting]

Flower Shop AUs 💐

Person A owns a flower shop and Person B comes in so many times to buy flowers that Person A thinks they must be quite the Casanova.

Most people come in without having any clue on what they actually want. And some people know exactly what they want.

Flowers are often used for photo shoots and Person A gets hired to arrange the flowers for one, but they can’t help getting nervous around the model, Person B.

The employees had a fun game to pass the time. If someone bought a big bouquet and it wasn’t around Valentine’s Day, they love to come up with ideas on how that person messed up, to warrant an apology like this.

Person A is definitely petty enough to use the language of flowers to mess with rude and ignorant customers by giving them the absolute wrong flowers for the occasion.

Person A’s flower shop has a small café in it and it has become the meeting point for the locals to drink tea and gossip.

Person A is very good at making flower arrangements and they love their small shop. But they’re not a natural business person and so they hire Person B to help them keep their shop open.

Giving flowers to someone who owns a flower shop is not that easy.

At the market, they always have their stalls right next to each other. Person A sells beautiful flowers and Person B sells delicious fruits. And sometimes they sneak a small gift over to the seller next door.

Person A loves to help their customers out, but when Person B drops in more than once a week to ask questions about the plants they have and new ones they want to buy and they don’t seem to know a lot about botany, Person A feels like they soon have to ask Person B where they live, so that they can do a wellness check on their plants.

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee! And check out my Instagram! 🥰

[damienthepious]

watching @nanowrimo within a single hour:

make an awful, ill-conceived, sponsored post about "responsible"/"ethical" uses of ai in writing

immediately get ratio'd in a way i've never seen on tumblr with a small swarm of chastising-to-negative replies and no reblogs

start deleting replies

reply to their own post being like 'agree to disagree!!!' while saying that ai can TOTALLY be ethical because spellcheck exists!! (???) while in NO WAY responding to the criticisms of ai for its environmental impact OR the building of databases on material without author consent, ie, stolen material, OR the money laundering rampant in the industry

when called out on deleting replies, literally messaged me people who called them out to say "We don't have a problem with folks disagreeing with AI. It's the tone of the discourse." So. overtly stated tone policing.

get even MORE replies saying this is a Bad Look, and some reblogs now that people's replies are being deleted

DISABLE REBLOGS when people aren't saying what nano would prefer they say

im juust in literal awe of this fucking mess.

[bardolatrycore]

NaNo's since died, but I need to memorialize this absolute travesty.

[juliaxyn]

Whatever is learned with satisfaction and enjoyment stays with you forever.

[disabledfabian]

some dnd backstory ideas that give your character a reason to leave home that isn’t “everyone in my family died.” (just to say: i have nothing against those backstories (i use them a lot), but its fun to mix it up!)

family/friends/personal

someone close to you is sick. you need to adventure to find a cure

someone stole something important from you and you need to find it

you’ve received a message from a long lost relative and are trying to find them

someone that you love has been kidnapped (maybe you have to earn money to pay a ransom or complete some deed…)

adventuring runs in the family! everyone is expected to complete one quest in their lives

your family/culture sends people out to complete certain tasks when they reach a certain age as a rite of passage

another player’s character saved you in the past so you feel indebted to them and travel with them, protecting/aiding them

there’s a magical drought in your hometown and you have to fix it

your hometown doesn’t have a lot of jobs so you have to travel and send money back home

some childhood friends and you made a “scavenger hunt” where you try and complete a checklist of certain tasks (ie. defeat a barbarian in hand to hand combat, steal x amount of gold, slay a dragon, etc) in an allotted amount of time

quests/jobs

a god/patron has sent you on a quest to do something for them

you’ve been hired by someone to complete a task (and you get sucked into the big adventure along the way)

you’re on a quest for knowledge. maybe it’s to learn the best ways of fighting, maybe it’s something more academic related

your priest received a vision from your god and they sent you on a quest

you’re writing a book about the world and different cultures and you need first hand experience

you’ve found every map you’ve come across is shitty, so you decide to become a cartographer and make your own

you’re a detective who helps solve crimes and need to travel to solve a particular case

you’re a collector of a certain object and travel across the land to find it

you’re apart of an adventuring academy and have to complete a quest to graduate

you’re an artisan and you travel with your wares, trying to sell them. alternatively, you’re trying to spread word of your business and gain new business partners

you worked at a tavern your whole life where an old bard would sing songs of their adventuring party and that inspired you to go and do some adventuring of your own

feel free to add some of your own!

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

Jack Kerouac, from “Mexico City Blues,” originally published c. July 1959

[bloodraven55]

that some people respond to any well-foreshadowed reveal with “ugh that plot twist was so predictable” proves bad faith criticism has rotted their brains to the point they think it’s bad writing if they can correctly identify information the writers were intentionally giving them

[marthajefferson]

history meme : 05/?? moments | the Night of September 3rd, 1951

The night in question has gone down in history as Tʜᴇ Bᴀʟʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Cᴇɴᴛᴜʀʏ , an orgy of luxury and excess - and those who were there were so consumed by the opulence and theatricality that they had no reason to care. Taking place in his Venetian Palace on the Grand Canal, the host, Count Carlos de Beistegui, was apparently too eccentric to have many friends, but that hardly stopped the upper crust from gossiping about the upcoming Italian fête for months leading up to it. “At the time, Beistegui’s fête seemed like a moral indecency,” David Herbert, the British socialite would later write. Perhaps Cocteau put it most neatly when he said of the half a billion francs Beistegui was spending: “It costed about as much as a warplane, and I prefer a ball.” Venice never had and never would again see anything like it. Over the coming days the city would witness the sort of grandiosity, imperious behaviour and outrageous displays of opulence not seen since the days of the doges. A thousand guests attended, including Salvador Dali, Christian Dior, Gene Tierney or Orson Wells, and many that weren’t invited arrived by yacht, desperately anchoring at the Venice Lido in the hopes of an invitation or a way in. Everyone dressed as “retro aristocrats”, and arrived via gondola, in an almost surreal atmospher, reminiscent of the Venetian life immediately before the fall of the republic at the end of the 18th century. Every window in the palace was lit the same way it would have been in the 18th century, and not by electricity. Even the private detective who screened each guest on arrival was in period clothes. Anyone who did not adhere to the dress code was quickly whisked out of sight, though most people had invested months and huge sums in their costumes. A night that will live long in the memory of each of the guest…

[bardolatrycore]

It's been a long, long time...

Holy shit, almost a year since I've been active in my little corner of the internet. I'm so sorry everyone. I've been busy with work and life!

But more than that, my laptop is nearing the end of its life and tumblr uses a shit ton of memory. I'm lowkey worried something will happen to it if I'm on for too long 😅 I have a lot of liked posts I want to queue up over the next few weeks. That way, it won't be complete radio silence.

There's a benefit to touching grass regularly. Am I 100% where I want to be? No. But I'm manifesting the right path for me, going back to an old conversation I had with @localbookshop

Take care everyone, see you on our hellsite (affectionate).

[bardolatrycore]

Reblogging to also add I'm still working on my writing projects - both original and fanfic! I hope to make enough progress that I can post the KuroDai fic by the year's end.

[yangzhouman]

favourite thing in the world is when the pages of a book go all soft and yellowy and the edges are slightly fuzzy and rounded. these books couldn’t give you a papercut if you tried they’ve been loved too much. they love you too much

[flowerytale]

Sylvia Plath, The Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume I: 1940–1956

[elucubrare]

i think one of the reasons i get mildly annoyed about worldbuilding threads that are 200 tweets of why you should care about where blue dye comes from in your world before saying someone is wearing blue is that so few of them go up to the second level of "and that should impact your characters somehow" - i don't care that blue dye comes from pressing berries that only grow in one kingdom a thousand miles away if people are casually wearing blue

[elucubrare]

a couple of people reblogged this so i was thinking about it again (ok i'm almost always thinking about material culture worldbuilding tbh) & a lot of my problem is that these kinds of worldbuilding threads and posts treat it like an obligation and not an oppurtunity --

"blue dye is rare" is a world fact that could be a plot obstacle (character is a dyer and needs blue cloth, of the right shade, for a festival); a clue (main character notices someone wearing blue and realizes that they're in disguise); a way to inform character (main character sees a blue banner and thinks its owner is showing off); and any number of other things, from small to large.

and if the rarity doesn't serve any of those functions in your story, then the existence of blue dye is not important enough that you, as the author, need to consider it.

i'm a trends and forces guy - i believe any given worldstate is created by billions of coinflips leading up to that moment, some random (the sun rose on the day of the battle and gave one side victory) and some more directed (a law was enacted with a specific intent). expecting, as an author, to have generated a worldstate that coheres and connects in the same way and with the same complexity as ours is going to lead to paralysis more often than it is to interesting worldbuilding, or worldbuilding that supports the story you're trying to tell.

[petaltexturedskies]

Virginia Woolf, from a letter to Vanessa Bell written c. August 1908

[em-dash-press-deactivated202410]

Game-Changing Sites for Writers

A recent search for a specific type of site to help me build new characters led me down a rabbit hole. Normally, that would make me much less productive, but I have found a treasure trove of websites for writers.

Bring Characters/Places to Life

There are a few different places you can use to create a picture of something entirely new. I love this site for making character pictures as references, instead of stock photos or whatever pops up on Google Images.

thispersondoesnotexist: every time you reload the page, this site generates a headshot of someone who doesn't exist. This is great if you're thinking about a character's personality or age and don't have specifics for their facial features yet.

Night Cafe: this is an AI art generator that takes your text prompt and generates an image for it. I tried it for various scenery, like "forest" or "cottage." It takes a minute for your requested photo to load, but no more than maybe five for the program to finish the picture.

Art Breeder: this website has endless images of people, places, and general things. Users can blend photos to create something new and curious visitors can browse/download those images without creating an account. (But if you do want to make an account to create your own, it's free!)

Find Random Places on Earth

You might prefer to set a story in a real-life environment so you can reference that place's weather, seasons, small-town vibe, or whatever you like. If that's the case, try:

MapCrunch: the homepage generates a new location each day and gives the location/GPS info in the top left of the screen. To see more images from previous days, hit "Gallery" in the top left.

Atlas Obscura: hover over or tap the "Places" tab, then hit "Random Place." A new page will load with a randomly generated location on the planet, provide a Google Maps link, and tell you a little bit about the place.

Random World Cities: this site makes randomly selected lists of global cities. Six appear for each search, although you'll have to look them up to find more information about each place. You can also use the site to have it select countries, US cities or US states too.

Vary Your Wording

Thesauruses are great, but these websites have some pretty cool perspectives on finding just the right words for stories.

Describing Words: tell this website which word you want to stop repeating and it will give you tons of alternative words that mean the same thing. It typically has way more options than other sites I use.

Reverse Dictionary: type what you need a word for in Reverse Dictionary's search box and it will give you tons of words that closely match what you want. It also lists the words in order of relevancy, starting with a word that most accurately describes what you typed. (There's also an option to get definitions for search results!)

Tip of My Tongue: this website is phenomenal. It lets you search for that word you can't quite place by a letter in it, the definition, what it sounds like, or even its scrambled letters. A long list of potential options will appear on the right side of the screen for every search.

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Hope this helps when you need a hand during next writing session 💛

[magicaldreamfox1]

i think there are too many posts out there that are like writing is not fun but im gonna do it anyways. so here's my contribution: writing is fun actually