the books were crystal

my fingers shake - this is my love letter to the universe

[dynamicsymmetry]

Good stuff.

[tarysande]

Guys, I edit professionally. This list is legit. Incorporating these suggestions before you hire an editor will save you A LOT of money. Even if you did these and nothing else, you’d see significant overall improvement in your work.

That said, you don’t have to overthink these things when you’re writing a first draft. If you write, “she said angrily” in a first draft, you can always revisit the phrasing in a second draft. I mention this because overthinking style can lead to a loss of momentum, and losing momentum is why so many people never finish a draft. Give yourself permission to write fast, write messy or ugly, and edit your draft into beauty later.

[bookerprizenominee]

My first drafts are mainly direct dialogue and essential exposition, more like a screenplay (unless it’s a OS of the inner rambling monologue variety). If there are any beats, they are repetitions of the 5 same facial cues ad nauseam. 

I always feel so “fake” putting in extra beats for the flow. 

[thequeenofsastiel]

All really good suggestions. Strongly recommend reading them. And, expanding upon what @tarysande said, don’t overthink on a first draft. Just let it flow. If a sentence doesn’t sound great, you can always fix it later. Just let the inspiration drive you as long as possible. I’ve lost the thread of many stories because I got so caught up in whether or not a sentence was exactly right. Writing is hard enough without obsessing over every word as you’re going.

[spiderrrling]

I am a(n):

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can't remember

[what-even-is-thiss]

*wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat*

WAIT IT’S CALLED A THROW PILLOW

[holorifle]

here is a super helpful website for this kinda thing!

the first result isn’t always the one you’re looking for but when you press enter it’ll give you a ton of words related to your query that’ll probably have what you’re wanting, or something better

here’s some examples:

[tilltheendwilliwrite]

Reblog to save a writer's sanity.

[teatops]

FUCK YEAH WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE

[thewritershandbook]

Types of Ships

Parts of the Ship

Wind Directions

Sides of Boats

[fixyourwritinghabits]

my bad, should have reblogged from here. 

[scriptmedic]

Oh my gods, guys, this looks so useful!!

[rychillacases]

Reblogging for future reference.

[writing-in-the-grave]

A reference I desperately needed

[dungeonmastercole-deactivated20]

For all those seafaring adventurers.

[nudityandnerdery]

Finally, a good shipping post on this website.

[reverie-lavellan]

idk if anyone will find this useful, but this is how i go about planning my stories. i mostly write fantasy, so that’s what this is most applicable to. but it could work with other genres too.

so there’s three major components to a story: the characters, the plot, and the world. creating them individually is the easy part, but they all connect and affect each other in different ways. (like you can’t have a character who loves peaches and eats them every day if they live a peasant in a region that doesn’t grow peaches, for example.)

so i created a cheat sheet to help connect all three components together.

1) the world creates the characters.

this is related to the peach example above. the characters should be a direct result of the environment they grew up in and the environment they currently live in.

2) the characters are limited by the world.

also related to the peaches. characters can’t do anything outside of what the rules of their surroundings and universe allow, such as eating peaches when they’re not available. this also applies for magic users. they can’t have unlimited magic, so keep in mind what you want out of both the characters and the world when creating magic systems.

3) the characters carry the plot.

we’ve all heard it before: “bad characters can’t carry a good plot. good characters can carry a bad plot.” but we all like a good plot anyway. try to make sure you’re not giving your characters too heavy or too light of a plot to carry.

4) the plot pushes the characters.

if nothing in the plot happens, your characters will remain static forever. if you struggle with plots, try starting with what character development you want to happen, then go from there.

5) the plot depends on the world.

you can’t overthrow the evil government if there isn’t one. think of what your world needs most and what your plot is centered around, and fit those two together.

6) the world is changed by the plot.

even if your plot is centered around something most of your world would call “insignificant”, the world will still experience some change from the plot. either the evil government will be gone, or maybe that one teacher is now way more careful about keeping an eye on the test key. either way, the world will be different from now on.

final note: usually people will be able to write one or two of the components with ease, but don’t know where to go from there. i personally can’t write plots, but thinking this way has really helped me actually make a story out of the world and characters because i looked at what i needed from what i had. i really hope this can help you too! happy writing!

tl;dr this is a cheat sheet to help anyone who struggles with writing one or two of what i consider the three major components to a story.

[skysoulmate-deactivated20180721]

ambedo n. a kind of melacholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details—raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee—which leads to a dawning awareness of the haunting fragility of life

[ittybittytatertot]

Some of the best writing advice I ever got was if you’re stuck on a scene or a line, the problem is actually about 10 lines back and that’s saved me from writer’s block so many times.

[melindawrites]

I feel like I need an elaborate explanation

[ittybittytatertot]

Often times, I find myself stuck on what a character should say next or what should happen in a scene to connect A to B or so on. When this happens, I fall into the trap of writing and rewriting the same few lines over and over, and becoming more and more dissatisfied every time until I give up. 

But problem is almost never actually whatever line I’m trying to write at the moment; the issue is the stuff leading up to the line. Maybe there are structural issues with the set up, maybe I wrote a bit of dialogue that was out of character leading to a discussion that doesn’t make sense, maybe I’m missing a vital piece of exposition or expositing too much. It could be a lot of things, but the important part of the advice is to look back and be willing to consider changes to something earlier in the work (even if you’re really attached to like a piece of dialogue or a particular sentence or something) instead of trying to find a way to force out a scene that’s not working.

[melindawrites]

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for explaining!

[softestvirgil]

This is really helpful!

[epicfangirl01]

Woah! I never thought about that! Thanks!

[terpsikeraunos]

latin word of the day: arborescere, to become a tree, to grow to be a tree

[mothmanliveshere]

im gonna eat an unholy amount of dirt fuck off to the forest and aborescere

[cosimahenning-deactivated201609]

Writing Resources, I guess

So when I’m writing I sometimes need prompts or sometimes I just want to write random shit, so I will use generators. This is just a few that I use and like;

Family Tree, Relationship Generators

Battletech Family Tree Generator - Generates 2/3 generations, can choose options such as name types (real life/fantasy/ethnic fusion/place/gang).

Demarco - Generates a family trees based on info provided, P/Matriarchs, Years born, married and died, and current imput year. Also includes a Type of “race” choice: Human: Medieval, Scottish, Eqyptian or Modern or Dwarf (Fantasy race). All generations up to imput current date are automatically open.

Ja.Partridgez - Family tree generator, similar to Demarco but without the Type option and the generations are not automatically opened, you click a button to see it. 

Gayahithwen- Family Tree generator that follows the Male line, it’s a Harry Potter one, so you can choose Hogwarts houses. Options include; Family name or randomly chosen English or Irish surname, Year of birth of family founder, or choices between eras 800-1100, 1100-1400, 1400-1700 or 1700-2000. You can have Hogwarts houses chosen randomly or choose percentages. Also you can choose options to suggest partners names and to include year of death.

Rangen Family Generator-  doesn’t so much generate a family tree as members and their names and ages, Parents, Siblings, Children, Grandparents etc. Includes Simple (Just name and age) or Detail (whether they get along with main character, personality) Options.

Rangen Pregnancy Generator - generates a birth/s, whether it’s a boy/girl/unknown, birth weight, date of birth, whether it resembles the mother/father/relative/family friend, whether the baby/ies is/are heathy/weak etc. Generates Single Births, Multiples, No Conception.

Cities, Towns, Kingdoms

CrystalBallSoft - Fantasy City You choose the name, size (from Thorp up to Metropolis), whether it’s by the sea, or a river, whether it has military, if it has gates. You can generate Wards, and Professions. Choose major race (Human, Hafling, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Half Elf, Half Orc or Other) and Society (Isolated, Mixed or Integrated). It’ll also generate GP Limit, Imports and Exports, what the city is famous for and infamous for, no. of wards, and professions.

Mathemagician - You choose the name, size (Thorp-Metro) and population percentages (Human, Dwarf, Elf, the usual). It gives you Power Center, Alignment, Population, GP Limit, Community Wealth, You can view all the Militia/Town Guard/Aristocrats/Experts etc members. Names/Race/Gender/Level/Profession/Personality. As well as a list and opening hours of all Blacksmiths, Scroll and Potion shops, Jewelry Store, General Stores, and Taverns. You click and it’ll also give you the  Names/Race/Gender/Level/Profession/Personality of employees  for each of said options. Tavern option also gives hour by hour list of currently working employees, patrons and entertainment as well as a full menu. 

Rangen City Generator - This gives you single word descriptions of things like Settlement type (e.g Metropolis), Size (e.g Large), Cost of Living (e.g Expensive). Etc. Good for general outlines, and basic stuff. 

Lucid Phoenix Kingdom Population - Give you Civilisation vs Wilderness size and %. Number of castles and castle ruins, Population density, Total Population, Population breakdown (No. Rural, Urban or Isolated). Also now gives Urban Population Centres (big cities) with demographics of population size and businesses.

Worlds and Solar Systems

Donjon Fractal World Generator - Gives you a basic map/image of a world. You choose Map Projection (Square, Spherical, Mercator etc) Map Palette (Atlas, Olsson etc), % Water, % Ice, Image Height, Iterations and Rotation.

Donjon Fantasy World Generator - First, the servers for this are busy a lot of the time but it’s worth it. Basically does the same as  above but different options. Map Style (Atlas or Antique), Font (Black Castle, Tengwar Others etc.), % Water % Ice, Geography (Yes or No), Rivers ( Yes, No or Many) Cities and Castles (Yes, No or Many), show Hex Grid and/or Labels.

Donjon SciFi World Generator - You choose things such as World Name, Map Projection (Square, Mercator etc.), Map Palette (Atlas, Barren, Antique etc.), %Water, % Ice, Image Height, Iterations and Rotation. It gives you things like; Basic Image, Physics (Type, Radius, Surface Area, Land Area, Mass, Density, Composition (Iron, Oxygen etc). Gravimetry (Gravity m/s2, (# x Earth), Escape Velocity km/s), Rotation (Period and Axis Tilt), Hydrosphere (Water and Ice %), Atmosphere (Type, Pressure in kPa, # x Earth, Composition), Climate (Type, Min Temp, Avg Temp and Max Temp in Kelvin and Celsius), Biosphere (Chemistry, Lifeforms), Civilisation (Type, Population, Tech Level). If you us the Imperial you’re out of luck.

Donjon Star System Generator - Star Name, Companion Star (Random, None, Close or Distant), Planets (Random, None, Few, Several, Many). You can force a system to include a terrestrial world. It’ll generate things like the Star/s and it’s data (Type, Radius, Mass, Temperature and Luminosity), any terrestrial worlds, rock planets, jovian planets, ice or neptunian planets and their data also. If it includes a terrestrial planet you can further click on that and get more data like that of the SciFi World Generator above.

Donjon SWd6 System Generator - Made for use with Star Wars d6 RPG, generates a basic system, and information basically like that from SciFi World Generator. 

Donjon Traveller System Generator - Again, generates a basic system, includes whether there is a naval base, starport or scout base and tech levels on a terrestrial planet.

This is just a very small portion of generators I use for Fantasy and SciFi stories. If you want or need other generators feel free to message me, I probably have several. Also let me know if you want me to make another for purely SciFi/Food/Drink/Pretty much anything. 

[inky-duchess]

Fantasy Armoury: Swords

I love swords. Love them. Swords are to fantasy as walls to a castle. You need your swords to battle dragons, usurpers, knights and wizards. So lets go into the armory and learn about swords.

Anatomy of a typical sword

Crossguard: This is the part of the sword between the hilt and blade. This protects the hand.

Blade: The sharp end, duh

Hilt: This is the part you hold. Also called a grip.

Pommel: the end of the sword attached to the hilt. This can be decorated as you like.

Fuller: this is a hollow running up the sword. Debates go on whether it is made to reduce suction or make blood run off quicker or to make the sword more dynamic.

Edge: the sharpened sides of the blade. Can be singular or double.

The point: The pointy bit at the top. Stick them into the person (jon snow logic)

Types of Swords

Claymore: This is the Scottish Gaelic version of the Great Sword. It is a heavy sword with a long reach

Longsword: Medieval and Renaissance weapon commonly used with with two hands.

Bastard sword: refers to a sword of an uncertain origin. It may be a cross between a long sword and a great sword.

Gladius: an ancient Roman blade used by gladiators and then legionaires. There is no crossguard. It is also called a shortsword. Made for stabbing rather than slashing.

Xiphos: double-edged, single-handed sword used by ancient greeks. The blade is commonly leaf shaped made for slashing.

Sabre or Rapier: This is a slender blade used by fencers. This blade might not be able to hack a head but its light weight makes the blade an asset in speed.

Katana: The Japanese samurai sword. This is single-edged and the blade os hammer thin. Made for speed and deadly sharp.

Scimitar: a curved blade with a singled edge.

Sword Moves

Advance - to attack, going forward.

Deflect - engaging sword with your own and pushing it away

Empty Fade - jumping backwards as if to retreat then attacking.

Front Guard - the sword is held in front of your face.

Full Iron Gate Guard - the sword is halfway between your legs, angled right.

Half Iron Gate Guard - the sword is held before your left leg.

Lunge - leaping forwards while feet are in the same stance.

Pass Back - moving your front foot into the rear position.

Pass Forward - moving your rear foot into the front position.

Pivot - Rotating 180 degrees, keeping dominant foot stationary.

Retreat - a movement backwards.

Shed - to allow a sword to slide away off your sword.

Short Guard - the hilt is at your hip and the point is forward.

Step Across - Rotating 180 degrees, crossing feet and spinning.

Tail Guard - the hilt is at your hip and the sword is behind you.

Two Horn Guard - pommel is at your chest with the sword pointing out.

Window Guard - a guard where the hilt is at your ear and the sword points forwards

Things to remember about swords

1. When drawing your sword, the scabbard is on your opposite hip.

2. If a sword is two-handed, use two hands. Don’t try be cool. You will cut yourself.

3. Swords are sharpened using a whetstone and polished with oil clothes. Water rusts them. Look after your swords.

4. Swords can stick to to scabbard if the air is icy. To prevent it, you can line your scabbard with leather.

5. Practise with a blunted sword first. Blunt swords are used in tourneys.

6. Defense over Attack. Better to defend rather than attack.

7. Shields are your friend in defence but hamper your ability to attack.

8. Sword to size. Smaller and weaker swordsmen(women) can’t any wield heavier swords. Bulkier and stronger swordsmen(women) can wield heavier swords. Match sword type to body type.

[writingadvice1]

60 Awesome Search Engines for Serious Writers

[referenceforwriters]

Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient.

Professional

Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines.

Litscene: Use this search engine to search through thousands of writers and literary projects, and add your own as well.

Thinkers.net: Get a boost in your creativity with some assistance from this site.

PoeWar: Whether you need help with your career or your writing, this site is full of great searchable articles.

Publisher’s Catalogues: Try out this site to search through the catalogs and names of thousands of publishers.

Edit Red: Through this site you can showcase your own work and search through work by others, as well as find helpful FAQ’s on writing.

Writersdock: Search through this site for help with your writing, find jobs and join other writers in discussions.

PoetrySoup: If you want to find some inspirational poetry, this site is a great resource.

Booksie.com: Here, you can search through a wide range of self-published books.

One Stop Write Shop: Use this tool to search through the writings of hundreds of other amateur writers.

Writer’s Cafe: Check out this online writer’s forum to find and share creative works.

Literary Marketplace: Need to know something about the publishing industry? Use this search tool to find the information you need now.

Writing

These helpful tools will help you along in the writing process.

WriteSearch: This search engine focuses exclusively on sites devoted to reading and writing to deliver its results.

The Burry Man Writers Center: Find a wealth of writing resources on this searchable site.

Writing.com: This fully-featured site makes it possible to find information both fun and serious about the craft of writing.

Purdue OWL: Need a little instruction on your writing? This tool from Purdue University can help.

Writing Forums: Search through these writing forums to find answers to your writing issues.

Research

Try out these tools to get your writing research done in a snap.

Google Scholar: With this specialized search engine from Google, you’ll only get reliable, academic results for your searches.

WorldCat: If you need a book from the library, try out this tool. It’ll search and find the closest location.

Scirus: Find great scientific articles and publications through this search engine.

OpenLibrary: If you don’t have time to run to a brick-and-mortar library, this online tool can still help you find books you can use.

Online Journals Search Engine: Try out this search engine to find free online journal articles.

All Academic: This search engine focuses on returning highly academic, reliable resources.

LOC Ask a Librarian: Search through the questions on this site to find helpful answers about the holdings at the Library of Congress.

Encylcopedia.com: This search engine can help you find basic encyclopedia articles.

Clusty: If you’re searching for a topic to write on, this search engine with clustered results can help get your creative juices flowing.

Intute: Here you’ll find a British search engine that delivers carefully chosen results from academia.

AllExperts: Have a question? Ask the experts on this site or search through the existing answers.

Reference

Need to look up a quote or a fact? These search tools make it simple.

Writer’s Web Search Engine: This search engine is a great place to find reference information on how to write well.

Bloomsbury Magazine Research Centre: You’ll find numerous resources on publications, authors and more through this search engine.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus: Make sure you’re using words correctly and can come up with alternatives with the help of this tool.

References.net: Find all the reference material you could ever need through this search engine.

Quotes.net: If you need a quote, try searching for one by topic or by author on this site.

Literary Encyclopedia: Look up any famous book or author in this search tool.

Acronym Finder: Not sure what a particular acronym means? Look it up here.

Bartleby: Through Bartleby, you can find a wide range of quotes from famous thinkers, writers and celebrities.

Wikipedia.com: Just about anything and everything you could want to look up is found on this site.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Find all the great philosophers you could want to reference in this online tool.

Niche Writers

If you’re focusing on writing in a particular niche, these tools can be a big help.

PubGene: Those working in sci-fi or medical writing will appreciate this database of genes, biological terms and organisms.

GoPubMd: You’ll find all kinds of science and medical search results here.

Jayde: Looking for a business? Try out this search tool.

Zibb: No matter what kind of business you need to find out more about, this tool will find the information.

TechWeb: Do a little tech research using this news site and search engine.

Google Trends: Try out this tool to find out what people are talking about.

Godchecker: Doing a little work on ancient gods and goddesses? This tool can help you make sure you have your information straight.

Healia: Find a wide range of health topics and information by using this site.

Sci-Fi Search: Those working on sci-fi can search through relevant sites to make sure their ideas are original.

Books

Find your own work and inspirational tomes from others by using these search engines.

Literature Classics: This search tool makes it easy to find the free and famous books you want to look through.

InLibris: This search engine provides one of the largest directories of literary resources on the web.

SHARP Web: Using this tool, you can search through the information on the history of reading and publishing.

AllReaders: See what kind of reviews books you admire got with this search engine.

BookFinder: No matter what book you’re looking for you’re bound to find it here.

ReadPrint: Search through this site for access to thousands of free books.

Google Book Search: Search through the content of thousands upon thousands of books here, some of which is free to use.

Indie Store Finder: If you want to support the little guy, this tool makes it simple to find an independent bookseller in your neck of the woods.

Blogging

For web writing, these tools can be a big help.

Technorati: This site makes it possible to search through millions of blogs for both larger topics and individual posts.

Google Blog Search: Using this specialized Google search engine, you can search through the content of blogs all over the web.

Domain Search: Looking for a place to start your own blog? This search tool will let you know what’s out there.

OpinMind: Try out this blog search tool to find opinion focused blogs.

IceRocket: Here you’ll find a real-time blog search engine so you’ll get the latest news and posts out there.

PubSub: This search tool scours sites like Twitter and Friendfeed to find the topics people are talking about most every day.

[heywriters]

Five Dualities That Can Replace Good and Evil

Let’s face it, fights between pure good and absolute evil are getting old. Black and white morality doesn’t lend itself to nuanced characters, and it rarely feels realistic anymore. But that doesn’t mean we can’t ...

1. Freedom vs Safety

ex: Minority Report 

2. Success vs Selflessness

ex: Mad Max: Fury Road

3. Progress vs Preservation

ex: Toy Story 3

4. Individuality vs Community

ex: Snowpiercer

5. Privacy vs Transparency

ex: The 100

[harmonyinkpress]

Excellent tensions to consider when plotting your story

[jumpingjacktrash]

responsiveness vs accountability – captain america civil war, and also all the cop shows where one partner’s a rulebreaker and the other is by-the-book.

[kaijuvsgiantrobotsvsme]

Hard Mode:

Toss out dualities, introduce triads.  Find noble goals and put them into conflict.

Freedom vs. Justice vs. Peace

Freedom destroys Peace and denies Justice in the service of ensuring everyone’s maximum personal freedom.

Justice destroys Peace and limits Freedom because Justice requires people be held to account for their actions.

Peace denies Justice and quashes Freedom because holding people to account makes far too much noise.

ex: Concrete Revolutio

[spiderrrling]

I am a(n):

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can't remember

[what-even-is-thiss]

*wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat*

WAIT IT’S CALLED A THROW PILLOW

[holorifle]

here is a super helpful website for this kinda thing!

the first result isn’t always the one you’re looking for but when you press enter it’ll give you a ton of words related to your query that’ll probably have what you’re wanting, or something better

here’s some examples:

[anchored-in-high-tide]

Reblog to save a writer’s sanity (the last bit that’s left)

[thewritershandbook]

Setting as Character: How to Make Your Setting Speak

Places have personalities just like living creatures. Readers want to feel your setting and see how your story affects it. To make your setting come alive, you need to bring out that personality, to think of or transform your setting into a character.

[whimsicallytwisted]

I don‘t suppose anyone has a link to a guide for how to write appropriate Victorian dialog/speech?

Cause that would be awesome. An ‘18th Century Speech for Dummies’ if you will.

[thewritershandbook]

How to Write in an Authentic Historical Voice 

Turning a Phrase: How to Write Historical Dialogue 

Victorian Era English Language 

Etiquette Of Conversation Victorian Era (Of Era Etiquette Guide)

These might help. The most suggested research is to read fiction works from the era. :)

[finelythreadedsky]

top 12 savage things Medea says in classical literature

featuring Euripides, Ovid, and Seneca

ὡς τρὶς ἂν παρ᾽ ἀσπίδα/στῆναι θέλοιμ᾽ ἂν μᾶλλον ἢ τεκεῖν ἅπαξ (Euripides Med. 250-1)

for I would rather thrice stand by the shield/ than once bear a child

καὶ σοῖς ἀραία γ᾽ οὖσα τυγχάνω δόμοις. (Euripides Med. 608)

I am a curse unto your house as well

καὶ μανθάνω μὲν οἷα τολμήσω κακά/θυμὸς δὲ κρείσσων τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων/ὅσπερ μεγίστων αἴτιος κακῶν βροτοῖς. (Euripides Med. 1078-80)

I know what evils I dare to do/ my heart is stronger than my plans/ and great is my blame for the blood

dum ferrum flammaeque aderunt sucusque veneni/ hostis Medeae nullus inultus erit (Ovid Her. 12.181-2)

as long as I have iron and fire and poison at my disposal/ no enemy of Medea’s will go unpunished

viderit ista deus, qui nunc mea pectora versat/ nescio quid certe mens mea maius agit! (Ovid Her. 211-2)

the god who twists my heart will witness these deeds/ for surely I know not what vast act my mind devises!

tum me de tigride natam/ tum ferrum et scopulos gestare in corde fatebor (Ovid Met. 7.32-3) 

then I will be called the daughter of a tiger/ and they will say I carry iron and stone in my heart

maximus intra me deus est (Ovid Met. 7.55)  

the greatest god is within me

et vertice sidera tangam (Ovid Met. 7.61)

and I will reach the stars with the crown of my head

Medea superest, hic mare et terras vides/ ferrumque et ignes et deos et fulmina (Seneca Med. 166-7)

Medea stands alone, here you see the sea and the lands/ and iron and fire and gods and lightning

si placet, damna ream;/ sed redde crimen (Seneca Med. 245-6)

condemn me if you like;/ but give me back my crime

invadam deos/ et cuncta quatiam (Seneca Med. 424-5)

I will invade the gods/ and shake all things

Medea nunc sum; crevit ingenium malis (Seneca Med. 910)

Now I am become Medea; my nature has grown amidst evil

[inky-duchess]

Making a Murder: A Writer's Guide Special

Writers are found of murder, perhaps just as much as serial killers. Or maybe we are serial killers. Who knows. Murder can be one of the most familiar tools for a writer but in truth how much do we know about writing a murder? How many details can we get wrong without even knowing?

|Getting into the head of the Murderer|

When characters kill, it often helps to delve into the kind of mindset they have. As writers we strive for as much accuracy as possible. We could give Character A a gun and have them kill Character B, yes but is it accurate? Is Character B the kind of person Character A is motivated to kill? Is the weapon right? Is the situation wrong? We start by getting into the head of our killers.

To kill or not to kill

We begin as characters do. With the choice to kill or not to. When you watch police dramas or Netflix documentaries, you will hear the terms of "premeditated murder" or "crime of passion". These two categories are usually dictated by the character of the person committing it or the situation.

Premeditation means that the murder was planned. It can be boiled down to thinking about killing somebody to writing detailed plans with colours coded sticky-notes. You will find characters who are of a colder disposition landing in this category or perhaps someone seeking revenge. The killer often uses a pre-chosen weapon. Characters who pre-plan murders will likely lack empathy with their victim or have guilt about the crime. Example: The murder of Dumbledore.

Crime of passion is what it says on the tin. These murders happen within a split second when characters act out in a moment of emotional strain. Any character can act out and kill (by accident or intentionally) somebody. The killer will often use weapons of opportunity. These kinds of murders can lead to guilt in the perpetrator after the fact, letting the characters show empathy. Example: The death of Shae at the hands of Tryion Lannister.

Reasons To Kill

Motive is one of the most pressing subjects to touch on when one us profiling a killer in a novel. Motive fits the character and drives the actions. Financial gain, lust, defense and power are the top motives of the two sexes. But there are differences in the kind of killer a character is based on their gender. Women are most likely to fall into the motive categories of; Love, revenge, jealousy, financial gain, and concealment of a secret. Men fall into the categories of; revenge, financial gain, thrill of it, jealously.

Denoting Details

Details are no more important in this narrative than after the murder has taken place. Here we can glimpse into the psyche of the character and their true feelings for the victim. Here are some details:

A killer who mutilates a victim has little respect for the person and if the mutilation occurs in a private area, it can denote a sexual undertone.

A killer who covers a body is one who shows remorse or guilt or had respect for their victim's dignity.

A killer who chooses to place the body of their victim in a place of safety or importance is one that respects or cares for the victim and wants them to he found and cared for.

|Methods & Character|

Method can be linked with the kind of person the character is. Crimes that occur using projectile weapons such as guns are seen to be more impersonal as the killer can be a distance away from the victim. It can show a detachment from the victim, usually a premeditated crime.

Murders caused by stabbing, beating or strangling often are used in crimes of passion because of the closeness between victim and murderer.

Battle of the Sexes

Studies find that men are more likely to kill using blunt objects, guns or their hands to murder. Women on the other hand rarely commit murder by using their hands, preferring weapons like knives, blunt objects and poison. Women tend to be reactive when murdering, often killing someone who had harmed them in some way and are less likely to kill strangers.

|The Meticulous Details|

The tiniest detail can lift a simple case of murder to one snacking of reality. By adding details to the narrative, you can ensure that you chose the right person/method.

Most killers who kill by stabbing, cut themselves in the process usually along the palms.

It takes 2-3 minutes for somebody to strangle the life from somebody.

No matter how careful your killer is, they will leave some kind of trace at the scene of the crime.

When firing a gun at close range, the killer will be splattered with blood. Every gun wielder will have trace of GSR (Gun shot residue) on their close or skin though it can be removed by soap and water.

Stranglings are intimate crimes.

A character who attacks their victim from behind is one who hasn't the stomach or the bravery to to face their victim.

Likewise a character who faces their victim is one that either knows their victim or has no qualms about doing what they are doing.

A killer who over-kills a victim, let's say stabs a victim over a hundred times when all it would take is one or two. It reveals that a character acted out of rage or perhaps fear, and that the victim was close to their killer.

It will take at least (approximately) 5 mins for somebody to bleed out.

A dead body begins a cycle of rigor mortis (muscles stiffening) 4-6 hours after death. Lividity (settling of the blood within the body) and decomposition where the fatty tissue of the body breaks down (this stages occurs 48-60 hours after death).

Certain drugs can effect the cycle of decomposition. Cocaine hastens rigor mortis while carbon monoxide can slow it down (as well as turn a body pink).

[dianaprincie]

“My angel will sleep in my arms, will awaken in my arms, will live there.”

— Victor Hugo, from a letter to Adèle Foucher written c. March 1822