[cwritesfiction]

I want my writing to be smart.

Here’s what I mean: I want to write something you can understand on the first go, no problem. But then, the more you think about it, the more little things you realize. Are those little things essential to grasping the plot? No, but they enhance it. Most importantly, you feel smart for pointing them out, and I feel smart for writing them.

[incandescent-creativity]

This is a very specific mood but I’ll be damned if I don’t also want this

[audacityinblack]

I want people to read my work again and again, and each time they spot something and go “HOW DID I MISS THAT?!”

[antivancoffeelover]

writers

write that sentence, that dialogue, that scene that terrifies you

don’t delete shit, just move it to another document

have a “bits and pieces” document for all the odds and ends you can’t fit anywhere else

think of the color of a person’s eyes, imagine something reflected in them, now write that scene

fiction doesn’t have to be 100% accurate, don’t research yourself to boredom

i’m being serious there’s a thing called suspension of disbelief and it’s magical (yes that’s me making a joke)

write something that makes you cry

write something that makes you laugh

write something you can’t explain to other people

write something you won’t remember until you read it the next day

don’t read about the publishing industry until you really, really need to. all it will do is make you unbelievably tired

listen to music from open world RPG video games, you’re welcome

always take a small journal or some paper and a pen with you

write by hand in a journal every once in a while

put the ending of your story in the beginning and see what happens

listen to input from other people. yes you’re the writer, but they’re the reader and they want to help you make something spectacular

said is not dead dude like wtf

the thesaurus is shiny and lovely and a great resource but don’t let words get in the way of your story telling, you don’t need to write prose as poetry for it to be beautiful

just finish the draft first, worry about perfection after

yes, you do have talent

yes, you can do this. you already are

[aletheiawriting]

why you should keep writing your story

because it’s a puzzle no one else will ever arrange the same way as you.

because there are ideas that simply won’t come to you until you write down the wrong words.

because all the bad scenes are the bones of the wonderful scenes.

because someone will love it: someone will read it once, and twice, and thrice; someone will ramble to you about the complexity of it; someone will doodle your characters out of love; someone will find it in exactly what they were looking for with or without knowing it.

because they have things to say, your characters. they’ve told you all those secrets and they have more to tell you, if you will listen.

because you love it even when you don’t; even when it drives you mad or when it accidentally turns into apathy; even when you think you’re doing it all wrong; you love it, and it loves you back.

because you can get a treasure even from things that go wrong; because if a story crumbles down you can build a shinier one on the same spot; because you won’t know where it will take you until it takes you there.

[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

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Pssst

Hey, are you an artist or writer with WIPs?

Come here... I got a secret for you pssst come ‘ere

[kittmoon]

waiting in deep suspense

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Psst you ready here comes the secret

Here it comes

[moinsbienquekaworu]

I am also very curious about this secret

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Your time spent enjoying the creative process is infinitely more valuable that any final project you create. So stop putting yourself down for never finishing or posting those WIPs because every moment you spent creating something you loved is a moment not wasted. Your progress and talent is measured by your passion not your number of posts.

[lordmogatron]

I don’t know what writer needs to hear this

but you can write something very plain. 

You don’t have to write some genre-redefining masterpiece. You can write a story about two people very simply falling in love. You can just write a story about a person going to the store. You could, if you were so inclined, just re-write Star Wars but like, make all the names start with M.

Don’t let the fear of not-writing something transcendent stop you from just writing.

[kodigriffinofficial20]

Very good advice for both the writer and the critiquer.

[eggsyemour]

hey it’s ur local bi mixed girl here...having been recently diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and unable to work or attend therapy appointments due to the pandemic, im literally getting into debt w my parents just to pay for food...im overdrawn £250 w my student account even though I left uni months ago and am scared they’ll find out...will do legit anything for money at this point but reblogs would be surely appreciated... don’t think I’ve ever been so low my whole life lol and I don’t even wanna think about what this is doing to my family...dug into a hole just for trying to prioritise my mental health and can’t get out...

please donate if you can

[perditism]

Writing 101: Avoid hovering over the first few chapters of your story. Just write it & MOVE ON. It can be tempting to keep editing and tinkering the beginning, but if you give in you'll be stuck at the start forever and never discover how your story ends.

[headspace-hotel]

@awhellstothejoe deserves credit for perfectly articulating the fantasy writer version of “Thanks! I hate it!”

[delphicoracle]

me @ me

[cataclysmic-writer]

RIP to all the potential scenes I wrote in random, untitled google docs. I’m sure they were good. Now they’re lost to time. 

[writing-and-nutmeg]

Template from @marvel-lous-things

[madseance]

must a story have “plot”

is it not enough that I just, like, care about the characters a whole bunch

[quasarkisses]

strong characters can carry a weak plot but a strong plot can’t carry weak characters

[colubrina]

By the way, writing a book is really fucking hard.  Like, it’s so much harder than you think it’s going to be.  You think, oh, I’ll just write 500 words a day and eventually I’ll have a book, but no.  You won’t.  You’ll have a lot of words in a row with insufficient stakes and spelling errors.

[badwriterpositivity]

Things to do in quarantine (other than writing)

Make long, drawn out descriptions of your characters

Create moodboards, playlists, art, or anything else to do with your WIP

Write a dumb au- just for yourself. No deadline, no pressure of quality. Just write.

Figure out the perfect circumstances to write- do you like to drink coffee? Tea? Table, or lap? Music, TV, silence? Try out new things, too!

Clean up your workspace, if you have one. Decorate it. Make it home.

Go for a walk and listen to your muse playlist.

Try to cosplay one of your characters, no matter what you have at home.

Understand your MC better. Imagine them in quarantine- what's their favourite food? Their favourite music? Their favourite pastime? How do they sleep? How do they clean?

Make a shitty rendition of something from your story. Build a character from clay. Sew someone's outfit from scratch. Make a prop from tinfoil. Recreate a room with Lego.

Have stupid fun! Get to know the world of your story, get stuck in Wikipedia holes, scroll shopping websites for hours.

Just have fun, and feel happy knowing it'll help your world, even if you're struggling.

What we need right now is entertainment. Not stress.

[write-on-world]