Elsie Writes

A blog where I hope to post some writing rambles. Feel free to send me messages and/or asks!

[tast3of1nk]

me, looking at the calendar and realising that camp nanowrimo is about to start and I am not remotely prepared: 

[writing-ideas-inc]

Do you have anything on how to structure a story?

I’ve linked to some posts and other sites about plot structure, outlining a story, and other story organization tips :)

https://writing-central.tumblr.com/post/156020630678/hi-i-love-writing-and-ive-always-managed-to

https://writing-central.tumblr.com/post/169477690808/do-you-have-any-tips-on-organization-writing

https://writing-central.tumblr.com/post/171767640993/have-you-ever-wanted-to-write-so-much-even-though

https://thewritepractice.com/plot-structure/

https://www.nownovel.com/blog/novel-plot-structure-intrigue/

Mod Carolyn @theories-fans-andwombats

[itstartswithablankpage-deactiva]

Today begins the first of three months in the year, where ‘the,’ is spelled ‘teh.’

[elwritesx]

(28/10/17)

So I may just have finished my WIP, at a whopping 570k words.

It’s been 119 days, and I’m finally free. For precisely three days, that is. 

I’ll take it.

[elwritesx]

(27/10/17)

NaNoWriMo is too close, and I’m petrified.

More spooky rambles under the cut.

Oof, so I haven’t touched my blog in a month, aside from for reblogs that is. Perhaps because I’m procrastinating? Who knows.

I hit 560k today, which is not what I wanted to do, as I just threw in yet another plot bunny and now have... four days to finish this book? On the bright side, I’m totally ready for NaNo which is great.

I’m not ready for NaNo if you couldn’t tell, and it’s fun!

I never intended to become a plantser, but with so little time between school and all this new, fancy stuff I’ve started doing as of late, I’m left with only a few hasty reference docs to go off. Perhaps I’m just taking some minimalistic approach? Maybe I should stick to calling it that, pretend I’m actually organised.

Having poked at regions and all, I’m set to go to the kick-off party come November 1st, when I’ll hopefully have already hit 50k! Watch this space for further developments though, heaven only knows I’ll probably have taken several ‘naps’ seeing as I’m set to be writing from midnight. Goodbye my poor wrists, I guess.

I’ve not really done much interesting stuff, I finished the main part of my plot for Underground 45k ago and am still going, so I guess we’re getting somewhere? But I really must get back to writing, so thus I disappear into the void to continue pumping out words. Yay, 7.5k daily goals!

- Elsie

[lavellanpls]

For people who wanna make an aesthetic set/mood board but don’t know where to start. Fill in with either a. your character’s favorite or b. what describes your character best.

Full-size download

* Box dimensions are 185 x 175 px ** If you need em, you can find some good “signature” fonts here

[itstartswithablankpage-deactiva]

Writing advice: READ EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME! You won’t be a good writer otherwise.

Me: Uhh, no

[yesterdaysprint]

The language of flowers..

Polite Society at Home and Abroad, 1891

warning, it’s long, but there’s a lot of really great specifics, like:

you are a fop good but odd you will cause my death I declare war against you intellectual but heartless false and gay handsome but dangerous your looks freeze me an enemy in disguise

Keep reading

[northirish]

@focsle

[elwritesx]

(20/09/17)

What are updates?

More crying under the cut.

So, it’s nearly the end of September and my book is nowhere near done still. I’m set to hit 365k today - which is absolutely wild mind you - but I’ve thrown a million new characters and plot twists at myself and actually feel like death is an appropriate response.

Moving on from melodrama, I’ve set myself a goal to hit 500k by the 15th October so I have a few days planning before my nano plan kicks in and blah, I’ll touch on that later.

My problematic side character, Linden, has become perhaps a tad too relevant for my liking and is pretty much carrying the story which is certainly something although I can’t quite tell what that is. Terrible? Bad writing? Who knows, but it’s the longest book I’ve written to date so I have an excuse, although I seriously don’t look forward to editing this baby.

As for Nanowrimo, as I mentioned above I plan to give myself fifteen days to plan out as much as I can (See: Give side characters relevant backstory and write myself some well-deserved fanfic, take it easy until nano starts.) I imagine that book two of this series will be about as long as this one, which is distressing but seeing as it’s just over three months of constant work I can have myself done and editing book one before April’s CampNano.

Day one is going to be slightly special for saying it’s my first proper nano, as I’ve mentioned in my last update I plan to go for 50k on day one - but the plan is set in stone because guess who announced it. Perhaps not my best decision, but a decision nonetheless, though I’ve done a bit of thinking and it seems viable. Around 16 hours of work am I lucky, but really I doubt I will be.

As I’m back to school I’ve had to make more dedicated time for my writing, but having discovered Writometer it’s grown easy enough to keep track of, and I’m back to 5k+ a day again (Although I did hit 6k yesterday which was nice.)

Anyway, I really need to get back to sprinting and all, I’ve only put out 1k so far today and staying on track is hard dammit. Perhaps my next post won’t be as inconsistent, but who knows.

- Elsie

[writerswritecompany]

[writingstarlightprompts]

It’s true. There’s always room for new books 

[wordsnstuff]

Useful Writing Resources II

Like the last one of these I did, this is a long list of resources for writers to use. Use them wisely:)

Find The First One Here

*** = Separate List Of Resources Pertaining To That Specific Subject

Productivity & Writer’s Block

Ways To Unstick A Stuck Story

10 Outlining Methods For Writers

Things To Do When You Can’t Seem To Write

Ambient Sounds For Writers Masterpost

ZenPen

The Most Dangerous Writing App

Evernote

Writer, the Internet Typewriter

Wordcounter

Character Development

Writing Types Of Characters *** Making An OC ***

Character With Social Anxiety

Female Characters To Avoid

Writing Healthy Relationships

List of 300 Possible Secrets To Give Your Character

Fantasy & Miscellaneous

Myths, Creatures, And Folklore

Helpful Things For Action Writers To Remember

Writing The Opening Scene

Fictional Kisses

Master List of Writer’s Questions Answered’s Posts

Writing Advice Masterlist

The Little Details

How bodies decompose

Wilderness survival skills

Mob mentality

Other cultures

What it takes for a human to die in a given situation

Common tropes for your genre

Average weather for your setting

Free Online Sources For Research

Japanese creatures

greek creatures

creatures organised by type

creatures listed by letter

humanoid creatures

filipino creatures

chinese creatures

cryptids

‘fearsome critters’

angels

beings referred to as fairies

creatures that pretend to be human

a page on therianthropic creatures

shapeshifters

hybrid creatures

extraterrestrial creatures

deities

a page of mythology page links

a section of folklore page links

flying creatures

theological demons

fictional species lists

mythology related lists

legendary creature related lists

Writing Emotional Scenes

Creating Story Structure

What You Need To Hear Before You Publish A Book

Description

Words to Describe Someone’s Voice

An Article About Describing Voice

Voice Types

Vocal Qualities

Panix.com Character Chart

Vocal Impressions

Speech Patterns

Gender and Speech Patterns

Speech Accent Archive

Speech Impediment

What Makes A Man’s/Woman’s Voice Sexy

Synonyms-Antonyms.com

TheCaveOnline

550 Alternative Words for Said

Plot

Subplots

7 Ways to Add Great Subplots to your Novels

The 7 Shoulds of Writing a Subplot

Who Needs Subplots?

Subplots

Knowing Your terms: Subplots

Weave Subplots into your Novel

Understanding the Role of Subplots

Plot, Plot Layers, and Subplots

Plot and Subplot

Subplots - Chicken Soup for your Novel

How Many Subplots are Acceptable?

Subplots by Word Count

Too Many Subplots?

Generators

Appearance Generator

Archetypes Generator

Character Generator

Character Traits Generator

Family Generator

Job/Occupation Generator, (II)

Love Interest Generator

Motive Generator

Name Generator

Personality Generator, (II)

Quick Character Generator

Super Powers Generator

First Encounter Generator

First Line Generator, (II)

Plot Generator, (II), (III)

Plot Device Generator

Plot Twist Generator

Quick Plot Generator

Brand Name Generator

Medicine Title Generator

Name Generator

Quick Name Generator

Vehicle Generator

Town Name Generator

City Generator

Fantasy Race Generator

Laws Generator

Pet Generator

Setting Generator

Species Generator

Terrain Generator

Subject Generator

”Take Three Nouns” Generator

Word Prompt Generator

Color Generator

Decision Generator

Dialogue Generator

Journey Generator

Title Generator, (II), (III)

[elwritesx]

me, writing: literally everyone has raised their eyebrows. everyone. there's not an eyebrow left unquirked.

[elwritesx]

The five types of writers block

Inspirationless: where you have the motivation but just can't think of anything good to write.

Motivation Deprived: you have the idea, but just, don't really wanna.

Pooped: Basically you have no ideas and don't really feel like writing anyways.

Procrastination: Where you are SO PUMPED TO GET THIS THING DONE!! But, there's that other thing, and, your show is on, and, you'll just do it tomorrow.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

[ace-spacee]

remember, if you have ever been criticized for being comma trigger happy, it is a perfectly acceptable power move to put seven commas in a row for your critics to see 

[elwritesx]

(07/09/17)

Wow, I’m super inconsistent at updating this blog. More write-y rambles below the cut.

So aside from the unintended hiatus I was actually stupidly productive last month. Then again, my novel is now 320k and nowhere near an ending unlike my naive, naive self thought last time I actually bothered to exist here which is nice? I guess?

From the looks of it I have enough plot to push myself to anywhere from 400-500k words, and I am absolutely horrified by that might I just add. I pity the pure, sweet summer child I was when I said 75k, I really do.

,However, with it getting longer and me abandoning all thine heckeths with that, I’ve pretty much sorted out book two for nanowrimo which is good. Right down to where it starts, and at least twenty chapters from there.

Yes, I do in fact crave death.

On the other note of nanowrimo, I do plan to try and do 50k on day one. Will I try to livepost it? Yes. Why? Because I absolutely hate myself. I might even look into one of those lovely live-writey sites and see if I can stream it for anyone interested in a fifteen year old screaming at a computer.

Because somehow writing has grown less serene and more extensive-cursing-at-my-computer-until-I-write-a-word.

Regardless, with that new 400-500k figure I’m not entirely certain if finishing it prior to November is realistic, but theoretically if I keep going I may hit it with just a few days to spare. Not that it’s the best thing in the world, but damn if it isn’t giving me a boot to the head in terms of planning next year.

In reading-y things though, I recently got my hands on a copy of Ready Player One which I’ve heard nothing but good stuff about from my writing servers, and I have a feeling the instant I’m done with book one (and hopefully book two) I’ll be able to delve into it fully - as right now I’m trying to push through noble conflict when I’m not writing and/or in school.

Regardless, I’m irritating, and these are long and unread - so I’ll cut it here and get back to writing. Or, well, not.

- Elsie

[inkbloods-deactivated20150417]

a diagram of the professional, intricate process of how i write

[tbrma]

@blackkatmagic

[blackkatmagic]

I HAVE NEVER RELATED TO A POST MORE.

[fihli]

you’re not really writing a novel until you’d 100% jump into an active volcano to avoid talking about it but somehow at the same time would eat your entire left foot to be able to uninterruptedly scream your whole plot at someone