Fay

oh yeah I actually do write a little. like a book or three. something like that. not my main account, but trust it's gonna be when I publish! (😭)

[azzurina]

Disdainful Dialogue Prompts!! #3

⟢ "You're a waste of a perfectly good conversation."

⟢ "I'd explain it, but I don't have that kind of time."

⟢ "The audacity of your mediocrity never ceases to amaze me."

⟢ "You really think you belong here?"

⟢ "I've seen better attempts from children."

⟢ "Please, do us all a favor and be quiet."

⟢ "You're the reason I lose faith in people."

⟢ "Don't flatter yourself into thinking I noticed."

⟢ "Your effort is insulting."

⟢ "I've tolerated you long enough."

⟢ "You're a footnote at best."

⟢ "How refreshing, you've managed to be wrong again."

⟢ "I don't argue with people beneath my level."

⟢ "You're the kind of person others warn you about."

⟢ "Don't make me repeat myself to someone like you."

⟢ "Your ignorance is almost impressive."

⟢ "I'd lower my standards, but you'd still fall short."

⟢ "You're proof that not everyone deserves a second chance."

⟢ "I've given up expecting anything from you."

⟢ "You really don't see how little you matter, do you?"

⟢ "Take your incompetence somewhere else."

⟢ "I've been more moved by paint drying."

⟢ "You're lucky indifference is all I feel."

[nondelphic]

writing is all fun and games until the scene requires a location

[txmriddlx]

Can you please reblog if your blog is a safe place for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, asexual, aromantic, pansexual, non binary, demisexual or any other kind of queer or questioning people? Because mine is.

[wafflewarrior111]

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

[missroserose]

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how?  How does he know it?”  Interrogate your witnesses.  Cross-examine them.  Make them explain their reasoning.  It pays dividends.

[heck-in-a-handbasket]

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

[ineedthesons]

This is your "show not tell" advice explained!

[tarysande]

Editor here.

First, let me preface this with something very important: you can treat all of this advice as SECOND-DRAFT ADVICE. It is so much easier to rewrite this kind of stuff once you have words on the page. Telling yourself the first draft is totally appropriate and acceptable.

What we’re talking about here are FILTER WORDS (and to some degree verbs of being). Yes, “thought” words are included. But so are “heard, saw, looked, tasted, smelled” etc.—most words having to do with the senses.

This isn’t black and white advice; sometimes you’ll use these words and that’s okay. They’re not WRONG. They’re just weaker. And they’re weaker because they create distance between the reader and the experience of the character.*

If you want your reader to feel like they’re experiencing the story right alongside the character, you want to cut down on filter words.

*This is particularly important with first person and close third POVs. The reader always knows whose eyes they’re seeing through and thoughts they’re privy to. So you don’t need to tell them “I saw X.” Or “I heard X.” Or “I thought Y.” You can just jump into the action/observation as it’s happening.

This is also where you want to pay attention to verbs of being.

“It was rainy.” Versus: “The rain pounded against the roof.” Or “The rain howled like an injured animal.” Or “The rain tapped against the window like an anxious lover.” All of these are inviting the reader deeper into the experience of the story by using stronger verbs and similes. And, at the same time, they stir feelings (instead of TELLING feelings). And feelings keep your reader engaged. Engaged readers keep turning pages; engaged readers become FANS.

[the-haiku-bot]

This is also where

you want to pay attention

to verbs of being.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[defilerwyrm]

The most valuable advice that Author Ex gave me through the years that we wrote together was this: the problem with all these filter words is that they create distance in the POV.

That means that when you read a line like

John saw that the curtains were open.

It immediately takes you OUT of the character's perspective and instead tells you what they experience as a secondhand observation.

You don't have to get fancy or purple with how you rephrase things like this. Not everything needs a ton of breathing room.

You wanna know what's perfectly impactful while keeping a tight POV?

The curtains were open.

Simple as that.

[luna-azzurra]

Nobody tells you that rewriting is actually just grief. you built something, you lived in it for months, you know every room, and now you have to tear out the walls because the foundation was wrong the whole time. and you knew. you knew on page 4 that something was off but you kept going because stopping felt worse.

So now you're on page 80 holding a chapter you love that has to die because it's beautiful in the wrong story. cut it. put it in a folder you'll never open. mourn it for a day. then go back and be ruthless because the story doesn't care about your feelings about the story. this is the part nobody romanticizes. this is most of writing.

[luna-azzurra]

The specific pain of having the perfect sentence arrive in your head at the exact moment you cannot write it down. driving. shower. falling asleep. never at the desk. never when the document is open. i have lost more good sentences to the gap between the bed and the phone than i have ever actually written.

[lannegarrett]

[martyreddie]

it's literally the evilest thing in the world to finally have time to write but then be tired. like wow you're telling me these two hours before going to bed are completely free but my brain is just Not Feeling It? fuck off

[nondelphic]

writing tip: put words on page. hope this helps. i will not be taking questions because i have not done this

[cyeayt]

Shout out to Characters who are shells of their former selves! You died and you’re not coming back! You don’t recognize yourself and neither does anyone else, and it’s anyone’s guess what the fuck you’re supposed to be now!

[prokopetz]

You are an unreliable narrator because your coping mechanisms for your deep-seated trauma forbid you from acknowledging the reality of the situation. I am an unreliable narrator because I sincerely have no idea what the fuck is going on.

[prokopetz]

The author's poorly disguised fetish

The author's proudly displayed fetish

The author's fetish you're pretty sure they don't realise they have

The author's fetish which they're firmly convinced everyone has and is just pretending otherwise

The author's non-sexual special interest which just sounds like a fetish because of their habitually unfortunate phrasing

The fetish the author is making a well-meaning effort to cater to in spite of clearly not understanding it themselves

The author's fetish that never quite makes it into the text because they keep getting sidetracked by the requisite worldbuilding

The author's utterly pedestrian sexual preference which the text treats like a bizarre fetish because they've got shit to work through

The author's seemingly innocuous recurring trope they're going to have a personal revelation about ten years down the road

The author's fetish you missed on a first reading because it's so far out of pocket, it never occurred to you that you could sexualise that

[luna-azzurra]

Tips for Writing Injuries! (AGAIN)

Your action hero just got shot in the shoulder, stitched it up in a motel bathroom, and is now running through a forest. I need you to know that a shoulder wound severs muscle, nerves, and sometimes bone, and the human body's response to that is not "mild wincing followed by full range of motion." here is what injuries actually do to peoplee...

⊹ Adrenaline is REAL and it does allow people to do extraordinary things immediately after injury, BUT it is a loan, not a gift. you borrow the function and you pay it back later with interest. Your character might genuinely be able to run for twenty minutes after being stabbed. and then the adrenaline drops and everything the body was delaying arrives all at once. the collapse is NOT weakness. it's biology collecting its debt. write the debt collection. it's more interesting than the heroic sprint anyway.

⊹ Blood loss changes cognition before it drops you. you don't go from "fine" to "unconscious." you go through a whole middle stage of confusion, poor decision-making, emotional dysregulation, a strange calm, tunnel vision, difficulty forming sentences. Your injured character making a bad call, saying something they normally wouldn't, becoming suddenly and inexplicably gentle--that's blood loss. use the middle stage. it's dramatically rich and almost nobody writes it.

⊹ Recovery has a timeline and the timeline is long and boring and inconvenient to plot. a broken rib takes six weeks and during those six weeks sneezing is a genuine emergency. a concussion means no screens, no reading, no bright lights, and symptoms can persist for months. a stab wound to the abdomen means weeks of infection risk, limited mobility, and a specific kind of exhaustion that has nothing to do with sleep. Your character being sidelined and frustrated and useless for a long time is not a narrative problem. it's the story.

⊹ Pain also affects personality in ways writers skip. chronic pain makes people short-tempered and then guilty about being short-tempered. it makes concentration difficult. it makes intimacy complicated, both emotional and physical. a character who was patient and warm before their injury and is now snappy and withdrawn is not a character regression. they're in pain. pain is exhausting in ways that don't show on the outside. the people around them noticing and not knowing how to help is a whole story in itself.

[daily-prompts]

The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.”

― Ernest Hemingway

[raindropsonglasss]

[luna-azzurra]

Things to consider when Writing about Found Family!!

⊹ Why can't they go back to their biological families. death? abuse? abandonment? disowned? running from something? sometimes people have families and just choose different people anyway. All valid but the reason matters for their emotional baggage

⊹ How did they actually meet.Thrown together by circumstances? gradual friendship that deepened? trapped somewhere together? saved each other's lives? worked together and it just happened?

⊹ What's the group structure. Is there a clear parental figure or is everyone equals. Are there siblings dynamics. the responsible one, the chaotic one, the baby of the group. Found families still have roles people fall into!!

⊹ How long have they been together? Newly formed groups are still figuring each other out with awkward moments. Established ones have years of history and inside jokes and shared trauma

⊹ What do they disagree about? found families aren't perfect just because they chose each other. They fight. They have different values and goals. Someone's always mad at someone else.

⊹ Is everyone equally committed or is someone still holding back? Trust issues are real especially for people who've been abandoned before. Someone's probably scared to fully let people in

⊹ Where do they live? Do they have a home base or are they always moving? Is it actually homey or kind of a mess? Who decorated? Whose stuff is everywhere? Do they have enough beds or are people on couches?

⊹ What are their traditions. weekly dinners? birthday celebrations they never had as kids? annual trips? stupid inside jokes that became rituals?

⊹ How do they show love. Some people are physically affectionate, some show love through acts of service, some are bad at emotions entirely but will absolutely kill for you.

⊹ What happens when someone new wants to join? are they protective and suspicious? Immediately welcoming? Is there a test/hazing? does the group fight about whether to let them in?

⊹ What happens when someone wants to leave. Do they let them go? Beg them to stay? Feel betrayed? People leaving found families hits different than biological ones!!

⊹ How do they handle one of them dating someone outside the group.? protective interrogations? feeling replaced/jealous? genuinely happy for them?

⊹ Do they have a shared purpose/goal or are they just together because they love each other. teams on a mission vs people who just became family. both work but feel different

⊹ What's everyone's trauma and how does it affect the group? Because people who form found families usually have TRAUMA. How do they handle each other's bad days, triggers, nightmares, self-destructive behavior

⊹ How far would they go for each other. just emotional support? lying to authorities? More?? where's the line and has anyone crossed it??

⊹ Is there a "Black sheep" or someone who doesn't quite fit but is still included. The one who's pricklier, harder to love, keeps messing up. Do they keep trying with this person or is there a breaking point??

⊹ How do they celebrate wins and handle losses together? grief shared is different. so is joy!!

[luna-azzurra]

I genuinely cannot explain to a non-writer what it feels like when a chapter suddenly clicks. it's not satisfaction. it's not relief. it's this horrible specific feeling like you just remembered something you never knew. like the story was already there and you finally stopped being in the way of it. i don't know what to do with that feeling. i just close the laptop and stare at the wall for a bit.