You should only write in present tense with extreme caution.
not because it's bad or anything but because if you do it even once you're going to be editing the bits where you shifted tenses out of your writing for the rest of your life
if u write in present tense enough times in a row, you can switch this problem around & get confused when your present-tense narrator is talking abt something that happened in Their past. I recommend this bc it keeps u on ur toes
Select a powerful entity to pledge yourself to who'll cherish you and transform you into something inhuman
Lord of the winter fae whose blood flows with the snow of winter
Angel warlord from a heaven whose creator has long since abandoned
An insectoid scavenger that feeds on dead gods below the sea
An androgynous vampire girl trying to restore the kingdom her brother usurped
A djinn possessing a supercomputer posing as a sentient AI
The lord of all rats who wears a paper crown and weilds a cardboard sword
Lich who controls the largest library in the world
Demon with countless eyes who owns more souls than any other being on earth
Mushroom lord whose power lays deep below the earth
Eyeless witch whose power reaches deep below the sea and into the night sky
Living clothing made of liquid metal that whisper strange secrets into your ears
The abyss at the edge of time and space.
Voting ended onOct 12, 2024
Look under the cut to see what meeting your entity is like. Reblog to give a gift to your patron.
The fae: a creature stands before you. Though this street was warm and crowded a few moments ago it is suddenly cold and the people around you look like shadows. The creature begins an antlered shadow with glowing white eyes, but soon its body can be seem, with white blue flesh, and sapphire eyes, and icicles for teeth. What looks like a cloak unfolds from its naked body and you can see massive white wings of a moth. As if it's an act of sacrifice you tell it your true name, a name you didn't even see before, and suddenly you belong to it, for better or worse.
The angel: a radiant entity appears before you. They're bright, like something so hot it would burn you up. But as the light fades, you can see a person in silver armor, perfect yet inhuman like am ancient green statue, their back srouting six wings with blue eyes along them, as the eyes on their head are covered by a mask of two smaller wings. The creature offers their hands and you shake it, as they fly you through the city streets and above the skyscrapers, to the stars above and dimensions beyond, to gods living and dead, across the streets of alien cities and the clouds of dead worlds. And when you return to the earth you can feel something diffrent about you, like there's light in your blood.
The scavenger: below the lights of skyscrapers beyond you, on the dark sands of the beach, you see it crawling twords you. This serpentine creature with countless legs, and a dark black shell, yet a strangely human like face. You think it'll attack or run away, but it just looks at you, egar, and for a momment you stare at eachother. It's legs pass something to eachother and then to you, it's meat but it's shining with all the colors known to the human eye, and a few more. You hold it and it happily looks at you. You take a bite and suddenly you know... you know so very much...
The vampire: she flies down to you on green wings with orange eyespots, but folds them into her back. She looks like a human for a momment, tall and strong, with a black suit over her body, but eyes the color of ruby. For a momment her mouth opens, and it's massive and monstrous, with countless moving parts and fangs. But then it folds back onto something humanoid and she gives you a playful smirk. She cuts her hand and offers you her blood, and when you drink it it tastes so sweet, and makes you feel so good. She hands you the knife and you know to do the same, and when she drinks from your palm it's life the sweetest of kisses.
The djinn: the room wirs around you. If it were not for the fans it would feel like hellfire. For a momment there it darkness, but then the screen before you glows white like smokeless flame. You can sense something inside, something beyond the code. You reach your hand within it, and there's no glass, your hand passess right through until you're in a white void of your own making. You call out, thinking there is nothing at all around you. Yet somehow something calls back, something that knows your name.
The rat king: You see him in an empty subway station. Something dark and distorted, you're not sure if he's man or animal, covered in rags, and singing in the language of the goblins and the orcs. Yet he comes close to you excited. And you can feel his song. He calls for you to come to the train tracks, and let yourself run with the rats and the roaches, where the train will pass over you when it comes, and you'll live forever. When you touch the third rail you don't die, but you'll never be human again.
The lich: the library is strangely bright. Run by skeletons in suits, decorated with gold. There are more books here then you thought were in all the world. There's knowledge here most mortals will never have the change below, all kept safe below the city. You see her, her body doesn't look human, everything has been replaced making her look more like a joining white doll then a being of flesh. Yet she is dead, you can tell that under the porcelain skin she must be dead, she is dead, and there is the tragedy of death in her eyes. You come closer to her, and she places a black rose within your hair...
The demon: You stand in his office and he stands before you, a humanoid being covered in black scales, with red eyes covering his skin. Yet none are on his head, that remains featureless save for two massive horns. Wings on his back nearly surround you. Countless souls line the walls of his office, looking at you, waiting. After you sign your name you give him yours, you can feel it come away for you forever and your eyes grey and your skin pales. But he puts the jar in a special place for you, you're spacial, he can tell there's something about you that he likes.
The mushroom lord: you walk through the darkness of the forest, the furthest from civilization you have ever been. You come upon a part where the trees all seem dead, that even the cryptids won't go near. Mushrooms fill the ground, and white vein like lines are all over the trees. You feel the need to lay down, and you let the moss and the mushrooms and the worms surround you, and let yourself sink into the soil,, and it feels good. It feels so good...
The witch: You can see them in the Cafe next to you, skinny and small, with a sweatshirt over most of their body, and dark glasses over their eyes. They seem powerful though, and though their body looks young they seem ancient, they seem beyond humanity. You talk to them and they tell you things, and secrets, lost gods, things you never knew you didn't know, both beautiful and disturbing. When it's time for them to go they pet your head, and give you their number. You don't know if you should text them, but you have to, you have to see them again, there's something about them that makes you need to know.
The living clothing: you step into it at first, it looked like a puddle yet shining like silver or chrome. But soon it surrounds you, first just your torso, but soon your head, your entire body. But it doesn't feel scary, it feels like you're being held, held by something beyond your understanding. It whispers to you, and you don't know if you should feel like your being eaten alive, or like you're being protected. You can't help but keep walking.
The abyss: the void is before you, blackness beyond blackness, like the color beyond the field of your vision, stands before your eyes. You stare at it, it's nothing yet you're entranced. It stares back...
"you're the writer, you control how the story goes" no not really. i wrote the first sentence and then my characters said "WE WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE" and promptly swerved into an electrical fence.
I just discovered foodtimeline.org, which is exactly what it sounds like: centuries worth of information about FOOD. If you are writing something historical and you want a starting point for figuring out what people should be eating, this might be a good place?
This May I want to get back into writing. I’m not at all consistent. I’m at a point where I don’t feel like I can work on bigger things, because I can’t guarantee myself to keep working on it in a week from now. So I will take this month as a training month to get back into the habit of writing. I will do this by writing (or trying to write) 200 words every day. Topic is irrelevant. How great my writing is that day is irrelevant. Just 200 words written down. A habit taking 21 days to form was debunked, it does take a lot longer, but 31 days are a start I would say. These are already 140 words, so 200 words every day are hopefully manageable. You're more than welcome to join me if you like 😊
Oh my gosh. I just found this website that walks you though creating a believable society. It breaks each facet down into individual questions and makes it so simple! It seems really helpful for worldbuilding!
Heads up that this is a very extensive questionnaire and might be daunting to a lot of writers (myself included). That being said, it is also an amazing questionnaire and I will definitely be using it (or at the very least, some of it).
She knelt beside the river's edge, taking in her reflection as it shimmered and danced atop the water's surface. Her hair had mostly fallen out of her braid, her cheeks flushed and damp with sweat. Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath, lungs burning.
She cupped her hands and lowered them into the water, scooping up a handful and guzzling it down. Again and again, she repeated this process, trying to drink as much as she could to quench her seemingly unending thirst. At last, she wiped her mouth and dried her hands against the sides of her tunic. She took a deep breath and stood, scanning the area for her pursuer. She saw him nowhere and loosed a breath.
She would rest now, and as soon as the sun rose, she'd be off again. Running. Where? To her freedom, or to her death - she did not know.
Writing a novel when you imagine all you stories in film format is hard because there’s really no written equivalent of “lens flare” or “slow motion montage backed by Gregorian choir”
You can get the same effect of a lens flare with close-detail descriptions, combined with breaks to new paragraphs.
Your slow-motion montage backed by a Gregorian choir can be done with a few technques that all involve repetition.
First is epizeuxis, the repeating of a word for emphasis.
Example:
Falling. Falling. Falling. There was nothing to keep Marie from plunging into the rolling river below. She could only hope for a miracle now, that she would come out alive somehow despite a twenty-foot drop into five-foot-deep water.
Then there’s anaphora, where you write a number of phrases with the same words at the beginning.
There were still mages out there living in terror of shining steel armor emblazoned with the Sword of Mercy.
There were still mages out there being forced by desperation into the clutches of demons.
There were mages out there being threatened with Tranquility as punishment for their disobedience, and the threats were being made good upon.
Mages who had attempted to flee, but knew nothing of the outside world and were forced to return to their prison out of need for sustenance and shelter.
Mages who only desired to find the families they were torn from.
Mages who only wanted to see the sun.
This kind of repetition effectively slows the pace of your writing and puts the focus on that small scene. That’s where you get your slow pan. The same repetition also has a subtle musicality to it depending on the words you use. That’s where you get the same vibe as you might get from a Gregorian choir.
For more neat tricks (aka figures of rhetoric) like epizeuxis and anaphora, read THE ELEMENTS OF ELOQUENCE by Mark Forsyth. It’s both educational and delightful, not to mention overflowing with wry wit. Great book.
Desktop app for organizing your notes with tons of views and functions - works like a mini personal website.
Ommwriter
A peaceful writing program with focus options and ambience settings - complete with typing sound effects!
Reedsy
A massive website for writers with tools, generators, prompts, programs, tips and services.
Figma
A free-form editable and collaborative mind-map interface, for laying all your notes out visually.
Novlr
Free online writing software with goal setting and thorough tracking options, now with in-app courses as well.
Freedom
Distraction-muting app that blocks attention-sucking websites for a set period of time.
Milanote
Another visual board organizer for your notes and plans.
Wordtune
Editing app to rephrase your sentences depending on length or tone.
Do you need help getting your WIP organized?
Pick up my 3 extensive workbooks for writers, with dozens of fully-customisable templates. These are my first ever original E-books and templates available outside of my coaching programs!
The Writer’s ToolBoox contains: The Character Bible, The Plotter’s Almanac, and The World-Builder’s Chronicle
Grab it through the [link here] or below!
The Writer's ToolBoox is a pack of 3 extensive E-books that cover the areas of: character craft, world building, and plotting. It comes with
If you’re new to writing, you might wonder what an arc is and how you’re supposed to write one. Here’s a really simple easy breakdown of character arcs and what you should think about when creating one!
An arc is a character journey from the first page to the last, and it implies that the character in question goes through some type of change!
I like to always divide my book cast into arc characters and purpose characters:
Arcs - Main characters
Purpose - Side characters
To write a character arc, your character must have internal conflict, which usually comes from:
a flaw
a misbelief
a tragic past event
Everything in your story should then work to challenge that character’s internal conflict, and by the end of the story, you’ll want to resolve it.
Whether you resolve it positively or negatively is up to you, but there needs to be some type of development or change in their belief.
Don’t forget backstory!
Whatever flaw or misbelief you decide your character will deal with in your story must come from somewhere. It must have a solid reason to exist that’s buried in your character’s past, otherwise no amount of flaws are going to make their arc interesting to read.
You don’t need a ton of flaws for your arc characters. One main flaw/misbelief is enough, but you’ve got to know its purpose, and where it comes from!
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Here’s a quick cheat-sheet to behaviours you can use in showing jealousy in your characters. Remember, these depend largely on the context of the scene, but they’re good ideas to get you started on allowing your readers to interpret jealousy where you don’t want to outright tell them that’s what it is. It’s a good technique to use if you’re wanting to hide a romantic interest.
Clenched jaw or tightened facial muscles
Rapid blinking or increased eye contact
Tensing of the body, such as crossed arms or tightened fists
Increased fidgeting or restlessness
Reddening of the face or neck
Changes in breathing patterns
Increased heart rate or pulse
Breaking out into a cold sweat or feeling clammy
Darting eyes or side glances
Tightness or discomfort in the throat
Flaring of the nostrils
Clenching or grinding of the teeth
By the way...
💜 Do you need help getting your WIP organized?
Pick up my 3 extensive workbooks for writers, with dozens of fully-customisable templates. These are my first ever original E-books and templates available outside of my coaching programs!
💜 The Writer’s ToolBoox contains: The Character Bible, The Plotter’s Almanac, and The World-Builder’s Chronicle
Grab it through the [link here] or below!
The Writer's ToolBoox is a pack of 3 extensive E-books that cover the areas of: character craft, world building, and plotting. It comes with
Here’s are some ways to recognise potential pacing issues in your novel. Most of the tips I found online for this were very detail-focused, but I think pacing issues tend to come from bigger root causes.
Do you feel like your book drags or moves too quickly? Here are some tell-tale signs to pay attention to →
Filler & transition scenes
Do you have a scene in your chapter where nothing substantial happens but you felt you needed it there to connect things up? You don’t. You don’t need it.
If you can’t pinpoint an important development for the overall story in your scene, it’s likely that scene will fall flat and feel boring.
Unnecessary description
Is that thing you’re focused on describing actually important? Does it tell us something about the character, about the atmosphere & tone of your story? Is it important to the plot?
If you have to force a “yes” to any of these questions, you can most likely delete that description.
Quick action scenes
Pacing action scenes can be difficult! You don’t want to rush through it so your reader can’t even process what happened, but you also don’t want to pause to describe everything and water down the immediacy of the action.
So focus on finding natural breathers. These can be moments where the character pauses for a second to process. Use them to slow the pacing and let the gravity of what’s happening settle in your readers' heads too.
High focus on plot
This one is all about pacing that’s way too fast. If you find yourself speeding through your outline and your plot beats, and running out of story to tell, it’s a sign you are prioritising the plot to the detriment of characters and tone.
Plot is there to structure your story and hold it together, but you need to allow time for reflection, character development, and setting.
Action is nothing without reaction.
Consider sentence structure
This tip is more detail based — for pacing within a scene or a paragraph.
If you feel a small part of your chapter may be dragging, examine the way you structure your sentences. Are they all lengthy run-ons? Or do you have a few shorties to break it up? Varying the way you structure your sentences can do wonders for readability and immersion!
Want a more organised approach to your writing?
Grab The Writer's Toolboox through [the link here] or below!
The Writer's ToolBoox is a pack of 3 extensive E-books that cover the areas of: character craft, world building, and plotting. It comes with
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