Writing and RP Goodness - FJWS

FJWS is an educational blog. Prompts, challenges, musings and starters for all your writing needs provided by a professional writer! I also give tailored writing advice, if you want to send an ask! Let's grow as writers together! written by Ginzo, he/they (SUPPORTED BY YOUR DONATIONS!)

[caprart1]

i DO believe that a good writer can make mischaracterization work. oh there's a character who doesn't normally cry? figure it out!! disect the character. make the situation cryable for them. make that character cry ugly tears even if it goes against their very nature. YOU CAN MAKE IT WORK!!!

[digitalkiddo]

If you're writing anything involving cons, scams, heists, or morally questionable characters who are very good at lying, here are some free resources I've been using for research. Saving you the "why is this in my search history" anxiety.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

Reblog to save for later. Your WIP will thank you.

[gostaks]

some random redemption arcs that aren’t just ‘zuko, but a little to the left’

I’m evil but all my evil friends betrayed me and I’ve decided that the best revenge is to ruin their evil plans. Yes, this means I’m a “good guy” or whatever. No, I don’t like it any more than you do.

I was evil but all my evil friends betrayed me and now I’m going to latch onto the first person who shows me kindness. If that happens to be the protagonist, I am totally fine with realigning my morality to match theirs.

I never wanted to do what I did, and now the biggest obstacle to me switching sides is convincing me that I’m not a living weapon.

Well as long as you’re imprisoning me in this magic amulet I might as well give you pointers on your technique. I mean come on if you all die I might be stuck here for millennia! It’s not because I like you and don’t want you to die. Nuh uh.

Look, I legit thought that being evil was going to be my best option to get this important thing done, but, uh, that didn’t pan out. Help?

[freshjuicywriterstuff]

FEATURE: StimuWrite

StimuWrite 2 by that clown goddess

A stimulating writing environment

A writing tool for those with sensory-seeking needs!

We've tried using StimuWrite a few times - sometimes you just need to scratch a sensory-seeking itch in your brain to help you get started. This little tool is very useful in these situations so far, and we certainly recommend it to any writers who are looking for ways to tap into a more focused state.

A bit of tactile feedback can go a long way, but not everyone is ready to invest in something fancy like a mechanical typist keyboard or some other physical sensory writing aid. And hey, even if you've already got that fancy stuff it doesn't hurt to have a look into StimuWrite as well.

StimuWrite lets you set writing goals and provides feedback depending on your progress. It comes with audio stimulus as well as visual options, as well as a lot of different options to customise your experience. The base download gives you access to a pretty decent amount of customisation, and there are also add-ons available to give you a few extra options.

This one is a definite recommendation from us!

[blackheartbiohazards]

🟢 You are still a writer even when you haven't written in a while.

🟢 You are still a writer even when you feel like you aren't writing enough.

🟢 You are still a writer when you feel like your work isn't good.

🟢 You are still a writer when other people don't like your work.

🟢 You are still a writer when you aren't published.

🟢 You are still a writer when you only have works in progress.

🟢 You are still a writer if all you write is fanfiction.

[blackheartbiohazards]

Seeing people reblog this with "I needed this today" in the tags always makes me smile.

You are all amazing writers, and I believe in you <3

[helenvaughans]

bingo

[furthersuns-deactivated20230914]

Kat Rosenfield, What We Sacrifice to be Seen

Gretchen Felker-Martin, What's the Harm in Reading?

Elena Scotti, We Have to Save Books from the Book People

[freshjuicywriterstuff]

I’m posting again! Hopefully I can get close to how frequently I used to post on here, but ironically enough I’ve been very busy the past year or so working on writing professionally.

Between working on a novella, as well as ghost-writing for several clients at a time it’s hard to find time for posting educational stuff. Still, I’ll be doing my best to find the time to do so!

I plan to upload more advice to help other writers improve and learn, and I’ll see what I can do.

[freshjuicywriterstuff]

Juicy Tips: Maintaining Focus

One of the biggest difficulties in the writer’s life is maintaining focus! For some writers this isn’t actually too difficult, but many of us also have the tendency to struggle with this. It can be much harder for writers who are neurodivergent, or it can simply be based on how big your workload is! Either way, here are some tips that might help you to improve your focus when writing.

Personally I’ve also found it difficult for the longest time. There are all kinds of ways you can trick your brain into working more efficiently while writing, though, and I’m just going to share some things I’ve picked up over the years. Some have arrived via my own discovery and others have been taught to me by mentors and tutors. The goal of this juicy tip piece is to help out writers who are struggling to focus on their work for any reason. It may or may not help you out! Here’s the basic rundown:

Setting The Mood

The brain is pretty easy to train, pavlov style, if you know how. The story goes, ring a bell every time you feed your pet and your pet will eventually become hungry whenever they hear the bell.

Try setting up a routine to get your brain into “writing mode” and stick to it, more or less. What I like to do is brew a hot drink, get myself a snack and then put on one of my playlists. Sometimes I might even go outside for a quick walk before sitting down to write. I find that some genres of music also help me write better than others. I also have two specific places in my apartment that I like to write, and I like to make sure that I’m fully comfortable so I can concentrate.

Setting up ‘rituals’ and specific environments to write in can gradually improve your ability to focus and produce more writing. It isn’t by any means a quick solution, but in the long run it can be the best decision. If you have a hard time remembering, maybe write something on a post-it note and place it near your work space to remind you of your rituals.

Fine-tune Your Surroundings

Make sure your surroundings are fully prepared for your writing session. Anything that can distract or disrupt your work flow should be dealt with. If you need to put your phone on silent, go ahead and do that. If you have books and comics on your desk it might be a good idea to move them out of arms reach so you don’t feel tempted to read instead. 

Make sure your work area is tidy, too. If you have a lot of clutter and chaos on your desk or table, and I mean more than usual, go ahead and move some stuff around. I know I’m guilty of leaving things out on my desk and it tends to make my space feel more cramped. A messy space can worsen messy thinking, and tidying it up can help you get into the right mindset. If you want to really focus and work at your best, tidying up can make a world of difference.

Anything that you might need should be close at hand! You should have a drink, a light snack and other essentials handy. I like to have a chapstick on my desk, for example, as well as a pen pot and all the notebooks and scraps of paper I might need to look at for notes I’ve made. If you have a corkboard, this is a great place to pin up notes for quick access. It’s important that your space is constructed to help you write and to keep you inspired.

If it helps, hang up things that inspire you - decorations, artworks or even photographs that spark some kind of creativity in you. I’ve got all sorts of things pinned up on the walls in my office area, from my own artwork to posters to decorative items I found in thrift stores. Surround yourself with inspiration and make sure you’re comfortable.

Break Down Your Tasks And Notes

A task can feel much more intimidating and harder to pull off, if it seems nebulous or unstructured. We all have different ways of compartmentalising our tasks, whether it be with a list or a table, or even just using sticky notes. If you don’t know what works best for you it may be a good idea to experiment.

Making some form of organised document to tell you what needs to be done can make the whole task of writing easier. This can be in regards to juggling multiple projects, or even just in the context of one thing you’re working on. If you’re struggling to plot your stories or plan your essays, maybe starting with a list of things that need to occur within the work will help. From there, you can create other lists to keep track of names, dates and even story beats. Before you know it, you should find that your ideas are a bit easier to process. Sometimes you might need a table or graph of some sort for your world building. You might find that other formats work better for you. No matter how you use these things, they can help you map things out and break them down. Making your information and notes easy to read will streamline your workflow.

You might find that planning too much is dangerous though - never over-do it with your lists and tables. You don’t need a list for everything or a sticky note for everything; sometimes you might find that mixing and matching these methods is best for you. Eventually you will find the sweet spot that most writers have, somewhere between neat organisation and improvisation.

Enlist Assistance Where Needed

Know when to tackle something head on, and when to admit that you’re not able to do it alone. It’s best to have friends that are also interested in writing so that you can assist each other whenever needed or even just show them your ideas so that you can enthuse about them together. The added enthusiasm of others can be a strong motivator to continue, and they could even offer input to help develop your work.

Even if you don’t have writer friends, you can always bring in friends who have enthusiasm for fiction in general - a friend who is an avid reader, or who has interest in the genre or format you’re writing in. They could always offer input as well, in a pinch. Don’t be afraid to ask, even if they’re not able to help. It’s always worth trying to reach out. Other writers and enthusiasts can be found online as well, if real-life friends aren’t able to assist you.

For more informative posts, inspiration and ideas to help you improve as a writer, follow this blog! I post often and also take requests for specific advice. FJWS is funded by your donations.

[mylittleredgirl]

my dad–also a writer–came to visit, and i mentioned that the best thing to come out of the layoff is that i’m writing again. he asked what i was writing about, and i said what i always do: “oh, just fanfic,” which is code for “let’s not look at this too deeply because i’m basically just making action figures kiss in text form” and “this awkward follow-up question is exactly why i don’t call myself a writer in public.”

he said, “you have to stop doing that.”

“i know, i know,” because it’s even more embarrassing to be embarrassed about writing fanfic, considering how many posts i’ve reblogged in its defense.

but i misunderstood his original question: “fanfic is just the genre. i asked what you’re writing about.” 

i did the conversational equivalent of a spinning wheel cursor for at least a minute. i started peeling back the setting and the characters, the fic challenge and the specific episode the story jumps off from, and it was one of those slow-dawning light bulb moments. “i’m writing about loneliness, and who we are in the absence of purpose.”

as, i imagine, are a lot of people right now, who probably also don’t realize they’re writing an existential diary in the guise of getting television characters to fuck. 

“that’s what you’re writing. the rest is just how you get there, and how you get it out into the world. was richard iii really about richard the third? would shakespeare have gotten as many people to see it if it wasn’t a story they knew?”

so, my friends: what are you writing about?

[eldritchmage]

Note to self…

[saltynametag]

Writing dialogue for four people is a lot like playing with Barbies

[freshjuicywriterstuff]

The “child with very creative play-style” to “character-driven author” pipeline.

[freshjuicywriterstuff]

FEATURE: Generate A Stand

For writers who are fans of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and/or use music as a major inspiration for their work, this generator is pretty handy for coming up with prompts when working on super-powered characters.

Personally, I’ve been playing around with it using my favourite bands, bands that inspired my work and favourite bands of friends. We’ve been seeing some interesting results. It’s a little more in-depth than hitting random on a superpowers wiki, and even generates you some effectiveness stats, weaknesses and activation requirements.

Whether you’re creating JJBA OCs or just super-powered characters, this might come in handy! Simply input the name of the artist/band you’re inspired by and run it through a few times to see what the generator comes up with.

I’ve always sang the praises of well-put-together prompt generators, so this one naturally caught my eye.

(follow for more resources, articles and advice for roleplay and creative writing by the way!)

[caswouldratherbehere]

Dear fanfic authors,

If you’ve been toying around with the idea of finishing your own original work, you should definitely do it. I’ve been on slush pile work and 90% of the fanfiction I’ve read is better than what comes into our submission box. You’d be horrified at what some people think is publishable.

Finish your novel. Submit it. You’re way better than you think, and you have a higher chance of being published than you fear. Especially at a place like Riptide or Dreamspinner, where they WANT your lgbtq stories.

Seriously. Stop doubting yourself and finish up that nanowrimo project. Dust off your half finished drafts. Finish your work, polish it up, and send it in. Trust me. Publishers want to see it.

Sincerely,

Your friendly neighborhood editor lady

[bookishdiplodocus]

Agree.

[mazarin221b]

I did it, and you can, too.

[christinaroseandrews]

As someone who reads fic and also writes it, let me say THIS!!! Seriously fic writers are fabulous. You’ve got a lot of hard stuff out of the way… pacing… characterization… writing to an audience.

One piece of advice I have that I routinely see fic-to-original authors fail at is “Describe your characters” and describe them organically. The same is true of the setting. Other than that… finish that project. Edit the fuck out of it. And then go wild!

A word of warning… The OP recommended dreamspinner press. Don’t use them. Do not submit your work a dreamspinner press. Do not publish through dreamspinner press. right now if you have another way to support an author who has works published through dreamspinner press do that. Dreamspinner press has been repeatedly not paying its authors their royalties. Here’s an article about it. So yeah.

[freshjuicywriterstuff]

You’ve probably got a thousand people who’ve asked, but there’s a pretty writing website where you have a beautiful background and fonts and all that. Like word but prettier? This is not a lot of info, but it was popular a couple years ago and I have no idea what it is. So sorry.

Can anybody help answer this? The only thing I can think of right now is padlet.

[sheikofthesheikah]

Injury angst for writing dummies.

Hospitals and injury are always such a staple of angst fics, but 9 times out of 10 the author has clearly never been in an emergency situation and the scenes always come off as over-dramatized and completely unbelievable. So here’s a crash course on hospital life and emergencies for people who want authenticity. By someone who spends 85% of her time in a hospital. 

Emergency Departments/Ambulances.

Lights and sirens are usually reserved for the actively dying. Unless the person is receiving CPR, having a prolonged seizure or has an obstructed airway, the ambulance is not going to have lights and sirens blaring. I have, however, seen an ambulance throw their lights on just so they can get back to the station faster once. Fuckers made me late for work.

Defibrillators don’t do that. You know, that. People don’t go flying off the bed when they get shocked. But we do scream “CLEAR!!” before we shock the patient. Makes it fun.

A broken limb, surprisingly, is not a high priority for emergency personnel. Not unless said break is open and displaced enough that blood isn’t reaching a limb. And usually when it’s that bad, the person will have other injuries to go with it.

Visitors are not generally allowed to visit a patient who is unstable. Not even family. It’s far more likely that the family will be stuck outside settling in for a good long wait until they get the bad news or the marginally better news. Unless it’s a child. But if you’re writing dying children in your fics for the angst factor, I question you sir. 

Unstable means ‘not quite actively dying, but getting there’. A broken limb, again, is not unstable. Someone who came off their motorbike at 40mph and threw themselves across the bitumen is. 

CPR is rarely successful if someone needs it outside of hospital. And it is hard fucking work. Unless someone nearby is certified in advanced life support, someone who needs CPR is probably halfway down the golden tunnel moving towards the light. 

Emergency personnel ask questions. A lot of questions. So many fucking questions. They don’t just take their next victim and rush off behind the big white doors into the unknown with just a vague ‘WHAT HAPPENED? SHE HIT HER HEAD?? DON’T WORRY SIR!!!’ They’re going to get the sir and ask him so many questions about what happened that he’s going to go cross eyed. And then he’s going to have to repeat it to the doctor. And then the ICU consultant. And the police probably. 

In a trauma situation (aka multiple injuries (aka car accident, motorbike accident, falling off a cliff, falling off a horse, having a piano land on their head idfk you get the idea)) there are a lot of people involved. A lot. I can’t be fucked to go through them all, but there’s at least four doctors, the paramedics, five or six nurses, radiographers, surgeons, ICU consultants, students, and any other specialities that might be needed (midwives, neonatal transport, critical retrieval teams etc etc etc). There ain’t gonna be room to breathe almost when it comes to keeping someone alive.

Emergency departments are a life of their own so you should probably do a bit of research into what might happen to your character if they present there with some kind of illness or injury before you go ahead and scribble it down.

Wards

Nurses run them. No seriously. The patient will see the doctor for five minutes in their day. The nurse will do the rest. Unless the patient codes.

There is never a defibrillator just sitting nearby if a patient codes. 

And we don’t defibrillate every single code. 

If the code does need a defibrillator, they need CPR.

And ICU. 

They shouldn’t be on a ward. 

There are other people who work there too. Physiotherapists will always see patients who need rehab after breaking a limb. Usually legs, because they need to be shown how to use crutches properly.

Wards are separated depending on what the patient’s needs are. Hospitals aren’t separated into ICU, ER and Ward. It’s usually orthopaedic, cardiac, neuro, paediatric, maternity, neonatal ICU, gen surg, short stay surg, geriatric, palliative…figure out where your patient is gonna be. The care they get is different depending on where they are.

ICU.

A patient is only in ICU if they’re at risk of active dying. I swear to god if I see one more broken limb going into ICU in a fic to rank up the angst factor I’m gonna shit. It doesn’t happen. Stop being lazy. 

Tubed patients can be awake. True story. They can communicate too. Usually by writing, since having a dirty great tube down the windpipe tends to impede ones ability to talk. 

The nursing care is 1:1 on an intubated patient. Awake or not, the nurse is not gonna leave that room. No, not even to give your stricken lover a chance to say goodbye in private. There is no privacy. Honestly, that nurse has probably seen it all before anyway. 

ICU isn’t just reserved for intubated patients either. Major surgeries sometimes go here post-op to get intensive care before they’re stepped down. And by major I mean like, grandpa joe is getting his bladder removed because it’s full of cancer. 

Palliative patients and patients who are terminal will not go to ICU. Not unless they became terminally ill after hitting ICU. Usually those ones are unexpected deaths. Someone suffering from a long, slow, gradually life draining illness will probably go to a general ward for end of life care. They don’t need the kind of intensive care an ICU provides because…well..they’re not going to get it??

Operations.

No one gets rushed to theatre for a broken limb. Please stop. They can wait for several days before they get surgery on it. 

Honestly? No one gets ‘rushed’ to theatre at all. Not unless they are, again, actively dying, and surgery is needed to stop them from actively dying. 

Except emergency caesarians. Them babies will always get priority over old mate with the broken hip. A kid stuck in a birth canal and at risk of death by pelvis is a tad more urgent than a gall stone. And the midwives will run. I’ve never seen anyone run as fast as a midwife with a labouring woman on the bed heading to theatres for an emergency caesar.

Surgery doesn’t take as long as you think it does. Repairing a broken limb? Two hours, maybe three tops. Including time spent in recovery. Burst appendix? Half an hour on the table max, maybe an hour in recovery. Caesarian? Forty minutes or so. Major surgeries (organs like kidneys, liver and heart transplants, and major bowel surgeries) take longer. 

You’re never going to see the theatre nurses. Ever. They’re like their own little community of fabled myth who get to come to work in their sweatpants and only deal with unconscious people. It’s the ward nurse who does the pick up and drop offs. 

Anyway there’s probably way, way more that I’m forgetting to add but this is getting too long to keep writing shit. The moral of the story is do some research so you don’t look like an idiot when you’re writing your characters getting injured or having to be in hospital. It’s not Greys Anatomy in the real world and the angst isn’t going to be any more intense just because you’re writing shit like it is. 

Peace up.

[freshjuicywriterstuff]

Hello! Wondered if you could help — do you have any tips on connecting with your characters better? That seems to be my biggest downfall when it comes to writing. I have all these big ideas I’m excited about writing but I never seem to get attached to any of my characters like so many writers do and it stalls my writing. There seems to be a disconnect between myself and the characters I create. Any thoughts/advice? Thank you!

Hi! I didn't get around to this answer for a while bc I've been away, but I have a couple of ideas for how you could possibly shake off the dust on characters you're not quite "feeling" yet.

1. Why would you connect with this character?

What kinds of things do you find make characters worthy of attention? A lot of the time, it's just about finding that defining character trait or quirk that will make them come to life. Try to find something about their life experience that's important to who they are or how they behave and start there.

2. Emotional arcs

Character arcs are important. Like, if you don't have one for your character they won't hold intrigue for very long. It could just be that you haven't worked out their emotional character arc yet. What is their equilibrium? (as in, their normality and beginning state) What is going to become their new equilibrium, once the story is over? (what will have changed about them and what will they have learned, basically) Sometimes a touch more character development is just what you need to liven up your characters.

3. How are they introduced?

The first appearance of your character is something to think about, always. What are they doing and what do they say? A character who is introduced with an intense car chase is going to immediately make them stand out in a specific way, which is different to a character introduced with a daily commute and a lunchbox in hand. Consider how your character actually enters the story, because the first time you see a character is usually when you decide if you care about them.

Sorry for not answering sooner, but this is what I was able to come up with for now!

[freshjuicywriterstuff]

Hey, Recently I was scrolling on here and I saw this post about this website where you can search a vague description of a word when you aren't sure what the word is and it'll come up with the word. It's really handy for writing. Like, if you type in "bird leaf" it'll come up with "feather," but I lost the site and was wondering if anyone knows what it is? Sorry, if this is kinda weird.

Hi there.

We're not really sure what site it is, (and it's kind of ironic that a site that's meant to help people remember words is so hard to recall the name of) but we have heard of it before.

It could be extremely helpful - especially to those of us who struggle with words due to disabilities or low energy.

If we find the site in question, we'll be sure to add it to this post. If anybody else finds it, I encourage them to drop the name of it on this post themselves!

[freshjuicywriterstuff]

Hi! Do you have any advice on world building? I’ve never built an entirely fictional world before and the task seems really daunting but I feel it’s the right route to go with my work in progress. Any tips?

I have a few tips, yes - we've built our own fictional universes before on a few occasions and have learned a lot.

1. Keep notes.

You can use a designated notebook, folder, World Anvil page - whatever works for you. We use a combination of paper notes and WA pages.

The last thing you want is to forget elements of your own lore and slip up.

2. Ask/answer questions

Chances are, while working on your world, you're going to run into things you didn't think of before - either while writing your story or just through discussing it with a co-writer or friend.

Make sure you're always open to questions about your world, no matter how small or mundane they might be. Everything you come up with is important and should fit well with everything else.

3. Overthink a little bit

Spend time thinking about every little aspect of your world, why it's there and what it contributes. You should have an idea of what places are called, what their culture and infrastructure are like, what their history might be etc.

You don't have to get too deep with it if you don't want to, but it's a good idea to think it through at least a little bit. If your work is going to be more grand scale this is especially important.

4. Treat it like research

A good way to approach world building is to imagine that you're just researching a different time/world that really existed at some point, so you can create a story based in that time.

When a period story is being made or adapted, research is needed to make it feel authentic. (this is sometimes not done and it leads to distracting and confusing material - an example being Mulan)

Everything should fit together in a way that feels like it could be real. You're not just listing off what is special about your fictional world, you're documenting what we know and don't know about it and piecing together a very tangible image of it.

This isn't required for good world building exactly, but might help you get into the right mindset and give you the edge you need.

-

I really hope this is somewhat helpful! World building is a pretty daunting task for a lot of creators.