fuck it, we're doing it live

this is a collection of us. aervien. aesaerugo. eaode. do we know what we're doing? no, not really. but it'll be fun.

[scinerds]

New Photos of Pakistan’s Earthquake Island Released

The Earth performed the ultimate magic trick last week, making an island appear out of nowhere. The new island is a remarkable side effect of the deadly Sept. 24 earthquake in Pakistan that killed more than 500 people.

Image: An aerial photo from Pakistan’s National Institute of Oceanography suggests the new island is 60 to 70 feet (15 to 20 meters) tall. Credit: Pakistan’s National Institute of Oceanography/NASA Earth Observatory

A series of satellite images snapped a few days after the earthquake-triggered island emerged offshore of the town of Gwadar reveals the strange structure is round and relatively flat, with cracks and fissures like a child’s dried-up mud pie.

The French Pleiades satellite mapped the muddy hill’s dimensions, which measure 576.4 feet (175.7 meters) long by 524.9 feet (160 m) wide. Aerial photos from Pakistan’s National Institute of Oceanography suggest the gray-colored mound is about 60 to 70 feet (15 to 20 m) tall.

[writeworld-blog]

Practicing Patience in Writing

brattylittledongsaeng asked: Any tips for patience? I find that half my problem with not being able to write is because I don’t have that patience to let my mind unravel. I guess I’m so eager to get to the point that I get frustrated and leaves the piece unfinished.

[writeworld-blog]

Patience is a huge part of writing. The act of actually finishing something is, in my experience, relatively rare. One becomes frustrated with the writing, the characters, the plot, the amount yet to be done. There are so many factors working against you, against every writer, that the task can seem impossible. It isn’t.

Here are a few tips for patience:

Identify what’s making you impatient. What about your writing process has your mind wandering and your feet anxiously tapping? Sometimes just knowing which aspects of writing make you feel impatient can go a long way in giving you patience. Try to address why you are impatient. Is it because you don’t feel that your writing is good enough? Because there is so much to do? Because you feel under-prepared to write whatever you’re writing? These issues can be addressed, but not until you identify them for yourself. 

Give yourself a checklist and do one thing at a time. Starting a project can sometimes feel like standing on a hill and staring off into the distance at the miles and miles of road yet to be traveled. That feeling can be overwhelming, exhausting even, and can persuade the impatient writer into hopelessness. But not you! If you make yourself a checklist of tasks to be done for the project, you’ll actually feel like you’re getting something done instead of tackling the whole thing at once. Accomplishing these small goals is much more manageable and allows for small celebrations along the way, something that can be crucial to keeping your confidence and attention levels high.

Impatience may be a sign of boredom. If you’re bored with your writing, odds are that your readers are going to be just as bored. Your impatience may be your cue to up the ante for your characters or change up your style. Try something new. That may be just what the doctor ordered.

Keep track of the things that make you impatient. Remember that checklist from two bullet points ago? We’re going to put a different kind of check on it. As you complete tasks on your checklist, mark how often you felt frustrated or bored or otherwise impatient while completing that task. Make the checks proportional to your impatience, large for very impatient and small for a little impatient. Sometimes our minds can inflate our frustrations, making us feel like one instance of impatience is more invasive that many smaller instances of impatience. It can help to keep score, to have a physical illustration of when and to what degree you feel impatient. Lots of checks or even just one really big check could mean that it’s time to reexamine that particular aspect of your writing. Something about that is pretty clearly rubbing you the wrong way. 

Breathe. I know, I know, but do it for me. Walk away from your writing and take five very long, deep breaths. Go sit someplace quiet and just hum inside of your head and breath. It sounds too simple, but nice, deep breaths can help calm your impatient jitters. I promise.

Focus on the bigger picture. Yes, you’re taking little steps (remember the checklist) to get to the end of your project, but throwing up your hands over an imperfect word choice or a repeated spelling error will not help you achieve your goals. Work on saying, “I can tackle that later.” Underline it or make a note of it and move on. Grammar and word choice are important, but finishing is the larger goal.

Forgive yourself. You’re not perfect, so stop beating yourself up over it. Try not to compare the volume of your work or your level of success to other writers. Likewise, try not to compare your first draft to other authors’ finished, published projects. You’ll get there, but one hard-won step at a time, my friend. It’s a long road, and you’ve got to give yourself permission to stumble along the way. The key is to keep going. 

Here are some more resources on patience:

Patience Is a Writer’s Most Important Virtue

One Step At A Time: Learning Patience As A Writer

HOW TO LEARN THE SKILL OF PATIENCE

Practicing Patience

Patience Is a Skill: Four Ways to Be Patient (Oprah!)

Learning Patience

How to Be Patient

How to be Patient: Learning to Stay Calm

Thank you for your question! If you have any comments on this post or other questions about writing, you can message us here!

-C

[nimblesnotebook-blog]

BASICS:

Genres:

Alternate World: A setting that is not our world, but may be similar. This includes “portal fantasies” in which characters find an alternative world through their own. An example would be The Chronicles of Narnia.

Arabian: Fantasy that is based on the Middle East and North Africa.

Arthurian: Set in Camelot and deals with Arthurian mythology and legends.

Bangsian: Set in the afterlife or deals heavily with the afterlife. It most often deals with famous and historical people as characters. An example could be The Lovely Bones.

Celtic: Fantasy that is based on the Celtic people, most often the Irish.

Christian: This genre has Christian themes and elements.

Classical: Based on Roman and Greek myths.

Contemporary: This genre takes place in modern society in which paranormal and magical creatures live among us. An example would be the Harry Potter series.

Dark: This genre combines fantasy and horror elements. The tone or feel of dark fantasy is often gloomy, bleak, and gothic.

Epic: This genre is long and, as the name says, epic. Epic is similar to high fantasy, but has more importance, meaning, or depth. Epic fantasy is most often in a medieval setting.

Gaslamp: Also known as gaslight, this genre has a Victorian or Edwardian setting.

Gunpowder: Gunpowder crosses epic or high fantasy with “rifles and railroads”, but the technology remains realistic unlike the similar genre of steampunk.

Heroic: Centers on one or more heroes who start out as humble, unlikely heroes thrown into a plot that challenges them.

High: This is considered the “classic” fantasy genre. High fantasy contains the general fantasy elements and is set in a fictional world.

Historical: The setting in this genre is any time period within our world that has fantasy elements added.

Medieval: Set between ancient times and the industrial era. Often set in Europe and involves knights. (medieval references)

Mythic: Fantasy involving or based on myths, folklore, and fairy tales.

Portal: Involves a portal, doorway, or other entryway that leads the protagonist from the “normal world” to the “magical world”.

Quest: As the name suggests, the protagonist in this genre sets out on a quest. The protagonist most frequently searches for an object of importance and returns home with it.

Sword and Sorcery: Pseudomedieval settings in which the characters use swords and engage in action-packed plots. Magic is also an element, as is romance.

Urban: Has a modern or urban setting in which magic and paranormal creatures exist, often in secret.

Wuxia: A genre in which the protagonist learns a martial art and follows a code. This genre is popular in Chinese speaking areas.

Word Counts:

Word counts for fantasy are longer than other genres because of the need for world building. Even in fantasy that takes place in our world, there is a need for the introduction of the fantasy aspect.

Word counts for established authors with a fan base can run higher because publishers are willing to take a higher chance on those authors. First-time authors (who have little to no fan base) will most likely not publish a longer book through traditional publishing. Established authors may also have better luck with publishing a novel far shorter than that genre’s expected or desired word count, though first-time authors may achieve this as well.

A general rule of thumb for first-time authors is to stay under 100k and probably under 110k for fantasy.

Other exceptions to word count guidelines would be for short fiction (novellas, novelettes, short stories, etc.) and that one great author who shows up every few years with a perfect 200k manuscript.

But why are there word count guidelines? For young readers, it’s pretty obvious why books should be shorter. For other age groups, it comes down to the editor’s preference, shelf space in book stores, and the cost of publishing a book. The bigger the book, the more expensive it is to publish.

General Fantasy: 75k - 110k

Epic Fantasy: 90k - 120k

Contemporary Fantasy: 90k - 120k

Urban Fantasy: 80k - 100k

Middle Grade: 45k - 70k

YA: 75k - 120k (depending on sub-genre)

Adult: 80k - 120k (depending on sub-genre)

WORLD BUILDING:

A pseudo-European medieval setting is fine, but it’s overdone. And it’s always full of white men and white women in disguise as white men because around 85% (ignore my guess/exaggeration, I only put it there for emphasis) of fantasy writers seem to have trouble letting go of patriarchal societies. 

Guys. It’s fantasy. You can do whatever you want. You can write a fantasy that takes place in a jungle. Or in a desert. Or in a prairie. The people can be extremely diverse in one region and less diverse in another. The cultures should differ. Different voices should be heard. Queer people exist. People of color exist. Not everyone has two arms or two legs or the ability to hear.

As for the fantasy elements, you also make up the rules. Don’t go searching around about how a certain magic spell is done, just make it up. Magic can be whatever color you want. It can be no color at all. You can use as much or as little magic as you want.

Keep track of what you put into your world and stick to the rules. There should be limits, laws, cultures, climates, disputes, and everything else that exists in our world. However, you don’t have to go over every subject when writing your story.

World Building:

Fantasy World Building Questionnaire

Magical World Builder’s Guide

Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds

Creating Religions

Quick and Dirty World Building

World Building Links

Fantasy World Building Questions

The Seed of Government (2)

Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy

Fantasy Worlds and Race

Water Geography

Alternate Medieval Fantasy Story

Writing Magic

Types of Magic

When Magic Goes Wrong

Magic-Like Psychic Abilities

Science and Magic

Creative Uses of Magic

Thoughts on Creating Magic Systems

Defining the Sources, Effects, and Costs of Magic

World Building Basics

Mythology Master Post

Fantasy Religions

Setting the Fantastic in the Everyday World

Making Histories

Matching Your Money to Your World

Building a Better Beast

A Man in Beast’s Clothing

Creating and Using Fictional Languages

Creating a Language

Creating Fictional Holidays

Creating Holidays

Weather and World Building 101

Describing Fantastic Creatures

Medieval Technology

Music For Your Fantasy World

A heterogeneous World

Articles on World Building

Cliches:

Grand List of Fantasy Cliches (most of this can be debated)

Fantasy Cliches Discussion

Ten Fantasy Cliches That Should Be Put to Rest

Seven Fantasy Cliches That Need to Disappear

Avoiding Fantasy Cliches 101

Avoiding Fantasy Cliches

Fantasy Cliches

Fantasy Cliche Meter: The Bad Guys

Fantasy Novelist’s Exam

Mary Sue Race Test

Note: Species (like elves and dwarves) are not cliches. The way they are executed are cliches.

CHARACTERS

Read More

[fictionwritingtips]

If you’re writing anything where your characters are getting injured a lot, it might be helpful to have an injuries reference list on hand. WELL, DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT BECAUSE I CREATED ONE. This is mostly the result of me having to look up...

[writeworld-blog]

A Few Quick Thoughts on Promoting Your Writing Blog

Anonymous asked: How can i promote my writing blog? literally no one is reading it.

[writeworld-blog]

This is very, very common. We see great work in the “writeworld" tag every day that gets only one or two notes. So, why is that and what can you do about it?

Lots of people use Tumblr for something other than reading creative writing. Maybe this isn’t the right venue for your audience. Check out this list for websites where your writing might get more attention. If you’re good a book reviews, I suggest getting active on GoodReads and then linking to your Tumblr in your profile. You could keep your Tumblr while you grow your fan base on one of those other websites, then direct your fans to your Tumblr for more of you and your work.

"What have you done for me lately?" This is a common mentality among bloggers (and everyone else).It often helps to build your audience by offering something other than your creative writing like writing help, reading lists, book reviews, or even just your personality. I’ve seen lots of successful writers share their experience for more exposure in the reading and writing communities (yes, those are two different things), and I’ve seen just as many successful writers inject a healthy dose of their own personality into their blogs to get people interested in them as well as their writing.

Tit for tat. Offer critique for critique. You could offer to reblog another upcoming writer’s work with your thoughts, thus gaining exposure for them on your blog, and they could do the same. I recommend reading Tips on giving critique and Tips on taking critique to make sure you’re giving the very best critiques you can.

Join the Tumblr writing community. Never be anonymous again. Message lots of people all the time offering your opinion on subjects related to reading or writing. Go to the tinychats the writing help blogs host (or make your own and invite us!) and communicate with popular blogs. Don’t be creepy; offer assistance or solid opinions on topics you feel you know well. Ask questions. Make your own writing help blog! Get involved, is what I’m saying. As long as you’re not a complete troll, it can only help.

Enter competitions. Sometimes just being in the running gains you exposure. You don’t have to win to get readers interested in your work. You just have to enter. So enter.

If you feel comfortable doing it, write fan fiction. Fan fiction comes with a build-in fan base to expose to your writing. Once you get some fans there, you can introduce them to your original work. See Cassie Clare and E.L. James for examples of how this definitely works.

Send us an Ad Space Petition. A little advertising might be just what you need! Send us a banner and a link and we’ll add you to the ads on our sidebar.

Tell everyone. Again, stop being anonymous. You’re missing opportunities to get your name out there! Post about your writing blog on your personal blog and Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and Reddit and LinkedIn and all the other social media sites you haunt. Tell your friends about your writing blog and ask them to spread the word if they can. Message all the writing help blogs and critique blogs and let them know why they should be paying attention to your writing. Get out there. It’s scary, I know, but if you want fans you have to go out there and get them.

Tag properly. “Writing," “creative writing," “spilled ink," “poetry," “prose," and other related tags help readers find what they’re looking for. Check out those tags and see how other writers are tagging their work. Try their methods and see how they work. If they don’t, switch up your tags. If you’re writing in response to a Writer’s Block from WriteWorld, tag it “writeworld" so we, at least, can see it. Remember, only the first five or so tags count, so tag wisely.

If you’re thinking, “this is a ton of work," good. You’re right. It’s hard work to promote yourself. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun or that you can’t celebrate your growing fan base, but it does mean that you have to put a significant amount of time and effort into finding and nurturing your audience.

Success is an option, not an absolute. You have to earn it.

Go earn it and good luck!

-C

P.S. It might also be helpful to read over our 18 Tips for Tumblr Writing Help Blogs and Tips for Tumblr Writing Help Blogs, Round II: Primary Blog vs. Side Blog. They’re for writing help blogs, but some tips and cautions still apply.

[nmmnick-blog]

Motivation: The Slump

Over the course of the writing adventure, most of you will experience what will feel like the worst rut you’ve ever been in. Words don’t flow—putting each one onto paper is a chore in and of itself. All your ideas lead to dead ends, and you feel like it’s time to put your novel to rest.

That’s the rut I was just in for over a month, and it was beyond painful. I’ve been working on this novel for well over a year now, and I honestly thought it was going to come crashing down around me and be forced into a series of Word documents that would collect dust on my desktop until I finally had the guts to delete it.

So to celebrate me coming back to this blog, I thought I’d supply my strategy for getting out of my slump.

Disclaimer: This may not work for you. Everyone is different, and this is just one strategy out of many.

Close your Word Docs.Sometimes, just staring at a blank screen (or even one with writing) can make it worse.  Give yourself a break. Go watch videos on Youtube or make a Neopets account. Give yourself something fun to do for a little while.

Keep the story in your mind. One of the worst things that you can do while in a slump like this is push it completely from your mind. If you do that, you run a risk of putting your story down and never picking it up again.

Read for fun. Chances are, you’re already doing a lot of this. But just in case you aren’t, pick up a book that you’ve always wanted to read but for whatever reason haven’t started and tuck in.

Think about what else is going on in your life and assess it properly. The reason I fell into my writing slump was because of school. I was taking four classes at once in a university for the first time, and I was scared to death of failing three of them. It was stressing me out to the point where I was pulling out my eyelashes.  If you’re under stress, don’t feel bad taking a break from writing to get the rest of your life in order.

Don’t rush yourself. If you try to force yourself to write when you’re in one of these slumps. This is what happens when you try to force yourself: Nothing. You’ll spend hours staring at a blank document and end up getting frustrated with yourself and hating the work.

So this is how I overcame my slump, and now that I’m back to writing, I feel a ton better. I’ve gotten my drive for writing back and new ideas come much more easily than they did even before I entered my writing slump. Hopefully someone else out there will benefit from this.

[crimsoneyedfairy-deactivated201]

writingadvice: by Chuck Palahniuk In six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer. From this point forward—at least for the next half year—you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use. The list should also include: Loves and Hates. And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those later. Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…” Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.” Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it. Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.” You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen had always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’s roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her butt. And the next break, Gwen would be leaning there, again.” In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling. Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later). In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them. For example: “Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. Traffic was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…” Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it. If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline. Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating. Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.” Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail. Present each piece of evidence. For example: “During roll call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout ‘Butt Wipe,’ just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.” One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering. For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take…” A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…” A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives. Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember. No more transitions such as: “Wanda remembered how Nelson used to brush her hair.” Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.” Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts. Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You—stay out of their heads. And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.” For example: “Ann’s eyes are blue.” “Ann has blue eyes.” Versus: “Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…” Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it. And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.” Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use thought verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t. For this month’s homework, pick through your writing and circle every “thought” verb. Then, find some way to eliminate it. Kill it by Un-packing it. Then, pick through some published fiction and do the same thing. Be ruthless. “Marty imagined fish, jumping in the moonlight…” “Nancy recalled the way the wine tasted…” “Larry knew he was a dead man…” Find them. After that, find a way to re-write them. Make them stronger.

(via littlebumgorf)

[writerswritecompany]

[torteen]

Great advice to writers.

[readreread-blog]

“The story is always better than your ability to write it.”

—

Robin McKinley (via libraryland)

[fuckitweredoingitlive]

Treat it as a compliment for your premise, so long as you aren't a sucky writer.

[cyrrane]

Aw Cas, No: a novel in four parts.

[cyrrane]

.#Steeeeeph #looks like the Drumknott character did die #I liked him

[fuckitweredoingitlive]

thethiefandtheangel said: Hehehehehehehe

Nooooo, now another character that I like is being sad that he's dead. I'm gonna go do something else.

[byeborg-deactivated20150314]

I made this so I can put it up on my wall. You fellow writers are welcome to do the same.

LOOK AT HIS DISAPPROVING FACE. WRITE. NOW.

[neil-gaiman]

Do I look THAT grumpy? I probably do. But I like the sentiment.

[writeworld-blog]

Admin Note: This post is a rebloggable copy of our page on character morality. The page is being phased out, so from now on all updates will be made on this post and not on the page. 

Is your character moral? This is a very complicated question. First of all, what is “moral”?

Moral (n): focused on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom.

Okay, so moral characters are concerned with right-mindedness; they care about doing the right thing. Right? Notice that, by the definition, morality supersedes legality and customs, which are constraints imposed on people by society. These constraints may be immoral like the military draft which forces people into a situation where they may have to kill another person (killing is pretty much immoral, folks) or the common custom of the “little white lie”. And because these constraints may be immoral, a moral character may, on occasion (or all the time), ignore them.

What are the principles of moral behavior? How can you tell, basically, if a character is moral?

“If you ask anyone, ‘What is morality based on?’ these are the two factors that always come out: One is Reciprocity, and associated with it is a sense of justice and a sense of fairness, and the other one is Empathy and compassion. Human morality is more than this, but if you would remove these two pillars, there would be not much remaining, I think, and so they are absolutely essential.” - Frans de Waal

What do Reciprocity and Empathy mean?

Reciprocity (n): responding to a positive action with another positive action, rewarding kind action

Empathy (n): the ability to understand and share the feelings of another

If your character is moral, he or she will almost certainly have a sense of fairness and compassion. Both of these are considered part of the Seven High Virtues, with Empathy commonly referred to as “Love” or “Charity”, and Reciprocity most often called “Justice”. Very moral characters will, most likely, have either Love, Charity, or Justice as their peak virtue.

Moral characters are often good listeners. They care for other people, and they want to do right by them. They are willing to take action to create positive outcomes for others. They have little to no concern for themselves.

Don’t get us wrong, morality is a sliding scale. Many heroic characters are basically moral, though they may sometimes kill, lie, steal, or cheat depending on what life-threatening or otherwise difficult situation has arisen. But if you’re looking for straight-up a moral character, the most common indicator will always be cooperation.

Does your character play well with others?

Morality arises from the need for cooperation, and the understanding of cooperation as essential to human interaction. There is no need to be moral if you are, for example, the last human on Earth. Who is there to be moral with or to? Therefore, moral characters desire to interact with others in a positive way. Immoral characters don’t care about offending or harming others, so they are cool with interacting in a negative way.

Moral heroic characters are often great leaders because they are good at cooperating. Immoral heroic characters are often loners because they are awful at cooperating.

Alright, so if your character moral, they will (most likely):

Ignore legalities or customs that they view as immoral

Have a strong sense of justice and compassion

Cooperate well with other characters

It is worth noting that morality is different for different people in different places at different times in history. Generally, there are universal ideas of morality instilled within us from infancy (these are cooperation, justice, compassion, a sense of “rightness” and “wrongness”, etc). Deciding what you, as a writer, think of as “moral” is fundamental in determining the morality of the character in question. We can’t tell you what moral is for you in your story or for yourself, but once you decide that, you will be able to define your character’s morality.

If you are very interested in determining the morality of your character, you can take this quiz for yourself and/or for your character to help you decide. Be warned that some of the questions may not be truly applicable to your characters (for instance, whether or not stem cell research is wrong may not be an issue in your world because there is no stem cell research), but do your best to answer for your character in those situations.

For more on morality, check out our Videos about Morality post!

-C

[the-right-writing]

Things you shouldn't spend too much time worrying about

Worry about your plot, characters, setting, consistency, and diction, not:

the title

the total wordcount (unless you’re doing NaNo)

what to name new items and concepts

what the movie will be like

the cover design (you will probably not choose this unless you self-publish)

people trying to steal your work

what’s happening on Tumblr when you’re supposed to be writing

[writeworld-blog]

We realize this is an opinion post. However, this sort of thing is exactly what we’re talking about when we recommend that writing help blogs refrain from stating their opinions as facts. Statements without qualification can do more harm than good. 

the title: Titles are the first thing your audience reads from you. As such, titles are absolutely important and people, writers and editors and publishers alike, agonize over them for good reason. Fans get excited to just know the title of an upcoming book from their favorite writers. Just look at the Harry Potter fandom (my favorite example). We went nuts over the titles for each of the books, and J.K. Rowling went through many titles before finding ones that truly fit each of her books even though by Deathly Hallows she could probably have named the book Skippidy Do and we still would have peed our pants. Why You Shouldn’t Worry about It: I usually advise people not to worry too much about titles until the piece is done (first or second draft), because only when the piece is done do you really know what story is about. It’s a heck-of-a-lot easier to name a thing once you know what it is than if you only know what it might become.

the total wordcount (unless you’re doing NaNo): Word count is a big deal. Publishers like long books for adult fiction because they can justify their $30.00 price tags. Young readers will prefer shorter books. Short stories are structured differently than full-length novels. Word count matters on several, not-to-be-dismissed levels. Should you bite your nails down to stubs over it during your first draft? Maybe not, but it’s certainly something to consider as you craft your story.  Why You Shouldn’t Worry about It: Word count is probably not something to worry about if you’re still in draft one because first drafts are often too long or too short. At the end of the day, when the piece is complete, the length of the story is the length of the story. There’s no sense in developing an ulcer over the expectations of others. 

what to name new items and concepts: This is one of my favorite things to agonize over. As a writer of genre fiction, I am constantly inventing new gadgets, places, races, and other nifty things for my stories. I can personally attest that worrying over these sorts of things is kind of important. If the names are long, cumbersome, and unmemorable, then your readers might become confused. Should the names be utilitarian or unique? Should they each have their own backstory? How did these things get the names they have? The name of an item or concept for your world should ideally reflect the care you’ve taken to answer these questions (or not).  Lots of items, like weapons and magical artifacts, need awesome names to enhance their mystique. You may go through several names for the fantastical things that you invent for your worlds, and it may take you a while to find a name that tells the story that you need it to tell in only one or a few words.  That’s okay. Thinking deeply and caring about the names of things in your world is absolutely permissible and not strange at all. Why You Shouldn’t Worry about It: Making the items and concepts as memorable as possible might be a better priority than worrying about what they’re called, at least while you’re still drafting. 

what the movie will be like: I don’t know that I’d worry about this, but I definitely dream about it. Thinking about what the movie version of your book will be like can be a great source of inspiration, motivation, and hope. If you’re will to work so hard that your book is made into a movie, then you’ve got more spunk than most authors put together. There are fewer movies and television shows adapted from books per year in the United States than there are days in that year, which might not sound impressive until you realize that there were approximately 15,000,000 books published in 2012. It takes drive and ambition and luck and focus to get a movie made from your book. It takes work. And that goal might give some writers the push they need. Also, it’s just fun to think about, isn’t it? I wonder who they’ll cast as my romantic leads!  Why You Shouldn’t Worry about It: You probably won’t have much control over the movie. Get right with it.

the cover design (you will probably not choose this unless you self-publish): Joe Meno, author of Hairstyles of the Damned and The Great Perhaps had a few insights in a 2012 interview with TriQuarterly that I think speak to this point very well:

I feel like there are a lot of writers whose work I still haven’t read, but I know the book cover. Sometimes that book cover is the only thing you know of an author. If that’s the only thing somebody knows of my work, if the title is the only writing someone’s read of mine, I want to do everything I can to reflect the actual book and try to make people interested in it. In 2012 I feel like most literature is geared toward this very, very narrow audience. I’m not disinterested in that audience, but I also think that there are all these other people out there that are smart and interesting—people I grew with, people from different arcs—who deserve serious literature as well. So that idea of trying to invite people into your book is reflected in the design. I’ve had some bad experiences where people try to slap a cover on the book that doesn’t reflect what the book is, but they think it’s going to sell more copies this way. These were pivotal moments when I realized my idea of a book, which is almost religious. That’s how important it can be to people. There are a couple of books that I could say have almost like saved my life. The marketing people don’t look at books the same way. They could be marketing gym shoes.

Not all authors have control over their book covers, but it is certainly something worth thinking about and having a say in if you can. Like the title of the book, the cover is a reflection of the books interior, and attracting potential readers is the name of the game. There are certainly people who will tell you not to worry about the cover, and for many authors the cover is out of their control, but I believe it at least bears thinking about, if only to familiarize yourself with some of the absolutely genius cover designers out there.  Why You Shouldn’t Worry about It: If you’re going the traditional publishing route, you may not have much control over the cover design. Try to surround yourself with good people (good agent, good editor, good publisher), so at least these decisions will be made by people you trust. 

people trying to steal your work: Uh yeah. You should worry about this. And take steps to minimize the danger of theft if you can.  Why You Shouldn’t Worry about It: You should.

what’s happening on Tumblr when you’re supposed to be writing: I agree with this insofar and both Shannah and I are making posts on Tumblr when we could be writing. I don’t know when I’m supposed to be writing, but I like to think there’s time for Tumblr and writing. It’s all about time management, guys. If you’re worried you might be spending more time on Tumblr than you’d like, clock your hours spent on Tumblr then compare that time to the time spent doing “productive” things like writing or homework or hanging out with friends or whatever it is that normal people do. Don’t like the ratios? Dial down your Tumblr time. It’s as simple as that.  Why You Shouldn’t Worry about It: Promoting yourself and your work is one thing, but arguing and reblogging photos of 1D is quite another. Unless you work for Tumblr, you’re not making (much) money from Tumblr. If you’re planning to earn a living from your writing, you’ve got work to do. Get off Tumblr and write. 

To be clear, it is okay for you to worry about any of the things on this list that you want to worry about. 

Thank you for letting me pick on you, Shannah! Again, fellow writers, try to take advice that comes with a why. Otherwise, the advice can be unclear or easily mistaken for rules of some kind.

I assure you, there are no hard and fast rules. Just write. 

-C

[eaode]

C is my hero. I legit live by her advice. Do NOT take advice unless you understand the reason behind it, please.

[writeworld-blog]

Anonymous asked: Hi, I was wondering if you folks had any resources that describe different grieving processes people go through? I think most everyone has heard of the ‘stages’ process (anger, denial, bargaining etc.), but it’d be awesome to have something that goes into greater detail about it, or offers some sort of alternative. :)

[writeworld-blog]

The stages of grief are actually pretty standard. There’s really no need to search beyond them for alternative methods of examining grief, though of course you may look into the books in our further reading section for more strategies for understanding and coping with loss.

We, however, are going to focus on the Five Stages of Grief, also known as the Kübler-Ross Model. For the record, these stages are:

Denial. Blankness, shock, numbness, disbelief.

Anger. A sense of betrayal, of abandonment. Maybe blaming oneself, others, or even the deceased for the loss.

Bargaining. Trying to reason away the loss or else buy a respite from it.

Depression. The full weight of the loss. Desolation, heaviness, terrible sadness. 

Acceptance. The loss is a part of the self. Internalization, incorporation, moving on.

This list isn’t meant to represent the proper emotional journey of grief. There is no normal way to grieve. These stages may be of uneven length or create a loop to repeat until there is some epiphany and the sufferer can move past it; some stages may come out of order or not at all. But mostly, this is a pretty decent angle at which to start examining grief.

It’s easy to look at those five stages and think of a list like that as limiting, boring even. Each grieving process will be unique to the character going through it, as will the feelings and actions of the character at each stage. Characters exhibit grief in myriad ways. They are not limited by the most obvious clichés of denial or depression.

A gritty, hardened character can beg and sob and be overcome with fear of a life without the object of their grief.

A timid character might cope by being the shoulder for others to cry on as they deal with their loss; they may gain closure by affecting strength until they actually feel strong.

A sexual character might do exactly as one would expect and lose himself in the arms of another.

And, of course, there is everything in between. Messing with the reader’s expectations for a character’s reaction can yield powerful results. As John Green wrote in The Fault in Our Stars, “Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.”

Here are some assorted tips and observations on writing grief. Do with them what you will, but remember that these are not universal:

Strength and weakness are relative terms. The distinction, for instance, between crying as a testament to the strength of a bond between two characters and crying as a method of making others feel sorry for a character’s loss is palpable. Decide for each character what constitutes “strength” and “weakness” and show the reader the difference. Grief is a good time to do this because it is typically a process where a character’s true colors are bound to show themselves eventually, even if they try to hide their suffering or their process is more nuanced than other characters’.

Grief can come with nostalgia. A grieving character may look with a kinder eye on memories that include the person they have lost. They might long for those days, focus on them to the detriment of their present and the people in it. They might put the deceased character up on a pedestal, refuse to hear anything negative about them, or decide that their not-so-great experiences with that character were actually better than they’d remembered.

Memory loss isn’t uncommon. When a character is first told about the death of another character, he might enter a state of shock. While in this state, the character might be so overcome or so numb that he cannot recall later what he said or did while in that state. He might not even remember that the other character has died. You can read a bit more about this here.

Loss makes people uncomfortable. Like, really uncomfortable. When characters who are not grieving or who are grieving to a lesser extent encounter a character who is very much in mourning, they are often afraid to say or do the wrong thing and cause more pain. It is awkward to say the least. Characters may not know how to treat a grieving character because that character isn’t behaving as he normally does, whatever that means. When you write about loss, it might be a good idea to write about how other characters perceive the grieving character, how they react to him and speak to him while he is grieving. You could tell the reader a lot about a character’s grief by describing the reactions of the characters around him.

Grief can be stifling. It can remove a character from their routine, even make that routine seem pointless, selfish, or absurd. It can stomp on convictions, creativity, and relationships with other characters. Deadlines might be missed. Children may go uncared for. These are usually earmarks of the Depression stage of grief, and this period of apathy or listlessness might be a good way to slow the pace of the narrative you’re writing. It may create an interlude between spikes of action, sort of like the quick breath taken by swimmers before plunging again into the water.

Grief isn’t neat. It doesn’t decline over time in a smooth slope. A character doesn’t have to recover from a loss gradually or at all. Grief isn’t something you get over; it’s something you accept. The acceptance of a loss might look more like a seismograph than a bell curve. Keep that in mind as you write. Feelings of grief may surface unexpectedly.

How dead is dead? Did the person die right in front of the character or was the character just told of the death? If the character wasn’t present at the death can she take another person’s word for it that it even occurred? If your character could get away with denying the death even happened, would she? For how long? The sliding scale of physical proximity to the death of another character could play a huge role in how your character will react to their death. Shock might be a more appropriate first response for witnessing a death, whereas denial is more common if the character is not physically present when the event occurs. Shock and denial tend to blend together after a while, though it’s up to you to figure out the exact measurements. 

When was this person supposed to die? Before or after the character in question? A father or grandmother is supposed to die before their daughter or grandson. This dynamic, the dynamic of perceived inevitability, could create subtle differences in the way a character copes with a loss. A character will grieve differently for a child than for a parent. The grieving process could be longer with a child because parents do not expect to witness the sudden death of their child. This dynamic might also be affected by prolonged illness. If a character who has been ill for a long time dies, the grief a character feels over the death will be different. Different how, you ask? Well, that’s up to you.

How much death has your character seen? If your character has experienced a lot of death in her life, you can be sure that she will handle grief differently than a character feeling loss for the first time. You can play with desensitization by creating a situation where a particular death was special and triggered a pronounced grieving period. It could be a stranger or a best friend, a lover or an enemy; that death was special, and the character’s grief shows the reader a different side of him. Alternatively, a character who has never grieved before could play into expectations by mourning deeply or freak the reader out with a minimal reaction to death. And everything in between.

Rituals can help some people cope with loss and may disgust others. Many people mourning a loss have expressed feelings of comfort and closure connected with carrying out the religious rituals associated with the death of a loved one. Other people find no solace in ceremony and prefer to grieve in their own way. In either case, it’s good to know about these rituals because they tend to encourage behaviors that might be useful to apply to your characters. Check out an overview of some death rituals at these links:

Transition Rituals 

Death Customs

Funeral Rituals around the World

Remember, it is best to witness a ritual first-hand before writing it. If you cannot be present at the ritual you wish to write about, at least find someone who has and who is willing to describe it to you in detail. Otherwise, you not only risk misrepresenting the ritual, you may also miss details worth knowing that may be important to your character.

The surprising twist is not always stronger than the expected reaction. Sometimes the reader just wants the character to be plain ole sad, to mourn as they mourn the death, to be the cliché. You don’t always have to write the jarring, betcha-didn’t-see-that-coming reactions and emotions for your characters. Sometimes the common sadness, the anger, the fear of the unknown that humans tend to feel in response to a death is enough. There’s something to be said for tapping into the universally-acknowledged emotions people feel as they grieve. Again, how to interpret this advice and when to use it is solely your decision.

There is obviously a lot more we could say on grief, both in coping with loss and in writing it, but that ought to get you started.

Here are some links to further online reading:

Severe Shock Causes Memory Loss

Coping with Loss and Grief

Grief and Grieving: The Process of Accepting Loss

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Wikipedia: Grief

Grief.com

Grief and Grieving - Topic Overview

Coping With Grief 

For Children and Teens: Death and Grief

On Killing Characters

And here are some book lists on this subject:

Best Books About Grief (GoodReads)

Recovering from Grief and Loss (GoodReads)

Best Books About Grief and Grieving (GoodReads)

Popular Grief And Loss Books (GoodReads)

Best Books on Grief and Grieving (Amazon)

Excellent Books on Grief and Loss (Amazon)

Thank you for your question! If you have anything to add or any further questions, please hit up our ask box!

-C

[referenceforwriters]

a young character

a character who lost someone important

a flirtatious character

a villain (2) (3) (4)

a character based on yourself 

a hit man or mercenary

an indifferent character

a bitchy character

a gay character

a dancer

a vampire

a pansexual character

a character on the police force

a drunk character

a manipulative character

a friends with benefits relationship

a natural born leader (2)

a nice character

a british character

a character with a baby

an assassin

a character with night terrors

a rich character

a witty character

[theyuniversity]

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