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File this under “super obvious yet I always seem to forget it.”

I don’t write romance (I totally respect people who do, though!) but this is also great writing advice in general! What is preventing the protagonist from achieving their goal?

Why can’t these two people be together now?

Why can’t the mystery be solved now?

Why can’t they overthrow the evil overlord now?

If you don’t have a solid answer for these questions, that’s a good indicator that the plot could use some more work.

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Also test your answer a little bit. If it’s as thin as they’re just refusing to sit down and have a simple conversation, you might want to re-think how things are going.

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As a beta reader/editor, I tend to ask this question a lot: “Why are they doing it this way when there’s a much easier path available?” That’s not to say that they should take the easier path, because that would usually be boring. Instead, the point is that the question needs an answer–either eliminate the easier path or give them a very clear reason for not taking it. (And if I’m asking the question, that reason isn’t as clear as you think it might be.)

I find it very difficult to root for characters who have a sensible option available and just don’t take it. If the only reason is “Because there wouldn’t be a story otherwise,” you haven’t actually found the story yet.

riptidepublishing

And this is why the Big Misunderstanding as a primary plot device is almost universally disliked.

thewritershandbook

Antiheros tend to be complex, but when they slay the dragon, or fall in love, or solve the mystery, it turns out we've been rooting for them all along.

justawritingaid

To be a better writer...

Let yourself practice. Not everything you work on needs to be crafted for public consumption. Practice not only lets you work on specific skills without the pressure of a full story, but it gives you a lot more freedom to make mistakes and learn to fix them without all the stress of expectations.

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Hey just stumbled here looking for advice. How do you write better descriptions of characters? Mine seem too plain and have little to no details except for the cliche, “X had blue eyes that resembles the sky/sea.”

Guide: Describing Character Appearance and Clothing

DO: provide just enough detail to give the reader a sense of the character’s appearance.DON’T: go overboard with too many details or take up a lot of the reader’s time describing what a character looks like.

DO: focus on a few important traits and anything that serves as clues to who or what the character is and what their life is like.

DON’T: make a big deal out of traits that aren’t important to the story… like don’t mention that the character has freckles in every description. A few mentions throughout the story is more than adequate.

DO: describe clothing to give a general sense of the character’s normal attire, or when the character dresses differently than they usually do, such as during a special occasion.

DON’T: describe every single outfit the character wears unless those outfits are relevant to the action of the story in some way, such as a spy wearing disguises.

DO: establish a general sense of the character’s physique and appearance and remind reader of those characteristics occasionally.

DON’T: fixate on the character’s physical attributes in every description. Your reader can only tolerate so many descriptions of luscious buns and bugling muscles…

DO: choose a few traits of minor characters to give them dimension.

DON’T: go into too much detail about characters who aren’t that important.

Other Tips…

Choose a Focal Point

When describing a character’s appearance, choose a focal point and work up or down from there. For example, you may describe them from head to toe, or from toe to head. Try not to skip around. If you’re describing their face, start with their hair and work your way down to their mouth, or start at the mouth and work your way up to their hair. This doesn’t mean you have to describe every detail from head to toe, but whatever details you do choose, go in order.

Describing Race and Ethnicity

It’s fine to say that a character is Black, white, Latinx, Native American, First Nations, Middle Eastern, Asian (East Asian, South Asian… see below for more), or Pacific Islander. However, if you know where your character or their ancestors are from specifically (ie: China, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Lebanon), say that.Asia: East Asian (China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau), South Asian (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives), Southeast Asian (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Lester, Vietnam, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands)You can also describe skin color and tone, as well as other characteristics like eyes and hair, and that’s especially important if your character is of multi-racial or unknown racial origin, or if you’re writing fantasy where Earth races don’t exist. @writingwithcolor has wonderful guides on how to do this correctly.

If you describe the race and skin tone of the People of Color in your story, you should also describe the race and skin tone of the white characters in your story. Please avoid comparisons to food and beverage, and please don’t use “tan” to describe the skin of a Person of Color unless they are sporting a suntan. You can get creative just by using basic skin colors like brown and pink. For example, her skin was dark brown with a warm red undertone. Or, her skin was pale pink with a lemony undertone.

Describing Clothing

Just like with physical appearance, when describing clothing you want to choose a focal point and work up or down. Think about the garments they’re wearing (pants, shirt, coat) and accessories (hat, jewelry, shoes). Be sure to choose clothing that’s relevant to your character and era/setting. You can find out about appropriate clothing by Googling the time and place your story is set plus the word clothing:

“Clothing in Victorian England”“Clothing in 1960s New York”“9th century Viking clothing”

Be sure to avoid cheap Halloween costume sites/pictures as references and instead look for articles/guides to clothing or shops providing clothing for historical reenactments.

Things to consider:

- style (ie: swing dress, bell bottoms, blouse, etc.)

- collar/neckline (v-neck, scoop neck, peter pan collar, etc.)- sleeve style (sleeveless, spaghetti straps, cap sleeve, etc.)- dress length (cocktail dress, tea length, evening gown, etc.)- dress shape (A-line, mermaid, empire waist, sheath, etc.)

- shoes and shoe style (sneakers, boots, loafers, Mary Janes, etc.)

- accessories (jewelry, sunglasses, hats, scarves, bags, gloves, etc.)

- formal wear and accessories (tuxedo, vest, cummerbund, gloves, etc.)

- outerwear (sweaters, jackets, and coats)

- fabric (wool, polyester, chiffon, spandex, tweed, etc.)

Looking for Inspiration

There are many resources online for both historical and modern clothing. For historical clothing, you can look for web sites about the period or for blogs and shops dedicated to historical reenactment. For modern clothing, you can look at the web sites of your favorite brands or stores, or you can go to Google Image Search and type in a general descriptor, like, “short black party dress” and find one you like, then read the description for the material, cut, and other descriptive clues. You can also try general searches like, “Man in a business suit” or “woman in a cocktail gown” if you’re not quite sure where to start.ETA:

Oops! There were a few errors and typos that I’ve fixed. Updated 8/1/19

justawritingaid

Reality is Unrealistic: Coincidences, Conveniences, and Random Events in Fiction

During the last open cycle of the ask box, someone wanted to know if having their four main characters be only children was unrealistic. I thought about how to address that for a while, imagining the answer getting longer and longer as I explained all the potential iterations and reasons, but ultimately chose “It’s likely unrealistic” referring to the Only Child Syndrome trope and when it does and doesn’t cause problems (link embedded).

In reality, if I heard of four friends who were all only children then I’d think it a funny coincidence. In fiction, a group of friends that’s full only children is either a clear plot-related choice, a joke, or lazy writing. Reality is full of coincidences, weird conveniences, and other oddities that when replicated in fiction often come across as poor writing. Why? Because the reader knows that the story was constructed by another person who had control over everything. The conveniences of real life become lazy writing, the coincidences a lack of creativity, the random events forced storytelling– the same things that someone would accept in reality become unrealistic in a story.

Typically, the “reality” that causes issues is the kind that takes away necessary tension or conflict from the plot, makes the story seem too linear, or fails to feel like it naturally falls into place.

Those things typically show up in the form of:

Conveniences

A convenience that diffuses tension or stops the character from having to solve conflict themselves is usually a bad one. This is especially true for anything plot-related or a major part of the story.

Little conveniences are often fine. Things like a character easily finding their keys after they misplaced them the night before, running into someone they meant to talk to (usually if the paths could naturally cross), badly stubbing a toe and not breaking it, etc. Little conveniences work in stories when they help make the character more human or the setting more natural. However, it’s possible to overdo that by putting too much focus on all those little things that seem to just fall into place. A writer is often better off not frequently framing little conveniences as conveniences and rather just letting the story move on with them being implied. The character that didn’t break their toe doesn’t need an explanation of how lucky they are– drawing attention to conveniences makes the audience less likely to accept them.

So, how do you handle them?

Balance conveniences with problems. Maybe the door to that office was left unlocked… but the drawer still needs a key. Too many little obstacles can distract from the point of scenes but if everything is too easy then it’s just boring. Sometimes finding the balance involves playing around with a scene.

Natural vs plot-related convenience. Conveniently finding lost keys with minimal effort is more acceptable when it doesn’t affect the plot. There was no promise of tension so the reader isn’t let down when it isn’t there. Intelligent characters, when not handled well, can make their stories seem convenient because they can use the setting and events so effectively that it seems like everything was perfectly in place. Make sure that the plot and obstacles provide enough of a struggle for the protagonist (and/or other characters).

Coincidences

As said for conveniences, the coincidences that make things too easy for the characters are typically harming a story, however small (especially) non-plot based ones are fine.

Bigger coincidences are best used for a single initial point of setup where the result, rather than the coincidence itself, is the focus. Something like three friends all unknowingly attending the same concert that sets off the plot. When working with a coincidental starting point, it helps to have realistic background as to how it could have happened. You wouldn’t need to explain how every character got there and how they all found each other, but it does have to be believable that they all would have shown up without telling the others.

Coincidences are going to pop up in stories from time to time, with or without writer’s intent. So, how do you handle them?

Keep them (relatively) negative. If a coincidence causes tension and conflict, then the fact that it’s a coincidence is more easily forgiven because the result is interesting and the characters don’t look like author’s pets. Because it’s easy to go too far, the best coincidences to use are the ones that are easily relatable. Stuff like going to work early to avoid meeting someone in the elevator… only to find out they also got there early. “Bad luck” type of coincidences tend to work well.

Falsify them. Frame an event as a coincidence, only for it to be learned later that someone was pulling the strings all along or the event makes sense with additional info. Just keep in mind that there’s still a period of time where the reader just sees the plain coincidence at surface level, so it still needs to be done well or you risk disappointing the reader. Even temporarily, it’s not beneficial.

Random Events

Things just happen sometimes. However, occurrences are never truly random; they all have a chain of cause and effect. It just so happens that the specific point at which they interact with the story looks random because the cause-effect chain wasn’t seen. Anything can happen is a story, but it’s the writer’s prerogative to make sure that even “random” things make sense to include.

So, how do you handle them?

Foreshadowing. Let nothing be completely unpredictable and drop hints that something big is going to happen. It’s better to hear “I should have seen that coming” rather than “I never would have seen that coming”.

Cause-effect chains. What can seem like a random event was actually set up much earlier and the effects are felt at a later time. The key to this is that the reader needs to be able to look back at the setup and understand the causality, similar to a plot twist.

Pay attention to story context. The randomness of events is usually dictated by what can be reasonably expected to happen. Genre can be a big factor– a car suddenly veering off the street to hit the protagonist is a lot more random in a romance story than an action story. Some plots naturally touch on certain types of occurrences more than others.

A reader will believe the impossible but the improbable will be held under scrutiny.

Give someone a story about magic or time travel and they’ll likely follow along, but give them a story full of improbabilities and they’ll start thinking about it. If you ever find yourself wondering if something is too convenient, coincidental, or random, then your gut is likely warning you to evaluate your work.

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Thinking of asking a question? Please read the Rules and Considerations to make sure I’m the right resource, and check the Tag List to see if your question has already been asked. Also taking donations via Venmo Username: JustAWritingAid

thewritershandbook

By Janice Hardy. @Janice_Hardy This week's Refresher Friday takes an updated look at writing person vs. society conflicts.

numinous-queer

Japanese tea bag maker Ocean-Teabag has been making waves by creating little parcels of aroma in the shape of marine animals. Luckily for us, their wide range of tea bags are available at online Japanese novelty retailer Village Vanguard, maker of such fine products as Space Tea and cat-shaped kitchen utensils.

Ocean-Teabag’s earliest designs included beautiful dolphin tea bags filled with blue mallow tea leaves. Steeping them turns your otherwise normal pot of water into a tranquil ocean. Proving to be a hit among tea lovers, Ocean-Teabag expanded their repertoire to many other sea creatures including the sea turtle (butterfly pea jasmine tea)…

the distinctive ocean sunfish (Japanese hojicha — roasted green tea)…

the graceful manta ray (tropical mango tea)…

and even a blood-thirsty shark (blended herb tea).

The newest addition to their robust series of marine creatures is a tea bag shaped like an innocuous sea cucumber. This little parcel is filled with jasmine tea, as well as a smidgen of sea cucumber powder to lend some authenticity. Ocean-Teabag warns that some people who have a sensitive tongue may find it tasting a little fishy.

The company also crafted a deep sea series that will satisfy even the most adventurous of tea drinkers out there. A few such examples are the anglerfish (earl grey tea)…

the creepy giant isopod (Eastern Beauty oolong tea)…

the horseshoe crab (white apricot tea)…

…and lastly the king of them all, the enormous giant oarfish. ( Delicious Assam tea of epic proportions! ) Just like its namesake, it measures a whopping 19 centimeters (7.5 inches). Drinking tea becomes an art when half of your tea bag hangs out of your cup.

While the notion of turning your cup of tea into fish-inhabiting waters is not new, these tea bags will hopefully conjure up images of gentle ocean waves in your mind.

WHERE TO FIND THE TEA

writeroftheprompts

A seemingly ordinary family in a seemingly ordinary suburb, but as the story goes on each member gets progressively more…unsettling to the reader.

Diverse and interesting characters are key to a memorable story. Use these points as a base for your character and throw them into any plot you want.

thewritershandbook

Creating a Chosen One as your protagonist can come with a price. While a Chosen One is no better or worse than any other type of protagonist

septembercfawkes

Considering the Irrationality of Your Characters

In honor of The Hunger Games movies finishing up this last year, I re-read the trilogy (again), and realized (again) that when it comes to Katniss Everdeen, Suzanne Collins doesn’t forget to consider Katniss’s irrational side.

Often when we deal with characters, we spend a lot of time building their rational side. We look at their rational motives and try to make sure they are thinking logically for the story line. I know I have spent hours trying to brainstorm and pin down the logical thoughts in some of my characters’ heads. But considering how your character can be irrational can provide plenty of ideas for you to play with.

Throughout the series, Collins lets us in on Katniss’s irrational thoughts and feelings. Katniss sometimes even realizes they are irrational herself. As vital as logical thoughts and feelings are, sometimes it’s the irrational that can kick our story up a notch and escalate the suspense.

One of the examples that leapse to mind is in the first book, The Hunger Games, when Katniss first gets into the arena. Haymitch specifically tells her not to run to the cornucopia, but when Katniss sees the bow and arrows, she’s extremely tempted to go for them. Peeta sees this and shakes his head at her, which leads Katniss to hesitate. She misses her chance to get the bow and arrows and is angry at Peeta.

We get how she’s angry at Peeta, but from a strictly logical point of view, it’s irrational. Peeta was just trying to discourage Katniss, in order to keep her alive. Katniss wasn’t supposed to go for the bow anyway. And Katniss is mad at him?

That’s a simple example, but there are plenty of others. Sometimes it’s Katniss’s irrational emotions and decisions (especially coupled with her impulsiveness and borderline hysteria) that really amplify the tension in the story. It keeps the story and Katniss interesting. And at least for me, it make Katniss feel more real.

Now a bit of warning, usually (not always) the reader needs to understand where the irrationality is coming from, on some level. If it’s out of the blue and out of character, this can hurt rather than help your scene. Katniss being mad at Peeta might not be the most logical thing, but we understand her on a human level. She’s really upset about not getting the bow, and the secondary emotion–anger–is being directed at him.

Like in my post about the emotional range of your character, how irrational your character is and in what why he is, depends on his personality. Katniss tends to be very angry or in breakdown mode when she becomes irrational. Other people get irrational when they are extremely happy (irrationally optimistic, for example) or when they are jealous. Some characters are irrational more often than others.

Powerful emotions are a great path to irrational behavior, but flawed reasoning can lead your character there as well.

So don’t forget to consider irrationality in your story.

quotexcerpts

“They may not have loved you, but they did change you. They taught you. They grew you.”

— Bianca Sparacino

blackthornrook

my dream is to write a story that people like so much that they do fanart of it

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Me when I finally figured out that the cure to Writer’s Block is just to sit down and write:

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Tips for people who like to write by hand

So you’re an old timey writer who enjoys the feeling of paper as you breathe life into a story? Or, like me, you can’t use your phone at school and just wants to get some writing done while math class bores the others?

Well, me too and I’ve come to your aid! I’ve done some pretty stupid things that costed me hours and hours of searching for lost scenes and struggling to find ideas I knew I’d written down so you don’t have to!

Find the right notebook for you

By experience, notebooks take a long time to be filled. In good nanowrimo times, I take from 6 to 8 months to finish one. So you’ll be stuck with this guy for a long time. Make sure to pick one that you like and is right for your needs. I, for example, prefer spiral notebooks. You can rip out pages if you need to (if you mess it up, if someone asks you for one, if you just need a page to write down a grocery list or something, etc) and you can put a pen on the spiral. I also like having a pocket to put pieces of ideas I have.

Some spooky stories about having the wrong notebook:

I got stuck with a brochure old planner for two years. My mom didn’t use it in the year it was meant for, so I thought oh, it’s free real estate. As it turns out, it had really small space between the lines, so the pages would take forever to fill, it had all those day and hour numbers and the paper was really thin. It was terrible and it made writing terrible. It would have been a thousand times better if I just spent a few bucks on a regular notebook.

More recently, I started using just the kind of notebook I like, a spiral notebook with a pocket. But I bought it a couple of years ago at a fandom event I attended and the cover was a personalized Divergent cover. At the time, I thought if was pretty cool and everyone would know the reference. But now it has aged so very poorly. The cover has blood all over it and it says “Faction Before Blood”. So now I’m scared to pull it out to write at uni and people will think I’m in a gang or something.

Number your pages

I know, it sounds like a lot of work. But you can get a notebook with pages already numbered, number it yourself or do it like I do and number it every 10 pages (just because it’s easier). If you don’t feel like doing all of this repetitive work, date your writing. It’s cool to see how much you progressed, how long you have been writing this project, when you had this idea, etc. One thing doesn’t have to exclude the other, but both methods serve the same purpose.

And this purpose is to help you get an idea of how much you write (and feel good about your progress) and to help you organize yourself on all you’ve been writing. Which takes us to the next tip.

Make the first page an index

Not only it will take the pressure off the first page, it will also help you so you don’t keep losing the awesome stuff you’re writing and forgetting it exists. Everytime you start a new scene or change projects, go to the index and write down the page or the date you started this new section. Since I number every ten pages, I find the first page with a number on it and start counting forward or back to the new page. But you can do it in any way that suits you.

Make a random idea page

It doesn’t have to be the second page (it usually isn’t for me), but it’s good to have one. Sometimes, in the middle of writing, you have that great idea for something you need to change on what you’ve already got, or you got a completely new insight. It’s good to have your idea page somewhere close you can just flip to, write it down and get right back to writing. And don’t go easy on that page! Write it diagonally, vertically, draw on it, anything. It’s just there to take out those ideas so you can take a look at it another time and not mess the flow you’re in right now.

Keep your enemies close. And your pen even closer!

You know your favorite bic friend? It has a secret weapon just for you to use. That little flap of the cap? Use it to keep your pen always close. I normally put it on the spiral of my notebook. But if you have a brochure, you can put it on the cover. Sometimes it damages it a bit, but it’s a good trade for having it always ready for action. If you use moleskine, I saw that they normally have designated pen places. If they don’t, I have a tip for it just under this one!

Take your time to find which kind of pen is your weapon of choice. Personally, I think nothing beats a black ballpoint pen. I know some people like fineliners for writing, but they make the other side of the paper all gross looking and I like to keep it clean. Plus, I write really small and fineliners often bleed in my handwriting. I took my time searching for my favorite brand and I settled on Molin ballpoint pens.

I would recommend buying your favorite pens in bulk. Nothing is worse than pen hunting around when you have an urgent idea. I bought 50 pens for super cheap and I stack them EVERYWHERE. In all my bags, in my sketchbooks, in my bullet journal, in my writing notebook, in my drawers, anywhere I think it will be easy to find one when I need it ( also giving some to my friends who keep stealing my pens).

Crafting the perfect notebook

You don’t have to be a crafter to modify your notebook to better suit you! Find a ribbon anywhere in the house. Cut it to be a little longer than the book. Tape that bad boy to the inside of the back cover and everytime you stop writing, put that ribbon on the page you stopped. This helps you not to get lost in your previous writing and get right back to business when you resume.

Also, if you really like that moleskine vibe but don’t have the cash, just get a regular clothing elastic, make cut it just the size of the notebook and glue both ends to the inner part of the back cover. There you go! Now you can close it (and keep it closed).

If you like post-its, you can take half of the block (or however many sheets you cant put in there and still close the notebook comfortably) and glue it to the inside part of the cover of your notebook so it will always be conveniently available for you.

If your notebook doesn’t have a place to put your pen on and you really don’t want to mess up the cover, you take a small elastic (smaller than the pen) and tape (or preferably glue it) it to the back part of the notebook with both ends inside. There! Ready for the trip! Speaking of which…

Always carry your notebook with you

You never know when inspiration is going to strike. In class. At the bank. In a mall. Whenever you have a little time, you can write something. Or just take a look at what you’ve done and feel good about it.

Not in the mood for writing? Edit. Reread what you’ve done and start finding what you want to change once you type it in. When doing this, don’t be scared to cross out entire sentences and rewriting them on top. If it starts getting too messy, go to a blank page and rewrite the scene and you think it should have been done the first time. It seems counter-intuitive in a copy+paste kind of age, but I assure you it is worth it.

Typing your work

This is one of the biggest reasons I love writing in pen and paper. When you type, your first round of editing is done!

Don’t zone out when typing. As I said, typing is your first round of editing. It is important to keep aware of all of the things you might have done wrong when writing. Some people say writing it on paper and then typing it is a waste of time. I say it saves time and lives.

Keep it loose!

Just because you are writing in an actual physical book, it doesn’t mean you are writing a actual physical book. This is still your notebook and these are still your notes. So don’t be afraid to get messy. Write things out of order (seriously, it’s okay to not go chronological. i know it’s hard). Outline. Sketch. Tip-ex the whole thing. Get post-its on it. Take notes. Make genealogical trees. Draw maps.

If you’re feeling down or uninspired, try very basic writing exercises: write what you see, what you feel, something to try and make you laugh or something to make someone cry. It’s your place to express yourself. And once you got those creative juices flowing, happy writing :)

I hope you enjoyed my tips and please, feel free to reblog this with your own tips and tricks. I’d love to hear them! And follow me for some more writing content!

writerswritecompany

To Be Written

Source: Steven Ingels

bran-writes

Yikes

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Tips to finishing creative writings

Have one main piece and several smaller ones The story you are most eager to write and has some form of a developed plot should be your main story, but don’t limit yourself to only that piece. That’s when you abandon it. Instead, tell yourself, “I have a good idea for another story. Let me write 500-1000 words of it.” This allows you to put what’s in your mind on paper. You can also get a feel for it and see if it is really something you think you could write an entire story for. When you finish your main story, come back to it and make that your new main if you still want to write it.

Use your desire to write another story to finish the one you’re working on Continuing with the point from above, if you are still extremely excited about your small work, use that enthusiasm to fuel your current story. Tell yourself, “I need to finish X story before I can write Y story.” You will write so much more and so much faster than you ever planned. You can also be proud that you finished something you originally planned to abandon.

Love your characters This may seem obvious, but writing is hard if you don’t even know or like your characters. Draw your characters together. Give them funky clothes or send them abroad. Even make an AU of your story in your head. If you can’t draw, find an avatar creator and give your characters a tangible image. The more you love your characters and give them personalities, the more eager you will be to write about those characters.

Take a break Be kind to yourself. You’re only human. If life is stressful and writing is more of a chore than it is fun, take a break. When you have more free time and are excited to write again, sit down, grab a pen, and find yourself happily immersed in a world you haven’t visited in a while. Good luck with your stories and be kind to yourself <3

ellswriting

5 Ways to Get Back Motivation for Writing After School Drained It Out of Ya

Hi there. If this applies to you, 1) lmao same, and 2) it’s okay, we got this. Don’t lose too much hope. It happens to the best of us. School is so pressuring and stressful that it can often get rid of our creative streak and make us kinda unhappy. It’s sad because this isn’t the purpose of schools, but it’s the way things have become with marketization and all that other crap that makes school just that little bit harder. I found it hard to write again for years. Even when I had a creative writing question in English GCSE, I just found it almost impossible to think of ideas. This is coming from somebody who was once told I should write a novel in primary school. How do just a few years do so much damage? Here are the things I’m trying to do in order to get back my creative streak.

1) Post on a Tumblr account.

Silly, I know. But I’ve never actually expressed myself online. Besides the occasional Wattpad fanfiction, I suppose. This may not be the kind of writing I had in mind, but there are so many amazing people here to be inspired by. There are writing prompts everywhere on this site! Even writing a post like this can help stimulate your ideas. It’s fun, what can I say?

2) Use your dreams as inspiration.

I know it is typical of most of us to forget our dreams, including me most of the time. But occasionally, there is the odd dream that stays in my head. I take note of it, and though it makes little sense, I can sometimes find a way to twist it into a story. Though I haven’t fully begun to develop these ideas yet, our dreams are from our subconscious and may easily link to any creative ideas that you were already considering, and give you an extra push. After all, J.K. Rowling dreamed Harry Potter, right?

3) READ.

This may be an option that NOBODY wants to do. However, if you want to write, you need to read. Especially if you’re an English student who SHOULD BE READING ANYWAY *cough*. You’re only going to see what good writing is like by reading it. You’re only going to be inspired by good literature, by READING IT. It’s probably the most important step, but also the most missed out. Don’t forget about it, whatever you do.

4) Remember, you don’t have to write chronologically.

I recently watched a Vanity Fair video of a screenwriter trying to write a scene in just 7 minutes: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoM-tQOOcPw) In this video, you will see she actually begins with the action, without knowing all the full details, and fills in the blanks after. This inspired me to begin writing again, and hopefully, it does for you too.

5) JUST! WRITE! SOMETHING!

It’s hard, but get doing something. Sometimes you literally have to force it out of yourself, even if it’s bad. Even professional writers have to kick themselves into it sometimes! Honestly, just get something in your notes, even if it makes no sense. If you can’t think of where to begin, plan. Genre? Character? Narrative arc? Flashbacks? Think about what you really want to achieve, and try your best to write it. It won’t be perfect first try, but just make sure you don’t trash it.

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