RaggedyAnne

| Fantasy/Thriller author | wannabe artist | I have no real credentials but that's okay

[hauntedraggedyanne]

—I’m a writer, artist, but mostly a clown

—I post my OCs that are in my series that will never be finished because I’m lazy

—I post writing advice to help build characters or whatever you need help with if you ask

—This is an entirely SFW blog

—I am going to keep posting until I’m famous in which case I will post more. Sorry not sorry

—They’re all little Dolls who don’t know they’re inanimate objects and think they’re all real people

—They mess around with magic and real world as they explore their various environments

—I have at least eight different series in like a connected universe kind of way. Can you tell this is my obsession

—If you’re somehow possessed to want to draw them, that’s great! I’d just like some kind of credit. Also my asks are open if you want to ask a question about them/the stories that go with them

—Not to seem rude or self righteous, but please don’t steal :)

—Again, I have no credentials other than I like to write

—I just like to post some things that I feel like would be fun to see more in fiction

—Use for all genres!

—By no means is this a ‘you have to use all of these in order to make your story interesting’ type of thing. Use all advice in moderation if it goes against your story/what fits in the context of your world!

—My asks are open if you have a request for ideas you’d like to see!

Enjoy your stay!

[hauntedraggedyanne]

other words for ‘said’ and what I picture every time I read them

I don’t think this is normal but oh well

Holler—old man telling kids to get off his lawn

Declare—the thing the character says is never that serious yet authors choose this word for some reason and I make it way more dramatic in my head

Corrected—‘erm actually’

Verbalized—‘erm actually’ but instead of the character it’s the author and it makes me mad

giggled—‘tee hee’ but in a really deep voice because that’s funnier

ogled—the largest eyes you’ve ever seen

Groan—either you’re in pain or in bed? I dont know why are these used for very different situations

Growl—9.9/10 times this is supposed to be sexy but it reminds me more of a dog seeing a squirrel down the street

moral of the story please use said. I just read a book where the main character ‘cajoled’ someone in regular speech for no reason and I felt the need to make this

[hauntedraggedyanne]

I’m not sure if this has already been done, but can you post “interesting weapon choices” for fantasy characters? I’m doing character concepts atm and would like some original weaponry aside from swords and bows & arrows!

I got you

Uncommon fantasy weapons and how tips to pick one on your own

—Hammers

the more comically oversized the better in my opinion

—Spears

technically not a sword

—Whips

add metal or spikes for extra flavor

—Halberds

just look them up they look very cool

—Crossbow

Can serve some similar functions to a bow and arrow, but they’re better at far range than a bow

—Poison darts

Pick your poison: quick death the moment the character shoots them or a slow agonizing lengthy death that makes the enemies so absorbed in their misery they don’t notice the protagonists sneaking past them. I have no idea what age demographic you’re going for so I gave two very different options

—Metal fists/brass knuckles

Yes it’s only useful in hand to hand combat but they DO have a use I promise

—Boomerang

They’re fun.

Making/finding your own weapons

—Lots of different cultures and time periods have numerous weapons. We all unite under a desire to find new ways to kill people. Whether you’re making your own fantasy race or basing it off of real world countries or locations, your best start is to zone in on any real world culture and trust me you will find whatever you’re looking for.

—There are plenty of random generators online as well! Some of them are AI, but trust me there’s plenty that aren’t. Check Perchance they tend to have lots of generators

—Take your characters personality into it as well. A quiet character might do great with daggers (I didn’t put them on this list because I see them a lot) while a loud, wild character can be easily paired with war hammers or any larger weapon. Think of the role the character plays and what you want their fighting style to represent about them.

—If you’re making your own (usually magic) weapons, give them one use and one use only. At first a book that summons vines might seem to only have one use, but you can do a lot more creative stuff with it than an ambiguous ‘wand that does everything’.

let me know what you end up going with! Hope this helped!

[hauntedraggedyanne]

How to add backstories

I can’t be the only one to think it’s difficult

featuring some extra questions you can ask yourself and the characters

—Flashbacks! As long as you can find an event that is at least somewhat similar to the event that we are ‘flashing back’ to, it will be a good enough transition until you’re on a later draft and can smooth it out with similar themes and character development. As long as it’s not like a coffee shop and the MC goes ‘this reminds me of how my parents died’ it’s a good start. Unless the parents died in a coffee shop I guess

—Connect certain objects to specific emotions usually not associated with them. Like, if the MC is filled with guilt or rage when looking at a teddy bear, it clues the reader into figuring some things out for themselves BEFORE they talk about their reasoning.

—Based on the last point, connecting any the senses to emotions not usually associated with the thing can be very effective. Like, no one becomes depressed over the smell of cinnamon buns in the oven, except for the character that is! It’s not only memorable but also

—The best way to show that a character isn’t interested in talking about their past is the other characters finding out that they keep memorabilia from a life before them. Picture this: friend of character A comes over and accidentally opens a drawer filled of old certificates congratulating A on winning numerous competitions, only for A to return and push the friend away. Now there’s questions. Will the secrets put a strain on their relationship?

—Compare the character’s current friends to the friends they had before meeting the main cast. Did they hang out with the wrong crowd? What made them switch to the current group?

—If you want to show culture in a subtle way, ask real people! Or Reddit, that works too. For example, if you’re making a character with a certain religious belief, figure out how they really set up for holidays, how they practice their religion at home, and adjust depending on how connected to their faith they are. Is it different than the people in the area? —Give all the characters a core childhood memory they remember fondly. It could be something as simple as going to preschool. What happens when a poorer character realizes they missed out and they never got to experience the same thing? Do they pretend to fit in, only to accidentally out themselves by remembering something not typically associated with preschool? Or do they flat out say that they didn’t go?

[hauntedraggedyanne]

My resolution was to draw more and I was inspired by @100shortstoriesby2026 and I thought why not plagiarize her and do the same thing but with drawings

This is my first one

[hauntedraggedyanne]

Non-fatal injuries for characters

Bring the pain

I’d like to preface by saying I am not a doctor do not take anything seriously. This is referring to FICTIONAL CHARACTERS ONLY.

LEAST serious (you can shrug it off after a bit)

—Cuts

—scrapes

—Tooth knocked out

—Jammed fingers (yeah this might depend but usually it’s not that bad)

—Bruising

—Bites (assuming the animal is non poisonous)

See a doctor but you should be good

—Broken/fractured

—Hard punches to vulnerable areas (not including head, ex: anywhere that has been injured before, stomach, etc)

—A (failed) attempt at any kind of bodily harm (attempted strangulation, poisoning, stabbing)

—Slight burns

—Tissue injuries

GET THE HOSPITAL ON THE PHONE GO GO GOOOOO

—Whiplash

—Deep stabbings

—Any kind of head damage

—Electric or chemical burns (or any kind of 3rd degree burns)

If you’re looking for a particular injury, be sure to do your own research and learn all of the different symptoms that may come with it.

I am not a doctor

[hauntedraggedyanne]

easy lore drops

just put these little things in to get the ball rolling and get the MC to ask questions without it being super contrived and forced

—Photos not of people but of specific places. The more weird and nonsensical they seem the better. I’m talking a photo of a back of a Wendy’s sitting next to the beloved family photos.

—Awards hanging on the wall for competitions that don’t make any sense but are so wildly specific that they almost don’t need to ask questions. Like the 2nd place winner for the best eggshell decorator.

—Asking about how their day was, only for the MC not to accept ‘fine’ or ‘good’ and keep pushing them only to get trauma dumped (doesn’t have to be trauma but you get the idea)

—Character dropping/losing something only for the MC to pick it up for them and bring it to them, and whether or not they ask about what they left is up to you, but it makes them start to think a bit more about them.

—Hyper specific reasons for why something is their ‘favorite’. Ex: winter is their favorite season because how their closest family member used to own a Christmas tree farm before they DIED or something.

MC/Protagonist subtle lore drops

—Small connections between tasks given to them now and one similar to their backstory

—Because it’s their POV, you really can go into detail about how their feel about their past. Does it only come up when they’re overwhelmed and scared, or when they’re at the most joyous? Who am I kidding I know it’s the first option i know my fellow authors. I’m no better

—Flashbacks, but memories inter spliced between current events and past events. Is history repeating itself or is it all in their head?

[hauntedraggedyanne]

Describing attractiveness

I speak from personal experience

—Most simple advice is finding an actor or actress to describe them off of. However, if you’re a chronic procrastinator (like me), you won’t get any writing done because now you NEED to find actors for EVERY character. So if you know how you’d be with finding actors, I suggest continuing on with more writing-based advice.

—THEY. NEED. TO. STAND. OUT. even if every single character is a model you’ve got to have some things that make them identifiable and noticeable by the main character.

—Silhouettes are important for body shapes. If you’re struggling to describe their body, just start with the basic shapes and go from there

—Even if their hairstyle is the most ugly 2 dollar bowl cut in the world, make it seem so much nicer and flow-y compared to how the MC describes other people’s hair. —This tip can go with personal style as well, because if the MC thinks it is attractive, they're going to have something to say about it.

—A lot of it depends on how you describe the physical appearances of other characters. If you want the attractive character to really stand out, make them seem extraordinary.

—If you’re writing a love interest, how do they fit in with the MC’s type? Are they a text book crush that looks the exact same as the three before them? Or are they a complete 180 that takes them aback?

—Voice definitely matters. Unless your MC is willing to go deaf to ignore how their love interest sounds (which brings up a lot more questions), voice is a fun thing to describe to help visualize the character better.

this is where I’d put a photo of myself to give an example

[hauntedraggedyanne]

Really trying to get back into drawing 😭

So anxiety fish was the answer

[hauntedraggedyanne]

How to make settings seem life-like

Describing the world around the characters needs to connect a little bit to our world in whatever small way so that the readers can better imagine it better.

—Comparing height to the height of something in real life. Like trees as tall as skyscrapers, imps the size of small dogs, or elves the height of two grown men combined.

—If your world has no connection to our world (sci-fi writers and maybe fantasy. Maybe) then you can still use the method above. However, you might not be able to use direct objects from our world, but concepts or vague descriptions aren’t off the table. Trees that reach to the heavens or creatures barely tall enough to reach the knees, you’ll have to be a bit more creative but it’s better than saying ‘the orc was tall’.

—Comparing textures is important, but more important for worlds NOT AT ALL connected to ours. Creativity is key, because it’s a small but immersive detail that can connect readers to your world better.

-Colors! Whether you have to go on a color pallet site and go from there, describing the colors AS SPECIFICALLY AS POSSIBLE is important. —For the love of god don’t say “it was red”. There are so many colors out there you can go into so much detail, or you can say that it was the “red of freshly spilled blood” or “as ripe and colorful as a fresh strawberry” or something.

—Describe the atmosphere. Saying it was as tense and uncomfortable as a controversial execution or as joyous as a festival is great for setting the mood.

—Time of day is good for mood too. The chill and mysteriousness of the night brings a different mood than the cheery heat of the day.

[badtutmind-deactivated20230806]

Reblog if you want Asks/Messages from your followers in your inbox

[hauntedraggedyanne]

Creepy appearance details

For all the little weird looking guys

this is my biggest “you gotta trust me on this one guys” out of all of my advice. You just gotta think for a second how weird these things would be if you see them IRL.

—Out of place teeth. Just teeth wherever they’re not supposed to be, or if you’re working with a human, make the teeth slightly out of place as the MC thinks of how they look shifted or changed in some way compared to normal teeth

—No lips. I don’t mean no mouth, I mean no lips. Just think about it it’s pretty weird

—Just go in detail describing veins and how thin the skin is

—Hollow cheeks

—Forget eye bags, I’m talking eye suitcases. Just make the dark circles last seemingly forever and fade into the skin itself

—Slightly too long limbs. You can go all out with massive arms that drag against the floor, but having the character second guess themselves as they’re always unnerved when looking at them because they could appear normal is an interesting concept

—No nails

—Feet that are always twisted in the wrong direction (like if the character is facing forward their feet are stuck 180 degrees away from where they should be)

—Just make all of the limbs stuck in the wrong direction

—Skin so dry that it actually cracks. Like a broken glass plate (I know that’s not how that works IRL)

—No ears. Maybe they just have holes in the side of their head to replace them but who knows

Tell me if any of these are actually weird or not

[hauntedraggedyanne]

Creepy things to add to settings

Just to make things a bit more interesting

—Water stains from flooding

—Withered down machinery resulting from weather

—Torn fabric caught on spikes

—Attempting to find a hiding spot, only to turn around and find the skeleton of the last person who tried to hide there

—Expecting to see spiders and other bugs, only for them all to scurry away as a new presence enters the room

—Fog slithering in through holes in the walls or open windows

—Stepping on the dead, crunchy leaves of plants that started growing inside

—The characters knowing the floorboards will creak, so they try really hard to keep quiet as they travel. Make them all freeze when they hear something else coming at them and decide if they should stand still to keep from attracting any more attention or if they run for their lives

—The wallpaper and paintings on the wall torn off and scattered against the floor, leaving the walls barren and lifeless

it’s all about how you describe it! Find things that get under people’s skin (bugs, snakes, certain sounds, etc) and connect them to whatever you’re trying to make creepy

[hauntedraggedyanne]

Describing clothes and style

FASHION!

—How wrinkled they look after wearing something that’s been in a drawer for 1-3 years and you remember you have it now

—Stains, cuts, missing chunks of fabric—what state are the clothes in?

—Accessories! Everything from fancy jewelry to a necklace made of teeth can tell a lot about what their status might be, or if they’re just absolutely insane

—What color pallet do they try to stick to? Does it compliment their features well, or is that something they learn along with their character development?

—Try to keep their style consistent throughout the story (unless that’s a point that changes throughout) so that you’re not going into detail about their clothes every single time they change

—Find a brand that they would shop from. Could be anything from Claire’s to Hot Topic, but at least now you have some ideas when you see real world clothes

—Compare them to aesthetics (cottagecore, academia, etc), but you can’t use the aesthetic name in your description

[hauntedraggedyanne]

Uncommon villain motivations

Just have some fun with them

—Protection of a loved one, because the hero’s actively pursuing something that would kill the loved one

—They represent a part of nature (illness, natural disasters, fungi, etc)

—They’re in pursuit of knowledge

—They don’t want to be forgotten. Easier to go down as a horrible person rather than a good person to them.

—Pursuit of something that can save themselves (ex: a cure to an illness)

—To make a statement about the current political/religious/community climate

—Forced to always do the exact opposite of the hero. They’re their shadow, and when the hero saves, the villain kills. You could make them a doppelgänger, or a literal dark reflection of the hero. (Okay I’m kinda biased I really like this one. If you’ve got any ideas for it please please let me know)

—They’re forced too, not by mind control or anything, but through their own will. Arguably that’s worse.

—To make change in whatever way they can

—They’re trying to rebuild whatever (or whoever) they lost

[hauntedraggedyanne]

Writing extreme emotions

Just some things to think about

How they cry

—This is extreme emotions, not a dainty tear down their face. Are they crying silent tears of rage as they pour down their face, eyes wide and unblinking? Or are they choking on every word as their voice cracks? Describe it in detail.

How they try to calm down

—They don’t have to STAY calm, but see if you could get them to THINK they’ve got their emotions under control. Are they with/thinking about a loved one? Or are they just trying to push the event out of their head as they try to regain their breath? Now, should someone walk in who SHOULDN’T, then by all means, have them just go back to whatever they were doing before, or even worse.

Body language

—How do they behave? Are they jumping around and cheering, or do they quietly shake their fist in rage as they stare through the other people? Depending on the character, one can mean a lot more than another. For example, a quiet, shy character getting worked up means a lot more to the audience because we get to see a new side to them

Breathing

—Obviously everyone breathes. But irregular breathing patterns (especially when they’re noticed by someone who’s not the MC) can tell a lot about what their reaction is. Are they losing their breath from laughing to the point where they begin to laugh and cry? Or is the world spinning around them as they begin to hyperventilate, going lightheaded and feeling overwhelmed

How they interact with the setting

—Are they throwing things, staring straight through all of the beautiful scenery, or are the bright colors blinding them? The more public and busy the location is, the less they may feel inclined to really act out, or maybe part of it is that they’re so emotional that they don’t care. Just try to keep the setting in mind for any dramatic, emotional scenes.

Other people’s reactions

—Consider how much the outburst is out-of-character when thinking about reactions. Do people run to console the anti-hero when they break down into tears, or do they stand there awkwardly not knowing what to do? Or, does this happen so often that others know exactly what to say and do, or are they so tired that they stand in the corner, defeated?

Remember to stay in character

—If you want this scene to stand out, you need to remember the characters themselves. Everybody gets emotional and breaks down, and when you can make it true to the character, you will make it real to the audience

[hauntedraggedyanne]

Internal conflict writing ideas

Not everything has to be fight scenes

—Losing something of emotional value and remembering its history and why it’s important to the character

—Reliving a traumatic event

—Running into an old friend who’s either completely changed since they’ve last seen each other or far too similar, leaving the character to wonder about how they’ve matured and grown compared to this other person

—Internally deciding if they should voice a fear or concern to the group, even if they might look silly or ridiculous doing so

—Friends vs family in terms of choosing who to follow and listen too

—Feeling unqualified to work on a project or be apart of the adventure

—Romantic feelings for someone they shouldn’t and dealing with how they should proceed internally. (THIS MEANS RIVALS OR FORBIDDEN ROMANCE. NOT ANYTHING ILLEGAL!!!)

—Thinking about mortality and death after being reminded of an late friend/family passing

—Being less talented at something years later when they used to be the best in that field

—Finding an old photo that carries much more emotional significance now than it did X years ago.