A writing advice blog for authors, by authors ✍️
Find me on TikTok and Insta: @hayatheauthor
WIP: The Traitor's Throne | YA fantasy 🪄 Published: Cremated Chains | Thriller
I am Haya, a teenage YA author. I wrote my first novel, Cremated Chains, when I was 15 and am currently querying my second book.
I am an active member of the Booktok and Bookstagram communities where I post engaging content about my writing journey and WIP The Traitor's Throne (@hayatheauthor) and the author of 'Quillology' where I pen writing advice blogs to help my fellow writers out.
I need to hold your hand and make you sit down when I say this but; NO HALF OF EUROPE AND ASIA IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE BOILING WHILE THE OTHER HALF DROWNS!! NO THE ICE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE MELTING!! NO THE COLD COUNTRIES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE 'PLEASANTLY SURPRISING' SUMMERS NOW!!
How to Choose the Right Time Period for Your Story (Europe Edition)
Part 1 of a new series on picking the right historical setting for your book. I’m covering the last 1,000 years, one region at a time. Up first: Europe.
Picking a time period for your book isn't just about picking a costume. The era shapes what your characters can say, who they're allowed to be, what killed people, and what counted as normal. Here's a working guide to the last 1,000 years of European history, broken into ten shifts, so you can actually pick something that fits your story instead of just vibes-based medieval-adjacent.
Note: I cannot cover everything! This is a general guide to help with your research. Do NOT come at me in the comments about missing xyz period, person, incident. However, feel free to KINDLY mention such things for other readers.
Note 2: The images are NOT mine, I just got them off of Google. Yes ik some of them have countries that aren’t in Europe.
The High Middle Ages (1000–1300)
Life ran on land and God, mostly in that order. Feudalism structured everything, who owed labor to whom, who was protected and who wasn't. Most people never left the village they were born in, though towns, trade guilds, and the first universities were starting to change that.
What was actually happening: the Norman Conquest of England (1066), the Crusades (1096–1291), the Magna Carta (1215), and the start of Gothic cathedral construction.
People: William the Conqueror, who rewired the English aristocracy overnight. Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was queen of both France and England at different points and outlived most of the men who tried to control her.
Fashion: simple wool and linen tunics for most people, with nobility layering in furs and richer dyes by the 1200s just to make the class gap visible across a room.
Architecture: thick walls and rounded Romanesque arches early on, opening into pointed Gothic arches and stained glass by the late 1100s.
The Late Middle Ages & the Black Death (1300–1500)
This is the era that breaks people's assumptions about the Middle Ages being one long, static block. The Black Death (1347–1351) killed somewhere between a third and half of Europe's population, and that alone reshuffled labor, land ownership, and religious authority for the next century.
What was actually happening: the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), the Peasants' Revolt in England (1381), and the fall of Constantinople (1453).
People: Joan of Arc, a teenage peasant girl who ended up leading French troops. Geoffrey Chaucer, whose Canterbury Tales gives you an actual snapshot of how ordinary and not-so-ordinary people talked.
Fashion: survivors of the plague had more money to spend, oddly enough, so clothing got more elaborate. Pointed shoes, fitted bodices, elaborate headdresses.
Architecture: late Gothic, more ornate, more vertical, cathedrals competing with each other for height and detail.
The Renaissance (1400–1600)
Italy first, then spreading outward. This is the era people picture when they hear "Renaissance," and it earns it, art, science, and philosophy all got reexamined at once, mostly funded by wealthy families trying to outdo each other.
What was actually happening: the invention of the printing press (1440s), the fall of the Byzantine Empire feeding Greek scholars into Italy, and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation (1517).
People: Leonardo da Vinci, obviously. Elizabeth I, whose reign at the tail end of this period stabilized England and made the arts flourish under her.
Fashion: structured, symmetrical, and increasingly extravagant, ruffs, corsetry, and fabric as a status symbol.
Architecture: a return to classical symmetry and proportion, domes, columns, and deliberate balance after centuries of Gothic verticality.
The Age of Exploration & Early Modern Period (1500–1700)
Europe started looking outward, for better and much worse. Colonization, global trade routes, and religious wars all define this stretch.
What was actually happening: the Spanish Armada (1588), the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), and the rise of scientific method thinking that would eventually undercut the Church's authority on, well, everything.
People: Galileo Galilei, who got put on trial for saying the earth moves. William Shakespeare, writing through most of this period's political chaos without ever really commenting on it directly.
Fashion: lace collars, doublets, and increasingly stiff, structured silhouettes for the wealthy.
Architecture: Baroque starts creeping in toward the end, dramatic, ornamental, built to overwhelm rather than balance.
The Enlightenment & Baroque Era (1700s)
Reason became the new religion, at least among the people writing the books. This is the century that set up most of the ideas modern democracies still argue about.
What was actually happening: the American and French Revolutions (1775, 1789), the rise of salons and public intellectual life, and the increasing gap between Enlightenment ideals and how most people actually lived.
People: Voltaire, endlessly quotable and endlessly banned. Mozart, composing his first symphony at age eight and dying broke at 35.
Fashion: powdered wigs, panniers, and increasingly theatrical fashion among the aristocracy.
Architecture: Rococo softness giving way to Neoclassical restraint by the century's end, a direct visual reaction against the excess that came before it.
The Georgian & Victorian Era (1800s)
Industry changed everything. Cities exploded in size, and the gap between the factory floor and the drawing room became the defining tension of the century.
What was actually happening: the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), the Industrial Revolution accelerating through the mid-century, and the unification of both Germany and Italy by the 1870s.
People: Napoleon Bonaparte, who reshaped the map of Europe before losing it all. Queen Victoria, whose 63-year reign is basically synonymous with the era's aesthetic and moral tone.
Fashion: corsets, crinolines, and increasingly rigid mourning customs, especially after Victoria spent decades in black following Albert's death.
Architecture: Gothic Revival and heavy Victorian ornamentation, plus the sudden appearance of iron and glass in structures like train stations and exhibition halls.
The Edwardian Era & WWI (1900–1918)
A short, glittering peace right before the century's first real gut punch. The wealth and elegance of this era gets remembered more than the tension quietly building underneath it.
What was actually happening: the sinking of the Titanic (1912), the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914), and the trench warfare that followed for four brutal years.
People: Marie Curie, doing groundbreaking radioactivity research while literally treating wounded soldiers with mobile X-ray units during the war. Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination is the textbook example of one event triggering a chain reaction nobody could stop.
Fashion: structured Edwardian silhouettes early on, loosening dramatically by the war's end as women took over factory work in clothes that could actually move
Architecture: Art Nouveau's flowing, organic lines dominate right up until the war halts most construction outright.
The Interwar Period & WWII (1918–1945)
Recovery, excess, collapse, repeat. This period swings harder and faster than almost any other on this list.
What was actually happening: the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression (1929), the rise of fascism, and then World War II itself (1939–1945).
People: Winston Churchill, delivering speeches that are still quoted specifically because of how they were written, not just what they said. Coco Chanel, who redesigned what women were even allowed to wear.
Fashion: flapper dresses and dropped waists in the twenties, sharper, more austere silhouettes by the war years when fabric itself was rationed.
Architecture: Art Deco glamour in the twenties, giving way to stark, functional Modernism as resources tightened.
The Cold War Era (1945–1991)
Rebuilding under the constant threat of a war that never technically happened. Europe split down the middle, literally, for most of this period.
What was actually happening: the construction of the Berlin Wall (1961), the widespread rebuilding of bombed cities, and cultural explosions like the rise of British rock music in the 1960s.
People: Margaret Thatcher, whose policies are still argued about today. John Lennon, part of a cultural wave that made Britain, briefly, the center of the music world.
Fashion: flapper dresses and dropped waists in the twenties, sharper, more austere silhouettes by the war years when fabric itself was rationed.
Architecture: Brutalism, blunt, concrete, and controversial then and now, alongside rapid postwar housing construction.
Contemporary Europe (1991–Present)
The fall of the Soviet Union reshaped the map again, and everything since has been shaped by the EU, the internet, and a generation that grew up online.
What was actually happening: the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and Soviet collapse (1991), the formation of the EU (1993), and the rise of digital culture reshaping everything from politics to fashion.
Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?
Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!
hello haya!♡ Ive just been through your master list, and I suppose it's safe to say that I've checked before asking you!
I am writing a fmc who has grown up amongst drug dealers, whose parents mostly shield her from that side of world, but she still knows what's happening.
I was wondering if all the interactions between the parents and other sketchy buyers are correct. I'm researching on how to get the ambience and what drug dealers 'do' right, but haven't found any good sources so far.
I'd love your help! Till fhen, imma keep researching:) take care!!!
Hi! For something like this, I'd actually lean less on trying to nail the specific mechanics of a deal and more on the atmosphere and psychology around it, that's usually what makes a scene feel real anyway.
Things like the contrast between how careful and normal her parents act around her versus how tense or clipped their body language gets around certain visitors. Buyers who seem sketchy often read that way through small behavioral tells rather than anything explicit, avoiding eye contact, glancing at exits, speaking in short, guarded sentences, an unwillingness to sit still, code words.
For research, I'd steer away from anything that reads like a how-to and opt for journalism, court documents, or documentaries about the drug trade instead, they'll give you the ambience and human details (fear, distrust, the constant low-grade paranoia, what actually happens when a deal goes right/wrong).
And just note: a majority of your readers probably have not been in a similar situation and have nothing to compare how 'realistic' your story is, so focus on: what the scene needs to accomplish, what your characters are supposed to feel, and why this scene is important for the story. That itself will help you figure out what you need to write.
STOP LETTING AI ROB YOU OF EVERYTHING THAT MADE YOU COOL AND INTERESTING AND MADE LIFE WORTH LIVING
I would rather you spend 1 week on that essay, 1 month on that drawing, 1 year on that chapter than resort to AI slop that makes you hate that hobby you once loved
The global west expects us to not think of them as hypocrites when they worship Isa A.S. (Christ) while bombing his birthland. When they were so LOUD about Nigerian Christians but won't even say anything about Christians in Lebanon being bombed to oblivion every day. When they are so outraged over women wearing the hijab but were silent during Kashf-e hijab (and to this day use images from it to preach how 'modern' Iran once was). When they 'cared' about Afghan women until it was convenient for them but then abandoned us under a government your people funded and created -- only thinking of us when it benefits your rhetoric.
You come to our countries claiming it is for our benefit. You murder our people. You ruin our lands. You defile our women and children. You steal our resources. You create a next generation of men who, influenced by your actions, come to be exactly like your soldiers if not worse. Then you FLEE and abandon the innocents who survived your war, left under the control of maladjusted, dysregulated, corrupt men. And you sit in your safe little homes with your living family and everyday comforts, turn on the news, and have the audacity to call our men the barbaric oppressors.
Quick content note: this one's about writing torture scenes for fiction, so it gets into wounds and pain in some detail. Skip it if that's not your thing today.
Want a low effort torture scene that still actually hurts? Here are some idea:
1. Salt in the Wound: The phrase exists for a reason. Salt in an open wound is agonizing, and it's sitting in every kitchen on earth. No special equipment, no expertise, just cruelty.
2. Chili Powder or Ground Spice in the Wound: Same idea, worse.
3. A Cut Placed Just Under the Eye: This one's nasty because it compounds itself. Every time your character cries, and they probably will, the tears run straight into the cut and burn all over again. The pain becomes inescapable from their own body.
4. Reopening a Wound Right as It Starts to Heal: Biologically it's called disturbing the granulation tissue, the fragile new tissue that forms while a wound heals. Mess with it before it's ready and you get that raw, wet, mushy mess that hurts every single time something touches it.
5. Sleep Deprivation: No blood necessary. Deprive someone of sleep long enough and they start hallucinating, losing track of time, and falling apart mentally before the body even gets touched.
6. A Single Repeated Sound: More psychological torture than physical. A drip. A tap. A song playing forever. It wears down a person's mind hour after hour until they'd confess to anything to make it stop.
7. Sensory Deprivation: Total silence and total darkness sound peaceful until you're stuck in them with no idea how much time has passed. The brain starts filling in gaps that aren't there, and you end up terrifying yourself.
8. Tickling: Sounds ridiculous until you remember it's been used historically to the point where people genuinely couldn't breathe properly. Sustained tickling on an already sensitive or injured area stops being funny fast.
9. Extreme Temperature Swings: Extreme heat, extreme cold. Alternating between the two, over and over, so the body never gets the chance to adjust to either one.
10. Forced Stillness: Making someone hold one position for hours does something to the body that people don't expect. Cramping, nerve pain, and eventually the joints themselves start to protest.
Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?
Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!
just got through all my dms and answered a couple asks in queue! though I stumbled upon this weird pattern of 'nyt bestseller authors' dming me who have little to no posts and idk that seems like a bit of a red flag but they haven't done anything bad they're just weirddd😭
I find it so funny how gcc governments are trying to convince the world we genuinely give a shit about Iran bombing the American bases here, meanwhile all the citizens/residents be celebrating every hit on our corrupt governments who would rather get rich off destroying other muslim countries than support the ummah
And the western medias going 'everyone there is outraged' 😭😭 i can assure you bbg it's NOT FOR YOU!! we are not mourning the handful of American soldiers dead after thousands of innocent Iranis, Lebanese, Iraqis, and Palestinians continue to be slaughtered by your ✡️ genocidal godson ✡️
Also the fact that the 'backwards barbaric Iranis' are the ones only targeting military infrastructure and companies economically tied to USA/Israel while you purposely bomb PRIMARY SCHOOLS and WIPE OUT ENTIRE VILLAGES debunks Israhell's entire front of innocence.
One side wants to murder innocents, the other is just avenging their people WITHOUT mass murder and targeting the only thing you really care about 💵💸
What helped me write trauma better is remembering that the nervous system learns predictions. If danger used to come after quiet, calm can feel threatening. If kindness used to come with a price, kindness can feel suspicious. So healing is not just “they know they’re safe now.” Healing is the slow, annoying, deeply unfair process of teaching the body that the old prediction is not always the present truth.
You turn on the news to watch fifa stats, we turn on the news to see how many more genocides of our people are hidden by your ridiculous annual events.
First Israel slaughtered Palestinians during the Met Gala and Super Bowl. Now they wipe out entire cities in Lebanon and murder thousands of innocent Iranis while you focus on Messi cheating his way to a new victory
WELCOME BACKKK and congratulations on the hijab and I'm really happy for you in all the things you have rn ❤️❤️ and yeah the GCC people know 😭😭😭 it sometimes doesn't feel fair though when I say that I've been through a war bc throughout it and even now the only effect we felt was online school and fruits and vegetables were expensive as hell 😭😭 things aren't still back to normal for everyone but I'm glad it's been a month and a half I think since I last heard an alarm (I kept hallucinating them even when there weren't any every single time I heard beeping or something like that 😭😭)
thank you so much!! I heard one LITERALLY TODAY MORNING after about 3-4 weeks of no alarms and it just keeps ringing in my head now 😭😭 we even had a warehouse or sm blow up here and saw the interceptions happen (and felt it! ngl the loud thuds/booms were freaking me out)
Not every fight needs a sword or bow or axe. Sometimes your character just grabs whatever's closest, or you need a more unique weapon for a scene, or you’re just tired of writing ‘they drew their blade’. Here are 15 weapons to use for those moments:
Modern Weapons
1. Kitchen Knife: Unglamorous and painfully realistic. It's already sitting on the counter. Great for a fight that isn't planned.
2. Baseball Bat: Blunt force, easy to swing, awful to actually get hit with. Works well for a character who isn't trained but is angry enough to land a solid hit.
3. Crowbar: Menacing without being flashy. Good for a break-in gone wrong.
4. Broken Bottle: Messy, improvised, and can be tied into what the character was doing right before this fight.
5. Chain: Heavy, awkward, and genuinely hard to use well, which makes it great for a character who's improvising and losing.
6. Garrote/Wire: Quiet, brutal, but not the best for a spur-of-the-moment fight.
7. Cast Iron Pan I will die on the hill that this one's underused. Rapunzel convinced me pans are the ultimate fighting tool.
8. Nail Gun Modern, industrial, and genuinely terrifying in a construction site or warehouse setting. Rarely used in fiction, which is exactly why it stands out.
9. Belt: Simple, always available, and works both as a weapon and as a way to restrain someone.
Classic Weapons
10. Letter Opener: Small, sharp, and easy to hide in a sleeve or a desk drawer. Perfect for a quiet, up-close kind of danger.
11. Hunting Knife: Practical and often already on hand for characters who spend time outdoors. Less dramatic than a dagger, more believable.
12. Fire Poker: Sitting right next to the fireplace, which is exactly why it works so well. What's in reach also says something about where they are.
13. Hatchet: Smaller and more manageable than an axe, but still does damage. Good middle ground for a character who needs a real weapon but isn't a trained fighter.
14. Cane/Scepter: Sharp tip, solid shaft, and completely inconspicuous until it isn't.
15. Hot Wax/Candle: A nicely aimed throw can end up blinding, burning, and even permanently scarring an opponent.
Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?
Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!
Life was ✨lifing✨ and honestly I've neglected my writer/author side for quite a few months now. BUT I do have some updates, like:
I'm going to become a mechatronic engineer! (Not your typical author career, I know)
AND I'm working on this amazing new writing project that has re-ignited my passion for writing.
I've read a lot of books I fell in love with. Found a lot of new authors who inspire me
Changed my POV of a lot of things politically and philosophically, became more aware of public figures and big corps that are pretty shitty
Started wearing the hijab! (And loveee the pieces in my closet now)
Started a small crochet business which is what I mostly do when I'm not writing or at uni -- still figuring out the logistics of it though and setting up my social media profiles!
LIVED THROUGH A WAR (GCC people know)
And through all of that I somehow have found my way back here, to the blog (and social media profiles) I've been neglecting. Don't worry this time I planned my return well! I worked on this for the past month, actually drafted some posts, created a new TikTok profile (I don't use Instagram as much anymore—META SUCKS)
all of that just to say...I'M BACKKK and I have so many new exciting plans for this blog and my writer profiles as a whole.
I'm so thankful for everyone who stuck around and kept engaging with my posts and following my profile and can't wait to answer my DMs and asks!! ❣️ Missed y'all!
I've read a few recently published books, and there's this recurring pattern where if anyone does anything bad and interesting, they have to later talk about it in a way that makes it clear that it was a misunderstanding/ justified/ not their fault, so they're still a good person. and if they have a disagreement with another character, they have to therapy talk it out, regardless of their background. it doesn't matter if this is a street urchin with three teeth who just stabbed and kidnapped someone, you will get eloquent sterile therapy speak that will smooth out any possible emotional tension. and everyone asks for permission before they kiss, and waits for a clear enthusiastic yes. again, doesn't matter the character's background or situation, they will ask "can I please kiss you," because if they didn't, that could get all yucky and uncertain, couldn't it? and if a character is from a rich family, they will hate being in a rich family, and hate wealth signifiers, and actually be all for class equality. and everyone is casually queer, without thought being put into how that would mesh with the society that is being described. like yes, this is violent class-based system obsessed with inheritance, but no, it's not actually a problem that the child they've coldly groomed to take on the family mantle is unwilling to beget an heir because of gay. the parents might be terrible, cruel and fascistic, but they're not homophobic! I don't know, it just seems like EVERYTHING that could actually be messy gets sanded and sanded until it's smooth as a shark, but the Fun Violence is allowed to stay, because bloodshed doesn't actually bother anyone or have any consequence apart from your rogue character shrugging and going oops, was that me? the rogue is still a good person though. if you think they're not, just wait for the two solid pages of introspection. and yes they started the book by slitting two throats, but that was fine. they will ask permission before hugging you.
And here are my characters indiscriminately chucking dudes off cliffs to see if humans learned to fly yet and kisses without asking and messiness without context because that’s reality. 👀
