A writer 🏳️‍🌈

Enby YA writer. Mostly in the magic-school or dystopian sub-genres, with queer romance plots. I've written dozens of books, but I want to try actually publishing them this time. I'm here to do research and kinda up my writing game

[zevarcollan]

[hazel-van-lowe]

Quick Dialogue Note

The part in my draft that said:

"I can't believe he wants me to pay him back for that!" I grumbled.

Blake stopped mid step, "You know that's all bullshit. Kirk is just messing with you."

"Oh," I said, stopping too. I couldn't believe he had been so stupid. However, I kept walking, not looking back, "Whatever."

Could eventually be:

"Pay him back!?" I could hardly breath, I was fuming, "Seven dollars an hour isn't worth-"

"Y'a know he's messin' with you, right?" Blakes voice was strained, and he looked at me like I had already lost it all.

My stride only faltered for a second.

But my teeth never unclenched.

----

So It's ok to have unpolished drafts

Because I know I can make it better if I just keep at it

And so can you

[heywriters]

If you want to write a dumb little story with a dumb little plot and ridiculously silly characters. No one's stopping you. Genuinely, no one should be allowed to stop you. Write that dumb story with your whole heart and don't hold back.

[hazel-van-lowe]

I'm stopping me. I wish I wasn't.

[opencommunion]

children are starving at the fastest rate that the world has ever known

[opencommunion]

Help Gaza Children is currently raising funds to feed families in north Gaza, where the genocidal man-made famine is most dire:

Donate now to save children's lives on GAZA STRIP

Help SKYVOIP reach their goal by donating or sharing with your friends.

this initiative is based in Gaza with no middleman. whatever you can contribute will go directly to those who need it

[hazel-van-lowe]

Thrupple Romance Story Prompts:

This is just screenshots of the code I made, I hope you like these ideas! (sorry for all the typo's)

[luna-azzurra]

When writing about childhood trauma in a novel, it's important to handle the topic with sensitivity and nuance. Here are some quick tips to consider:

1. Research and understand: Take the time to research and understand the specific type of trauma you're addressing in your novel. This will help you portray it accurately and respectfully.

2. Show the impact: Explore how the childhood trauma has shaped the character's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Illustrate the long-lasting effects it has had on their development and relationships.

3. Use flashbacks sparingly: Utilize flashbacks strategically to reveal key moments from the character's past that contribute to their trauma. Ensure that the flashbacks serve a purpose in the narrative and provide deeper insights into the character's experiences.

4. Depict coping mechanisms: Show how the character has developed coping mechanisms to deal with their trauma. This can include avoidance, dissociation, or seeking control in certain areas of their life.

5. Allow for healing and growth: Give your character opportunities for healing and growth throughout the story. Show how they confront their trauma, seek support, and gradually find ways to overcome the impact it has had on their life.

6. Avoid sensationalism: Handle the portrayal of childhood trauma with care, avoiding excessive graphic or gratuitous details. Focus on the emotional journey of the character rather than relying solely on shocking events for impact.

7. Show support systems: Include supportive relationships and resources that aid the character in their healing process. This can involve therapists, friends, or mentors who offer understanding, guidance, and empathy.

8. Highlight resilience: Illustrate the character's strength and resilience in the face of their trauma. Show how they find ways to persevere, grow, and rebuild their lives despite the challenges they have faced.

9. Offer hope and redemption: Provide a sense of hope and the possibility of healing for your character. Allow them to find moments of redemption and transformation, demonstrating that healing is attainable.

10. Approach with empathy: Approach the topic of childhood trauma with empathy and compassion. Treat the characters' experiences with respect, acknowledging the complexity and individuality of each person's journey.

[the-bar-sinister]

🎉 Write characters that you find interesting and compelling.

🎉 Don't worry about making characters too over the top, or 'too much'.

🎉 Write characters who want big things.

🎉 Write characters with conflict between what they want and what they need.

🎉 Write characters who don't realize they are doing harm.

🎉 Write characters who don't know how to communicate well.

🎉 Write characters with people they love in the way of what they want.

🎉 Write characters with amazing abilities who use them in ways that unintentionally fuck them over.

🎉 Write messy characters!

[gummybugg-deactivated20251021]

🎉 Write characters who have contradicting traits.

🎉 Write characters despite knowing there's a trope or two your characters may fall under.

🎉 Write characters you forgot about 8 years ago.

🎉 Write characters without feeling the need to justify their behavior.

🎉 Write characters with long, ridiculously elaborate names.

🎉 Write characters who are 100% convinced they are correct and will not back down no matter what.

🎉 Write characters who are unredeemable protagonists.

🎉 Write characters you like and not what you feel others would like!

[urfriendlywriter]

25 romance tropes/au :

(feel free to use!! my fav is 7, 10, 15, 16!!! 22, & omg TAG MEEE)

forbidden romance au

SECRET romance!!

there was only one bed trope.. (u can sleep on the floor--)

enemies to lovers with knives at each other's throat !!!!

forced proximity trope.

friends to lovers??? with slowburn. omg.

shy person getting wild trope. [I'LL GIVE U MONEY TO WRITE THIS.]

"i had a nightmare.. can i stay over at yours?" trope AAAAAH

the kiss after nearly dying

BUT THE one last kiss bcs they don't know if they'll make it out alive after????

dancing in kitchen

baking cookies together

"i can't stand you." x "then sit :)"

powerful female protagonist x equally powerful significant other who'll do anything she says (yk we all thinking warnette)

time loop romance--- A dies in every universe so B goes back in time over and over again, to make things right in atleast one of the lifetime.

KISSING THE SMILE OF UR LOVERRR

running into each other's arms w tears streaming down their cheeks

puppy love getting forgotten and catching feelings for the same person again.

innocent high school romance. taking polaroids, studying for exams together, going to icafes together, smol amusement park dates etc etc

spinning around in a hug

laughing so much together until yall cry

tucking a flower behind their ear.

sunset picnic dates

first meet in a cafe! ex. complimenting something ab them--their work, outfit etc

saving each other from near death and crumbling down on the spot. give me angsty dialogues, tears, confessions, sarcastic remarks hide the actuall feelings. AAAAAAH

[palatteflags]

I’m doing a little thing for Pride month! I’m using the flags on the corresponding days, and a random aesthetic (from random aesthetic generators/wheels) to make a third flag every day ^^ I tried to be the most most inclusive, but sadly I know it’s not possible to get everyone.

The flags are as follows: Gay, Lesbian, Bi Trans, Transmasc, Transfemme, Nonbinary, Genderfluid, Genderqueer, Bigender Genderflux, Pan, Omni, Polysexual, Polyamory, Queer, Ace Aro, Demisexual, Demiromantic, Gray Ace, Gray Aro, Aroace, Cupio Fictosexual, Fictoromantic, Agender, Gilbert Baker Rainbow, Progress Rainbow, Classic Rainbow -mod Jay

[hazel-van-lowe]

This is what my book looks like right now. I started off writing bullet points, and then rough dialog, and it kinda turned into a legit first draft!

Usually I get stuck trying to figure out the plot for a week (as an absolute minimum, usually more like 3 months tbh) but this kinda just flowed out of me in 3 write-til-I-drop chunks of time.

Zooming out and seeing it all in Figma like this, I suddenly feel like I've never made progress so quickly in my life! It's a good day 🏳️‍🌈

[hazel-van-lowe]

I’ve heard the best way to act drunk, is to act like a drunk person who’s pretending to be sober.

As an autistic person, a new thing I’ve been trying is to write characters from the perspective of what they are trying to mask.

I don’t know if everyone always has a mask, but as I’ve been writing, it seems like all of my characters have one at some point. And studying what that mask is hiding has really helped me connect to my characters.

[hazel-van-lowe]

I tend to write a lot of the same books over and over? Anyone else do this?

Never the exact same book. However, there are so many of the same themes, plot points or types of characters that it feels like I’m copying myself.

Sometimes I wonder if publishing a book will mean I can’t keep working on similar books… but I just need to take a breath and publish something, ANYTHING, before I get caught up in my head and hold back my WIPs.

[hazel-van-lowe]

When I was a kid, I did constant world building. But I never thought to write in any of the worlds I made.

When I was in high school I wrote a bunch of book, but all in the most boring settings.

I’m hoping now that I can finally combine steps and write fantasy books. But currently I’m stuck at mystery books, with just one or two magic elements.

Someday I’ll get there🤞

[iexistforsomereason123]

The Blue Rose (pls give feedback idk, also I have no idea how plants work)

In the wide expanse of trees, there was only a single flower awake, a rose in particular, and quite a beautiful one at that. Her light blue petals lay solemnly, tipped with a dark, midnight blue. Stem not too long, leaving her close to the ground, and she hadn't bloomed yet. She glowed sky blue among the dark trees, alone in her existence. Lone among the tall trees. She hadn't nearly enough sunlight to live, she knew she would die soon.

Days pass

She is going to die, she is sure of it. Wilted and limp, she is a pitiful form. The tall trees look down on her mockingly, they seem to take joy in her pain. The whistling of the wind brushing their leaves gives emits a noise much like laughter. She hasn't enough energy to glare, instead, she tries to lean toward the sun, alas, it is shaded by the large branches of her tormentors. After her futile attempt at life, she thinks over her options, then, with a shock, she realizes she has none. There is only death, she chooses to accept her fate, her destiny, but it's not much of a choice as much as something forced upon her.

Suddenly, she sees a blurred form. Walking towards her, it seems to be as large as the trees, maybe even bigger. It stomps its way towards her and for the first time, she feels hope! Maybe it will take her to somewhere else! A meadow, a comfy household. It might even tear down those irksome trees! She brightens at the thought, a whole new life, away from the relentless mocking and lack of necessary resources.

As the giant grows closer and closer, and as she basks in her thoughts, she realizes one thing. It's not looking at her, not even facing her. It gets close, too close, and she loses all possible hope of survival. This is it, this is her end.

Everything goes dark as a large shoe stomps on her.

[hazel-van-lowe]

I love this! But that doesn't sound like enough, so here are my expanded thoughts:

I love that it’s not a classic red rose, and that it’s a blue rose especially. It’s really easy to picture, the way you wrote it. And the dark tipped petals give it such a wonderfully moody vibe, that totally works with the story

I love how it’s immediately tragic, with the flower knowing it will die if things stay as they are. And the implied fact that she can’t change her situation (because we know flowers can’t walk, even if you’ve set the story up so flowers can think and have complex emotions.) And even though I realize it’s tragic, I’m already so emotionally attached to the flower by this point, that the story becomes enticing (rather than depressing) with that info about her going to die. That can be hard to do, so good job! (sorry if saying good job is too cheesy lol)

I like the spacing on the “days pass.” It makes me feel like time really has passed. And then starting back in right on the “she is going to die” note again makes it really feel like she has literally been thinking about her own death for days. 

Editing note: It looks like you may have left behind the word “gives” here, before emits

I love the exclamation point when she feels hope, and the next two exclamation points drag out the joy really well, so it seems like they really think this is going to be their ticket out of there. Classic start of Act 3 "supposed victory" story beat

I also like how the last sentence is stand-alone, it gives it a bit of drama and finality that makes it work well

[iexistforsomereason123]

Omg thank you!! Also, more editing suggestions would be great!

[hazel-van-lowe]

Editing suggestions/thoughts: 

“There was only a single flower awake” reads a bit strange, maybe the tense is off or something? I got the concept, and it works with your writing style, but I might suggest something like “only a single flower is awake” as a possibility 

I would personally put a period after “lean toward the sun” and after “there is only death” for a bit more emphasis and varied sentence length. 

You use “much” twice in a sentence, and maybe “It’s not much of a choice as it is something forced upon her” might work better 

“Suddenly she sees a blurred form walking towards her.” could be a better period placement. 

In the last paragraph, I feel like it would help to add an extra description of how true hopelessness looks. Is the loss of her final rays of hope making her droop or loose petals? Freeze in place? Mind go blank? Say goodbye? Think back on life? Glare at the trees she hates so much?? It seems like she has time to take one final action before her death, and I think that would really solidify this piece. Structure example: “It gets close, too close. [sentence/phrase to describe how pure hopelessness looks on this dying flower] [sentence/phrase to describe how she reacts to knowing for sure this is her last moment on earth]. She’s lost all possible hope of survival.” 

[iexistforsomereason123]

The Blue Rose (pls give feedback idk, also I have no idea how plants work)

In the wide expanse of trees, there was only a single flower awake, a rose in particular, and quite a beautiful one at that. Her light blue petals lay solemnly, tipped with a dark, midnight blue. Stem not too long, leaving her close to the ground, and she hadn't bloomed yet. She glowed sky blue among the dark trees, alone in her existence. Lone among the tall trees. She hadn't nearly enough sunlight to live, she knew she would die soon.

Days pass

She is going to die, she is sure of it. Wilted and limp, she is a pitiful form. The tall trees look down on her mockingly, they seem to take joy in her pain. The whistling of the wind brushing their leaves gives emits a noise much like laughter. She hasn't enough energy to glare, instead, she tries to lean toward the sun, alas, it is shaded by the large branches of her tormentors. After her futile attempt at life, she thinks over her options, then, with a shock, she realizes she has none. There is only death, she chooses to accept her fate, her destiny, but it's not much of a choice as much as something forced upon her.

Suddenly, she sees a blurred form. Walking towards her, it seems to be as large as the trees, maybe even bigger. It stomps its way towards her and for the first time, she feels hope! Maybe it will take her to somewhere else! A meadow, a comfy household. It might even tear down those irksome trees! She brightens at the thought, a whole new life, away from the relentless mocking and lack of necessary resources.

As the giant grows closer and closer, and as she basks in her thoughts, she realizes one thing. It's not looking at her, not even facing her. It gets close, too close, and she loses all possible hope of survival. This is it, this is her end.

Everything goes dark as a large shoe stomps on her.

[hazel-van-lowe]

I love this! But that doesn't sound like enough, so here are my expanded thoughts:

I love that it’s not a classic red rose, and that it’s a blue rose especially. It’s really easy to picture, the way you wrote it. And the dark tipped petals give it such a wonderfully moody vibe, that totally works with the story

I love how it’s immediately tragic, with the flower knowing it will die if things stay as they are. And the implied fact that she can’t change her situation (because we know flowers can’t walk, even if you’ve set the story up so flowers can think and have complex emotions.) And even though I realize it’s tragic, I’m already so emotionally attached to the flower by this point, that the story becomes enticing (rather than depressing) with that info about her going to die. That can be hard to do, so good job! (sorry if saying good job is too cheesy lol)

I like the spacing on the “days pass.” It makes me feel like time really has passed. And then starting back in right on the “she is going to die” note again makes it really feel like she has literally been thinking about her own death for days. 

Editing note: It looks like you may have left behind the word “gives” here, before emits

I love the exclamation point when she feels hope, and the next two exclamation points drag out the joy really well, so it seems like they really think this is going to be their ticket out of there. Classic start of Act 3 "supposed victory" story beat

I also like how the last sentence is stand-alone, it gives it a bit of drama and finality that makes it work well

[sparrowrising]

This is a legit call for feedback, feel free to share your thoughts! There's probably no 100% "right" answer to this, I'd just like to get some brain food, really.

Without further ado, this the start to one of my fics:

"Your magic is acting up?" Lancelot asks, sounding intrigued and a bit worried. "Yeah," Merlin answers and takes a sip of his root-beer. They're at his and Arthur's place, though Arthur is yet to get home from work. "It's always a bit wonky around Arthur, you know?"

So. My question boils down to epithets/repetition. The second paragraph repeats Arthur's name three times.

Did this bother you when you first read it? Does it bother you now that you're thinking of it?

Say that I want this paragraph to: 1. Give the setting (modern AU, Merlin and Arthur are roommates), 2. Relay the info that Arthur is not there, but will arrive soon, and 3. Give Lancelot the bait to ask Merlin why his magic is acting up around Arthur.

How would you rewrite the paragraph to avoid the repetition of Arthur's name? Or would you keep it as is?

My answers are: Yes, I find this start a bit clunky. It's a dialogue heavy fic, though, and doesn't have the smooth narration and slower start I normally gravitate towards, so maybe it's more of a style thing? Also, no matter how much I stare at it, I can't figure out a better way of doing it, maybe I'm home-blind. Also also, I read that most readers aren't bothered by name repetition, but like, really? Because sometimes I am ... I think? (Also also also, here's the fic in case you want to read it.)

[hazel-van-lowe]

This did feel a bit clunky to read ( but I’m also dyslexic, so the clunkiness might have been exaggerated for me)  

I feel like idk when root-beer was invented, so I’d personally add some other nod to modern times, but I’m sure that in a few sentences the modern setting would become clear either way

Anyway, this is how I would write this: 

“Your magic is acting up?” Lancelot asks, intrigued yet worried.

“Yeah,” Merlin sighs, setting his root-beer down on the dining table. He glances at his watch, making sure Arthur won’t be back to their apartment anytime soon, “My magic’s always been a bit wonky around Arthur, you know?” 

This version slightly tidies up the first sentence, but if it feels to clipped for your writing style, feel free to disregard

This removes the actual sip of rootbeer, but instead implies a sip occurred. This is mainly useful to allow the addition of the dining table, to tie in a physical object from the apartment, which could prime the reader to think “oh he lives here”

The watch thing is just to restate that this is modern, and ties into a possible time limit you might have later. And the sentence flows well into talking about Arthur, because it would be awkward to have him show up from work in the middle of this convo 

It doesn’t specify that he is at work however, so it could be changed to “Arthur won’t be back from work anytime soon,” and if you plan to actually have Arthur be home soon then it could be something like “he glances at his watch, realizing Arthur will be home from work soon. Merlin gets straight to the point “My magic…”

(Sorry if this is long, and sorry I started writing comments, deleted them and them did a reblog. I'm new :p)

[hazel-van-lowe]

Some names I like: (Found in a baby names book)

Killian (Gaelic) One who is small and fierce

Hinto (Native American) Having deep blue eyes

Cafelle (Welsh) A priestess who is an oracle

Merona (Hebrew) Resembling a sheep

Tuuli (Finish) Of the wind

Neirin (Irish) Surrounded by light

Vanir (Norse) Of the ancient gods

Akona (Maori) One who excites and enthuses

Deverah (Latin) Goddess of brooms

Khai (American) Unlike the others; unusual

Firthe (Scottish) Woman of the sea

Simeen (Iranian) A silvery woman

Arno (German) an Eagle-wolf

Hanisi (Swahili) Born on a Thursday

Manzo (Japanese) The third son with ten thousand fold strength

Oddrun (Scandinavian) Our secret love

Rendur (Hungarian) One who keeps the peace

Ballari (Indian) One who walks softly

Jindrich (Czech) A great ruler

I feel like a lot of these would work for both sci-fi and fantasy