JJ Westbay

I like to write

[jjwestbay]

Chapter 1 is up!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[jjwestbay]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[jjwestbay]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[jjwestbay]

Well I finally did it. First fanfic posted!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[jjwestbay]

What kinds of fics are Supercorp fans wanting to read these days?

[annebronte-deactivated20210628]

reblog if you wear glasses. too many mutuals don't know they have glasses wearers in their midsts

[soniaknox]

Essential Beat Sheet for Writers

ACT ONE: SETUP

1. Opening Image: A snapshot of your story’s world and tone. Who are we following? What’s at stake?

2. Theme Stated: A subtle hint about the story’s deeper meaning or lesson, often posed as a question or challenge.

3. Setup: Introduce your protagonist, their ordinary world, supporting characters, and the status quo. Show us what needs to change.

4. Catalyst: The inciting incident that flips the protagonist’s world upside down. This is the point of no return.

5. Debate: Your protagonist hesitates. Should they step forward into the unknown or retreat? This beat builds anticipation.

ACT TWO: CONFRONTATION

6. Break Into Two: The protagonist makes a decision and steps into a new world (literal or figurative). The adventure begins.

7. B Story: The subplot kicks in—often a relationship or secondary goal that supports the main story’s theme.

8. Fun and Games: The “heart” of the story. Deliver on the premise and explore the stakes through action, conflict, and character growth.

9. Midpoint: A major turning point where everything changes. Stakes are raised. Success feels closer—or failure looms larger.

10. Bad Guys Close In: External and internal pressures mount. Allies falter. Enemies strike. Doubts creep in.

11. All Is Lost: The darkest moment. The protagonist experiences a significant loss or setback.

12. Dark Night of the Soul: A pause for reflection. Your protagonist processes their failure and digs deep to find the courage to move forward.

ACT THREE: RESOLUTION

13. Break Into Three: Armed with new insight or strength, the protagonist takes decisive action to face the story’s central conflict.

14. Finale: The climax. Everything comes to a head in a final showdown or resolution. Your protagonist proves they’ve changed—or failed to.

15. Closing Image: A mirror of the opening image, showing how the world—and your protagonist—has transformed.

[jjwestbay]

Thinking it’s about time I post some old work on AO3

[hydrogeneportfolio]

The complete ‘Women Who Changed Science - And The World" collection in honor of the 95th Women’s Equality Day.

Purchase Here!

[mjduncan]

I was just wondering what software you use when writing. Any recommendations you could offer would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Happy Thursday, Nonnie! Thanks for the distraction from the words I should be writing. ;)

I do all of my writing in Scrivener. I love that I can make every chapter its own document, so it's super-easy to go back to a particular scene if I think of something that needs to be added or just if I need to double-check something for consistency. I can also create folders for characters and research and whatever the hell else I want in it so all my notes are in the same file. Having each chapter be its own doc also helps with outlining, and if I decide to switch a couple of chapters or rearrange, it's as easy as dragging the chapter to where I want it in the story. Then, when I'm done, I can compile all the individual chapters into whatever format I need (docx, eBook, pdf, etc.).

Here's a screenshot of my rough draft file of Halcyon Nights that still has my chapter outline headings (I take those out in the final version because Scrivener creates a hyperlink TOC w/whatever the title for the section is) so you can see how the stuff I mentioned above looks:

For editing, however, I still use Word because I'm not a fan of Scrivener's features there. Scrivener has the ability to track changes (it basically just makes the changes a different color so they stand out, but you have to manually change it to the standard black once you're done - not particularly helpful) and there's no easy way to accept/reject those changes, so I'd rather do that stuff in Word and transfer it all back into Scrivener once I'm done.

Hope this helps! ~mj

[goldinkpen]

Writer’s Paradise Masterlist

As a Writer it’s my goal to help and uplift other writers and future Authors alike so here’s a Masterlist of resources I’ve compiled for you to use for your writing!

If you know any sites or have any recommendations for me to add, my asks/submissions are open!!

I’ll update these as I further my journey & research into becoming an Author one day, please reblog this to help your fellow writers!

Organization, Advice, and Research

Hiveword - A website with multiple writing resources available such as planning, index cards, articles with advice, name and character generators, and research capabilities. The free account offers the essentials such as scenes, characters, and plotlines.

Storyteller’s Roadmap - A website that helps you plan, write, and revise a story thoroughly. It including guides to write specific descriptions along with a thesaurus, templates and worksheets, an Idea Generator and more.

Helping Writers become Authors - A website in a blog style format with multiple articles and resources including writing mistakes, novel outlining, story structures, as well as character arcs and many more.

UK resources for writers - A website with resources for learning how to write with free and paid courses, writing opportunities, and more for writers in the UK.

Creative Writers Academy - A website with free classes guiding a step by step through the publication process.

Reedsy - A blog style website that includes Articles about publication and centered around learning how to publish a book with many tools and generators for writing.

Poets and Writers - A website for Writers and poets with resources like publishing your writing, finding your community and more.

Research Links for Writers - An HTML site with multiple links and resources for writers spanning upon multiple genres, subject matters, and history.

The internet public library - A website encyclopedia for essays and academic papers.

Writing realistic Injuries - A website with a list of different types of injuries and how to write them out including, impacts, and the effects of them.

RanGen - A website for writers with writing challenges, resources, and generators for things like personalities, characters, poisons, writing prompts, etc.

Ivy Tech Library - A library database website with a lot of resources for research including folklore and by region.

How to write a story by Creativepromptsforwriting on Tumblr - A different Masterlist with many more resources about writing, staying motivated, certain plots, etc.

Self Publishing

A step-by-step Video about Self Publishing - A video by Gilliain Perkins explaining her process of how she self published her Best Seller Novel.

How to format your book yourself through word - A video by Natalia Leigh with a step-by-step process on how she formats her manuscript. Her video covers: Page Size, Margins, Line spacing, Indentation, Chapter Styles, Page Numbers, and Headers.

Strategies for Marketing your book - A video made by iWriterly she explains 34 different strategies that can be used to market a book (while marketing her book lol!) and includes a downloadable checklist of these strategies

Masterclass How to copyright a book in 7 steps - An article guiding step by step how to properly copyright a self published book.

Fiverr - A freelancing website where you can find someone to make your illustrations, covers, and even get editors as well as someone to voice or make an audiobook for you.

Up Work - A freelancing website  where you can find someone to make your illustrations, covers, and even get editors as well as someone to voice or make an audiobook for you.

Beta Books - A website for Beta Readers can read your book and return their feedback. It lets you sort and filter your feedback by reader, chapter, or keyword, to get your book done.

Docucopies - A printing service website with a short guide about self publishing, buying copyright, and ISBN references and sites, all while including printing services (10% off of orders over 350$)

The Book Patch - A book printing service which includes Print-On-Demand services or cheap printing services allowing for smaller quantities. The Book Patch does not offer expensive publishing package, and keeps book publishing costs to a minimum.

Affordable Book Printing - A website with book publishing services including printing books but also formatting e-books, Cover Design, as well as Marketing and more

Generators & AUs

Random AU Generator - A website that generates AUs randomly.

Fantasy Name/Realm Generator - A website that generates random fantasy names.

Random Name Generator - A website that generates random names based on the options chosen with the ability to choose by region and gender.

Service Scape Writing Prompt Generator - A website that generates in depth writing prompts as chosen by the genre selected.

Writing Plot Generator - A website that generates plots based upon your selections of genre, title, etc.

Art Breeder - A website that can use a series of images to generate photos or the perfect character for your story.

[cozysinner]

Supercorp Social Media AU 27/∞

#OperationFreeDessert based on this

(Buy me a coffee)

[writingquestionsanswered]

Since you're not a fan of character templates, what alternatives do you recommend/prefer for fleshing out characters?

Alternatives to Character Templates

My issue with character templates is that most of them include a lot of trivial details like your character's favorite gum flavor or their most embarrassing moment, but those kinds of details aren't likely to make an appearance in the story, much less impact your personal understanding of the character. If your character's favorite flavor of gum doesn't play an important role in the story, you don't need to waste time thinking about it.

That said, if you do any kind of character template, look for ones that focus on details that actually matter in the story, like personality, important background information, impact traits, internal conflict, etc. You can have a look at my post: Character Design Sheet: The Necessary Stuff for the details I think are worth considering when fleshing out characters.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[lesbiansgoal]

[ms-mazarin]

Words to replace said, except this actually helps

I got pretty fed up with looking for words to replace said because they weren’t sorted in a way I could easily use/find them for the right time. So I did some myself.

IN RESPONSE TO Acknowledged Answered Protested

INPUT/JOIN CONVERSATION/ASK Added Implored Inquired Insisted Proposed Queried Questioned Recommended Testified

GUILTY/RELUCTANCE/SORRY Admitted Apologized Conceded Confessed Professed

FOR SOMEONE ELSE Advised Criticized Suggested

JUST CHECKING Affirmed Agreed Alleged Confirmed

LOUD Announced Chanted Crowed

LEWD/CUTE/SECRET SPY FEEL Appealed Disclosed Moaned

ANGRY FUCK OFF MATE WANNA FIGHT Argued Barked Challenged Cursed Fumed Growled Hissed Roared Swore

SMARTASS Articulated Asserted Assured Avowed Claimed Commanded Cross-examined Demanded Digressed Directed Foretold Instructed Interrupted Predicted Proclaimed Quoted Theorized

ASSHOLE Bellowed Boasted Bragged

NERVOUS TRAINWRECK Babbled Bawled Mumbled Sputtered Stammered Stuttered

SUAVE MOTHERFUCKER Bargained Divulged Disclosed Exhorted

FIRST OFF Began

LASTLY Concluded Concurred

WEAK PUSY Begged Blurted Complained Cried Faltered Fretted

HAPPY/LOL Cajoled Exclaimed Gushed Jested Joked Laughed

WEIRDLY HAPPY/EXCITED Extolled Jabbered Raved

BRUH, CHILL Cautioned Warned

ACTUALLY, YOU’RE WRONG Chided Contended Corrected Countered Debated Elaborated Objected Ranted Retorted

CHILL SAVAGE Commented Continued Observed Surmised

LISTEN BUDDY Enunciated Explained Elaborated Hinted Implied Lectured Reiterated Recited Reminded Stressed

BRUH I NEED U AND U NEED ME Confided Offered Urged

FINE Consented Decided

TOO EMO FULL OF EMOTIONS Croaked Lamented Pledged Sobbed Sympathized Wailed Whimpered

JUST SAYING Declared Decreed Mentioned Noted Pointed out Postulated Speculated Stated Told Vouched

WASN’T ME Denied Lied

EVIL SMARTASS Dictated Equivocated Ordered Reprimanded Threatened

BORED Droned Sighed

SHHHH IT’S QUIET TIME Echoed Mumbled Murmured Muttered Uttered Whispered

DRAMA QUEEN Exaggerated Panted Pleaded Prayed Preached

OH SHIT Gasped Marveled Screamed Screeched Shouted Shrieked Yelped Yelled

ANNOYED Grumbled Grunted Jeered Quipped Scolded Snapped Snarled Sneered

ANNOYING Nagged

I DON’T REALLY CARE BUT WHATEVER Guessed Ventured

I’M DRUNK OR JUST BEING WEIRDLY EXPRESSIVE FOR A POINT/SARCASM Hooted Howled Yowled

I WONDER Pondered Voiced Wondered

OH, YEAH, WHOOPS Recalled Recited Remembered

SURPRISE BITCH Revealed

IT SEEMS FAKE BUT OKAY/HA ACTUALLY FUNNY BUT I DON’T WANT TO LAUGH OUT LOUD Scoffed Snickered Snorted

BITCHY Tattled Taunted Teased

[saoirse-1887]

This category system is

💫💫 immaculate💫💫

[kayleen756894]

As useful and thorough as this list is, often times people just pick one without actually knowing what they mean. Shouted and shrieked don’t mean the same thing, for example. You can also just use the word said. Like 80% of the time just using said is perfectly fine. You only really need to switch it up when there’s an obvious switch in tone. Using too many alternatives, especially more complicated ones, just distract the reader from the immersion of your story.

[heeeygracie]

Title: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

[ryanlanz]

6 Ways to Make Writing Fight Scenes Less Traumatic

6 Ways to Make Writing Fight Scenes Less Traumatic

To answer the question I am assuming is on all of your minds, yes, everything is traumatic to my hyperbolic little mind. Especially fight scenes. Continue reading

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