in•spi•ra•tion

A somewhat ragtag collection of writing prompts, advice, and exercises. Taken from multiple sources, mostly writing reference books. No copyright infringement is intended, and I will strive to credit the sources in the tags, whenever possible. Submitting your own (cited, preferably) favorite prompts is not just welcome, it's very much encouraged. Please do.

[thewritersarchive]

This is an ultimate masterlist of many, many resources that could be helpful for writers/roleplayers.

→ GENERAL

Improvement

Improve Your Writing Habits Now

5 Ways to Add Sparkle to Your Writing

Getting Over Roleplaying Insecurities

Improve Your Paras

Why the Right Word Choices Result in Better Writing

4 Ways To Have Confidence in Your Writing

Writing Better Than You Normally Do

How’s My Driving?

Describing

A Description Resource

55 Words to Describe Someones Voice

Describing Skin Colors

Describing a Person: Adding Details

Emotions Vocabulary

90 Words For ‘Looks’

Be More Descriptive

Describe a Character’s Look Well

100 Words for Facial Expressions

To Show and Not To Tell

Words to Describe Facial Expressions

Describing Clothes

List of Actions

Tone, Feelings and Emotions

Masterlists

Writing Specific Characters

Character Guides

Writing Help for Writers

Ultimate Writing Resource List

Lots of RP Guides

Online Writing Resources

List of Websites to Help You Focus

Resources for Writing Bio’s

Helpful Links for Writing Help

General Writing Resources

Resources for Biography Writing

Mental Ilnesses/Disorders Guides

8 Words You Should Avoid While Writing

  Body Language

Body Language Cheat

Body Language Reference Cheat

Tips for Writers: Body Language

Types of Crying

Body Language: Mirroring

Grammar/Vocabulary

Words Instead of Walk (2)

Commonly Confused Adjectives

A Guide on Punctuation

Common Writing Mistakes

25 Synoms for ‘Expession’

How to: Avoid Misusing Variations of Words

Words to Keep Inside Your Pocket

The 13 Trickiest Grammar Hang-Ups

Other Ways to Say..

Proofreading

300+ Sophiscated and Underused Words

List of Misused Words

Words for Sex

100 Beautiful and Ugly Words

Words to Use More Often

Alternatives for ‘Smile’ or ‘Laugh’

Three Self Editing Tips

Words to Use Instead of ‘Walk’, ‘Said’, ‘Happy’ and ‘Sad’

Synonyms for Common Words

Alternatives for ‘Smile’

Transitional Words

The Many Faces and Meanings of ‘Said’

Synonyms for ‘Wrote’

A Case Of She Said, She Said

Writer’s Block

How to: Cure Writer’s Block

Some Tips on Writer’s Block

Got Writer’s Block?

6 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

Tips for Dealing With Writer’s Block

→ APPLICATIONS

Application (Itself)

How to: Make That Application Your Bitch

How to: Make Your App Better

How to: Submit a Flawless Audition

10 Tips for Applying

Para (Sample)

Para Sample Ideas

5 Tips on Writing an IC Para Sample

Writing an IC Sample Without Escaping From the Bio

How to: Create a Worthy IC Para Sample

How to: Write an Impressive Para Sample

How to: Lengthen Short Para’s

Prompts

Drabble Stuff

Prompts List

Writing Prompts

Drabble Prompts

How to Get Into Character

Writing Challenges/Prompts

A Study in Writing Prompts for RPs

Para Prompts & Ideas

Writing Prompts for Journal Entries

A List of Para Starters

→ GUIDES

Personalities

Angry

Bad Asses

Bitches (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Childishness

Emotional Detachment

Flirtatious

The Girl Next Door

Introverts (2)

Mean Persons (2)

Psychopaths

Party Girls

Rich (2) 

Rebels

Sarcasm

Serial Killers (2)

Shyness (2, 3)

Sluts

Villains (2)

Witt

Disorders

Disorders in general (2, 3, 4, 5) 

Attention Deficit Disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Anxiety (2, 3, 4, 5) 

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Alice In Wonderland Syndrome

Bipolar Disorder (2, 3)

Cotard Delusions

Depression (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)   

Eeating Disorders (2, 3)

Facitious Disorders

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Multiple Personality Disorder (2)

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Night Terrors

Kleptomania (2)

A Pyromaniac

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Psychopaths

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (2) (3)

Sex Addiction (2)

Schizophrenia (2)

Sociopaths (2)

Disabilities

Aspergers Syndrome

Apathy 

Autism

Someone Blind (2)

Cancer (2, 3)

Disability

Dyslexia

Muteness (2, 3)

Stutter

Jobs/Hobbies/Beliefs

Actors

Ballet Dancer (2)

Christianity

Foreigners

Gamblers

Hinduism

Hitmen

Satanism

Smokers

Stoners

Taoism

Journalists

Vegetarians

Drugs

Alcohol Influence (2, 3, 4, 5)

Cocaine Influence

Ecstasy Influence (2)

Heroin Use

LSD Influence

Marijuana Influence (2, 3)

Opiate Use

Locations

Australia

Boston

California (2, 3)

England/Britain (2, 3, 4, 5)

New York

Prison

London

The South (2)

Genders

Females (2)

Males (2)

Transgender People

Supernatural

Vampires

Witches (2)

Werewolves

Other

Amnesia

Children

A Death Scene

Loosing Someone (2)

Old Persons

Physical Injuries (2, 3)

Sexual Abuse (2)

Fight Scenes (2, 3, 4)

Horror

Torture

→ CREATING CHARACTERS

Biography Writing

Components of Your Biographies

Character sheet (2, 3)

Need Help With Character Creation?

How to: Draw Inspiration for Characters From Music

How to: Write a Biography (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

How to: Write a Fully Developed Character

How to: Create a Cast of Characters (2)

Writing an Original Character (2, 3)

Creating Believable Characters (2, 3)

Bio Formats (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

Little Things You Can Add To Your Bios

Connections (2)

Titles

Bio Twists

Names

Female Names (2, 3, 4, 5)

Male Names (2, 3, 4, 5) 

Last Names  (2, 3, 4)

Personalities

Jung’s 16 Personality Types

Underused Character Personalities

Birth-Order: Personality Traits

The Difference Between Personality and Behavior

How to: Show a Characters Personality In a Paragraph

16 Character Traits

Underused Personalities

Personality Traits

Positive (2)

Negative (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

Both (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

Habits

Addictions and Bad Habits

Bad Habits

Character Habits

Character Quirks

Phobias (2)

Secrets

300 Possible Secrets to Give Your Characters

I Bet You Didn’t Know..

Character Plots And Secrets (2)

Celebrity Secrets

Secret Masterlist

Quotes

Song Lyrics Masterlist

Songs for Biographies

Favorite Quotes: TV and Movies

Favorite Quotes: Notable Authors

Favorite Quotes: Celebrities

Favorite Quotes: Popular Books (2)

Quotes From Songs

Character Quotes

Masterlist of Bio Lyrics

Masterlist of Bio Quotes

Masterlist of Song Lyrics

Biography Lyrics

A Masterlist of Quotes

+130 Quotes

The Quotation Garden

Mary Sue’s

A Mary Sue In The Inbox

Your Character Is A Sue, Not Just A Mary Or Gary

Not Writing A Mary Sue

→ WHILE ROLEPLAYING

Para Titles

100 Paragraph Titles

Para Titles - Song Title Edition (2,3)

A Whole Ton of Para Titles

350+ Song Titles

Para Titles For You (2)

Starters

How to: Create an interesting starter

How to: Make an Interesting Starter

Gif Conversations: A Guide

A Brief Guide to Starters

Interesting Gif Convesation Starters

Starters Masterlist

Gif Starter Posts

46 Interesting Gif Chat Starters

Ideas for Gif Chat Starters

Starters

Careers/Jobs

Masterlist: Jobs

Possible Careers for Characters

Artistic Occupations

Martha’s Vineyard Job Masterlist

Interesting Jobs

Locations/Settings/Activities

Para Ideas

Masterlist: Para Ideas

Top 50 Places for Starters

Writing Topics: Para Ideas

101 Date Ideas

68 Date Ideas

22 Date Ideas

Popular Places to Eat

Character Developement

Character Development Questionaire

Character Surveys

C.D. Questionaire

30 Day Character Development Meme

Character Development Questions (2)

100 Pt. Questionaire

IC and OOC Surveys

Online Test for Character Building

30 Days of Character Development

How to: Develop Characters

Get To Know Your Characters

→ ROMANCE

Romance (in general)

The Little Ways a Ship Gets Build

Roleplaying Relationships

8 Ways to Say I Love You

How to: Make a Set Ship RP Work

How to: Write a Romantic Scene

Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Relationships

Putting a Label on It

Synonyms for Love

Pregnancy (2, 3, 4, 5)

Smut

Smut Guide: Casual Sex

Smut Guide: For Beginners

How to: Write a First Time Sex Scene Romantically

How to: Smut - The Bare Bones

How to: Smut (For Virgins)

How to: Write Lesbian Smut

How to: Write Smut (2, 3)

How to: Write a Blowjob/Prepping for Smut

Smut Guides of Tumblr

Tips on Writing Sex Scenes

A Guide to Language in Smut

Domination and Submission

Making Love

A Smut Guide

Kisses

How to: Write a Kiss (2)

Different Types of Kisses

Writing Out the First Kiss

→ OTHER

Plot Writing

How to: Create the Best Plot for Your RP

How to: Create A Plot Outline in 8 Steps

How to: Write A Plot in 12 Steps

How to: Write A Quality Plot

How to: Spice Up Your Roleplay Plots

Components of Your Plot Page

Writing Up A Plot

Basics of Writing A Plot

Links for Plot Writing Help

Eight Unique Plot Ideas

Plot Twists

Situation Ideas (2, 3)

Guide to Plotting

Eras

Eras Masterlist

Everything You Need to Know Abut the 20’s

20’s Slang

Primary Sources on Ancient Civilizations

How to: Play the Greek Goddess ‘Harmonia’

How to: Roleplay In the Victorian Era

Victorian Dialogue

[whataboutwriting-blog]

Describing Feelings

How can I describe my characters feelings? - Anonymous

[whataboutwriting-blog]

Since your characters aren’t exactly real people your readers can talk to and get to know in real-life manners, their feelings and emotions and thoughts are what lets your readers connect with them. These things are what make your characters as real as possible, what gives them depth, which will determine whether your readers will root for them or hope for them to fail. Therefore, this is something you shouldn’t neglect. Below, you’ll find some tips on how to display your characters’ feelings and emotions in your writing.

Show Don’t Tell. Biological Responses. One way of letting your readers know about how your characters are feeling is by using biological responses we have all felt. For instance, if you mention that your character’s heart rate increased after seeing or hearing something, your readers will understand your character is afraid of something. There are other ways of using this method to show your characters’ feelings, but by using biological responses to certain emotions you are using the readers’ past experience with their own emotions to connect and relate to your characters. Here, you’ll learn about the role biology plays in our emotions. However, if we’re describing a character we have no “inside information” on - a character whose biological responses we don’t know -, we refer to their physical displays of emotion. People are likely to clench their teeth in anger, open their mouths in astonishment, etc. 

Use different words. There are many different words you can use to depict your character’s state of mind. If you keep using the same ones, you risk them losing their meaning or going weak. If all your characters are described as “happy” when something happens, your reader will lose sense of the different levels of importance different events have for your characters. Therefore, if you are going to refer to single words in order to display emotions/feelings, do so using different words. You can find a list of words to use when describing feelings here. 

Dialogue. People will speak differently depending on how they are feeling. When you’re really excited about something, you’re likely to speak in a fast manner, skipping some words, repeating others… whereas when you’re worried or afraid you’re likely to have an incoherent speech, stop yourself mid-sentence, speak with little “hmms” and pauses…

Your characters’ actions. The things we do say a lot about what we’re feeling. If your character is angry while walking into a room, he’s likely to slam the door shut; if he’s happy when he gets home, he’s more likely to go and greet everyone than to go hide in his room. 

Create habits for your characters. We all have different habits and while some things we do might not mean much to people on the outside, those who know us can often tell how we’re feeling by what we are doing or the way we do it. Some people only smoke when they’re stressed, and if you introduce your character to your reader as someone like this, they’ll be able to assume, when your character lights up a cigarette, that he’s stressed. Make sure your readers know about these habits before you having to use them, or else it will be less effective. (For instance, if your character only smokes when he’s stressed, have another character offer him a cigarette and then have him decline it with the explanation that he only smokes when he’s stressed). This is something that can really work, specially if the first time this habit is introduced is done in a subtle, but effective way.

Below, you’ll find some articles on the matter that might help you:

Writing Tips for Capturing Emotions & Feelings

How to Describe Emotions

1000 Ways to Describe a Feeling

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Get Your Shit Together Project: The Blahs

(See previous posts and broken promises here and here)

Okay, let’s cut to the chase - motivation. I’d say a good most of our questions are related to it, and there’s only so many times you can direct them toward our many many tags about it. Let’s face it, the subject of motivation produces as many words as the lack of it keeps them away. There’s lots of reasons for being unmotivated. If you’re dealing with things out of your control, like depression, you shouldn’t feel bad for not writing. Even if you’re not depressed, don’t feel bad for not writing. I’m going to talk about what I call The Blahs in terms of motivation, but if this advice doesn’t work for you, don’t feel bad. Keep trying, and take care of yourself.

Why are people unmotivated to write? Like I said, there’s lots of reasons for being unmotivated. It could be nerves, it could be stress, it could be the good ol’ Blahs. For me, The Blahs are the worst. I know why I have them - work concerns, I think I’m becoming a hypochondriac, the fucking air - but there’s no magic button to get out of them. The Blahs delayed this post by a week, they’ve been keeping me from writing a story I’m really passionate about, they make me irritated at tiny things. The Blahs are here to ruin my shit, basically.

What are the Blahs, exactly? For me, I know the Blahs is some form of mental suckage that knows, no matter how hard I try to fool it, that writing is hard work that will undoubtedly have to be done over and over again. The Blahs is irritation at no instant reward, no button that will light up in my head once I complete a task, because writing is never really done.

That lack of reward, tangible or mental, turns your brain into a jerky jerk that doesn’t want to work with you. It becomes a four-year-old, constantly screaming for some sort of distraction, insisting that if you scroll through tumblr one more time, it’ll let you go back to writing peacefully. This is a lie, because your brain is a jerk.

Okay, so how do I fix the Blahs? Alright, here’s the bad news: fixing the Blahs is not only hard, it’s very personal, meaning your solutions have to be tailored to you. The Blahs are why I draft with pen and paper, because having pages afterwards to scribble on is very satisfying. But drafting on paper is not enough, because it’s easy to ignore or shove aside, no matter how many notes I leave myself not to do that. So while fixing the Blahs is hard to do, here’s some things you can work on for yourself:

Deadlines. Deadlines with no teeth do nothing for me. Haha, arbitrary date on my calender, there’s not punishment for not finishing by now, so fuck you. Make your deadlines real. Enlist friends to keep you to task, dole out punishments and rewards for making it. If you have no outer force to keep you to task, make one. This is why NaNoWriMo works for so many people, and you can make it work for you. Get that deadline and find ways to make your jerk brain stick to it.

Chunk Your Work. Break big projects down to little goals - the more goals you hit, the more that reward lights up in your brain. This takes some figuring out - a little goal for one person is three pages, another a paragraph - but your huge projects needs those goalposts to keep you going.

Rewards, Baby. Your brain runs on rewards, the more instant the better. Big rewards - that paycheck at the end of the month, a finished novel - are vague concepts to your brain until you actually have them, so make your rewards more immediate. Finishing that chapter wins you your favorite snack. Editing that page earns you a cup of coffee. The rewards don’t have to be tangible - checking tumblr or playing a quick game on your phone lights up that reward part of your brain just as much other rewards. Rewards are great, but don’t let them become distractions. If they get you too off the writing page, find another reward.

Kill Your TV Distractions, Man. If the internet is your siren song, check out blocking programs that can help your productivity. Chuck your mobile devices in a bag or other room, find music that can help you focus. Bury those shows you want to watch in a few dozen folders, consider trying new locations. Your brain wants distractions because they are instantly satisfying; don’t give them to it.

Try Progress Trackers. A writing calender where you cross off the days you write works but keep that damn thing on hand or your jerk brain will ignore it. A writing journal of progress is the same. They’re helpful, but only if you use them, so keep them somewhere you will always find them. Put them on top of your laptop or in your bag at all times.

You’re working toward the goal of forming writing habits that won’t sway to the Blahs so easily. This takes time, and it’s not easy. Don’t be hard on yourself if you fail. All of these things I’m still struggling with, and it’s okay to do the same.

To Do: I hate writing assignments like a passion, and hey, I’m not your teacher (unless I am, in that case go do your homework >:|), but last time I mentioned making a list of your main goals, and if you want, now’s the time to break out that list, find your most important goals, and chunk them down into manageable jobs. Your goal is to create steps that you can reach, all the way from start to being done. If it’s too much, focus on it in parts - part one of your first draft, part two, etc. If you’re working on it now, great! You can still try this technique.

I’d also really recommend giving yourself deadlines with teeth, so you feel like you have to make them. If doing the dishes on a failed deadline isn’t threat enough, maybe cleaning from top to bottom is. If you need help, recruit people. You can even loop in family members (‘I really need to make this goal, can you get on me around this time?’), or be vague about what you’re doing (because shit do I hate explaining what I’m writing), but you have to make those deadlines real.

Good luck, see you on the other side of the Blahs.

[writingprompts]

#801

back in time from a future dystopia

[nimblesnotebook-blog]

What's the difference between an anti-hero and a villain?

An antihero:

Is almost always the protagonist or on the same side as the protagonist (either because they support the protagonist or because they will get something out of it)

Has an ambiguous moral compass

Usually has a good outcome if they win

Is sympathetic to the reader

The opposite of a typical hero while still holding the hero’s position or duties

A villain:

Can be the protagonist, but is most often the antagonist (antagonist does not equal villain)

Is immoral

Usually has a chaotic outcome if they win

Is not supposed to be sympathetic to the reader

[jumpwritein]

Blank pages inspire me with terror.

Margaret Atwood

[jumpwritein]

All my life I've been frightened at the moment I sit down to write.

Gabriel García Márquez

[nycstreetart]

The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.

Jerzy Kosinski

[jumpwritein]

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads.

Erica Jong

[jumpwritein]

I always have a sense of trembling, but so does a compass, after all.

Jerzy Kosinski

[jumpwritein]

Literature: proclaiming in front of everyone what one is careful to conceal from one's immediate circle.

Jean Rostand

[jumpwritein]

Write about a human system whose key person has just checked out.

Most human systems--families, companies, clubs, apartment buildings, political movements, governments, theater productions--include one key person without whom the whole thing would collapse.

[jumpwritein]

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

E.L. Doctrow

[jumpwritein]

If we had to say what writing is, we would have to define it essentially as an act of courage.

Cynthia Ozick

[jumpwritein]

Solitude, competitiveness and grief are the unavoidable lot for a writer only when there is no organization or network to which [s]he can turn.

Toni Morrison

[jumpwritein]

Like fear of prophecies contained in dreams, the fear of writing down eternal words is the real reason for verbosity.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko

[jumpwritein]

Private Prayer.

Write about someone who quietly prays throughout a story fragment. Don't let these prayers be visible, audible, or obvious to any other character in the piece of the fiction. The prayers can be religious and orthodox, but they can also be very secular. Devote a good deal of narrative thought to the process of these prayers.

How do they fit in with the plot of the story you're writing?

How can they fit?

750 words.

The Bible (Matthew 6:5-6) gives this advice about public vs. private prayers:

When you pray, be not like the pretenders, who prefer to pray in the synagogues and in the public square, in the sight of others. In truth I tell you, that is all the profit they will have. But you, when you pray, go into your inner chamber and, locking the door, pray in there hiding to your Father, and your Father who sees you in hiding will reward you.