Writeblr

i'm a girl who enjoys storytelling, and i am working towards creating a story with my characters i have made.

Warning to writers

While you are worrying about whether beta readers will steal your ideas, there is a more genuine threat on the horizon.

When offered a publishing contract, please do all your research before you sign. There are a number of fakes and scammers out there, as well as good-intentioned amateurs that don’t know how to get your work to a wide audience. I won’t tell the heartbreaking stories here - there are too many.

Being published badly is worse than being never published.

It can destroy your career and your dreams.

The quick check is to google the publishing house name + scam or warning.

But, to be sure, check with these places first. They aren’t infallible (nothing is) but they can help you protect yourself. They are written and maintained by expereinced writers, editors, publishers and legal folks.

Absolute Write: Bewares and Background Checks

Preditors and editors

Writer Beware

and the WRITER BEWARE blog

Keep yourself and your work safe.

This is really important, so if you are a writer or have writer friends, or you are a writing blog, please reblog it.

[rosey-buddy]

Just to let you know, PublishAmerica changed their name to America Star Books.

[lunamax1214]

HEAD’S UP, WRITER TYPES: THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PSA!

[oldmanyellsatcloud]

Also applies to many so-called freelance sites that are just content mills, and may not pay unless your work is used, even if the contract seems designed otherwise.

[konekat]

Listen, reading these is like legit reading horror stories.  When it comes to publishing your writing, always, always, ALWAYS do your research.  Not only will it help you avoid scams, but it will also be likely to help you land a much better fit for an agent/publisher/whatever.  Knowing more is never going to hurt.

[glorious74-deactivated20181211]

Omg!!! Thanks for the warning! Writers— reblog!

[thegirlwiththebook]

I’ve heard stories like this that are scarier than horror stories. This is an all time worst nightmare for a writer. Everyone reblog and make sure you keep your work safe! 

[the960writers]

Always, ALWAYS check Writer Beware. Let me also recommend Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s blog about contracts and contract scams for authors in her section Business Musings.

[more-legit-gr8er-writing-tips]

Reblogging again for the links. Also check pred-ed.com and the Absolute Write forum. Then google Publisher’s name + scam and see what comes up. Do NOT use the BBB ratings, they are wholly unsuitable for rating publishers and regularly give A ratings to well-known publishing scams. You can also read my own post on publishing scams, have a link on the left of my blog ( can’t link here, I’m on mobile, sorry).

[bodaciousbanshee-deactivated202]

@korrigu

[breelandwalker]

SUPER IMPORTANT PSA!

Equally important to know is that you can SELF-PUBLISH through a number of platforms these days. @ean-amhran and I used Amazon’s CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing to publish both of our books. No editors, no contracts, no finagling with publishers who want to change your materials. Just direct-to-market material.

(Granted, it means you’ve got to do a LOT more work yourself with editing and formatting and cover art, but it’s worth it to miss the headache of trying to bargain with publishing houses or avoid scams.)

Be vigilant, fellow writers!

[jenniferrpovey]

If you choose to self publish then HAVE A PLAN and think things through.

And hire an editor. Please, for the love of all that is holy, hire an editor. It’s expensive, but you will get a better book out, a better reputation…

[athelind]

If you’re going to publish electronically, make sure you also get someone who can LAY AN EBOOK OUT PROPERLY.

I have spent money on Kindle books, many of them reprints of older works, whose formatting is so messed up as to render them unreadable.

[jenniferrpovey]

I actually recommend using the Smashwords Style Guide even if you don’t use Smashwords.

It lays out how to neatly format an e-book in a wonderful step by step format, and you can get it free from Smashwords. Just leave off the couple of things that are (very obviously) Smashwords specific.

If you can’t stand dealing with the meticulous detail, then by all means hire somebody, but most people can learn to format an ebook correctly and once you’ve done it a couple of times it takes about an hour tops.

[freshest-tittymilk]

@ghdos spread the knowledge

[vorpalgirl]

Because the redirects aren’t working for me, I’m going to assume others might have trouble with these links, so for those who need it the URL for the website to Writer Beware is: www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/ As stated on here: “Writer Beware is sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, with additional support from the Mystery Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.” These are not publishers’ guilds, notice; you sometimes see scammers trying to defend themselves against Writer Beware exposes by claiming that they’re “small press” or “indie” and Big Publishing is somehow out to get them - but all of those guilds are run by and for writers, to help support them and represent them in the field. It is the closest writers have to having unions, and there’s no direct competition between them (you could literally be an in any of those guilds are the same time as each other, in addition to others, and I believe a number of authors are).

Writer Beware is a wonderful resource, and I highly recommend it. It’s both a good general guide to the scams people run/red flags to watch out for (such as giving up your copyright entirely as opposed to specific rights, or being charged to publish something or have it edited, when they’re trying to act like they’re a “normal” publisher), and a frequently-updated list of the latest specific known scammers, both in “fake agents” and fake/scammy publishers categories. (The company formerly known as Publish America is one of the most famous and egregious cases, but by far not the only one)

Additionally, for SF and fantasy writers, the SFWA’s own list of qualifying markets that one can be published in as a prerequisite to be able to get into their guild (remember, it IS a profession-based guild), is a great guide to normal markets for those genres that have standard contracts that aren’t abusive or scammy, and their guidelines include some of the industry-standard minimums for “per word” etc rates, so even if some new magazine market isn’t on their list, you can tell if it’s suspiciously far outside the usual per-word or whatnot standards. (It’s likely the guidelines for Mystery Writers of America etc also would be useful in that vein) Even if you’re unpublished or don’t want to join their guild, they’re a wonderful group and resource, and I highly recommend their site and Writer Beware in particular! The other sites mentioned above, such as “Preditors and Editors” should be still valid if you Google them, and are often rec’d by Writer Beware, but Writer Beware is the one I’m most familiar with. :)

[hookslovelyswan]

Also, you should never have to pay an agent or anyone a  “reading fee”! DO NOT PAY PEOPLE TO READ YOUR WORK!!! Run away from so-called agents that charge a reading fee! They are considered unethical in their own industry!

Also related to agents: Should you go this route and seek one, DO NOT PAY ONE DIME TO THEM upfront! A real agent only gets paid when he sells your book to a publisher! The average cut is about 10-15% of the first sale profits, if I remember right, with cuts of film and other rights maybe being more, when sold. At most, writers should only be responsible for the costs of phone calls and postage.

For more information see: How Literary Agents Get Paid. Standard Commission Practices and Payments for Literary Agents

Edited to Add: Some other great, highly respected resources for writing and getting published are:

Writer’s Digest

The Writer

Writer’s Market

[leehelps]

Making graphics, aesthetics, etc. is fun, but you know what isn’t fun? Using stolen and uncredited pictures. I know, I know, properly crediting people is such a hassle… so what if I told you that there were great sites with completely free pictures that require no attribution whatsoever out there? Under the cut is a list I have compiled with #28 sites that contain photos with no copyright restrictions or watermarks, sorted by quality and each with a short description. Please like and/or reblog if you found this useful!

Keep reading

[oc-growth-and-development]

As a kid, what did your OC want to be when they grew up?

[lindzwrites]

Dylan- He always wanted to be a famous musician. 

Aaron- He wanted to be an astronaut.

June- She wanted to be an Artist.

Felix- All he knew was that he wanted to live a wealthy lifestyle. *coughs* he does the opposite, but hey a kid can dream right?

Rose- She wanted to be a fashion designer.

[headspace-hotel]

[hallownest-archive-deactivated2]

imo the best way to interpret those “real people don’t do x” writing advice posts is “most people don’t do x, so if a character does x, it should be a distinguishing trait.” human behavior is infinitely varied; for any x, there are real people who do x. we can’t make absolute statements. we can, however, make probabilistic ones.

for example, most people don’t address each other by name in the middle of a casual conversation. if all your characters do that, your dialogue will sound stilted and unnatural. but if just one character does that, then it tells us something about that character.

[jauntylittlefrillyboy]

[writerwhofears]

THE FIRST DRAFT:

THE SECOND DRAFT:

THE THIRD + DRAFT:

THE FINAL DRAFT:

Never be discouraged by your first draft!

If you work it long enough, it will bend and mold into your hands until it transforms into whatever you wish— don’t give up!

Also: Never compare your first draft to someone else’s final draft!

There’s a ton of revisions, rewriting, and editing that goes on that readers never get to see. Nobody’s first draft comes out looking like their final draft!

[carrionkid]

would you like a nice glass of

[sometimesrosy]

Fun Things To Do During The Second Draft

I’ve spent a lot of time in my life writing first drafts. Sometimes they get finished, sometimes they don’t. But I’ve learned a lot from it.

The next phase, The Second Draft, is a comparatively new phase for me. Do not be fooled. Your book isn’t done after one go. And maintaining that energy long term, past the first blush of getting the story out, is part of writing.

Each time I do a second draft, I get better at second drafts. And this time… I’m kind of having fun with what used to be a torturous process of OHMYGOD WHATDIDIDO? HOWDIDIMESSTHISUP? HOWDOIFIXIT?

Now I understand that the first draft was me telling the story to myself and getting to know my characters and discovering how things happen. So the second draft is going back over it and detailing, expanding, hilighting, and fixing the comical mistakes that happened when I didn’t know my characters quite so well. Which are NOT a flaw or a sign that i can’t write, but part of the writing process and a sign of how much the story has grown and I have grown as a writer.

So. A list of fun things you can do while revising your first draft:

Toss in foreshadowing. that’s a hint, y’all. it’s gonna come back later. I know because i can’t wait til you see it.

Switch someone’s character description, gender, hobbies, personality traits, etc. Because some of my secondary characters went from little to big, or male to female to non binary, or from alive to dead. Shut up. don’t @ me. I kill people in my stories. Anyway, it’s quite a shocker to be reading my first draft and find a character I decided to kill off walking around and talking. No no. It’s not quite as bad when I misgender a character or have them speaking as a tough guy when they’re really quiet and spiritual. Or make them a tiny delicate girl instead of a physical force to be reckoned with. No no. Fix that. Ew. Gives me the willies.

Take out the “blah blah” OMG, shut up MC. I don’t want to hear you go on at length about how you feel about your sister. You know how when some boring person won’t shut up and you have to listen to them? Second draft. Don’t have to listen. Shut them up. Interrupt them. Have another character butt in and point out their mopiness. Make them take action instead of ruminating. BRING THE SISTER IN AND HAVE HER SHOVE IT IN HIS FACE. 

Laugh at how cardboard the MCs are in the beginning and then add in some details that you know from later to make them vaguely foolish… or maybe sad. Sometimes both. Both is good.

Come up with subplots for the secondary characters who were ignored the first time around and sprinkle that in throughout the whole story, so that by the time they get to the end, they too have had a transformation that we only realized in passing because it wasn’t the main plot.

Realize how small scenes through out the first draft connect to the larger universe you have created and realize that if you tweak this or that, you can set up BOOK TWO. Like, from the very beginning.

Oh yeah, those secondary characters with subtle character development? They’re getting a romance in the sequel. And that leads to conflict and connects with the politics and the science fiction. And OMG I’m discovering something about my new plot by revising my old one? YAY. I’m outlining book two while revising book one. Oh, the foreshadowing. 

Enjoy the story. Read it like a reader. If something turns you off or makes you close the doc, take that as a sign that it won’t thrill your reader either. That troublesome passage/chapter has a problem, and you need to puzzle it out. It’s a puzzle. Figure out what bothers you. Take it out or fix it. For me, I’ve seen too much blah-blah, a character who doesn’t belong in the story, a flat character who is boring, too much backstory, a passage that needs more action or dialogue, a character who is acting OOC. Each time it’s a sign that I need to give attention to the problem. And when I figure it out and fix it, it’s SO much better and I get happy again. 

Have fun with your second draft! It’s like a game where you can rearrange things and see how that changes the whole picture. 

[s-graves-writes]

How to Edit a First Draft

Or, how my WIP evolved from the nightmare that was draft two to the almost novel-like draft three.

My method for editing first drafts usually takes about two steps. 

Read it over.

Scrap it and rewrite the whole thing. 

Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that. I know, I know. It sounds really, really harsh. But with a first draft, you aren’t really editing it, you’re rewriting it. Because first drafts? They suck. Especially if you’re just starting out. 

Finishing a first draft can feel so good. You just wrote a shit-ton of words, and now you’re done! That’s how I felt when I finished my first draft (or, rather, second draft in this case, but that’s only because my first draft was a half-finished pile of trash that I won’t be counting for the purposes of this post). 

I mean, it’s how I wanted to feel. I was proud of the 50,000-odd words that I’d written, but I knew that it was full of structural problems, pacing issues, and even characterization. (Plus my main villain sucked. Like, really sucked.) 

So, without further ado, here are the slightly less simplified steps to rewriting that first draft: 

1. Get out a notebook, read over your manuscript, and take notes. 

Take notes on every scene. Ask yourself, is this scene necessary? Is it well-written?

Take notes on any ideas you have for improving the story. Would it be better if the love interest was also secretly a spy? Great! Now you have an interesting subplot. Write it down. 

Don’t get caught up in the little things. Does it say a character has blue eyes on one page and claim they’re green on the next? Are there a lot of grammar mistakes? Who cares. Is one of your characters consistently acting out-of-character? That’s a problem you should take note of. 

2. Find what’s wrong with it. 

There’s probably something wrong with your first draft. There’s probably a lot of things wrong. Are the characters flat/inconsistent? Is it rushed? Is the plot nonexistent/all over the place? Recognizing the problems is the first step to fixing them. 

3. Re-Outline

Even if you don’t outline, after reading over your first draft, you should probably make one. Even if the plot of your first draft was perfect, you should still write down the progression of events and how they fit together.

This will help during rewriting, and also to work out any issues you have in the plot. 

For me, this included brainstorms, timelines, and character arcs. 

4. Take the salvageable scenes from the first draft and put them in a document labeled “Draft 1 Highlights.” 

You’ll be very tempted to take the scenes you like and copy-paste them directly into the new draft. DO NOT DO THIS. Just don’t. Chances are, by the time you get to them, the story will be shifted. You’ll also limit the freedom of taking the plot in a better direction if you feel obligated to include pre-written scenes. 

Make sure to hold onto the first draft. I’ve used the first draft as reference several times during the re-writing process, especially toward the end, where the first and second drafts overlap a bit more. Even so, even if the scenes are similar, never copy-paste. Open the first draft in a second window and look at it as you rewrite. Your second draft will be better for it. 

5. Start writing. 

You’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t start writing. When it came to my manuscript, I wrote about three or four first chapters before I found one that worked (and ended up using one of the earlier beginnings as a flashback later on.) And if you want, you can go out of order! It’s up to you, and everything depends on the level of revisions your WIP needs. 

I hope this helps!

[wordsnstuff]

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

Medicine

A Study In Physical Injury

Comas

Medical Facts And Tips For Your Writing Needs

Broken Bones

Burns

Unconsciousness & Head Trauma

Blood Loss

Stab Wounds

Pain & Shock

All About Mechanical Injuries (Injuries Caused By Violence)

Writing Specific Characters

Portraying a kleptomaniac.

Playing a character with cancer.

How to portray a power driven character.

Playing the manipulative character.

Portraying a character with borderline personality disorder.

Playing a character with Orthorexia Nervosa.

Writing a character who lost someone important.

Playing the bullies.

Portraying the drug dealer.

Playing a rebellious character.

How to portray a sociopath.

How to write characters with PTSD.

Playing characters with memory loss.

Playing a pyromaniac.

How to write a mute character.

How to write a character with an OCD.

How to play a stoner.

Playing a character with an eating disorder.

Portraying a character who is anti-social.

Portraying a character who is depressed.

How to portray someone with dyslexia.

How to portray a character with bipolar disorder.

Portraying a character with severe depression.

How to play a serial killer.

Writing insane characters.

Playing a character under the influence of marijuana.

Tips on writing a drug addict.

How to write a character with HPD.

Writing a character with Nymphomania.

Writing a character with schizophrenia.

Writing a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Writing a character with depression.

Writing a character who suffers from night terrors.

Writing a character with paranoid personality disorder.

How to play a victim of rape.

How to play a mentally ill/insane character.

Writing a character who self-harms.

Writing a character who is high on amphetamines.

How to play the stalker.

How to portray a character high on cocaine.

Playing a character with ADHD.

How to play a sexual assault victim.

Writing a compulsive gambler.

Playing a character who is faking a disorder.

Playing a prisoner.

Portraying an emotionally detached character.

How to play a character with social anxiety.

Portraying a character who is high.

Portraying characters who have secrets.

Portraying a recovering alcoholic.

Portraying a sex addict.

How to play someone creepy.

Portraying sexually/emotionally abused characters.

Playing a character under the influence of drugs.

Playing a character who struggles with Bulimia.

Illegal Activity

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Domestic Abuse

Torture

Assault

Murder

Terrorism

Internet Fraud

Cyberwarfare

Computer Viruses

Corporate Crime

Political Corruption

Drug Trafficking

Human Trafficking

Sex Trafficking

Illegal Immigration

Contemporary Slavery 

Black Market Prices & Profits

AK-47 prices on the black market

Bribes

Computer Hackers and Online Fraud

Contract Killing

Exotic Animals

Fake Diplomas

Fake ID Cards, Passports and Other Identity Documents

Human Smuggling Fees

Human Traffickers Prices

Kidney and Organ Trafficking Prices

Prostitution Prices

Cocaine Prices

Ecstasy Pills Prices

Heroin Prices

Marijuana Prices

Meth Prices

Earnings From Illegal Jobs

Countries In Order Of Largest To Smallest Risk

Forensics

arson

Asphyxia

Blood Analysis

Book Review

Cause & Manner of Death

Chemistry/Physics

Computers/Cell Phones/Electronics

Cool & Odd-Mostly Odd

Corpse Identification

Corpse Location

Crime and Science Radio

crime lab

Crime Scene

Cults and Religions

DNA

Document Examination

Fingerprints/Patterned Evidence

Firearms Analysis

Forensic Anthropology

Forensic Art

Forensic Dentistry

Forensic History

Forensic Psychiatry

General Forensics

Guest Blogger

High Tech Forensics

Interesting Cases

Interesting Places

Interviews

Medical History

Medical Issues

Misc

Multiple Murderers

On This Day

Poisons & Drugs

Police Procedure

Q&A

serial killers

Space Program

Stupid Criminals

Theft

Time of Death

Toxicology

Trauma

[musicbasedmind]

reblog if you’re a safe place for:

lesbian

gay

bisexual

transgender

queer

pansexual

demisexual

ace

hopeless romantics

cis-men

cis-women

non binary folks

the whole spectrum etc…

follow everyone who reblogs ;)

[oc-growth-and-development]

Which OC can’t stand holiday music? Which OC takes full advantage of this fact to annoy the heck out of them?

[lindzwrites]

Dylan is the type of character who will listen to almost all music (except Christmas and country music) 

Aaron is the one playing Christmas music at all times during the month of December. It annoys Dylan quite a bit, but he lets Aaron enjoy the music, it’s what got Aaron through the holidays when he was a young child. 

[oc-growth-and-development]

How does your OC react to seeing the first snow of the season?

[lindzwrites]

Dylan- He would go outside, and watch it come down, it’s calming for him.

Aaron- He would get excited and run outside... He’s kind of a child at heart when he sees snow. 

Rose- She would groan at the thought and sight of snow.

June- She would get excited and go out and enjoy it, she used to live down south when she was younger, so she never truly enjoyed it until she moved up north during her last year of high school, although she has taken trips during winter. 

Felix- He doesn’t care, he sees it as any other type of weather.

[ancwritingresources]

Do you have any tips for writing short stories?

After three years and a degree in creative writing where 95% of the time we wrote short stories, I’m sorry to report that they are still the bane of my existence. I can never seen to focus in on one idea for so short of time; once I have a plot, I want to expand it, to see it grow, to find all its intricacies and stretch it out for a 60k+ word novel. But in truth, short stories are not so very different from novels except that they generally should stick with one plot rather than have one over arching plot and several sub plots woven in. They still need a strong character, still need rising action, resolution, still need to grasp a reader’s attention from the first sentence. 

Here are some resources I hope will help:

Short Story Tips: 10 Ways to Improve Your Creative Writing

How to Write a Short Story From Start to Finish

10 Steps to a Great Read

5 Secret Tips to Writing a Successful Short Story

In my experience, I find it easiest to write short stories if I am focused on a single scene. For example “this is the story of what happened during one traffic jam.” Many interesting things can happen here, but perhaps not enough to fill a novel. If I am stuck with one location and one short burst of time, I am forced to really hone in on that one story, and this helps to fight off my instinct to tell 10 stories at once.

You may also want to check out these links:

Should You Write a Novel or a Short Story?

Short Story or Novel Idea: How Do You Tell?

Is Your Idea a Short Story or a Novel?

[lindzwrites]

686 words in and counting..

instead of working on my actual story line for Dylan, I’m now writing an Alternate Universe... I am kind of wanting to share the document, but I am kind of scared to! 

[writersinthedark]

SHORT STORY TIPS <3

Under the cut because it’ll be a long post :p

LET’S DO THIS!

FIRST TIP:

You have very little room for characterisation. Keep this in mind when creating you babies. Try to make their voices as distinct as possible to still create well-rounded characters.

THIS ALSO MEANS:

You should keep your cast as small as possible. Very few or no side characters makes expanding on the mains easier. 

SECOND TIP:

Keep your world simple or well known. A recurring world, like horrible government lead corruptly has been done to death. Use this, or any other overdone world, as a basis for your own. BUT don’t just copy a pre-existing world. Add a few elements to make it your own. 

Otherwise, 2016 earth is bad enough for a dystopian or horror story!

THIRD TIP:

Subplots only add length in the case of short stories. If you want to add something similar, make it practically resolved at the start of the story.

E.g, have two characters kiss at the start of the story.

This will add stakes, without too much extra length.

FOURTH TIP:

Exposition is unnecessary. If there is a story type where you need to start in the middle of the action, it’s a short story (or flash fiction). This includes a romantic scene like kissing or first date in a romantic story. Start at (one of the most) interesting moments.

FIFTH TIP:

Your choice of words needs to be strong. Of course this also applies to regular, longer stories, but it is also immensely important in short stories, because the reader has no time to get invested in the story and characters. Short stories can be read in one, often short, sitting. 

SIXTH TIP:

Add emotion, lots of it. Make your story as memorable as possible, because no one, besides you or possibly an editor, will spend long in your world and with your characters. They need to be as strong as possible. If you can make your reader cry or laugh out loud, bonus points. Strong emotions will add memorability (is that even a word?). This also gets people talking about your story and you as an author.

FINAL TIP: (for now, ask if you have any questions)

Short stories need planning. How much depends on you as the author and the story, but have a plan. Excess scenes stand out. A lot. They will distract from the important content. Readers dislike excess scenes.

Short stories are also amazing to practice planning and storytelling. Use this to your advantage.

That was it for today

Ask if you have any unanswered questions, I’d love to answer them and help you.

[writeouswriter]

Me Writing Angst: