[philameangrey]

[devildolphin99]

Brick-House!

[ruesdeluxe]

[easymoneyyb]

[cutecipher]

there's art inside me trying to get out

[beneathmysurface69]

Pulled into a kiss by the throat

[dolce-romantixa]

𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒊 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆

S T E P • B Y • S T E P • R O U T I N E

1. Grab snacks and drinks

By “long periods of time”, I usually mean over a hour or two. these are just refreshments so that you don’t get up mid paragraph to grab a snack—it’s already right there!

2. Make sure my desk space is clean

If my area isn’t tidy, it feels hard to focus. It can be easier to look through things or overall just lock in.

3. Grab fidgets or something to just stim with

This is purely optional, it’s hard to explain but this is just something I do

4. Set small goals one by one

Open a wip/draft you’re working on, and set one goal to reach. I usually set a list of multiple small tasks that I can do after the other. This reduces the stress of a “50k words per chapter today” mantra in your head

5. Block out as many distractions as possible

When writing, silence notifications for texts and apps that are tempting to doomscroll on.

6. Take 10-20 minute breaks depending on how long you’re writing

This is your chance to stretch, scroll a bit, refill snacks or drinks, and use the bathroom. This actually helps a lot by preventing mental fatigue and eye strain (from looking at your laptop/screen)

7. Don’t push yourself

If you feel tired or uninspired, don’t force yourself to write. Your writing won’t come out as good as it is when you have a creative flow!

—————— 𝜗ৎ ——————

Sorry for the not-so-in-depth post, but I hope this helps!

[mydearzero]

Writing all the tension that comes before the smut:

Writing the smut:

Writing the fun things and dynamics after the smut:

[bamb1ss]

like

[slickathanmost]

[cutecipher]

there's art inside me trying to get out

[honeycocoanut]

@Soulfruitt on IG

[ruesdeluxe]

[househunting]

$10,950,000/4 br/7 ba

E 31st St, NYC

[luna-azzurra]

Random Character Traits!!! Part 2

⟡ Becomes a completely different and more capable person after 10 PM

⟡ Has done their best work at hours that would horrify a doctor

⟡ Greets morning people with the respect you give someone who speaks a different language

⟡ Gets a second wind at the exact moment a reasonable person would go to sleep

⟡ Considers noon an early start and means it without irony

⟡ Has a whole creative process that only activates in the dark

⟡ Functions on a schedule that has no name in any time zone

⟡ Refers to the hour before sunrise as the most peaceful time and is correct

⟡ Has had more good ideas between midnight and 3 AM than in all of their daytime hours combined

⟡ Considers going to bed before midnight 'giving up'

⟡ Watches the sky get light from the wrong direction because they stayed up rather than woke up

⟡ Has cooked full meals, started projects, and solved real problems at 2 AM without issue

⟡ Schedules important personal decisions for after midnight when their brain finally cooperates

⟡ Gets sleepy at 7 PM and then dramatically un-sleepy at 11 PM with no explanation

⟡ Does their best thinking when the rest of the world has gone quiet

[luna-azzurra]

Random Character Traits!!! Part 4

⟡ Has never had a normal trip to the grocery store in their entire life

⟡ Sits down in a public place and something unusual happens within five minutes

⟡ Gets approached by strangers with problems in every city they have ever visited

⟡ Is present for more bizarre coincidences than statistics can comfortably explain

⟡ Attracts animals that are supposedly afraid of people

⟡ Has a story about every object in their possession because every object has a story

⟡ Goes somewhere simple and comes back with an anecdote that takes fifteen minutes to tell

⟡ Gets involved in other people's situations without trying simply by being in the vicinity

⟡ Has been in the right place at the wrong time and the wrong place at the right time an equal number of times

⟡ Encounters the one person they were thinking about in any given city at any given moment

⟡ Has had things happen to them that other people experience only as urban legends

⟡ Gets the one broken seat, the one late order, and the one unusual neighbor every time

⟡ Is the reason a group of people have a story they still tell ten years later

[luna-azzurra]

Signs your romance subplot has absolutely no tension (sry)

♡ they meet and immediately like each other (goodbye conflict, we barely knew you)

♡ the only thing keeping them apart is a misunderstanding that one conversation would fix

♡ both characters describe the other as "beautiful" within three pages of meeting

♡ their chemistry is told not shown (the narrator insists they have spark. they don't.)

♡ the love interest has no personality outside of loving the protagonist

♡ they argue once, make up immediately, never argue again

♡ obstacles are external. they always agree with each other about everything.

♡ the rival love interest exists for two chapters then vanishes without explanation

♡ they almost kiss. something interrupts. this happens four times. on the fifth time they kiss. the end.

♡ the love interest is described as funny, clever, and kind. we see none of this.

♡ their big emotional moment is in the rain. it is always in the rain.

♡ the breakup lasts exactly one chapter before they reconcile

♡ "i've never felt this way before" said by someone with no prior emotional history

♡ both confess feelings at the same time. no awkwardness. no stakes. just synchronized emotion.

♡ their first kiss is perfect. no bumped noses. no wrong angle. cinematic and frictionless.

♡ jealousy subplot introduced and dropped without consequence

♡ they have one shared interest and it is the plot

♡ trauma bonding mistaken for romantic chemistry (these are different things)

♡ the side characters ship them loudly. this is not a substitute for actual tension.

♡ one of them dies temporarily. other is devastated. they come back. no lasting emotional damage.

♡ they end up together because the plot ends, not because they chose each other

♡ epilogue: married with children. every loose end tied. nothing left to feel.

[luna-azzurra]

Tips for Writing Grief! (AGAIN)

the five stages of grief were never meant to be a checklist your character moves through in chronological order across three chapters. Let me save you from writing a grieving character who is simply having scheduled emotions:

⊹ Grief is not primarily crying. i know that sounds wrong but hear me out. a lot of grief looks like doing laundry. cooking something the person liked and then not being able to eat it. watching a show they recommended and never told anyone you finished it. grief goes very quiet and very domestic for long stretches and then ambushes you at completely unreasonable moments like a petrol station or a Friday at 4pm for no reason at all.

⊹ people who are grieving often seem fine. not because they're suppressing or being brave or in denial, but because humans are genuinely capable of functioning and being devastated at the same time. your grieving character can make jokes. can go to work. can have a good day. can feel guilty about the good day. can feel guilty about not feeling guilty. grief has a very active internal bureaucracy that has nothing to do with what's visible on the outside.

⊹ Grief also changes shape over time in ways that aren't necessarily about getting better. the first year is often adrenaline, there are things to do, people around, ritual and structure. year two is frequently harder because the adrenaline is gone and the world has moved on and expects you to have moved on with it. your character being more visibly undone eighteen months later than at the funeral is not a pacing problem. it's accurate.

⊹ The relationship with the dead person doesn't stop. this is the one writers get most wrong. your grieving character is still in a relationship , still arguing with the person in their head, still updating them on things, still furious about something left unsaid, still finding out new things about them from other people and having to integrate a version of them they didn't fully know. grief is not the end of the relationship. it's the relationship continuing without any new information coming in.

[ruesdeluxe]

[addiah]

Zeebee G