Words! Mere Words! @merewords - Tumblr Blog

WEBSITES FOR WRITERS {masterpost}

E.A. Deverell - FREE worksheets (characters, world building, narrator, etc.) and paid courses;

Hiveword - Helps to research any topic to write about (has other resources, too);

BetaBooks - Share your draft with your beta reader (can be more than one), and see where they stopped reading, their comments, etc.;

Charlotte Dillon - Research links;

Writing realistic injuries - The title is pretty self-explanatory: while writing about an injury, take a look at this useful website;

One Stop for Writers - You guys... this website has literally everything we need: a) Description thesaurus collection, b) Character builder, c) Story maps, d) Scene maps & timelines, e) World building surveys, f) Worksheets, f) Tutorials, and much more! Although it has a paid plan ($90/year | $50/6 months | $9/month), you can still get a 2-week FREE trial;

One Stop for Writers Roadmap - It has many tips for you, divided into three different topics: a) How to plan a story, b) How to write a story, c) How to revise a story. The best thing about this? It's FREE!

Story Structure Database - The Story Structure Database is an archive of books and movies, recording all their major plot points;

National Centre for Writing - FREE worksheets and writing courses. Has also paid courses;

Penguin Random House - Has some writing contests and great opportunities;

Crime Reads - Get inspired before writing a crime scene;

The Creative Academy for Writers - "Writers helping writers along every step of the path to publication." It's FREE and has ZOOM writing rooms;

Reedsy - "A trusted place to learn how to successfully publish your book" It has many tips, and tools (generators), contests, prompts lists, etc. FREE;

QueryTracker - Find agents for your books (personally, I've never used this before, but I thought I should feature it here);

Pacemaker - Track your goals (example: Write 50K words - then, everytime you write, you track the number of the words, and it will make a graphic for you with your progress). It's FREE but has a paid plan;

Save the Cat! - The blog of the most known storytelling method. You can find posts, sheets, a software (student discount - 70%), and other things;

I hope this is helpful for you!

(Also, check my gumroad store if you want to!)

thesnadger

Hurt/Comfort is such an interesting thing. It’s basically an entire genre of fanfiction. I’d argue it satisfies a very basic, vital need–the same way that horror satisfies the basic need to be scared in a safe, controllable space.

And yet it doesn’t really have an equivalent outside of fan culture. "Tearjerkers” can sometimes come close, they’re probably the closest thing to a mainstream hurt/comfort genre that there is. But those types of books and movies don’t usually focus on the “comfort” aspect in the same way, and don’t make use of tension and release.

I think every good hurt/comfort fic makes use of tension and release just as horror does, whether the writer is consciously aware of it or not. Though of course the tension and release in h/c comes from different sources than in horror. Instead of anticipating something frightening, you anticipate the intimacy and/or validation that comes from the “comfort” part you know is eventually coming. That’s what provides release of the tension built up during the “hurt” scenes.

I could write a goddamned essay about this it’s so fascinating.

pinesinthewoods-deactivated2023

This is a great definition/analysis of it! I’ve been interested in this too. It’s always been my favorite fanfiction genre. It’s to the point where reading just angst is not enough, there is something left unfulfilled if the character does not have the ‘tension and release’ and just remains under whatever stressor at the end. I think part of the reason I like it so much, is often in mainstream media characters DO NOT have that ‘healing moment’, shall we say. Too often, there may be a sad/traumatic/stressful event and the character is shown to just pick themselves up from it and move on like nothing happened. Which is not realistic as we all know, so I think the hurt/comfort genre in fanfiction is a kind of a response to that. The “filling in the blanks” of when a character needs a moment of healing or validation to continue onward, because that in a sense is more relatable then the “super hero” character who can move through it like nothing damaged them.

fannishcodex

this is a very good definition of it and why I probably like it so much

hippity-hoppity-brigade

imo h/c is also built on the trust between two or more people. that when one of them falls there WILL be someone to validate their pain, soothe their wounds (physical or emotional), and not only pick them back up but remain with them even when they’re back on they’re feet. it’s not hurt/recovery; it’s not the super-human, masochist bullshit mentioned above.

h/c builds a world in which we (as readers and in part as the parts of characters we identify with) are given permission to fall apart. h/c is the freedom to show pain because you know that there are people who will notice you being hurt – and will do their best to not only comfort you, but will also validate your reasons for being hurt, take your side completely, and help you get to the place you need to be to recover.

kimuracarter

OMG THAT LAST ADDITION

laylainalaska

Yessss. I love the tension/release point in particular.

I think in some ways h/c works the same way as romance, where you start out in a dark place and there’s lots of tension about WILL IT END HAPPILY but you know it will; they have doubts but you’re reading for that eventual catharsis when love wins and trust is rewarded, and everyone is going to be okay.

I also feel like, adding onto “validates your pain” - most of us have particular character(s) we prefer in h/c - that is, we don’t want h/c with just anybody, it’s certain characters, and usually with certain people comforting, and I think there’s also an element of “it validates their pain.”

And not necessarily just because of comfort; even if what you’re into is straight-up hurt (or whump) in fic, it’s still the focus - it makes it important. I think sometimes people are drawn to this just because on some level it validates everything the character went through in canon. It doesn’t even have to directly deal with whatever happened to them in canon. But it seems like in those cases when fandoms have a heavy preference for a specific character they want to see hurt and/or comforted (Neal, for example, or Tony, or Bucky) there’s also a sense in the fandom that canon never adequately dealt with their trauma and/or pain, so it’s very comforting and reassuring to readers to read and write fic in which their trauma and pain is central.

silverquillsideas

headspace-hotel

what people think is hard about writing: describing the joy, love, beauty, grief, loss and hope that form the richness of human experience

what is actually hard about writing: describing basic actions such as turning, leaning over, reclining, gesturing, saying something in a quiet voice, breathing, getting up from chairs, and walking across rooms

kcrabb88

I’m

daybreakx

#me as hell

bpd-dylan-hall-deactivated20190

“our teeth and ambitions are bared” is a zeugma

and it’s a zeugma where one of the words is literal and one is metaphorical which is the BEST KIND

tuesdayisfordancing

I didn’t know about zeugmas until just now! That is so awesome, everybody:

zeug·ma ˈzo͞oɡmə/

noun

a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g.,John and his license expired last week ) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts ).

ISN’T THAT AWESOME??

professorsparklepants

#in english class in high school my teacher had us write our own zeugmas in class#and one guy came up with ‘he fell from her favor… and the window’#i am forever looking for opportunities to use that one

siesiegirl

She dropped her dress and inhibitions at the door.

crumbvulet

What’s this? My favorite rhetorical device showing up on my dashboard?

thranduilland

IT HAS A NAMEEEE!! OH MY GOD!!!

grell-writes-stuff

Creative writing prof: You’re in control. You’re the puppet master. You control these characters - what they do, what they say, what they think-

Every writer I know: My characters stopped listening to me and now I’m 8272836 words in to a plot that went of the rails on page 3

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

doomedyuri

me, thinking about my dumb ocs:

valtsv

fanfic titles be like “we have not touched the stars (nor are we forgiven)” and then you look at the tags & the first one is “anal fisting”

fgrobichiko

Ain’t gonna find the stars up there bucko

captainmera

trying to get your story together like:

captainmera

Explaining your story to a willing ear:

captainmera

“I really like your story! is there more?”

captainmera

“I like this character, is there more about them?”

kirbyscreeper

I’m the willing ear with most anyone’s stories/universes!!! I wanna know everything about everyone!!!!!!!

post--grad

my writing ability currently feels on par with that of like…. a seven year old. i’m just writing one sentence. then another sentence. subject verb object, dependent clause period. do any of them relate? unclear. that is for god to decide. i certainly can’t.

antique-scarecrow

the url makes this so much funnier

bunnylikearabbit

leave-her-a-tome

“For The Plot,” I whisper, deleting a rad detail that no longer works as tears fall from my eyes

saltoftheao3

Golden Rules for Fanfiction Readers:

if the fic already has a thousand comments, comment still. Your comment will still matter and delight the author.

if a fic is a decade old and the author hasn’t been active in the last five years, comment still. There will come a time when the author will read and cherish your comment, or maybe it will motivate them enough to start writing again. You never know!

if the author never responds to comments, comment still. Interaction with the author is a very nice bonus, but you can be sure that even if the author doesn’t answer, they will read it and enjoy it at some point

there’s no such thing as a too long comment.

there’s no such thing as a too incoherent comment.

the author will give no flying fuck about any gramatical errors, typo or other misspellings. If you’re a non-native speaker struggling to express themselves, you can be sure the author will be all the more pleased that you surmounted the language barrier to let them know you appreciated their work. Don’t be afraid!

there’s no such thing as commenting too often.

you will never, ever come across as creepy by obsessing over a fic or an author to the point where you worry the author might think you’re a stalker. On the contrary, the author will be delighted by your investment in their work.

say thank you. It’s always appreciated to see readers acknowledge the work and commitment that is put into writing.

the floaty review box (ao3 add-on) is your friend

be positive and encouraging. Positive reviews make writers all warm and glowy from the inside, bashing plunge their soul into icy darkness. You want the first, not the second!

whoever you are, if you read their fic, YOU are IMPORTANT to the author. Let them know you’re there!

(if any author wants to contradict one of those rules, please let me know!)

(Submitted by @randomishnickname)

marypsue

Sometimes fanfiction is a love letter to the original canon, sometimes it’s just that one telegram that says “Fuck you. Strongly worded letter to follow”.