Everything I Love

34yo. Marvel, Moon Knight, Captain America trio, Star Wars, Middle-Earth saga, Harry Potter, SPN, Rick Riordanverse. Egyptology, Science, History, Creative Writing enthusiast. Writer. 🇮🇩

[writers-potion]

MASTERPOST (PT. 1)

Daily Writerly Updates! | Open to post requests & questions My Writing Tea & Tips Community: @@writing-tea-tips

+ Feel free to chat with me anytime :) Think of me as your next door writer neighbor 🏡

If you like my blog, buy me a coffee☕ and find me on instagram! 📸

For worldbuilding, vocab lists, weapons &fighting, and more: MASTERPOST PART 2>>

❤️ Romance Writing Prompts

Meet-Cute Ideas

Reponses to: "How Could You?"

Responses to: "Break my heart." 💔

How would you develop a relationship that’s been constantly one-sided?

Enemies-to-Lovers Dialogue Prompts

List of Relationship Tropes <3

Library Romance Prompts

Arranged Marriage Prompts

Responses to: "I love you"

Soulmates AU Prompts

"I love you but I don't" Prompts

Romance Novel Tropes & Subgenres: a comprehensive list

The Romantic Academic

Forbidden Love Dialogue Prompts

Angry Love Confessions

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☕📜Writing Scenes

Scenes: The Basics🏕️

Structuring Your Fight Scene

Writing Funny (But Intense) Action Scenes

Ideas for Flashback Scenes

Writing The Perfect Kiss Scene

Fantasy Battle Scenes 101

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✧𑁍.ೃPlot Tips & Tropes

A Very Brief Outline of the Three-Act Structure

Plot Type 1: "The Quest"

Writing Text Conversations - follower question

Fairy Murder Method Ideas 

Gossiping Scene Idea Prompts

Child Eating Fairies Ideas + The Mysterious Cave Trope - follower question

Writing Political Intrigue

Comforting a Fire Girl Scene - follower question

Energize a Sluggy Middle

2 Types of Deaths in Fiction

Literary vs. Commercial Plots

Fantasy Tropes that I Love

Writing the Perfect Betrayal 

Writing Strong Opening Lines

Plotting Tips for Romantasy

Dark Fantasy Tropes List

Dark Academic Plot Must-Haves 

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✩₊˚.⋆☾ POV Related

1st vs. 3rd POV For Mad Characters

Emotionless Character POV

🧛🏻‍♀️Character Writing Tips

Redeeming The Bad Boy Character

How to Write Redemption Arcs 

Writing Diverse Characters - Things to Remember

Character Nickname Ideas

How to Write Liars Believably

Choosing the Right Character

Organizing Character Relationships

Writing 1st POV Character Fears 

Introducing Non-binary Characters

Teasing Sibling Dialogue Prompts

Writing A Drug Addict Character

No Redemption Villains

Emotions and humanity for the Non-Human Character - follower question

Writing Gangsters

Characterization: Unforgettable Characters

Human Feelings for the Non-Human Character

The Character Arc: 101

Emotional Mini BIO

Writing Autistic Characters

On Writing Blind Characters

Writing Homosexual Characters 

Establishing the MC-Reader Bond

Writing Child Characters Believably 

Toxic Parent Prompts

Writing Morally Gray Characters 

Writing the "Mean Girl" Character

Writing Introverted Characters

Strong Female Characters 

Fantastical Asian Monsters (Part I)

🕐List of Dirty Character Traits

Dark Backstory Ideas

Good Characer Traits to bad

A List of Toxic Traits for Your Character 

Character Names with Unfortunate Meanings

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MASTERPOST PART 2>>

[luna-azzurra]

Things to consider when writing a character!! --1

⊹ What do they want vs what do they need. these should not be the same thing. what they want is the surface goal ( the job, the person, the revenge, the answer.) What they need is the thing underneath that they can't name yet. The story is what happens in the gap between those two things. if they're identical your character has nowhere to go.

⊹ What are they wrong about. Not morally wrong necessarily. just. what belief do they hold that the story is going to test. What assumption do they make about themselves or the world that turns out to be incomplete? A character without a wrong belief is already finished. They have no arc, give them something to learn even if learning it hurts them.

⊹ How do they talk when they're nervous. Do they go quiet or do they talk too much? do they deflect with jokes? do they get weirdly formal? do they ask questions instead of answering them? the way a person behaves under pressure is who they actually are. And it should be different from how they behave when they're comfortable.

⊹ What do they find funny. this one sounds small and it is not small at all. Humour is worldview. What makes someone laugh tells you what they value, what they're afraid of, how they handle pain. A character with no sense of humour is just flat. even the gravest person finds something absurd. find the thing.

⊹ What are they ashamed of? not their tragic backstory. their actual shame. The small ugly thing they would never say out loud. The time they were a coward. The feeling they pretend not to have. The desire they think disqualifies them from being a good person. Shame is where the most interesting character work lives and most writers skip straight over it :(

⊹ What do they do when no one is watching? how do they move through a space alone. What do they reach for when they're sad. What do they do with their hands??? Public behaviour IS performance. Private behaviour is truth. you don't have to show all of it but you have to know it or the character will feel hollow in a way the reader notices without being able to name.

[luna-azzurra]

Things to consider when writing a character!! --2

continuing--

⊹ How do they treat people who can't do anything for them? Waitstaff? strangers? people they'll never see again? this is the oldest trick in the book for a reason. It works. How someone behaves toward people with no social utility tells you everything about their actual values versus the values they perform for an audience.

⊹ What's their relationship with their own body? Are they comfortable in it or is it something they carry around like a problem? do they take up space or make themselves small? are they aware of how they look or completely indifferent? Physicality is psychology and most writers forget the body entirely until someone needs to throw a punch.

⊹ What do they lie about and why. Not dramatic plot lies necessarily. the small everyday ones. the things they exaggerate or omit or reframe. Because people don't lie randomly, they lie to protect something. Find what your character is protecting and you'll find what they're afraid of. That fear is the ENGINE!!

⊹ Who did they used to be? not their whole backstory. just: who were they before the thing that changed them. because that person is still in there somewhere, showing up in small ways, wanting things the current version of them would never admit to. The ghost of a former self is one of the most interesting things you can write into a character without ever stating it directly.

⊹ What would make them walk away?? from the goal. from the relationship. from the person they're trying to be. everyone has a breaking point and it should be specific to them, and please not a generic "too much" but the exact thing, the particular betrayal or loss or realisation that would finally be enough. know this even if the story never reaches it.

⊹ What do they love that has nothing to do with the plot?? a specific kind of light in the afternoon. the smell of old paperback books. bad television they watch without apology. something small that belongs only to them. details like this cost you nothing and they make the reader believe in a person completely. characters who only care about plot-relevant things are not people. they're chess pieces. sorry not sorry.

[zendayacolemann]

We go together.

DAISY RIDLEY as REY, JOHN BOYEGA as FINN, OSCAR ISAAC as POE DAMERON in STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (2019)

[creativepromptsforwriting]

List of Superpowers

An incomplete list of powers that can be used for good and evil.

amalgamation – ability to merge existing creations

attack powers – blasting, shock waves, object projection, fire breath, laser vision, etc.

creation – ability to create out of nothing

dream manipulation – ability to change dreams

echolocation – ability to determine locations through reflected sound waves

elasticity – ability to stretch their body in any way

element control - ability to control the elements

emotions manipulation – ability to manipulate the emotions of others and themselves

empathy – ability to feel and replicate the emotions, moods, and temperaments of others

energy absorption – ability to absorb energy from people and objects and use it

enhanced physical skills – like senses, stamina, strength, accuracy, intelligence, speed, etc.

fear inducement – ability to evoke extreme fear and horror in others

flight – ability to fly

hypnosis – ability to hypnotise and manipulate others

immortality – not being able to die

immutability – not being able to get altered by outside forces

invisibility – impossible to see

invulnerability – being immune to all forms of physical harm

knowledge replication – ability to replicate the knowledge and skills of others

levitation – ability to levitate in the air

magic – conjuring things

mind control – having control over another’s mind

omnilingualism – ability to speak and understand every language

portal creation – ability to create portals for transport

psychokinesis – ability to move energy and matter

reality warping – ability to manipulate reality

regeneration – ability to rapidly heal

replication – ability to replicate people (including themselves) and objects

self-detonation – ability to self-explode

shapeshifting – ability to change their appearance

telekinesis – ability to move objects with their mind

telepathy – ability to communicate through their minds

teleportation – ability to instantaneously travel

temperature resistance – ability to survive extreme temperatures

vocal mind control – ability to control people with their voice

x-ray vision – ability to see x-rays

More: Hero & Villain Masterpost

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee or become a member! And check out my Instagram! 🥰

[luna-azzurra]

Some writing advice I will never give up:

Your characters are allowed to be bad people. Your story is allowed to have no moral lesson.yyour ending is allowed to be sad. The villain can win. The good person can do something unforgivable. The lovers can destroy each other. You are allowed to write the thing that no one asked for and everything that everyone told you doesn’t work and you are allowed to not explain yourself.

It’s your story. Burn it down if you want to.

[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.

[heywriters]

Ivy League teacher makes students use typewriters to fight against AI-written work

Once each semester, Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, introduces her students to the raw feeling of

Not only did this experiment prevent plagiarism, it also taught her students to become better writers and thinkers.

"No screens, online dictionaries, spellcheckers, or delete keys."

Concerning the AI papers she kept receiving: “What’s the point of me reading it if it’s already correct anyway, and you didn’t write it yourself? Could you produce it without your computer?”

From one of her students,

“ 'While writing the essay, I had to talk a lot more, socialize a lot more, which I guess was normal back then...it’s drastically different from how we interact within the classroom in modern times. People are always on a laptop, always on the phone.' Without a delete key and the ability to correct every mistake, he paused to think more intentionally about his writing."

"Most students found their pinkies weren’t strong enough to touch-type, so they typed more slowly, pecking at the keyboard with their index fingers."

Another student said,

" 'This thing I handed in had pencil marks all over it and definitely did not look clean or finished. But it’s part of the process of learning that you’re going to make mistakes'..."

All this in a college level foreign language class. I cannot imagine attempting to pass a language class using AI and then expect to somehow magically speak it! Why pay buckets of money to be taught something and then refuse to actually learn it?

Whatever, I'm going back to hand writing my stories because relying on devices that keep breaking down on me is nuts.

[heywriters]

Would love one of these little ones!

[luna-azzurra]

Tips for Writing Injuries! (AGAIN)

Your action hero just got shot in the shoulder, stitched it up in a motel bathroom, and is now running through a forest. I need you to know that a shoulder wound severs muscle, nerves, and sometimes bone, and the human body's response to that is not "mild wincing followed by full range of motion." here is what injuries actually do to peoplee...

⊹ Adrenaline is REAL and it does allow people to do extraordinary things immediately after injury, BUT it is a loan, not a gift. you borrow the function and you pay it back later with interest. Your character might genuinely be able to run for twenty minutes after being stabbed. and then the adrenaline drops and everything the body was delaying arrives all at once. the collapse is NOT weakness. it's biology collecting its debt. write the debt collection. it's more interesting than the heroic sprint anyway.

⊹ Blood loss changes cognition before it drops you. you don't go from "fine" to "unconscious." you go through a whole middle stage of confusion, poor decision-making, emotional dysregulation, a strange calm, tunnel vision, difficulty forming sentences. Your injured character making a bad call, saying something they normally wouldn't, becoming suddenly and inexplicably gentle--that's blood loss. use the middle stage. it's dramatically rich and almost nobody writes it.

⊹ Recovery has a timeline and the timeline is long and boring and inconvenient to plot. a broken rib takes six weeks and during those six weeks sneezing is a genuine emergency. a concussion means no screens, no reading, no bright lights, and symptoms can persist for months. a stab wound to the abdomen means weeks of infection risk, limited mobility, and a specific kind of exhaustion that has nothing to do with sleep. Your character being sidelined and frustrated and useless for a long time is not a narrative problem. it's the story.

⊹ Pain also affects personality in ways writers skip. chronic pain makes people short-tempered and then guilty about being short-tempered. it makes concentration difficult. it makes intimacy complicated, both emotional and physical. a character who was patient and warm before their injury and is now snappy and withdrawn is not a character regression. they're in pain. pain is exhausting in ways that don't show on the outside. the people around them noticing and not knowing how to help is a whole story in itself.

[important-cat-pics]

[drunk-text]

Bucky?!

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

#know your fandom history

[writerswritecompany]

[luna-azzurra]

Tips for Writing Trauma!

i love you all and i need you to stop writing trauma as a single breakdown scene in the rain after which the character is Healed and Ready to Love Again. that is NOT trauma :(

⊹ Trauma doesn't announce itself. it shows up as your character suddenly not being able to eat a specific food, or going very quiet in a loud room, or laughing at the wrong moment because their nervous system decided that was the appropriate response. it's mundane and weird and it makes no sense from the outside. the dramatic flashback sequence is the least realistic part. the most realistic part is your character suddenly needing to leave a grocery store for a reason they can't articulate.

⊹ The body keeps score and it keeps it in the strangest places. a particular smell. the quality of light at a certain time of day. a tone of voice that sounds like someone who hurt them. your traumatised character doesn't think "this reminds me of the bad thing." their heart rate spikes and they don't know why. they feel wrong and they can't locate the feeling. they're irritable for three days and only later, if ever, do they make the connection. write the disconnection. it's more honest.

⊹ trauma also does not make people universally sympathetic and wise. it makes some people controlling. some people funny at inappropriate times. some people very good in a crisis and completely unable to handle a normal day. some people are generously kind to strangers and absolutely terrible to people they love. trauma shapes behaviour in contradictory, inconvenient ways that don't resolve into a lesson. your traumatised character can be difficult to like. that's not a flaw in the writing. that's the WRITING.

⊹ Healing is not linear and it is not a destination. your character does not get better and stay better. they have a good month and then something small undoes two years of progress and they have to start again with slightly more tools than before. that's the actual shape of it. the spiral, not the arc. the scene where they finally open up and cry is not the end. it might not even be progress. sometimes it just means they were tired that night.

[luna-azzurra]

Things to consider when Writing about Schools/Academies!!

⊹ What is this school actually for. training mages? knights? spies? just normal education? because "prestigious academy" means nothing if you don't know what they're prestigious at

⊹ Who gets in and how. is it merit based, do you have to be rich, legacy admissions, secret tests, random selection, born with the right abilities. what happens to kids who don't make the cut

⊹ What's the age range. are these literal children or young adults or mixed ages. because a school with 11 year olds has very different problems than one with 18 year olds

⊹ How strict is it. prison vibes with tons of rules? pretty chill? different rules for different student groups (which is unfair and causes drama)?

⊹ What are the social hierarchies. obviously there are cliques but what are they based on. wealth? power level? what year you're in? family name? talent?

⊹ What happens if you fail or get expelled. are you just sent home in shame or is it worse. do people sometimes not survive the training. how often do students drop out or disappear

⊹ Who are the teachers and why are they teaching. washed up former heroes? people who never left? actually passionate educators? suspicious people using it as a cover? mix of all of them probably

⊹ What's forbidden. certain magic, certain areas of campus, relationships between students, leaving grounds, specific books/knowledge. and obviously your protagonist will break these rules

⊹ How do students get sorted/grouped. houses? teams? specializations? randomly? and do these groups have rivalries because they should

⊹ What's the curriculum actually like. is it actually useful or are they learning weird outdated stuff. are there classes that are just covers for something else. what are the hardest classes

⊹ Where is this school located. isolated castle? middle of a city? pocket dimension? floating island? does it move? can students leave or are they stuck there

⊹ What traditions does the school have. tournaments, festivals, hazing rituals (the dark kind), graduation ceremonies, weird old customs nobody questions

⊹ Is there corruption in the faculty/administration. favoritism, taking bribes, secret agendas, covering up student deaths, embezzling, working for the villain

⊹ What's the diversity situation. is it segregated somehow (by class, species, magic type)? integrated but with tension? do some groups face discrimination from staff or other students?

⊹ What happens outside of classes. clubs? underground fight rings? secret societies? banned parties? students sneaking out? romantic drama?

⊹ Why is your protagonist specifically there. chosen one nonsense? hiding from something? forced to attend? actually wants to learn? found out they have powers and got dragged there confused?

[fixyourwritinghabits]

I love writing and I love coming up with great ideas for stories and reading about how to write, etc. But, I sit down to write and nothing ever comes out of my head and onto the paper. I write outline after outline, but I can't put it together and when I do, it's shorter than expected and often a mess. What can I do to improve my ability to actually write anything?

Nobody decides they’re going to be a marathon runner and gets up and goes out and runs 26.2 miles. Because the first guy to do that might have gotten the job done, but he had a less than happy ending. 

You work up to it. You train. You practice writing in small bits. Honestly, if writing one good sentence is all you do today, that’s hella more than a lot of people are doing.

Write one good sentence today. It can be about anything. Tomorrow, pick a random topic or setting you’re familiar with and write one good sentence about that. The next day, pick a topic or setting about which you know exactly nothing, do 5 minutes of research and write one good sentence about that.

Then you move to two sentences, then a paragraph. Keep at it. Write more each time. Save everything you write. 

In addition to running, a lot of marathoners work out in other ways. For the writer, that means READING. READ, READ, READ. And now you get to read like a writer. If you missed this post we shared on reading like a writer, check it out. 

I suggest reading at least one book and taking actual notes on each chapter. You might not ever have to do that again, but I guarantee, the way you read will change and when you read good stuff, your life and your writing will get better. 

– Mod Aliya

[lannegarrett]

[uncleasad]

[Image ID: “Why you so quiet? What’s on your mind?” meme, where the person’s brain is replaced with the text “random ideas for scenes I will fantasize about for days, but never actually write down” /end ID]

[luna-azzurra]

Character Quirks & Habits List!! 

𐙚⋆.˚ Always sitting with their back to the wall 

𐙚⋆.˚ Checking the lock twice. Then once more. 

𐙚⋆.˚ The comfort food that only comes out during specific moods 

𐙚⋆.˚ Knowing exactly how many steps it takes to get somewhere 

𐙚⋆.˚ Keeping one thing from every place they've ever lived 

𐙚⋆.˚ Never throwing away cards or letters but never rereading them either 

𐙚⋆.˚ The specific way they make coffee/tea that will tolerate no variation 

𐙚⋆.˚ Humming without realizing it when they're focused 

𐙚⋆.˚ Sleeping on one side of the bed even when alone 

𐙚⋆.˚ Holding their breath in elevators 

𐙚⋆.˚ The book they've never finished but also never gotten rid of 

𐙚⋆.˚ Keeping their phone face-down in certain company 

𐙚⋆.˚ The route they take when they want to think vs. when they don't 

𐙚⋆.˚ Apologizing to inanimate objects when they bump into them 

𐙚⋆.˚ The word they can't spell no matter how many times they look it up 

𐙚⋆.˚ Always being five minutes early or perpetually, chaotically late. No in between. 

𐙚⋆.˚ The thing they do with their hands when they're listening 

𐙚⋆.˚ Laughing at their own jokes before finishing them