Scraps and Thoughts and Things

Not Everything is a novel A place to share and read scraps, scenes, or ideas for writing

[thehonestauthor]

Writers in the middle of a first draft like:

[ckret2]

some of the best writing advice I’ve ever received: always put the punch line at the end of the sentence.

it doesn’t have to be a “punch line” as in the end of a joke. It could be the part that punches you in the gut. The most exciting, juicy, shocking info goes at the end of the sentence. Two different examples that show the difference it makes:

doing it wrong:

She saw her brother’s dead body when she caught the smell of something rotting, thought it was coming from the fridge, and followed it into the kitchen.

doing it right:

Catching the smell of something rotten wafting from the kitchen—probably from the fridge, she thought—she followed the smell into the kitchen, and saw her brother’s dead body.

Periods are where you stop to process the sentence. Put the dead body at the start of the sentence and by the time you reach the end of the sentence, you’ve piled a whole kitchen and a weird fridge smell on top of it, and THEN you have to process the body, and it’s buried so much it barely has an impact. Put the dead body at the end, and it’s like an emotional exclamation point. Everything’s normal and then BAM, her brother’s dead.

This rule doesn’t just apply to sentences: structuring lists or paragraphs like this, by putting the important info at the end, increases their punch too. It’s why in tropes like Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking or Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick, the odd item out comes at the end of the list.

Subverting this rule can also be used to manipulate reader’s emotional reactions or tell them how shocking they SHOULD find a piece of information in the context of a story. For example, a more conventional sentence that follows this rule:

She opened the pantry door, looking for a jar of grape jelly, but the view of the shelves was blocked by a ghost.

Oh! There’s a ghost! That’s shocking! Probably the character in our sentence doesn’t even care about the jelly anymore because the spirit of a dead person has suddenly appeared inside her pantry, and that’s obviously a much higher priority. But, subvert the rule:

She opened the pantry door, found a ghost blocking her view of the shelves, and couldn’t see past it to where the grape jelly was supposed to be.

Because the ghost is in the middle of the sentence, it’s presented like it’s a mere shelf-blocking pest, and thus less important than the REAL goal of this sentence: the grape jelly. The ghost is diminished, and now you get the impression that the character is probably not too surprised by ghosts in her pantry. Maybe it lives there. Maybe she sees a dozen ghosts a day. In any case, it’s not a big deal. Even though both sentences convey the exact same information, they set up the reader to regard the presence of ghosts very differently in this story.

[the-right-writing]

Writer Beware makes posts on which publishing houses to avoid at all costs, which words to look for and which words to watch out for in contracts, and several other things that will keep you in control and knowledgeable about the publishing process.  I’d suggest reading through the website if you want to avoid getting ripped off, cheated, or scammed.

[the-right-writing]

I’m just going to reblog this every so often because it’s a site that every writer needs to see.

[rivalwrites]

I think the best piece of character design advice I ever received was actually from a band leadership camp I attended in june of 2017. 

the speaker there gave lots of advice for leaders—obviously, it was a leadership camp—but his saying about personality flaws struck me as useful for writers too. 

he said to us all “your curses are your blessings and your blessings are your curses” and went on to explain how because he was such a great speaker, it made him a terrible listener. he could give speeches for hours on end and inspire thousands of people, but as soon as someone wanted to talk to him one on one or vent to him, he struggled with it. 

he had us write down our greatest weakness and relate it to our biggest strength (mine being that I am far too emotional, but I’m gentle with others because I can understand their emotions), and the whole time people are sharing theirs, my mind was running wild with all my characters and their flaws.

previously, I had added flaws as an after thought, as in “this character seems too perfect. how can I make them not-like-that?” but that’s not how people or personalities work. for every human alive, their flaws and their strengths are directly related to each other. you can’t have one without the other.

is your character strong-willed? that can easily turn into stubbornness. is your character compassionate? maybe they give too many chances. are they loyal? then they’ll destroy the world for the people they love.

it works the other way around too: maybe your villain only hates the protagonist’s people because they love their own and just have a twisted sense of how to protect them. maybe your antagonist is arrogant, but they’ll be confident in everything they do.

tl;dr “your curses are your blessings, and your blessings are your curses” there is no such thing as a character flaw, just a strength that has been stretched too far.

[headspace-hotel]

The two seasons of a writer:

1. where have all the words gone? has all speech that has issued from the human tongue since the dawn of language deserted me now? must my keyboard lie mute forever, my pen silent?

2. whERE are aLL THES E W ORDs c Om I NG FROM

[momentsmakeastory]

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”

Franz Kafka

How many times have we heard, “Write what you know?” As far as this humble mod is concerned, that’s garbage advice. Write what sets you alight. Write what sparks a fire in your belly, that makes you yearn to sit down to write more. Passion is a driving force, and if you’re not passionate about it, how will anyone else be?

[momentsmakeastory]

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

Anton Chekhov

Yes, yes, I can see you rolling your eyes. The old “show, don’t tell.” Every writer has been told this a million times. But never doubt the power of good sensory details in your story. What is your character feeling? Seeing? Smelling? Take us there!

Take a moment to practice this. Think of a place you’ve been and describe it as best you can. Feel free to reblog and add your descriptions!

[c2fe]

[athena1138]

WRITE IT. FUCK EVERYONE ELSE.

[wordfather]

a.k.a. you may find your work Bad and Cringy™️ but you wrote something and that’s a Good Thing™️.

All writing is good practice and progresses you as a writer.

[momentsmakeastory]

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Sylvia Plath

Creativity is the ability to create, whether it’s “good enough” is moot. So fudge that rough draft! Make a mess of a poem! Write a bad short story! just go out and create!

[momentsmakeastory]

A Word From Our Sponsors: Writing Advice From the Mod

So I don’t give out unsolicited advice, but @solastrasza asked so I’m gonna answer!

First up: Dialogue! 

***This is, as any writing advice, purely up to your style and rules are made to be broken, as long as you know why they’re rules in the first place. First rule of writer’s club is to have fun and be yourself***

This is gonna be a bit long, so bear with me under the cut

Okay! So you’ve got some characters. Maybe you have a plot. Now the characters in the plot need to talk to each other. Where do you start?

First of all, try to develop your character’s voice. Some of the best advice I’ve received is that your reader should know who is talking just from the way your characters speak. Are they formal? Casual? The way they speak should reflect on who they are as a person, and should be unique to the character. 

Always, and I mean it, always do a paragraph break when a new character is talking. This should not be a wall of text.

In that, keep in mind your dialogue tags! That’s the “she said,” “he grumbled” etc. People will say, don’t use “said.” These people are horribly wrong. Said is a breath in a sentence where you can break dialogue without drawing attention away from it. Should it be the only dialogue tag you use? No! But don’t shy away from it. It is your friend.

Avoid floating heads! This is where your characters are speaking, but we have no idea where they are, or what they’re doing. Set the scene, have them interact with it while they’re talking! 

Eg. “I don’t know,” Sam said, picking up the rook and taking Jess’ pawn. “I think we need to move forward.” 

And the advice that is always on everyone’s advice is avoid weak adverbs. I won’t say avoid all adverbs, that’d be hypocritical of me, but avoid weak ones. That’s in with “She smiled happily.” Well, we can assume she smiled happily. That’s a weak adverb. But “She smiled sadly,” would be stronger, because it actually adds something to her smile. That being said, “She said loudly,” can be “She yelled.” use strong verbs whenever possible, but never use weak adverbs.

The last bit of advice I have, is be creative! Like I said in the disclaimer, rules are made to be broken, as long as you know why they’re rules in the first place.

Alright, that’s what I’ve got! Still have questions? TL;DR? Here’s a video by one of my favorite youtubers on how to properly format your dialogue tags!

Bonus: Grammar Lesson

✘  “That’s not far.” She said.

✓ “That’s not far,” she said.

With a dialogue tag like this, you use a comma, not a period

✘ “We’re leaving,” she walked to the stairs to go.

✓ We’re leaving.” She walked to the stairs to go.

In this case, you start a new sentence with the action

✘ “You can go,” he said.

“Well, then we’ll take our leave,” she replied.

“Fine,” he said.

  ✓ “You can go,” he said.

“We’ll take our leave then.”

“Fine.”

You don’t always have to put dialogue tags! Your readers are smart, they’ll know who’s talking if you set the scene up properly.

✘ “We’re leaving,” she said. He shrugged.

“That’s fine.”

✓ “We’re leaving,” she said. 

He shrugged. “That’s fine.”

This is more of a stylistic choice, but in my opinion, it reads clearer.

[momentsmakeastory]

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

Louis L’Amour

We all know what it’s like, right? You sit down at a computer/notebook/etc., and you

just

can’t

write.

This is a struggle for both old and new writers. The best way to combat it? Just write. 50 words. Right now.

Are you done?

Look at you go! You just beat the first step! Were they good words? Maybe not! But you wrote them. 

When I struggle with writing, this is the method I use. Drop. Give me 50. If I only get 50? Hey! That’s 50 more than I had! But most of the time, this leads to a flow, and I end up looking up at the clock, and two hours have passed, and I have pages done. 

So get out there and write! 

[scribbledwriting]

My characters during the editing process:

[momentsmakeastory]

“Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.”

Lisa See

Writing without reading is like exhaling without inhaling! If you find yourself in a rut with writing, pic up a book, fic, etc. It’ll help you, not only with ideas, but also with your own structure!

Drop in the comments, or tags, your current read!

[momentsmakeastory]

Discussion Time:

Are you a die-hard pantser? Or do you prefer to outline every detail of your story?

I’m a combination of both! I get a basic outline of my story, then let myself discover the nitty-gritty as i go. What about you? Reblog and comment or put in the tags what kind of writer you are!

[writerswritecompany]

Words that describe a voice

[intopandorasbox]

Here are some great voice words for when you can hear something in your head and just can’t think of the best way to describe it! 

[momentsmakeastory]

Oh Hey

it’s been a while! i’m hoping to start posting to this a little more often, since a friend reminded me it exists orz gonna make some posts to queue so this keeps going!