young writers with writer's block

Writing is tough.

[slumop-deactivated20230826]

To all my homies out there

[writing-prompt-s]

You fall in love with a girl, and the two of you have a happy relationship for a few years. But one day, you discover a massive hoard of valuables underneath the house, and that’s when you realize you’ve been dating a dragon in human form.

[wordsnstuff]

hey do you have any tips on plot development? how to do come up with relevant but dramatic things to keep the plot going? i also don’t want to make it too intense?

I actually have quite a lot of resources that I’ve created over the years surrounding plot development. I’ve linked as many as I could find for you:

Resources For Plot Development

Useful Writing Resources

Useful Writing Resources II

31 Days of Plot Development

Novel Planning 101

How To Write A Good Plot Twist

How To Foreshadow

What To Cut Out Of Your Story

Tackling Subplots

Things A Reader Needs From A Story

A Guide To Tension & Suspense In Your Writing

How To Turn A Good Idea Into A Good Story

Planning A Scene In A Story

21 Plot Shapes and the Pros and Cons Of Each

How To Outline Effectively

Tips On Writing Intense Scenes

Writing The First Chapter

Tips On Starting A Scene

Plot Structures

Finding & Fixing Plot Holes

[wordsnstuff]

hey do you have any tips on plot development? how to do come up with relevant but dramatic things to keep the plot going? i also don’t want to make it too intense?

I actually have quite a lot of resources that I’ve created over the years surrounding plot development. I’ve linked as many as I could find for you:

Resources For Plot Development

Useful Writing Resources

Useful Writing Resources II

31 Days of Plot Development

Novel Planning 101

How To Write A Good Plot Twist

How To Foreshadow

What To Cut Out Of Your Story

Tackling Subplots

Things A Reader Needs From A Story

A Guide To Tension & Suspense In Your Writing

How To Turn A Good Idea Into A Good Story

Planning A Scene In A Story

21 Plot Shapes and the Pros and Cons Of Each

How To Outline Effectively

Tips On Writing Intense Scenes

Writing The First Chapter

Tips On Starting A Scene

Plot Structures

Finding & Fixing Plot Holes

[callitgoodwriting-deactivated20]

Characters & Relationships I Want to Read More Of

Healthy, strong sibling bonds

Two supportive, active parents

Men who are open with emotions of all kind

Women who have no weak spots for romantic love

Hardened characters who (professionally) care for kids, animals, or the elderly and are sweet with them

Pansexual and lesbian characters in sci fi

Intense newly-formed friendships

Lust at first sight, reluctantly (& eventually) in love

MCs who aren’t naturally or easily athletic 

Lazy do-gooders

Unlikely cat people

Someone who’s known for being a good singer/musician but would rather pursue math or science

Men who are rough but aren’t condescending to women

Non-humans who live in a human world and have a cultural identity crisis

Characters that willfully go to a therapist

Women with careers AND a rich, full family/social life

Dedicated teachers

A character that got a degree in business/finances/tech to have a secure job and save up for a lifelong dream

A woman who lives in an isolated area/home alone and prefers it that way

Divorced parents and step-parents that care about each other and work hard to be a loving support network for the kids involved

Sex workers that are not angels or demons, but complex characters like everyone else

Stay at home dads

Recovering alcoholics/addicts that have been clean for years and help other trying to get clean

A deadbeat, unemployed female character

Rough characters who are also bookworms

Kids who are just as emotionally intelligent as the adults

[talkgentlytome]

[souliloquyyy]

has this been done before?

[septembercfawkes]

[moonlitharliquin]

I feel attacked 😂

[inky-duchess]

Writing Theory: How to handle Multiple PoVs

Multiple PoVs are a great way to expand the reader's knowledge and view of the overall story and the world. It is also a great way of allowing the writer to keep up interest with a story as they aren't stuck with one protagonist and view point. But how can we handle multiple PoVs? For @writinglyra

Handle only what you can

When starting out, best begin small. Don't overcrowd the story with a chunky list of 20-30 PoVs. If you are unfamiliar with writing in multiple PoVs, it is always better to begin small first, 2 or 3 until you feel comfortable to get to larger numbers. There is of course no limit to how many PoVs you can have. You can have a solid 6 like in Six of Crows or the 30+ in A Song of Ice and Fire. But make smart choices.

Choosing the Right PoV

When picking your PoV characters, it is best not to give the power of PoV just any character. They must have a valid reason to be telling the story. When choosing a PoV character, you must ask yourself what part of the story they can tell, why it is important they tell it, how can they improve on that area of the story and what they have to bring to the narrative.

Who's turn is it?

Now that you have your PoVs, you will need to decide who is going to tell what portion of the story. When writing in multiple PoVs it is always handy to have at least a few tangible ideas of where the story is going. Once you have an idea, you can begin to slot in PoVs. As yourself when choosing PoVs: Pros & cons of this character telling this story, what can you do with this PoV, what are the implications both on the plot and character if this OC tells the story? Also keep in mind what impact this OC will make on the reader if they tell the story.

The Voice of the PoV

When writing in the voices of multiple people, you must ensure that there is something unique about each one. Every person has a different way of seeing the world, a different thought process, their own prejudices and baises and not to mention their own opinions. If you are to give any character/person, a scene to narrate they will do it in their own way. An optimist may not notice the bleakness of a situation. A detail-conscious character will spend time studying things a flippant character will not.

[creativepromptsforwriting]

Masterpost: How to write a story?

Compilation of writing advice for some aspects of the writing process.

How to motivate myself to write more

How to get rid of writer’s block

Basic Overview: How to write a story

How to create a character

How to make a character unique

How to write conversation

Introducing a group of characters

Large cast of characters interacting in one scene

Redemption arc

Plot twists

How to write a summary

How to write romance

How to write emotional scenes

How to write yelling

Fatal Character Flaws

How to use songs in a fanfiction

Good traits gone bad

More specific scenarios

Slow burn

How to create quick chemistry

How to write a bilingual character

How to write a polyamorous realtionship

How to create and write a cult

Criminal past comes to light

Reasons for breaking up while still loving each other

Forbidden love

Date gone wrong

Causes for the apocalypse

How to create a coffee shop atmosphere

How to write enemies to lovers

How to write lovers to enemies to lovers

Arranged matrimony for royalty

Paramilitary Forces/ Militia

Honeymoon

Academic Rivals to Lovers

Love Language - Showing, not telling

How to write amnesia

AU ideas

Favourite tropes

Inconvenient things a ghost could do

Milestones in a relationship

How to write age difference

Platonic activities for friends

Introducing partner(s) to family

Writing a stratocracy

Reasons a couple would divorce on good terms

Love Language - Showing you care

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee! 🥰

[creativepromptsforwriting]

reasons for the apocalypse that aren't super over used??? idk if there are any but ??? (thank u:))

Hi :)

I already answered a similar question here, but I want to expand my answer a little bit.

There are different categories of apocalypse that can happen (or cannot really happen but you could write them):

Causes for the apocalypse

Natural causes

major impact of asteroids, meteorites, etc. on earth (look at the poor dinosaurs)

a (not man-made) natural disaster that triggers other disasters

a near impact that knocks our planet out of orbit and therefore changes our distance to the moon and the sun etc.

Man-made disasters

overpopulation which can lead to world hunger and/or disease

climate change - a pretty likely cause that can (and probably will and already is) destroy entire habitats and therefore causing mass immigration and a change in the world’s ecosystem

the oppression of mankind by technology like AI’s (see Person of Interest in a way and I, Robot)

the oppression of lower and middle classes with the oppressor being the rich and/or corporations (which could lead to a civil war)

World War 3 - probably connected to the possibility of a nuclear war

an epidemic that can either attack everyone or only specific groups of people, maybe even with a cure that has disastrous side effects

the sudden collapse of important technology (I think it would be interesting to see how the world would cope if from one second to another the internet would somehow stop working or electricity wouldn’t be as reliable anymore as it is now)

a small organization (maybe a group of hackers) cracks the theory of everything making it somehow possible for a few people to overthrow our whole society by oppression all governments with their knowledge (pretty far fetched)

Supernatural Causes

the common zombie apocalypse but maybe with a twist, a different kind of monster or even an old forgotten deity coming back to take their rulership back

the second Flood with no rainbow happy ending in sight

disease that has a supernatural cause

superheros turned supervillians after having to save the ungrateful world one too many times

A lot of these are already pretty common in fiction, but I always think that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The best thing is to take a popular trope and make it your own. Put your own twist on it.

If you know more causes of an apocalypse let us all know in the comments!

- Jana

[agirlnamedjana]

Writing can be so easy when the muse kisses you and you write and write and forget the world around you. But a lot times you don’t have the luxury to wait for the muse to come kiss you and you still have to write. Here are some of the things I do to motivate myself to do what has to be done.

How to motivate myself to write more

The 100 Words Challenge

Set yourself a specific amount of words that you must write every day. 100 words doesn’t sound like that much, but even if you only write them every day and not anything more you still wrote 3,650 words that year. Better than nothing and definitely helps to get back into writing, because it motivates you to write even more and helps writing on a schedule.

+ it also works with a specific amount of time

The Inspirational Jar

Grab some pieces of paper and write down prompts you saw on the internet, song lyrics you like, characters you like to write about, quotes from books or movies, or just random words or situations. Fold them and put them into a jar or a box. Now you can just open it and grab one of the papers which you use as the basis for your writing that day. It’s great for getting back into writing and finding your own writing style through different forms of writing and different topics.

+ doesn’t have to be a real story, try other forms of writing, like a poem, a stream of consciousness, fanfiction, dialogue only, texting only, a retelling, no dialogue at all, a song, a diary entry, a character description,…

+ try to spice things up by using two or more inspirational slips of paper

Set a writing time

By setting a specific writing time you can trick your mind to shift easier into the mindset you need to write. You can write just after waking up or right before going to bed or somewhere in the middle. Try it out and find out what works best for you.

Block your phone/laptop

The luxury of having the world at your finger tips is great but it’s also distracting. Use apps (like Forest or Selfcontrol) to block your phone for the time you need to write. Or use something like Cold Turkey Writer so you have to write a specific amount of words or time before you can use your computer again.

Choose a writing place

Where do you write your best works? Choose a specific place to become your writing place, so you can trick your mind (like with the writing time) to get into the right mindset.

+ switch it up from time to time and go somewhere else. Go to a library, a coffee shop or a park to get fresh ideas and then go back to your routine

Music

Try to find music that stimulates your brain to concentrate more on writing or use music that fits the scene you’re about to write to get the right mindset. Music is great to feel like you are in a specific situation or have specific feelings - that’s why it’s great to have a soundtrack to your stories (and it also motivates you to finish it, so someone can buy the rights and make a movie out of it and use your Soundtrack - or is that just me?).

Ask a friend

Ask a friend, a family member or someone else to give you a setting, a word or a character that you try to incorporate into your already existing story or write something short and new.

Exercise

When you’re stuck and suffering from writer’s block with a scene, just stop and go out and work out or do a couple exercises at home. It clears your mind and you feel better after, so that you can sit down again and concentrate. And exercising is also a great opportunity to think your story through and work on solving existing problems.

Make a calendar

Write down whenever you wrote something in a calendar or use a habit tracker. It makes it easier to keep track on what you achieved so far and where you can still improve.

Reward yourself

Don’t punish yourself if you haven’t wrote in a long time or didn’t finish on time. Rewarding yourself is much more efficient. Choose some form of reward (when I write today I can… watch the new episode of my favourite show after, call my friends and go out, order a pizza, buy a new books, etc.) and stick to it. Even if it is a really small reward, getting to recieve it will fill you with joy and pride and makes it more likely for you to do it again.

I hope this helps everyone who struggles to motivate themselve to write. Good luck to you all!

Check out my side blog for more advice and writing prompts: creativepromptsforwriting

- Jana

[creativepromptsforwriting]

Old post from my main blog, thought some of you would enjoy this :)

[authors-haven]

Plotting a Series

I’ve gotten a question about whether the process of plotting a single book is the same as the process of writing a series. The answer is: yes, but no. They’re similar in many areas, but there are some differences.

1. In the first book you’ll want to introduce the main conflict first, and then a smaller, less important conflict a little later in. The smaller conflict will be resolved by the end of the book; the larger conflict, which is the main conflict of the series, will not. As an example, take the Harry Potter series (I use it because it’s well-known and won’t take too much explaining). In The Philosopher’s Stone, the first couple of chapters are about Harry and who he is, how he ended up with the Dursleys, what happened to his parents – these chapters accomplish backstory by introducing Harry and his family situation, and introduce the main conflict by telling of the death of Harry’s parents, and by Dumbledore expressing uncertainty about how defeated Voldemort really is. Then, a few chapters in, after being admitted into Hogwarts, Harry finds out that someone is trying to steal the Philosopher’s Stone – the book’s short term conflict.

2. Each short-term conflict should move the long-term conflict closer to a resolution. For example, at the end of Philosopher’s Stone, the stone is safe (the short-term conflict resolved), but it’s been discovered that Voldemort is still alive and is still trying to gain power – the stakes of the long-term conflict are raised. At the end of Chamber of Secrets, the diary is destroyed, but we have some of Voldemort’s backstory, and it seems that Voldemort is gaining power. At the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, Wormtail is introduced – this seems to have nothing to do with the main conflict, but it’s important, because it brings some of Harry’s parentage back to him (although it’s secondhand, only stories of his parents), and because Wormtail turns out to be Voldemort’s right-hand man. At the end of Goblet of Fire, Voldemort regains his body, and at this point you could argue that the long-term conflict is about halfway through its rising action; at the end of Order of the Phoenix, Harry finds out that he must kill Voldemort or be killed by him, and that only he can defeat Voldemort; at the end of Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore (the one person Voldemort was said to truly fear) is killed, Snape’s loyalty is in major question, and Hogwarts has been overtaken – Harry decides to continue Dumbledore’s work in looking for the Horcruxes. Finally, at the end of Deathly Hallows, Voldemort is defeated and a lot of the smaller loose ends (smaller-scale antagonists like Bellatrix LeStrange and Lucius Malfoy) are taken care of. Over the course of seven books, the long-term conflict – Voldemort trying to return to power and create a society that pampers purebloods and tramples poor wizards – has been resolved.

Basically, draw a circle on a piece of paper and put your main conflict in that circle. Then draw smaller circles stemming from that bigger circle and write your short-term conflicts in those. From there continue – subplots can be drawn stemming from your short-term conflicts. (If you don’t know how to create subplots, this post may help – in it I describe the same process of mapping out possible sub-conflicts to your main conflict, but probably describe a little better.) If you don’t know what your short-term conflicts are yet, then think of your long-term conflict as a straight line of rope – then ask yourself how you can knot up that rope. What processes do your protagonists have to go through to get to a solution, and how can your antagonists gum up the works? For example, in the Harry Potter series, the long-term conflict is that Harry has to defeat Voldemort. What gets in the way of that? I can name a few things, from various places in the books: Minister Fudge refusing to believe him when Voldemort comes back after the events of Goblet of Fire, having so much difficulty finding and destroying all the Horcruxes in Deathly Hallows, Dolores Umbridge preaching that Voldemort is not alive when in fact he is, and is growing stronger. (There are a million possibilities for your story’s short-term conflicts, because depending on your characters’ dispositions, they could cause a few themselves – for example, one of your characters could feel they have something to prove and end up getting themselves in trouble, and the plot of an entire book could be finding and saving that character before time runs out.)

I hope this helps! - @authors-haven

[thewritersguardianangel-blog]

Creating Conflict

Or, as I call it, causing ~drama~

The key that keeps readers interested in your story is conflict. If nothing is at stake, then there is not much to see. So, here are a few general tips to cause some ripples in the ponds of your characters’ lives.

“Prioritizing”: Your character has two main motives that they have been working towards, but they end up in a situation where they have to sacrifice one to save the other. Depending on how easy or hard the choice is, this range from “disappointing” to “devastating” in the sacrifice. 

Character Flaws: As I talked about in my cornerstones post, every character should have a flaw. Flaws are flaws and not strengths for a reason- they get in the way. Have your character have a moment of weakness, where they lose their values and give in to temptation or get carried away.

 In addition: Even without their key flaws, characters can sometimes just… be wrong. Maybe they miscalculated. Maybe they misunderstood. Maybe they made the wrong guess. They did what everyone does: They Done Messed Up, and now they have to deal with the result.

Liar, Liar: Someone is lying, or even keeping secrets, and now, it’s causing problems. They can’t go forward without the truth, or worse, they are making mistakes due to a warped perception of the situation.

Draw backs: Let the good things come at a cost. One key rule for worlds with magic or superpowers is that all power should come at cost- equal to or greater than the power itself. 

“Because I Said So”: Don’t forget, there are other characters in your story, and even if they are on the protagonist’s own side, they are not always going to just merrily go along with whatever the protagonist said. Maybe they disagree. Maybe they are powerful enough to get in the protagonist’s way, and maybe it’s that important to them that they try. If fighting an enemy is hard, fighting a friend is harder.

Take It Back: Your character makes a decision that seems right at the time. Maybe it was the obvious choice, or maybe it was taking a risk. But uh-oh…now there are unforeseen consequences. 

Or, the opposite…

Decisions, Decisions: Maybe your character has to make a decision where there is not an immediately obvious choice. Make sure that both/all the options have both positive and negative possible or certain outcomes. There is no obvious right or wrong choice. Bonus, it’s funny to watch the fandom debate it later. 

Strip Them Down: Remove your character’s greatest strength. For whatever reason, your character’s most valuable asset is not available, and now, they have to live without it. Bonus mode- it would be really, really helpful if they had it right now!

Or, do the opposite…

Boss Fight: Maybe, instead of your protagonist getting weaker, it’s your antagonist that gets stronger. Strengthen the opposition and see if your characters can adapt to survive, or if they lack what it takes. 

Change of Plan: The rules of the game have changed. This can mean different things depending on your story. They could be literal rules, or more general. Think Hunger Games- did I say two tributes? I meant one, after all. Fight to the death now, please.

Amplify the Emotions: … And the results that come with. People do crazy things in the heat of the moment. You can’t think straight when all you can do is feel. Blinded by anger, sadness, or even joy, your character makes a bad choice. 

*Pile It On: You know what a full plate needs? Even more stuff. Your character is already juggling, trying to balance a variety of responsibilities. So add one more ball. Do they crash and burn immediately? Does it take a while? Do they succeed?  Any which way, the stress is high.

*Note: this one can be difficult on the author, too. Make sure that with all these plot lines, you’re not losing track, yourself.

“Murphy’s Law”: Simply stated, this is a plot tool that says, “whatever can go wrong, will.” I’m just going to say right away… be careful with this one. It’s really frustrating for your audience to watch the characters fail or lose or face misfortune over and over and over again. It makes it feel like nothing will ever come out of rooting for them, so you may as well give up now. Murphy’s Law can be great in the proper proportions, please, let your characters have some victories, or there’s no point to it.

And hey, don’t forget about your inner conflicts. You never know when those are going to have the opportunity to cause trouble. 

Give ‘em hell, kids!*

***disclaimer: you do not have to be a kid to give them hell.

~Penemue

[headspace-hotel]

Have noticed that differences between humans and fantasy races or beings tend to fall neatly into either “physiology” or “culture,” so here, some ideas for how fantasy beings can differ from humans in their thinking and perception:

They all have synesthesia. All of them. There are lots of forms of synesthesia, so, plenty of angles to explore. Imagine a species for whom numbers, calendar days, and other abstract concepts just...have colors and smells, and it’s hard for them to understand how people...think about things otherwise. Or maybe they can’t understand the distinctions others make between, for instance, sound and visual stimuli. The linguistic rules that say an image can be “blurry” but a smell can’t are incomprehensible to them. It gets even more interesting if the associations are in some ways consistent between members of the species.

More ideas for sense perception, possibly applicable to the synesthetic species: What if, just like we have a large number of senses but sort them into five (pain, touch, and proprioception are not the same senses, but we categorize them all as ‘touch!’) they don’t have categories for ‘types’ of sense perception, at all. In their own language(s), they can describe their experiences to others this way, but they have to learn to be able to clarify for non-members of their species whether they saw something or heard it.

Superhuman time sense, or no time sense. The fascinating thing about humans is that we can percieve time based purely on internal cues, but we’re kind of bad at it—we often have to count to give exact measurements of seconds, and we’re prone to not realizing how long or how late we’ve been doing something. Perhaps a fantasy being can percieve time in a more exact fashion—which could lead to amusement about how humans’ time sense tends to warp relative to how much fun they’ve been having. Or, perhaps a fantasy being can’t perceive time at all without external cues (for example, sunrise and sunset). This would make being isolated from those cues, like if they were trapped in a dungeon, incredibly scary and disorienting. They would also have a difficult time if they were asked, “How many days were you trapped down there in the dungeon?” They would probably respond, “There weren’t any! It was dark!”

A telepathic species, but they don’t have a “hive mind” or no sense of individuality. It makes sense that it would take an active effort to “read” someone’s thoughts, past just noticing how they’re feeling or the general “trend” of their thoughts. So it would be cool to have a telepathic species with, y’know, a sense of boundaries regarding thoughts. It’s probably a lot like touch in humans—certain levels of closeness or intimacy are permissible in certain levels of relationship, and a lot would be inappropriate with a stranger. Yes, they technically can sift through your memories, but why would you do that, what the fuck is wrong with you. For humans, rape is practically the worst thing you can do to a person. Among this species, entering someone else’s mind and viewing or actually tampering with someone’s thoughts is just as absolutely abhorrent, except that they probably have many different levels of unacceptable and unthinkable acts of violation that we can’t meaningfully distinguish in our languages. Among these beings, friends might share pleasant thoughts and experiences, relationships are a subtle interplay of feelings and thoughts and images. Being allowed to go deeper into someone’s mind is always a huge deal. Yes, members of this species might occasionally be recruited to pry information out of people, but doing that is just so vile to the vast majority that it’s not at all a common thing, even if only because the punishments are so severe.

A species whose memory just doesn’t degrade. Everything that goes into their memory remains perfectly preserved for...well, ever. They’re fascinated by, and a little suspicious of, the way human memories seem to change over time, how anecdotes humans tell have little inconsistencies in them, and how humans can straight up forget things. It seems like a terrifyingly chaotic way to live.

Alternatively, a species whose way of encoding and storing memories is just...different. It’s pretty weird, when you think about it, that mnemonic devices...work. Like, singing a song or saying a nonsense rhyme to remember information? “Thirty days hath September” is easier to remember than just...remembering which months have which number of days? Imagine being a member of a fantasy race that just...can’t?? remember things?? That way? Then they catch a human trying to alphabetize something and singing the ABC’s under their breath and they’re like “what the FUCK are you DOING”

A species that doesn’t really have “stages” of emotional or cognitive development. Like maybe their brains develop before they hatch or emerge or whatever, but once they’re conscious, they pretty much have an adult brain. The fact that humans spend part of their lives cognitively limited and unable to regulate their emotions because they’re underdeveloped, and not because of a lack of experience, is very bizarre, and the fact that being out in the world, making bad decisions with that half-developed brain, is in fact necessary for humans to develop properly is even weirder and honestly a little freaky.

[thatwritergirlsblog]

How to get back into a WIP when inspiration is lacking

1. Character exploration

You may be feeling uninspired because you find it difficult to enter your characters' minds.

A great way to dive into a character's point of view is writing a paragraph from their perspective on a topic like death, the meaning of life, loss etc.

I usually do this before I start a project, but it can be a great way to get back into the swing of things in the middle of a book.

2. Character songs/playlist

A lot of people write with music, curating playlists for their WIP.

I don't write with music, but it can be great to listen to a song or two before writing a specific scene or character's POV.

Curate a Playlist for your POV characters and listen to it when inspiration is running low.

3. Fake promotional material

This may just be a weird thing I do, but I love it.

When I really need a motivation boost, I create fake promotional material or swag designs for my WIP. Mock covers, bookmarks, posters, ads etc.

It reminds me what I'm working towards and that can help a lot.

4. Moodboards

Creating physical mood boards for your WIP or specific characters/locations and putting them up int your work space can do wonders for inspiration.

Every time you look at the moddboard, you're taken back to the moment when the idea first got into your head - a moment when you had oodles of inspiration.

You can also add to those mood boards whenever you need an extra shot of inspiration.

5. YouTube

Every time I watch an Authortube vlog, I feel motivated to work on my own writing.

Pick an Authortuber who resonates with you and has the life you hope to build. Watch one or two of their vlogs and that should light a fire under you.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with your own ideas. Follow me for similar content.

[moonlitharliquin]

Rebloging for later

[everythingfox]

“What happens when you have heated tile flooring”

(via)