Musing Out Loud

TJ here|Aussie|Mother|Wife| Writer|Reader. Obsessive fangirl of multiple fandoms and voracious consumer of the written word and pop culture.

[angelsghost]

[thatwritergirlsblog]

Dealing with time in your writing

This is going to be quite an eclectic post, but I’ve received a few questions relating to time in creative writing. So, I thought I’d just make a post to address a few things.

1. Keeping track of narrated time

You as a writer need to keep track of the time that passes in your story and what happens when. Inconsistencies and incontinuities will pop up if you don’t have a good knowledge of your WIP’s time-line.

The easiest way to do this is to keep track via a visual time-line. If you outline, you can use that to make a rough time-line ahead of time. If you’re a pantser, then you can fill in the time-line as you go along.

Use this time-line to keep track of holidays, seasons, lunar cycles, healing time, travel time etc.

This is especially crucial for parallel storylines, where you might want to draw separate time-lines that you can hold up next to each other to ensure that everything matches up.

In certain instances it might also be necessary for the reader to keep track of the passing of time. You can either ensure this subtly within the writing (by sprinkling in little references to the season/date/time) or expressly by getting creative. Maybe each chapter starts with the date or the phase of the moon. Maybe your book is divided into seasons etc. If you do something like this, though, you have to be sure that the information plays a crucial role in your story.

2. Time-lapses between scenes

Time will inevitably pass in-between your scenes. But how do you communicate that time to your readers?

Firstly, you have to ask whether it’s relevant. If all your character did in the in-between time was brush her teeth and put on a nightgown, you don’t have to tell the reader that. You can use a simple sentence at the start of the next scene to familiarize your reader with the time of that scene e. g. “The next morning” or “After a night of tossing and turning”. This way the reader knows that time passed, but that nothing particularly important happened during that time.

If there are important points that you don’t want to dedicate an entire scene to, you can use the technique of telling. This should be used with circumspection, but can be a great way of relaying lots of information in a few sentences. E. g. “That morning after breakfast she had decided to head to the library to continue her research. She’d combed through shelves upon shelves of manuscripts only to end up back at square one.” Then, you can truly start the scene with the character sitting in the library, despondent. This way, the reader gets a quick catch-up as to where the story is at that moment, but you don’t have to spend too many words on it. You can also use this technique for deeply emotional events that the character may not want to spend a lot of time talking about e. g. “Lorna did not wake up that afternoon. She would never wake up again. And all Nancy had done all evening was weep.”

Comment if you guys want me to do a post about showing vs telling.

3. Flashbacks

I love flashbacks, but they have to be done well and they have to be necessary.

Flashbacks are a great way of telling a long, complex story in less words. It’s also a very valuable tool for revealing plot twists and character backstory.

Ensure that your flashbacks are adequately separated from the rest of your scenes. I don’t mean that they have to exist in a separate chapter (although this is an option), but at least use a different formatting style so that it’s clear to the reader when they’re dealing with a flashback.

Make it as easy as possible for the reader. Achronology can be disorienting and confusing. So, if you’re working with different timelines, make sure the reader knows which timeline they’re reading at the moment. You can do this by clearly indicating the time of the flashback at the beginning or woven into the writing of the scene.

Remember that these flashbacks should be relevant to your story/character arc. Don’t just throw in flashbacks for the hell of it. These scenes should reveal something important about the character or the plot.

4. How do the characters tell the time?

This is a bit of a weird one, but it should be taken into account nonetheless.

If you write contemporary fiction or historical fiction set in recent(ish) history, you don’t have to worry about this. However, those of us writing in made-up worlds or ancient/futuristic times have to think about this shit.

Have wathes/clocks been invented? Do your characters have micro chips in their brains that have them knowing the time automatically? Do they use a sundial? Are there calendars (and do they differ from the contemporary one) etc.

If your characters live in a Stone Age world, but they know when it’s 13:45, you’re gonna have to explain how the hell they know that.

Keep historical accuracy in mind if you’re not writing your own world e. g. if you’re writing a book set in Ancient Rome, you should do some research to figure out how they told time.

5. Consistency in time periods

This cannot be stressed enough. Keep healing time, travel time, seasonal changes etc consistent and realistic.

If you’re writing something set in the real world, you should research how long it takes to heal from certain wounds or how long it takes to travel between places etc.

Even if you made up your own world, own creatures and own laws of physics, you should keep the times consistent throughout the work.

That’s all I have for you on time. I hope that this very random post can be helpful.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with your own questions/ideas around time in writing. Follow me for similar content.

[heywriters]

Dialogue Mini-Masterlist

I get so many questions about dialogue that there must be even more of you who just never ask. So here, have some links, people.

WRITING DIALOGUE IN STORIES: SOME TIPS AND ADVICE

‘Nodded’: Ditching Dialogue Crutches

Writing Hints: Attributives, Modifiers, Scenes and Looking in the Mirror

Fiction: Attributive Clauses

19 Ways to Write Better Dialogue

https://heywriters.tumblr.com/post/162343271212/hey-i-was-wondering-how-to-end-dialogue

https://heywriters.tumblr.com/post/170350424622/hi-im-currently-working-on-a-story-in-dutch

https://heywriters.tumblr.com/post/172392818062/how-do-you-know-if-a-scene-is-too-dialogue-heavy

https://heywriters.tumblr.com/post/160894562312/hi-so-im-kind-of-quiet-and-introverted-and-i

[assiraphales]

harry houdini once pulled a coin from behind aziraphale’s ear, effectively hooking him on “magic”. crowley, forced to suffer thru aziraphale’s obsession and shitty tricks, got revenge on houdini (who spent years debunking spiritualists) by holding a seance and communicating with him after his death 

[the-plant-shouterer]

Crowley: Hey. Hey Harry. I got a trick for ya. *reaches behind the ghostly apparition of Houdini’s ear, pulls back his hand to reveal his raised middle finger*

[thepowerwithin]

Accuracy at its finest. ☕️

[brynwrites]

Morally Grey But Still Likable?

Writing morally grey characters readers will love.

@coinsanddeadlypoisons asked:

Do you have any tips about writing from the point of view of a manipulative character? I don’t want him to be an asshole but i am afraid the readers would see him as such. 

The large majority of the characters in The Warlord’s Contract are morally grey in one way or another, with one in particular being rather manipulative, and I’ve found that the same basic principles and tricks apply to them all, no matter which negative “asshole” attributes they exhibit.  

1. Why do they do what they do?

Readers will forgive most morally gray actions if they feel the character has a good reason for it. This reason can be anything number of things, often compounded. These include, but are not limited to:

The character’s goal is worth the sins they commit in the process.

Their past has conditioned them to do what they do.

They believe that they (or someone else) will suffer if they don’t.

They believe everyone else is already doing the same and they’re evening the playing field.

They believe their actions will benefit others in the long run.

They’re convinced they’ll be hurt if they don’t do it.

The reason(s) you character has do doing what they do should also make sense within the context of the story itself. Thematically, it should match or mirror other cause and effect situations you’re presenting, and it should fit (and often intertwine) with the character’s backstory and personality.

Keep reading

[frognonbinary-deactivated202412]

i’ve been doing my homework on how to break into a writing career and honestly. there’s a Lot that i didn’t know about thats critical to a writing career in this day and age, and on the one hand, its understandable because we’re experiencing a massive cultural shift, but on the other hand, writers who do not have formal training in school or don’t have the connections to learn more via social osmosis end up extremely out of loop and working at a disadvantage. 

[frognonbinary-deactivated202412]

like, i didnt know about twitter pitch parties!! i didnt know about literary agents and publishers tweeting their manuscript wishlist, in hopes that some poor soul out there has written the book they really want to read and publish!! this isnt some shit you learn about in school! you really need to know the ins and outs of the writing community to be successful! 

[frognonbinary-deactivated202412]

for anyone interested, here’s what i’ve learned so far in my quest for more writing knowledge:

1. Writer’s Market 2019 is a great place to start– it gives you a list of magazines and journals that you can send your work to depending on the genre as well as lists a shit ton of literary agents that specify what genres they represent, how you can get in contact with them and how they accept query letters. this is a book that updates every year and tbh i only bought it this year so i dont know how critical it is to have an updated version  

2. do your research. mostly on literary agents because if you listed on your site that you like to represent fluffy YA novels and some asshole sends you a 80k manuscript about like…gritty viking culture, you will be severely pissed off. always go in finding someone who you know will actually like your work because they’re the ones who will try to advocate for you in getting published.

3. learn how to write a query letter. there are slightly varying formulas to how you can write an effective query letter. you’re also going to want to get feedback on your query letter because its the first thing the literary agent will read and based on how well you do it, it could be the difference between them rejecting you outright and giving your manuscript a quick read

4. unfortunately, you’re gonna want to get a twitter. Twitter is where a lot of literary agents are nowadays, and they host things like twitter pitch parties, where you pitch your manuscript in a few sentences and hashtag it with #Pitmad #Pitdark, some version of pit. a lot of literary agents and publishers will ALSO post their manuscript wishlists, which is just the kind of books they’d like to represent/publish, and they hashtag this with #MSWL (it is NOT for writers to use, only for agents/publishers)

5. connect with other writers, literary agents, publishers at book events. you will absolutely need the connections if you want to get ahead as a writer. thats just kind of the state of the world.

[heywriters]

Hey, even if you don’t plan to publish yet, #5 is an excellent stepping stone into the market. Be known, make friendly connections, and you’ll at least have access to people who can answer your questions and help you out later on.

[thewritershandbook]

How to build your world: Economy

Things to consider when creating your world’s economy.

[letswritesomenovels]

Writing the Perfect Query Letter

The point of a query letter is to sell your story. 

Writing your query letter, your goal is to make the reader want to pick up the book. That is the entire purpose. We’ve all recommended books to friends before. It’s exactly that, except now that book is yours and the stakes are high. A query letter is, above all, persuasive. While writing your query letter, make sure you draw your reader into your story with every word. 

A query letter is not a creative letter; it’s a business proposition. 

Writing a query letter, don’t think of yourself as a writer, especially not of this particular story. You’ll need that degree of separation from your work for a good query. An agent/author relationship is foremost a business relationship. You’re pitching a product to someone whose job it is to sell your product (the agent) to someone whose job it is to sell your product (the editor) to someone you want to buy your product (the reader). This means that by querying your manuscript, you’re requesting a place in an industry. As such, you should follow some industry standards:

Use business letter formatting. 12 point font. Single spaced. Left alignment. No indentations. A space between paragraphs.

Don’t be familiar. This is a business letter. A formal letter. Unless you already have some sort of a relationship with the person you’re querying–if you’ve met at an event or corresponded in some other regard–write like you’re writing to a potential business associate. 

Write the letter as yourself. Don’t write as your character. Don’t write as your narrator. Don’t write as the historian who discovered your story 1,000 years into the future. It’s a risk that rarely pays off. On that point…

Don’t be creative with the form of your query. Save the creativity for your manuscript. Don’t quote a section in your opening lines. Don’t include a box of chocolates with it when you mail it off. Don’t be gimmicky. If you resort to a gimmick, the agent is going to wonder if it’s because you don’t know how this works or your story isn’t strong enough to stand on it’s own. Play by the rules. Trust your story. 

Keep it short. 250-400 words. Remember your goal: to get the agent to pick up the first chapter. Agents can receive hundreds of queries in a week. They don’t have time for wasted words. They won’t wait for you to get to your point. Say what you have to say as quickly as possible. 

Writing Your Query:

You don’t have long to tell your story. Just a page. This means you can’t include much more than the information that is absolutely vital to your story and the querying process. I’ve outlined the information, and separated it into paragraphs. You don’t have to divide it the way I’ve set out here, but these are the general lumps of Query Stuff. 

Each point I’ve bulleted should only be a sentence or two long. If your reader wants to know more, they’ll read the first chapters and request the manuscript. 

The Opening Lines: The Formalities

Address the agent. As this is a business letter, start with something akin to “Dear Mr./Ms. [First Name, Last Name] or [Last Name]:” Ex. Dear Mr. Tolkien: 

State your intent. In my research I’ve found this unnecessary, but if you choose to do so you can say something along the lines of: “I’m submitting for your consideration my completed novel, [TITLE].” 

The First Paragraph: The Introduction

Introduce your story as cleanly as possible. It should be minimal, yet evocative. Specific to your story, but skimming the surface of it. The more set-up you give, the more complicated you’ll make things for yourself. 

The set up. What was life like for the character when the story began? Where does the story take place? 

The inciting incident. The “but when…” What set the ball rolling? This can be in the same sentence as the setup. 

The combination of the set up and inciting incident should work as a sort of tagline. 

Protagonist motivation. What does your protagonist want? What is it about the inciting incident that motivates the protagonist to action? 

The Second Paragraph: The Conflict 

I’ve made this a separate paragraph because shorter paragraphs make a page more inviting for a reader, but it’s your call. In this paragraph, you don’t want to summarise the entire book; you want to show your ability to weave a compelling story. It should have energy. It should tell the reader just enough to get them excited. 

The rising action. What are a few key events that raise the stakes in your manuscript? Take a few sentences to lay out the most important events leading to the climax of your story. 

The central conflict. What is the main obstacle your protagonist will face to achieve their goal? Lay out exactly what your protagonist’s biggest problem is. 

The hook. The line or question that will make your reader want to read more. If you’d like, you can make it it’s own paragraph. 

The Third Paragraph: The Details

Some people make this their first paragraph, but I’ve decided to put this after the introduction to the story. These are the formal details of your story, where it gets very Industry.

The title. You might have said it earlier, but it won’t hurt to say it again here. 

The word count, genre, & age range. All necessary industry information. Round your word count to the nearest 1,000. 

Comp titles. What books might this person have read that are similar to your own, either in tone/setting/story? This can give your reader a sense of the potential audience for your story. You only want to include two. 

If you really want, you can choose to personalise the submission here and say why you’ve queried this particular agent. If you only want to show that you’ve done your research, you should have already gotten this point across clearly with the summary, age range, and genre. But, if you really love this agent, if you follow their blog or twitter or love some of their authors, it won’t hurt to say so. 

The Fourth Paragraph: The Author

The last paragraph is usually set aside for a few short lines about yourself. This should only include information relevant to writing this manuscript. Examples of biographical details you might want to include: 

Awards

Degrees

Writing conferences/workshops attended

Expertise related to the content of the book

Where you lived/have lived (if it matters)

You should be able to summarise this paragraph with: here is why you should trust me to tell this story.

You can also include a line about what you: are currently writing, enjoy writing, or have written. Let the agent get to know you as a writer and reader outside of this one story. (Especially if you don’t have many manuscript-related accolades/experience.) 

The Closing Line: The Niceties 

Thank the agent for taking the time to read your query. A small but important consideration. 

Tips

Highlight your writing ability with narrative voice. If your story is funny, make sure your query reflects that. If the writing is lyrical, your query should be too. You don’t want to drown the agent in your writing style, but you should splash them a bit. 

DON’T INCLUDE THEMES. Don’t say this is a story about “friendship and the power or love,” or “children will relate to this story of bullying.” A query letter isn’t a literature class. Don’t analyse your manuscript for your reader. Let the story speak for itself. 

Use active language. Don’t use phrases like “this story is about” or “the main character is.” Again, let the plot and the character’s actions speak for themselves. 

Only name a few characters and locations outright. If you’re querying Harry Potter, you’ll want to use Harry’s name in the query, but Aunt Petunia and Uncle Dursley can be “his cruel relatives.” Hermione and Ron can be “his friends.” Even Hogwarts can be a “school for people with magical abilities.” Refer to things by their function in the manuscript and keep your query simple and easy to follow. The more names, locations, and special terms in your query, the more confusing it will be. 

Don’t sing your own praises. Don’t say that your mom loves your book, or that your little cousins devoured it. Don’t compare it to Harry Potter or any other best-seller. Don’t say you think the book will sell well. The agent won’t believe you. 

It’s okay if it takes you days and days to write your query. It should take days to write. Whether or not the agent even looks at your first chapter will depend entirely on this single page. You can write the novel of the century, but no one will look at it unless your query sells it. 

Have someone else look over your query before you send it out. Share it with the smartest person you know. Share it with your old English teacher. Share it on a writing website, like r/writers. Have them judge it on clarity and quality. Ask them where it can be trimmed. Ask them what they think the strongest sentence is. Ask what the weakest sentence is. Have them check for typos. 

Triple-check you’ve spelt the agent’s name correctly. Agents are trying to get through their inbox. If they find one good reason to move past your query, they will. Don’t give it to them in the first line. 

Triple-check the agent’s submission requirements. Getting these wrong is another way to get your query moved directly to the reject pile. 

Let them know if there’s a potential for sequels. If you’re writing a trilogy, don’t try to sell all three books at once. Use this query letter to sell the first book of the series only. Then, let the agent know that “[Your Title] has the potential for two sequels continuing [Your Protagonist]’s story.” An agent wants you to have more than one book in your arsenal, but this is a short letter. There’s only room for the one book in it. 

And one last tip? Your query doesn’t have to be perfect. Following this advice will help you draw the essential story out of a manuscript and make it look like you know what you’re doing, but many queries break these “rules” and still get full manuscript requests. As long as there’s something in the pitch that is enough to make the agent want to take a look at the manuscript itself, the query is doing its job. 

Remember: you’re recommending a book. That’s all. It just happens to be your book. 

Sources. 

Writing a Six Sentence Synopsis

23 Successful Query Letters

How to Write a Query Letter

How to Write the Perfect Query- Agent Advice

The Anatomy of a Query Letter (Podcast episode: 1hr)

The Narrative Breakdown (Podcast episode: 35min)

Query Generator

Using the research I did for this post (plus a whole bunch more), I created a website to help you identify important aspects of your story and gather them into a standard query structure. Check it out at: https://www.querylettergenerator.com/

[pinespittinink]

Ever wondered about hyphenating phrases, whether it’s “on the spot” or “on-the-spot”, or where to use “side by side” instead of “side-by-side”? Here’s a great article about it all. 

Ever unsure if you should be using single or double quotations within a sentence, or don’t know if it should be “a really great idea” or ‘a really great idea’? Here’s an article about that too. 

[spearmint-milkshake]

i just saw a fb post where a man was arguing with a woman about the best way to make macarons and he kept insisting that she was wrong, and then eventually he was like “I’ve never personally made macarons, but if you think about it what I’m saying makes sense, i’m simply stating the obvious. i’m sure there are plenty of youtube tutorials that would show you the same thing.” and the woman replied by linking him to her instagram business page and she makes fuckin macaron towers for parties for a living and i’ve been laughing about it for a solid 5 minutes.

[cocksmasher69]

Men automatically assume they’re more of an expert on something than any woman on account of their dicks. I’ve never met such an ignorant and narcissistic creature as a male

[cheekless0nion]

I’ll never forget a time when a fb friend of mine posted that she’s on her way to hospital to give birth. Women commented with “good luck” and other encouraging messages. A man’s comment was advice on how to give birth. 

[celean0]

You have got to be kidding me

[wreathedinscales]

So I was talking about Jekyll & Hyde (the book) at a writer’s museum while we were looking at an Robert Louis Stevenson exhibit. I was giving my take on Jekyll, and my brother tried to counter it. I countered back easily, and then he said “well I’ve never read the book”

My dude………..stop

[coffeebuddha]

my ex, whose baking experience was pretty much limited to frying premade biscuit dough in boy scouts to make ‘donuts’, would constantly try to correct me or give me advice on baking

i’m a fucking pastry chef

[gotlostintheuniverse]

met a dude at a party who was talking about physics and asked if i’d ever listened to any online physics lectures bc he listened to all of this one series and they were so helpful and maybe i could learn some physics too

i have a degree in physics

and am a published coauthor in astrophysics

[sxpositive]

the best part is that the woman who invented the term ‘mansplaining’ (her name is Rebecca Solnit and i highly recommend her collection of essays) came up with it when she was at a party one night and a man tried to explain a book to her, and wouldn’t let her speak long enough for her to tell him that

she wrote the bloody book he was mansplaining to her

[saltiestsoprano]

You know I have plenty examples of this but that last one takes the cake so imma just let it be.

[horsegrl]

not to be all “tw*light did nothing wrong” but misogyny honest to god killed the hunger games

[horsegrl]

it was no masterpiece sure but it also sure as hell wasnt the love triangle bullshit everyone made it out to be. seriously everyone blames this whole “YA fiction with the special One and teens overthrowing the oppressive government tropes” trend on the hunger games but the truth is that none of those books are anything like thg

[horsegrl]

god!!! im mad!! name one cliche YA novel where the government actually is BAD like not just “oh love is illegal” or “they barcode you!!uwu” instead of like. actual slavery and rampant poverty while the rich waste their money on dumb bullshit!! and name one main character who ACTUALLY suffers under the government’s regime!! who actually starves and works and suffers and has genuine REASON to rebel!! thg is the only YA book that had anything to say about wealth disparity and the dehumanization of the poor,, every other YA book uses it as a plot device to put some dumbass romance together or show how “badass” the MC is!! thg is genuinely emotional and the focus of the book isnt katniss’s archery and how cool she is and its NOT gale or fucking peeta bread. and then the marketing for the stupid fucking movies took the WHOLE POINT OF THE BOOK (which is to satirize and critique how women in entertainment have any serious things about them ignored in favor of whatever dress theyre wearing or who they’re dating) and turns that into……….. a fucking love triangle. and then the world forgets it because its just another dumb teen girl series. okay. 

[horsegrl]

Me @ myself rn

[horsegrl]

oh also last thing. the fact that at the end katniss chose to kill Coin (the rebel leader/soon to be newest dictator) instead of just having a plain and simple boring happy ending shows just how different thg is from the YA fiction its compared to. no other book in this genre would have the guts (or even the idea) to put out such a blatant, obvious “the fight against oppression never ends, stay diligent” message and thg is iconic for it and it shows how much thought was actually put into its message. im sorry to susan collins for my 12 yo self for not understanding at the time and thinking it was just bad writing

[horsegrl]

thanks to everyone adding on about the representation! about finnick’s story and being trafficked! and about peeta and his disability!! and katniss and her  indigenous coding and PTSD!! And about how it shows how war n dictatorships always prey on marginalized groups!! and a billion other things!!! that the movies just fucked off n forgot about!!!

[professionalpenthief]

wanna add that the parts that can be considered as “love triangle” was actually about a choice between violence (gale) and peace/diplomacy (peeta) like the choice was never about a boy or romance, the choice was about morality and a way of life.

[sepulchritude]

Do new ace people these days know about black rings?

[anotherknifeinmyhands]

uhh, i don’t.

[boyplushie]

yeah! there’s a thing where ace people can wear a black ring on the middle finger of their right hand as a sign to show others that they’re ace!

(I couldn’t find a version of this pic without the bottom text, sorry)

[stubbornseedling]

I had no idea this was falling out of common knowledge. Boost to get it rolling again! Quick tip from an ace who’s been wearing the black ring for like five plus years now and has gone through several either broken or too scratched to wear- save yourself the trouble, go straight for ceramic.

[xvynth]

there’s also aro rings, pretty much the same concept but with white rings, dont leave us out of it!

[canary-prince]

It fell out of common knowledge because exclusionists destroyed our communities 

[asexual-territory]

Always reblog

[make-kotlc-gayer]

Rebbloging for my aro/ace followers, y'all stay strong

[maggie-stiefvater-deactivated20]

I’ve decided to tell you guys a story about piracy.

I didn’t think I had much to add to the piracy commentary I made yesterday, but after seeing some of the replies to it, I decided it’s time for this story.

Here are a few things we should get clear before I go on:

1) This is a U.S. centered discussion. Not because I value my non U.S. readers any less, but because I am published with a U.S. publisher first, who then sells my rights elsewhere. This means that the fate of my books, good or bad, is largely decided on U.S. turf, through U.S. sales to readers and libraries.

2) This is not a conversation about whether or not artists deserve to get money for art, or whether or not you think I in particular, as a flawed human, deserve money. It is only about how piracy affects a book’s fate at the publishing house. 

3) It is also not a conversation about book prices, or publishing costs, or what is a fair price for art, though it is worthwhile to remember that every copy of a blockbuster sold means that the publishing house can publish new and niche voices. Publishing can’t afford to publish the new and midlist voices without the James Pattersons selling well. 

It is only about two statements that I saw go by: 

1) piracy doesn’t hurt publishing. 

2) someone who pirates the book was never going to buy it anyway, so it’s not a lost sale.

Now, with those statements in mind, here’s the story.

It’s the story of a novel called The Raven King, the fourth installment in a planned four book series. All three of its predecessors hit the bestseller list. Book three, however, faltered in strange ways. The print copies sold just as well as before, landing it on the list, but the e-copies dropped precipitously. 

Now, series are a strange and dangerous thing in publishing. They’re usually games of diminishing returns, for logical reasons: folks buy the first book, like it, maybe buy the second, lose interest. The number of folks who try the first will always be more than the number of folks who make it to the third or fourth. Sometimes this change in numbers is so extreme that publishers cancel the rest of the series, which you may have experienced as a reader — beginning a series only to have the release date of the next book get pushed off and pushed off again before it merely dies quietly in a corner somewhere by the flies.

So I expected to see a sales drop in book three, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, but as my readers are historically evenly split across the formats, I expected it to see the cut balanced across both formats. This was absolutely not true. Where were all the e-readers going? Articles online had headlines like PEOPLE NO LONGER ENJOY READING EBOOKS IT SEEMS.

Really?

There was another new phenomenon with Blue Lily, Lily Blue, too — one that started before it was published. Like many novels, it was available to early reviewers and booksellers in advanced form (ARCs: advanced reader copies). Traditionally these have been cheaply printed paperback versions of the book. Recently, e-ARCs have become common, available on locked sites from publishers. 

BLLB’s e-arc escaped the site, made it to the internet, and began circulating busily among fans long before the book had even hit shelves. Piracy is a thing authors have been told to live with, it’s not hurting you, it’s like the mites in your pillow, and so I didn’t think too hard about it until I got that royalty statement with BLLB’s e-sales cut in half. 

Strange, I thought. Particularly as it seemed on the internet and at my booming real-life book tours that interest in the Raven Cycle in general was growing, not shrinking. Meanwhile, floating about in the forums and on Tumblr as a creator, it was not difficult to see fans sharing the pdfs of the books back and forth. For awhile, I paid for a service that went through piracy sites and took down illegal pdfs, but it was pointless. There were too many. And as long as even one was left up, that was all that was needed for sharing. 

I asked my publisher to make sure there were no e-ARCs available of book four, the Raven King, explaining that I felt piracy was a real issue with this series in a way it hadn’t been for any of my others. They replied with the old adage that piracy didn’t really do anything, but yes, they’d make sure there was no e-ARCs if that made me happy. 

Then they told me that they were cutting the print run of The Raven King to less than half of the print run for Blue Lily, Lily Blue. No hard feelings, understand, they told me, it’s just that the sales for Blue Lily didn’t justify printing any more copies. The series was in decline, they were so proud of me, it had 19 starred reviews from pro journals and was the most starred YA series ever written, but that just didn’t equal sales. They still loved me.

This, my friends, is a real world consequence.

This is also where people usually step in and say, but that’s not piracy’s fault. You just said series naturally declined, and you just were a victim of bad marketing or bad covers or readers just actually don’t like you that much.

Hold that thought. 

I was intent on proving that piracy had affected the Raven Cycle, and so I began to work with one of my brothers on a plan. It was impossible to take down every illegal pdf; I’d already seen that. So we were going to do the opposite. We created a pdf of the Raven King. It was the same length as the real book, but it was just the first four chapters over and over again. At the end, my brother wrote a small note about the ways piracy hurt your favorite books. I knew we wouldn’t be able to hold the fort for long — real versions would slowly get passed around by hand through forum messaging — but I told my brother: I want to hold the fort for one week. Enough to prove that a point. Enough to show everyone that this is no longer 2004. This is the smart phone generation, and a pirated book sometimes is a lost sale.

Then, on midnight of my book release, my brother put it up everywhere on every pirate site. He uploaded dozens and dozens and dozens of these pdfs of The Raven King. You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting one of his pdfs. We sailed those epub seas with our own flag shredding the sky.

The effects were instant. The forums and sites exploded with bewildered activity. Fans asked if anyone had managed to find a link to a legit pdf. Dozens of posts appeared saying that since they hadn’t been able to find a pdf, they’d been forced to hit up Amazon and buy the book.

And we sold out of the first printing in two days.

Two days.

I was on tour for it, and the bookstores I went to didn’t have enough copies to sell to people coming, because online orders had emptied the warehouse. My publisher scrambled to print more, and then print more again. Print sales and e-sales became once more evenly matched.

Then the pdfs hit the forums and e-sales sagged and it was business as usual, but it didn’t matter: I’d proven the point. Piracy has consequences.

That’s the end of the story, but there’s an epilogue. I’m now writing three more books set in that world, books that I’m absolutely delighted to be able to write. They’re an absolute blast. My publisher bought this trilogy because the numbers on the previous series supported them buying more books in that world. But the numbers almost didn’t. Because even as I knew I had more readers than ever, on paper, the Raven Cycle was petering out. 

The Ronan trilogy nearly didn’t exist because of piracy. And already I can see in the tags how Tumblr users are talking about how they intend to pirate book one of the new trilogy for any number of reasons, because I am terrible or because they would ‘rather die than pay for a book’. As an author, I can’t stop that. But pirating book one means that publishing cancels book two. This ain’t 2004 anymore. A pirated copy isn’t ‘good advertising’ or ‘great word of mouth’ or ‘not really a lost sale.’

That’s my long piracy story. 

[maggie-stiefvater-deactivated20]

note: for those asking why there will be no ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) of CALL DOWN THE HAWK this year.

[themerrywriter-deactivated20200]

Unpopular Opinion; If you pirate books, you’re stealing food directly from an authors mouth and you’re a shitty person. 

Second Unpopular Opinion; You are not entitled to the fruits of someone’s labour for free. Visit a fucking library. 

[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

[heywriters]

Everyone, go follow op, she’s much more dedicated and organized than I am!

[wordsnstuff]

Resources For Romance Writers

Here is a large compilation of resources based on what you guys told me you struggle with the most when writing romance. This ranges from creating a healthy romance to inspire other people to seek the right kind of love, finding inspiration to write, writing realistic scenes, and many other topics. I hope that you find this useful!

Healthy & Realistic Romance

How to write strong character relationships 

How To Write Realistic Romance

Realistic Romance 

Writing Realistic Love Relationships 

LGB Relationships

Romantic Subplots

Writing a Romance Novel 

How to Avoid Forced Romantic Sub-Plot 

Subtle Signs of Love 

Love at First Sight and the Stages of Love 

Using Timelines to Pace Romantic Relationships 

Avoiding the Cheesy Stuff 

Building an Organic Romance 

Writing Healthy Couples In Fiction

Cliches & Tropes To Avoid

What’s Missing In The Modern Romance Heroine

Romance- The deal with triangles.

Writing a quality love triangle

Writing 101- love triangles

The problem with love triangles

Massive List Of Romance Tropes

Massive List Of Friendship Tropes

Things About Romance Learned From TV

Cliches To Avoid Or Reconstruct

Writing Emotional Scenes Without Melodrama

Friendship to Love

Enemies to Lovers 

Female Characters To Avoid

Romance Scenes & NSFW Resources

Handling the Risqué Parts of Writing Romance 

The Big Book Of Writing Sex

Twenty Steps To Writing Great Love Scenes

Ten Essentials To Writing Love Scenes

Sizzling, Sensuous and Steamy: How to Write Love Scenes

Keeping it Sweet While Turning Up the Heat

Kissing Scenes

Sexual Tension 

Delicate and Relevant Sex Scenes 

Types Of Kisses

Five Flirting Styles

Flirting Types

Obvious Flirting Signs

How To Flirt

Writing Flirty Things

Words To Use In Sex Scenes

Synonyms For Private Bits

Things For Beginners

Tips for Beginning Romance Writers 

5 Tips To Writing Engaging Romance

How To Write From The Opposite Gender’s Point Of View

Writing Gender Specific Dialogue

How to Write a Romance Novel: The Keys to Conflict 

4 Tips For Writing For The Romance Market

How To Write Romance

Bringing Humor Into Your Romance

Inspiration

Romantic Things On Tumblr

Love poems

The Bad Sex Awards (What Not To Do)

TheRomantic.com

General Tools and Tips

Romance University 

RT Book Reviews’ Romance site 

5 Ways To Write Romance With Respect

10 Ways To Improve Your Romance Novel

7 Essential Tips For Writing A Romance

Using Real Psychology In Your Writing 

Help With Romance: General Things

Plotting The Teen Romance

Research Flaws In Romance

Writing Romantic Dialogue

Touchy-Feely Words

Resource Masterposts I Made

Wordsnstuff Masterlist

Useful Writing Resources

Useful Writing Resources II

Resources For Fantasy & Mythology Writers

[stephrawlingwrites]

Reblogging again in time for Valentine’s day!

[intangible-rice]

When I was 17 my appendix ruptured because I thought I was just having period cramps and didn’t go to the hospital so don’t tell me PMS symptoms are no big deal

[lingering-spirit]

this actually happened to me during my math final and i didn’t think anything of it and when i was later admitted to the hospital my math prof was asking me ‘you didn’t have to take the final! why didn’t you tell me it hurt?!?!’ and i told him i’ve had cramps worse.

he gave me 100

[kadenonio]

This is actually an extremely common occurrence simply because in sex ed they don’t teach you how to tell the difference between menstrual cramps and other more serious pains. The way to tell the difference between cramps and appendicitis is that while menstrual cramps are generalized toward the middle of the stomach below the belly button, pain from a swollen or burst appendix will start in the middle of the stomach and relocate to only the lower right side, even lower than menstrual cramps, and is a very localized pain. It also comes on extremely suddenly and will worsen over time or when you make a sudden movement, like a cough or a sneeze.

Basically, if you’re feeling any sort of pain, even if it’s menstrual cramps, don’t hesitate to tell the school nurse or a parent, or if you’re out of school and home even make a doctor’s appointment. Chances are if your cramps are that bad there’s something they can do to improve that as well.

[vandigo-deactivated20180131]

I am boosting the shit out of that reply, because I am twenty-fucking-five years old and did not know how to tell the two pains apart

[teacupdream]

Adding another diagnostic tool! This is something we use in the ER called the rebound test. Basically, appendicitis and cramps react differently to certain things. If you’re still not sure if you have cramps or appendicitis, take two fingers and press them into your abdomen where the pain is (try repeating this on the lower right quadrant of the abdomen just to be sure.)

When you press in firmly, it will probably hurt. Here’s the test: LET GO. Does it get better or get worse? Appendicitis will immediately hurt worse when you let go. Cramps will not. Go to the ER if the rebound test makes it worse!

[rainbowrowell]

THE REBOUND TEST IS REALLY IMPORTANT.

My husband got sent home from the ER with a rupturing appendix. When he came back and was rushed into surgery, the surgeon was super angry – “Why didn’t anyone do the rebound test?!”

[deinde-prandium]

All great info, but there is another lesson to be learned here: if you’re in major pain, it’s probably important - so don’t let anyone tell you it’s not. There is a documented pattern of women who go to the ER with complaints of pain being dismissed as overreacting…when in reality women have an incredibly high tolerance for pain, to the point that some don’t even realize exactly how serious their condition is. These stories only serve to illustrate this point.

[allthyvexations]

Reblog to literally save a life.

[tvylxrrr]

Every time I see this..

[stereden]

I’ve had three false appendicitis alerts so far, and I can’t tell you how important it is not to hesitate to go and see a doctor.

Yes, in my case, it wasn’t actually appendicitis (though in two of the cases it was inflamed, just not ruptured, and can they just take the damn thing out before it happens a fourth time?), but the doctors told me I had done the right thing nonetheless. Even if, the first time it happened, I had been at a sailing camp on a island and had to be brought back to the mainland by an ambulance boat (800 km from home, all of fourteen years old. That was terrifying, to be honest, though thankfully one of the camp supervisor came with me).

And given that my twelve-years old cousin had to be rushed to the ER unable to walk when her appendicitis ruptured because she had thought it was just her period pain until the pain got too much, you can bet your ass I’m not taking any chances.

[booksbrackenbooze]

A few years back I went to urgent care (similar to the ER) with what I thought was appendicitis. The pain was so bad that I could barely walk. It wasn’t appendicitis (thank you rebound test). Turns out I have ovarian cysts. Most women have them and just don’t know. At the time I’d never even heard of them.

Even now, years later, when my period cramps kick in a day early I can’t help think “is this appendicitis?” But now I have an explanation for the pain.

Women rarely are informed what level of pain they should expect from periods. I wasn’t. Lots of women have mild cramps. Chances are that pain means something. So if you’re not sure, or if it hurts like hell, please go see your doctor!