Novel Ninny

Here are some of the works of a young adult writer (or at least the ones worth publishing on the internet). I, Ninny, hope you enjoy reading them. Send a message if you want to know my personal blog.

[novellaninny]

The Second Stage - Free Verse Poem

I hate

the burning feeling

of lava tears 

that pool at my eyes

sweltering from a heat

that smolders inside my chest.

The billowing smoke within

is a caged bird

flapping incessantly

at the prison bars of my rib cage

and eating at my heart

The smoke bird

is filled with lightning-hot

fury,

torrential rage,

and

looming dread. 

It wants out - 

to hurt those I love and care for

with its fearsome ragged talons

because I’m incapable of love

at this very moment.

I’m swallowed up by 

the coils of my old enemy

Depression

and its new friend

Grief. 

The pair swirl around me,

crushing me between their serpentine bodies

like anacondas

and their fangs injecting their 

vile venom

into my blood

like vipers

and making me boil

at the slightest offense

and recoil at the tender touch

of love.

How much more abuse

can my poor heart take

until I either succumb 

to the poison and get swallowed

by the serpents, 

lash out at my loved ones,

or perhaps even

both?

[allthingsschwab]

Victoria Schwab Tweets:

“This just in: you can love writing and also find it hard.

“I was once on a panel and another author essentially said, ‘if you don't enjoy every moment, then why are you here?’ and I was...exasperated. Creativity is a complicated beast. You don't have to love every second to be a valid participant.

“I love the ideas. I love brainstorming, and problem-solving, and I love making this better, fine-tuning language.

“I also hate drafting, claw my way through self-doubt, crawl on my hands and knees through the frustration of the unrealized.

“I'm not here because I love every second.

“I'm here because the parts I love are worth the rest.”

[thewritingumbrellas]

Writing advice from my uni teachers:

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

Before you write your novel, write a page of anything from your characters POV so you can get their voice right. Do this for every main character introduced.

[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.

[promptsforthesoul]

[lupine-dreams]

Important info is important -.-

[frognonbinary-deactivated202412]

UPDATE: so i just got signed by an agent bc of twitter pitch parties. for any aspiring writers, you dont HAVE to go the twitter pitch party route, its just another way to get noticed a bit faster 

[aspergersissues]

[novellaninny]

untitled sort of a rap

I’m sick in the head

Lying in bed

Wishing I was dead

My soul having bled

not for me, instead

it has been all for you

and I just wish

I could forget what I’ve read.

[novellaninny]

Untitled - Haiku

The nagging feeling

A friend hates you so much says

the voice in your head

[chasecharmer-deactivated2018101]

so remember that worldbuilding website, notebook.ai, that was goin around and everyone was so excited, but it turned out you had to pay a (frankly outrageous) subscription to access any of the best tools? 

well i have exciting news: World Anvil. 

here’s what you get for free: 

yeah. all of them. double what notebook.ai offers for pay. yeah baby.

i’ve only been using this site for like half an hour, but i am in LOVE. please check it out and consider supporting the creators if you can! 

[toomanyfeelings5]

@withswords

[toastweasel]

[fiction-is-not-reality]

In bigger letters for those in the back:

As a critiquer, your job is not to “make this piece of writing better” but to understand what the writer wants to achieve and help them to achieve it

[canariesarchive-blog-deactivate]

HELLO I JUST FOUND THE BEST FUCKING WEBSITE FOR WORKING ON CHARACTERS AND WORLD BUILDING YEET FUCKERS SEE YOU IN 8 YEARS

[canariesarchive-blog-deactivate]

If you have been struggling with world building and finding a way to keep track of everything PLEASE GOD LOOK AT NOTEBOOK.AI

Notebook.ai has different categories for different things:

And then once you make something each category has different questions for you to answer about your world:

This website is literally a blessing

[novellaninny]

Vase - Free Verse Poem

I want to scrub the imperfections of my soul

Scour the glass with the sandy surface of emery cloth

Make those flawed rough edges fade into blissful obscurity

Smooth and easy to touch and love

Become beloved enough to hold flowers from someone else

A sign of true love (or so they say)

But it’s not just my surface that is marred

Depressions formed when my sadness overwhelmed me

And my once pure insides cracked with red-hot rage

with no time to cool down and defuse

No amount of sanding will make those scars vanish

Instead I can only vaguely polish and dust myself, 

hoping to be better.

Maybe one day I will learn from the Japanese pottery

and pour golden lacquer into those cracks

making the damage a part of my history

not something to be ashamed of

or to vehemently hide. 

I don’t want to mourn for what I was or what I could be.

I want to love myself as I am, 

cracks and all.

[novellaninny]

Sliding - Poem

In high school, I was climbing

Climbing the hill known as

Graduation. 

But something happened

two-thirds of the way

on my road to victory.

I can’t be certain of the details

if it was me 

or if it was a storm

but I lost my grip - slipped

and fell backwards.

Maybe the skies opened up then

and the salty tears burned my wounds

as I struggled in the ensuing mudslide

to climb onto my feet and resume.

But instead I flailed, limbs of anxiety unable to grip the unsteady ground.

Towards the end,

my movements quieted - I had resigned myself to being drenched in mud and grime

like some dirt cake frosted with apathy.

But with the last of my strength, I called out for help

and someone handed me a walking stick

with which i used to hoist myself up

and begin a slow trekking trudge back up the hill.

And I did it.

I made it.

The land after that hill was smooth and easy to climb - or just flat

simple

with no pitfalls with which to twist my ankles.

But now I face another hill

larger than the last 

and I am so terribly afraid

that as I climb, I will slip

and slide back into my own personal hell.

[samswritingtips-deactivated2016]

A breakdown of medieval armor, since a lot of pieces are required to create a full suit.

[kuropii]

Ref

[novellaninny]

The Phoenix

From the smoldering embers I rise

in a smoke spiral

wings shining with scorching glitter

I am the phoenix

casting off cinder swirls

from my vibrant plumage

And I will blaze like the golden sun

Burn like a wildfire

Until I ebb and falter

like a withering candle

And then - only then

will I turn into ash

with one spectacular

final flash.

And from the smoldering embers I rise...

[soft-butch-cassidy]

I was getting pretty fed up with links and generators with very general and overused weapons and superpowers and what have you for characters so:

Here is a page for premodern weapons, broken down into a ton of subcategories, with the weapon’s region of origin. 

Here is a page of medieval weapons.

Here is a page of just about every conceived superpower.

Here is a page for legendary creatures and their regions of origin.

Here are some gemstones.

Here is a bunch of Greek legends, including monsters, gods, nymphs, heroes, and so on. 

Here is a website with a ton of (legally attained, don’t worry) information about the black market.

Here is a website with information about forensic science and cases of death. Discretion advised. 

Here is every religion in the world. 

Here is every language in the world.

Here are methods of torture. Discretion advised.

Here are descriptions of the various methods used for the death penalty. Discretion advised.

Here are poisonous plants.

Here are plants in general.

Feel free to add more to this!

[thejovianmute]

An exceedingly useful list of lists for writers.

[legion0047]

@weareadventurers

@creativerogues

[heroineimages]

Reblogging for own reference…

[lhazaar]

look…………….. write as much shitty fic as you want. nobody can stop you. you’re learning constantly and it’s better to write hackneyed implausible ridiculousness than it is to not write at all out of fear of fucking up. you’re good

[darkandstormyslash]

There was an experiment a professor did. I think it was pottery students. He did an experiment of “quality” vs “quantity”. One half of the class he told; you have to make as many pots as possible. Good pots, bad pots, shitty pots, whatever. The more pots you make, the higher your grade.

The other half of the class were told, “you can make only one pot”. But that pot had to be perfect. The quality had to be high; the highest quality pot would get the best mark.

But when it came to the grading, they noticed something weird.

All the best quality pots were in the ‘quantity’ group.

The guys who were literally churning out pots, trying to make as many as possible, not concentrating on the quality. But every pot they made, made them better at making pots. By the end of the month (I think it was a month) - they had some pretty awesome pots coming out, because they enjoying finding all the ways and all the things they could do to make all their pots. Where as the ‘quality’ guys had spent their time reading up on pots, and technique, and researching and planning; which was all great but they’d had no further practice at actually making pots.

The best way to get really good at something, the only way to be really good at something, is to make lots of shitty attempts at that thing several of which will fail. If all you create are perfect things then you won’t improve, because how can you improve on perfect?

tl:dr MAKE YOUR SHITTY POTS.

[kiramartinauthor]

Truth

[lazy-duck]

just a small correction, because I can’t find the original post with the pottery experiment but I’m fairly certain I remember this right: the students from the ‘quality’ group could make as many pots as they wanted. only one pot per student in that group would be graded, but they could make as many practice pots as they wished, the teacher didn’t except them to pull perfect pots out of their asses on the first try. but the students themselves probably did lowkey expect their hands to be able to perfectly replicate what they imagined, so they spent their time mostly thinking about what the perfect pot should look like, instead of practicing making pots like the ‘quantity’ sudents did.

[novellaninny]

The Cloud - Poem

The cloud will always be over your head. 

Antidepressants shrink it

and make it gray,

but you always know 

that the cloud will burst

and crush you with 

the downpour of burdensome rain.

It chills you with despair, 

shiver-some and bleak. 

Will you ever be warm and dry again?

Yes, the wet spells pass, 

and the cloud becomes passive. 

But it’s always over your head, 

looming and feeding off your emotions.

Sometimes the rain is not only dense,

but it burns like acid - hatred for yourself

and the world around you. 

And sometimes

you want your eyes to die

so you don’t have to see it 

anymore.