A Place For All Your Creative Needs

Welcome to your place for character, setting, and dialogue inspiration! Here you will find prompts, quotes, images, motivation, worldbuilding resources, useful sites, and occasionally writing memes. Let's become better writers together.

[one-stop-write-spot]

Update!

Heyo! I haven’t posted much recently, but this will change soon. 

 As of now I’m currently going through all my old posts and tagging them appropriately. There’s a lot that didn’t get tagged enough or at all when I first made this blog, so I want to fix that up before I continue posting.

 After that’s all sorted out, get ready. I’ve got around 200 posts in my drafts so expect a lot of content :)

[one-stop-write-spot]

[one-stop-write-spot]

What am I even typing???

[jewishdragon]

Height comparison site!

FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS WHO NEED IT IT’S AMAZING

I know some of you need this! (you don’t need to have giant or tiny characters either. it’s a great ref for everyone!)

[p-r-o-m-p-t-s]

This isn’t a prompt but it is sure damn helpful.

[witchyautumns]

jeastman90Teddy  🍁 instagram

Roosevelt National Park

[90377]

Kleiner Falkenstein by Fabian Kurbel

[actuallybestrpgideas]

Knife Theory

Original post from u/jimbaby on r/DnD 

When writing a character’s backstory, it’s important to include a certain number of “knives”. Knives are essentially anything that the DM can use to raise the stakes of a situation for your character. Anything that can make a conflict personal, like a threatened loved one or the appearance of a sudden enemy. They’re called “knives” because the players lovingly forge them and present them to the DM so that the DM can use them to stab the player over and over again.

The more knives a player has, the easier it is for the DM to involve them in the story. So it’s important to have them! When breaking down a backstory, it kind of goes like this:

Every named person your character cares about, living or dead (i.e. sibling, spouse, childhood friend) +1 knife [EDIT: a large family can be bundled into one big knife]

Every phobia or trauma your character experiences/has experienced +1 knife

Every mystery in your character’s life (i.e. unknown parents, unexplained powers) +1 knife

Every enemy your character has +1 knife

Every ongoing obligation or loyalty your character has +1 knife

Additionally, every obligation your character has failed +1 knife

Every serious crime your character has committed (i.e. murder, arson) +1 knife

Every crime your character is falsely accused of +1 knife

Alternatively if your character is a serial killer or the leader of a thieves guild, those crimes can be bundled under a +1 BIG knife

Any discrimination experienced (i.e. fantasy racism) +1 knife

Every favored item/heirloom +1 knife

Every secret your character is keeping +1 knife

You kind of get the point. Any part of your backstory that could be used against you is considered a knife. A skilled DM will use these knives to get at your character and get you invested in the story. A really good DM can break your knives into smaller, sharper knives with which to stab you. They can bundle different characters’ knives together into one GIANT knife. Because we’re all secretly masochists when it comes to D&D, the more knives you hand out often means the more rewarding the story will be.

On the other hand, you don’t want to be a sad edgelord with too many knives. A buttload of knives just means that everyone in your party will inadvertently get stabbed by your knives, and eventually that gets annoying. Anything over 15 knives seems excessive. The DM will no doubt get more as time goes on, but you don’t want to start out with too many. You also don’t want to be the plain, boring character with only two knives. It means the DM has to work harder to give you a personal stake in the story you’re telling together. Also, knives are cool!! Get more knives!!!

I always try to incorporate at least 7 knives into my character’s backstory, and so far the return has been a stab-ity good time. Going back into previous characters, I’ve noticed that fewer knives present in my backstory has correlated with fewer direct consequences for my character in game. Of course, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, it’s just something that my friends and I have come up with to help with character creation. We like to challenge each other to make surprising and creative knives. If you think of any that should be included, let me know.

EDIT: I feel I should mention it’s important to vary up the type of knives you have. All 7 of your knives shouldn’t be family members, nor should they be crimes that you’ve done in the past. That’s a one-way ticket to repetitive gameplay. Part of the fun is making new and interesting knives that could lead to fun surprises in game.

[rpgs-are-neat]

I love this! I’ll be introducing this concept to the 2 (count em, TWO) groups of new players I’m DMing for now.

[chandri]

This is so incredibly well-put!

[occultclassicalart]

GOTCH, Thomas Cooper (1854-1931)

The Lantern Parade circa 1918 Ed. Orig. Lic. Ed.

[1000storyideas]

The 6 stages of friendship for writers

How do you write friendship? How do you make it realistic? How do you know it’s time to unlock their secret sharing and mutual trust? There are no rule for that, but here goes a small guide to help you write and develop a friendship.

But, before anything, this guide is not a rule, just an example.

Stage 1: For now, they share nothing but the current location, event or activity that brought them together, for example, work, school, sport, rock concert, a zombie apocalypse… They talk mostly about the location, event or activity. They also have a first impression of each other, sometimes (most of the time) a very negative first impression. So, in stage 1 we have small-talk, first impression and one thing in common. 

Stage 2: They find something else in common, maybe both characters love horror movies, or paintball, or a song in particular. Maybe they have the same goals and duties. They will talk about it all the time. First activities might start as well, like eating together, walking home together, taking the same bus. The first impression will soften. So, in stage 2 we have common interests, changing first impression and enjoying the company.

Stage 3: After sharing their interests, and bonding, trust will start to set in. With trust comes sharing problems. People don’t usually open up their secrets out of nowhere. They usually talk about their problems, they ask for help or advice. Secrets come in the shape of problems. The more characters help each other, the faster their relationship will grow. They might share a few memories, family issues, and important information. Nicknames and inside jokes might appear as well. So, in stage 3 we have helping, problems solving, nicknames and a few memories.

Stage 4: This is the stage in which friends step up from being a good listener to being the voice of reason. They will care for each other and will speak the truth even when the other person doesn’t want to hear it. They are taking care of each other. They will hurt when the other person is in pain. They will cry. They will open their minds and soul. So, in stage 4, friends will become more like a family.

Stage 5: Friends will enter your house, open your fridge, take your food, meet your family members, sleep over. Not only problems, they share secrets as well. The other person is fully trusted. So, in stage 5 we have a more intimate approach regarding space and trust. This is the best friends forever stage.  

Stage 6: Beyond best friends, they can read each other’s feelings by looking at their eyes. No words needed. They can read each other’s movements, desires, fears, expressions, voice tones, intentions, reactions… So, in stage 6, magic happens. Their souls are connected somehow. They need the other person’s company. This friendship will hardly be broken.  

[pastart]

Boys Like That

Robert Nethery (2012)

[kafkasapartment]

Untitled( snow at Hägersten). LEONARD WIEDH (1866-1938). Oil on canvas

[carudamon119]

ザビエル古太郎 ‏@XavierKotaro このくらい急に寒くなったタイ https://twitter.com/ERnewsroom/status/691279360414777344 …

[one-stop-write-spot]

Welcome!

Welcome to the masterhub of writing inspiration! You can find everything you need to get your story going without following a million separate blogs. 

Here’s what I post and tags for it. There are inspiration tags and prompt tags.

1. Story Inspiration- #Story Inspo &  #Story Prompts

This is just a general tag for not only plot ideas, but everything on the blog, especially for things that don’t fit into another category, like music.

2. Character Inspiration- #Character Inspo & #Character Prompts

This tag is mainly photos of people that you can use to represent your characters. I try to find interesting pictures, and add a variety of races. You can add “male” or “female” to the tag if you need a specific gender.

It may also include text prompts. 

3. Setting Inspiration- #Setting Inspo & #Setting Prompts

These are pictures of nature, houses, ect that could be the place of your story.

4. Dialogue Inspiration- #Dialogue Inspo & #Dialogue Prompts

These are usually text prompts or quotes I reblog.

5. Motivation- #Motivation & #Writing Motivation

Just positive vibes to help boost you along.

6.Writing Humor, Memes, & Jokes- “Memes”

Who doesn’t love a laugh about The Writing Struggle?™

7. Writing Help- #Writing Help

What it says on the tin. How to write, worldbuild, edit, develop characters, and more.

There are more specific subtags like #character writing help as well.

8. My WIPs- #My WIPs (Each story will probably have its own tag as well)

I’m using this as my writeblr as well, so every so often I’ll post about my stories too.

Side note: if you see a random tag like “tftf,” or something similar on a reblog, it’s just a shortcut for me to find posts that inspire my WIPs.

9. Other’s WIPs- #WIP Reblog

Gotta help out my fellow writers, so I’ll reblog some good writing I find here :)

Feel free to submit inspiration for me to post! I’ll reblog this post a lot since it’ll quickly get lost, but this will be the only self-reblog I do :) You can find this post again by searching “welcome,” “directory.” or “tag list.” Happy writing!

[jasonincalifornia]

[islandofsuir-deactivated2018071]

Counting sheep until they fill the acres of insomnia that I own. I can’t sleep without sounds  so I keep the radio on; these dreams advertised as organic  aren’t so organic after all.

d.w. suir | instagram | (via islandofsuir)

[langleavpoetry]

[slowillusion]

“I’m so close to giving up. I’m so close to telling you let’s take a break. This negativity is invading my head. I fucked up twice already because of me, not you. I love you, but I’m sorry.”