AnasAbdin
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ojovivo
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roma★
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Keni
noise dept.
Origami Around
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Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
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almost home
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@poolofconsciousness
‘clair de lune’ by debussy but you’re wandering down the halls of your wealthy reclusive uncle’s grand and empty mansion trying to find who’s playing the piano because you haven’t seen another soul for weeks except your reflection in the mirror
The Hero's Journey Explained: The Beginning
The Hero’s Journey is one of the most popular story structures. Last year, I shared my personal hybrid story structure that I like to use when evaluating narratives (which is pretty comprehensive, I think), and in it, I argued that despite there being various “story structures” to choose from, they are pretty much saying the same thing, in different ways with different approaches–they simply slice and dice story differently.
With that said, it can still be very beneficial to familiarize yourself with all of the major structures, so you can find which one connects best with you, and also, so you can refine and troubleshoot your own manuscript when writing. Have you ever just needed to hear a different perspective to solve a problem? Or needed another perspective to grasp a concept? Learning all the major story structures can help with just that and give you new insights.
So what is the Hero’s Journey structure, and how is it different? The Hero’s Journey came into the writing world from a famous book titled The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, but in reality, the structure is much, much older. Campbell was a mythologist who looked at and studied stories across all cultures and noted what patterns they had in common. This became the Hero’s Journey. In the 90s another book titled The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler took Campbell’s work (which was rather labyrinthine and scholarly I’m told) and made it more accessible and practical for writers today, in part by applying it to contemporary works.
Vogler’s updated approach is slightly different than Campbell’s, but the patterns are the same.
For this series, I will be using Vogler’s version.
Personally, I feel the Hero’s Journey approach has both strengths and weaknesses. This structure puts more focus on the protagonist’s experiences and growth than perhaps any of the other popular guides, which also means that it’s probably better at addressing theme than many others as well. But as a result, I feel it downplays antagonistic forces, which could be problematic to some writers. While the terminology is vivid, bringing to mind mythic moments, I also think it can be misleading, which can lead to confusion. The main thing with the terminology, is that the actual terms are often more specific than what they are defining, which can feel a little backwards to me. The best way to probably deal with that though, is to take them all more metaphorically and less literally.
Another difference worth noting is that traditionally the Hero’s Journey is in the shape of a circle, not a triangle. The circle emphasizes a typical journey, where you leave home, go somewhere new, and come back having gained more experience. But you could just as easily diagram this as a triangle, really. It’s just emphasis and preference.
But it could just as easily translate into a triangle.
Like the other structures, there can of course be variations and some parts may bleed into other parts. That’s okay as long as it serves the story.
And one more thing, I’m going to be referencing Into the Spider-verse again (in short (and along with others)). You might be thinking, woah, you must really like that movie! But in reality, I’m using it again to show you how the same story actually fits multiple plot structures, a sign that really, it is all about how you like to slice and dice it. (And I wish I understood that long ago.)
But this story structure is great! And it definitely has an archetypal tone, which can be fun to work with. So let’s get started.
Ordinary World
At the beginning of the Hero’s Journey, the protagonist starts in an “Ordinary World.” I use quotations because the term is relative to the story and hero. It’s ordinary compared to what is going to come later. Or it’s ordinary to the character. It might not necessarily be ordinary from an outside perspective. It’s important to realize that, because I think it can trip some writers up.
In Harry Potter, Harry literally starts in an ordinary world (in fact, you can’t get much more ordinary than the Dursleys). Later, he’ll go to a magical world that exists within our own.
In the movie Enchanted, Giselle begins in a world that is ordinary to her. Later she’ll go to New York, which is not ordinary to her.
In The Hobbit, Bilbo begins in Hobbiton, which is ordinary to him (though not to us).
This is true even of non-fantasy stories. It may not be literally a world, but it’s a state or lifestyle that is ordinary to the character or ordinary compared to what is going to happen later. It might be a business-woman who is too busy to fall in love. Business life is her ordinary.
The Ordinary World is the setup section of the story. Who is this story about? Where does it start? When does it take place? In the Ordinary World, you are essentially grounding the audience in the story. You are establishing a sense of normalcy (ordinary world). The setup will introduce us to the main character’s arc and the theme topic as well.
In Spider-verse
In Into the Spider-verse, Miles starts in an ordinary world compared to what will happen later. This can be confusing to some people, because at the starting of the story, Miles has just recently started attending a new school. But it’s very ordinary compared to what will happen later.
We get the setup–who Miles is, where this takes place (New York), when this takes place (present day), and a look at what he has going on in a typical day. We get a sense of his thematic arc and some foreshadowing.
The Call to Adventure
The Call to Adventure is what others may consider the “inciting incident,” if you are familiar with that term (though this structure breaks the next part down into more specific pieces). It’s a moment that challenges the normalcy we established in the Ordinary World and propels the protagonist in a new direction.
In a lot of traditional Hero’s Journey breakdowns, this comes from someone else–a herald. It’s Hagrid revealing to Harry he’s a wizard. It’s Gandalf telling Bilbo he’s looking for someone to share an adventure. The herald may not be human. It might be the chocolate bar that has a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Or it might even come from someone dangerous.
The Call to Adventure can also be an event–Primrose Everdeen having her name drawn out for the Hunger Games. It can be a temptation–the promise of riches if the hero joins a ship’s crew. It can even be a stirring within the protagonist, a desire for something more. Maybe the hero is just sick of the way things are in her community.
In Spider-verse
This is the moment where Miles is bitten by the radioactive spider. It changes the sense of normalcy establish in the opening.
Refusal of the Call
A Call to Adventure can be a little scary, or at least risky. Often the first thing the hero does is refuse or deny it. Even characters who want to go on the adventure may take a moment to consider what this means, because as Gandalf once said to Bilbo, if you come back, you may not be the same. Typically, they will at least have a second thought.
In Harry Potter, Harry immediately denies this: “I can’t be a wizard. I’m just Harry.” In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie says he wants to sell the ticket for money for his family. In The Hunger Games, Katniss thinks, “There must have been a mistake. This can’t be happening!” And in The Hobbit, Bilbo turns Gandalf down.
In some cases, if the Call to Adventure is something rather negative … say … a chance to cheat on your significant other, then the Refusal of the Call may be seen as a positive choice.
In Spider-verse
The morning after being bitten, Miles refuses to believe there is something legitimately different about himself, telling himself over and over again that he’s just going through puberty. He’s in denial. Even when he goes back to find the dead spider, he tells himself “It’s just an ordinary spider.”
Meeting the Mentor
At this point the hero usually needs more help, more information, or more encouragement. This is where the mentor comes in. Sure, the mentor may be a set, obvious character: Gandalf meets with Bilbo over tea. It may be a temporary mentor, like Hagrid helping Harry prepare to go to a wizarding school. But sometimes it’s helpful to think of the mentor as more of a function rather than a character. The function is that something or someone provides the hero with additional information, supplies, wisdom–whatever they need, maybe even a kick out the door–to get going. In this sense, it can be a map the protagonist looks at, a loved one explaining why they need to answer the Call, or a library book that has historical facts that foreshadow the future of the world. The mentor function may even be fulfilled by an enemy or rival.
Mentors provide or donate some sort of “gift,” literal or figurative. Sure, it might be wise advice, but it also might be a magical pendant that will light up any darkness or a breastplate that a dragon can never pierce. It might even be something the protagonist doesn’t like or want.
In Spider-verse
Right after finding the dead spider, Miles runs into the real Spider-man, who is battling bad guys at the collider. During this, Peter Parker speaks with Miles, asking and encouraging him to be a Spider-man, offering to mentor him, and giving him valuable information about the collider. He insists that he needs Miles’s help–kicking Miles out the door (figuratively speaking), so that he can answer the Call.
… next week I’ll be back with the middle.
You won’t see most of this planet. Under each rock. Beneath the water. Secrets of air and soil.
Can you feel the joy behind this limitation?
That there is always a new thing to discover, a new way to grow, is one of the sweetest parts of living, and it’s free and inexhaustible.
#127: Doin’ It Right
Advice for writers, eh? What of it? I’ve been posting daily inspiration and all sorts of other advice for writers on this blog for years. Once in a while, a quote I post gets a lot of attention, and the comments start coming in. Oh, the comments.
Contrary to Godwin’s Law, many comments on this blog are positive and very encouraging. But we wouldn’t be on the Internet if there weren’t at least a few negative ones. They range from plain misunderstanding, questioning the credibility of the author (who’s Stephen King anyway?) to outright fury about a specific piece of advice. Today, I’d like to talk about the last category.
All the snippets of wisdom that I curate for this blog are reflections of the respective authors’ experiences. When Susan Sontag says that
A writer, like an athlete, must ‘train’ every day. What did I do today to keep in ‘form’?
What she really means is that she expects herself as a writer to train every day. It might have been something that she did or aspired to do given her own circumstances. Every writer is different, and while it might be good advice for most people, it may not be right for you.
When Ray Bradbury says that
You must write every single day of your life.
Does it mean that if you skip Thursdays, you will never be a successful writer? Well, of course not. Some people prefer writing 500 words every day. Others like burning through 4,000 words on a Sunday. In the words of Zadie Smith
There is no “writer’s lifestyle”. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
Readers don’t care how you produce your work. We want to see the results. As a writer though, I’m fascinated by the habits and routines of other writers. How did they get to where they are today? What’s it like to be in their shoes?
I’m not looking to adopt their advice wholesale. I’m trying to understand why they did what they did, and what I can learn from it. There’s also plenty of advice out there which I find unhelpful, but I see how it can work for others.
Several famous authors talk about having no backup plan. They went all in, and writing a good book was their only option which finally gave them the motivation they needed. I would never do that.
Writing is an extremely personal matter. There’s no right or wrong, as long as things are working for you.
Then why authors make such grand statements and sweeping generalisations about writing? It’s because they found what works for them. And when that happens, you feel like you’ve just figured out life itself. Suddenly, everything falls into place and you’re wondering why did it take you so long. Naturally, most writers want to share their epiphanies with others, forgetting that we’re not all the same after all.
The next time you see a piece of writing advice that just seems wrong, remember that nobody is really doing it right, except Daft Punk, of course.
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Past Editions
#126: How Long Does It Take To Write A Book?, January 2020
#125: Journaling As a Form of Time Travel, January 2020
#124: 5 Inspiring Reads to Kickstart Your 2020, January 2020
#123: 2019 on the Blog, December 2019
#122: Axioms of the Creative Life, December 2019
In case you missed this week’s post!
Write one sentence. Let it lead to another. It comes in waves.
Tips On Writing Psychological Thrillers
This is also available on wordsnstuffblog.com!
– This article is a list of my advice based on questions that I got from followers on the topic of writing psychological thrillers (which really turned into thrillers in general). Happy writing!
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Nailing The Descriptions
Description in thriller and horror is imperative to making the story suspenseful and getting the tone right. Word choice, sentence structure, delivery, and deliberately including the right details can make or break your story, and it should be the most intentional part of writing these genres.
Realistic Fear
Fear presents itself in two ways (typically), fight or flight. The one you assign to your characters should be based on not only their good traits, but their bad ones, and it shouldn’t deviate too much throughout the plot. Response to fear is a great way to say a lot about your characters in a concise manner, and therefore it shouldn’t be over the top. If your characters respond inhumanly to fear, the reader will not read them as real people, and therefore will care less what happens to them. This unravels suspense more than anything else, and suspense is the goal.
Subverting Expectations (The Right Way)
Plot twists are important to keeping the reader on their toes, but they should be expertly woven into the story. A plot twist should be an intentional stitch in the pattern, not a knot that you pulled forcefully through the fabric, because the reader will always see that rip, and it will cheapen the piece overall.
Tension, Pacing, and Foreshadowing, Oh My!
The three keys to a good thriller are strategic fluctuations in tension, proper pacing, and brilliant foreshadowing. Tension should not be linear. It should be all over the place. It should be sudden in some places and slow building in others in order to keep that unsettling knot in your reader’s chest. The pacing should coexist smoothly with the tension to make sure it’s delivered with maximum effect, and foreshadowing shouldn’t give things away to the reader, but make them suspect that something is going to happen, and it’s going to be bad. The reader should feel that almost psychic feeling of “somethings coming but I don’t know what or when it’s going to happen and now I’m eternally scared for the characters I’ve become invested in.”
The Setup
The premise of the story should be unique, and most of the time, it should be a “what if” situation. A thriller should be a narrative based on heavy catastrophizing, and the possibilities should be explored using characters that you establish to be worth the reader’s empathy.
Interesting Antagonists
We are all tired of the crazed axe murderer that chooses to go after the protagonist for no reason whatsoever. Stay away from clichés unless you have a significantly unique twist on it, otherwise the reader will immediately abandon your story.
Protecting the Suspension of Disbelief
Don’t go too far. It’s that simple. The appeal of thrillers specifically is that they’re fundamentally rooted in reality. They’re scary because the larger part of you reading can entertain the idea of the events occurring once they close the page, and that is the precious jewel you must protect concerning your story. Intense gore and ghosts and crazed axe murderers and creatures that are pale white and seven feet tall have their place, but this isn’t it. Your readers give your story very little wiggle room to bend the rules regarding what they’ll accept. If you think you’re wiggling across the line, you probably are.
Here’s a really good video that gives some good examples in the creepypasta pantheon by Jenny Nicholson
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Louise Glück, from “March”, Poems 1962-2012
Damn...
“In men who are hard, intimacy involves shame – and is precious.”
— Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (via entjs)
Flexible Time Blocking: A More Breathable Way to Get Things Done
I’ve met a lot of people who struggle with sticking to a schedule - myself included - so here’s one way you can get things done without restricting your spontaneity.
Linked: The ABCDE Method: Accomplish Tasks More Efficiently
Hope this helps!
It’s Not Working: Character Troubleshooting
Welcome to It’s Not Working, a troubleshooting series that I’m uniquely qualified to run because I write things that don’t work all the time. This week, we study characters-why they don’t work, how to know, and what to do about it.
Question time
Think of a character that’s been giving you some difficulty, and answer these questions:
Are you unsure of their motivations, both scene by scene and in the whole plot?
Do they start and end with the same motivations, perspectives, personality, and outlook?
Does it feel like their lines could’ve been spoken by any other character?
Do you have trouble describing their personality, even to yourself?
If you answered yes to these questions, you may have an underdeveloped character.
Do they tend to act differently scene to scene?
Do you not know what to do with them in scenes?
Do they not have a part to play in the plot?
If you answered yes to these, you may have an unmotivated character.
Did you answer no to all of the above questions, but beta readers and critique partners are disagreeing?
Readers can’t understand their personality, motivations, or effect on the plot?
Then you may have an misrepresented character.
Why don’t they work?
Underdeveloped character: We’ve all heard of them before. They come off as bland. There’s no significant development or change to them throughout the story. Characters are your readers’ foothold into the story. If they feel like empty bottles, its going to be a lot harder for people to become invested in the plot.
Unmotivated characters lack one thing: yes, it is motivation. It’s the ultimate reason for your characters to do anything. Why do they feel like they have to save the city? Why do they get upset at that one joke? Without proper and consistent motivation, your readers are gonna get whiplash trying to figure out all the why’s of the character’s actions. And if they’re too busy worrying about that, then they’re gonna lose interest in the plot and the book as a whole.
Misrepresented characters are fully formed, at least to the author. They know everything about them, from their MBTI to the color of their second favorite rain boots. The writer has charts of how their motivations shift throughout the story, diagrams of their highs and lows, but for some reason, when readers get their hands on it, they give feed back like ‘flat’, ‘boring’, ‘generic’. Something needs to bridge that gap between the writers knowledge and what’s on the page.
The Fixes
Underdeveloped characters:
Find character questionnaires, follow character prompt blogs, take personality tests as your character. Really explore who they are as a person.
Make a chart of where they start and where they end. What happens in the plot that can significantly change them and the way they think?
Write scenes from their first person voice. Yes, even if you write in third. Write it like diary entry, write it obnoxiously first person, so first person even first person writers would cringe. Every spelling mistake you’d think they’d make, all the tangents, everything. Get a feel for the way they sound and think.
What makes them unique? What makes them so interesting that you would rather write them than a whole different character? Let this shine through.
Consider cutting them or combining them with another character if they really aren’t doing anything for your plot. I know, it hurts. You can always save pieces of them to use in another project, but sometimes it’s for the greater good.
Unmotivated characters:
Answer the questions: Why are they my main character, and why are they taking part in this plot? If you can’t answer those, then you either have the wrong main character, or the wrong plot.
Fill in this triangle and refer to them whenever you’re unsure of how they should react to something:
Write an elaborate backstory for the character. Why do they come off as stoic all the time, except when they shriek around antique dolls? There’s a story there. You don’t necessarily have to write it in the text, but the more you know about your character, the more credible these choices will feel to the reader.
Have inconsistencies addressed in the story. If they say that they don’t care about anyone on the team, and then run into a burning building to save them, it should be noted. Not necessarily flat out said, but noted.
Tone down big reactions. The wailing, screeching, jumping for joy. Some characters might do some of these things. Some might do some of them sometimes. But one character will very rarely bounce around the peak of every emotion all the time. If you do write that character, it needs to happen very intentionally.
Misrepresented character
Take a good look at the character’s introduction. Are you telling instead of showing? Is the reader distracted by larger plot things during their first scene? Do they have chances to prove their personality traits to the reader through actions or dialogue?
Can you hear them? Do they have a specific voice? Mannerisms? Quirks you can show the reader?
Are you leaving too much in subtext? I love assuming my readers will be scouring my books for clues and subtleties one day. But for major character traits, it’s better to be upfront about it. No one can assume your characters backstory out of thin air. Sometimes you have to be upfront about their motivations
Have you given an accurate, and somehow not boring, character description? If this is where you’re stuck, I understand, I’ve been there. But think of it as a chance not to list off eye color and hair length, but as a chance for each element to tell the reader something about the character. A ‘severe’ haircut gives us a different tone than ‘soft curls’. ‘Enough dirt in their nail beds to give an archaeologist chills’ give us one impression, ‘a smile that knows how high her cheekbones are’ gives us another. Play with it. Have fun.
Are you using them in each scene they’re in? Not only as an effect on the plot, but also using the scene to showcase who they are. It should be a symbiotic relationship, scenes and characters.
Some last few pieces of advice:
Don’t kill off a character or make them leave for the rest of the book because you don’t know what to do with them. If they stop having a purpose after a certain point, consider combining that purpose with a character that sticks around.
Don’t kill off a character just because you think you have to
There’s no such thing as ‘needing’ a love interest. If you have a character that is exclusively there as a love interest, they’re probably gonna come off as flat (unless it’s a straight up romance novel, in which case, have a blast).
Don’t feel like you need certain tropes. ‘Funny best friend’. ‘School bully’. ‘Evil dictator’. Don’t put them in unless they actually have something to do with the plot of your book.
We could take about characters for weeks. Months. Years. But hopefully this not so brief overview gave you some ways to rethink any problem characters you might have.
This is a lovely guide! Thank you @kaylewiswrites for your wisdom
When Your Plot Hits a Dead End
Anonymous asked:
How would you say you manage to push forward a plot when it seems to hit a dead end or just lack ideas afterwards? I’ve been writing an outline and struggling what to do at a certain point in the story for several weeks now.
If you’re struggling with a small plot point, something in between other plot points, or are just having trouble strategizing, try these brainstorming tips.
If you have the first portion of the story, and can’t figure out the rest, then I have one word for you: Goals.Goals. Goals. Goals. Goals. Goals. Goals. Goals. Goals.
If you want to know where your story needs to go, you first need to know what your protagonist wants.
If they don’t want anything yet, then give them something to want. Something they need to prevent, something they need to earn, something they need to save. Give them something difficult to accomplish.
Remember that all (genre) stories need to reach a final climactic moment in which your protagonist makes the choice to change as a person (or to stay the same) and finally achieves (or loses) the thing they wanted most.
Frodo brings the ring to Mount Doom. Luke blows up the death star. Harry Potter kills Voldemort. The Beauty gets to be with her Beast.
Once you know where your story needs to go, you can figure out how to get it there.*
Prior to these final climactic moments is the middle section of the book, made primarily of hurdles being thrown in your character’s way in order to…
(a) Block your protagonist from their goal. (b) Make your protagonist learn and develop. © Build up the tension until the final climactic moment.
These hurdles can be anything from finely woven subplots that tie everything together in a great plot twist at the end, to random junk you wanted to see your characters react to. Along with each hurdle, it’s important to make sure your characters get something out of it too, giving them a reason to believe they can reach their goal if they keep moving forward.
A not-at-all complete list of ways to create hurdles:
Subplots. Make your protagonist deal with a subplot when they really want to be reaching for their goal instead.
Take something away. Take away something your protagonist already has and either wants very badly to keep, or specifically needs to survive.
Stepping stones. Provide a series of tasks your protagonist needs to get through in order to have the tools to accomplish their goal.
Questing. Make your protagonist travel a long way to achieve their goal, thus giving them time to run into all sorts of nasty problems.
Minor villains. Give your protagonist a distraction in the form of minor antagonistic characters.
Major villains. Let the main antagonist rear it’s almighty head, whether this be a person or organization who wants to take down your protagonist, a natural disaster threatening their life or well being, a destructive part of your protagonist’s self, or something else entirely.
Inconveniences and disadvantages. Remove or greatly hinder your protagonist’s ability to do the thing they were already planning to do.
Redirection. Give your protagonist a brand new goal they now need to achieve, either instead of, or on top of, their old one.
You can create hurdles for your protagonist to overcome in any number of other ways. (Again, if you’re having writer’s block when trying to create these, check out the brainstorming tips. You can also learn more about creating strong plot points here.)
In the end though, the key is simply to have a protagonist who wants something and to make them overcome obstacles in order to reach it.
* If you’re already working on an outline, you’re probably the type of person who likes knowing the details ahead of time. But you don’t need to have all the details for this to work. Sometimes it’s enough just to know the protagonist needs to fight the antagonist, or save the city, or stop the love interest from leaving, even if you aren’t sure how they’ll do that yet.
Some random, related FAQ under the cut:
Keep reading
not sure what should happen next in your story?
Embarrass your protagonist. Make them seem weak and vulnerable in some way.
Shoot someone. That always takes the reader by surprise.
In relation, kidnap someone. Or, rather, make it seem to your protagonist like someone has been kidnapped.
Have one of your side characters disappear or become unavailable for some reason. This will frustrate your protagonist.
Have someone kiss the wrong girl, boy, or person, especially if you’ve been setting up a romance angle. It’s annoying.
If this story involves parents, have them argue. Push the threat of divorce, even if you know it won’t ever happen. It’ll make your readers nervous.
Have someone frame your protagonist for a crime they didn’t commit. This could range from a dispute to a minor crime to a full-blown felony.
If this is a fantasy story involving magic or witchcraft, create a terrible accident that’s a direct result of their spell-casting.
Injure your protagonist in some way, or push them into a treacherous scenario where they might not make it out alive.
Have two side characters who are both close to the protagonist get into a literal fist-fight. This creates tension for the reader, especially if these characters are well-developed, because they won’t know who to root for.
Make your protagonist get lost somewhere (at night in the middle of town, in the woods, in someone else’s house, etc.)
Involve a murder. It can be as in-depth and as important as you want it to be.
Introduce a new character that seems to prey on your protagonist’s flaws and bring them out to light.
If it’s in-character, have one of your characters get drunk or take drugs. Show the fallout of that decision through your protagonist.
Spread a rumor about your protagonist.
If your protagonist is in high-school, create drama in the school atmosphere. A death of a student, even if your protagonist didn’t know them personally, changes the vibe.
If your story involves children, have one of them do something dangerous (touch a hot stove, run out into the road, etc.) and show how the protagonist responds to this, even if the child isn’t related to them.
In a fantasy story, toss out the idea of a rebellion or war between clans or villages (or whatever units you are working with).
Add a scenario where your protagonist has to make a choice. We all have watched movies where we have screamed don’t go in there! at the top of our lungs at the main character. Make them go in there.
Have your protagonist find something, even if they don’t understand the importance of it yet. A key, a document, an old stuffed animal, etc.
Foreshadow later events in some way. (Need help? Ask me!)
Have your protagonist get involved in some sort of verbal altercation with someone else, even if they weren’t the one who started it.
Let your protagonist get sick. No, but really, this happens in real life all the time and it’s rarely ever talked about in literature, unless it’s at its extremes. It could range from a common cold to pneumonia. Maybe they end up in the hospital because of it. Maybe they are unable to do that one thing (whatever that may be) because of it.
Have someone unexpected knock on your protagonist’s door.
Introduce a character that takes immediate interest in your protagonist’s past, which might trigger a flashback.
Have your protagonist try to hide something from someone else and fail.
Formulate some sort of argument or dispute between your protagonist and their love interest to push them apart.
Have your protagonist lose something of great value in their house and show their struggle to find it. This will frustrate the reader just as much as the protagonist.
Create a situation where your protagonist needs to sneak out in the middle of the night for some reason.
Prevent your character from getting home or to an important destination in some way (a car accident, a bad storm, flat tire, running out of gas, etc.)
imma need this for when I’m stuck when I start Camp Nano
reblogging for later!
If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.
Anaïs Nin
We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.
Anaïs Nin
Free Resource Library for Fiction Writers
I’ve been meaning to create a writing resource library forever, and I finally did it! All of these workbooks, checklists, cheatsheets, and templates are now available to download on my website, and more will be added in the future.
You can get access right here.
Hope it helps!! xoxo
Free Resource Library downloads:
Creating Character Arcs Workbook
Point of View Cheatsheet
Dialogue Checklist
Setting Checklist
Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Editor Printable Checklist
Proper Manuscript Format Printable Checklist
Short Story & Novel Submission Templates
…and more will be coming soon!
Get access to the Free Resource Library right here.
My Top 30 Writing Quotes
30.) The scariest moment is just before you start - Stephen King 29.) Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere - Anne Lamott 28.) There are three rules to writing: - - - Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. - W. Somerset Maugham 27.) Writer’s block is the greatest side effect of boredom - Jason Zebehazy 26.) You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it- with a club! - Jack London 25.) The first draft of anything is shit - Ernest Hemingway 24.) The art of writing is discovering what you believe - Gustav Flaubert 23.) Description begins in the writer’s imagination but should finish in the reader’s - Stephen King 22.) If I waited for perfection I would never write a word - Margaret Atwood. 21.) You fail only if you stop writing - Ray Bradbury
20.) I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it - Toni Morrison 19.) Quantity Produces Quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed - Ray Bradbury 18.) Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it - Edward Albee. 17.) Every sentence must do one of two things - reveal character or advance the action - Kurt Vonnegut. 16.) Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little - Holley Gerth 15.) Easy reading is damn hard writing - Nathaniel Hawthorne 14.) I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters I am not. I write to explore all the things I am afraid of - Joss Whedon 13.) A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people - Thomas Mann 12.) Editing is like killing your story and then very slowly bringing it back to life - Unknown 11.) No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader - Robert Frost
10.) Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard either emotionally or imaginatively is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it and sometimes you’re doing good work when all it feels like you’re managing to do is shovel shit from a sitting position - Stephen King 9.) Get it all down. Let it pour out of you onto the page. Write an incredibly shitty, self- indulgent, whiny, mewling first draft - Anne Lamott 8.) A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit - Richard Bach 7.) Real writers are those to want to write, need to write, have to write - Robert Penn Warren 6.) The writer’s job is to get the main character up a tree and once they are up there, throw rocks at them Vladimir Nobokov 5.) It’s ok. Writer’s should be strange - Unknown 4.) Step into a scene and let it drip from your fingers - M.J. Bush 3.) The difference between the almost right word and the right word is… the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning - Mark Twain 2.) Write while the heat is still in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with - Henry David Thoreau. 1.) Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass - Anton Chekhov.
Honestly humans don’t deserve dogs
