"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
we're not kids anymore.
taylor price
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Jules of Nature
ojovivo
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❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
JBB: An Artblog!
RMH
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Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
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2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
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@rmorada
So I decided I don’t really like having a writeblr because it’s not conducive to my writing or productivity (and because I don’t want to keep up with it), so I’m no longer posting here. BUT this blog will remain for archival purposes since some of my writing is featured here.
Feel free to remove me from tag lists and to unfollow, and good luck to all of you with your projects!
Also I started doing this thing where I hide the page number and word count on the word processor since I find myself getting caught up on how many words/pages things go on for instead of just writing writing writing
aaand the vampire WIP has progressed once again at around 350 words after a few days of restructuring and figuring out what needs to go where
Also I started doing this thing where I hide the page number and word count on the word processor since I find myself getting caught up on how many words/pages things go on for instead of just writing writing writing
How do I Develop my Characters?
I’m creating this character, Alice, a little differently than I normally do. Generally, I get an image in my head of what the character looks like, and then I’ll narrow down personality traits and names as I get to know them a little better. After I do this development, I then figure out the plot and plan the rest of the story. (This is just one of the many methods I use to develop my characters. )
The Whitebridge Chronicles series is interesting for me in that NONE of the characters have been created in this way. Every one of the people of Whitebridge has been a quick one-line idea that has then expanded into a character and eventually a story.
A Study of Character: Alice Canterbury
Original Concept: A superstitious character whose life revolves around their superstitious beliefs.
What do I know already?
Alice has lived in Whitebridge for her entire life.
Alice is superstitious to the point it takes a toll on her interactions with others.
Alice’s superstitious habits affect the people around her.
After I have this brief character sketch, the next step is to flesh it out. I can do that by asking some questions on what would drive the plot.
How will the existing personality traits create conflict?
She often unintentionally offends people because of the superstitions she follows.
If her superstitions and rituals serve a purpose, something bad could happen if she were unable to perform them correctly.
What are her goals or motivations?
Because of her superstitious beliefs, she wants some things changed around the town. This could create personal comfort/peace of mind, or to prevent something from happening.
Who or what would make sense as an adversary?
A town mayor or authority figure who has to address both complaints made by and about her.
The people making complaints about Alice.
The people affected by the complaints Alice is making.
If these superstitions serve a purpose, the thing she is preventing from happening.
Now that I have some of the basic makings of the story, I can come up with some plot ideas. These are going to be really simple, no longer than a paragraph and are always subject to change.
Relevant plot ideas:
Alice makes a complaint to the mayor. The mayor addresses the complaint. The resolved complain creates a new issue. The new issue is resolved and everyone moves on with their lives.
The mayor approaches Alice about a complaint about her. Alice decides to confront the person who made the complaint. The confrontation leads to a disagreement and becomes destructive. Alice and the disgruntled neighbor resolve the conflict and make good on the damages.
Alice is unable to properly perform one of her superstitious rituals. Because of this, something terrible happens. The town comes together to resolve this terrible event and they all come to a better understanding of Alice because of this.
Now that I’m armed with three new story ideas, I’m going to pick one and develop her character to benefit the plot.
Questions to consider:
If her superstitions are preventative measures, are they passed down through her family? If not, is it a hereditary condition or learned behavior?
Does Alice have any close friends or family who understand the meaning behind her unusual behaviors?
Who are the other characters in this story and what do their interactions with Alice look like?
Does Alice have any other personality traits that will affect the direction of the story?
What does Alice’s life look like? Does she have a job? Did she inherit money?
Now that I have all of this to work from, I can move forward with this story!
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send me an ask or complete THIS SURVEY (anonymous). My ask box is always open.
Lees verder
Dishonesty Hour
Ask me a question about my WIP or OCs and I’ll give you a completely inaccurate answer.
When you change a character’s name for clarity but you keep writing the old name in your notes/revisions
Been a while
I’m not off hiatus yet for personal reasons, but here’s an update for followers and friends who have noticed this blog has been collecting dust for longer than I intended:
I am still writing! I took that holiday break to figure out the root of my problems and did find it. I’m still working on my vampire WIP and Moonflower Project/The Witch’s Son WIP, but Witches on the Wayside from NaNoWriMo has been put far FAR on the backburner for now since it still needs so much developing.
The vampire WIP, which I’ve been having much trouble with, has been streamlined and I’m absolutely sure it will be a one-off novella/very short novel and definitely based in its original incarnation instead of becoming something new, like the shape I was trying to force it into. Which means!! Julia no longer has a sister. I don’t think I even mentioned much about her anyway, so it’s not a big deal. It still needs much work, though.
Welcome to new followers! For mutuals, etc., I have a huge backlog of tags and posts to look through, but don’t know when I’ll get around to it just yet. But thanks for sticking around while I was on hiatus.
Hope everyone is doing alright this year!
Tips For Character Death
Whether it be how to kill a character or how to handle other characters reaction to the death is mixed.
To kill them off
Pull a Fred Weasley, and kill them off while making a joke.
Kill them off while protecting someone. Specifically someone they really care about (ex: they were trying to protect someone they were in love with but haven’t confessed yet. or they were protecting someone that never really fit in with the group or wasn’t all too trusted or liked in the group, they protected the outcast and died trying).
Make them die in a situation that they promised not to die in (ex: promised to their little sister that they’ll get out of the ship before it blows).
Kill them off as they’ve achieved their goal (ex: open an orphanage) and so they’ll never see the world after what they did. They’ll never see how much good their achievement did for the world. Or kill off a different character as your protagonist’s goal is finally achieved (ex: Primrose Everdeen).
Kill them when they’re an inch away from finishing their goal. So they die dissatisfied.
Characters reactions
Make their friends, family, etc find out as they are celebrating/happy.
Let one of their friends realize they were in love with them as they were dying/once announced dead.
Break the hearts of those they made promises to (ex: promise to stay with them after the war, promise to teach them how to dance after all this, etc).
Let their friends and family grieve as the world prospers because of what they did for the world before they died.
Watch their friends/family snap at their death, because they were so close to finishing this.
Important notes for handling character death and grieving
Don’t randomly decide to kill a character just because, mainly important ones, without reason.
Make sure that the characters death has an impact or importance in the story.
Let their friends and family grieve for as long as they need. Don’t make them feel better in two months after their death. Grieving lasts from a minimum of 6 months to a maximum of 4 years. Take as much time as you need. - But that doesn’t mean you have to pause the story for grieving. Take a bit to pause for the characters to absorb this characters death. But if you want to continue the story while they’re grieving, use grief as a motivator for their actions or have grief affect their future actions while in the grieving process. - Change you’re characters behavior in their situation while they’re grieving. No one can act exactly the same while their heart is in pieces.
Their death has to mean something symbolically or literally in the story. (ex: Katniss’ father’s death symbolized the loss of Katniss’ childhood. Mother Gothel’s death symbolized Rapunzel’s freedom. Etc).
Even if you kill off a minor/background character, make sure their death at least shows the seriousness of the situation (ex: VLD when one of the Blades dies during mission with Keith, it shows how much the Blade values their mission over their men. Similarly, the amount of soldiers sacrificed to capture Annie in AOT, it shows how much Erwin is willing to give for this mission). -Side note: To make the characters likeable, or important. Make sure that the audience feels what they should when this character dies.
If a character that was important to other characters dies, make sure they take something from those characters down with them. Break a piece of the others. Rip out a piece of their heart, sanity, and will. Hurt them.
Also another little fact added much later before I put this in queue.
Grieving lasts 6 months to 4 years. Let them grieve for as long as needed, but make is so it’s within time frame. Commonly, people grieve for a year or so before moving on. Some less, others more. Depending on how much that character meant to someone else should reflect how long it takes them to move on.
It’s okay to take breaks from your writing!
It’s okay to decide you aren’t going to work on your wips for a few days.
It’s okay to choose to lower your goals for the month.
It’s okay to pause your rough draft for a week of silly au creation.
It’s okay to ignore everything about your wip for a weekend and binge read something you love.
It’s okay to take take deliberate impromptu breaks.
More than okay: it’s necessary and important to know yourself and your personal mental health and to know when you need to take time off from the things you want to accomplish in order to take care of yourself.
You are the most important part of your writing.
You cannot write unless you take care of you first.
On this note, remember to take breaks the better way!
Worse way: “I just didn’t write anything the last couple days, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m going to wait until my inspiration returns. The better way: “I’m mentally tired right now so I’m going to set an easy goal of 100 words for today and tomorrow and then on the third day I’ll return to my normal writing goals.”
Worse way: “I just can’t work on this project anymore, I quit for now!” The better way: “Since I’m having trouble with this project, I’m going to finish the scene/chapter/etc I’m currently working on, and then I’ll write the rough draft of a short story to let my mind relax and re-calibrate.”
Worse way: “I keep feeling sick so I’m going to binge watch more tv.” The better way: “I’m coming down with a cold, so instead of writing tonight I’m going to bed 45 minutes early to help my body recover quickly.”
Worse way: “I’m so depressed right now I’m going to wait until I feel good to write again.” The better way: “Since I’m having a depressive spell, I’m going to take a week off from writing to focus on self-care, and then on this day next week I’m going to write 300 words.”
Worse way: “My motivation is gone, I can’t write anything until it comes back!” The better way: “Because my motivation is abnormally low, I’m going to stop writing for the weekend and reread my favorite book to analyze and learn from it.”
Worse way: “I’m tired and busy so I can’t write until my schedule is better.” The better way: “This month is very busy for me, so I’m going to schedule in a few hours to write here and there as well as schedule break days for the times I know I won’t be able to write because I have too many other responsibilities.”
Tl;dr
Worse way: “I have a problem that’s preventing me from writing so I guess I just won’t write.”
The better way: “I have a problem that’s preventing me from writing so I’m going to figure out where this problem is coming from, how much time I need off from writing, and when I’ll begin writing again, and then stick to that plan unless further issues arise and I have to re-evaluate.”
slam that rb if you’re in disaster writeblr
yeah no I’m working on this one (1) thing [trips] oh no [hundreds of ocs spill out of jacket] I’m not— shit l i s t e n I’m just holding them for a wip
no capitalization we ™ like men
….. or maybe Sometimes We Do what abt it
grammar is fake
oh u like exclamation points and being dramatique ?? ? ?? bitch me to tf!!!!
asfhjlgdjfalskldaij
^^ it’s ok if ur not gay tho, we’re all valid here
overusing the term ‘valid’
drift compatible mutuals or bust
a simple answer??? in this economy???? oh ho ho!! no no my good sir, you’re getting a whole three page document on why I named this character Naomi
update: Naomi is now Vanessa
memes memes the stuff of dreams!
owe back dues to the tumblr swear jar
aggressive softness & positivity for all.
posts anything personal;; immediately loses one or more followers
mild inconvenience: “_phobia”
reblog and meticulously tag advice you never follow
y i k e s on main
tragically does not come with an off button. sorry.
#mm yes u know i crave that validation
“i love u and will die for u but i may also Merdur® u if you don’t confirm this hc I have about ur character” ….. “yes i am aware it’s 1am where you are, I’m so sorry. sleep well, my sun and stars”
makes unnecessarily long posts ~meta~
yours truly,
I’m a huge disaster dude
I gotta rb
reasons to not quit writing:
your writing is a skill, not an inborn talent (unless, yeah, maybe it is). not everyone can do what you do and love
everyone says they want to write a book. everyone has what it takes to write a book. not everyone does it anyway. you be the small percentage of success you read about
your writing will always seem brickshit horrible because you wrote and read it a million times
you love this writing thingy. quitting it will be like cutting off your fingers one by one.
someone out there will want to read what you wrote.
someone out there wants to know what is on your mind.
someone out there appreciates your art. they will share it with their friends. they will share it with their loved ones. they will share it with their future self because maybe what you wrote saved them.
if you give up now, you know you will just come back to it again, whether it’s years from now, months, or next week. you love writing, that’s why you planted the seed of thought that you are going to write this book, and whether you come back to it or not, your unwritten stories will come back to you.
It’s ok if your writing isn’t as good as you want it to be yet. Write more. Write even more than that. Your skill will catch up to your vision and then you will explode into a powerful forest witch and get an epic deep midnight cloak and create books that change the world.
Reblog if it’s ok for your mutuals to just send you posts they think you’d like or talk to you about random parts of their day
Hey, writeblr community!
I’m new to the scene and would love to meet some people, so please reblog this if youre a writeblr blog!!! Especially if youre doing nanowrimo and/or write fantasy genre stuff!
I’ll follow u!
dedicated to anon
I needed this right now <3
Character tropes to avoid in your writing
These are tropes that have appeared time and again, meaning that they have lost their impact and become predictable. I would suggest avoiding these tropes unless you have a kickass plan to subvert them and surprise the reader. (Please keep in mind that this is only my opinion)
1. The comedic relief friend/sidekick
This character is goofy/clumsy/witty/sarcastic and has very little to say or contribute to the plot despite punch lines to break the tension.
Don’t get me wrong, comedic relief is great and I love funny characters. But “funny” should not be the character’s only true personality trait.
Make your funny character also be skilled in something relevant or have hidden depths. Just don’t let them be a walking joke book with no personality beyond that.
2. The abusive character with a sad backstory
This character often comes in the form of a brooding bad boy who is an asshole to everyone around him.
There’s nothing wrong with a character who suffers from PTSD or has gone through some shit and is now distrustful/withdrawn.
But being a victim does not justify being an abuser. If your character is basically just an abusive asshole all the time, don’t expect your readers to root for him/her just because they tell a sad story. If the character is shown to work on his/her problems and truly repent (or take a break from their significant other to sort themselves out), you might be able to make this work.
However, I would try to avoid this trope. It sends a dangerous message.
3. The teenager running the show
Look, I love YA books, especially dystopian, apocalyptic/fantasy YA. However, I’ve grown quite bored of the teenager running an entire rebellion with efficiency and confidence.
Not too long ago, I was a teenager and, honestly, I would have sucked at running an organisation or standing up to a corrupt government. Now, I’m probably not protagonist material, but I think most teenagers would be just as inept.
Have adults in charge, with youths working alongside them. (Unless of course your novel revolves around an adult-free environment)
Or, at the very least, show your teenage character struggling with difficult decisions or messing up the admin.
Seriously, most teenagers can’t even run a school committee without supervision. Be realistic.
(PS. I have nothing against teenagers; I just think they could use a little help committing treason)
4. The self-righteous leader
Your protagonist will not always be correct. Not everyone has the same morals and you cannot assume that your character’s is infallible.
I’ve read many books in which the leader of a group follows their own ideas without much consideration for the opinions of those around him/her. The reader is supposed to agree with this approach, to follow the flawless moral compass of this perfect character.
To me, this is boring and just makes the character unlikable
Have your leader listen to the other members of the group, perhaps even making decisions that go against their initial ideas because they have the ability to be persuaded by good reasons. Being open-minded is actually a great quality for a leader to have.
Make your protagonist struggle with certain moral dilemmas/difficult decisions and ask other people’s opinions.
This trope is even worse when the leader goes ahead and makes elaborate and dangerous schemes without telling the rest of the group.
5. The token “diverse” character
This character is LGBT+ or a POC and will never be the main character. He/she is often the best friend who must constantly use phrases that remind the reader that he/she is POC/LGBT.
This character’s interests and well-being will always be less important than those of your protagonist. In fact, most of the time, this character will die to advance the protagonist’s arc.
STOP doing this.
Adding diversity to your work is such an important thing, but doing it in this slapdash way is insulting.
Why can’t your main character be black/gay/transgender or have a disability etc.? Why can’t characters that aren’t cishet white males play an important role in saving the day or have the happy ending?
Seriously, the “black best friend” character has been done enough times.
There are probably a lot more character tropes I find annoying, but these are at the top of the list.
Reblog if you dislike any of these tropes as well. Comment with your own character pet peeves. Follow me for similar content.
I may be guilty of the first kind.
A research tip from a friendly neighborhood librarian!
I want to introduce you to the wonderful world of subject librarians and Libguides.
I’m sure it’s common knowledge that scholars and writers have academic specialties. The same is true for subject librarians! Most libraries use a tool called Libguides to amass and describe resources on a given topic, course, work, person, etc. (I use them for everything. All hail Libguides.) These resources can include: print and ebooks, databases, journals, full-text collections, films/video, leading scholars, data visualizations, recommended search terms, archival collections, digital collections, reliable web resources, oral histories, and professional organizations.
So, consider that somewhere out there in the world, there may be a librarian with a subject specialty on the topic you’re writing on, and this librarian may have made a libguide for it.
Are you writing about vampires?
Duquesne University has a guide on Dracula
University of Northern Iowa: Monsters and Religion
Fontbonne University has a particularly good one on Monsters, Ghosts, and Mysteries
Washington University in St. Louis: a course guide on Monsters and Strangeness
How about poverty?
Michigan State: Poverty and Inequality with great recommended terms and links to datasets
Notre Dame: a multimedia guide on Poverty Studies.
Do you need particular details about how medicine or hygiene was practiced in early 20th century America?
UNC Chapel Hill: Food and Nutrition through the 20th Century (with a whole section on race, gender, and class)
Brown University: Primary Sources for History of Health in the Americas
Duke University: Ad*Access, a digital collection of advertisements from the early 20th century, with a section on beauty and hygiene
You can learn about Japanese Imperial maps, the American West, controlled vocabularies, Crimes against art and art forgeries, anti-Catholicism, East European and Eurasian vernacular languages, geology, vaudeville, home improvement and repairs, big data, death and dying, and conspiracy theories.
Because you’re searching library collections, you won’t have access to all the content in the guides, and there will probably be some link rot (dead links), but you can still request resources through your own library with interlibrary loan, or even request that your library purchase the resources! Even without the possibility of full-text access, libguides can give you the words, works, people, sites, and collections to improve your research.
Search [your topic] + libguide and see what you get!
This is…amazing. I am angry that I didn’t know about this until now. Now I can ~academically~ indulge my fascination with the 1918 flu pandemic? When I have organic chem homework and a lab report due tomorrow? I both love this and hate this.
I have terrible news.
At a quick glance, Christopher Newport University, Goodwin College, and Harford Community College all have libguides on the 1918 flu pandemic.
