Made a meme the other day. Quite honestly I would do this
trying on a metaphor
Sade Olutola
AnasAbdin

Discoholic 🪩
occasionally subtle

@theartofmadeline
Misplaced Lens Cap

oozey mess

if i look back, i am lost
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
KIROKAZE
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ojovivo
Monterey Bay Aquarium

Janaina Medeiros

Love Begins
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Made a meme the other day. Quite honestly I would do this
Naming Chapters
I personally think naming chapters beyond the standard “1”/ “I”/“One” is an art we lose after middle school chapter books. And while I do think the minimal numbering fits certain books, I also think detailed chapter names fit others. So how do you name a chapter (and how do you know if it fits your story)?
1. Chapter names can be much longer and break the more strict nature of book titles
Chapter names can be a single word all the way up to a full sentence while still being manageable. They also don’t have to be as catchy or marketable as a book title. This means you have tons more freedom in the name. Which is really fun.
2. How to Name a Chapter
What kind of tone the chapter title evokes is important. It doesn’t have to match the overall tone, but it should mirror the one within the chapter. Just like the book title, you’re telling your readers what to expect. Here are some ways to find a chapter name (P.S. All the examples are made up):
Within the text
Ex. The sentence “The morning was awash with simple pleasures.” can turn into the title “Awash with Simple Pleasures”
Name of a side character who gets their moment in the chapter
Ex. “About Emily”
A question the reader and/or MC may have about their circumstances
Ex. “What Do You Do When the World Ends?”
A chapter’s motif
Ex. If the chapter revolves around a character getting the MC a pearl necklace, the title could be “Pearls”, “A Girl’s Best Friend”, etc.
An allusion
This could really be anything. Some of the most common allusions refer to Shakespeare, mythology, old songs, famous poems, and classic literary works. Of course, you could make an allusion to something niche (or otherwise unknown) that relates directly to the story.
Ex. “Et tu, Brute?” (referring to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar) could a title after the reveal of a betrayal
An utterance
Anything your MC would think or say, given the opportunity to break the 4th wall, bridges the gap between character and reader a little. It’s not something they’ve said to anyone in the story. And it has an air of self-awareness.
Ex. “So This is Where We Are Now”, “This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen”
Foreshadowing
Use this sparingly and carefully, but you can plant clues and things similar in nature in the title
Ex. The chapter ends with the abrupt murder of a character using a coffee pot that was previously inconspicuous. The tile is “Coffee Pot”.
3. The “Other” Kind of Chapter (AKA The Part)
There are two main ways to split up a novel. The chapter and the part. Chapters are usually a given and can work concurrently with the story also being split into parts. If you read The Hunger Games, among many others, you’ve seen this in practice.
The parts of a novel are usually in 3s. This can (indirectly or inexplicitly) mark beginning/middle/end or childhood/adulthood/elderhood. Or it can mark more story-specific events, like The Hunger Games and its sequels. You mostly see this in sci-fi/fantasy novels, but they can go anywhere.
The titles of these parts are usually short and correlate with each other (similarly to how book titles in series can correlate).
Ex. “The Dawn”, “The Day”, “The Dusk”
Ex. “Spark”, “Flame”, “Wildfire”
Ex. “The Test”, “The Proof”, “The Job”
Ex. “4″, “16″, “25″
Where you place these divisions is up to you. It works best if it feels natural and fits in well with the pacing. You can plot your story around these parts, or add them in later. Either way, whether they work or not is going to be subjective and you might need beta readers/a critique partner to help you out.
4. So, is it right for my story?
That’s totally up to you and all I can really give you for an answer is my opinion. I think chapter titles are a given for stories with a comedic tone. There’s an easy sense of irreverence or goofiness that comes with it when used right.
Other stories can be tricky, though. I think unless your story is super serious (like a thriller), you can effectively use chapter titling. With serious stories, it might be a bit more tricky to maintain the stricter tone with title, but it’s accomplishable.
And of course, you don’t have to add titling. Sometimes the minimalistic nature of “One”/”I”/”1” fits a story better than any other title could.
If you feel so inclined to title your chapters, it can add a whole new layer of mechanics to better tell and represent your story that you can experiment with. And if you don’t feel inclined, don’t worry about it! It’s a personal choice, not something you’re missing out on. And isn’t that what your writing is? Your own style based on what you do and don’t add?
How to Read Like a Writer
This post was inspired by a great Ask I got recently:
How do I critically look at another person’s writing and implement what I like in their writing in my own writing? I’ve been having trouble improving in my writing, and frankly I’m not sure how to go about doing that, even. It’s easy to see what I like about another person’s writing, but hard to pinpoint exactly why…
Re-read.
If you get halfway into a chapter and think, Wow this chapter is super creepy–I wonder how they did that. Or get to the end of a book and think, I feel the poignancy of the fragility of human life in an inherently volatile economic system–I wonder how the writer made me feel that way… Go back and re-read that shit.
Re-read slowly.
When you read like a reader, you read pretty fast. When you go in for your second, or third, or fourth re-read of a passage, chapter, or book that you want to know more about, read it slowly. Really. Slowly.
Read for technique, not content.
Readers read for content (”In this paragraph, Damien gave Harold a classified envelope.”). Writers read for technique. (”In this paragraph, the writer made me feel curious about the contents of the envelope by giving sensory details about its appearance and weight.”)
Ask the right questions.
They usually start with HOW: How did the writer make me feel? How did they accomplish that?
Read small.
Did a chapter make you feel sad? Find out WHERE EXACTLY. What paragraph, sentence, or WORD did it for you? Was it a physical detail? A line of dialogue? A well-placed piece of punctuation? Stories are made of words and sentences. Narrow it down.
Practice.
Reading like a writer is a skill that takes time to develop. Over time, you’ll get better at it!
How about y’all? Anything to add to this list? I made it off the top of my head so I’m sure I’m forgetting something. What have been your experiences with learning to read like a writer?
Hope this helps!
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The Literary Architect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler. For more writing help, check out my Free Resource Library or get The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. xoxo
Tipsy: Copyright & Keeping Your Writing & Art Safe - Directory of Sources
I’ve promised a nice long post on copyright explaining my findings as I understand them and sharing sources with everyone! The post itself is working out to be quite long, so I’ve decided that in the interest of not keeping too many of you waiting I’m going to share the links I’ve been working with, so here they are. I’ve tried my best to get official and trustworthy sources, so if you find that there are some articles on here that provide false info, please let me know and I shall double-check and remove them ASAP.
Note: Because I’m not in the US/UK/EU, a lot of these sources are international in nature. That might help a lot of the writers and creatives out there who feel stuck (like I did) when they realize that almost everything online dealing with copyright was catered towards US/UK/EU audiences. Also, a lot of the stuff is international law because that’s what I studied and that’s what I feel comfortable with - moreover, a lot of international law affects domestic law, so countries that sign international treaties do ideally have to actually implement these laws.
Also: Thank you all so much for your patience with this - I wanted to get it out to everyone as soon as I started working on it, but non-Tumblr and non-writing responsibilities quickly ripped that hope to shreds.
The list turned out pretty long, so I had to put it under a cut!
Keep reading
How fucking annoying is it when you feel so restless with creative energy but you can’t decide what to do with it and when you finally try to create something it comes out shit so you just give up and sit there being all creatively annoyed and jittery.
1 - Decision Making Fatigue is a thing. --> Make a list of possibilities. --> Use a random number generator to pick something off the list. --> If you hate the idea cross it off and generate a new number. --> Continue until you either find a project or cross off the whole list. --> If you cross off the whole list pick a random short story prompt, write for five minutes, and call it a good work day.
2. Yeah, of course your rough draft sucks. It’s supposed to. --> Let it suck. --> You can fix it in edits.
3. When you’re stressed you aren’t unbiased about your work. --> Don’t judge your work while your are actively working on it. --> Remember to drink water, take your meds/vitamins, eat something, and get sleep. --> Double-check to make sure the restless creative energy is not displaced emotional worries over something else. If it is, displace with intention and let the worries go into your work. You shouldn’t keep stress in your head, put it on a page, or canvas, or in a carving, or a meal, or something. Get it out and let it go.
4. No work is ever wasted. --> All time spent planning and creating is useful in some way. --> Failure means you tried, which is good. --> Try again. Fail harder. Fail better. --> Keep going until you like what you’re making.
5. Love yourself enough to allow yourself to not be perfect. --> Seriously. --> If this is a struggle I highly recommend seeing a doctor or therapist about depression. --> Because you are dang lovable, my friend. You rock. You do great things. I’m proud of you.
Non-writer brain: Wow, my characters have really suffered a lot. Maybe that’s enough.
Writer brain: Break Casey’s arm
Leave her ALONE
I don’t make the rules here. My brain says break her arm, I have to break her arm
When you don’t know what your character’s motivation is yet:
(Has this been done yet?)
I have a character (let's call this one Character A) whose personality I want to base off another character (let's call this one Character B), from a favorite TV show of mine. I guess what I'm saying is I want to make a sort of expy. But I don't want Character A to act completely like Character B. Any tips on making my character have some similar traits to Character B, without making A a total carbon copy of B?
Basing a character on another one, without making an exact copy, involves knowing what you do and do not want to recreate. Typically this means making sure you…
Identify the traits you want this character to have.
This is exactly what it sounds like: what similarities is this new character supposed to have to the original? Technically an expy is a clear reference to the original work, but you recognize that your goals are more in line with inspiration rather than a true copy.
Take some time to evaluate that original character, making special note of why their personality is the way that it is. Getting at the “why” is how you avoid writing “bag of traits” characters, or worse, characters who don’t make true sense because they were copied without being thought through. From that evaluation, you should be able to get a decent list to be able to pick out what you want to copy.
Identify the traits you don’t want to recreate.
From that same evaluation as before, get an idea of what you don’t want the new character to share. The two lists are important because they give you clear constrains to work with, especially with test scenarios or planning that need a box to form before you can learn to think out of it.
Nature vs Nurture.
Some characters share roots (or past situations) but they don’t turn out the same because their personalities drive them in different directions. Personality is formed by both nature and nurture, so no character (unless a literal copy) truly turns out the same as another because every life is different. “Nature” is understood as innate personality and can be easy to distinguish, but “nurture” can get tricky when you realize that it doesn’t actually mean “backstory”.
Yes, backstory absolutely plays a part in forming personality, but don’t forget about the current situations the character will be in. “Nurture” refers to the past but also the “now” that the character is always reacting to. The “now” is your plot and story. Characters are constantly feeding off the environment to react, so even if a character shares a general backstory and personality it’s not hard to find uniqueness.
Look at your previous character evaluation– remember that “why” that was said to be important? Why a character is a certain way can be traced to nature and nurture, which can support similarities or differences. For example, a character is known to be distant and closed-off. An evaluation leads to finding root in that trait from a family that didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them, so the distance was developed as a coping mechanism. The trait has a reason for existing, however, a different character may have been in the exact same past situation but instead took on making as many friends as they could as their coping mechanism. Same past, different outcome. With that evaluation to shape what you want the character to be, use nature vs nurture ideas to help craft the specifics of how they became who they are and how they currently act.
Basing a character on another character is all about knowing exactly what you’re trying to copy, what you aren’t trying to copy, and then figuring out what background/traits they need to have to align with your goals.
Good luck with your character!
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writing a sequel to a book that was supposed to be a stand alone like
I feel this on so many levels.
okay, so here’s a thing i do that i never see talked about in writing circles: prewriting.
prewriting, for me, serves two functions: one, to stave off writer’s block and get me hyped up to write, and two, to make sure the tone of my writing stays consistent. i know we’ve all encountered that problem where we’re writing glorious purple prose, take a five minute break, and come back unable to write sentences more complex than those in a picture book. prewriting is, in essence, any refresher of your wip that you look at before you start writing. my prewriting agenda takes about 15 minutes, and it goes like this:
For ~10 min i read a published book that has the prose i want to emulate (in this case, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo) For ~5 min I look at the WIP: moodboards or graphics i’ve made, my outlines, and most importantly, the chapter (or several chapters) that precede what i’m about to write. this is the most important step for me, as it reminds me of what’s going on and the flow of the story. cons of prewriting: it’s very, very easy to get distracted by all the cool inspiration you have and not actually write. to prevent this, i set a timer. a loud one. even though this might seem like obvious advice, consciously establishing a writing routine, including a proper setup, boosted my word count like mad, and i hope it benefits some of you as well. peace.
In general, an excellent way to boost word count is to learn how to type faster and more accurately. There are several free online resources (most of them are games) designed to help grow this skill set. I don’t know any off the top of my head, but they’re out there and they’re waiting for you.
I KNOW ONE!!!! 😃😃😃
Tux Typing! It has enjoyable background music, and several different games you can play at varying levels of difficulty.
As someone who struggled with Mavis Beacon for years and had almost given up on learning to type, Tux Typing was a blessing. Within weeks my typing skills went from non-existant to passing fair, and after a few months I was typing as fluidly as any other keyboard savvy geek.
I cannot reccomend this software highly enough, and like many other linux based games and programs it’s completely free! It’s advertised as being for kids, but it’s a wonderful resource for anyone wanting to improve their typing skills.
Lovely!! Thank you for the rec!
I am laughing so hard oh my god clickhole
If you just scrolled past, don’t. Go back and read it. I promise it is not what you think
Franzen has a point.
The hardest part of starting a new WIP is suddenly there are all these people who need names
A piece of wisdom I found on Twitter today, worth more than you can know right now. Believe in yourself, you are what succeeds.
A friendly reminder to please stop using self-depreciating remarks or humor about your writing. When you do so, you train your brain to believe it, to see all of the flaws, ignore all of the good points, and it drains all of the fun out of the writing experience. It also sets people’s expectations of your work when they see you don’t even have faith in your own work, and harms you in the long run.
So, let’s all say something nice about our writing, or in the very least something neutral. Instead of ‘Sorry, this is probably terrible lol’ try ‘I had fun working on this piece’ or ‘Here it is, hope you enjoy it :)’ and see how doing this over time affects your way of thinking.
Even if you don’t think it’s the greatest, you Wrote an Entire story By Your Self. Like, you popped it into being from your brain. HOW COOL IS THAT?! Really, super cool =D You did that, and you should be proud. Is it like your favorite author’s writing? No, but that makes it even more special because it’s a unique snowflake and no one else could have written that concept exactly like you just did. Give yourself a high five or a pat on the back, you writer you =)
Own being awesome and doing a good job. It’s okay, you can say it 😊❤️👍👌
The point of a twist is to enrich a story, not feel superior for outsmarting your audience.
@ The Magicians writers