Writer Things

Writer problems and writing tips! Feel free to ask questions and submit your own writing advice!

[coolsaddad-blog]

Roses are red, that much is true, but violets are purple, not fucking blue.

[feels-for-the-fictional]

I have been waiting for this post all my life.

[marzipanandminutiae]

They are indeed purple, But one thing you’ve missed: The concept of “purple” Didn’t always exist.

Some cultures lack names For a color, you see. Hence good old Homer And his “wine-dark sea.”

A usage so quaint, A phrasing so old, For verses of romance Is sheer fucking gold.

So roses are red. Violets once were called blue. I’m hugely pedantic But what else is new?

[ineptshieldmaid]

My friend you’re not wrong About Homer’s wine-ey sea! Colours are a matter Of cultural contingency;

Words are in flux And meanings they drift But the word purple You’ve given short shrift.

The concept of purple, My friends, is old And refers to a pigment once precious as gold.

By crushing up molluscs From the wine-dark sea You make a dye: Imperial decree

Meant that in Rome, to wear purpura was a privilege reserved

For only the emperor!

The word ‘purple’, for clothes so fancy, Entered English By the ninth century

.

Why then are voilets Not purple in song? The dye from this mollusc, known for so long

Is almost magenta; More red than blue. The concept of purple is old, and yet new.

The dye is red, So this might be true: Roses are purple And violets are blue

.

[squeeful]

While this song makes me merry, Tyrian purple dyes many a hue From magenta to berry And a true purple too.

But fun as it is to watch this poetic race The answer is staring you right in the face: Roses are red and violets are blue Because nothing fucking rhymes with purple.

[cryoverkiltmilk]

[last-flight-of-dickarus]

Hirple - To limp or walk awkwardly

Cirple - An old Scots word for the hindquarters of a horse

[nobodybetterhavethisoneoriswear]

“Roses are red, violets are purple,

My boner for you has caused me to hirple.”

…

My, how romantic!

[wouldthatcreationhadformedmeman]

DYING. I AM DYING.

[sleepdeprivedwreck]

Y’all have too much time on your hands. Colour me impressed

[byoldervine]

Types Of Writer’s Block (And How To Fix Them)

1. High inspiration, low motivation. You have so many ideas to write, but you just don’t have the motivation to actually get them down, and even if you can make yourself start writing it you’ll often find yourself getting distracted or disengaged in favour of imagining everything playing out

Try just bullet pointing the ideas you have instead of writing them properly, especially if you won’t remember it afterwards if you don’t. At least you’ll have the ideas ready to use when you have the motivation later on

2. Low inspiration, high motivation. You’re all prepared, you’re so pumped to write, you open your document aaaaand… three hours later, that cursor is still blinking at the top of a blank page

RIP pantsers but this is where plotting wins out; refer back to your plans and figure out where to go from here. You can also use your bullet points from the last point if this is applicable

3. No inspiration, no motivation. You don’t have any ideas, you don’t feel like writing, all in all everything is just sucky when you think about it

Make a deal with yourself; usually when I’m feeling this way I can tell myself “Okay, just write anyway for ten minutes and after that, if you really want to stop, you can stop” and then once my ten minutes is up I’ve often found my flow. Just remember that, if you still don’t want to keep writing after your ten minutes is up, don’t keep writing anyway and break your deal - it’ll be harder to make deals with yourself in future if your brain knows you don’t honour them

4. Can’t bridge the gap. When you’re stuck on this one sentence/paragraph that you just don’t know how to progress through. Until you figure it out, productivity has slowed to a halt

Mark it up, bullet point what you want to happen here, then move on. A lot of people don’t know how to keep writing after skipping a part because they don’t know exactly what happened to lead up to this moment - but you have a general idea just like you do for everything else you’re writing, and that’s enough. Just keep it generic and know you can go back to edit later, at the same time as when you’re filling in the blank. It’ll give editing you a clear purpose, if nothing else

5. Perfectionism and self-doubt. You don’t think your writing is perfect first time, so you struggle to accept that it’s anything better than a total failure. Whether or not you’re aware of the fact that this is an unrealistic standard makes no difference

Perfection is stagnant. If you write the perfect story, which would require you to turn a good story into something objective rather than subjective, then after that you’d never write again, because nothing will ever meet that standard again. That or you would only ever write the same kind of stories over and over, never growing or developing as a writer. If you’re looking back on your writing and saying “This is so bad, I hate it”, that’s generally a good thing; it means you’ve grown and improved. Maybe your current writing isn’t bad, if just matched your skill level at the time, and since then you’re able to maintain a higher standard since you’ve learned more about your craft as time went on

[sleepdeprivedwreck]

Sometimes, you just have to sit and write rubbish. Make all the dumb mistakes, just write. Come back and fix it or write better when you’re well rested, watered, and fed.

[byandforthepoetss]

People who don’t write are so enamoured by writers. They want to be a muse so fucking bad. But then again, who doesn’t? I don’t blame them. I’d want to be my own muse too. But then they’ll screw you over and throw a fit when you write about it as if they didn’t know you would. What did you think would happen? And no, I won’t take the posts down because I am not invading your privacy. Sue me. Oh wait, you can’t because I AM NOT INVADING YOUR PRIVACY.

Speaking from experience ☺️

[sleepdeprivedwreck]

Literally they just yap

[sleepdeprivedwreck]

I’m back!!! I literally forgot I had tumblr, I’m so sorry. Small update on me: I’m writing a poetry book, hoping to be published before I graduate in a little under two years!

[sleepdeprivedwreck]

Poetry!

this is just a bunch of poetry advice that really helped me and maybe it’ll help you too! The diologue format was just to get me writing and I thought I’d share it with you because of the advice in it. It’s also a segment of the novel I’mwriting :))

---

“Well, poetry isn’t my specialty so this is a bit out of my comfort zone. I assumed it would be easy. You know, because I’ve written songs and I thought it was the same… I was wrong.”

“Not necessarily. The essence is the same, but it depends on how you like to write your songs and your poems. Maybe your writing style in both remains or maybe it’s different. How have you been writing your poetry?” 

“I’ve been writing as if it were a song, which it’s not, so that didn’t go as well as I thought it would. I kept adding a melody like I always do when I’m songwriting and it just ends up being so unsatisfactory. Like, it seems incomplete because I’ve written lyrics and not a poem. The way I see it, my lyrics require a melody and music because I’ve written it as a song.”

“I feel like you understand what you’re doing already, you just need a nudge in the right direction. Your main domain in writing is narratives, correct?”  

“Well, I’ve read your narratives and some of your structure can tend to be rather… poetic. Do you understand what I mean? Think poetic devices. They’re called that for a reason. Which do you often use in songwriting?”

“Um… similes and metaphors, rhyme, caesura and enjambment…  that’s it.”

“Now, your narratives?”

“What I said before and… personification, sometimes onomatopoeia, imagery, and alliterations.”

“In my perspective,”

It’s all about perspective,

“Poetry is the in-between. Or at least, I think that’s how your poetic style would be. Use that personification that you don’t in songwriting, ditch the rhyme – or don’t, but just remember that rhyme isn’t strictly required – and imagery. I cannot stress imagery enough. Show don’t tell; but only when it seems fit. Show me emotions, tell me feelings. Describe it all in word vomit and then, and only then, organize your ideas and thoughts into lines and stanzas.”

---

I want to emphasize that these tips may not aply to everyone. Maybe the songs you write (if you write songs) are fluid and you wouldn’t mind if it was converted to a poem. Maybe you don’t write songs at all and there’s no ‘in-between’ for you to derive from your writing styles. 

If this does help out, then I’m so glad! 

[sleepdeprivedwreck]

Hate your writing? Do's and Don'ts.

Don’t let insult and criticism rule how you write. I know I said take it but not necessarily use it. Again, it’s all about perspective and if you don’t think taking the advice you were given will make it work, well, that’s up to you. You’re the storyteller and it’s your perspective. Your point of view, whether it’s dimensional or otherwise.

Whatever you do, don’t delete your work. Keep it. Maybe what you hate now will be the key to your success. Heaven knows I’ve gone through old manuscripts and lyrics asking myself ‘How could I hate these? These are gold!’. Fresh eyes don’t see your flaws. Unless you’re the writer and you’re rereading, but my point is, give your piece some time. There’s no good trying to edit over and over if there’s nothing to edit. Just let it sit for however long. Maybe even just shove all your currently unwanted manuscripts in a folder. Just keep them, just in case.

Don’t treat your writing like a chore or homework. If it’s starting to get tiring, give yourself a break. Like I said before, keep what you’ve got so far, but most definitely ask yourself whether it has immediate potential. All pieces have potential, but is it immediate? Or do you have to ‘let it sit’? I’m not saying ‘give up’, definitely don’t do that.

Do fall in love with the story you’re writing. Not necessarily your piece (but if you can do that, go you!), but the story you’re writing. You’re the storyteller, it’s up to you who lives, who dies, who’s the a**hole. You make the characters, you’re in control. Because you’re the storyteller, you choose how you tell your story. Tell it the way you see it. No way else. Perspective is everything. 

Do take constructive criticism! In all forms. Maybe you could even find something useful in an insult! I know that unsolicited critique can tend to be the worst thing ever and pull your self-esteem down, but sometimes people have good advice. I know how annoying advice and tips can be when you didn’t ask, but seriously, some people are bloody genius. 

[sleepdeprivedwreck]

5 Planning Tips! <3

Planning isn’t always easy depending on how much you want to do or the kind of writer you are. I personally like creating detailed plans and I tend to plan whole chapters. If I get a new idea, I jot it down on the way. If you're like this too, I suggest using my planning tips! I like handwriting my plans but you can use a word document or whatever if you want. 1. Plot planning. C'mon, you've gotta have at least an idea by now. Keep jotting down your ideas and you can organise them in a summary or using dot points later! Jot down the genre, the main idea/focus (is it romance or is that a sub-genre?), main complication, sub-complications that build up to that, et cetera. Don't leave anything out! (See 4. Chapter planning) 2. Character planning. Plan everything about your mc/mc's. Details are everything. You'll need to know what kind of person they are, how they look, hobbies, dislikes, triggers (if any), role (context is important), their purpose, gender identity, sexual orientation, the character growth/development they'll be seeing. You can lay off of the details for side characters (depending on how much insight they'll be getting and how relevant they are to the mc). Basically, write character profiles for each character and also make a note of how relevant they are/will be to your mc. 3. Relationship/dynamic planning. You've probably already touched on that if you've made a note on their relevancy to the entire plot. But yeah, write down who's related to each other, who are friends, who are lovers, all that jazz. 4. Chapter planning. So you've planned your plot, I assume, now it's time to organise those into chapters, given that your story does have chapters. Even if your narrative doesn't, I still reccommend reading this point because I'll include scaffolding that might be helpful! Always take notes on how everything goes. Always. - Earlier chapters (depending on their length and please remember never to write to a length in chapters) or the first section of your short story needs to introduce your most important characters (unless one of them need a dramatic entrance later on) and give insight on your mc. If it's a romance and one character's interest must become known, get that in early too. - Leave the past trauma dump for later on, and build up smaller complications that lead up to one main issue that will be resolved (or not if you're writing an angsty tragedy or a horror) - if you have a specific scenario or dialogue you want in a chapter that's a very small/insignificant detail, there's no harm in writing it down. Write down things that just come to mind even if they don't end up included in your narrative 5. Setting planning. I don't actually take many notes on setting. I just include this in chapter setting and make a small note of where I want things to take place. Honestly, I don't always plan before diving into writing. I don't have everything all layed out every time, sometimes just enough so I can go writing a while and planning future chapters in advanced. Say, I plan three chapters and know how my plot's going to go, then I'll write those three chapters and plan the next three while I do that, so on. However, I seriously reccommend character profiles before writing. It makes things easier. Hope I helped!

[sleepdeprivedwreck]

I know where my plot is going but how do I get there?

Like as an author, do any of y’all just know exactly where your story is supposed to go and have all this really detailed planning, only to stop dead in your tracks because you forgot the small detail of how to actually get there? 

Well, I have a few remedies for this, whether you’re thinking about a chapter or the whole story, here are a few tips!

1. Take a break. How long have you been writing/thinking about smething to write? Do you have a massive headache because of this? Then take a break, get some sleep, just rest. 

2. Read other books! No plagerism, but other books regenerate inspiration!

3. Go through what you’ve written. Are there unnecessary fillers? If you weeded out a few sentences, would it make more sense? If taking out a section (or multiple!) from your writing makes the path clearer for extension on your idea, consider, well, taking that section out. While you’re at it, edit as you go! (I reccommend leaving this until the end)

4. Have a look at your notes - what do you think is necessary to get where you want to be? So you actually know where this is going. Great! Since the struggle is getting there, have a look at your scenario and your notes. Say, for example: you’re writing a romance and this specific scenario is basically your mc sitting next to their crush in class. They’re friends. By the end of this scene, you want your mc to be feeling all flustered but you’ve written up a conversation between the pair that orients around the subject the class is about. What do you need to make your mc flustered? Unintended (or intended!) suggestive comments from their love interest, the mc getting caught staring, et cetera. Bottom line, really think about the roads your characters have to take before hitting the destination.

5. If you were in the scenario, what would you do? Then think about what your mc would do. What kind of person is your mc and all of your characters? If you don’t know yet, I suggest taking the time to develop your characters first. Get to know them before you write them (or do that as you go, that works for some people but I prefer prep note-taking before-hand). I also want to mention that, for writing fan fiction, it’s much easier because all you have to do is take some character analysis notes rather than developing them yourself.