I would like to say that I want to be added in your permanent p1harmony taglist if possible ❤️
Also, I really like your writings and i would love to read more😍😍
Have a nice day/night!💋😘
me @ you
omg hi! yes of course! thank you so much for reading my writing and enjoying it (╥﹏╥) you have no idea how much your words mean to me! your support for my little blog makes me so happy (´꒳`)♡
yes! i will add you to my p1h perm taglist! i will likely expand it to include moodboards, scenarios and blurbs. so if you or anyone else is interested, lmk and i'll make another official post for it!
"Overused” is Overused: Understanding Clichés and Tropes in Your Writing
I hate writing advice.
That’s my little tongue-in-cheek joke for this post, because the irony of what I’m doing literally as I type that statement is not lost on me. It’s true, though— I honestly think that advice is one of the most damaging things to a writer’s mindset. It makes them second-guess their methods, their ideas, and even whether they truly have what it takes to be a *~*writer*~* in the eyes of the rest of the world.
It’s a truly unfortunate thing, because it’s so important for writers to be able to share their experiences and successes. The problem is that these experiences get passed around in a game of It’s-Been-Ten-Years-Since-This-Essay-Was-Written Telephone, and the original intent of the advice (and sometimes its actual meaning!) gets lost along the way. They become these overarching blanket statements that offer broad limitations without reason or potential alternatives.
One of the greatest offenders of this is the idea that you ought to avoid clichés in writing. I’ve been part of online writing communities for a while now, and by far the most common concern I see is some variant of, “I’m thinking about doing [x], but I’m worried it’s too cliché”. It’s an epidemic amongst writers, and it absolutely infuriates me that so many writers have come to doubt their own work just because some vague internet grapevine has told them that clichés are to be avoided at all costs.
Because I’m so infuriated by this (and because I’m super extra and actually have a relevant platform on which to discuss this), I’m going to take some time to explain the actual meaning of this particular piece of “advice” and why it’s far less of a concern than you’ve been lead to believe.
To begin, it’s very important to address the fact that there’s a fundamental misunderstanding surrounding this idea. This starts with the fact that the terms cliché and trope are mistakenly thought to be synonymous, or otherwise become confused with one another. Before I move forward, I want to offer the proper definition for both.
A cliché is a particular phrase that’s been used often enough to become commonplace. In writing, they’re generally used to create a specific image or tone that we can take for granted that the reader will recognize.
She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. It was raining cats and dogs, but she still stood with her arms to the sky, laughing like she didn’t even notice. She turned to me and winked, and I felt my face go as red as a beet. In that moment, I knew that I’d give my right arm to be with her.
A trope is a convention used in writing to give meaning to aspects of your story. They’re used as storytelling shorthand to attach identifiable qualities to your plot and characters— recurring themes that exist throughout history to guide stories.
Examples of tropes include the hero’s journey, the character’s fatal flaw, the comic relief character, the hero with a dark past, and the Mom Friend.
I’ll be the first to admit that there are similarities between the two— both are used to help readers understand parts of your story, and tropes can be specific phrases as shown in the cliché example above. The key is to separate the two in your mind and think about them only by the definitions above.
It’s important to do this, because part of the central misunderstanding is that “cliché” is often used in daily life to describe ideas as a whole that have been overused (think of the “I’m holding up the tower!” pic that literally everyone takes at the Leaning Tower of Pisa). I get the confusion and concern here, I really do. The most important thing to remember is that clichés have a specific meaning when it comes to writing. No matter how often you may see a particular theme or character arc, it is and always will be a trope.
With that out of the way, I’d like to discuss why this should be good advice. The truth of the matter is that clichés should be avoided where possible because they give the impression of lazy writing. Writers and readers alike take the imagery for granted and rely on these tried-and-true phrases to add physicality to their prose instead of finding unique descriptors; while it certainly gets the point across, it comes across as more of a 2D picture from a magazine than a scene from the movie adaptation we all know our books are destined to have.
To illustrate this, let’s take a look at the example above with all of the clichés removed:
The world had never experienced a beauty like hers— neither had I. I just watched as she stood there, arms to the sky as the rain pelted her relentlessly, soaking into her clothes and hair. She smiled as it ran down her face, laughing at each raindrop, finally turning to me and winking. She could have just been blinking the water out of her eye, I don’t know, but my face was hot and I suddenly found it hard to look at her. I stared at my shoes, willing them to take a step for once so I could go and join her.
Clichés fall flat because they aren’t specific to you as a writer— they aren’t at all indicative of your unique style. Your story loses so much when it’s not told in your own voice, so you shouldn’t rely on old phrases just because you know people will automatically understand them.
While the argument could be made that tropes fall into this same category, I would point out that tropes serve a deeper purpose than clichés. Where a cliché would act as filler, a trope would act as a foundation. Tropes are tools (most frequently, structural tools) that guide the story through plot/character development and tonal themes to give your reader a general idea of what they’re signing up for when they read your story.
Example Time!
Say that you wanted to write someone a love poem. You do your research, sifting through decades of poems to pick out the best phrases and metaphors, and you end up with the following:
Your eyes are as deep as an oceans
Your eyes shine like stars
They’re like windows to your soul
I get lost in them every time I look
The poem is essentially a cut-and-paste of phrases from every cheesy romance novel out there, and will most likely leave the object of your affections wondering why you’re so obsessed with their eyeballs.
Alternatively, you hand them this:
Roses are red,
Violets are blue...
and things get a little more interesting. Sure, the opening to the poem is a cliché in and of itself, but it sets the stage for whatever you want to fill it with. You could go with something traditional and make it cutesy, you could subvert the trope by dropping the rhyme scheme for dramatic or comedic effect, you could even revive the old 2015 “gun” meme. The world is your oyster!
The point is, the poem hasn’t been written for you. Sure, it follows a similar structure to poems that have been written before, but where you take it is entirely up to you— the opening lines are simply the prompt to make way for your own creative license.
Let’s be real, here.
I get that everyone wants to make something new and exciting that comes entirely from their own imagination. It’s the dream! The idea that anything we write could potentially be sourced back to an existing piece is super aggravating, and you don’t have to tell me how discouraging it is to have something that you’re genuinely proud of suddenly fall flat because someone says, “Hasn’t the teen dystopia thing been done to death?” or “Didn’t Star Trek do an episode like this?” or “Penney, this is just a Star Trek fanfiction with the names changed to Dirk and Spork, please stop.”
To be totally honest, there is not (nor will there ever be) a single piece of writing on this earth that’s 100% original. Everything is based off of a story that came before it, or had plots and characters that were cherry-picked from the millions of plots and characters that existed previously.
Even more honestly, people like it that way. Tropes help us to identify our favorite genres and characters, guide us to stories that we may like based on those preferences, and open our eyes to new stories and authors that follow those tropes in a slightly different way.
In short, embrace your tropes. Learn to recognize them and how they can be used and reimagined, and build your story out of the wonderful things that come of that knowledge. Be like me and waste a billion hours in the rabbit hole that is TV Tropes!
Most importantly, write the way you want to write and don’t let anyone else tell you how to do it. They’ll have their time when you’re ready for peer review. Right now is your time to do as you please, ignore all writing advice you see online, make a few mistakes, and do it all over again because that’s what writers do! Get out there and make some beautiful, cliché-ridden, trope-y masterpieces.
So I have this story about a death wizard and a fire wizard who overtime meeting each other, and completing missions together learn to love each other. Down the line they get married and continue to do a lot together. But I’m planning on the fire wizard dying. How could I portray the fire wizards feelings but at the same time get the death’s correct (both are male btw). (Also the fire wizard is generally a little awkward with love and stuff, and the death is kind and is affectionate)
Hey anon!
I think one of the most difficult things about writing character death is the aftermath and effect on the characters that are left behind. There are a lot of different approaches to this, but I’ve found the most helpful strategy is ensuring that your story can answer the following questions:
On Death Itself
What is the significance of death in your world? Death generally falls somewhere on what I’m going to call the Marigold-Morbid spectrum, which can (and should!) affect the way that your partner and supporting characters approach the death of their loved one. Closer to the Marigold end of the spectrum is the idea that death is simply a path to the afterlife and, while saddening, is ultimately part of the balance of the universe and the plan of some arbitrary deity. On the Morbid end comes the idea that death is dark and depressing and should only be discussed in whispers behind closed doors.Where your world falls on this spectrum is important, because the attitude surrounding your partner character will move forward following the death. A positive atmosphere will guide them faster toward the acceptance stage, whereas a more nihilistic outlook will make them dwell longer in the depression/anger phases.
How does the character’s death affect the world as a whole? Your character may or may not make a significant impact on the world, but their partner is likely to see remnants of them in the things that were left behind. While this particular detail isn’t the most important, it may be helpful to consider what impressions were left behind and how they affect your living characters.Another thing to consider here is that your character has magical powers, so their death may have a greater meaning depending on how magic is handled in your universe. Is there an environmental impact as a result of their death? Will the loss of this wizard create a power imbalance? If so, how will that manifest?
What is the reason behind this character’s death? In fiction, death is rarely a thing that just happens. To the primary protagonist of your story (their partner, I’m assuming), this death carries a weight that will follow them through the remainder of their story arc. Even if the character themselves doesn’t recognize it, you as the writer (and we as the readers!) should be aware of what this death means for the rest of your story.Because I’m me, I’m going to take a few examples from Harry Potter. There are a lot of significant deaths that happen throughout the series, and each of them means something different for Harry and his journey. The first real death is Cedric Diggory (collateral damage), which sets our expectations for Voldemort’s brutality with the murder of an innocent child. Dumbledore’s death (death of a mentor) symbolizes a loss in hope and peace and is a chilling reminder of what’s to come. Fred Weasley (loss of close friends/family) represents the real and personal casualties of war and reminds us that some deaths are unfair, unnecessary, and really difficult to move on from.Even if your character’s death seems meaningless to the overall narrative, it will have an impact and mean something important to the people they were close to, and you’ll want to be prepared for whatever that understanding means for your partner character.
Was the death sudden and/or unexpected? While the death of a loved one is never a positive thing, the partner’s emotional reaction may vary depending on the circumstances surrounding it (i.e. whether they had time to prepare). While a death following a long sickness or period of suffering may bring some comfort with the knowledge that things are better, a sudden death can be jarring and will likely trigger a much stronger negative reaction.
On Your Character(s)
How long are their respective lifespans? When you’re writing about characters that have powers/special abilities or are in any way non-human, it’s important to consider what their expected lifespan is and how this will affect the partner character. Did they approach the relationship with the knowledge that one of them would die relatively early in their time together, or does this come as an unexpected turn in what should have been a long life?
How long were the characters together before their death? This question isn’t quite as important because time doesn’t automatically signify a stronger connection, but you should consider if enough time has passed that the characters are integral to one another’s daily routines. Where are the places and times that the partner notices the character’s absence?
What is their relationship and understanding of death? Everyone has a different approach to death based on their respective experiences and exposure to it. “Desensitization” doesn’t quite convey the proper tone here, but it’s true that a person working in end-of-life care will have a much calmer approach to the idea of death than, say, a barista or social worker.Your partner character is a death wizard, so I assume that he’ll be familiar with the idea of death and what it means. That being said, it’s very possible that he’s not well-acquainted with it on a personal level— perhaps this is the first time he’s lost someone that’s truly close to him, which will be a far more emotional experience than the sort of death he’s surrounded with on a more regular basis. These will be important considerations when trying to pin down his exact emotional reaction.
How do they proceed through the stages of grief? This step is quite possibly the most variable depending on your character’s personality, but it’s also the most important when it comes to determining which emotions are present and how they’re conveyed.The five stages of grief take your character through five different primary emotions, but it’s not always a cut-and-paste ordeal. The stages may overlap, or the characters may repeat stages or spend the majority of their time in one before rushing through the rest. This, and the way these stages are represented through their thoughts and behavior are entirely dependent on your individual character and how they react to different triggers. Personally, I suggest spending the most time outlining this stage and how it will play into the rest of the story, as it’s likely to make the strongest impact on how your character acts through the rest of the story (e.g. how they approach their daily life and interact with other characters).
I hope this helps! If any of our followers have suggestions on the dos and don’ts of character death, please feel free to pitch in— we love your input!
Making Your Murder Board (or, Creating Fiction Through the Mind Map Method)
Hello, all!
With Camp NaNo quickly approaching, I find myself facing the daunting task of writing two novellas without much of an outline in place. I can’t imagine that I’m the only one in a situation like this, so I thought I’d share one of my favorite methods for organising my stories.
In the past, I’ve certainly been the type to write out a full outline with Roman numerals and topic sentences like it’s a fifth-grade book report from the 1980s.
While I can’t deny that this can be incredibly helpful when it comes to writing specific scenes and keeping timelines in place, it’s a bit too technical when it comes to more grand-scheme ideas that get the plot rolling in the first place. I don’t know about you, but I like to visualise my stories on a large scale before I start getting down and dirty with the details.
Enter the mind map.
I personally like to refer to this as my Murder Board, as it makes me feel like I’m on Criminal Minds and trying to solve the case by connecting all of the little red strings and thumbtacks. It can get pretty involved and can look damn scary depending on how many details you include, but I absolutely swear by it.
This strategy was recommended to me by a friend, and I can’t offer enough praise for it and how much it’s helped me to get my stories on track. If there are any of you out there still struggling with how to string your plot bunnies together in time for writing to start on July 1st, I definitely recommend taking some time to put one of these together.
I’ve illustrated my preferred method below using Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as an example. As a quick disclaimer, I’m the type of writer that puts a lot of emphasis on character. As such, this method is specific to character and relies heavily on the primary protagonist’s perspective— if your story isn’t particularly character-driven, this exact method may not work for you. I still strongly advise giving it a shot, as you never know what sort of details will be uncovered as you work on putting together a map.
With that in mind, let’s begin! (I apologise in advance for the quality of the photos— my camera isn’t the best)
The Main Suspect
The first thing is to identify the main protagonist of your story. There’s only room for a single suspect at this point, so you may want to consider making multiple maps if your story is one that features several protagonists.
(As a side note, I especially recommend this method if you are writing such a story, as it allows you to approach your story from several different angles and can give you a better understanding of each character’s perspective.)
For the sake of this example, here’s where we’ll start:
The Motives
From here, you can identify the main conflicts that the character faces. I like to add another level of organisation by keeping internal and external conflicts on opposing sides, though you’re welcome to rearrange things in whatever way makes the most sense to you. The only thing I insist upon here is making sure that each conflict is represented by a different color.
In this example, I cited Professor Umbridge and Lord Voldemort as Harry’s biggest external conflicts, and themes of trust and identity questioning (read as: teen angst) as internal conflicts. You can be more specific and include more of each type of conflict, but I didn’t have a lot of paper to spare.
The Details
Now it’s time to add a few more specific details. For each conflict, include a few important aspects that are directly related to (either contributing to or caused by) the conflict itself.
This is where the color-coding from the last step comes in handy. No conflict exists in a vacuum, and each is going to affect the other in some way. For each aspect you identify, color-code it according to other conflicts/themes it’s related to.
As you can see, I introduced a few extra colors for things that didn’t necessarily fit the four conflicts I outlined, but are important enough to merit a common theme (something I could reference in a key or a related story map). I’ve attributed orange to things related to the Order, and Cho Chang gets to be that nice off-purple color.
The Witnesses
Finally, you can take it one step further by color-coding things that are related by theme. Even if they aren’t necessarily related to a direct conflict, the different aspects you cite may be linked in some other way. Identifying these connections will be important for developing backstory, offering foreshadowing, and creating the simple connective tissue that keeps your story flowing naturally.
With this example, everything related to the Ministry has been outlined in teal, the things specific to the Order remain orange, and the things that are important to Harry himself are the same green used in his name.
I also can take this opportunity to draw smaller connections between things with more prominent themes elsewhere. For example, Dumbledore’s Army is coded red because it’s founded on Harry’s belief that the students should be able to defend themselves against the rising threat of Dark magic, but it’s also important for creating a new generation of Order members and defying the restricting guidelines set in place by a Ministry in denial.
At this point, you’ve finished your Murder Board. All of the pictures and post-it notes have been circled, and their red strings all point to one central suspect. All that’s left is to put the pieces together!
Happy writing, and I wish you the best of luck in your first week of Camp. See you soon, Super Scribes!
(1/2)Hey! Not to be a sjw™ who ruins people's fun, but regarding the last ask about a transgender character being kicked out of society/tortured-it seems a bit problematic if the author isn't transgender themselves. I love the idea of the representation, and idk if the author themselves is trans(if they are thats amazing!! And you can ignore this if they are) but if the author is cisgender, then I don't think it would be a good idea for this character to to main. Ik that the book prob isn't
Referring to this ask
It looks like there was meant to be a second part to this ask, but it looks like we’ve only received the first part. I’ll keep an eye out for the second, but I’ll address this one as-is because you raise an important point that I’d really like to discuss.
Firstly, I want to apologise for my lapse in judgement regarding the way I handled this ask. I’m aware that this is a highly-debated topic in the writing community (particularly so on Tumblr), and it’s difficult to offer advice without making assumptions about the author themselves. I don’t believe it’s my place (neither as a cisgender person nor an admin on this blog) to tell people what they should or should not write, so I offered advice as best I could on the overall point of the ask (describing experiences that the author may not have personally had) without interjecting my personal stance on the matter. I realise now that this is an important topic that should be addressed, and I’m sorry for not having done so sooner.
With that in mind, I also want to thank you for bringing this up in such a positive way. We like to encourage constructive criticism and open discussion amongst ourselves and our followers, and I really appreciate that you mentioned this in a way that offers healthy feedback to the author without assuming that they weren’t trans themselves.
On that note, there are some things that should be considered in the event that the author is cisgender. There are a lot of conflicting opinions on this (as I mentioned before), but the general consensus seems to be that minority representation is good from any author as long as they aren’t trying to write specifically about the minority experience. A potential solution for this is doing as you suggested, and continuing to represent the trans individual as a secondary character without making the story focus on the personal struggle they have as a trans person.
There are a lot of other posts and articles where this has been discussed, and I’m happy to provide links so that the author (and any of our other followers who may be having similar troubles) can decide for themselves. Our purpose here is to help writers make decisions and guide them toward solutions for their own storytelling, and I hope to never give the impression that my word is the final one.
Dear Cisgender People Who Write, Publish, and Read “Trans” Books
Cisgender People Telling Transgender Stories
So You Want to Save the World from Bad Representation (focuses on race, but still relevant here)
Hierarchies of Power: Cisgender Playwrights and Trans Characters
If anyone has suggestions for further resources or wants to offer their perspective on this, feel free to reblog and comment. Please remember to be respectful toward the anons on both asks— kind and helpful feedback goes a long way for writers and their stories!
(1/2) Hi, I'm the writer of the story with the transgender character. I thank you all for your advice, but I am a cis black female and throughout my life I've been bullied by my extended family, and other people because I don't act black enough. People called me "white girl" in high school. I am proud of who I am now, and it has taken me a while to gain my confidence back, but I still feel awful. I know this sounds bad, but I was particularly focusing on my characters feelings of being alone...
(2/2) and feeling like he’s alone. I wasn’t really revolving my story on the fact that he is transgender, and I know that it would be unwise for me to write about how it feels to be trans because I know that it’s not my place. I apologize for my ask sounding offensive, and I will work on my story again.
Hey anon,
Thank you for checking in about this! We’ve received a lot of responses about your original ask, and it’s always helpful to get some added context behind the questions and the stories we hear about through them.
On a personal note, I’m so happy that you’ve been able to regain your confidence and grow more proud and accepting of who you are. Bullying can leave some deep scars that can be difficult to recover from, and I’m glad that you’re making progress toward that by creating a character that you’re able to empathize with on that emotional level.
Your response here is incredibly sweet and respectful, and I want to thank you for coming forward about your intentions behind the character in question. I genuinely hope that none of the responses we’ve received or given have discouraged you from writing the story that you want to tell— it was never my goal to turn you away from a story you were passionate about, and I hope that you’re happy with the story you end up with regardless of whether or not you decide to revisit your character and make changes.
I would also like to thank all of the anons that came forward with their suggestions for being so respectful to the original anon and offering constructive criticism. This is exactly the type of discourse that we want to encourage amongst our followers, and it’s refreshing to see such honest and helpful voices speaking about a topic that’s on the receiving end of so much toxicity lately. You’re all wonderful, and we’re truly blessed to have such a fantastic community behind us.
Finally, I want to apologize if any of my own responses (either to the original anon or those that have written back) have been at all offensive or otherwise hurtful. I and my fellow admins are above all else dedicated to helping our fellow writers in whatever way we can, and our aim has never been to make anyone feel ostracized, insulted, or discouraged from their stories. If I have made this impression on anyone in the last few days, I am incredibly sorry.
We all know how difficult it can be to bring a story to life, and I believe it goes without saying that negative responses are neither productive nor welcome on our blog. You all have been the greatest followers a girl could ask for, and I thank you again for being so kind and understanding. I look forward to answering many, many asks in the future.
On the last ask u should've acknowledged the fact that being trans is seen as odd by some on THIS planet and that some trans ppl do feel like outsiders, irl. Author- Pls don't make it seem like discrimination is something that could only happen on another planet. Acknowledge the fact that it happened/s on earth, if earth exists in ur story.
This is also in response to this post.
Thank you for your insight, anon! I don’t believe the author was trying to imply that discrimination doesn’t happen on Earth, but it’s always good to acknowledge in some way that it isn’t some alien thing that humans are completely incapable of.
One of the simplest and most impactful statements I’ve ever heard about writing is that fiction cannot exist in a vacuum. Everything we write is based on our perspective of the world around us, which greatly affects the way we (and our respective audiences) perceive our writing.
Suspension of disbelief only goes so far, so it’s important to ground the more fantastical elements of our stories in things that we can identify in our daily life. In her essay “Engineering Impossible Architectures”, Karen Russell refers to this as the Kansas:Oz ratio— the ability for us to believe in the rules of Oz because the laws of Kansas can still be followed. There are a number of ways to pull this off, but it’s most commonly done through social constructs.
Every world will have some form of politics, every world will have some form of law system. Every world will have love, friendship, fear, and rivalry. Every world will have some sort of social conflict, which we can identify based on the similarities it bears to our own social conflict. Because these are things we understand, the way they’re handled in a fictional setting can greatly affect the way we react to them in our daily life.
With that in mind, we should always be sure that we approach things like discrimination in a way that our readers can understand. Making it seem distinctly non-human defamiliarises the concept and can alienate (pun intended) our readers, but approaching it in a way that we and our readers can recognise can speak volumes as to its scope, influence, and effects in reality.
(1/2) Hello! In my new story, I'm writing about a prince who has a dark outlook on life because of what has happened to him. He is transgender, which is seen as odd on his planet and he was seen as an outsider. He then gets wrongfully imprisoned and tortured for 200 years. In the meantime, his nephew and uncle kill the Queen, desecrate the kingdom, and they basically erase him from the history books. Now he's being psychologically manipulated by the evil daughter of an emperor who has her own...
(2/2) Motives and plans. He has so many feelings going on in his head, and in turn he has become kind of cruel. My question is this. How can I write this and make sense of this if I’ve never had any these experiences? How can I create this without it seeming like an “edgy” character?
Hey anon!
Whenever you approach a character whose life experiences don’t perfectly match your own, it’s always a good idea to do your research. It’s obviously going to be a bit difficult to get specifics (you’re probably not going to get much on being wrongfully imprisoned and tortured for more time than humans typically live on Yahoo Answers), but you can start with the aspects of your character that you understand and can identify.
To suggest a starting point, you may look into how being rejected or otherwise ostracized impacts a person’s psyche, especially if your character was treated this way from an early age. Looking into the effects of torture and psychological manipulation can also be helpful.
As long as you do your best to be true to the character and his feelings, the seeming “edginess” should wear down. Edgy characters are often described as such for being somewhat melodramatic about their sorrow, especially when there’s not much else to their character. Devoting time and energy into understanding and developing your character will pay off tenfold in the long run. Make sure that there’s more to him than just a quick summary of “edgy”, and that summary will begin to disappear.
I hope this helps! I’m always happy to talk about this more in depth, so please feel free to write back if you have any more questions or would just like to talk more about your character.
