#fiction tips

[brainstreams]

Ways To Show a Character Is Lying

Everyone writes: “They avoided eye contact.”

Let's do something a little different.

Here are some quick ways to show a character is lying (without saying "lie"):

• Answering the wrong part of the question

• Giving way more detail than anyone asked for

• Acting offended instead of answering

• Correcting a tiny, irrelevant detail in the conversation

• Asking you a question immediately after being asked one (deflection)

• Pausing just long enough that the response feels orchestrated

• Overexplaining something simple

• Texting an answer then deleting it

• Saying “to be honest” or “if I’m being honest”

• Avoiding eye contact (or making eye contact with someone else)

• Laughing like the conversation is suddenly very funny

• Getting oddly specific about the timing of things

• Or their story leaves out details

• Abruptly changing the subject (or quietly steering it away)

Those are some quick tips. Reblog if you want more. Idk if people like these. <3

Anyways, good lies aren't super dramatic revelations. Sometimes they sound normal, just normal enough that the reader feels something is... 'off', but they can't prove it.

Leave a breadcrumb or two of doubt. They might just connect the dots!

⤷ my printable novel planner

[learntowritealready]

The Myth of the Suffering Artist

You do not have to suffer to make Art!

If your art or your artistic process is leaving you feeling bummed out, anxious, depressed, or generally unhappy then you do not have to force yourself to keep working in order to prove yourself a 'true' artist. First and foremost art is for pleasure, that means your pleasure too. Forcing yourself to make art when you're not in the right place will only take something you love and turn it into another chore. Try branching out, take time away from the page or screen to try a new hobby, spend some time outdoors, or with loved ones.

A healthy writer is a productive writer.

Make sure to eat, stay hydrated and stretch; get some sun sometimes!

Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself to 'perform'; Inspiration can be fickle and suffer stage fright so the more you try to force yourself to make something amazing the harder it will be to motivate yourself. Plus, if you let your writing become a chore you will avoid it just as passionately as you avoid all of your other chores! Even if you don't realise that's what you're doing.

- A general rule of life is

If something makes you uncomfortable or unhappy, don't feel you are obligated to do it.

This is true of writing too.

Keep writing, but write happy!

[heartseaten]

Normal lab values for medical fiction, crime, thrillers, etc.

[perish-the-creator]

Tips for writing fics? Yours are awesome!

First of all ❤❤❤🎶💞💞THANK YOU!!❤❤💞

As far as tips go, it's rather hard to give a clear cut answer. Much like art styles, different writers have different styles of writing.

As for tips for writing fics it's also a bit complicated. There are two things you need to consider; writing for yourself or writing for others. Let's break down both.

Writing for yourself will often be the most passionate ones. Universes untapped that you've decided are worth writing down. Normally, these fics have a lot of thought into them regarding structure and length and content. You can tell when a writer is genuinely enjoying writing whatever it is. My tip for these fictions is just to go ham on them. Want a lot of kinky stuff? Go for it! Extremely rarepair? Write that shit!!

But there are cons to it however. Most passion works rarely last long. Despite what some say, numbers and reader interaction can really make or break writers. Nothing sucks more than having something you love to work on only to get a fraction of the attention your shitty rushed mess gets.

I'll use my own example. A while back I wrote a fanfiction for Jurassic World. The concept was that some of the dinosaurs were able to shift between their animalistic form to humanoid ones. I loved the idea! I loved the ship which still is a rarepair. But nevertheless the lack of feedback made it harder to want to continue.

Now, writing for others is an interest way to go. Not saying that you can't have fun and be passionate about this one too, but this time around there's an understanding that you KNOW this will get attention.

Often times to write fiction like this involves paying close attention to the patterns of the fandom. Is there a trope that's growing more popular? A pairing that is slowly creeping up the ladder? Maybe even a prompt like forbidden children or crime lord aus.

These works often times do start to seem similar. The thought processes and the structures and tropes can blend. It isn't bad but it does make it harder for newer ideas to get traction.

But all in all, my best advice I can give is to simply enjoy yourself. If you're writing because you really want to see an idea executed in words, numbers or not, then go ahead and do so. And no need to shame people either for hoping on bandwagons. Some people NEED validation and that's not a bad thing at all!

Anywho, I hope this helped ^^

[silverdragonblogging]

Quick Writer’s Block Tips

If your block is because you are a perfectionist, these might help.

-If on a laptop, slat the screen to the point you can’t see what you’re writing. 90% of what you’re writing already doesn’t make sense, and this is just to get you to find some peace with the inner critic. Desktop users will have to put something over the screen, and I have no idea about handwriting. (If you worry about everything being misspelled and having to fix it, consider that you don’t have to have this up all the time, and you will have to edit it later anyway. The peace of mind is the focus.) -Collect good reviews and comments people have said on your work and review them before you write.  -Take a break for a little bit.

[learntowritealready]

Perfecting NOT Perfection

Perfection is an intangible idea, a spritely ever-changing tormentor who guides you down a path that initially seems so safe and soon becomes rocky and untenable. Don't worry about pursuing perfection, actually, give up on the concept entirely.

Start setting solid goals.

Instead of saying, "I want my work to be perfect" say, "I want to be confident editing" or "I want to be able to craft my sentences with a consistent style" or "I want my character voices to be unique."

These goals give you something attainable to aim towards and will give you a sense of satisfaction when they are fulfilled.

Focus on the act of Perfecting rather than the unreachable goal of Perfection.

The act of Perfecting will help guide you towards a place of pride and confidence in your work. It is a process of crafting and grafting, and learning, growing, and most importantly loving- yourself and your work. Perfection is a term we use to punish ourselves when we don't live up to our own expectations.

As with all of Life, focus on the journey not the end goal and you will find yourself at the end of your project having grown in skill and confidence. Good luck!

[learntowritealready]

Building your Fantasy World part 1.

A big question I often see is ‘How much world-building should I do for my story?’ The simple but annoying answer is: However much your story needs. It sounds vague but it’s really about proportion. 

- If your story is a small character focussed narrative then you won’t need a massive, overbearing world. Streamlining your info-dumps down into only what is necessary is important for any story, but even more important in a very precise and narrow focussed story. Your reader should always be left with questions in fiction so don’t be afraid if people come out of your story wanting more of your world, that’s a good thing and a compliment to your writing.

- Epic quest, or big journey stories need more world-building because they require the audience to be able to accurately conceptualise of the world the characters are travelling through and what affects their actions will have on it at a grander scale. This applies to stories like LOTR and GoT where the stakes are all very high and the locations widespread. If someone is willing to invest their time into your 6 page description of trees and bushes then they can probably handle an extensive world, but these types of readers are of specific tastes and for wider audiences large quantities of explanation and description can be off-putting. It didn’t stop Tolkien.

A general rule of thumb for any fiction is to look at the proportions in your fiction: How many words do you put into description, how many into info dumps, how many into character scenes. If info dumps or description vastly outweigh character you might need to look at cutting. It can be hard cutting out info dumps, but if you are clever you will be able to find places to slot in the vital information in a more natural and character serving way. Whatever you like and don’t want to cut you can always put into an appendices! (If it’s good enough for LotR and Dune, why not you?!)

If you’re like me and you’re addicted to writing long and wordy descriptions of landscapes... well go ahead, but be aware you are setting a trap out for yourself. Many people won’t like it, but if they don’t well... refer to my previous post about not everyone liking your work. As long as it’s out there and you’re doing your part to advertise and push your work there will be people who share your tastes and enjoy what you create. 

(I’ll make a follow-up post with tips on how to world-build to compliment this one rather than overburdening a single post. See ya later!)