#secretkeeper007

[posi-pan]

17 for the pan ask game!!

17. do you have any pan pride merch? if so, what?

i don’t, actually. other than general pride graphic tees, i don’t buy merch.

[drunk-on-writing]

How do you write and post so consistently? I get the worst writer's block and I have the hardest time coming up with ideas.

tbh i think a lot of it is because i put so much pressure on myself to post consistently that when i go a day or so without posting i feel bad, which is silly! because i’m not a machine and i can’t just spew out poetry like that *imagine me snapping my fingers for emphasis*

so i need to be kinder to myself and you should be to! it’s okay if you aren’t posting consistently; it’s quality over quantity after all :’)

as for writer’s block, just find something that inspires you and try to roll with it! whether it be a song or a photo or another writer’s work, just find your starting place and don’t be afraid to take off! wow that was cheesy yuck or you can draw from your own life for inspiration, they always say to write what you know!!

[fixyourwritinghabits]

I have a problem with writing dialogue and that is I write too much of it, in other words my dialogues are too long. How do i make them seem long and good and important without it lasting through 20,pages? Also, how do i say, rather than show, some of the dialogues,but in a way my readers dont feel like they missed out?

cleverly asked:

hi! been following for a year or so and i’m so grateful for this blog. you’ve helped me and others out a ton. i find that when i write, my first draft is very dialogue-heavy. when i go back and edit it’s mostly to fill in the spaces between spoken word, but i always feel like i don’t have enough detail for others to see what i see. what are some ways i can improve on adding more detail? i’ve been practicing by journaling/freewriting, but this style doesn’t really find its way into my WIP. thx!

secretkeeper007 asked:

Hello! I’m writing a novel and I feel like I have a lot of dialogue. Is that okay? (It’s in 1st person POV).

Wow, a lot of synchronicity here! 

Nothing makes me close a page of fanfic faster than Wall O’Dialogue. And it’s not just fanfic: I have actually photocopied pages from a professionally edited and published book so that I could go through and write down (it was a library book) who was talking. 

Thank you all for realizing it’s an issue and looking to deal with it. 

Relentless dialogue is just as frustrating to your readers as an unparagraphed wall of text or reams of irrelevant infodump. 

tl;dr: You don’t have to kill your darlings. You do, however, have to stuff a sock in them sometimes. 

Dialogue should be like any other part of your story – essential to plot and characterization. 

If you’re writing a story in novel format, you don’t want it dominated by dialogue. That’s called a screenplay. But you’re writing a narrative; you’re struggling with things like plot and point of view. Too much dialogue can mean too little action.

Then again, your characters reveal themselves to the reader through conversation. And you might just need to slow the action down for a minute, so you have them talk. How do you sort it all out? 

Ask yourself: Is it necessary? 

Your first task: Make sure your dialogue is advancing the story or revealing character. If it’s not necessary, cut it out. Save the file … it might be useful later, but remove it from your working draft. 

Next: Break up the dialogue you still need if you haven’t already. Your four main tools for breaking up (necessary) dialogue are:

1. dialogue tags: he said, she asked, they replied. Be specific, use the character’s name if you have to, try to avoid fancy words like “he articulated.” 

2. action beats: “I’m not going,” he said, dropping the book on the floor; or 

                        Xander tossed the book on the bed. “I’m not going.”

3. inner monologue: “I don’t care what you think,” Tamsyn said. 

                             Juno was tired of her bullshit. She knew T cared. Juno was tired of her own anger. This was no way to have a relationship. But T wasn’t in a place to listen, and Juno had no other way to explain it.

                            “OK, if that’s how you feel, I’ve got nothing else,” Juno said as she turned to leave. 

Inner monologue is an excellent device for replacing dialogue that you cut out. Instead of having your characters go back and forth, put the reactions into the inner, real-time thoughts and reactions of your POV character. Sometimes, what your character does NOT say out loud is far more revealing and interesting.

 4. actual action: Nothing wrong with interrupting your blathering lovelies with plot- or character-revealing action. Someone bursts into the room with news … something is happening on the TV news that’s relevant … one of your characters gets a phone call or text that is disturbing, etc… 

Underwriting/Under-describing

Another reason we resort to too much dialogue is that we are covering for a lack of description, also known as underwriting. We don’t want to insult our readers by being obvious, because part of the fun of reading is connecting the dots. It’s up to you, the writer, to make sure there are just enough dots. 

Don’t jump to conclusions without presenting the evidence first. Nobody changes their life simply because of one conversation – although one conversation can spark a series of interim changes that will have life-altering and story-altering effects.  

Maybe you need to do more research on the setting. Maybe you need to interview your characters to find out more about them – do a questionnaire or other character building exercises. 

Ask your beta readers what they think is lacking. Remember, your first draft is going to need work, so don’t get too bogged down trying to make everything perfect on the first pass. 

You can find more help here. An author shares her struggles with description here. 

More resources

There are additional tips in these articles here and here. 

If you want to learn good dialogue, read good dialogue, as recommended here and here.

– Aliya, currently feeling your pain with a dialogue-heavy section of her fanfic

[drunk-on-writing]

Hey! I was wondering if you could give me any advice on putting together a poetry book? I write poetry a lot and I want to compile some of my best works into a book, but I have no idea where to even begin. Any advice?

oh gosh picking pieces and then putting them into some kind of order was the HARDEST part when i was working on Have Some Pride! what i did was organize my work in my google drive and i would look through everything over and over and over again. some poems would get moved into an ‘idk if i like this for my book’ folder while others just got deleted. it definitely took some time and i had to get input from my friends to see what was worth keeping and what should be deleted, but eventually i had it figured out!

putting them in order was hard. what i did was print out everything and laid it all out on a table and tried to figure out some sort of story, for lack of a better word, that i wanted to tell. i grouped the poems that had a similar tone together and then went from there! i would read some poems one after the other to see if they fit together – it sounds strange but when you’re doing it it’ll make sense!

just take your time, don’t be afraid to ask for help from betas or friends, and be prepared to spend a lot of time reading your own writing repeatedly haha

good luck dear!

[drunk-on-writing]

After reading Have Some Pride, I realized I don't know your preferred pronouns. I checked your bio and they're not there. Would you mind sharing?

of course! so i’m comfortable with “she/her” pronouns however i also really like being referred to with “he/him” BUT i’m not out to anyone in my Real life except for my best friends and my ex, so i have to use “she/her” in most settings.

i’ve been meaning to put them in my bio but ugh it just feels weird only putting “she/her” and not “he/him” :/ but i gotta suck it up and put them there! and like i said, “she/her” is totally fine :) 

[drunk-on-writing]

How did you get so popular? Do you have a secret or did it sort of just happen? Do you remember what you did when you were first starting out? I'm a fellow writer but I honestly have no idea what to do with my blog. I'm a huge fan of all your poems! <3

haha aw you’re sweet!!! tbh i really don’t think i’m popular!! i’m just lucky enough that people care about my writing and what i have to say :’) i’ve always had a passion for writing and when i started writing poetry, i think in 2015?, i fell in love with it and i thought it was a wonderful outlet for me and it was just something i really loved doing. i first started posting my writing on my main @stardustscrivener​ but i made this blog in april of 2016 because i wanted a place that was only my writing and so i could be more organized! and ever since then, i just… i just wrote lol. i posted my writing as frequently as i could, i just really wanted to get my name recognized by other users who frequented the writing tags on tumblr. eventually i started asking for prompts and taking requests but i really don’t know what i did to get people to care haha. idk i really don’t think there’s a “secret” to gaining followers, it’s sort of something that just happens on its own! 

but gaining followers has never been my goal; when i started this blog, it is because i love to write and because i wanted to share my writing in hopes that someone, anyone, would connect with it. i think that is what is so beautiful and amazing about tumblr – there are so many people, people who you don’t even know, who can be affected by something you have creative. it honestly gives me chills just thinking about it! anyway, i don’t know how i gained followers, i personally think i’m really annoying lmao 

the only advice i can offer you is just post your own, original content and post frequently! get your name in the tags and let the rest take care of itself :’) 

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

36

everybodys got the right from assassins

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

Thoughts on avatar the last airbender?

never actually seen it.

i have a dumb fuck brain and due to what i assume is a combination of my face blindness and sensory issues, like 95% of animation falls into the uncanny valley for me and i end up incredibly uncomfortable.

but solely from tumblr posts and discord conversations, it seems like a pretty cool show