#the960writers

[the960writers]

the960writers page info

Hi I'm barbex! I live on the internet and I write a lot. This is the tumblr where I collect writing advice and sometimes write some of my own.

Why the name? This was meant to be a group project of three writers, committing to 960 words every day. But life got in the way and that collaboration never happened. I still like the name though.

⌨️ fantasy, scifi, fanfic, romance 🌈 🚫 no genAI 🌍 german, she/her

Bio: Growing old disgracefully. Angry engineer. barbex everywhere, she/her.

Not recommended for under 18. I'm not responsible for parenting other people's offspring. Adult conversations will not be filtered for children. Writers can write what they want and apart from content warnings are not responsible for what readers choose to read.

I'm @barbex, @the-wip-project, @fictober-event, @audiobarbex, @barbarabecc

All my fics, including original fiction, on AO3: AO3/barbex.

I helped publish a tumblr anthology in 2017: New Tales From Old Yarn

It's supposed to be free everywhere, but Amazon keeps arbitrarily setting a price.

Other sites and popular posts under the cut.

Other sites: https://www.instagram.com/barbarabecc/, https://twitter.com/barbarabarbex, https://bsky.app/profile/barbex.bsky.social, https://www.threads.net/@barbarabecc

Check out recent popular posts:

A post about story structure in The Heroine's Journey

The Heroine's Journey

Hello writers, I want to introduce you all to The Heroine’s Journey. I've pulled this together from an old series of posts I've written for

A collection of software for writing:

Post by @the960writers · 5 images

💬 0  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · Writing programs for everyone · An update for the "Alternatives to google docs" post, to adjust it for current times and op

Also check out this post for alternatives for google docs:

Reblog by @the960writers · 2 images

💬 6  🔁 520  ❤️ 871 · Post by @the960writers · 3 images · Do you think it's a good idea to try and get away from Google Docs when it comes to

Here is my list of resources to learn and practice your writing:

The list of free resources for writing

My current list of things I keep recommending everywhere. I may expand it at some point, but I don't want to make it overwhelming. These ar

[bugsieplusone]

Writerly lessons from 2018 and looking forward to 2019

Prompted by the960writers and their challenge for the New Year in this post - the writerly things I did this year:

Edited and submitted my first original fiction manuscript to a publisher

Attended a writers conference

Entered into several writing competitions

Had my first ever piece of short fiction published in a literary magazine

Worked hard on a second and third manuscript 

Did several short writing courses and am doing longer one on editing and publishing

Wrote some fanfic to buoy and entertain me

Read lots!

Learned to take rejection

Watched my writing improve with valuble constructive criticism

Writely lessons from 2018 that I'll take into 2019 - Not all ‘positive’ as such but postive in the sense I can move forward and know that I’ll continue to improve!

Nothing is a given

Your writing needs time and care

Never compare yourself with other writers or their stories

Never stop learning (this kind of feels a given really!) 

Persistence is the key 

Never compare yourself with other writers - I put this one twice because it has been my great misfortune to do this - part of the fragile ego of a new creative writer, and the fact I have met so many wonderful writers this year and all of them on their own journey (and many appearing to have a better grip on this writing business other than me!) 

Be kind to yourself and your writerly muse, feed her words, let her be capricious and let her think she's in charge! 

[darkestwings]

omg can I possibly be the first one to introduce you to cockygate??? Wooohhooo!! So either #cockygate on Twitter or you look at like 5 posts back on my blog for the latest compilation of that ridiculous thing. OMG! You're going to shake your head so hard!!

Uh I looked at the posts on your blog about it and um…..what the fuck is this nonsense??? Who does shit like that??

AND SHE FORGIVES EVERYONE OOOOOKAYYYY LOLOLOL

[caitlynlynch]

the960writers replied to your post “Bookish Question:”

the most obvious next book is now one of the Cocky books of course

I’m not giving That Woman one red cent.

[foofyschmoofer]

What did not go well about your foray into original fiction?

I always go into NaNoWriMo with little more than the most barebones premise and a couple of character names, maaaybe a future plot point.  And all that’s fine for fan fic, because I can just write, without worrying about world building, lore, etc. (Bless whoever invented fan wikis lol)

But I tried to do the same last year with original fiction.  I had a prompt from Pinterest that spoke to me, a couple of characters, etc.  And it started off okay-ish.  But then the second day hit and I had no motivation/inspiration/whatever to continue that plot.  So I started over, same characters different plot. And what I have reads fairly well, but it’s rambling. I was 12k in and there was very little plot to speak of.  And there’s literally no world building.  I mean, I set it in modern day Dallas, but I mentioned a street and a bar that those that live here would know, but nothing else to indicate setting.  

I always thought outlines would stifle me, but I think I’m going to have to do one if I’m going to do original fiction for this year’s NaNo.

[usedupshiver]

the960writers replied to your post: In other news I’m driving myself absolutely nuts...

idea file. The answer is an idea file. It can be a notebook, a file in google drive or a bunch of post-its. Just write each idea down and use as a prompt later. There will come a day when you’ll thank your past self.

Yeah that’s definitely an A+ idea!

In my case the problem wasn’t a lack of ideas, though, but the fact that my brain refused to latch onto one and accept it as its own, and instead just kept rejecting anything I came up with. So. That sucked. 

But now we’re finally in agreement and committed to an idea we both like, so Preptober is a go! :D

[wannabanauthor]

the960writers replied to your post “Seven Shades of Shit Book Review with Caitlyn Lynch: Chapter I Don’t...”

fucking hell I'm gagging here. I need more wine

I understand your pain.

[the960writers]

The Return of the Writing Advice

2020 is here and the blog is slowly returning to normality. Welcome back.

Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash