#writing adv

[manicpixiedreamboots]

Hello, I'm here to ask for advice about POV? I'm currently writing with a limited third person narrator... but I'm not sure when to change the POV to someone else or how and/or how often. Am I making sense? Anyway, thank you for your time. :)

Hey!!!  just got this message, i am so so sorry... i didn’t get a notification ( nor apparently check my inbox for a month!!) 

Sometimes narrators can see the perspectives of different characters and can have a voice of their own.It’s entirely up to you, if you feel your story would lend itself to more than one perspective then that’s wonderful! However you have to be certain that the reader can follow whose perspective they are reading and also which of your characters knows what. It is fun to build a tangled web of lies and ‘he saw she saw’...  where the audience knows things that the characters do not... and vice versa. Also sometimes writing multiple perspectives of the same event can greatly improve a scene. 

As for how often... well thats a tricky one. I like to write within the feel of the scene and change when it just ‘clicks’ but that is unhelpful advice.  I guess what i am saying is don’t switch perspectives too quickly, or your readers will get whiplash but also don’t stay in the same point of view for tooooooooo long or your reader will forget there were multiple voices telling the story. 

You’ve got this! Go with your gut instinct :) 

Span <3 

[maxgrayarchived]

Character Building For The Type A

If you’re anything like me, you need a good balance of structure and flexibility in your life in order to function, and this bleeds into your writer life as well.

This is the system I’m currently using for character development, and it’s been working great for me! Keep in mind that nobody is the same, and if you need to change any part of this process, you’re welcome to. So long as your characters feel like real people, there is no wrong way to develop them!

Step one: Thought dump your characters

Don’t bother too much with organization just yet. Write down all your ideas for your characters, even ideas you might end up scrapping. Some ideas are gonna be absolute ass in this phase, and that’s okay. Even if you feel like some of your ideas contradict each other, write them down anyway- You can figure it out later!

If you really need some structure here, you can keep separate documents/sets of paper for each character.

I was using a notebook, so I put my character’s name on the top of the page, skipped six pages, and added another heading. For one of my characters I just barely had enough room for all my ideas and for another I ended up only using half the space.

Step two: Answer these questions for major characters

I’d suggest that for complementary and conflicting characters, you answer them side-by-side.

If you get stuck on any one question, feel free to either force yourself to think it out and make something up, or skip it and come back to it later.

Step three: Make a “cycle” for your protagonists 

The point here is to make sure everything realistically flows together. I actually got this from one of @jennamoreci‘s videos, who is an actual Godsend for my type A-ness.

Step four: Answer these questions for your supporting & minor characters

Step five: Fill out this character map

Step six: Flesh it out

Go through all your characters, one by one, until there are no plot holes or missing information.

So this is the system I’ve been following, and, yeah, it takes a long fucking time, but there is no quick and easy way to develop your characters. Don’t try to rush it. You will regret it.

I mean, think of all the editing you’ll have to do to make up for poorly planned characters. You’ll pretty much have to rewrite the entire book.

If you found this post helpful, reblogs are always appreciated, and you can learn more about me as a writer here. Be sure to let me know if you have any helpful character tips!

Stay proud

-Max

[hopperbrainrot]

‘so what’s your book about?’

people ask me this all the time 

and i always just go ‘uhhhh well’

but i’m writing a very intense scene between my mc and his love interest (who’s much more than just a love interest but in author speak that’s technically who he is) and my mc just summed up the entire book in a rapid fire rant panic of a sentence

so if you’re wondering what my book is about it’s this.

“And if you haven’t noticed we’re currently being trained by the most dangerous teenagers on earth to fight a fucking alien race of evil wizards who want to kill humans and drain their blood and they seem to be fucking targeting us specifically for no reason and I have no fucking magic powers despite being a full wizard and we’re totally going to die.” - Dylan Rathmore (Rathmore: The Novice, draft 2, chapter twelve) (does he ever breathe tho? no.)

[michellezink]

See my original query letter and synopsis for PROPHECY OF THE SISTERS in this week’s installment of the Young Writer’s series; How Do I Sell My Book. So weird to read such a blast from the past, back before I even had an agent. 

The nostalgia. It burns. 

;)