#writing trick

[dionysiaproductions]

On par with the writing in Comic Sans thing, I downloaded an app that makes my keyboard sound like a typewriter and it is working.

[deardragonbook]

Sad things you can do in a book other than killing of a character

Character death is sad, but it also has huge consequences on your plot that can’t be reversed. Not to mention, depending on your genre, character deaths are often reserved for later in the series as a way of telling the reader that things are getting serious. 

So, until that moment, here’s a quick list of things you can do to tug at your readers emotions: 

1.- Destruction of an item of value. For this to work you’re going to have to set this up early on, it could be a childhood toy they need to sleep at night, a necklace they swear gives them good luck, and old family trinket or any number of things. The important thing is you show just how important it is to the character, make them happy and excited just to talk about it. Later on your character will feel loss and so will the audience. 

2.- Arguing. Two characters with a strong bond arguing can be heartbreaking, even if you know the argument is going to resolve itself eventually, going from cuddles and banter to cold looks and the silent treatment, can easily hurt the audience just as much as the characters. 

3.- Betrayal. When well done, it’s worst than character death. When you as a reader fall head over heels in love with a character, only for them to betray the rest, it’s heartbreaking, especially if when you read back the foreshadowing was there. It was so obvious yet you were all so blind! As blind as the other characters. Also, unlike character death, they’re still there, there to taunt you with their mere existence. 

4.- Failure. We have probably all felt that emptiness, that feeling as the world crumbles around us, haplessness, when we failed an exam in school or just couldn’t get the house clean in time for that visit. Take that feeling and reflect it into your characters, it doesn’t have to be an exam, it can be anything, a task they’re parents asked them to do and they tried their best, a mission, anything. Just let them fail and feel the world crumble. 

5.- Being forced to stay behind. Following from point four, if a character is not good enough they can be left behind, perhaps it comes from a place of love, an attempt to protect them from enemies too strong, yet it still hurts. Perhaps they haven’t failed, perhaps they are left behind for another reason, because they are “too valuable”, or because they’ll be more useful back home. Either way, watching those close to you go of to fight for what you believe in, without you, can be painful. 

6.- Finding out something they believed in was a lie. It can be something relatively insignificant, an assumption they never bothered to question. Or something world shattering. Allow me to offer up an example with an unimportant spoiler from my second book (it’s not even out yet but oh well): in this book, while talking about some law, Henry realises his daughter believes he and her mother were married. This is an assumption Itazu made and never questioned. It affects nothing, nothing changes, yet finding out her mother and her father were not the happy married couple she’d always pictured, it’s painful. 

This could also be something huge, finding out you’re adopted for example. 

7.- History. Oh, history, how depressing it can be. And if you have a fantasy world you have many opportunities to go into this. From slaughters to slavery, finding out how society got to where it is, the base on which it is built. Well, it’s pretty depressing. Obviously be careful how much inspiration you take from real world history and always be respectful and do your research! 

8.- Scarring. An injury can be painful, it can be scary. And depending on what caused it, leave you with traumatising memories. Now add to that a physical visible reminder on your skin you can never remove. Well, that can be pretty horrible. Imagine the scar came from a battle the protagonist longs to forget, but can’t because every night before going to sleep they can’t help but glance at their arm where the nasty scars forever lies. 

As usual,  check out my book, stories I’ve written plus other social medias: here.

This another post I could probably do a part two on someday. Can you think of any books where any of these are done effectively? Do any of these happen in your owns book? Please tell me! I love hearing from you all. 

[twotangledsisters]

You’re awesome for posting fic updates not only consistently, but daily! Any tips for keeping up with writing?

Thank you so much! I love updates and writing being a part of my routine and I'm glad other people enjoy it too!

And sure, I can think of some tips:

First, there's a mixture of inspiration and forcefulness. I remember when I was really little I read a post somewhere about how if you want to take something seriously, you have to take it seriously on the days when you're inspired and on the days you're not. That changed how I treat art forever!

But years and years later I learnt a more important lesson, to never overlook the power of inspiration.

It's through a mixture of both that I can really keep up with writing. If I only wrote when inspired, sooner or later I'd get a loooong writing block that would leave me simply paralysed. But I'll often do the 'just one chapter' method, and often writing just a few paragraphs will get me back into the flow. But if I'm still very blocked after a chapter, that's fine.

But if I am inspired, I will follow that. Even if it takes my story in weird directions that weren't planned! A good example is that Caine rescuing Cass in the final S1 fic wasn't planned, she wasn't planned to come along in S2 and certainly did not expect her to fall in love... A lot of their scenes came from me writing while inspired.

Now, stuff such as Eugene's near death in S1 finale, the way Koto framed him, the way Cass had to deal with accusations of witchcraft, those stuff were planned way ahead of time!

It's really important to keep that balance, to have plans and also leave room for inspiration to run wild!

An added bonus, if you feel an intense desire to go write a fic that's completely different to the one you're trying to work on, just let inspiration win. I was struggling a bit with the 'Day of Animals' arc in tangled sisters the other day, then I got the urge to do a little Cass oneshot, so I wrote the oneshot in one sitting and have had zero issues writing since.

Sometimes you can unblock writing block with MORE writing! As long as you're letting inspiration guide you.

Second is to take breaks! I update every day but I do not write every day. I write a few times a week and usually have at least one really long session!

One of my currently updating fics 'Always By Your Side' I wrote half of it in like a week, took a few months break, then wrote the rest and started publishing!

Sometimes long breaks can really help. I've taken several long breaks with Tangled Sisters.

Third is stay ahead. With 'Always By Your Side' I have it completely written so I just proof read on the day of upload. Tangled Sisters I keep track of in Notion:

Look how cute my fanfic section is!

I'm usually at least 30 chapters ahead but I did take a writing break recently. Soon as I get the next arc done I expect to be well ahead again.

Fourth, motivation! This one isn't entirely your control, but a huge factor for keeping up is just that I'm super motivated! I can thank the amazing people who comment every day, those who comment occasionally, those who leave kudos or send nice asks like this one!

It does sooo much to make me smile and excited for the stories I'm telling.

And if you look at my fanfic section of notion, I have that little box titled kind words, the content actually changed every time I reload the page, it's linked to a little table where I keep track of all the kind words regarding my fics that I've gotten on Ao3 and tumblr! (I also have several bits of fanart by the amazing @rebecagpfs in that page who I cannot thank enough!!!)

So, although you don't have full control over motivation, having a notebook to collect those kind words can help!

Fifth would be talk to people. Have at least one person who's cool with spoilers cause brainstorming is just easier with somebody else! For me @the-writer1988 has got me through sooo many writer's blocks! Often times I just ramble at her until the problem resolves itself, other times it'd be a more active back and forth. But writing friends supporting each other, always great!

And hey, to anybody who wants to ramble about their fics to me I'm always open! I love hearing about people's fics and am huge on the writer supporting writers sorta mentality!

Sixth is just have fun! If you enjoy what you're writing it's going to be sooo much easier than if you don't.

I do want to point out though, every writer's different! I can sit down and write 10k words in one sitting, but a lot of people can't, just like I need five hour to do a drawing many artists can do in an hour.

Writing is an art and you get faster with experience.

Also, I do daily updates because I adore consistency! Having that routine is amazing for me and I think it's lovely for some readers. But I also accomplish that via very short chapters! Sometimes as short as just 600-700 words. Many authors opt for longer chapters that upload weekly but there still writing the same amount!

So yeah, I do hope this helped!

Thank you so much for the ask :D And if anything didn't make sense, please tell me, it's almost 1am here I just noticed but I really wanted to answer this before bed!

[mystical-blaise]

My friend did the comic sans thing with her university assignments and it worked really well for her for a while... I will never forget the sheer mortification and panic on her face when she realised she accidentally submitted an essay before changing the font to one more appropriate😂💀

BAHAHAHA! Oh, man. LOL.

I just sent @hlizr50 a zoomed-in screenshot of the chapter I'm working on, and seeing such sad things typed in such a terrible but balloony, child-like font is hilarious.

[warbirdwrites]

Ok so I thought I’d do a quick tip today about a really common crutch phrase in fan fiction writing: ‘swallowed thickly.’

I don’t really know what this is supposed to mean, unless you’re guzzling gobs of mucus or any other thick, gooey substances. Unless you’re writing something about bukkake or the flu, I don’t know where this would ever truly fit.

And even then, that adverb doesn’t add as much as you maybe think it does. This is especially true in the context of how writers tend to use it – to portray nerves or apprehension.

So, instead of ‘swallowed thickly’ here are some other words you can try, in a colour coded list in terms of how they best covey nerves:

Gulped

Gasped

Swallowed

Inhaled

Choked

Gagged

Heaved

Wheezed

Some of the suggestions in orange are really vivid verbs that can convey things like repulsion (‘gagged’ and ‘heaved’) or shock (‘gasped’).

And if you want to get really clever, you can go into other details in terms of body language. Maybe there are trembling, sweaty hands involved; breathing that falters; maybe your character’s legs feel heavy like lead or just like mom’s spaghetti. You could even give your character some ticks or signs that they’re nervous that crop up. One of my best known fics has a character that hears rushing in her ears in situations that make her uncomfortable, for example.

Anyhow, I hope this was helpful! Have a great Sunday!

[harmonyinkpress]

Tips From An Editor: A POV for the Masses

This post is part of a series on fiction point of view. Earlier posts can be found here. See books I edit at Dreamspinner Publications.

Third-person limited point of view is one step removed from first-person. If in first person readers see through the protagonist’s eyes, in third-person limited they watch over their shoulder like an invisible parrot. (Okay, maybe not exactly like that, but you get the idea.) To recap, third-person limited point of view:

Uses he, she, they, and associated pronouns for all characters

Uses narration limited to one character’s thoughts, knowledge, and experience

Provides a natural way for authors to limit information in a similar way to first person, but allows a wider scope better suited to action scenes, for example

Here’s an example of a paragraph written in third-person limited.

On his way to the store that morning, Jim tried to decide if anything was different. The sky was the same blue. The birds sang the same dumb song. But there was something in the air, an uncomfortable awareness creeping up his spine. Something isn’t right.

From comparing this paragraph to the same paragraph written in first person, we can observe a few of the ways in which third person and first person are similar:

The narrator has a distinctive voice.

The author can only relate what the protagonist can see, hear, feel, smell, taste, or experience, or what they already know.

Like first person, third limited requires an author to think about their protagonist’s word choices, syntax, and so on as integral to building their character. If the protagonist wouldn’t know the word apiarist, stick to beekeeper.

Third limited also shares some other challenges with first person as well—it can be difficult to get to know other characters and their motivations, and it’s easy to fall into the apparently/obviously/evidently trap to tell things outside the protagonist’s experience. As it is with first person, The Emotion Thesaurus is a good resource here and can help you get in the groove of indicating characters’ emotions via body language. (Not every person is good at reading body language; it’s okay if your protagonist misses cues that your reader does not, or vice versa.)

Because third limited allows a bit more distance between the reader and the protagonist than first person does, authors can get away with more in the way of characterization. The unlikeable character who made readers put the book down in first person can be a star here. If you have a protagonist who’s calculating, callous, catty, chickenhearted, conceited, crass, or even just clueless, third limited might be the right choice. Those few inches between being inside the character’s head and riding on his shoulder may let your reader disassociate from those negative traits enough to enjoy the entertainment they create. Just exercise moderation to keep character redeemable. After all, there’s a fine line between “he’s so stupid; I love him” and “this person’s idiocy is a danger to the human race.”

~Gennifer Eastwick, Editor in Chief at Dreamspinner Publications, International Publishers of Quality Gay Romantic Fiction

[bitletsanddrabbles]

*stares at screen*

*stares at clock*

...so tired....and yet....300 words to next word count goal.

*seems so far away*

*brain not working*

............fuck it. This prose is going violet.