unpolished, unfinished, untitled

[moonn-bug]

Insta: @novelforests

Time for a book exchange! DM me for details! This is an open exchange so anyone from anywhere can join in the fun (I don't know who started it unfortunately!)

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[moonn-bug]

I haven't posted in forever but I have just made a discord server for a writing club where I'm going to post short promots every so often.

If you like writing you might want to check it out!

Dm me for info

[themoonbugscripts]

https://discord.gg/AA2HUPD

Join the The Writers Guild Discord Server!

Check out the The Writers Guild community on Discord - hang out with 3 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

[moonn-bug]

I haven't posted in forever but I have just made a discord server for a writing club where I'm going to post short promots every so often.

If you like writing you might want to check it out!

Dm me for info

[themoonbugscripts]

Join in!

[themoonbugscripts]

“I hate the sight of blood”.

The man sat in the corner of the room raised his eyebrow at the brown-haired boy in front of him slid his dagger back into place along his back. The blood that stained the bed sheets and the expensive rug beneath was already beginning to darken, the smell of death already hanging in the air.

“If you hate the sight of blood”, the older one began as he pushed off the wall and beckoned the younger man near him. “Then perhaps you shouldn't kill for a living?”

It took mere seconds for the man to unlock the window, another 5 and he was already outside, scampering down the walls and around windows, a shadow that blended easily into the mottled stone and damp world below.

The boy rolled his eyes and followed close behind. Carefully shutting the window, ensuring the lock would click back into place.

The two shadows moved quiet and wraith-like through the alleys and gardens, and even the older of the two, the man with eyes so dark they looked black, his hair cropped short and shaggy and the begins of a scraggly beard. Even he loosed a breath in relief as the townhouse with an oak tree in its garden become clearer in the darkness and fog...

[wordsnstuff]

Useful Writing Resources

This is an extensive list of resources for every problem you could come across while writing/planning/editing your novel. Use it well;)

{ *** } Indicate a Highly Reccommended Resource

Planning/outlining Your Work

How To Outline ***

Zigzag Method : Creating Plots

How to Plot a Romance Novel 

Seven Great Sources of Conflict for Romances 

Let’s talk about brainstorming

Writing Something With Meaning ***

Past Or Present Tense? : How To Decide

Writing Your Work

How To Write A Fabulous Chapter #1 ***

How to Build a Romance Thread in Your Story 

The Big Book Of Writing Sex ***

6 Ways to Get Your Readers Shipping Like Crazy 

Romance Writing Tips ***

20 Tips for Writing Lovable Romance Novel Heroes

7 Ways To Speed Up Your Writing *** 

80+ Barriers to Love: A List of Ideas to Keep Romantic Tension High 

9 Romance Writing Mistakes to Avoid 

Removing the Creeps From Romance

19 Ways to Write Better Dialogue ***

50 Things Your Characters Can Do WHILE They Talk ***

How To Write Action And Fight Scenes

10 Steps To Write Arguments

9 Ways To Write Body Language

Writing Good Kissing Scenes

Writing Murders

Create And Control Tone ***

Tips for Writing Ghost Stories

Incorporating Flashbacks

12 Tips To Avoid Overwriting ***

Characters

Behind the Name

Top Baby Names

Looking for a name that means a certain thing? ***

7 Rules of Picking Names

Most Common Surnames ***

Minor Character Development

Writing Antagonists, Antiheroes and Villains

Characters With Enhanced Senses

5 Tips to Help You Introduce Characters

How Do You Describe a Character?

How To Write Child Characters

36 Core Values For Building Character

Questions To Answer When Creating Characters ***

4 Ways to Make Readers Instantly Loathe Your Character Descriptions

5 Ways to Keep Characters Consistent

Character Archetypes

25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters

Building Platonic Relationships Between Female Characters

9 Simple and Powerful Ways to Write Body Language 

33 Ways To Write Stronger Characters

Conveying Character Emotion 

How to Make Readers Love an Unlikable Character…  

How to Create Powerful Character Combos

How To Describe A Character’s Voice ***

Describing Clothing And Appearance ***

Career Masterpost ***

Creating Your Character’s Personality ***

Character Flaws ***

Editing

DON’T EDIT>>> REWRITE THE WHOLE THING FIRST

Ultimate Guide To Editing Each Aspect Of Your Work ***

Why You Would Read Your Novel Out Loud ***

Grammar and Punctuation ***

How To Write A Captivating First Sentence

10 Things Your Opening Chapter Should Do: A Check-List for Self-Editing ***

Saving Your Story: Finding Where It Went Wrong

How To Condense Without Losing Anything

The Stages Of Editing

Dialogue/Description Balance

3 Proofreading Tips

The Short Story Form

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Anatomy Of A Novel : Chapters and Parts ***

How To Write Chapter After Chapter Until You Have A Book ***

Where Chapter #2 Should Start

Step By Step Guide To Editing Your Draft

Writing Tool: CTRL-F (How And Why You Should Use It) ***

How To Kill A Character

25 Steps To Edit The Unmerciful Suck Out Of Your Story

5 Ways To Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive ***

Setting

{Setting} How To Describe Setting In Your Stories ***

20 Questions To Enhance Setting

How To Bring Your Setting To Life

Miscellaneous Resources You Can Use In Between

How to Write from a Guy’s POV 

The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus

Text To Speech Reader

Compare Character Heights 

A Visual Dictionary of Tops

Writers Helping Writers

7 Tricks To Imrove Your Writing Overnight

Work Out/ Word Count : Exercise Between Writing ***

Most Important Writing Tips ***

Let’s talk about diversity in novels

Letting Go Of Your Story

Keeping A Healthy Writing Schedule And Avoiding Procrastination ***

How To Create A Good Book Cover

Write or Die

Tip of my Tongue

Character Traits Form

Online Thesaurus

Writing Sketchy/Medical/Law

Coma: Types, Causes, etc

Tips for writing blood loss

Gunshot Wound Care

Examples of Hospital Forms

Common Legal Questions

The Writer’s Forensics Blog

Brain Injury Legal Guide

Types of Surgical Operations

Types of Mental Health Problems

A Day in the Life of a Mental Hospital Patient

Global Black Market Information ***

Crime Scene Science

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Writers’ Block Help/ Productivity

Story Plot Generator

@aveeragemusings ‘ Cure To Writers’ Block ***

50 Romance Plot Ideas

Reading Like A Writer ***

Defeat Writers’ Block

Writing In A Bad Mood ***

Writers Block

When You’ve Lost Motivation To Write A Novel ***

What To Do When The Words Won’t Flow ***

9 Ways To Be A More Productive Writer

“I Cannot Write A Good Sentence Today” (How To Get Over It) ***

Real Writing Advice ***

Info You Need To Know & Words You Didn’t Think Of

A Writer’s Thesaurus ***

Words To Describe… ***

Words & Phrases To Use In Your Sex Scenes ***

Colors (An Extensive List Of Colors)

List Of Kinks & Fetishes ***

List Of Elemental Abilities

inkarnate.com : World Creator And Map Maker For Your Imaginary Setting

Body Language Phrases

List Of Legendary Creatures

How To Write Magic

Hairstyle References

Hemingway : Writing Checker

Body Types: Words To Describe Bodies and How They Move Around

Poisonous Herbs and Plants ***

The Psychology of Color

The Meaning behind Rose color

Types of Swords

Color Symbolism

How a handgun works

How to Write a Eulogy

Types of Crying

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes ***

Superstitions and More

The 12 Common Archetypes

Language of Flowers

12 Realistic Woman Body Shapes

Using Feedback And Reviews

Turning Negative Reviews Into Positive Ones ***

Proofreading Marks : Easy Symbols To Make Reviewing/Feedback Easier ***

Authonomy Teen Ink Figment Fiction Press ReviewFuse

These Are Trusted Critique Sites ;)

[writing-prompt-s]

For all the writers out there. Please reblog this!

[themoonbugscripts]

Out of everything that I've had to change to live with my depression, the hardest thing to change has been how I see success.

Because of my depression, I've had to lower my standards of success exponentially.

When we're little, in our sub-concious, our happiness comes from the simplest of things. Completeing tiny tasks feels like a huge accomplishment. To get a feeling of success, all we have to do is get to the end of the day without feeling down.

But that changes quickly. As you get older, school and society drill another version of what 'success' is into you.

You get taught that to be a success, you have to check off everything on thier long checklist if how to be a 'proper' human being.

You need to be smart, you need to be good at school academics, you need to get a good job and have a steady income, you need to move out of home, you need to own your own house, you need to find a partner, you need this and that and the list grows every day.

That's what you are made to see as 'success'. And for the majority of humanity, perhaps it's a good version of success.

But when you have an illness that steals all willpower from your mind, body and spirit, it becomes so much harder than you were ever led to believe.

You can't just 'be good' at school, because your brain is so exhausted from battling to keep you alive that it can't focus on any one thing for too long. It's hard to find a job because you the thought of facing an interview terrrifies you. And without a job you can't earn the money you need to complete the rest of the things on the list.

Not being able to do these becomes another obstacle on your personal list of things your brain uses against you on a daily basis.

So you have to learn to change your ideas of success.

Forget everything you were taught about what it means to be successful, and create your own definition for the word.

The core of the word 'success' simply means making an accomplishment or fulfilling a task. There is no minimum or maximum implied.

To me; success is getting up in the morning.

Success is making my bed and putting the pillows and toys from the floor back on my bed.

Success is making myself healthy food, a sandwich or salad, instead of grabbing something quick and easy that will ultimately not help me feel better.

Success is finishing that book I've been wanting to read for ages.

Success is going to bed feeling like I want to wake up.

You have to minimize the way you picture success. It can be the accomplishment of any task, big or small. If it's getting up, eating healthy, taking a shower, even if it's just making sure you keep breathing for just one more day, it's a success.

Depression is one of the hardest things to learn to live with. There is no cure and it is completely unpredictable and ever-changing in its nature. But it is possible. It has to be.

[themoonbugscripts]

I may not be Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan's Assassin.

I may not have battled through all the hardships she has faced. I may not be as strong or as skilled.

But I am me, and I will not be afraid.

I will not be afraid of heartbreak.

I will not be afraid of the darkness in mind or the world outside.

I will not be afraid of failure. I will not be afraid of rejection or criticism.

I will not be afraid of myself, nor anyone else.

Because I am me. And I will not be afraid.

From now on.

I will not be afraid.

[themoonbugscripts]

All I want to do is message you.

If I could run to your house right now and just talk to you I would.

I've never been truly broken by anyone before.

I've never let anyone get that close.

I've always kept my walls up. And now I will.

And I miss you. I'll miss you so much.

I'll miss you everytime something reminds me of you.

Everytime I look at my bookshelf. Everytime I get a coffee. Everytime I look through my phone and see little pieces of you everywhere.

I miss you. And yet I'm so, incredibly mad at you. There's so much I still needed to tell you. So much we were supposed to do. And now... that will never happen. I'll never be able to sit down with you and excitedly watch the next season of our show. I'll never be able to gush over book or TV show characters with you.

You said you couldn't be what I needed but all I needed was you... and sometimes the things we feel we need and love the most are the things that hurt the most too... I thought I was ready for it. God, I acted so okay with everything and inside I was breaking.

I could feel every little piece of me tearing apart. Not just my heart, but my mind and spirit as well. My heart was already breaking but you then took it in your hands and shattered it against the wall and ran over it as you drove away from everything that I had trusted in.

My mind and my spirit... are so alone...

You'll be fine. You have a whole arsenal of friends and family to help you... if you even need help. Maybe you don't, maybe you're inexplicably ecstatic to leave my broken and cold heart in the dust and move on to more full and simple things.

I just have me. It used to be us. And now it's me. And you. You and your beautiful eyes. You and your hundred and one laughs. You and your beautiful, full, perfect, successful life ahead of you... a life, I now have no part in.

So I'll sit here. In the dark. Alone. The light from my phone burning my eyes that are aching from tears that won't fix any of the millions of wrong decisions I've made.

And I'll dream. I'll allow myself this small moment to cry for us. To dream of what could have been had I not made everything fall apart...

This is just another sad message in a bottle that I'm sending out to you... another one you'll never see...

[themoonbugscripts]

Don't you love it when someone starts to string you along?

You are 100% sure they don't give a fuck about you anymore but they don't break up with you.

And you don't have the heart to break up with them because you're still in love with them, even though they're hurting you?

My hearts currently shredding itself to pieces because you clearly don't feel for me the way I feel for you.

Maybe you did once. But you definitely don't anymore. And if you do you have a fucking strange way of showing it.

I don't even know what I feel about you. I love you. I probably always will. But you're also hurting me, breaking my heart and making me angry at you for betraying my trust. I want to trust that you would tell me if you just wanted to be friends. Or if you never wanyed to hear from me again. I'm trying to put trust in that you'd tell me but I'm starting to fail.

If you don't have feelings for me anymore then fine.

I'm not going to ask for you to stay if you won't be happy.

But for fucks sake please give me my fucking heart back. Or at least a piece of it. Enough for me to maybe be able to forget about how much I'll miss us.

And you'll never see this, even if you do you won't reply, you never do.

I just want to stop hurting. Please.

I love you but I'm sick of crying over your dismissal. Your avoidance of me if we aren't forced together.

Am I game to you now?

Am I an experiment to see how far you can push it before my hearts taken by the darkness of depression and I don't feel anything at all?

Am I something to pass the time while you wait for your life to start?

Are you sparing my feelings not breaking ot off with me when you want to? Or are you sparing your own?

I can survive on my own. I can shut everyone out and refuse to love or care for anyone. I let you in in the trust that you wouldn't hurt me. And yet you're doing exactly that.

And I can't even talk to you because we haven't been able to be alone to have the conversation we need to.

Maybe I'm reading the signs wrong but I'm sure I'm not. You're certainly not telling me otherwise.

[themoonbugscripts]

A Mess of Mental Strings

I wish I knew what went through your head.

I wish I knew if you really meant it when you say you loved me.

I wish I could trust that you weren't just lying because you don't want the guilt of hurting me.

But I can't.

It hurts.

It hurts so much and I can't get away from it, because wherever I go it follows me.

It tracks me down as easily as a wolf hunts a rabbit or dog hunts a fox.

It can find me no matter where I am, who I'm with or what I feel.

It doesn't care. Or it does care.

And that's the problem.

I trust it over you.

I trust it over anyone.

Because when everything is crashing, shattering, banging, clanging, falling, burning around me it's always there.

And it's arm around me might be cold and sharp and it hurts but it gives some reprieve and control where I had none before.

Yes, the arm might be cold. But it's there.

And it'll always be there.

Like water at the bottom of a cliff.

It's cold and it hurts but it's better than just dying, right?

Even if I do wish the waves would crash me against a rock and kill me.

Even if I do wish that it would suck me under and never let me breathe again.

I wish I knew what would happen if I did die.

Would you cry?

What would you do?

What would you feel?

How long would you stay by my grave afterwards?

How long would you bring me fresh flowers?

Would you even care?

My brain screams these questions in my head until it's the only thing I can hear and you can't give me answers because no matter what you say my brain will cry  'liar'.

I wish there was some way to link my mind to yours. I wish I could somehow get my head to explain to you why I feel the way I do because I don't have the words to do so.

I wish I could dissappear into one of my books

My tales of daring warriors, perfectly trained assassin's and elite knights.

In this world I would thrive. You didn't have to be perfect in every which way. As long as you were good at one thing and perfected that talent you could survive, you could climb the ranks and you could live.

But in this world that is not possible. To do one thing you must be perfectly mastering the other. To be allowed to climb the ranks you must already be privileged with excessive wealth and social standing.

Perhaps I'm not meant to survive.

Perhaps I am meant to be an example, a lesson on moving on.

Perhaps my reason for being is to not... be.

Perhaps I was born to teach others to move on.

To move forward.

Perhaps that's the reason I am here.

I just wish I knew.

I wish I knew more about you.

I wish I knew more about how you truly  feel.

I wish I could let my heart trust you to not hurt.

I wish I could believe that you love me as much as I love you...

[themoonbugscripts]

When you have anxiety

AND PEOPLE DON'T TELL YOU WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON

Ffs is that hard

[themoonbugscripts]

I have no idea what I'm going to do and I have no one to talk to about it...

[themoonbugscripts]

Just over the page...

I am a reader. I have read a thousand books, And over a million words. I have lived and died, I have fought and been trialed. I have been immortal and I have suffered. I have been both rich and poor. I have had unknown knowledge and unrecognized talents. I have been both mentor and apprentice I have been both boy and girl, I have been peasants and also the royalty they look to, I have been man and monster, I have been filled with rage and with happiness, I have been lost and I have searched, I have been through easy times as well as hard, I have fought in wars with swords on a battlefield, And in courts with words and speeches. I have marched across plains and scaled mountaintops. I have galloped across moors and sailed across oceans. I have visited imagined lands and sped through the stars. I have been both the hero and villain. I have used magic powerful and small. I have traveled alone and I have had company. I have been quiet and calculating, And I have been loud and reckless I have been young and naive, And I have been old and wise. For I have lived a thousand lives. I'm a reader. I die at the end of every last page, Only to be reborn at the start of every new turn.

[themoonbugscripts]

Another Black Day

I'm tired. And not in the sense that a good nights rest will ever fix. I'm tired of trying. I'm tired of surviving. I can't do it anymore. I just want to escape. Give up. Dissapear. What's the point in trying anymore. I've seen how death effects those closest to the person. Yes they cry for a while but they always move on in the end. They're always able to get back on track and pull their life together. Sometimes they even learn things from the person. So why can't I leave. Why can't I just slice my arm and allow myself to sleep. Why is it so hard to give myself the only sense of piece I think I'll ever find. No one wants me. People may put up with me and tolerate me but I don't think anyone really wants me to be here. Everyone who's lives I'm a part of could replace me. I'm not doing anything of purpose anyway. I don't have a job because the idea of dealing with people sends my entire being into a panic attack. I dread going to school because all I can feel is the glare of peoples eyes as they judge every part of me, and maybe they're not but, that's all I can feel. My anxiety makes me care so much, makes me check everything over and over again and nothing gets done because I can't leave something until it's perfect. But my depression steals any ounce of motivation I might have to do anything. And it takes so much strength to do the simplest things that by the time I get around to trying to complete a task I'm too tired and my head is so sore I can't think. So I leave the task to try again. Hopefully I'll feel better later. But then later I'm on the floor in a ball crying silently because I can't do anything. Because I'm confused and helpless and I don't know what I'm supposed to do but I can't talk with anyone because I don't want to burden someone else with the shit show that goes on in my head 24/7. I can't even talk with someome who is paid to listen to people's problems because that still requires me to call and book an appointment and that terrifies me to no end. I don't know what's wrong with me anymore. I just want it to stop. I want to fix it but I can't. No matter what I try I still feel like suicide is my only option for peace from the voices in my head that are constantly screaming at me and can't they just shut the fuck up?. Can't they just let me normal. I don't even care if normal is boring, I want to be boring- I'd rather be boring and normal then be a freakshow... I'm sick of having to pretend I'm okay, I'm sick of putting on a smile and acting like nothing affects me but I can't stop doing it because I can't let people see I'm vulnerable I can't let them see me cry. They can't know how weak I am... because I am... I'm weak and pathetic and I know it but I can't be any stronger I just fucking can't! Please.... just make it stop... please....

[unblockingwritersblock]

Legit Writing Tips #1: Quick Editing

To put it quite simply, editing is boring. And slow. And mind numbing. And frustrating. And long. Here’s a checklist to make it a little bit easier.

Write It. Then Don’t Touch It: Finish the scene, story, novel, paragraph, vignette, prompt, or chapter, then stop. Take a step away from your computer (or notebook. Hardcore) and leave it alone. There’s no hard and fast rule for how long, but the idea is to literally forget as much of what you just wrote as possible. The more you read the same thing over and over, the more your brain skips over what you think you already know, and that means you will forget things. Lots of things. So leave it alone.

Spell-check: This should be the most obvious thing in the world, but if you haven’t, run the whole thing through a spellchecker. You may have turned it off so you don’t see red lines under things you know are spelled correctly. Yes, thank you spell-check, I understand that my made up fantasy names seem to trigger something in you, but tone down the enthusiasm.

Run it through again anyway. See red, squiggly line? Fix it. Run it through a grammar checker. Still see lines? Fix it. Then get Microsoft Word or something with a built in spell-check. Seriously.

Focus on one thing at a time: Focus on dialogue on the first run through, then do description next, punctuation after that, etc. Pick one thing to focus on for each pass so you don’t get distracted or confused. Create your own checklist of things to keep an eye out for and do a run through every once and a while.

Check for repetitiveness: Make sure your sentences and paragraphs don’t start with the same word/letter. If you can say the same thing in less words, do it. If the character says something twice in a row, cut it out. If two sentences in a row starts with the same letter, adjust it. Same with paragraphs. Vary sentence and paragraph length, as well. Occasionally, you’ll have dialogue or description that naturally falls this way, this is fine, just don’t make a habit of it, and be aware of it.

Watch your dialogue tags: How many times has your character ‘laughed’ or ‘sighed’ or 'smiled’ in this chapter? This leans into the repetitiveness we talked about above. Use new words. Get them to do new things. Don’t just add for the sake of adding, but adjust accordingly.

Change how you read it: As stated above, the more you read your story, the less you see of it. Change the font size, or the font itself. Print the story out on paper (not really applicable for novels). Change the color of the font in your favorite word processor and mark problems in red, good passages in blue, things that need to stay in green, etc. 

Keep notes as you write: This doesn’t help unless you’ve done it before you’ve started editing, but it’s helpful during edits. Keep track of everything. Add them everywhere. “Sarah has green eyes.” “John doesn’t like peas”. “Need to figure out a name for a town” “Need name for background character #7”, etc. That way you can write without needing to stop at every little question, and you can go back to make sure you stay consistent and Sarah doesn’t change eye color mid story.

Make your description match your scenes: Action scenes don’t need big words and flowing prose. Make it quick, concise, and urgent. Romance scenes and historical novels can take more description. Add all five senses. Describe more. Describe less. Make it work for what you’re writing. Give them different voices for dialogue. Make then all sound different and have distinctive tones.

Quick Checklist:

Put the story away and wait.

Fix all major spelling and punctuation problems.

Clean up the format (not majorly, just paragraph and sentence length and dialogue).

Go over notes. Adjust accordingly. Make more notes.

Make sure you have a good opening line.

Make us love (or hate) the characters accordingly.

Start close enough to the good stuff so it’s interesting, but not confusing.

Make your description match your scenes.

Make your dialogue match your characters.

Create conflict. Once you think you have enough, create more.

Cut out any and all dead spaces in your novel. Be brutal. Characters, dialogue, whole chapters. If it doesn’t fit, or make the story go forward in terms of plot, cut it. Don’t delete it though, create a document and save all your bits and pieces.. They could go in something else or spark some more ideas.

Make sure there’s enough to keep the reader engaged.

Fix all plot holes and add in back story.

Add in foreshadowing.

Make sure the story arc makes sense and ends with a satisfying climax.  Now that you’ve done all that, you’re ready for peer feedback! Find a good writing workshop, either in person or online, and post your newly edited story. You’ll get even more help and feedback and it will help polish up any and every part of your story. Plus you’ll get insight and ideas you’ve never even thought of.