☆ ☆ ☆

Dutch writer and artist in high school ＼(^-^)／ I’m here to post my art and writing advice. I’ve written a book I‘m editing and rewriting that I’m going to publish this year (I hope). Part of multiple fandoms: Httyd, TDP, RiordanVerse, WizardingWorld, WarriorCats, Eragon, She-Ra (2018) and more

[dappyhappy]

JUST LET ME BE.

[the-little-ladybug-that-could]

Reblog if you are an asexual positive blog, believe asexuals exist, and are willing and able to create a safe space for your asexual friends

[lunaisace]

As an Asexual myself, YES

[celticwarriormoon]

As someone who is now 99% sure they might be ace…

YES. THIS. BOTH SIDES NEED TO SEE THIS.

[froggyfloats]

As an asexual, I deal with this a lot, and it’s not okay :/

[daisy-bugs]

As an asexual, REBLOG YOU COWARDS

[texas-chainsaw-yassacre]

ASEXUALS ARE REAL AND 1000% VALID AND FUCK EVERYBODY ELSE WHO THINKS THEY AREN’T

[chaotic-bastard-demon]

MY BEST FRIEND IS ACE, SHE DEALS WITH THIS SHIT A LOT AND IT’S NOT OK!

[dragonwolfcrane]

Be happy!! There are people who support you too!!!!

[stars-and-rose]

!!!!

[thecatprince]

As someone on the ace/aro spectrum aces are 100% valid. Anyone who thinks otherwise can fuck off.

[tarantula-veins-deactivated2023]

Another one is doctors and therapists telling you you need psychosexual therapy to “cure” your lack of sexual attraction.

If you have ever experienced this, no, you dont need curing.

[aroace-get-out-of-my-face]

Yyyyyyyeeeeeesssss

[totallysilvergirl]

Should go without saying.

[official-lucifers-child]

i am definitely everyone in that second comic

aces are valid, aces are real, aces are NOT broken, aces are amazing and always welcome and safe on my blog

[starryeyed-oddity]

[aquariusrunes]

Ace people are valid, and while I may not be asexual I love and support everyone who is!

[lil-tumbles]

As an occasional ace, I say VALID

[m00n-j3lly-deactivated20230328]

op and every aro/ace who sees this, i love you 🖤🤍💜

[macrolit]

Reblog with just TWO choices

[willowsilverpine]

I would pick 6 and 8.

When I imagine my dream future, it would be exactly like this. I’m sitting in my own bookstore, filled with hundreds or maybe even thousands of books. It’s big, but cozy anyways. I sit in the back of the store, only looking up from my laptop screen when the doorbell rings and a new customer enters. I work on the sequel of my worldwide bestseller while being surrounded by a million pages full of inspiration. People from all kinds of places visit my store, people with unique stories and adventures in their hearts to enlighten my day with. Most of them don’t know my face and just come in for a book and a lighthearted talk, but sometimes someone enters and recognizes me. Their eyes lit up, they start rambling about my book and their favourite characters and that one specific scene that made them cry from laughter or tear up for real. And I will smile, a genuine smile, because I know that this is all I’ve ever wanted.

[avi-why]

every writing tip article and their mother: dont ever use adverbs ever!

me, shoveling more adverbs onto the page because i do what i want: just you fucking try and stop me

[quarter0master]

May I add something, because I will never shut up about this book (Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark):

[jackironsides]

Finally, some good fucking advice

[willowsilverpine]

How to improve writing flow

Something I’ve struggled with a lot, is choppy writing. Here are my go-to fixes to improve the overall flow of your writing.

Vary the length of your sentences.

Don’t start two sentences in a row with de same word.

Don’t end a sentence with the same word as the first word of the next sentence.

Avoid overusing names. Try to use he/she/they where possible.

Balance your descriptions, actions and dialogue. Too much from one of these can cause choppy writing.

Check if you’re not describing the same thing over and over again.

Speak your dialogue out loud to see if it’s realistic and if it sounds like something a real person would say.

If you struggle to write a conversation with a good flow, write your dialogue first and add in actions and description later.

Reread your writing and look for words you’ve used too often. Cut them out completely if you can, or replace it by reforming your sentence/adding a PROPER synonym. Not all words the internet tells you are synonyms can be used in the same situation.

Have you been using enough paragraph breaks? And are they in the right place? Add a paragraph break when the time, subject, point of view or location changes.

[theclonewriter-blog]

“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.

[onewordtest]

“Unless you are following the dialogue with an action and not a dialogue tag.” He took a deep breath and sat back down after making the clarifying statement. 

[joehywheelah]

“However,” she added, shifting in her seat, “it’s appropriate to use a comma if there’s action in the middle of a sentence.”

[tenoko1]

“True.” She glanced at the others. “You can also end with a period if you include an action between two separate statements.”

[cj-amused]

Things I didn’t know

[prismatic-bell]

“And–” she waved a pen as though to underline her statement–“if you’re interrupting a sentence with an action, you need to type two hyphens to make an en-dash.”

[jawnwats-deactivated20160713]

You guys have no idea how many students in my advanced fiction workshop didn’t know any of this when writing their stories.

[kat-snow2613]

Reblog to save a life

[jandjsalmon]

Reblog to save a beta’s sanity.

[mdcbd]

Reblog this to save a beta-less author’s sanity.

[aelaer]

Reblog because I see this issue ALL THE TIME.

[pirateofprose]

Reblog because I never get them right!

[willowsilverpine]

Writing main characters

The main character is without a doubt the most important character in your WIP to know and write about. If your reader doesn’t like your MC and doesnt root for them, it will be really hard for them to get invested in your story. Here’s some tips to create an interesting MC your readers will enjoy reading about for hundreds of pages.

Give them a PERSONALITY. Your MC should be just as unique and layered as your side characters, if not more. Making your MC a blank slate for your readers to ‘project on’ has an opposite effect. That is not what readers are looking for in a character. They want to get invested in the story and feel connected to the MC. Readers can still project themselves onto the MC if they have a personality. Noone wants to read 200+ pages about a character who is bland and boring.

Give them flaws! Readers want to see the MC struggle. They should fail, they should make mistakes and mess things up. That makes it easier to relate to the MC. Also, it’s pretty boring to read about a character who’s perfect and good at everything. If your MC is already amazing at everything at the beginning of your story, and they win every battle against your ‘villian’, the victory will feel unsatisfying. I’ve already said some things about this in an earlier post. Basically, show that your MC grows and learns throughout the story, and finally gains the skill and strenght to defeat the villian, or finally fulfill a different goal (depends on your WIP). The win will feel so much more satisfying and deserved. If you want to learn more about this, try looking up ‘Mary Sue Characters.’

Not every sidecharacter has to like the MC for the MC to be a likeable character. This is also a trait that belongs to a Mary Sue character. Maybe there are one, two or more side characters who dislike your MC. This won’t make the reader dislike them as well. It actually might make it easier for the reader to root for them.

Give the MC their own goals. This especially applies to stories where the MC is a heroic character, fighting injustice and/or crime. We all understand they are the good guy, who sees evil in the world and wants to stop it. But what about them? What do they want in life? Before they had to save the world, they had a life of their own. Friends, family, relationships. A dream they were pursuing? And hobbies! Also something I’ve talked about before. What do they like to do in their free time? Are they passionate about art and doodle little things everywhere, or enjoy visiting museums? Anything is possible here. Giving your MC hobbies/goals adds some extra layer to their character and makes them feel more real.

I hope this was helpful for you! I really enjoy making these for my few followers haha :))) Good luck writing!

[transxfiles]

to all my writer friends out there.

[willowsilverpine]

Foreshadowing Part 2

You guys really seemed to like my post on foreshadowing, so here’s some more examples:

Is your main character part of a prophecy? Are they the Chosen One? The Savior? When they first hear their prophecy, they might be surprised. But it shouldn’t come as a total surprise to your reader. Find subtle ways to let the reader know that the MC is important to the plot before telling the prophecy. It’s the character that makes the hero. If the reader doesn’t believe in the MC, a prophecy isn’t going to change that. They have to be rooting for the character from the start. What makes a character “worthy”? It’s not magical powers or epic sword-fighting skills. It’s the character’s mentality, personality and motivation. What are they like? What are their most prominent character traits? And, what drives them to do the things they do? Give your reader reasons to believe that your character has what it takes to fulfill their destiny.

Do your characters have to fight? Fight scenes are fun to write and read, but where did your characters get those skills? They get attacked by bandits, who have been robbing people for years, and your young, innocent, untrained characters manage to beat them up with ease. What? It’s ok for your characters to fail. Let them get beaten, let them fall. Let them learn from their mistakes. Unless it is part of your story, they don’t learn how to wield a sword in one day. You want your characters to defeat an army at the end of your book? Before that, show the reader how they struggled. Show how they trained, how they failed and got hurt, and how they improved their skills. It makes the end of your story more fulfilling to read, it feels like the characters really earned their victory.

[macrolit]

Giveaway Contest: We’re giving away fifteen paperback classics featuring F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Agatha Christie, J.D. Salinger, Daphne du Maurier, Friedrich Nietzsche, and others! Won’t this collection look lovely on your shelf? :D To win these classics, you must: 1) be following macrolit on Tumblr (yes, we will check. :P), and 2) reblog this post. We will choose a random winner on July 12, at which time we’ll start a new giveaway. And yes, we’ll ship to any country. Easy, right? Good luck! Follow macrolit.books to qualify for our ig giveway. 📚

[willowsilverpine]

Some things you might forget about when creating a new character:

How do they talk? Everyone talks differently, and I am not talking about accents or a stutter. In what tone do they speak? What words do they use a lot? Are they big chatters or are they quiet? Do they interrupt people regularly? Or are they not very talkative and mostly listen?

How does the character behave when nothing is happening? You’ve probably figured out what they are like when in danger, but what when all is quiet and they aren’t doing anything life-threatening? Are they comfortable and calm, can they sit still, enjoy the singing of birds or read a nice book? Or are they restless, jumpy, always expecting something horrible about to happen? Do they chat, do they like to take a nap, or, do they have a hobby? This is one that is often overlooked. When not saving the world, what does your character do to pass time. Play sports, play chess, do something creative, go out and party. Anything is possible.

Does your character have a pet peeve? Many people have one. Slow walkers, loud chewers, noisy people, dog ears in books, wrinkled shirts, bad breath, messy hair, bad smell, dust, etc.

It’s useful to know your characters favourites. Favourite animals, favourite smells, favourite clothing, favourite food. It depends on your story which ones are relevant, but these apply to almost any genre. It’s always important wether your character prefers to wear dresses, a pair of jeans, or maybe likes both.

I’m pretty sure you’ve figured out your characters greatest fear. But what about something smaller? Something they find creepy or disgusting? Like mice, spiders, bats, or wasps. A traumatic event as a kid that made them scared of horses, birds or dogs. Abandoned parking lots, a 24/7 store at 3am, a dark alley at night, thunderstorms, being alone in the woods. Flickering lights, creaking doors, portraits in a dark hallway that seem to follow them with their eyes. Little things that manage to freak them out. This way your character can be scared, without them having to face their greatest fear.

[slothwrter]

THINGS WRITERS NEED TO HEAR

you are allowed to take a break. you don’t have to write if you don’t feel like it.

everyone has their own pace. it doesn’t matter if you writer one page or ten pages a day, you are still a writer.

your first draft is going to suck. every first draft or every book has sucked. i’ll get better and better as you edit. that’s what editing is for, making your work actually good.

experiment. try out new routines, new styles, new genres. it’ll never harm you. you’ll gain experience and become a better writer. you’ll understand what suits you and what doesn’t.

you don’t need publishing to be a writer. publishing is just an option but if you don’t want to you can just keep your writing to yourself.

if you write, then you’re a writer. no matter how much experience you have, what genre you write, if you are published or not. you are a writer.

everyone is different. everyone has a different style so find your own and rock it. search for inspiration but ultimately focus on what allows you to express your ideas in the best way possible.

you are doing great. no matter how productive you are, how much you’ve written, how fast you write. you are gonna achieve your goal and it’s gonna feel so good.

[willowsilverpine]

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is how you make sure the plot twists in your WIP make sense to the reader. Some examples:

A character is shown (for example) questioning the motives and goals of their ‘side’ before betraying their side. Unless it fits the character, they don’t betray their loved ones for no reason.

Before succumbing to an old injury, a character first shows symptoms matching their injury. They don’t collapse out of nowhere. They can experience e.a. nausea, aches, dizzyness, etc. (not sure if this counts as foreshadowing, but still)

If a side character is suffering from a terminal illness and dies because of it at the end of your book, it shouldn’t come as a total surprise. Not all readers will notice, but you should work this into your story. Cancels plans on short notice without an explanation, pale faces, flinching, a container with pills next to their bed. Whatever you want, whatever matches the disease. You can make this as discrete as you want. What I enjoy, is when a proofreader says they didn’t notice something throughout the story. But when they reached the plottwist, they facepalmed and thought: how did I not see that?

[hundredyearspublishing]

The worse the explanation, the better.

[ironwoman359]

If Roman talked about his feelings more we wouldn’t be in this mess.

[northern-borealis]

T'Challa and Sam need to get their shit together.

[teacupfulofstarshine]

logan is That Kid ™ and his parents and brothers are done with his bullshit

[vanilla-bean-buttercream]

What happens when you give two people who love fun and have no regrets duct tape?

[what-even-is-thiss]

Lonely fairy man steals a battery

[katesattic]

Picani says stuff.

[gloomy-goober]

Everyone is having a terrible time, except Deciet who has cheetos.

[ivyforrestt]

The god of chaos fucks around with some teenagers having the WORST three weeks of their lives

[icyanz]

Internet explorer scientist man salty over his ex boyfriend and meets a literal fucking demon scientist and falls in love

[acorn-treess-deactivated2026052]

local frosty guy is an angry wreck who wants a redemption arc but everyone(especiallythatonegingermidget)hates him

[berrytuft]

Lesbian doctor stresses over her adopted brother for 100 pages

[hyenamawz]

Someones robot furry butler needs to get help

[validwoffantribes]

your meme boi pal can’t save your girlfriend.

[fortunatelyimpossiblecolor-deac]

a lab-created hybrid accidentally made her sister salty and now the world is in danger

[sa-lt-ys]

Turns out the monarchy likes being burned.

[mylifecantgetanyworsereally]

Turns out we weren’t able to think this through

[readeatfightlove13]

A husband casually making puns, force feeding his husband and almost getting hut by a frying pan is a normal day, what do you mean its insane?

[ironwoman359]

Man accidentally reveals he is a freak, is offered a new job with exciting travel opportunities. 

[ask-agent-sanders-archive-blog]

^^That’s this story, y’all

[sack-the-kitsune]

Gay bois and ones in a dress and things are cute and weird and angst, sometimes all in one

[randomslasher]

I’m really into this 80s ballad and it will manifest itself in schmoopy fic one day

[sketchynebula]

There’s a certain point you can’t say hello anymore without it being awkward and Logan really needs to learn how to open doors.

[sporkkles-irl]

Homeless gays get adopted by a caterpillar, and it gets angsty

[magicallygrimmwiccan]

Newly-born tree demon confused about Gay Feelings and trying to figure out his powers while failing miserably

[maple-keenes]

remus just REALLY wants to fuck a scientist

[demiboyinahauntedattic]

A bunch of queer idiots take down a soul sucking government and become royalty I guess

[romansleftshoulderpad]

Fellas, is it gay for you and your three homies to get possessed by a group of old gods?

[romansleftshoulderpad]

Lmao has anyone realized this is about WCBI yet

[i-will-physically-fight-you]

Man finds out his adopted parents acquired him through illegal means

[kys0g0i]

Relationships suck and so do you

[fangirltothefullest]

It’s technically not kidnapping if they’re elves and you’re lonely, right?

[sweetest-honeybee]

Damn ass rich white boy wanders into sci fi horror series

[book-of-charlie]

Twins reunite and deal with some long held emotional issues from their past.

[northern-borealis]

She’s half them and half the other them, but her best friend is all of the enemy, and literally no one trusts him except for her.

[jynxlovesluck]

Retired Fae Theif walks into danger because he’s gay for Dwarf King. Chaos ensues

[skeletonmaster69]

Emo, Rat and Tired Dad work together to defeat Bad Dad and save Nerd and Theater Gay, possibly helped by Coffee, Tired, Pastel, What-the-fuck-is-going-on, and That Old Guy Nobody Really Knows.

[aceofthefandoms]

Family cinnamon roll is rescued from being tortured by evil dad after tired older brother decks him and kidnaps her and dramatic bro

[verminviscount]

if these two idiots would TALK TO EACH OTHER about their FEELINGS this story would be DRASTICALLY shorter

[bfire92]

University students get depressed and go missing. The reason - octopi.

[lifeofroos]

Librerian girl tries to deliver books in the multiverse while she tries to go to school and dodge the weird proffesor in the basement.

[willowsilverpine]

Dumbass fucks all the shit up, starts a war, feels guilty about it, fucks up even worse. Than kidnaps someones baby and his future gf and starts another war

[nikaalexandra]

OKAY SIT DOWN SHUT UP, WE’RE GONNA TALK COLORS

THIS IS SAPPHIRE

THIS IS TEAL

THIS IS PERIWINKLE

THIS IS AZURE

 AND THIS IS TURQUOISE

WONDER WHY THOSE ALL DON’T LOOK LIKE THE SAME COLOR? BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT 

OTHER THAN BEING PART OF THE SAME FAMILY OF BLUES, THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME FUCKING COLOR! WHY WOULD THEY ALL BE THE SAME FUCKING COLOR! DO YOU THINK WE JUST NAME NEW COLORS FOR KICKS!?!?!?

WHEN DESCRIBING A CHARACTER’S GOD FORSAKEN EYE COLOR, PICK ONE YA GODDAMN HIPPIE

[sohnderleere-deactivated2018072]

As someone who is colourblind this post is fucking hilarious because they are in fact all the same fucking colour

[astra1323]

And THIS is cruel @sad-catboy-hours lol

[dour-catboy-hours]

I’m mystified. How could this be cruel?

[astra1323]

They’re all blue.

[dour-catboy-hours]

Just like you. RIP

[willowsilverpine]

I painted the my calculator case💖✨

[willowsilverpine]

Rest in peace my sweet boy 😔❤️

[willowsilverpine]

Fantasy horse drawing✨ I‘m pretty proud on how it turned out.

I have drawn a lot of horses the past few years so I think I’ll focus on drawing other animals. I‘m working on a snake and a squirrel sooo