Writes when bored

Writes prompts, headcanons , occasionally fanfiction Also posts various writing tips , ideas I find useful

[s-graves-writes]

Character Tip

Realistic characters have contradictions. Exceptions to rules. Maybe they’re mostly nonviolent, but they’ll punch you if you insult their friend. Maybe they’re afraid of spiders, but aren’t afraid to kill a spider for their younger sibling.

In short, don’t be afraid to have characters who can’t be defined by a character fact sheet. 

[totallynottherealalliprince]

Dialogue prompt

“He has something to tell you.” 

“I-I really don’t.” 

[writingdotcoffee]

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Epictetus (via writingdotcoffee)

[ljooheonie]

Eyes, Skin, Face, Hair, Build: Character physical descriptions.

Eyes – General

large, small, narrow

sharp, squinty, round

wide-set, close-set, deep-set

sunken, bulging, protruding

wide, hooded, heavy-lidded

bright, sparkling, glittering

flecked, dull, bleary

rheumy, cloudy, red-rimmed

beady, birdlike cat-like

jewel-like, steely, hard

fringed with long lashes, with sweeping eyelashes, with thick eyelashes

Eyes – Color

chestnut, chocolate brown, cocoa brown

coffee brown, mocha, mahogany

sepia, sienna brown, mink brown

copper, amber, cognac

whiskey, brandy, honey

tawny, topaz, hazel, obsidian

onyx, coal, raven, midnight, sky blue, sunny blue

cornflower blue, steel blue, ice blue

Arctic blue, glacial blue, crystal blue

cerulean, electric blue, azure

lake blue, aquamarine, turquoise

denim blue, slate blue / slate gray, storm blue / storm gray

silver / silver gray, chrome, platinum, pewter

smoky gray, ash gray, concrete gray, dove gray

shark gray, fog gray, gunmetal gray, olive

emerald, leaf green, moss green

Eyebrows

arched, straight, plucked, sparse

trim, dark, faint, thin, thick, unruly

bushy, heavy

Skin – Color

amber, bronze, cinnamon

copper, dark brown, deep brown

ebony, honey, golden

pale, pallid, pasty

fair, light, cream / creamy

alabaster, ivory, bisque

milk, porcelain, chalky

sallow, olive, peach

rose / rosy, ruddy, florid

russet, tawny, fawn

Skin – General

lined, wrinkled, seamed

leathery, sagging, drooping

loose, clear, smooth

silken, satiny, dry

flaky, scaly, delicate

thin, translucent, luminescent

baby-soft, flawless, poreless

with large pores, glowing, dewy

dull, velvety, fuzzy

rough, uneven, mottled

dimpled, doughy, firm

freckled, pimply, pockmarked

blemished, pitted, scarred

bruised, veined, scratched

sunburned, weather-beaten, raw

tattooed

Face – Structure

square, round, oblong

oval, elongated, narrow

heart-shaped, catlike, wolfish

high forehead, broad forehea, prominent brow ridge

protruding brow bone, sharp cheekbones, high cheekbones

angular cheekbones, hollow cheeks, square jaw

chiseled, sculpted, craggy

soft, jowly, jutting chin

pointed chin, weak chin, receding chin

double chin, cleft chin, dimple in chin

visible Adam’s apple

Nose

snub, dainty, button

turned-up, long, broad

thin, straight, pointed

crooked, aquiline, Roman

bulbous, flared, hawk, strong

Mouth/Lips

thin, narrow, full

lush, Cupid’s bow, rosebud

dry, cracked, chapped

moist, glossy, straight teeth

gap between teeth, gleaming white teeth, overbite

underbite

Facial Hair 

clean-shaven

smooth-shaven

beard

neckbeard

goatee

moustache

sideburns

mutton-chop sideburns

stubble

a few days’ growth of beard

five o’ clock shadow

Hair – General

I threw a few hairstyles in here, though not many.

long, short, shoulder-length

loose, limp, dull

shiny, glossy, sleek

smooth, luminous, lustrous, spiky

stringy, shaggy, tangled

messy, tousled, windblown

unkempt, bedhead, straggly

neatly combed, parted, slicked down / slicked back

cropped, clipped, buzzed / buzz cut

crewcut, bob, mullet

curly, bushy, frizzy

wavy, straight, lanky

dry, oily, greasy

layers, corkscrews, spirals

ringlets, braids, widow’s peak

bald, shaved, comb-over, afro

thick, luxuriant, voluminous

full, wild, untamed

bouncy, wispy, fine, thinning

Hair – Color

black, blue-black, jet black

raven, ebony, inky black

midnight, sable, salt and pepper

silver / silver gray, charcoal gray, steel gray

white, snow-white, brown

brunette, chocolate brown, coffee brown

ash brown, brown sugar, nut brown

caramel, tawny brown, toffee brown

red, ginger, auburn, Titian-haired

copper, strawberry blonde, butterscotch

honey, wheat, blonde

golden, sandy blond, flaxen

fair-haired, bleached, platinum

Body Type – General

tall, average height, short

petite, tiny, compact

big, large, burly

beefy, bulky, brawny

barrel-chested, heavy / heavy-set, fat

overweight, obese, flabby

chunky, chubby, pudgy

pot-bellied, portly thick

stout, lush, plush

full-figured, ample, rounded

generous, voluptuous, curvy

hourglass, plump, leggy / long-legged

gangling, lanky, coltish

lissome, willowy, lithe

lean, slim, slender

trim, thin, skinny

emaciated, gaunt, bony

spare, solid, stocky

wiry, rangy, sinewy

stringy, ropy

[its-just-a-writers-thing]

Writing Prompt #39

“Why are you so mean to me all the time?!”

“Never came to your mind that that’s because I hate you?”

[the-modern-typewriter]

“Oh, by the way, you’re drinking poison.”

The protagonist spat, retching, and their enemy smirked. “You couldn’t have told me that before I started drinking!?”

“It’s not my fault you’re too stupid to check before you drink things. I promised to keep you alive, not spare you pain,” their enemy shrugged. “There’s an antidote in my bag. You’ll probably experience stomach cramps for a few hours. Possibly vomiting.”

“You put poison in my drink.”

“Of course I didn’t, we need to investigate this security breach. But I can still find it entertaining.” They fished the antidote out as the protagonist began to shudder. “Bottoms up.”

[writingdotcoffee]

The most basic rule of editing is that if you can’t bear to read it, no one else can either. So when you find yourself skimming, commit murder.

Marion Roach Smith (via writingdotcoffee)

[writeastorywhere]

Good idea when you’re editing: READ IT ALOUD. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve missed something when editing silently and then caught it reading aloud. Plus it helps when figuring out the flow of dialogue and eliminating unnecessary words/phrases/sentences. 

[heywriters]

Cut the Clutter. Sound Legit.

Trimming your writing has the benefit of getting your point across to readers without using stuffy sentences and filler phrases. Those are the training wheels of beginning writers, but seasoned professionals can pick them out easily. 

One such weakness to cut from your writing so it sounds more professional is the word “give.” Here are some examples taken from my own writing.

Example 1:

Original - She gives me an appraising look as I enter the room.

Revision - She appraises me as I enter the room. 

Example 2:

Original - She gives a long tired sigh, but smiles at the end of it.

Revision - Her tired sigh ends with a smile.

The meaning stays the same, but less time is needed to read and understand the sentence when that awkward “give” is taken out. Unfortunately for me, both of these examples came from the same scene, making a scene that should last only a few seconds take longer than that to read through.

[mysharona1987]

The one thing that puts me off writing a novel.

I will never, ever come up with a book foreword as good as this. 

[auroraphilealis]

have any tips on how to write mental illnesses that you don't have? Thank you!

Well, in my case I always do a lot of research! I try and get a really good understanding of the illness outside of stereotypes and misconceptions that already riddle the media. I’ve found that the best way to do this is to talk to someone who actually has the illness (if they’re willing to talk about it) and do your best to ask questions respectfully. There’s no shame in asking an obvious or “dumb” question, so long as you are asking it purely out of a desire to educate yourself. People only really get offended if they feel like you’re mocking them or accusing them of being a stereotype, you know?

But if you don’t have anyone who has the illness, I find that researching on MULTIPLE sights is a really good idea. Try to find some recommendation of media that portrays it WELL so you can get a good idea of it, and then try and read about different experiences people have had with that illness, that way you don’t fall into talking about things that not everyone experiences, you know?

Mostly, its about educating yourself, and trying to empathize. I’m a big empathizer by nature, so I’m usually pretty good at it, even though I recognize that I can never truly understand that experience if I haven’t had it myself. I think that’s the most important part, remembering that can’t fully understand it. So just… don’t try and pretend that you’re an expert on it, because even those who have it aren’t an expert, because everyone has a different experience with it, but also because you aren’t experiencing it first hand. That doesn’t mean you can’t write it well, it just means theres always room for improvement!

[writingforpassingtime]

The Mortal Instruments Headcanon #2

Every year on pride month shadowhunters have their own parade in Idris. Alec and Magnus attend every year both walking at the front of the parade with Max and Raphael

[writingforpassingtime]

Jim:Bones I screwed up big time.

Bones:Giving your daily life experiences your going to have to me more specific

[discourseful]

How to Write (and how not to write) LGBT characters

I saw a post earlier about writing LGBT characters that I hated a lot so here’s my take, as a non-binary lesbian and as a writer, on tips on how to write/not write LGBT characters.

A couple notes:

1) First and foremost, if you’re not LGBT, you need to talk to actual LGBT people about your characters. Seeing posts like this aren’t going to Cure you of any internalized homophobic or transphobic ideas that you might have, and LGBT people can point out problematic aspects that you wouldn’t realize could hurt LGBT people. Even if you ARE LGBT, be conscious of writing identities you can’t personally relate to. If you’re not a trans lesbian and want to write about one, talk to trans lesbians.

2) Going off of this… not all LGBT people agree on everything. (Hence why i’m writing this post in the first place!) However, if you have MANY LGBT people saying something you’re writing is problematic, don’t dismiss it just because one person disagreed. This is also why it’s good to talk to multiple LGBT people, not just one, about your characters.

The Actual Tips:

1) Writing feminine gay men and masculine lesbians… is not a bad thing, so long as you do this respectfully. This is something I see being toted as a “NEVER, EVER DO THIS”, and that’s blatantly wrong. Butch lesbians and feminine men exist, and deserve representation. If you have one lesbian character who’s masculine, predatory, objectifies women, etc, yeah, that’s a problem- but you’re capable of writing gay characters without doing this. (And if you’re not… don’t write gay characters!) Edit (anon suggestion): Not all mlm characters are “smol beans”, either- there are lots of masculine mlm who need representation too.

2) Gay people have gay friends. Unless they literally have no friends at all, we tend to have gay friends. Even if they’re in the deep south and are deeply closeted, they *probably still know another gay person*.

3) Don’t write the GBF trope. Literally just don’t.

4) Give your LGBT characters personalities just like you would cishet ones. Give them quirks and fears and goals like anyone else. BUT, this doesn’t mean “don’t overdo telling people your character is gay!!!”, because that’s another thing I see said a lot (primarily by cishets). LGBT people talk about being LGBT, especially around other LGBT people. A lot of us LIKE to joke about how gay we are or jokingly call inconvenient things homophobia. You can make them developed characters without totally ignoring their identity altogether. (This, though, is still another thing to be done sensitively, as with writing ‘stereotypical’ characters.)

5) Don’t write trans characters using ace bandages unless you’re making it explicitly clear how harmful this is. Please. Yes, this happens IRL, but this is a form of harmful representation that can perpetuate trans people injuring themselves through unsafe binding. (And you can find afab trans people to ask about other forms of bonding if you really can’t figure out some other way to write this.)

6) Additionally, a lot of trans people don’t just pass automatically if they bind once or cut their hair or wear a wig or put on makeup. (Unless they haven’t hit puberty yet.) I have trans friends who have been presenting as their gender for years and are still misgendered. I’ve read a number of books where a trans guy puts his Long Hair in a hat and binds and then suddenly everyone genders him correctly. This isn’t the reality for a lot of trans people. We get misgendered by our family, by friends, and constantly by total strangers. And if misgendering is a factor of our dysphoria, it *hurts*.

7) Unless you have a lot of LGBT characters, don’t make your villain LGBT. Consider WHY the hell you feel the need to make your evil character(s) gay or trans. Even IF you have a lot of LGBT characters, you should still think about why making someone who we are meant to root against and hope gets defeated into a LGBT character is so important to you.

I’ll probably add on to this later because I have a lot of thoughts on this, but other LGBT people feel free to add on as well!

[lets-get-fictional]

Hey, do you have any tips for how to write the first chapter or at least the beginning of a chapter? I'm just so bad at this. The rest would come to me If I just know how to begin

Hi, love!  Thanks for your question and for your patience :)

So writing a first chapter is basically a two-party process: brainstorming a few different ideas, and deciding which suit the purpose of introducing your story.  The second part is the one that always gets me – because no matter how many possibilities there are, I worry about which one is the best for the purpose.

So that’s what I’m going to outline here.  What should be the criteria for a first chapter?

A feel of the setting.  As soon as a reader opens the first page, they need to be immersed in your world, no matter how significant the setting is to the story.  If you’re bouncing between ideas, pick a setting with strong imagery and sensory details.  It helps to take the primary emotion of the scene (e.g. if a character is being chased, the primary emotion would be fear) and use it to color the scenery (wind/rain/thunder, darkness) and sensations (flashes of color, conversations blurring together, heart pounding, panting).  These will tie your theme together and draw your reader in, as well as inspiring empathy for the POV character.

Information about the main character.  Don’t see this and jump to infodumping, though – no one cares about your character’s MBTI at chapter one.  But they do want something to let them know who they’re dealing with.  Take a predominant trait and let us see it and feel it throughout that first chapter, so we feel like we’ve learned something.  It’s like when you meet someone at a party!  If they share too much, you’re uncomfortable; if they share too little, they’re just “that person whose name I forgot.”  But, if they’re that guy with the big hat, or that girl who kept shouting “You communist!”, then it’s a lot easier to remember their name is Sam.

Something obscured from the reader’s view.  Your first chapter risks functioning as a short story, or “that interesting book I started but forgot about,” if there isn’t incentive to keep reading.  You need to answer a lot of questions, of course, but you have to leave a few unanswered.  Take the mystery of your plot (and if you don’t have one, that’s another ask entirely) and drop us right into it – even if it’s something small.

A taste of what the story will be.  The first chapter should be interesting, exciting, yes – but it should represent what the story is, so think about the whole story for a minute.  What’s the genre?  Who are the key characters?  What’s the arc and the plot that we need to look for?  It’s like a first date – you want to look good, of course, but if you misrepresent yourself, the relationship won’t last. Let the readers hear your author’s voice, loud and clear, and let them know what to expect from here out.

Stakes, stakes, and more stakes.  Mystery is one thing.  Not knowing what might get you is one very good thing.  But knowing for certain that something is out there – something bad is going to happen and it’s only a matter of time – will turn pages for you.  Even if we don’t know exactly who the character is or what they’re facing, let us feel that nervousness of, “What if she does this?  “What if he doesn’t get there in time?”  “What if he never breaks up with that girl?”  Otherwise, you’re advertising a merry-go-round, and that’s never as popular as a rollercoaster.  I know that from Rollercoaster Tycoon too.  Seriously, merry-go-rounds make garbage money.

So when planning your first chapter, consider these aspects and narrow down your ideas.  That way, when you know you’ve planned well, you can feel confident to get started!

If this doesn’t answer your question, be sure to let us know!  I hope this helps :)

- Mod Joanna ♥️

If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!

[writingforpassingtime]

Character A: Why did I fall in love with the King/Queen of bad decisions?

Character B: Because I look really good in hot pants. Anymore questions?

Character A: Nope.

[writingforpassingtime]

Rewatching Into the Darkness I noticed that Bones and Uhura were very close, not relationship wise but friend wise . Bones refers to Uhura by name and when Bones nearly got blown up she was supper worried like tears worried. I never really thought of them being friends but now thinking about it imagine them sitting in the mess room talking about the the latest stunt Jim pulled , complaining and worrying about him at the same time. Complaining about Spock when he gets to logical.