hey writers, is it a #relatablewritersthing where you’re reading a book / watching a show/movie and try to predict what might happen next but the plot twist you formulate in your mind is so good that you end up praying it doesn’t actually happen so that you can use it yourself..?

or is that just me?

me starting a new book series: from years of experience and a general underdstanding that interesting plots don’t have happy endings, I know that some or many characters are going to die throughout the series and that I’m just going to have to accept that, because I also know that if there were no deaths then the books would be highly unrealistic and I’d stop enjoying them

favourite character:*dies*

me: *flipping a table* oKAY BUT DID IT HAVE TO BE THISONE?!?

kaylapocalypse:

Actually

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive
2. Fear: Major and Secondary
3. Physical Desires
4. Style of self expression
5. How they express affection
6. What controls them (what they are weak for)
7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it.

2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4.

3.Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially? 

5. How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they rejectsacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7.WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

They start to breathe.

This is an excellent resource (that I will now be using) for not only writing original character but fanfiction, too. Getting the characters right is always a little tricky especially if it’s something you haven’t experienced/written yet or if it’s just a tough character to work with and write properly.

authorinmyhead:

yourlocalwriterblog:

Some genres shy away from antagonists that take the form of a person or physical being. Adult contemporary especially tends to focus on internal antagonism. Side antagonists can be found in all types of stories, though, and they don’t all have to be a person. It’s good to mix it up and keep it interesting!

Here are examples of metaphorical antagonists:

• Self-doubt
  
• Mental illness
  
• Grief
• Impulsive/risky behavior
• Nature/Weather/Natural disasters
• Physical illness
• Poverty, Bills, and Debt
• Insecurity
• Family legacy
• Laws, Rules, and Protocol
• Monotony 
• Soul-crushing job
• School
• Loveless relationship
• Aloneness/Isolation
• Lack of resources
• Night time (or day time)

Feel free to add more!

Кръстословици

Оставяше ги винаги недовършени.

Изписваше само най-лесните думи

и когато станеше сложно я затваряше

и взимаше нова.

Точно както постъпи с мен

и с любовта ни.

Остави ни недовършени.

-Л.Л.

jhelenivarsimae:

I was tagged by @effervescentdragon !!! Thanks hun!

Rules: write the latest line from a wip and tag as many people as there are words in the line. Make a new post!

“Ai, Galdor,” she sighed fondly. “Must you be so cruel to yourself? Who has blinded you so badly that you cannot see that you are loved? That you are wanted and needed?”

Ugh I’m breaking my heart over this again

Tagging:@yellow-feathered-faerie@burning-quesadilla@werian-wintertid@thedaughterofshadows@thepinkseat-askthemoonbunny AND WHOEVER ELSE WANTS TO

Thank you very much to the awesome @jhelenivarsimae for tagging me in this! Couldn’t reply earlier cuz I was at work but…

“You’re a diamond, Mary.”

“Huh?”

“Unbreakable. I mean the things you’ve been through, a lesser person would’ve unalived themselves by now…”

“They’re not lesser. People have different mental thresholds, when a soldier falls in battle we rightfully honor him. But when that battle is against principalities and powers, we call him weak and deny him burial when we’re supposed to be soldiers of God ourselves? That’s hardly fair.”

I don’t really know who to tag in this tbh, but they’ll be here once I remember!

A Guide to Slashing Word Count

A while back, I posted a compilation of advice that I’d received from other writers before trying to cut down my 120,000 word YA fantasy manuscript. Six months later, it’s at 100,000 – a far more acceptable number. It was a brutal task, but a necessary one and I’m here to share the key strategies that helped me cut the big chunks:

• Cut Characters – Big cast? Remove subplot-only bois and mains who either don’t influence the plot or whose role could be carried out by another.
• Cut Scenes – If they don’t directly advance the plot, cut completely. If they serve some purpose, try merging scenes to reduce intro/outro/location content. One long scene is shorter than two short scenes.
• Reduce Locations – Within a chapter, visit as few locations as possible to avoid extra descriptions. This is also relevant across the book, as you won’t need to go into detail about a location more than once.
• Cut Pre Scene and Post Scene – This can either be by starting the scene later (getting straight to the point) and ending it earlier or condensing the pre and post scene content. As a rule of thumb, a pre-scene should be 500 max.
• Have Clear Motivations – If your characters’ motivations are too complex, explaining/showing them will take up too much space. Nuance can grow over time.
• Get to the Heart of Your Story – Carrying on from the last point, maybe try writing a pitch and synopsis so that you better understand what’s at the heart of your story, that way you can whittle down anything outside of that with the brutality needed for reducing word count.

Now, go forth and kill your darlings!

Then come back for part 2 where I’ll be talking about the line-level (micro) cuts that really do add up!

Tips for New Writers

After some time off to finish uni and recover, the writing tips are back! I had some requests for this post so whether you’re new to writing or looking to start, here are my top tips.

1. Start a Passion Project

If you’re hung up over your first story getting published, you’ll start to hate it. Your first project should be something you love enough to finish it for you. I honestly recommend fanfiction as it’s a great way to get early feedback and become used to critique, but an own story is just as good as long as you join a critique group.

2. Join a Writing Community

Whether that’s on Instagram, Tumblr, a real-life society, or somewhere else entirely, there are many reasons to join the writer’s community with a platform of your own. It’s the best way to find Critique Partners (CPs), Beta Readers, as well as a wealth of tips that will improve your writing.

3. Explore Planning Methods

You’ll need to use trial and error to decide what works best for you. Try fully outlining, diving straight in, Beat Sheets, Flash Cards, Ten Steps Ahead, or even just making lists of what you want to show. One will work for you, but it’s different for everyone.

4.Write

Write as often as you can. Nothing makes writing stronger than practice. It doesn’t have to be “good” or neat or pretty, but words should go on the page. Don’t let your insecurities keep you from filling that blank page.

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Looking to develop your villain further? Trying to build a villain for the first time?  Look no further for here is a simple guide to building a fearsome villain for your story. Disclaimer: I’m a fantasy writer, this will be fantasy based. 

Step 1: Choose a Motivation

While this can be anything, some common motivations are: Power, Legacy, Revenge, Respect, Protectionism, Hate, Love, Indifference, Drive for Utopia, and Infliction of Pain. Now you might be thinking I can understand why the last one is villainous, but some of the others seem okay! Remember, a villains motivations should be understandable, and their goals can be noble, but it is the means that make them “bad.”

Step 2: Decide if They Really are “Bad” 

Despite my previous statement, some villains are just trying to achieve noble goals by noble means. This is actually a really good way to get your audience thinking about your theme if it ties in well. The flipside of this is my personal favourite – make the heroes bad too. 

Step 3: Design Their Personality 

There are a few traits you’ll want to consider in particular and in the extremes. Make sure to chose the side that your hero will struggle with more. Villains should be handcrafted challengers, designed to ruin your hero. 

• Intelligence vs Stupidity - A villain who can scheme intricate plots is terrifying, but extreme stupidity leads to recklessness and unpredictability, good for control freak heroes. 
• Short Temper vs Controlled Emotions - Short tempered villains are a threat to anyone close to them, while those that can control their emotions can be highly manipulative. 
• Calculated vs Irrational - This again leans into the trade off between the unbeatable factor and the unpredictability factor. Both are equally fearsome.
• Charismatic vs Black Seep – Why do their followers believe in them? Is it because they can talk the hind legs off a donkey or was your villain an outcast come to take their revenge. 

Don’t underestimate the stupid, short tempered, irrational black sheep. They often have intelligent advisors pulling their strings while their stupidity causes chaos like no other. 

Step 4: Ask Yourself Why? 

Not just Why did my villain set out on this path? orWhy don’t they see the harm they’re causing? but also Why have I reached the end of a post specifically using ‘they’ pronouns and imagine a white man with black hair and dark eyes? Because many of you will have done just that, particularly for the intelligent, manipulative villain with more power than you could ever imagine. Ask yourself why intelligent, charismatic villains with goals outside of revenge and love need always be a man. Some villains are just heroes who don’t understood the cost of their actions. Ask yourself why they shouldn’t be diverse and stereotypical caricatures. 

This post is quite long enough. I reckon I’ll do a part 2 if you guys like it :) 

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We’ve all been there. Some people have it all the time. Some say it doesn’t exist. I class writer’s block as anything from lack of motivation to not being able to solve a plot problem. Whatever it is, here’s a list of activities to try and get those creative rivers running. 

1. Move. Pick up your laptop and go to a different room. They say a change is as good as a rest and this can be true with writing. Move to the kitchen. Write outside. Go to a coffee shop. Sit in the cupboard under the stairs and block out the world. Just change up the scenery. 
2. Swap Medium. If words just aren’t doing it for you make aesthetics, mood boards, draw maps or characters. Victoria Aveyard once said she designed book covers and let the plot stew in the back of her mind. 
3. Write Something Else. Working on other projects can give you inspiration for what you’re working on now. Find some prompts. Write irrelevant short stories or character studies. Write about your characters as kids or at defining points in their lives. 
4. Plot. Hands off the keyboard, open up one of those many unused notebooks I know you have and start scribbling vague, half formed ideas. Allow yourself to write things you might discard later. Allow yourself to try and work through an idea you like but don’t understand yet. Try and work out the next 10 steps. 10 things you want to cover. 10 scenes. 10 days. Whatever it is, just write it down. 
5. 20 Minutes Rule. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Sit your butt down in that chair and write for 20 minutes. I don’t care if it’s trash. I don’t care if you’re going to delete it all later. I don’t care if it’s nonsense. Do it. 20 minutes of writing nonsense is still more productive than 20 minutes staring at that wall. After 20 minutes if you still don’t want to write, leave it, but you just might find yourself inspired. 
6. Finally, Take Time Off. If none of this is working, it’s likely a sign of burn out. Take some time for yourself and just do nothing. “Write every single day,” yeah sure if you wont to be a machine who pumps out words instead of art. Sometimes you need to recharge before you move forward and that doesn’t just mean getting a good nights sleep. Look after yourself and be kind. This isn’t a race against the clock, you have your whole life to publish a book. 

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Writing The Climax

So you’ve reached the final (metaphorical or literal) battle at the end of the book. All the groundwork has been laid and it all leads to this. Sounds sort of terrifying doesn’t it? 

Well, it doesn’t need to! As with everything in writing, there are structures that can be used and things to keep in mind. 

The Structure

Step 1: Make the Plan - Whether your MC is inciting the climax or whether it comes to them, they still need to think of a plan. Before entering act 3, your MC will likely have had an ‘all is lost’ moment where everything went wrong and they had a huge breakdown. They might have some apologising to do, they might need to gather a team, or they simply find the courage in themselves to continue alone. Either way, they need a plan for what to do next. 

Step 2: Execute the Plan - This is exactly what it says on the tin. However, any team members who come should slowly be picked off, killed or separated to ensure the hero can face their struggle alone. These sacrifices will strengthen the hero’s resolve to make that difficult decision or face that challenge coming up. 

Step 3: Expect the Plan to Go off the Rails - This is novel writing, did you really expect the plan to work? Of course it doesn’t! The villain isn’t stupid, they aren’t going to make this easy. They had some surprises in store, surprises that will ruin your heroes plans and require them to finally accept the change and embrace the character development they have been experiencing over the book. 

Step 4: Throw Away the Plan - With the plan in pieces, the hero must think on their feet. This is where every subplot, every foreshadowing scene, every challenge has come to. They must learn the theme, fight against their flaws and take a leap of faith to resolve the problems they face. The reason we have the team fall away is that the hero must make this leap of faith alone, or the reader might feel cheated out of a satisfying ending. 

Step 5: New Plan - No one wants a hero who’s all talk, no action, so let’s see their final stage of new character development put to the test. This can end in success or failure, but if it’s failure, the character development is even more key. It shows that this wasn’t all for nothing; that even though the quest failed, the hero had won in their own way. 

Things to Consider

• Does the climax tie the whole book together in a pretty bow? (though perhaps with some frayed edges) 
• Is your main character the one who had to change for the goal to finally be achieved? If not you might want to think about who your main character should be. 
• What is the price the hero paid?
• Was it too easy?
• Did you end the book right after the climax with no falling action? (Please don’t do this, it’s very unsatisfying) 

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Master List of 60 Character Flaws

1. Absent-Minded
2. Aimless
3. Arrogant
4. Bigoted
5. Blunt
6. Bold
7. Callous
8. Compulsive Liar
9. Cruel
10. Dependent
11. Disloyal
12. Easily Impressionable
13. Emotionally Detached
14. Envious
15. Fickle
16. Greedy
17. Gullible
18. Humourless
19. Ignorant
20. Immature
21. Impatient
22. Indecisive
23. Intolerant
24. Lazy
25. Manipulative
26. Meddlesome
27. Melodramatic
28. Nervous
29. Nosey
30. Obsessive
31. Overambitious
32. Overprotective
33. Pacifism
34. Paranoid
35. Perfectionist*
36. Pessimistic
37. Predictable
38. Prejudiced
39. Prideful
40. Rebellious
41. Reckless
42. Remorseless
43. Sceptic
44. Selfish*
45. Shallow
46. Short temperament
47. Smart-arse
48. Soft-hearted
49. Solemn
50. Spineless
51. Stubborn*
52. Stupid
53. Superstitious
54. Tactless
55. Temperamental
56. Troublemaker
57. Unambitious
58. Vain
59. Weak-willed
60. Withdrawn

* these are frequently overused so if you want them to apply to your character, make sure they have more than one flaw!

However the most important thing about a character flaw is that it MUST work against their goal and they MUST make mistakes because of it. 

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If you’ve been in the writing community for more than five minutes you’ll have heard someone mention beta readers. Beta reader is an umbrella term for people who read your book before publication but are not your agent, editor and publisher. However there are also subgroups of beta readers and it can all get very confusing, so here the low down. 

• Critique Partner (CP) - A CP is another writer at a similar skill level or stage in their writing career to yourself. This is a mutual arrangement where writing and constructive criticism are exchanged on a regular basis. Some writers give a CP each chapter right after its written, but some just send each other first drafts. 
• Alpha Reader - Once you’ve got your CP’s seal of approval, you might be in need of someone to hype you up and make you feel excited about your achievement. This is when you give your writing to a small number of close friends or family (5 max) to read and get feedback on. They probably won’t be too harsh, but that’s what you need at this stage. 
• First Readers - Sometimes used as a synonym for alpha readers, sometimes used to mean beta readers, and sometimes used to mean both. Watch out for this one. 
• Beta Readers - While also being an umbrella term, more specifically beta readers are a small group of people who read your manuscript and provide feedback that will allow you to polish it. Preferably, these are readers who do not have a personal connection to you. While writers are okay too, they might not give you the readers perspective you need. People often do a few rounds of beta reads to ensure they are never overwhelmed with feedback. 
• Advance Readers - You may have also heard the term Advance Reader Copy (ARC) thrown around. Advance readers receive a free e-book or paperback of the manuscript before publication, but after it has been sold to a publisher. Advance readers receive these in exchange for an honest review that publishers hope will be good marketing material. Some things can be changed from ARC’s to published books, but it’s usually very minor. 

And there it is, the five kinds of beta readers. I hope this makes things less confusing and if you’ve heard of any other kinds feel free to explain them below!

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Organic and Natural Characters

We all hate reading characters who feel forced and unnatural, but what can we do to write characters that don’t fall into the trap of acting in line with the plot rather than in an organic way?

The truth is, there is no one way to write natural characters. I did a lot of drama and acting growing up and I find that helps me get into the characters’ heads, but there are many other ways to improve the autonomy of our characters. It’s important to note that this does not just apply to main characters, but to all of your side characters, villains and antagonists as well.

1. Take a Personality Test as Your Character. Taking the 16 personalities test as each of your characters can help you understand how they would react in different situations as it gives a detailed report in how each personality type handles everything from work to romantic relationships. 
2. Give Them a Backstory. For every character, it’s helpful to know how and where they were brought up, what lead them to be part of this book and what their history is with the main character (if they have one). This helps create a character that makes their own decisions, not just ones that benefit the plot, and this makes them feel more real. 
3. Give Them Motivations and Goals. Every character should have their own motivations that are greater than ‘because it’s what their best friend, the main character, wants’. If their motivations and goals differ slightly from the MC’s, all the better and all the more realistic! 
4. Make them flawed. Yes, every single one of your characters needs to be flawed and you should know what their exact flaw is so that you can accurately portray it. This flaw should cause problems for the characters and the plot and it should have a big impact on the story. 
5. Choose their sense of humour. The most vivid characters I’ve read are those with a sense of humour, be that dirty, dark or witty banter, characters who make jokes (even bad ones) are great fun and jump right off the page. 

Hope this helped and feel free to add below! 

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