Writers in the middle of a first draft like:

lizard-is-writing:

Now first, I have to say, that the plot you’re able to come up with in one day is not going to be without its flaws, but coming up with it all at once, the entire story unfolds right in front of you and makes you want to keep going with it. So, where to begin?

• What is your premise and basic plot? Pick your plot. I recommend just pulling one from this list. No plots are “original” so making yours interesting and complicated will easily distract from that fact, that and interesting characters. Characters will be something for you to work on another day, because this is plotting day. You’ll want the main plot to be fairly straight forward, because a confusing main plot will doom you if you want subplots.
  
• Decide who the characters will be. They don’t have to have names at this point. You don’t even need to know who they are other than why they have to be in the story. The more characters there are the more complicated the plot will be. If you intend to have more than one subplot, then you’ll want more characters. Multiple interconnected subplots will give the illusion that the story is very complicated and will give the reader a lot of different things to look at at all times. It also gives you the chance to develop many side characters. The plot I worked out yesterday had 13 characters, all were necessary. Decide their “roles” don’t bother with much else. This seems shallow, but this is plot. Plot is shallow.
  
• Now, decide what drives each character. Why specifically are they in this story? You can make this up. You don’t even know these characters yet. Just so long as everyone has their own motivations, you’re in the clear.
• What aren’t these characters giving away right off the bat? Give them a secret! It doesn’t have to be something that they are actively lying about or trying to hide, just find something that perhaps ties them into the plot or subplot. This is a moment to dig into subplot. This does not need to be at all connected to their drive to be present in the story.  Decide who is in love with who, what did this person do in the 70’s that’s coming back to bite them today, and what continues to haunt what-his-face to this very day. This is where you start to see the characters take shape. Don’t worry much about who they are or what they look like, just focus on what they’re doing to the story.
• What is going to change these characters? Now this will take some thinking. Everyone wants at least a few of the characters to come out changed by the end of the story, so think, how will they be different as a result of the plot/subplot? It might not be plot that changes them, but if you have a lot of characters, a few changes that are worked into the bones of the plot might help you.
• Now list out the major events of the novel with subplot in chronological order. This will be your timeline. Especially list the historical things that you want to exist in backstory. List everything you can think of. Think about where the story is going. At this point, you likely haven’t focused too much on the main plot, yeah, it’s there, but now really focus on the rising actions, how this main plot builds its conflict, then the climactic moment. Make sure you get all of that in there. This might take a few hours.
• Decide where to start writing. This part will take a LOT of thinking. It’s hard! But now that you’ve got the timeline, pick an interesting point to begin at. Something with action. Something relevant. Preferably not at the beginning of your timeline - you want to have huge reveals later on where these important things that happened prior are exposed. This is the point where you think about what information should come out when. This will be a revision of your last list, except instead of being chronological, it exists to build tension.
• Once you’ve gotten the second list done, you’ve got a plot. Does it need work? Probably. But with that said, at this point you probably have no idea who half your characters are. Save that for tomorrow, that too will be a lot of work.

Disclaimer for this post.

theauthorofus:

I find that a rise in LGBT in books, tv, movie etc to be so inspiring an outstanding. I love how people are finally getting the idea that if you want your audience to feel a connection to a character you charter has to be real. A HUGE part of real life is the LGBT community.
  But I dislike when shows and books just throw LGBT characters in there with no development. It is great to see some representation but why is that character gay for like two episodes or the last thirty seconds of a movie.

   When I first started writing LGBT I asked people I knew what it was like and the answer was always different. The only thing all those people had in common was it took time to find that part of themselves. It is so inspiring to hear those stories and to implement them can teach your audience such important lessons about self-discovery. When That story is just thrown in I feel like something great just got thrown out.

ohmightysmiter:

kirby-ebooks:

skaletal:

bluewavelengths:

ladyzolstice:

greyramblings:

filecreator:

crockpotcauldron:

lectorel:

crockpotcauldron:

just looked through about 700 werewolf books, good grief.

most seem to fall into two categories:

• werewolf serial killer mysteries
• domineering alpha romances

neither is really what I’m interested in.

here is what I’d want from the werewolf novel of my wildest dreams:

• good relationships, especially friendships between packmates (lone wolves are boring)
• werewolves who like being werewolves. (angsty wolves are boring)
• the practical details of werewolfery: who’s got the bail money for animal control, whether anyone’s microchipped, what you pack in a bag for a night out werewolfing
• the uses of werewolfery: hiring yourselves out as trackers or canine rescue, getting certified as service dogs, spending your free time at the library letting little kids read to a friendly doggie
• female werewolves, and no weird gross hypermasculine alpha stuff going on in werewolf culture
• queer werewolves, and no weird gross heteronormative ‘laws of nature’ stuff going on in werewolf culture
• dog jokes.

The standard urban fantasy female protagonist dating a werewolf who is not an alpha. Bonus points for it being a cute beta werewolfess who thinks her girlfriend’s perpetual posturing as the ‘baddest bitch on the block’™ is the most adorable thing ever. Extra bonus points for fuzzy baby werewolves and adopted babies. (Because actual wolf packs? Exist to raise children. They’re family units, focused around rearing cubs.)

#werewolves #queer wolves #werewolves as the foster parents of the supernatural world #if there’s a kid so much as sniffling in their general vicinity they’re going to get adopted #the fae discovered that they could straight-up hand off changlings to werewolf packs #no deception needed #magic using children of mundane parents who can’t handle it? #every pack has a dozen of them #fic ideas

okay this is one of the cutest reblogs I’ve gotten. 

imagine it

werewolves just going YES FAMILY GOOD and adopting everyone and making sure they get attention and food and understand that it’s fine to be who you are and that you’re not alone, you’re pack now

and the kids that can’t turn into wolves get to ride on the dogsleds to make sure they’re not left out during the full moon family bonding time (… you have to be an adult to pull a dogsled. mistakes have been made.)

werewolves on the PTA. werewolf den mothers. werewolf little league coaches. werewolves filling the bleachers and auditioriums and dance halls and galleries, cheering for their kids. werewolves helping kids with their homework, werewolves sewing costumes for the school play, werewolves showing kids how to change a tire

werewolves with battered kitchen tables with chewed legs. werewolves with huge family dinners. werewolves ferrying pies and casseroles and fresh baked bread back and forth between family members’ houses. werewolf extended families. massive werewolf packs that are technically only about 25% werewolf but still definitely packs

puppy teeth being left for the tooth fairy. fangs being left for the tooth fairy. cuttlebones being left for the tooth fairy. stolen teeth being left for the tooth fairy. werewolves with giant families full of kids with different needs and species.

werewolves adopting everyone. werewolves fostering everyone. werewolves who wind up with dozens of kids, all of whom are family and therefore pack.

yes good, give me more like this

ladyzolstice

i feel this in my soul

WEREWOLVES BASED ON ACTUAL WOLF PACK BEHAVIOR INSTEAD OF BULLSHIT DOMINANCE THEORY! All the werewolf fiction I’ve read involves everything falling to shit due to infighting over who gets to be alpha like WAY TO ILLUSTRATE EXACTLY WHY THIS IDEA DOESN’T WORK. You really think wolves would be successful hunters if they were constantly getting injured and wasting energy fighting each other?!

The whole idea of “alpha” dynamics is based entirely on the behaviour of wolves in captivity! If you so much as google “wolves in captivity alpha”, you’ll get a bunch of results about why it’s not representative of actual wolf behaviour.

As it turns out, if you capture, restrain, and shove together wolves from unrelated packs, they will fight and form a hierarchy of power.

Kind of like prison. Because, functionally, the exact premise of that kind of captivity is kind of like prison.

Wolves are social animals, and they interact in the wild pretty much the same way other family-centric social animals do.

Hey, you know what another family-centric social animal we’re all familiar with is?People. Just, you know, take away the oppressive idea that one parent is the definitive and unchallengeable head of the household that most of us have lived under for so long first.

Wolves are apparently group problem-solvers, and presumably, in large packs, you’re going to get squabbling and older pack members mitigating it, just like that one patient aunt or uncle or grandparent or close family friend who is essentially a relative often does in big families.

There’s a very legitimate basis for writing werewolves as friendly, community-minded folks. If your werewolves view their human neighbours as other packs not in competition with themselves, they’re likely going to be those people that the entire neighbourhood views as very nice, but “a little overwhelming.” (And maybe a little too indulgent with their kids, according to the neighbourhood snobs.)

Your gigantic werewolf family is probably going to be a litle less threatening and overtly secretive and a little more “we’re having a barbeque, when can we expect you??? you didn’t come last week, were you sick??? we were all worried- do you not eat meat?? oh, okay, I’ll have Sophie and Thaddeus pick up some Halal burgers and we’ll scrub off the second barbeque for them and some vegetable skewers, too, does that sound good?? so when can we expect you????”

(Also: werewolves taking in queer kids and mentally ill kids and kids from broken homes even though they’re mundane because they can’t comprehend how someone could not want them. Werewolves taking in street kids.)

#…a pack of werewolves living in a huge house together like one of those huge families people sort of smile incredulously at#multiple generations#a pack occupying a trailer park because it’s near the woods and there’s a certain amount of security in having a mobile home#packs being viewed by mundanes as those eccentric families that fill the school gymnasium every time there’s an event with one of their kids#packs migrating to accomodate new packmates and encountering other packs#packs fusing to form entire communities#wolves taking in mundane street kids#werewolves#writing#urban fantasy

*SLAMS FIST ON TABLE* NOW THIS IS THE KIND OF CONTENT I WANT TO SEE

theauthorofus:

Using said after the dialogue isn’t great and neither is just plugging in -ed or -ly words. Try adding more to help your reader better understand how the charter feels. Don’t be afraid to make it creative, make a comparison, or make it metaphorical.

---

“I can’t” she said. 

“I can’t” she said shyly. 

“I can’t” she whispered only to herself, but she didn’t realize the dust in the empty chair could hear too. 

theauthorofus:

     So often I see people struggling with descriptors. People are looking for a great way to describe their surroundings and pull their reader into the scene. But, what you’re really doing a lot of the time is feeling a need to make everything beautiful and poetic. You want to tell your reader your character is wearing rugged blue jeans with stains down the legs, you say that: “he was wearing rugged blue jeans with stains down the legs.” Done. Don’t hold their hand. If the thing you’re describing has no other purpose than existence, then it probably doesn’t need more than a single, simplistic sentence.
      The key to a good descriptor is to keep its purpose in mind. You must ask yourself: how important is this? How much does it deserve?

keepcalmandwritefiction:

“If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good.”

—Thornton Wilder

thatwritergirlsblog:

Writing a sub-plot

Here are some tips for writing great sub-plots, romantic or otherwise.

1. When to introduce a sub-plot

• Of course, every story is different. However, there is some consensus that it’s good to introduce your sub-plot a little ways into your book
• The main plot needs to be established first. The readers need to know the main character(s) and understand what the story is about. They need to care about the crux of the book and the characters first.
• Then, you can introduce an intriguing subplot to keep their interest.
• Don’t wait too long, though. Anything after 1/3 through might feel forced and misplaced.

2. When to resolve the sub-plot

• The sub-plot should be resolved before the main plot is.
• Generally, you want your readers’ attention focused on the main conflict once you reach the climax.
• This means that you want to give them the resolution of the sub-plot a few pages/chapters before the big showdown of the main plot.
• You’ll see that most TV episodes also follow this guideline and it works.
• You can, roughly, aim for the ¾ mark if you’re unsure.

3. Remember the sub in sub-plot

• I love a good sub-plot, especially one about characters growing closer. However, if I pick up a sci-fi thriller from the bookstore only to read a 400 page love story, I’m gonna be disappointed.
• You classify your genre according to your main plot. What is the main conflict or purpose in your story? That should be the focus.
• A sub-plot of whichever variation is always secondary to the main storyline.
• If you focus too much on the subplot, it may overpower your real story and bump your book into a whole other genre.
• So, maybe have the romance take a backseat when the main plot comes to play.

4. When to indulge

• Let’s be honest; we all love writing our sub-plots. They often contain the scenes you envisioned when thinking up your story - the conversations and fluff, the banter and depth of character. This, unfortunately, means that it’s easy to get carried away, as I made clear in my last point.
• However, there is a part of your book in which you can indulge, a point during which you can explore the sub-plot to your heart’s desire.
• When is that point? The middle.
• Often, the main plot slows down in the middle of the book. The characters need training or there’s a period of false security etc. Many stories have a lull in the middle where the main conflict isn’t in full swing.
• And this is where the sub-plot shines. This is where characters fall in love and heroes reunite with long-lost fathers. This is where you get to place your darling scenes.
• And no, this doesn’t mean that your middle can be 200 pages and you can write an entire romance novel. It also doesn’t mean that the main plot must disappear. It’s just a stage in the story where you can let the sub-plot loose a bit.
• Also don’t leave every aspect of your sub-plot for the middle. It should be woven into your story.
• But use the middle to let the sub-plot shine.

5. Should you have a sub-plot?

• Personally, I think every story needs some form of sub-plot.
• There has to be some conflict/story/relationship that develops and adds intrigue aside from the main plot.
• Not having one could screw up your pacing, make your characters feel underdeveloped and generally make for a boring read.
• But, this is just my opinion. Each unto their own.

That’s it. Those are some basic tips on writing a sub-plot. I hope that they could be helpful. As always, my inbox and asks are open for any questions.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with the type of sub-plot you’re writing. Follow me for similar content.

herhmione:

tanaquil:

coniectanea:

carryonmy-assbutt:

herhmione:

names that have specific meanings

meanings of any names

popular baby names

upper class names

common last names

fancy last names

aristocratic/royal names

random name generator

random place name generator

list of latin words

english to latin translator

english to greek translat

or

greek mythology database

the culture of ancient rome

list of legendary creatures

fantasy name generator

feel free to add in any links!

This is awesome! Make sure to be careful with online translators, though-for example I just typed in “I am bored” into the latin translator and got back “i, cibi” which makes no sense at all.

I’M JUST GONNA BE THAT ASSHOLE WHO REBLOGS AGAIN BUT, PLEASE! don’t use use ancient greek/latin translators. if you just want simple words or verbs (for latin at least), use WHITAKER’S WORDS — it’s a secret classicists keep.

i wasn’t aware of this but YES DO AS THE TWO ABOVE SAY :)

inky-duchess:

Fantasy Guide to Succession Systems

We usually write royal families based on the modern or medieval ones of history. We almost always fall into the trap of Male to Male succession because… that’s usually what is done. We get confused over who is next when you kill off a cast of characters or have a strong female lead and we fall into a whole. But no longer. Here are some succession systems you can use in your fantasy setting.

Male to Male Primogeniture

This is when the firstborn son inherits everything outright from his dad. His son will inherit after him followed by his grandson and so on so forth. This is our main system of succession in real world history and fantasy. This can be an easy one to work off since there are so many examples. However, just as the real world is run by genetics, so will your fantasy land. There is a 50-50 chance of having a daughter or a son. You can’t always bank on having a son. And if you have a surplus of sons, it can lead to trouble down the road.

Female to Female Primogeniture

There are some cultures that are strictly matrilineal, with inheritance passing to mother to daughter to granddaughter and so on. This can be another easy line to follow as it is basically the system up above just gender reverse. Examples of this succession can be found in Africa such as the role of Rain Queen where only females are eligible to take the throne and the Undangs of Negeri Sembilan in Asia. There are the same kind of issues such as the possibility that a daughter may not be born.

Tanistry

This is a Gaelic system for passing on titles and lands. The Tanist/ Tánaiste is the title bestowed upon the candidate chosen to inherit the throne who acts as a second in command. The eligible candidates would arrive at a chosen place and there would be a grand discussion on who gets to be named the heir. The candidates don’t have to be a blood relative or even an ally of the current ruler. This was practised in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Mann and was also sort of practised in the Holy Roman Empire. The Vatican uses this to some extent though they might forgo all the drink… OK probably they do. There is no real issue with this, the best candidate is chosen and everyone has a say. Of course in politics, some force might be used in order of specific favourites to succeed but hey its nothing more than what’s going on in modern politics.

Agnatic Seniority

This is another patrilineal inheritance system only this one is slightly more confusing. In this system, the succession goes from monarch to their younger brothers and then the monarch’s own sons. The monarchs children don’t inherit until the older generation have all died. Agnatic seniority bars all female descendants and their descendants from the throne.

The Ottoman Empire’s Version of the Hunger Games (or just what siblings are like)

The Ottoman Empire had a fun succession order. Oh, perhaps not order. You see when a Sultan dies, his sons fight over who gets to be the next Sultan. The Şehzades (the male issue of the Sultan) will turn on one another, often having all their brothers and half brothers massacred by guards armed with bowstrings. This fratricidal system did work in the Sultan’s favour as his throne was safe from claims of rivals. Yet if you get rid of all your heirs and you can’t sire one and you die… well bye bye dynasty. The Şehzade who usually comes out on top will be the one who is backed by the military. This practise became less awful as years went by and the brothers of the Sultan were imprisoned in the harem in chambers called the Golden Cage or kafes. Some went insane and some actually succeeded the Sultanate.

Roman Adoption

The Romans didn’t follow blood but rather the surname. Like the tanistry, a Roman noble/emperor would take stock of their relatives or even perhaps acquaintances and pick the best one. They would be given everything in the will including the right to inherit. Julius Caesar picked his great-nephew Octavian and in turn Octavian, now Augustus Caesar, chose his step-son Tiberius. If you go back through the Judo-Claudian dynasty you will see that most the heirs were adopted and not all came from the same bloodline.

Hope this helps @anomaly00

thewritingrealm:

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

Writing is just. Random shower thoughts. Existential crisis. Writing two sentences. Scrolling through Pinterest for half a day. Crying. Not writing for three weeks. More existential crisis. It’s 3am and you’re writing two chapters at once while on eight cans of red bull. Panicky flipping through all of your Notebooks and note book Apps and family trees for that one character’s last name instead of just re-reading your last chapter. existential crisis. Shower thoughts.

prokopetz:

amashelle:

worriedaboutmyfern:

prokopetz:

The author’s biography doesn’t always tell you anything terribly significant about a literary work, but when I think about the fact that Sir Thomas Malory, the compiler of the most well known English-language literary interpretation of the Arthurian myth cycle, was a double-dealing knight who fought on both sides of the War of the Roses, was repeatedly charged with horse thievery, escaped from prison or skipped bail at least five times, and evidently made himself so obnoxious to those in power that he was specifically excluded by name from a general pardon of prisoners on two separate occasions – an accomplishment in which he is, to the best of my knowledge, unequalled – well, that tends to suggest a certain interpretive lens, is what I mean to say.

I had to look up lots and lots of things in Moby Dick. I was pretty skeptical of all the “whale facts” in that book after an early chapter where he lists the various types of whales and includes about forty that sound totally made up (“quog whale”, “grampus whale,” “sulphur-bottom whale”, “junk whale”, “thrasher whale”, “pudding-headed whale”, “scragg whale” etc), and also included dolphins.

How-some-ever, everything else I looked up turned out to be totally true, to the point where I decided Melville MUST have gone on a whaling ship as part of his research. So I looked up his biography!

My dude Herman was born in aristocratic wealth until his father blew it all and they became impoverished, and he did indeed go off to sea on a whaling ship. Then he deserted in Polynesia and lived with the natives for a year before signing up on another whaling ship, where he promptly joined the crew in a mutiny and got thrown in jail for it. He escaped and lived as a beachcomber and “island rover” while personally battling God/having an intense spiritual crisis. Then he went home to New England, became a celebrated author and dinner party guest on the strength of thinly fictionalized retellings of his adventures, and fell shatteringly in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne.

So uh yeah sometimes an author’s biography canreally illuminate the work.

What I love most about Sir Malory is that he is so un-chivalric that some interpreters have spent a great deal of time trying to convince the world that this must be the wrong Thomas Malory!*

*See William Matthews The Ill-Framed Knight: A Skeptical Enquiry into the Identity of Sir Thomas Malory or Richard R. Griffith’s essay ‘The Authorship Question Reconsidered: A Case for Sir Thomas Malory of Papworth St Agnes, Cambridgeshire’

I’m not sure what my favourite part of that whole discourse is: the tortured efforts to explain away the Winchester manuscript literally saying “yeah, the author wrote this in prison” as metaphorical or something, or the fact that there’s a reasonable case to be made that the most popular alternative candidate for the Le Morte’s authorship was also into brigandage of some description.

When I publish my book someday it won’t have any trigger warnings. Books have been out there for hundreds of years without them. We didn’t need them then and we don’t need them now.