I’d just like to share some helpful tips I’ve been taught over the years, if it’s alright…
1. Make sure you proofread your work a couple times before posting- not only for spelling errors, but for punctuation and grammar. It makes a difference!
2. Check your spacing and paragraphs. If it’s a new thought, it gets a new line. A new person speaking? It’s a new line. For example -
Dean stood at the edge of the road looking down at the loosened dirt at his feet. He felt something shift in the air and spun around to face the threat.
The black eyes of the crossroads demon blinked as she grinned, watching him closely.
“Well, hello handsome…” her voice purred.
“Stow it bitch,” Dean snapped, not in the mood for any games.
3. Try not to use the same words or sentences over and over. Repetitiveness is dull.
4. If you can, have a beta reader. It’s worth it to have fresh eyes on your side!
5. Don’t write something if you don’t feel it. You are better off waiting for inspiration or saying no if it’s not your thing than trying to force a mood.
6. Enjoy your own story! It’s your art! Nobody can tell you where it has to go. If you want flying pizzas falling at your feet, then write it, dammit. Nobody can tell you it has to make sense to them, it is yours, not theirs. Think, Jabberwocky.
7. Writing is an art. You paint pictures for the readers with words. You (hopefully) make them feel things. That’s not for nothing. In fact, it’s pretty fucking awesome.
8. Everyone started somewhere. Everyone was a guppy at one time. If you have questions, ask. Learn. It is so incredibly awesome that other writers like those here on @spnfanficpond are offering to help. Use them!
9. Re-blog others works. Share. Give the credit and the kudos you would want from others. Always give proper credit to others ideas. It’s important. You wouldn’t want someone else taking credit for something you’d worked hard on. Be kind.
10. The only failure is not trying. Keep swimming.
11. Ask for constructive criticism. (Don’t take shit from trolls though. They don’t count.)
12. Accept offers of help. Understand most fellow writers want to help you succeed.
13. Don’t panic if some one doesn’t like your art… Think of it this way- do you like every picture, poem or song out there? No. You don’t… and not everyone will like your sky pizza story. But that is okay! It’s not meant for everyone to like.
14. Stand up for yourself. If someone tries to push you around, telling you they don’t like your stories or troll you then please re-read number 13, block them, and don’t let them silence you. Don’t let them win. If it makes you happy- that is all that matters.
15. Write many different things, many different ways, for your own joy. Paint your colors for the world you see, not the one you think people want to see. You’ll be so surprised to find there are others out there who get it. (Hang on to these people when you do find them. They are your tribe…)
I hope something I’ve said may possibly help a fellow writer. Sending love out to you all!
So the wonderful @walking-encyclopedia-of-fandom was kind enough to tag us in this incredible writing resource post. For some funny reason tumblr wouldn’t let me reblog it at all so here’s the link to the post. There’s tons of good stuff in here for everyone so thank you again for the tag and happy writing! :D
Summer is about to heat up with a new fic bang (emphasis on the bang).
Introducing a bang featuring explicit stories (with or without plot!) featuring any pariing or grouping from SPN (with some content restrictions: no incest, no underage pairings, no nonconsensual graphic torture). Au/crossover fics welcome!
Minimum word count: 5k.
Maximum word count: none
Author sign-ups: April 1 - May 1.
Artists sign-ups: April 1 - June 12.
Posting beginning August 15.
The full rules and schedule will be released before sign-ups open. Follow @spnbangbang for more details
I want to write. I have ideas. I open document. I type four of the worst sentences ever created in the english language. I daydream the rest of the scene. I close document.
90% of writing advice can be thrown out the window for your first draft.
Show don’t tell? Ignore.
Basic grammar and punctuation? Unnecessary.
Physical descriptions of characters? Don’t need to bother.
Solid plot? That’s for later.
The words don’t come as fast when you’re thinking of the best way to put them together. It doesn’t have to be pretty, or much more than inconsistent nonsense. The point is to have it exist.
Effective storytelling is for subsequent drafts! Go write some nonsense!
As a hyper-perfectionist human, THIS is a piece of advice I wish I’d internalized a hell of a lot sooner. If I hadn’t overwhelmed myself by considering every little thing, starting over when it gets “too messy”… there’s no doubt in my mind I’d have a first draft by now.
Now, passion is the only thing I care about in my first draft.
when i’m writing fiction, the main rule i try to stick to is that: the first draft is where i write what’s important to me.
this usually means character arcs and deep ethical and political debates for me, but for some people it’s gonna be physical description or in-depth plotting or Whatever
your subsequent drafts are where you fill in the gaps and make things make sense, but that first draft should be everything you personally care about, and don’t worry much about the rest
something I think we all know about fanfic, but don’t talk about because it would hurt writers feelings is that some fics are like fast food. I mean this as a compliment. I don’t always want to sit down for a six course meal that will be a flavor experience. Sometimes I just wanna dip some fries in a frosty. Sometimes I want something homecooked and delicious and super niche, but super comforting. Sometimes I want to eat an entire dark chocolate cheesecake in one sitting even though I know Its gonna make me sick. Just. holy crap, y’all. Sometimes I don’t even want fast food, I just want to eat an entire bag of chips. and yeah, I’m ashamed of myself afterwards, but at the time it was exactlywhat I wanted. So, no, we’re never going to say to our fanfic writers that we consider their writing to be the equivalent of a midnight run to taco bell - and we shouldn’t, feelings would be hurt by that. But writers, please, please, please, remember this. You don’t need to create a six course meal if you don’t want to. You don’t have to make something complex and homemade if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to finish cooking it - because someone will be thrilled that you brought a bowl of cookie dough and a spoon, because they cannot even consider sitting down and having a proper meal right now. It’s okay writers, whatever you decided to make. Someone was happy to have it. You gave them what they needed. You made them happy. You did good.
• An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars.
• A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.
• A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
• An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
• Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”
• A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
• Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
• A question mark walks into a bar?
• A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.
• Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Get out – we don’t serve your type.”
• A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
• A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
• Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
• A synonym strolls into a tavern.
• At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar – fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
• A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
• Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.
• A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
• An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
• The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
• A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned by a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
• The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
• A dyslexic walks into a bra.
• A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
• A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
• A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
• A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony
there seems to come a point in every story i start writing, where i have to give up the idea of what i wanted the story to be in order to be able to write the story that is ready to be written. and every time giving up that idea of what i wanted to do is SO HARD. but whatever comes after that is always, weirdly, a dozen times better and more joyful and utterly more surprising than what i had intended to write. so it’s always worth doing- just because i want to be surprised into laughing about what i could have never imagined writing, if the writing of it had been left up to me.
There is a blackout in the whole building and now we stumble through our apartment, trying to find some candles.
We all want to save the planet, but maybe starting with recycling is a more reasonable idea than showering with your roommate to save water.
Game night is a very important event in our apartment and we just keep finding new ways to compete with each other.
We decided to deep-clean and declutter our entire apartment, can’t be too embarrassing what we find, right?
The landlord still hasn’t repaired the heater in our apartment and we’re already wearing several layers of clothes, we need to find other ways to keep warm.
Accidently ending a phone call with your roommate with a casual ‘I love you’ seems like a very good reason to move out.
I have work in the morning and I can’t sleep while you’re making music next door, composing love songs for your secret crush.
With a bunch of roommates, the mornings can really turn into HBO’s hit show Game of Toilets.
My alarm is loud enough so you can hear it through the wall, so when I don’t want to get up, you come over to turn it off and drag me out of bed.
The snow storm makes it impossible to go outside, so let’s build a blanket fort and spend the day in there.
We’re both moving into the same apartment with a mutual friend of ours but we didn’t know each other and it’s dislike at first sight, but now we’ve got to live together,
There was a spider in my room and yes, you rescued it by putting it outside, but I still won’t sleep in this room tonight!,
Starting a friends with benefits relationship with your roommate quickly blurs some lines…,
We support different sports teams and I think we might went a little overboard with our competitiveness before the big game,
You got yourself stuck in the bathroom again, I told you we need to call the caretaker to fix the lock on the door, why do you never listen, but yes, I’m getting a screwdriver,
There are love letters coming in the mail but with nothing written on the outside, not even a name, so I always give them to you, because I just assume they’re for you because I think I’ve seen you holding one of the envelopes before and you’re the kind of person that has a secret admirer, definitely not me…,
We just moved into a shared apartment and I find out you like to sing while doing your chores and I really like your voice,
I like cats but no one should love their fur balls as much as you do, but now there’s a storm outside and the cat’s not at home and you’re devasted so now we run through the rain, screaming for your cat,
I have no problem with sharing my Netflix account with you, but if you change my watch list one more time…
cooking at the same time, having to move around each other
having to meet up with the landlord you both dislike
seeing the other play a game and getting asked to join in
having to do some errands for the apartment that you have to do together
getting asked by the roommate’s friends to help throw a surprise party in your shared apartment
trying to not hit anything or each other, when there is a power outage and it’s way too dark
cleaning the apartment together and making a dance party out of it
helping the roommate with a clingy date who just doesn’t want to leave
realizing the other one is sick and bringing them tea and some food
painting the hallway together
doing laundry together or bringing it to a laundromat and waiting together
helping the roommate out by hiding some stuff their parents shouldn’t see, when they come by unannouncedthere is a defective smoke detector in the building and you have to leave the house until the fire department as cleared going back in as save
decorating the apartment together for a party or a holiday
making too much food and inviting the roommate to share it
one roommate locked themself out and now has to go to the other’s work place to get the key
Person A keeps ending up in Person B’s bed. It’s just a matter of time until “drunken mistake” is no longer a believable excuse.
As roommates they always play online multi-player games together. People who play with them regularly together just assume that they are a couple.
Person A has been living abroad for a year and now moves back into the apartment they already used to share with Person B before they left. The one year apart seems to change a lot between the roommates.
While caring for Person B, who’s been sick for some time now, Person A slowly starts to shift from the mindset of a roommate to that of a more romantic partner.
Person A wants to make a photo album for Person B’s birthday and realizes while looking through the pictures that over time, they seem to look more and more like a couple.
After a trip to Ikea to get new furniture for the apartment, they soon realise that after successfully assembling a shelf without killing each other, they are basically ready for marriage.
Person A has this habit of not wearing a lot (or anything at all) to bed and it’s getting really awkward for Person B when they both end up going to the bathroom at night.
Person C wants to have their “and they were roommates” moment and tries to get roommates Person A and Person B together.
Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Plottr,a 2021 NaNo sponsor, is a visual outlining software that helps you plan your book for success. Today, author Troy Lambert shares some tips for outlining a novel when you’re used to flying by the seat of your pants:
Pantsing a novel can be great—after all, writing into the dark and discovering the story as you go is kinda fun, right?
But you probably also know it can lead to nonsensical plots, writer’s block, and endless rewrites.
Well, don’t worry. As a book coach, editor, and mystery author of over 25 novels, I’ve been there myself… and I understand exactly what you’re experiencing.
The good news is you can use this simple four step formula to give yourself the best of both worlds: a general roadmap for your novel that still lets you take fun detours along the way.
Your character goes outside on a clear night. Looking up, they see a bright falling star streak across the sky. What wish do they make? Write the scene.
