I wake this morning to soft white, welcoming overcast skies the wind surge goes to and fro misting pitter patterned rain upon my window pane
Each thrush and intermittent hush coaxes my heart back to sleep and after the rock tense stress of yesterday it’s a well needed reprieve
For someone so prone to noise sensitivity I sure do love birdsong, and the static background, whispering wind even the humming mechanical noise, in the distance contributes as an instrument in an unscripted song and the cars passing by on the road play along
I think about how poetry can be struggling to unwrap yourself when you’re all wound up with rope and ending up tripping because every one way ties you up another
Or it can be rhythmic and enchanting; a magical dance with fate and space where the mind locks in and the heart beats in tune with passing waves above, around, within and everything is beautiful til the heart sinks
because it’s frustrating, knowing some days the ocean fills you up and you’re levitating and it’s POWER in its most essential form choosing you, flowing through you and nothing can stop the poem from being born
other days, staring at a page eyes glazed over, heart full of rage wanting catharsis, fearing art has become just a sensitive kid who’s afraid to take the stage
don’t look at me, don’t see me, please if you don’t care, don’t fake it i miss the days I’d freely say whatever stole my heart to break it
but don’t forget me, please forgive i can’t do this alone i’ve given everything to this i’ve made this place my home
all the while the funny little mind wanders casting prismatic pebbles in the dark for just a glint whilst the great cosmic laughter erupts and the hologram blinks exposing everything
Today is my book birthday! Terrific Tails: Stories From A Pet Guardian is 2 years old today! How time flies! Or scampers. Or gallops. Depending on the pet of your choosing. This book was a lifetime in the making for me – from the day I wrote my first short story about a seal at the age of 6, to 34 years later when I clicked the ‘publish’ button on my book. And I’m not done yet!
I just want to take this moment to thank all the people who helped me and encouraged me and bought my book – all of you, Thank You! But especially to my older brother, my sister, my dad, my friends Megan & Kate, my eldest nephew. And, of course, my Grandma Ava.
Grandma, *your* book turns 2 years old today! Eat some cake for me, would ya?
- Adie Weston, author
(You can still buy Terrific Tails: Stories From A Pet Guardian on Amazon in both ebook and paperback. It’d make a great Valentine’s present for any book or pet lover).
I hated rewriting after a first draft. I would read thru my piece, see something wrong in this sentence, this word, this flow. And then wrote in the margins: Fix this!
Howwas the bigger question.
Naturally, when I beta read, I don’t want to leave my client hanging like that, with that judgmental snare staring at them. So I go through these steps:
Point out the issue - Specifics
Instead, I explain specifically what’s not working or confusing, or else they’ll come back to me saying, butwhat about it is confusing?
Why is it an issue?
I explain whyit’s confusing. Either some grammar norm readers are used to, or how I was imagining something different than the writer was describing. (Passive language, or I thought she was standing the whole time, or that’s not how I pictured that character would react.)
What can I do about it? - The How
Then I give suggestions. Not that that’s completely the job of a beta reader, more like a writing coach thing or editor, but I feel for the author who has critiques and no ‘how’ planned. So I give them suggestions, but ultimately, I can’t imitate the author’s unique style perfectly.
Overall Patterns to Upgrade the Whole Piece
Then I’ll drop the patternsthat keep occurring. (Try replacing 'was’ with more active verbs in the piece, not all of them but some. Use a grammar check for passive language. Stretch moments of tension with more detail and description, etc.)
And here I was at a loss for what I should do for my own rewrites! First, I need direction like what I’m giving out. (Check out my pinned post for my Fiverr. ;) ) It’s awesome that in my breaking down and just defending my natural inclination to scope out the clunky, trippy and confusing things, I’ve found a road map finally!
You can either use this as listening in on an author’s ruminations on skill development, advice for your own drafting, or details on why my beta reading is different and worth the money.
It smells different here now. The air doesn’t smell sweet like pancakes and cinnamon instead everything smells like a fire that won’t stop. The other day I tried to make something for breakfast, and I was proud of myself because I’ve been skipping breakfast for so many weeks now. But the toast turned into ashes, and honey, they say oil and water shouldn’t be mixed together so why the hell were we together? I think we were two molecules that tried to be together until we noticed that one of us was broken. I don’t mean to sound irrational but I just want to ask you, do you think someone out there will salvage the air we once inhaled together?
Another theme week, this time about one of my favourite things in the world and in fiction: FRIENDSHIP!
The week from May, 9th to the 15th is going to be Friendship Week, which includes 2 new posts (Friendship Dynamics, How to write friendships), 3 friendship-themed single prompts and reblogs of my posts about friends so far.
All of the new posts for this week are already up for members on my Ko-fi.
I hope you have a wonderful week and get inspired to write some really strong friendships!
Trope of the day is… the make-out distraction. Kissing makes you basically invisible. We’re undercover? Kiss me or our cover is blown. We’re following someone? Kiss me and they won’t see us. We have to act innocent? Let’s make out till they go away.
Can lead to coming together, unfortunately doesn’t have to.
Give yourself 15 minutes, get a random number between1 and 820 and search for that prompt (search in my tags: prompt #{number}) and then start writing.
And if you already used that prompt choose another one or write it in a completely different way.
Choose three prompts (you can use random.org) from my blog between 1 and 820 and search for it on my blog by using #prompt [no.].
Now try to think of a way to combine all of them in one story. No matter how outlandish they seem together at first, in the end this game helps you to see them in a completely different light and to get a new multi-dimensional idea for a story.
+ if you use even more prompts;
who can fit the most prompts into a drabble or a 500 word short story?
++ if you choose prompts that at first glance don’t seem to fit together at all
Choose one prompt from my blog (you can use random.org) between 1 and 820 and search for it by using #prompt [no.] on my blog.
Whatever your first inspiration is, the goal of the game is to write this one prompt in as many genres as you can think of for it. Write about 5 to 10 sentencesfor each genre and see the different directions you can take the same prompt in.
Choose a title or let your followers send you some in. Write a short drabble or a full story with that title. What is the first idea that comes to your mind?
+ if you take the same title and write completely different stories/different genres with it
2. Game:
Let your followers send you the titles and then create a short summary for what a potential story would be about.
3. Game: The Alphabet Game
Choose one title for every letter in the alphabet from these lists and fill them or let your followers pick characters for you to write a story for each title with. (Inspired by evilwriter37)
Trope of the day is… platonic love confessions. If you love your homies, go tell them. Pull it off like a romantic one and then hit them with the classic “as a friend” and watch them be happy about it, because they too love you as their friend.
Creating characters is one of the most important things to do while writing. Characters can make or break a story. No matter how good the idea, if the characters are flat, people are not going to keep reading. Here are some posts to help you create interesting and memorable characters.
Another theme week, this time about one of my favourite things in the world and in fiction: FRIENDSHIP!
The week from May, 9th to the 15th is going to be Friendship Week, which includes 2 new posts (Friendship Dynamics, How to write friendships), 3 friendship-themed single prompts and reblogs of my posts about friends so far.
All of the new posts for this week are already up for members on my Ko-fi.
I hope you have a wonderful week and get inspired to write some really strong friendships!
- Jana
The second theme week is officially over! What was your favourite post to work with? As always, you can show off your work on @creativepromptfills for everyone to read.
Well-written relationships between characters are what makes a story beloved. And while writing romance has it’s own difficulties, it’s even more tricky to write good and believable friendships.
What role do friends play in a story?
It depends a bit on if the friendship is between MCs or if the MC is friends with side-characters. The friendship with another MC could be the focus of the story and driving point for the plot. But the friendship with a side-character could help your MC to rant about their problems, to get a second opinion, to get an honest truth, to see a situation from another perspective and to realize that they are not alone in this. They can also be helpful to show your MCs regular life outside of whatever special happens to them in the story and helps to show why your MC is the way they are.
Types of friends
the best friend
the friend group
the situational friend
the old friend
The best friend - they share almost anything with each other, their opinions matter, able to tell them off if they are wrong, closest thing to a sibling, people know them as a duo
The friend group - in on all the tea, give honest opinions, help out where they can, can have deep, but also very casual scenes
The situational friend - friends because of circumstances (having classes together, being on the same sports team, having mutual friends), are friends when they see each other, don’t really seek each other out outside of that situation, knowing about specific parts of each other’s life, but not other parts and wouldn’t share deep conversations
The old friend - think about childhood friend vs. college friend - the friends have met in completely different parts of each other’s lives, know each other in different ways and probably have a different understanding of each other, the old friend would probably not know everything about their life right now, but they still fall back into old patterns with each other (good and bad)
Give them something in common & some differences
Humans like to flock together with people with similar interests, personalities and lives. So give your fictional friends things they have in common. Sharing the same goal, liking the same things, having compatible personalities, having the same outlook on life,…
But friends are not a carbon copy of each other. Give them some differences that don’t hurt their friendship in the long run, but rather some that can the characters can build off of these differences. Taking advice from a friend who has more experience with something, a friend who sees things a bit different, or becoming more confident because of their friend’s confidence.
More tips
Make sure to give the friends their own life. They are not just there to bounce ideas off with your MC. They should have their own goals and personalities. Make sure they could be their own character without the MC.
To have a friendship that the reader likes and roots for, you have to make sure that the reader can see why they are friends. The quite, nerdy kid is not going to be best friends with the loud, edgy, popular kid without a believable reason. Why would they hang out if they have nothing in common? Having been friends since kindergarten is not enough of a reason to still be best friends in high school if they have nothing to talk about and don’t like to do the same things and if their personalities just don’t match at all.
