confused-writing

[confused-writing]

Actually I keep complaining about operational worldbuilding, so here are some recommendations for it:

Ask yourself "what is this organization accomplishing" and "would this organization, as written, accomplish that thing?" For example, magic academies/schools/universities for adults: what are they training their students for? Is it more like a vocational school or a university? Are students being trained for specific jobs? Is it a training for government? Is it primarily a place to foist the idle rich off to to get them out of the way? For a military training, is the goal primarily training or a weeding out process? Is it basic training or specialized training? If someone fails out of the training, do they end up in the regular forces or do they fail out of the military entirely?

Ask yourself "how did this practice come to be?" For example, a trial or competition system: why was this system established? Do the requirements for the trial/competition match what the end result is (e.g., fighting competition to win a fighting position)? If not (e.g., scavenger heart to become the consort), why is that the competition that is used? Do the potential outcomes of the trial (e.g., death) merit the rewards for it?

Ask yourself "if this system is horrible, why do people put up with it?" For example, a school or organization where people are allowed to attack and/or kill each other: why is it allowed to continue? Why do people send their children or voluntarily join it? If it is mandatory, do people fight against it, and if not, why not?

[confused-writing]

Writing Description Notes:

Updated 9th September 2024 More writing tips, review tips & writing description notes

Facial Expressions

Masking Emotions

Smiles/Smirks/Grins

Eye Contact/Eye Movements

Blushing

Voice/Tone

Body Language/Idle Movement

Thoughts/Thinking/Focusing/Distracted

Silence

Memories

Happy/Content/Comforted

Love/Romance

Sadness/Crying/Hurt

Confidence/Determination/Hopeful

Surprised/Shocked

Guilt/Regret

Disgusted/Jealous

Uncertain/Doubtful/Worried

Anger/Rage

Laughter

Confused

Speechless/Tongue Tied

Fear/Terrified

Mental Pain

Physical Pain

Tired/Drowsy/Exhausted

Eating

Drinking

Warm/Hot

[confused-writing]

What To Do When You Know Your Ending but Have No Clue How to Get There

congrats. you’ve unlocked the most ✨ cursed ✨ form of storytelling: knowing the destination but having zero map, no snacks, and one emotionally unstable protagonist riding shotgun.

aka: you know how your book ends. maybe even the Last Line™. but the middle? the plot? the scenes required to get there?

🦗🦗🦗

welcome to liminal writing hell. here’s what to do about it:

🚨 STEP 1: Write the ending anyway.

yes. even if you’re only on chapter three. write the ending now. not perfectly. not canon. just get it down while it’s burning in your brain.

this does 2 things:

gets you emotionally invested in where you’re headed

gives you a north star to align your scenes to

future-you will thank you when you're knee-deep in act 2, spiraling, and you need to remember what this mess was for.

🧩 STEP 2: Backwards logic it like a feral detective.

ask: what has to happen right before this ending can exist? then ask that question again. and again. until you’ve accidentally built a whole reverse-outline.

like:

✨ final scene: heroine stabs the love interest to save the world → she needs to know he’s the villain → she needs to see him do something unforgivable → she needs a reason to be in the same room as him when it happens → she needs to go to the city where he’s hiding → she needs to choose betrayal over loyalty

now reverse those like breadcrumbs through the forest of chaos.

🎯 STEP 3: Identify your mid-point emotional switch.

the best middles aren’t just “stuff happening.” they’re a turning point. a reversal. a Big Choice. often it’s the opposite of the ending.

ending = character sacrifices love midpoint = character believes love will fix everything

this sets up contrast + emotional stakes. the midpoint shows how wrong they are. the ending proves how far they’ve come.

no midpoint? no tension. build the middle to break them, then rebuild toward the finale.

🧱 STEP 4: Stack up your themes like Jenga blocks.

what are you actually saying with this ending?

if the ending is: “freedom comes at a price” then the story needs to explore:

what freedom means

who pays that price

how people deny the cost

how your protagonist learns to accept it

if your middle scenes aren’t touching these ideas? they’re just filler. start weaving the theme early, subtly, and repeatedly. make it hurt a little.

📦 STEP 5: Write “junk scenes” in the blank spaces.

not sure how they get from castle to climax? write a fake scene. not canon. no pressure. just vibes. let the characters mess around in the setting. argue. kiss. kill. eat soup. whatever.

you’ll learn what they want, what secrets they’re hiding, what tensions spark.

some of these junk scenes will turn out to be real. others will guide you to what needs to happen next. use them as scaffolding.

🧃 STEP 6: Accept that messy = forward.

you won’t always see the whole road. write the next landmark. write the next mistake. write the next bad scene and figure out why it doesn’t work.

knowing your ending is a gift. the rest? that’s the part where you dig.

you don’t need a perfect bridge. you just need enough planks to get across without falling into the river of I’ll-Fix-It-Later.

now go. write the scene where everything breaks.

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

[confused-writing]

Hi! This is my first time asking, but your prompts are amazing! It’s almost like you’ve experienced these scenarios with how detailed you are! Any who, I was curious about tips on starting off a story. What are the best ways to hook a reader in the beginning?

Aww that is actually one of the best compliments I had so far!

How to start a story

don't start with descriptions

the reader can get bored if the descriptions are too long

they won't remember details until they actually formed a connection to the situation and the characters

start with a prologue or flashforward or flashback

this way you can show what's going to come or what happened so far to get the reader hooked

a lot of writers advice against using dream sequences and the character waking up as the beginning of the story, because it can seem lazy

start with action

hook the reader by throwing them right into action

they get invested sooner in the plot and the characters

they want to find out more about the context that brought them to this point

build an emotional connection

start by showing an emotional scene or present the character's goals and intentions and motivation to make people relate to them and their struggle

surprise the reader

start in an unusual situation, something that may even confuse the reader at first (but not too much, you should resolve it quickly to get them to keep reading)

leave them with questions they want to find the answers for

I hope this helps you and good luck writing!

- Jana

[confused-writing]

Fiction Writing Advice Posts

Hey all, Some of you know that in addition to this Tumblr blog I also keep a blog on my website. A lot of the posts overlap, but not all of them, so I’ve made this list for your reading pleasure:

How to Control Your Pacing

How to Write During a Pandemic

How to Read Like a Writer

What if Your First Draft DOESN’T Suck?

How to Do World-Building Research

How to Properly Format a Manuscript for Submission

10 Questions to Ask an Editor Before Hiring Them

Creating Character Arcs with the DCAST Method

How to Choose the Right Point of View for Your Story

A Beginner’s Guide to Multiple Point of View

Show Don’t Tell? Not Always. Here’s When to Use Summary

8 Ways to Improve Your Fiction Writing

How to Spot Bad Writing Advice: 6 Red Flags to Look For

5 Reasons to Kill Your Critique Group

Are You Using Too Much Stage Direction?

Why Nobody Cares About Your Plot

How to Use Adverbs Like a Pro

How to Activate Your Passive Characters, One Verb at a Time

3 Easy Ways to Transform Boring Descriptions

3 Ways to Increase Conflict in Your Dialogue

A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Killer Feedback from Beta Readers

How to Know What Kind of Editing You Need

10 Best Books About Fiction Writing

How to Spot an Info Dump

Dealing With Procrastination

5 Tips for Writing Great Descriptions

Naming Your Fictional Characters

How to Avoid Overusing “I” in a First Person Story

How to Get Over a Writing Slump

When Your Story Gets a Lackluster Response From Readers

She Hesitated, He Paused: Tips on Showing the Passage of Time

Want to make sure you never miss a new blog post? Sign up for my writing advice emails and get a new blog post sent straight to your inbox about once a month.

xoxo

[confused-writing]

Editing Your Novel Part 1: Before You Edit

New Year, new edits! Editing is a big task to tackle, no matter how you go about it. Chunking it into several parts gives you a much easier set of goals to meet, methods to track those goals, and ways to make an impossible project more manageable.

The First Rule of Editing: Love Your Draft.

If you hate everything you wrote, you are not ready to edit it yet. If you feel as if you'd rather drive off a cliff than reread the work you've just done, put that book away for a few more weeks. If you can't stand your work, you aren't going to be able to give it the care it deserves. That feeling will go away, trust me. You just need to give it some time to rest.

Pre-Editing Prep Steps:

Change the Format - Changing your font will help you see your wards in a new way and the most common tip is to use comic sans. You might resist this tip. You might refuse on the basis that it is a silly font meant for silly jokes. But just try it out and see if it works for you. You can always switch to Arial like a coward if you want.

Read it Out Loud - No, you don't have to listen to the sound of your own voice (though if you're a theater kid, they might be a great way to work out kinks in your dialogue). There's plenty of decent screen-readers out there that will help. NVDA Screen Reader is a free program anyone can use. Google TalkBack is pre-installed in most Android devices, and Microsoft Word has a feature called Read Aloud that will drive you crazy after awhile, but works.

Outline What You Have - If you wrote your first draft based on nothing but feels or had an outline that took a sharp left turn at Timbuktu, re-outlining what you're looking at can help you work out how to tackle your edit. Now, you don't have to go all out - I'm a big fan of using flashcards to track scenes. They're easy to swap out and update when you change things, and you can lay them out in any organization to get good overview of your plot.

Take some time to get organized, and check into the next post when we talk about the plot pass!

[confused-writing]

What do you do when you don't know what to write about or just don't have inspiration?

There are lots of things you can do. I have done a few posts on it (also on my personal blog, @agirlnamedjana). You can use writing games to get back into the groove and that inspire you with prompts or you can do a challenge that gets you to write consistently.

Here are some posts for you:

How to motivate myself to write more

How to get rid of writer’s block

Writing Games

Ask Games

Daily Writing Challenge

30 Days Writing Challenge

I wish you all the best for your writing journey! And have a good new year's eve today!

- Jana

[confused-writing]

How do I write basic movements, I'm not a native speaker so it gets hard for me to define basic bodily movements. Even if it's as simple as reaching out and taking something off the counter

Facial expressions, gestures, and eye gaze are often identified as the 3 major types of body language, but other aspects such as posture and personal distance can also be used to convey information.

A few common gestures & their possible meanings:

Pursed lips. Tightening the lips might be an indicator of distaste, disapproval, or distrust.

Lip biting. People sometimes bite their lips when they are worried, anxious, or stressed.

Covering the mouth. When people want to hide an emotional reaction, they might cover their mouths in order to avoid displaying smiles or smirks.

Turned up or down. Slight changes in the mouth can also be subtle indicators of what a person is feeling. When the mouth is slightly turned up, it might mean that the person is feeling happy or optimistic. On the other hand, a slightly down-turned mouth can be an indicator of sadness, disapproval, or even an outright grimace.

A clenched fist can indicate anger in some situations or solidarity in others.

A thumbs up and thumbs down are often used as gestures of approval and disapproval.

The "okay" gesture, made by touching together the thumb and index finger in a circle while extending the other three fingers can be used to mean "okay" or "all right." In some parts of Europe, however, the same signal is used to imply you are nothing. In some South American countries, the symbol is actually a vulgar gesture.

The V sign, created by lifting the index and middle finger and separating them to create a V-shape, means peace or victory in some countries. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the symbol takes on an offensive meaning when the back of the hand is facing outward.

Crossed arms might indicate that a person feels defensive, self-protective, or closed-off.

Standing with hands placed on the hips can be an indication that a person is ready and in control, or it can also possibly be a sign of aggressiveness.

Clasping the hands behind the back might indicate that a person is feeling bored, anxious, or even angry.

Rapidly tapping fingers or fidgeting can be a sign that a person is bored, impatient, or frustrated.

Crossed legs can indicate that a person is feeling closed-off or in need of privacy.

Open posture involves keeping the trunk of the body open and exposed. This type of posture indicates friendliness, openness, and willingness.

Closed posture involves hiding the trunk of the body often by hunching forward and keeping the arms and legs crossed. This type of posture can be an indicator of hostility, unfriendliness, and anxiety.

The term proxemics, coined by anthropologist Edward T. Hall, refers to the distance between people as they interact.

Just as body movements and facial expressions can communicate a great deal of nonverbal information, so can the physical space between individuals.

Hall described 4 levels of social distance that occur in different situations:

Intimate Distance: 6 to 18 inches. This level of physical distance often indicates a closer relationship or greater comfort between individuals. It usually occurs during intimate contact such as hugging, whispering, or touching.

Personal Distance: 1.5 to 4 feet. Physical distance at this level usually occurs between people who are family members or close friends. The closer the people can comfortably stand while interacting can be an indicator of the level of intimacy in their relationship.

Social Distance: 4 to 12 feet. This level of physical distance is often used with individuals who are acquaintances. With someone you know fairly well, such as a co-worker you see several times a week, you might feel more comfortable interacting at a closer distance. In cases where you do not know the other person well, such as a postal delivery driver you only see once a month, a distance of 10 to 12 feet may feel more comfortable.

Public Distance: 12 to 25 feet. Physical distance at this level is often used in public speaking situations. Talking in front of a class full of students or giving a presentation at work are good examples of such situations.

Source ⚜ Some Additional Resources:

Anatomical Movements

Types of Body Movements

Human Body Movements

Hope this helps with your writing! Definitely have trouble with this at times as well.

[confused-writing]

Hello! I'm not disabled at all, but I've been wanting to write a character that uses mobility aids. I don't know what disabilities need mobility aids nor do I want to make this character offensive. What disabilities use mobility aids (i know there's a lot) and what do i not write into this character? Thanks!

Hi!

Realistically speaking, there's too many disabilities that can require mobility aids to count. A lot will depend on what mobility aid it is as well, how much do they use it, etc.

You can check out our "how to start research" guide! If you don't end up choosing anything from the other posts I'm about to link, it can help you with starting the process by yourself.

Now for reasons why someone could use a specific mobility aid (absolutely not exhaustive by any means whatsoever);

rollators,

wheelchairs,

canes and crutches,

prosthetic limb.

You can also check out our #disabled character ideas, or #character inspo tags.

As to what to do or not do, it will depend on a ton of factors. Mostly what disability aid it actually is, a cane will be different from a powerchair in just about everything. The most common theme as to what you should avoid is making the character hate their mobility aid. It's overdone, it's boring, it's almost always bad representation. Mobility aids are freedom and help us, we are not "bound" or "confined" to them. You should also stray away from making your character helpless - which is not the same as needing help, or a requiring a caregiver! - or reducing them to their disability - e.g., making their whole backstory about their disability (The Accident and nothing else), all their hobbies being related to the disability (seemingly does nothing but "tinker with their prosthetic to improve it"), all that.

If you have a more specific question, feel free to send another ask

mod Sasza

[confused-writing]

helpful sites for writers

i have a little collection of websites i tend to use for coming up with ideas, naming people or places, keeping clear visuals or logistics, writing basics about places i've never been to, and so on. i tend to do a lot of research, but sometimes you just need quick references, right? so i thought i'd share some of them!

Behind the Name; good for name meanings but also just random name ideas, regardless of meanings.

Fantasy Name Generator; this link goes to the town name generator, which i use most, but there are lots of silly/fun/good inspo generators on there!

Age Calculator; for remembering how old characters are in Y month in Z year. i use this constantly.

Height Comparison; i love this for the height visuals; does character A come up to character B's shoulder? are they a head taller? what does that look like, height-wise? the chart feature is great!

Child Development Guide; what can a (neurotypical, average) 5-year-old do at that age? this is a super handy quickguide for that, with the obviously huge caveat that children develop at different paces and this is not comprehensive or accurate for every child ever. i like it as a starting point, though!

Weather Spark; good for average temperatures and weather checking!

Green's Dictionary of Slang; good for looking up "would x say this?" or "what does this phrase mean in this context?" i love the timeline because it shows when the phrase was historically in use. this is english only, though; i dig a little harder for resources like this in other languages.

[confused-writing]

Can you give me advice about write in first person in the present, like in Hunger Games books, please?

I’ll try my best…! I ‘ll break this up into technicalities and technique so you can just jump to whichever part you need to use.

Technicalities: Changing Tenses

When I get confused about tenses, I break it up into two sections. So, first of all you have ‘first person’. First person is referring to oneself as ‘I’. For example:

I snatched the bread from the table, dropping it into my lap before the master had a chance to notice.

The next section is ‘present tense’. Present tense refers to things happening instantaneously, in the here and now. Using the previous example, it would look like this:

I snatch the bread from the table and drop it into my lap, so that the master doesn’t notice.

Changing tenses usually requires a switch in your word choice/order. I could have kept the sentence exactly the same as before, but to me it wouldn’t sound very ‘in the present’.

When the sentence was past tense, the protagonist was in a state of knowing future events. They were recounting a tale, not telling one as it happened, so they knew that in the moments afterwards, the master didn’t have a chance to see them steal.

On the contrary, when it’s present tense, there’s a lot of unknown space ahead of each action. I think it’s best to try and write for that accordingly. It could be that I’m just picky, but I do think word choice and order can make a difference between tenses…!

Okay, so, exercise! Read through the following and replace all of the bold parts with present-tense words:

Mary trundled on ahead, chin-to-chest, the sled skittering on the ice behind her. I scooped up a handful of snow and hurled it, laughing as it burst into fine powder against her hat. Mary jerked to face me, tears in her eyes. Well, I always did have a habit of making things worse instead of better. Before I could apologise, she took off, leaving only me and the sled behind.

This is a case where you don’t have to juggle the words around if you don’t want to. It would still make great sense, even if you altered the tense. However, don’t be afraid to rewrite the whole paragraph if you want to. The words are there for you to play with, so go play!

And this leads nicely onto the next point…

Technique: Describing the Action

A common complaint from writers using the present tense mode is that it feels like you have to describe every thought and movement the character makes. However, you can still skip things out as you would in the third-person if you need to! So, if your character is going to move from the living room to the kitchen, you can end one paragraph at the living room and begin another at the kitchen with a break. Like so:

‘None of it makes any sense,’ says Ryan with a sigh.

‘Yeah, all this talk is making me hungry.’

I lean forward on the couch, elbows on my knees, scrutinising the note and random code. That’s how it looks: random. Like someone just mashed their hands over the keyboard until they were satisfied. I know it’s not random though. We all know it isn’t, otherwise it wouldn’t be here. This is just another puzzle, only this time it’s Hard Mode.

Ryan and Luke are at the table, picking through the fruit bowl. I slam our evidence file in front of them.

'Take this seriously, would you?’

'Take the gibberish code seriously?’ Ryan questions.

His sarcasm only sets Luke off…

The switch in place is abrupt, but it saves the preamble. You could keep it short and sweet like, ‘I get up from the couch and stride into the kitchen with purpose,’ but in my opinion, it’s not necessary. We already feel the protagonist’s sense of purpose with the slamming of the papers onto the table, and the resulting disagreement.

Personally, I find it easier to focus on particular actions, and not on every one. For example, we don’t need to see a character making a cup of coffee. Cut the words, and to the part where they’re holding the coffee (specifically if drinking coffee is part of their routine - there’s no need to describe it word-for-word more than once). So, in the end, if you mention every instance where the protagonist moves from one room to the other, it can get repetitive and feel a bit like filler. You don’t have to mention it every time, I don’t think.

Mainly because it affects pace… so I would reserve this mode for something action-packed and fast-paced, for when you want your reader to be in the moment. That’s why it works for The Hunger Games; there’s a lot of this happens, this happens, this happens, because everything is moving so quickly. If you’re writing a book with a slower pace, first person present might not be the best choice, particularly if you need to divide attention between several characters throughout the story.

Remember, it’s never too late to change the tense of your story if you find it’s not working out. By all means experiment - this is how you learn about what’s best for the piece…!

See below for some more resources on this matter. I’ve tried to include general advice as well as opinions on the mode itself. Happy reading and I hope my contribution (although it is simplistic) helps you out…! Best of luck :)

Resources: Discussions

Writing in First Person, Present Tense? Think Again.

Why do you hate the first person present tense? (forum discussion)

NaNoWriMo | First Person Present Tense (forum discussion)

FYCD: Follower Thoughts on Present Tense

Articles

The Present Tense, The First Person

First Person, Present Tense: Agonising Pacing and Madness

What About Writing?: First Person Advice

A Few Tips for First Person Writing

General Help

Understanding Viewpoint Terminology - Writers Write

Choosing the Right POV

Choosing a Narrative Point of View

Which POV Is Right For You? A How-To on Points of View

- enlee

[confused-writing]

How To End Your Story

The Circle Ending: A story that does a full circle and comes back to the beginning

The Moral Ending: An ending where you learn a lesson and see the character develop

The Surprise Ending: A big plot twist last-minute

The Reflection Ending: The character looks back on their past achievements and experiences

The Emotional Ending: Leave your readers feelings sad, bittersweet, or happy

The Cliffhanger Ending: End on something that will leave your readers at the edge of their seat

The Humor Ending: Finish in a funny or humorous way

The Question Ending: Make the reader wonder what will happen next

The Image Ending: Show, don't tell

The Dialogue Ending: Finish with a quote from one of your characters

[confused-writing]

how do i get my character out of the corner i wrote myself in without a dues ex machina😭

How to Not Write Yourself Into a Corner (and How to Write Yourself Out of a Corner if You’re Already In One)

One of a writer’s WORST fears is writing themself into a corner.

It’s easy to write your characters into death-defying situations…but it’s not as easy to write the actual “defying death” part.

Some writers, in their desperation to get their characters out of a bind, employ the use of a Deus Ex Machina, as mentioned by anon:

Deus Ex Machina: (Translates to "god from the machine") A plot device where a seemingly unsolvable situation is fixed by an out-of-the-blue occurrence. The term “deus ex machina” is a reference to Greek plays, when actors playing a god would literally be lowered into the scene via a machine to magically solve any situation.

Unfortunately, this plot device is often ridiculed by readers, cited as a hack-job solution for a writer out of ideas.

How do we avoid this situation, then? Here are some tips and tricks on how to not write yourself into a corner, and how to write yourself out of a corner if you’re already in one!

Note that these tips may not work for everyone, so make sure to use your own intuition as a writer— you know your story best.

1. NIP IT IN THE BUD— OUTLINES ARE KEY!

I’m sorry to all of you pantsers out there, but the key to prevent writing yourself into a corner is to already have an idea of how each scene is going to turn out; don't make a problem without making a solution! If you keep on top of your outline, you should have no worries about writing your characters into a situation they can't get out of it.

It may be easiest to jot down ideas about a couple of scenarios and then select the one that works best, especially when it comes to dire climax scenes that have a lot of moving parts. 

Check out my posts below for more in-depth advice about outlining!

How to Outline

Plotting for Pansters and Pantsing for Plotters

This advice, although essential, does require a ton of foresight and time to plan…and if you’ve sought out this post, it may mean that it’s too late for preventative measures. The subsequent tips in this post are going to be for people who are already in the thick of it and need a way to save all of their writing progress. 

2. FORESHADOWING IS YOUR FRIEND (AKA “CHEKHOV’S GUN YOUR WAY OUT OF THAT SHIT”)

Foreshadowing: A narrative device wherein a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. It helps maintain believability while subverting expectations and making plot twists.

Chekhov’s Gun: A narrative device wherein a seemingly insignificant element or object in the story becomes useful later on. Sometimes used synonymously with foreshadowing, but usually refers to a specific object.

Examples of Foreshadowing/Chekhov’s guns in media:

The 1981 Quarter (Or Extra Life Quarter) in Ready Player One

“Don’t Cross the Streams” in Ghostbusters (1984)

Winchester Rifle Hanging over the Bar in Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The Rita Hayworth Poster in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The Water Bottle in Bullet Train (2022)

In my opinion, a Chekhov’s Gun is the more refined twin of the deus ex machina; although it may seem like it comes out of nowhere, observant readers or those who go back into the story will realize that this event was set up from the beginning.

Foreshadowing is the key to turning a deus ex machina into a Chekhov’s Gun. It’s spreading breadcrumbs to maintain believability even when unbelievable things happen.

My advice: plant a line here and there referring to the object/element that will get you out of the corner.

These lines can be about a healing potion that a character carries around to save them when they’re at the brink of death, the fact that the city they’re fighting in often suffers from sinkholes, or that a character has a seemingly useless skill. 

However, haphazardly inserting foreshadowing into your story may come across as heavy-handed; make sure it aligns with the narrative beats. Particularly big Chekhov’s Guns, especially ones that “save the day," may require multiple foreshadowing elements.

It can take a lot of work to incorporate the foreshadowing smoothly, so make sure it actually saves you time in comparison to rewriting the whole scenario/plot point.

3. TAKE A BREAK

Sometimes, the solution to your problem may not come to mind because you’re too immersed into the writing process and not thinking of the bigger picture. Or maybe it might just be good old-fashioned writer’s block. Take a step back, reassess, and return with the scene properly re-evaluated. Maybe start a new book or TV show to get some inspiration, or check out one of my posts below!

How to Overcome Writer’s Block

How to Get Inspired to Write and Regain Creativity

4. ASK FOR HELP

Sometimes, it might be best to have another set of eyes on your story! A situation that may seem unsolvable to you may have an obvious solution to a writing buddy.

5. KNOW THAT SOMETIMES RE-WRITING IS NECESSARY

I know this sounds horrible. It’s something that I wouldn’t wish upon any writer.

Sometimes, however, no amount of foreshadowing can get your characters out of the debacle they’ve put themselves in. Either that, or the work that it would take to insert the foreshadowing would be more than it’d take to rewrite the scene or the plot point.

My suggestion would be to search for the last place that you didn't feel lost, and then cut out everything after that.

(NEVER DELETE MAJOR CHUNKS OF YOUR WRITING! ALWAYS CUT IT AND SAVE IT IN A SCRAP DOC—IT COULD COME IN HANDY LATER!)

Then, take the time to outline the scenario and figure out the solution to your problem beforehand. It will suck, but trust me, it'll be worth it in the end.

HOPE THIS HELPED, AND HAPPY WRITING!

[confused-writing]

So, I'm trying to write a frame story within the mind of a 68 yr old man and can't figure out how to flesh out my paragraphs (because they're typically 2-3 sentences long).

I don't want to go into the cliché of "old man rambles" since 68 isn't that old. At least not enough that he shouldn't have an entire chapter describing his work office and what coffee mug he grabbed this morning, etc.

Working Details Into an Older Character's POV

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't center this character's age when trying to work details into your story. Instead, have a look at these posts for help:

Weaving Details into the Story Adding Description to Your Writing How to Make Your Description More Vivid Guide: Showing vs Telling When “Telling” is Okay The Right Amount of Description (5 Tips!) The 3 Fundamental Truths of Description Description: Style vs Excess/Deficiency

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[confused-writing]

okay hey real question: what are good ways to describe fat characters?

I see a lot of 'have more fat characters' and I'm Here For It but as someone who is skinny and in a world where most existing literature makes characters fat only as a joke or an indication of some variety of moral badness, I'm not really sure how to describe them in a way that's not objectifying or insulting. like, I've grown up on poetic descriptions of thin characters ('long slim fingers' and 'willow figure' etc etc) but I haven't read flattering descriptions of fat characters and I don't know where to start. I've seen a lot of 'how to describe poc' or 'how to describe disabled characters' or whatever and I've seen art ref posts for drawing fat characters, but no posts about how to write them well. so. open call for advice or for examples you've found and like??

[confused-writing]

[confused-writing]

I'm realizing the amount of research I have to do for this year's NaNoWriMo novel (which is a lot), so do you have any tips on doing efficient research for stories?

NaNoWriMo: Efficient Story Research

1 - Go General First

Let's say you're writing a story about a fictional astronaut in the 1960s. It can be tempting to just research everything about being an astronaut, being an astronaut in the 1960s, the 1960s in general, life in Houston, the history of Johnson Space Center, what Kennedy Space Center was like in the 60s, and so on... But there's going to be a lot of data there that never actually makes it into your story. So, a good place to start would be to read a short general overview of those things just so they're in your head. Then...

2 - Get Specific for the Needs of Your Story

Next, look at your plot outline or scene list and make notes about specific details you'll need to know about. For example, if you have a scene that takes place in Johnson Space Center, you may need to research the specific building where that scene takes place and get an idea of what it might have been like in the 1960s. Or, let's say you have a scene where your character is doing some sort of simulation to train ahead of the mission... you would need to research astronaut training in the 1960s to find out what kind of simulation they might be doing for training, or if you already know, you can research that specific simulation. But, you don't need to learn everything there is to know about astronaut training in the 1960s unless all of those things make an appearance in your story somehow.

3 - Placeholders Are Your Friends

Most important of all, just remember your first draft isn't your final draft... you don't need to have every single fact fleshed out before you start writing. If you're writing and you get to something that needs to be researched, put in a placeholder so you can research it later. You can literally type [placeholder] or you can just wing it, and correct whatever you come up with later on with something more factual. Either way, placeholders help ensure you don't spend a lot of time researching things you don't actually need to know about.

4 - Watch Out for Rabbit Holes

You're writing this story because the subject matter interests you, but interesting subject matter can lead us to fall down rabbit holes when we're researching. When that happens, it can be easy to justify it as research, but if you find yourself falling down one while researching, ask yourself, "Will any of this make an appearance in my story? Does it help me understand the subject matter more as a writer?" If not, back out of the rabbit hole immediately.

5 - Break It Up/Get Organized

It can really help to break your research down according to your story. Like, all the things you need to research for Act I, Act II, Act III... or maybe by character or setting. By breaking the research up into like parts in this way, it forces you to sift through it all more thoughtfully and makes you really think about what you actually need to know and spend time researching.

I hope that helps!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

LEARN MORE about WQA

SEE MY ask policies

VISIT MY Master List of Top Posts

COFFEE & COMMISSIONS ko-fi.com/wqa