pandemonium-typewriter

[pandemonium-typewriter]

Types Of Writer’s Block (And How To Fix Them)

1. High inspiration, low motivation. You have so many ideas to write, but you just don’t have the motivation to actually get them down, and even if you can make yourself start writing it you’ll often find yourself getting distracted or disengaged in favour of imagining everything playing out

Try just bullet pointing the ideas you have instead of writing them properly, especially if you won’t remember it afterwards if you don’t. At least you’ll have the ideas ready to use when you have the motivation later on

2. Low inspiration, high motivation. You’re all prepared, you’re so pumped to write, you open your document aaaaand… three hours later, that cursor is still blinking at the top of a blank page

RIP pantsers but this is where plotting wins out; refer back to your plans and figure out where to go from here. You can also use your bullet points from the last point if this is applicable

3. No inspiration, no motivation. You don’t have any ideas, you don’t feel like writing, all in all everything is just sucky when you think about it

Make a deal with yourself; usually when I’m feeling this way I can tell myself “Okay, just write anyway for ten minutes and after that, if you really want to stop, you can stop” and then once my ten minutes is up I’ve often found my flow. Just remember that, if you still don’t want to keep writing after your ten minutes is up, don’t keep writing anyway and break your deal - it’ll be harder to make deals with yourself in future if your brain knows you don’t honour them

4. Can’t bridge the gap. When you’re stuck on this one sentence/paragraph that you just don’t know how to progress through. Until you figure it out, productivity has slowed to a halt

Mark it up, bullet point what you want to happen here, then move on. A lot of people don’t know how to keep writing after skipping a part because they don’t know exactly what happened to lead up to this moment - but you have a general idea just like you do for everything else you’re writing, and that’s enough. Just keep it generic and know you can go back to edit later, at the same time as when you’re filling in the blank. It’ll give editing you a clear purpose, if nothing else

5. Perfectionism and self-doubt. You don’t think your writing is perfect first time, so you struggle to accept that it’s anything better than a total failure. Whether or not you’re aware of the fact that this is an unrealistic standard makes no difference

Perfection is stagnant. If you write the perfect story, which would require you to turn a good story into something objective rather than subjective, then after that you’d never write again, because nothing will ever meet that standard again. That or you would only ever write the same kind of stories over and over, never growing or developing as a writer. If you’re looking back on your writing and saying “This is so bad, I hate it”, that’s generally a good thing; it means you’ve grown and improved. Maybe your current writing isn’t bad, if just matched your skill level at the time, and since then you’re able to maintain a higher standard since you’ve learned more about your craft as time went on

[pandemonium-typewriter]

97 character motivations

Need a masterlist of character motivation ideas?

Here’s 97 different character motivations you can use for anything from your hero, side-characters, villain, or even to craft smaller subplots. Save this post for later!

Saving a family member from capture

Saving a sibling from disease

Saving a pet from danger

Saving the world from ruin

Saving a friend from heartbreak

Saving the town from financial ruin

Saving friends from dangerous deadly situations

Saving a love interest from dying

Saving themselves in a dangerous world

Saving a community from falling apart

Saving a child from a potentially dangerous circumstance

Saving a place or location from evil forces

Saving a ghost from limbo

Overcoming a phobia

Overcoming an addiction

Overcoming marital struggles

Moving on from loss

Finding a significant other

Finding a new family (not blood-related)

Finding true biological family

Finding out an old secret

Finding a way home

Reconnecting with long-lost friends

Getting out of a dark state of mind

Finding peace in life

Beating a disease

Beating an arch nemesis

Forming a peaceful community

Transforming a location

Bringing someone back to life

Winning a competition

Going on an adventure

Getting a dream job

Keeping a secret

Escaping a location of capture

Proving a moral point

Proving a political point

Winning a political campaign

Betray someone

Ruin someone’s life

Find a suspect or killer

Find the answer to a mystery

Discover ancient sites & secret histories

Perform a successful ritual

Summon the dead

Save a country from dictatorship

Become the most powerful in a community

Outshine a family member in business success

Prove someone wrong

Win prize money to help someone in need

Get revenge on someone who wronged them

Find the person who wronged them

Develop significant scientific progress

Gain respect from family

Get over an ex-lover

Move on from a painful death

Keep their community alive

Lead their community

Heal people in need

Preserve a species (animal, alien, plant…)

Discover new world

Get recognition for hard work

Become famous

Get rich to prove themselves to people who doubted them

Break a long tradition

Challenge the status quo of a community

Defeat a magical nemesis

Take over a location to rule

Find out truth behind old legends

Help someone get over their struggles

Prove their moral values

Prove their worth to an external party

Become a supernatural creature

Keep something from falling into the wrong hands

Protect the only person they care about

Start a revolution

Invent new technology

Invent a new weapon

Win a war

Fit in with a community

Atone for past sins

Give top-secret information to an enemy as revenge

Kill an ex-lovers current partner

Reinvent themselves

Raise a strong child

Make it to a location in a strict time period

Find faith

Find enlightenment

Find out more about the afterlife

Confess love to a friend

Solve a moral dilemma

Have a child of their own

Avoid being alone

Run away from past struggles

Reinvent themselves as a new person

Impress a colleague or boss

Avoid a fight or war breaking out

[pandemonium-typewriter]

Preptober/NaNoPlanMo 2021

Looked for some good prompt lists and couldn’t quite find any I wanted to use this moth so I made my own. If you want to use mine feel free to, and feel free to tag me if you do

(May edit/change if needed)

Set-Up

1. Who is the main character(s)? Why are they the main character? Who/what is the antagonist and why?

2. What is the general setting? What location, if any, does most of it take place in? Why is this the main location? 

3. What is ‘life as normal’ for your MC? What do they think or this? What is the inciting incident that changes this life for them?

Beginning

4. What is the main plot, or at least, the main plot as it begins? What is the goal and what is the initial route to achieving it? What will be the main plot, even if the MC doesn’t realize it yet?

5. What is your character’s personal stakes in the plot? What do they want, and is it different from the states goal? Is it what they actually want or actually need? How do these conflict with the antagonist’s goals?

6. What does your MC or your audience learn about the world as the characters begin to explore it? What is new, and how does that change? What is this world based on/run on (magic, strict rules, tradition, etc) 

7. What is the first goal the MC has to achieve? How does it go, and what is its role in the major plot? Does it seem simple at first before the MC discovers it’s more complicated? Does this open the door to a new turn in the plot, or is it simply a step in a larger goal?

8. Does your MC have any major secrets or fears? What do they have to lose, what’s at stake? How can this be taken advantage of by the antagonist?

9. As you structure the world around what needs to happen for the plot, are there any pieces that make up a lot of how the relevant world works? A particular technology, an important magic item/spell, a certain creature or plant? What are the rules for how this works, what can it do and why is it needed? How do people view it? Are there any aspects of this that people don’t realize or didn’t think they could use them for?

10. Are there any side characters that play a role? What role do they play, how are they important, what are they like?

Middle & Development

11. How does the antagonist mess with the MC’s plans? What complications happen? How do these lead into each other?

12. What is your character’s greatest strength, and their greatest flaw? How do these interact? How does their flaw make things harder for them? How does the antagonist take advantage of their flaws?

13. What is most interesting in your world? What do your characters love or hate in the world? Is there anything particularly interesting not for plot reasons but simply interesting? How can this come up? Does this say anything about the larger world or society?

14. Are there any plot ideas you have that you aren’t sure where they belong? Note what these are. What needs to happen before these can? What could these plot points lead to? 

15. What is your MC’s background? What is in their past? Do they have a minority status in any way and does/how does this affect them? How does their past shape their present actions? 

16. How might readers connect with your story? What would you guess would keep them reading, assuming you write it well? What is most intriguing to you? Why do you feel the need to write this story?

17. Are there any major subplots going on? Why are they important? Do they add anything to/influence the main plot? How does the main plot influence the side plot?

Middle & Higher Stakes

18. What is most significantly in their way in achieving the main plot? Can they address this head on or do they have to seek alternate routes? What stops them from addressing it head on? Does the antagonist control all of these or are their complications outside the antagonist’s control?

19. How does your MC progress the plot? How do they change the plot? How do they worsen things and how do they improve things? What are their major struggles? How does the antagonist progress the plot? How do they change it? 

20. What does your MC discover about the world as they go through their journey? How do these discoveries impact them?

21. What are the biggest turn(s) in the plot? What changed and why? Has their original goal changed, or has it just become more complicated? What other implications does this have?

22.

Is there anything that the MC refuses to change about themselves that is now getting in their way? Are they able to change, or does it backfire on them? Does the antagonist take advantage of it? Is there any way the antagonist changes?

23. How has the world’s culture, the society, the governing bodies— played a role? Are the characters acting within these or rebelling against them? Does anything need to change, or so these drive the plot itself?

24. What are you discovering as you plan? What are your own weaknesses, what do you need to develop more? Is there anything you’re blind to, anything you don’t think you’ll know yet? What are you still stuck on?

Climax & End

25. What goes wrong in their initial plan to achieve their goal? Why does it go wrong? What mistakes were made? What needs to change to achieve it? How does the antagonist get the upper hand?

26. How does your MC’s growth set the stage for the climax? Would they have been able to do what they do at the beginning of the story? What has changed for them? 

27. What major parts of the world— a setting, an item, a societal concept— can be taken advantage of to set the stage for the final confrontation? How does it help them achieve their goal, and why wasn’t this used before? Alternatively, how does this cause them more problems, and how do they address it?

28. How do they finally achieve their goal? Why did it work now, and why couldn’t they have done this in the first place?

29. Who is the character now and how is it different? When the story is over, who are they, did it change, and can they return to their old life? 

30. How has the world/setting changed as a result of the plot? What’s different about the world? Has it been impacted, or is everything mostly the same? Does this mean anything? 

31. Looking at everything you have in combination, what is your story about, fundamentally? How has your MC changed and what have they learned? How has your antagonist changed if they have (or things the antagonist controlled)? Are there any core themes that have come up?

Edit: realized I forgot to include antagonist stuff so edited to add some

[pandemonium-typewriter]

Writing advice from my uni teachers:

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

Before you write your novel, write a page of anything from your characters POV so you can get their voice right. Do this for every main character introduced.

[pandemonium-typewriter]

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

[pandemonium-typewriter]

the parallels between the fae and the mafia… hrnggg

[pandemonium-typewriter]

I officially can’t write in first person-past tense anymore lol. I started out ASTHC like that, but I got halfway through a scene today before suddenly realizing I’m back in present tense.

Whoops. Oh well lol

[pandemonium-typewriter]

What to call your story with magic?

Magic system:

Soft magic - this is a magic system where there isn’t much in the way of rules for magic. It can be shaped how the wielder wishes. For example, in Lord of the Rings by Tolkein, Gandalf uses a soft magic system.

Hard magic - this is magic with more rules in place. There is a specific theory for how magic works, as well as defined prices and rewards for using magic. Overall, there is more of a structure to it. For example, in the Kane Chronicals by Rick Riordan, Carter and Sadie Kane use a hard magic system.

Genre:

High fantasy: This takes place on another world than our own, and frequently (but not always) includes fictional creatures. Magic exists in this world.

Low fantasy: This takes place in our world, but where magic definitely exists.

Dark fantasy: This can be any type of fantasy, and it includes darker thematic elements. It is a more subjective term, and is therefore harder to consistantly define.

Portal fantasy: This takes place in another world in which there is magic, and that world is accessed through a portal. The starting point is our world, where there is no magic.

Magical realism: This takes place in our world, either in the present day, or in the past. Is there magic? Is there no magic? We do not quite know.

[pandemonium-typewriter]

My Revision Plan

I’ve been posting a lot about finishing a first draft of something new. So I thought it might be helpful if I also included my plans about what to do next. 

Step One: Preserve the Draft

I work in Scrivener, so my first step is to compile, save, and preserve my draft. For me, this means I’m:

Capturing a snapshot of the current version of my chapters in Scrivener, so I can keep editing the main ‘manuscript’ files without losing access to the current version.

Exporting and saving the entire manuscript as “[TITLE] - First Draft - July 2020″ so that as I finish further revisions, I’ll always know which version this one is. 

Emailing the draft to myself, saving it in iCloud, and printing it. Whatever it takes to ensure its safe keeping. This way, no matter what happens–if my computer falls into a pool and is destroyed–my entire first draft of this book will be safe somewhere. 

This way, I can revise and edit and generally make a mess of things again without having to worry that anything I do going forward is going to affect the contents or completeness of my first draft. 

Step Two: Second Sketches 

I don’t want to dive into the editing process just yet, so before doing a serious re-read or re-plotting my entire book, I’m going to set about re-sketching my settings and characters. 

In my first drafts, I treated my settings and characters as flexible. When I realized something about them wasn’t working, I changed that thing and kept going. Events changed locations, buildings changed distance from one another, Three of my characters had abrupt job changes in chapter ten, when I realized I could remove an extraneous plot and weave their storylines into a more central plot by doing so. Somewhere immediately after I tell the reader my protagonist has glasses, I forgot to ever mention them again. 

This means my initial character and setting sketches are all–well, not useless, but not quite useful anymore either. Now that I’ve figured out where and what things and people need to be in order to make the story work, I’m writing down new “character/setting rules” to guide me through my first revision. I want to make them consistent. 

For settings, this means I’m going to go through and decide on:

A “map” of the locations of the story and figure out exactly where things are in relation to one another

The layouts of individual settings 

What specific places look, smell, and sound like 

The “rules” of the world 

For characters, this means I’m going to go through and decide on their:

physical characteristics

personality and backstory

relationships both with other characters and the world around them

character arcs: their wants, their fears, their internal conflicts, and how they’re supposed to be growing and changing throughout the novel

And if I decide my protagonist does wear glasses, I’m going to make sure she’s wearing them throughout the entire story. 

Step Three: Read

Writing Advice

In the next few weeks, I’m going to read and reread books and blogs on writing. I am going to soak it all up. I’m going to learn or remind myself about what makes a story good. Refine my knowledge of writing craft. These are the ideas that are going to help me make my revised draft better than my first one.

Fun books!

I’m also going to read for fun, especially the books I was avoiding because they were in a similar genre/category to the one I was drafting. I want to know how good the “competition” is, and also see those “writing rules” I’ve been reading about in writing advice books/blogs in action. 

The First Draft

Finally, I’m going to crack open my own book. 

This is the hardest part of a revision: critically reading what I’ve written so I can prepare to tear it to pieces and rebuild it. 

Oof.

For this, I recommend changing the font, either printing it out or putting it on an e-reader, settling down in your favorite spot to read, and reading it in one go. I’m probably going to print mine out and put it in a binder. This will help me see it with the eye of a reader/editor instead of an author, and hopefully help me put some emotional distance between me and the work I’ve done. 

I’m going to keep a notebook nearby and take notes about things that are working, things that aren’t working, ideas for changes, and other stray observations (like words I’m using too often, or where I’m repeating myself, or abandoned plot points, etc.). 

Step Four: Re-Outline

This step itself has many steps.

Step One: Identify the core idea of the story. In clear terms, write out in one or two sentences what this story is about, English-major style. ie. “This story is about a girl finding the courage to pursue the life she wants, not the one her parents have planned for her. Her struggles are reflected back on her when she encounters the ghost of a princess who cares so much what history thinks of her, she’s letting its opinion turn her into a literal monster.” 

Step Two: Outline the events in the story as it currently exists. 

Step Three: Evaluate how well it conveys the core idea, and how the current structure works. Identify:

the purpose of various scenes (ie. inciting incident) 

Extraneous scenes/plots/characters

Plot points that should be in the story but are missing

Key moments of character arcs

Events that support the core idea

Events that either don’t support or work in opposition to the core idea

Step Four: Rebuild the outline so that the story has a strong structure that supports the core idea. 

Step Five: Share

I know I’m going to struggle with figuring out exactly how to rebuild my story, so I’m going to share both my first draft and my unfinished plan with my writing friends. I’m going to ask them for their ideas and advice. With their feedback, I’m going to solidify my plan for my new outline, hopefully a bit more confident that it’s the right one. 

I know not all people have a group of writing buddies they can easily do this with. If you don’t have a critique group, don’t sweat it. It helps and it’s worth an attempt to try to find one, but it’s not a vital step.

Step Six: Revise 

Finally, I’m going to go through my work chapter by chapter: editing scenes, trashing scenes, and writing new scenes entirely from scratch until I have a manuscript that’s hopefully much better than the first.

If I revise this book like I did my last one, I’ll probably polish the chapters as I move through them, so that when i’m done, some chapters will be on their twelfth drafts, some will be on their second, but overall it’ll be the best version of the story I’m currently able to write. 

–

It’s a lot, and it seems like a very daunting process from my current standpoint, but finishing the first draft seemed daunting too, just a few weeks ago, and I got through that process. With time and effort, I’ll get through this one too. 

[pandemonium-typewriter]

A Few Tips All Writers Should Remember:

·Write to your comfort level. Meaning: give yourself a break when you need it and push yourself when you’re feeling motivated.

·Seek out sources of motivation. There are very few times when motivation hits me out of nowhere. Read a good book. Watch a good movie. Write down your goals.

·Find your space. Coffee shop. Library. Your room with the music blasting and the TV playing your favorite show. Find whatever gets you in the right headspace.

·Your first draft is just the first draft. Too many writers stress out about the first draft and they forget it’s just the first step in completing your novel. You can add to it, build from it, or toss it away completely.

·You will be rejected. Even if you write the next big hit, you’ll be rejected. Read the reviews for some of your favorite books—I guarantee someone HATED it. Not everyone will like your work, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

·Write advice isn’t for everyone. There’s no one-size-fits-all plan for writers. Pick and choose advice that works for you, ignore what doesn’t. Not everything will relate directly to you and your style of writing.

·It’s okay to stay in. Want a night to yourself so you can write? Don’t be afraid to cancel your plans and focus on your writing hobby. You don’t have to feel guilty about wanting to work on your writing.

·Let ideas settle. It’s tempting to jump right in to a new writing idea, but let things settle for a bit. Brainstorm. See what comes next. An idea needs to have legs and it needs to take your story somewhere. Let it grow.

·Outlines aren’t set in stone. Be flexible with your outlines. Plan if you need to, but allow yourself to explore new ideas. Let your story go in an unexpected direction.

-Kris Noel

[pandemonium-typewriter]

secret writing tip: write 5 secntences of what happens in every chapter, like a very rough chapter blurb, add some dialogue notes/vibes you want. write which characters shwo up, what they do, and what the main point of the chapter is. 

is it a filler? is it a main one? is it just there? how does it connect to the others?

it helps like a god when im stuck

[pandemonium-typewriter]

when it comes to writing, there is no such thing as originality. no story is original. but you know what is original?

your style of writing.

it is not what you choose to write about that makes a story original. it's how you choose to write it.

[pandemonium-typewriter]

On Writing for Yourself and Not for Notes

AKA How to Enjoy Writing for the Sake of it

Get off social media! I know it’s tempting to blabber on about a WIP to get those hella cool notes, but doing so only reinforces that writing’s only fun if it gets you attention. We all need that boost now and again, but too much of it will whittle away your self-reliance. Close your laptop, leave your phone in a different room, and sit down with a notebook if possible and if you need to. You’ll get to know what enthralls you personally about your story.

Don’t write for an audience for now. Tumblr likes to do this thing where it says “blah blah blah X is problematic in media” and while it’s well-intentioned, internalizing too much of this can make you feel like you’re trying to write through a maze and constantly failing at it. Forget about your audience–you can flag and catch problematic stuff in edits after tossing it to the betas.

Remember what made thirteen-year-old you lose their mind? Yeah, write that. Once you’ve let go of writing for an audience, you won’t worry about being “cringey” anymore, and that’s when things start to get real good and real fun. You don’t have to show your writing to anyone, or even tell them you wrote it, so just go buckwild! Trust me, it’s so liberating.

Your inner critic is useful–but not now. Shut that bitch up! Your job when drafting is to make something. If you did that, you win, so your critic’s opinion is worth squat here. However, if you try to fight her {I always envision mine as some bitchy middle-aged woman lol} she’s just gonna get louder. So tell yourself you can be as critical of your writing as you want during edits. You’re not working for perfect, or even good right now. You’re working for existing.

Remember that this is a process. Companies like tumblr are investing a BUNCH of cash into getting you to stay glued to their platforms, and if you’re a creator this might manifest in your feeling like you need to live your creative life online. You don’t. But retraining your brain isn’t easy. Remember that divorcing yourself from the validation of online noise takes work and time and a lot of discomfort and redirecting, especially for folks like me who thrive on routine. And don’t discipline. Redirect. Negativity has no right to be in your creative space ♥️

[pandemonium-typewriter]

HEY WRITER FRIENDS

there’s this amazing site called realtimeboardwhich is like a whiteboard where you can plan and draw webs and family trees and timelines and all that sort of stuff. you can also insert videos, documents, photos, and lots of other things. you can put notes and post-its and, best of all, you can invite other people to be on the board with you and edit together!! 

this is really really awesome and a great tool for novel planning, so if you’re doing nanowrimo…. this could be good for you!!

[pandemonium-typewriter]

we’ve all heard of the NSFW alphabet, but what about a SOULMATE AU ALPHABET??

a...ging stops at 18 until you find your soulmate so the two of you can grow old together.

b...ody art (doodles that a person draws on themselves appear on their soulmate’s skin).

c...olors (aka the standard soulmate au where the world is black and white until you meet your soulmate and see colors).

d...amage done to a person also translates into their soulmate’s body (cuts, bruises and all).

e...sp (soulmates can sense one another’s presence and feel each other’s exact emotions even when miles away).

f...irst words/thoughts your soulmate says/thinks when seeing you are written on your skin.

g...uardian (it is said that the person who saves you from a near-death experience is your soulmate—drowning, car crash, etc.)

h...eartbeats (the soulmates share the same heartbeat—when one feels panicked, shocked, etc, the other can feel it too).

i...dentifier (a word or symbol which is imputed to your soulmate is somewhere on your body).

j...uxtaposition (your soulmate is the exact opposite of you, yet you find yourselves complementing one another).

k...eys and locks are randomly dispersed to soulmates on chains when they are born. when in proximity, the lock and key will act as magnets and bring the two soulmates closer together until the key is placed in the lock and a gratifying click is heard, unlocking the chain.

l...ast words your soulmate says are written on your skin, so you do not know it is them until they are gone.

m...arks or stains of the color black are somewhere on your body (palm of your hand, knuckles, knee) until you and your soulmate finally make physical contact. once the mark is touched, it fades to be consistent with the person’s skin color.

n...urse (the touch of a soulmate can heal you from affliction and vice versa).

o...pportune outfit (soulmates will eternally color coordinate, even if they have not met one another yet, and often times have similar patterns in their clothing).

p...assionflower (a type of flower soulmates have planted somewhere beneath their skin. Upon meeting their soulmate it will sprout through the skinand fully blossom as they reach the furthest point of their relationship. when a soulmate passes, the flower blooming from the other person does also).

q...uizzes revolving around one’s personal aspects, skills and ambitions are given to every person once they turn 18, and the results read who your soulmate is based off of your collective answers.

r...ed string bonds two soulmates together for a lifetime and all come in varying lengths—imagine the trouble of only being able to walk certain distances or having to sleep on the edge of your bed.

s...ongbird (any songs a person sings will get stuck in their soulmate’s head for the duration they decide to sing it).

t...imers are set on the wrist of every person once they are a certain age, slowly counting down until the day they meet their soulmate.

u...ndying (you and your soulmate must meet in order to end life—die—together. as long as you have not met them, you will continue aging yet remain immortal).

v...eiled (you and your soulmate must walk through life blind until running into one another by fate and finally gaining sight—those with no soulmate act as guides and help those in search of theirs).

w...riter’s choice (author can pick any au from the list to write).

x...FREE SPACE, the person who sent the prompt has the choice to make up an au or choose one from the list!

y...ellow fellow (colors of your vision changes depending on your soulmates mood. yellow is optimistic, green is envious, blue is upset, etc. and natural colors become present once the soulmates meet).

z...zz (in which soulmates first meet each other and share memories in their dreams before meeting each other in person—sometimes difficult to accomplish as dreams are hard to remember).

any writers on tumblr feel free to reblog so followers can send a certain letter to your inbox :) or just for ideas!

[pandemonium-typewriter]

thinking abt that specific type of intimacy from being in someone’s bedroom for the first time, & you’re poking around their items, & they’re reclined backwards on their bed telling you all the little stories while they follow you around the room with their eyes, & you feel it

[pandemonium-typewriter]

Writing is not always writing.

Writing is being on the train and mentally seeing your OCs stumble into other people, or flinching away from the germ-ridden handrails, or sleeping on each others’ shoulders.

Writing is hearing a song on the radio and watching one of your scenes play out to the lyrics.

Writing is laying on your floor or sitting by your computer and spending hours collaging newspaper clippings or pictures or people or plants together and making something that is completely, uniquely, your story.

Writing is drawing your characters in your notebooks, and making tea only your one, picky character would drink, and writing an open letter to all your characters just to remind them you love them.

Writing is moodboards, and playlists, and crafts, and asks, and prompts, and pictures, and memories, and you.

So never think that just because you’re not putting words on a page, you’re not a real writer. Writing is something that follows you everywhere, beyond the word document, and beyond the screen.

Because writing isn’t something you do. It’s something you are.