#how to be a writer

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

🖋️ You Don’t Need to “Write Every Day” to Be a Real Writer (and Other Guilt-Crushing Truths)

Let’s make this one loud: 📣 You are not a failed writer because you didn’t open your Google Doc today.

We’ve all heard the advice, write every day, build the habit, protect the streak, treat it like brushing your teeth or doing crunches or whatever metaphor productivity Twitter is pushing this week.

But here’s the thing: You are not a factory. Your brain is not a faucet. And writing isn’t a moral behavior.

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🚫 Daily Writing is Not a Badge of Legitimacy

The "write every day" rule? It wasn’t invented for you. It came from a very specific kind of writer.... usually full-time, no kids, no chronic illness, no 60-hour day job, no executive dysfunction, that lives in a world made of schedules and uninterrupted mornings.

You? You’re probably doing your best between classes, during night shifts, after crying, before therapy, while microwaving pizza rolls.

If you’re writing at all, you’re already in the game. No daily streak required. No blood oath to the Scrivener gods. You don’t need to bleed ink to prove you’re real.

─────── ✦ ───────

🧠 Writing is Mental, Even When It’s Invisible

Plotting in the shower. Thinking about your character’s tragic backstory at red lights. Whispering fake arguments into your Notes app at 3am. Staring at the ceiling replaying one scene until it rots.

It all counts.

Writing is thinking, not just typing. That mental compost pile? That’s how the good stuff grows. You don’t owe your worth to a word count. Some days, the work looks like a blank page and a brain on fire.

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🔄 Rest Is Part of the Process, Not a Detour From It

Let me say this plainly: Burnout is not proof of effort.

You are allowed to pause. You are allowed to stop mid-project. You are allowed to write in bursts. You are allowed to write for a week and disappear for a month.

Writing is a relationship. It has seasons. It expands and contracts. You are not a robot with a daily quota, you’re a person carrying a whole fictional world inside you. Let yourself be human.

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📆 Consistency Helps--But Define It For Yourself

Do some writers thrive with routines? Sure. But routine =/= daily.

Try this: → “I write every weekend morning when I can.” → “I jot down notes during my commute.” → “I commit to one hour a week, guilt-free.” → “I take two weeks off after every chapter.” → “I only write during November and spiral gloriously.”

Build a rhythm that actually matches your energy, not one that shames you for not vibing like a full-time author in a lakeside cabin with nothing to do but word vomit and sip tea.

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💌 You’re Still a Real Writer (Even When You’re Not Producing)

You don’t need:

a finished draft

a daily goal

a growing WIP

a thriving project

a clever new idea

…to be a writer.

You only need:

the drive to tell a story

the will to try again

the love of the craft, even when it doesn’t love you back

You’re a real writer if you write sometimes. You’re a real writer if you write badly. You’re a real writer if you wrote once and it changed you.

─────── ✦ ───────

✨ Guilt Kills Stories Faster Than “Laziness” Ever Will

You’re not lazy. You’re probably: → Overwhelmed → Tired → Burnt out → Depressed → Distracted by survival → Caught in perfectionism’s death grip

And the guilt? It doesn’t make you more productive. It just sinks its teeth into your confidence until you start to believe you’ve “fallen behind” on something that’s supposed to be yours.

The best thing you can do for your writing life? Protect your joy. That spark. That curiosity. That itch to build something from nothing.

That matters more than any streak.

─────── ✦ ───────

📣 Final Truths (Pin These to Your Soul):

Missing writing days is not failure.

Your process is not wrong just because it’s not loud.

You are not in a race.

You are not a fraud.

You are allowed to come back whenever.

Writing is not a productivity metric. It’s a craft. It’s a calling. It’s a weird little ritual.

And it’ll still be there when you’re ready.

See you on the page, whether that’s tomorrow, or next week, or next season.

—rin t. // thewriteadviceforwriters // chaotic writing realist. anti-guilt gremlin. your local plot ghost.

📜 prompts for gothic girlies, literary lads, and cursed creatives

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

[morallysuperiorlips]

How I Approach Pacing and Tension in Writing (with graphic!)

(Fuck the gremlins, we're posting things TODAY)

Hi, welcome to the first actual post on my Tumblr page in where I ramble about how to write the goodest things.

Today's lesson is on PACING AND TENSION!

Hard to explain in many words, so behold my crudely drawn graph of how I handle this shit in my own writing (and I apologize in advance for my chicken scratch kekw)

I tend to have very high-stakes plots, but I feel like this could end up applying to any sort of genre or plot. I know a lot of these graphs I saw in school were a single bell curve with a gradual incline into the climax, but in my experience, the best way to build tension, keep pacing as even as you can, and really build into the peak of a story is to have small points of buildup to smaller peaks (aka the tension points) with sharper curves down into downtime (allowing the character to breathe), before building up again. Each tension point gets more and more intense, with the downtime acting as the small buffers between the gradually increasing intensity of the tension until SURPRISE, SHIT HITS THE FAN, IT'S THE BIG BAD ISSUE COME TO A BOIL.

But of course when shit hits the fan, things aren't the same as they were before (or at least, they won't be for a while), so the shape changes. Instead of sharp curves up and down, you're looking at a more gradual downward incline, with dips for moments of recovery/acceptance before there's little spikes in tension as a result of whatever occurred in the climax. This isn't an exact science and definitely can be toyed with, but this is a model I like to attempt to adhere to when I'm focusing on coming up with my story beats and creating the groundwork for the big climactic explosion.

Happy writing!

[adventuresofalgy]

People I'd Like to Know: Tumblr Tag Game

Algy was tagged by his friend @edinburgh-by-the-sea in Scotland's beautiful capital city, whom he thanks very kindly for choosing him. Algy wasn't sure whether his friend really wanted to know about his own fluffy bird tastes or those of his assistant, so he has answered for both 😀

Algy's current obsession: finding his way home in time for Christmas 🎄 His assistant's current obsession: maintaining health and finding time and energy to produce exciting new work for Algy's assistants' new collaborative tumblr blog @novelties-and-notions in addition to assisting Algy with his adventures every single day…

Algy is looking forward to: Christmas, Hogmanay (a tumblr party?), and his 13th tumblr birthday on 13th March 2025 (definitely a tumblr party!) Double 13! 🎄🎉🎁 His assistant is looking forward to: all kinds of new adventures in creativity

Last book Algy read: The Oxford Book of English Verse. As many of Algy's followers will know, Algy loves good poetry and has his own Algy-sized collection of volumes of verse. Last books Algy's assistant read (re-read): The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, in translation, and Joy in the Morning by P G Wodehouse.

Algy's assistant is sometimes asked for reading recommendations. She spent much time on her own when young, and therefore started reading, and learned to love books, at a precociously early age… there was nothing else to do! Significant influences which persist to this day include, roughly IN THE ORDER ORIGINALLY READ from early childhood: Beatrix Potter and the Winnie the Pooh stories; many classic collections of fairytales (esp. collected by Andrew Lang and the Brothers Grimm) and the works of Hans Christian Anderson; The Wind in the Willows; fairytale/fantasy works by George MacDonald; Peter Pan; the Dr. Dolittle stories by Hugh Lofting; Lewis Carroll; The Cuckoo Clock by Mrs Molesworth; The Secret Garden and The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett; works by Rudyard Kipling; C S Lewis; J R R Tolkien (first read at the age of 9 but only occasionally since); P G Wodehouse (20th century master of the use of English and of humour – a lifelong indulgence in reading); Charles Dickens (his descriptive powers have rarely if ever been equalled); Arthurian Romances; and all works by Jane Austen, Henry James, Thomas Mann, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller and – beyond fiction – Ludwig Wittgenstein. And of course Shakespeare, who inevitably has some influence on anyone who has ever studied English, plus many, many other more forgettable writers in various genres.

Although many of the titles above were written as fiction for children, she has continued to re-read those works over the years, as may be evident in Algy's adventures 😀

And for those who have asked for reading recommendations, especially those folk of an older generation who have not yet had the opportunity to read very much – and also for aspiring writers – she would say that if you have not yet read much literature, but wish to, then don't waste precious time on lesser authors but read the very best stuff first 😊

(And anyone who wishes to "be a writer", in no matter what kind of genre or style, is advised to first of all master the use of language – and the best way to do that is by reading past masters extensively. Like any other highly skilled activity, if you want to mess around with it and make it jump through hoops, you have to thoroughly master the basic skill set first.)

Last song Algy listened to: When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along 😀

Last movie Algy watched: Mary Poppins (the original 1964 movie) Algy is fascinated by the incredible animation with live action sequence, and by the remarkable Dick van Dyke, who has just celebrated his 99th birthday! Last movies Algy's assistant watched: W C Fields' International House and the Marx Brothers The Cocoanuts… Why a duck? 🤣

Last TV show: Algy and his assistant NEVER watch televsion, though they do watch movies. They have better things to do with their time than watch TV 😀 Algy's assistant's family didn't have a television until she was about 10 years old, and much of her adult life has been spent without television too.

Sweet/spicy/savory: Not really. 🌰🍏🍉🥦🍓🧀🥕🍚🍅🥛🥒🍞

Favourite colour: Green and yellow and orange 💚🧡💛😀

Last thing we googled: Google Translate – for help with communication with tumblr friends who don't speak English ☺️ And Google Maps to find out where is where, as Algy has followers all over the world. His grasp of geography is fluffy, and his assistant's is not much better!

Relationship status: Algy is of course in a fluffy relationship with his rather incompetent assistant, who is permanently united with her lifelong partner and spouse.

Tagging: Algy understands that he is supposed to tag friends to prompt them to play too, but he suspects that the folk he would most like to know about might feel too shy or unduly pressured to do this. So he invites ALL his friends to play this game, and leaves it up to them. He would love to know more about you 😍

[rrcraft-and-lore]

Yeah, alright, no. No don't this. I'll do you a few fucking better and teach you right here and now how to do this: You game? Blurb and lesson time. Got you. First up, a SPOOC. This is one technique that can be expanded (gonna give you examples too). WRITING LESSONS AHOY:

SPOOC = Situation, protagonist, objective, obstacles/opponents, climax/cost. So, when Frodo Baggins (protagonist) inherits the Ring of Power (Situation), he must set out on a quest to destroy it (objective). But, will he succeed when the forces of sauron and saruman unite and try to reclaim the one ring and use its power to destroy Middle Earth (climax - cost if failure). This specific example is taught by Jim Butcher so if you want some weight behind it.

There you go. It works.

Want to know how to do a blurb? Practice, but check it:

Who is it?

What's going on?

Why should we care?

What happens if the hero fails?

If you can, end on a snappy one liner or question. You can open on one too or a question like it.

What do shadows darting across the walls, cryptic writing, black fog, and a little girl who can see ghosts have in common? Paranormal investigator and soul without a body, Vincent Graves, has forty-four hours to find out. To make matters worse, his years of body-hopping and monster-hunting are catching up with him. He's losing his mind. An old contact has shut him out. To top it all off, something's skulking through an asylum, killing patients. Three guesses who might be next, and the first two don't count. The writing on the wall is not so clear. But one thing is: if he doesn't figure this out he's a dead man--well, deader--and a strange young girl might follow. Vincent's got his back against a wall, and that wall's crumbling. Some days it's not worth it to wake up in someone else's body.

That's Grave Measures - book two in my urban fantasy detective series.

Who is it - covered. What's going on? Why should we care (the stakes to the protagonist and more). The costs. And the above. It's not rocket science, and doesn't have to be. Here's one from book three: Don't make deals with the paranormal. They're better at it than you, and they never play fair.

Paranormal investigator and soul without a body, Vincent Graves, did just that—a deal made in desperation. Now it's coming back to bite him in the middle of a case. He has 57 hours to investigate a string of deaths involving people who've made some devilish bargains. Too bad devils don't deal in good faith. It'd be easy enough, if he didn't have to deal with things such as:

-Being hunted through the streets of Queens by a dark elf with a motorcycle fetish.

-Ending up the target of a supernatural hit.

-An old acquaintance dragging him to a paranormal ball where he could end up on the menu.

-And having one of his closest guarded secrets brought to light...

Not great for a tight clock, because if he doesn't get to the bottom of this case in time, Vincent and company might just lose their souls. Dirty deals are never done dirt cheap. And the supernatural always collect—big! Same formula. A lot of fiction uses it. You just might not realize it. You don't need a fucking AI. You need a few minutes every day of practice. You got that. You got this.

With SPOOC, you can outline a whole damn novel. You get a snappy two-liner pitch to sell with. YOu can expand it into summaries for each book to make up LOTR in this case or your series. Then you can reverse engineer and keep expanding each summary. It does it for you.

[peninkandcakecrumbs]

How to be a writer

Will require writing utensils and something on which to write

(Avoid Tech: type-ups are for draft 3)

in this example we'll use a biro (well-loved) and notebook (one of many).

Find a quiet place;

a room of ones own, a booth in a cafe late one evening

or maybe a secluded spot in a wood somewhere.

With the end of the biro, open a vein.

let the stardust and ink of your heart, your inner stories, bleed out.

Splatter the pages before you.

Don't shy away.

Don't turn back.

Be brave and go all in.

Leave nothing out.

Then, when the well has run dry,

and the pages are tacky, kissing your fingertips when you test it,

Slice out the dead lines, Kill your darlings,

destroy the original to create perfection,

And when you're happy with it,

Close the book, put it in a drawer and lock it away forever.

Never to be seen again.

-NJR

[aci25]

How YOU can change the world through WRITING with Alan Moore | Meet your Maestro | BBC Maestro

Where does writing come from, and who can be a writer? Alan Moore answers these questions, and reveals the deeper nature of storytelling, its parallels with magic, and what it takes to create meaningful work.

[sneezingcow]

Writer ?Fitness? and the Farmer Carry

Writer ?Fitness? and the Farmer Carry

[chernyadventures]

Fantastic tips, even just for a beginning writer! (Or one like me that's getting back to it after a long time)

4 Tips for Autistic Writers

Autistic writers can face unique challenges when it comes to writing. NaNo Participant Auden Halligan has tips to handle some of those challenges!

So, you’ve just sat down at your desk, all ready to work on your next chapter, but you just can’t seem to start. Something is itching at your brain, and no matter how hard you think, you can’t figure it out. For autistic writers, that itch might be even harder to get around when compounded with autistic inertia, introspection issues, and sensory processing disorder — even if we were super excited to get started, sometimes the stumbling blocks are enough to keep us from going anywhere at all.

Here are four tips to identify your struggles and work around them rather than against them as an autistic writer!

Keep reading

[calebslver]

₍⑅ᐢ..ᐢ₎ caleb finding ur gspot <3

💭 : p in v , changing positions, mating press, prone bone, doggy, dumbification, slight degradation with praise

you didn’t know what he was doing. every time you thought he’d stop, he’d settle, he would change positions. acting like he was trying to find something inside of you that you didn’t even know was there. but your body did.

every time caleb thrusted, you clenched around him in pleasure—but it felt like he was missing something. every time he changed positions—from your legs on his shoulders, bending you in a way you didn’t even think was possible, to putting all his weight on top of you as you drool into the pillow—he blubbered something about knowing that it was somewhere inside, that he was so close to finding it.

every thrust was restless, a thrust deep—short, fast, a bit too the right, far to the left—you felt it through the fuzzy haze that muffled your hearing and overstimulating you. you felt your brain turn into mush, seeping past your lips as drool with every buck.

“c-caleb,” you slurred, face pressed against your pillow as he lifted your hips and pressed your ass against his pelvis. “‘leb, what’re you do—hah!” he quickly hushed you, thrusting harshly again, seeking for something—and you thought he hit it before missing it by a fraction. “know it’s here somewhere. fuck, fuck—gonna find it—gonna make you squirt, baby,” he panted.

he moved your hips to the side—thrusted. moved them slightly down—thrust. up again—thrust. until he pressed down on your back, making you arch against the matress and moved his knee—

he hit it and it felt like your brain popped.

you let out a sharp scream (one that your neighbors will probably call 911 thinking you were murdered) and you squirted. loud, wet, and dirty as your jaw dropped. he let out a choked gasp and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. he let out a long groan, head tilting back. “fuckkkk… there ya’ go. all dumb and fucked out for me, huh?”

he drew back, just to slam back, tip pressing against your gspot again that made your legs fly around and hips buck. “as you should, right? you like being so dumb for gege. your drooling your brains out, sweets,” he chuckled, grinding against the spot as you sobbed into the pillow.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

people who write their fics directly onto archive of our own site do not fear death by the way

in all seriousness, please always keep backups of your works, write them somewhere else (google doc is a good choice) then copy and paste onto ao3 when you're done, because ao3 itself does not automatically save your works for you, meaning you can lose all of your progress

[iwasbored777]

I didn't need to know this 😭

[youre-only-gay-once]

you know you're in a special circle of tv hell when you start hypothesising that maybe it was written bad on purpose

[creativepromptsforwriting]

How to show emotions

Part V

How to show grief

a vacant look

slack facial expressions

shaky hands

trembling lips

swallowing

struggling to breathe

tears rolling down their cheeks

How to show fondness

smiling with their mouth and their eyes

softening their features

cannot keep their eyes off of the object of their fondness

sometimes pouting the lips a bit

reaching out, wanting to touch them

How to show envy

narrowing their eyes

rolling their eyes

raising their eyebrows

grinding their teeth

tightening jaw

chin poking out

pouting their lips

forced smiling

crossing arms

shifting their gaze

clenching their fists

tensing their muscles

then becoming restless/fidgeting

swallowing hard

stiffening

holding their breath

blinking rapidly

exhaling sharply

How to show regret

scrubbing a hand over the face

sighing heavily

downturned mouth

slightly bending over

shoulders hanging low

hands falling to the sides

a pained expression

heavy eyes

staring down at their feet

More: How to write emotions Masterpost

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee or become a member! And check out my Instagram! 🥰

[gelifish33]

The Craft of Creating Eli Cinderfella

Welcome once again, readers! As the days become weeks and surely turn into a full month, I have been asked over and over again how I can confidently show up to the keyboard to complete Eli Cinderfella. So, let’s talk about it. The way writing works for me, the oddball schedule I adhere to, and how, day after day, word by simple freaking word, a novel is built. There are rarely moments I’m…

[jamiemoonymarks]

Normalize leaving unhinged comments on ao3 fics you like. I'm tired of being the only one brave enough to write "I am chewing on this fic" in the comment section. Be weird. Authors will love you for it