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When you realize fanfic writers are just fanfic readers who couldn't find what they wanted to read 💀

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How to Write Fictional Wars

1. Cause

A war can't happen just BECAUSE—all wars happen for at least one, usually a multitude of, reasons. The main question to ask is:

What is something both sides are willing to die/kill for? Or at least that their leaders deem important enough to endanger civilian lives for?

NOTE: That final question may not apply as much if you're writing types of leaders who don't care about preserving human life aside from their own, and other nuances like that. But even so, your immoral leader might still be smart enough to realize the importance of population as an economic base and general resource, so it's still a relevant question.

Here are some ideas for causes:

POLITICAL:

succession and dynastic disputes

gaining/losing foreign influence that is important to some political entity

gaining popular support

strength propaganda

liberation from an established order

personal rivalries between leaders that spiral

ECONOMIC:

gaining/protecting prized resource (e.g. oil), trade routes, valuable land (like large fertile areas)

conquering to plunder

RELIGIOUS/IDEOLOGICAL:

holy wars, crusades/jihad

liberation from an ideologically opposing order

fighting for "what's right"

rebelling against tyranny

ACCIDENTAL:

diplomatic misunderstandings (e.g. unreceived letters, catastrophic misspellings, language barriers, misread body language, etc.)

assassinations

basically, any small-scale event that escalated past the point of no return

Keeping a timeline of important events in your world will help greatly with creating a realistic, cohesive background for your war.

2. Who's fighting?

These are ideally the ones most deeply involved in the causes you chose. Here are some ideas for your belligerents:

Nations: Nation-states. Countries. Empires. Any large, sovereign territory with its own borders and armies.

Factions, tribes, clans: More decentralized, tend to be smaller-scale (although stories about these factions manipulating more powerful entities are interesting), feuds may be more personal (e.g. vendettas)

Non-state actors: Insurgents, guerillas, terrorist organizations—these groups tend to engage in asymmetrical warfare where they get edges on official, government fighters through ambushes, infiltration, and destabilizing the region

Alliances: Powers not inherently involved may be dragged into big wars out of loyalty or coercion. In real life, this has caused many smaller conflicts to eventually expand

For each group, map out their strengths, weaknesses, technology, culture, fighting styles, fighters, and supporters/opponents.

3. Battles, Tactics, and Strategy

Generally, the grand strategy is the plan to achieve the overall goal (e.g. winning, retaking X, gaining Y, driving back Z), whereas tactics are acts within the strategy to achieve it.

Pick and choose which battles to write—these tend to be the most important ones, either to your characters, or to the belligerents (e.g. the battle that tipped the scales for one side, the pyrrhic victory, the final defeat, the brutal stalemate).

Here are some writing ideas:

espionage networks

assassinating important targets

besieging a key city

ambushes, guerilla warfare

naval blockades

cutting off or establishing supply lines

long campaigns across a region

conventional battles with 2+ parties on the battlefield, arranged troops, traditional formations and tactics (e.g. horses charge into ranged troops)

sending reinforcements to help during a battle

4. Wider Impact

During or after the war, many things will change for all parties involved, not just the population count or supply availability.

Politically:

Has the dominant ideology shifted?

How many more refugees, orphans, and destitute people are there? What have some of them resorted to doing for a livelihood?

What new technologies have been developed, and how have they been integrated into society?

Are there new borders?

Has a once-powerful nation fallen, or maintained its place? Has a new nation risen?

What was the price of 'winning'? For the other side, what did it cost to lose?

Individually:

Soldiers: How exhausting was it? Were there new experiences of camaraderie? Did some feel more courageous than others, and did they find more glory or devastation from warfare? What is the trauma like?

Civilians: Did they live every day in fear, and did a point of numbness arrive? Was there any resistance? Were any displaced, starved, tortured, or bound into servitude? How did they adjust to this new life?

Leaders: How did they make decisions—were they more calculating, emotional, magnanimous, petty, cruel, etc.? What sort of political pressure did they face? What moral compromises did they make? Did they even care about the individuals they sacrificed for the cause? How did they justify it?

NOTE: This is an oversimplification of the demographics you could focus on (e.g. different levels of leaders and soldiers, different occupations of civilians, different faction members within each group definitely faced different struggles), but a good starting point.

OVERALL:

READ, READ, READ! There are many real life and fictional wars that demonstrate these points perfectly, and you can learn a lot about writing warfare through studying it. Some significant and fundamental ones to learn about include:

Peloponnesian War

WWI, WWII

Crusades (particularly the First for simplicity's sake)

Punic and Gallic Wars

Mongol Invasion of Europe

the history of the Middle East, basically the entire thing

American Revolutionary War

NOTE: This list is quite Western with few exceptions. I'm not too familiar with the details of wars in other continents, and I have not personally studied them enough. My field of expertise is Classics and largely European politics. I 100% encourage further exploration in other directions.

∘₊✧────── ☾☼☽ ──────✧₊∘

instagram: @ grace_should_write

Hope this was helpful, and let me know if you have any questions by commenting, re-blogging, or DMing me on IG. Any and all engagement is appreciated :)

Happy writing, and have a great day!

- grace <3

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Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

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Character Development: 50 Questions

What does your character do when they think no one’s looking?

What’s the one thing your character would save in a fire (beyond the necessities)?

Who’s on speed dial?

Your character gets turned down for their dream job. What’s their second choice?

What would they tell their ten-year-old self?

Where would they want to go on a first date?

What’s the best advice they’ve ever received?

What’s the worst advice they’ve ever received?

What’s one physical detail they’d change about themselves?

When was the last time they were held? By who?

What’s their favorite thing about their favorite season?

Their wallet gets stolen. What do they do?

Prioritize: Love, money, power, knowledge?

What’s something nobody knows about them?

What’s in their fridge?

What (creature, object, substance) are they most disgusted by?

What’s their second worst habit?

What are the victory conditions for their life?

In the end, your character fails to save the day. Assuming they survive, what do they do?

Your character is charged with a crime they didn’t commit. What do they do?

Your character is charged with a crime they did commit. What was the crime?

How would you describe your character’s life in one sentence?

What important statistic would they want displayed above them?

What’s the first thing they would buy if they won the lottery?

What profession do they most respect?

What childhood injustice did they never get over?

How would they handle having a panic attack?

Your character is burdened with an inconvenient superpower. What is it?

If they died and could come back as any person, animal, or object, what would they be?

What’s the best meal they’ve ever had?

Where would they stand at a dinner party?

Who would they invite to the dinner party?

What makes a perfect day for your character?

If given the opportunity, would they want to know how and when they died?

What’s the one thing they’ve always wanted to do? Why haven’t they done it yet?

What do they tend to joke about?

What’s off limits?

Whose wedding would they cross the world to attend? Whose funeral?

What impossible choice did they make that turned out to be the right one? The wrong one?

Your character has someone to hype them up. What would they say to get everyone excited about your character?

What recurring dream does your character have?

What is the meaning of life to your character?

What book does your character pretend to have read?

Someone takes undeserved credit for your character’s work. What do they do?

What controversial belief or view does your character hold? Why? Do they hide it?

Your character is at a theme park. Where do they go first?

What’s your character’s favorite name?

What’s the biggest compliment they’d give themselves?

How does your character feel about bugs?

If your character could hit a reset button on their life, would they?

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

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Writing a "Kind" Character

Kindness - benevolent and helpful action intentionally directed toward another person. Kindness is often considered to be motivated by the desire to help another, not to gain explicit reward or to avoid explicit punishment.

Key Characteristics & Attributes of a Kind Person

Finding a scientifically-validated list of what it takes to be a kind person doesn’t exist. What we can do is glean this information from a variety of pieces of research. Following is a brief list of traits that surfaced again, and again.

Empathy

Good listening skills

Social

Generous

Charitable

Helpful

Courteous

Engage in perspective-taking

Caring/nurturing

Kindness as a Character Strength

Chris Peterson and Martin Seligman (2004) investigated character strengths and virtues found worldwide. They recognized that settings shape a person’s traits and, thus can change. Peterson and Seligman also understood that individual traits are stable and general (p. 10).

Their exploration culminated in the identification of 24 universal character strengths. Each strength is further classified according to a theme of which there are six.

The inclusion of a character strength involved meeting most of the following 10 criteria:

Fulfilling – The act is intrinsically motivating and rewarding.

Morally valued – Regardless of whether it produces a desirable outcome/reward.

Doesn’t diminish others – The creative act of one, benefits others.

Nonfelicitous opposite – This is a linguistic measure. The researchers were attempting to reduce confusion caused by synonyms or antonyms.

Traitlike – The strength is general and stable across situations and time.

Distinctiveness – The trait differs from the other traits in a meaningful way.

Paragons – Stories, legends, and myths include the desired trait.

Prodigies – Like in other domains, it’s possible that a person could show an unusual talent for a particular strength.

Selective absence – This leaves room for the possibility that someone doesn’t have a particular strength at all. For example, a person might score zero for humor.

Institutions and rituals – These are societal supports. Examples include sports teams, after-school programs, religious institutions, etc.

Kindness is a character strength within the Humanity theme. This theme encompasses tending to and befriending others. Their definition of kindness is: Doing favors and good deeds for others; helping them; taking care of them.

Synonyms include:

generosity,

nurturance,

care,

compassion,

altruistic love, and

“niceness” (Peterson & Seligman, 2004, p. 29).

Is Kindness a Weakness?

Research doesn’t support the perspective that to be kind is to be weak.

It does tell us that it makes us stronger mentally and physically.

The focus of leadership needs to shift from ‘what’ to including ‘how’ and ‘why.’

The role of kindness involves several actions (Haskins & Gill, 2018):

fostering a sense of inclusion

accommodating personal issues

treating others respectfully

generosity in giving and receiving

caring and being responsive

communicating with a personal touch

being transparent

explaining information logically

giving time and active listening

valuing differing perspectives

giving honest and constructive feedback

counseling and mentoring

embracing diversity and tolerance

Many of the leaders viewed kindness as a core value.

When it is seen as a core value and is communicated consistently, employees are happier and more productive. Financial performance also increases.

It’s important that boards and the executives running an organization agree on values. Some leaders believed kindness is difficult to sell in the boardroom or with shareholders.

Haskins and Gill identified 4 key attributes of kind leaders:

empathy

altruism

respect

fairness

These are the same traits board members need to show. According to their study, “kindness potentially holds the key to building trust in commercial business; this leap of faith starts with the board.”

Being a “tough as nails” leader has negative consequences. Emma Seppala writing for the Harvard Business Review (2014) cited two.

increased employee stress which contributes to high health care and more turnover

lack of bonding leads to increased psychological distress

Being kind had the opposite effect. It also increased trust and a sense of belonging. Self-sacrificing leaders gain loyal and committed employees. These employees are friendlier and more helpful to fellow teammates.

Self-Compassion Checklist

Is it possible to be kind and compassionate to others but not yourself? Can you give something to others, which you yourself lack?

This self-compassion checklist was adapted from Kristin Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale (Raes et al., 2011).

The self-compassion scale is used widely in research to examine the effects and impact of self-compassion on several life areas.

Self-Reflection Checklist on Self-Compassion

When I'm going through a very hard time, I give myself the caring and tenderness I need

I try to see my failures as part of the human condition

When something painful happens, I try to take a balanced view of the situation

Some evidence-based benefits suggest that higher self-compassion is associated with the following:

Improved emotional wellbeing in adolescents and adults (Bluth & Blanton, 2014)

Reduced shame-proneness, irrational beliefs, and symptoms of social anxiety (Cȃndea, & Szentágotai-Tătar, 2018)

Reduced procrastination and maladaptive perfectionism (Barnard & Curry, 2011)

Reduced body dissatisfaction, body shame, and improved body appreciation (Albertson et al., 2015).

Driven by this promising evidence, researchers and psychologists in positive psychology have developed many tools and exercises to help people cultivate self-compassion.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

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Do you have tips on how to make a good dialogue?

Writing Tips & References: Dialogue

How to Write Dialogue ⚜ Tips for Better Dialogue

Funny Dialogue ⚜ Speech Acts ⚜ Dialogue Tags

Children's Dialogue ⚜ Examples of Children's Dialogue

Components of Effective Dialogue ⚜ Dialogue in Novels

Formatting Dialogue ⚜ Tips on Dialogue (by Rick Riordan)

Functions of Intonation ⚜ Paralinguistic Features

Writing Arguments ⚜ Insults ⚜ Character Accents

What Good Dialogue ISN'T ⚜ Ways of Saying No

Nonsense Words ⚜ Swearing & Taboo Expressions

Compliments ⚜ "Sophisticated" Compliments

Happy Expressions ⚜ Oaths & Exclamations

Editing Dialogue ⚜ Too Much Dialogue

Writing Resources PDFs

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Tell, Don't Show: Yes, Sometimes You Should Break the Rule

Everyone's obsessed with show, don't tell (Yes, I am a culprit of this.) But if you show every single detail, your book will read like a 700-page fever dream. (Trust me I know. RIP to my three pages of Greek architecture and perfectly describing a rotunda when I realized while it was beautiful it did fucking nothing for my plot.)

Sometimes, you need to just tell the damn thing and move on.

But telling doesn't have to be flat either. It can have style, rhythm, and even bite. The difference is that you're condensing or summarizing instead of dramatizing.

So, when does telling work better than showing?

Transitions & Time Skips What not to do (over-showing): She squeezed the toothpaste onto the brush, scrubbing hard until her gums stung. She rinsed, spit, and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. After that, she combed her hair, pulled on her sweater, packed her bag, and checked the clock again. Seven more morning just like this passed before she finally got his letter.

Bruh. That's a whole ass unnecessary montage unless the toothpaste plays an important role. (Like if you later reveal the toothpaste was poisoned? Sure.) But more than half that is not necessary.

Better "tell it" version: A week bled by in identical mornings, each one collapsing into the next until, finally, the letter arrived.

Here the focus is on time passing and what actually matters (the letter), not every filler details.

Unimportant Details Over-showing: She stirred sugar into her coffee, sipped, burned her tongue, and cursed softly. Outside, the neighbor slammed his car door. The sound blending with the usual morning cadence of the dripping faucet in her bathroom, and the dog barking.

Better telling: The morning slipped past without consequence, unremarkable in every way that mattered.

Emotional Shortcuts Over-showing: His jaw clenched until his teeth ached, his fist trembled, his breath came ragged as she spoke.

Better telling: Every word from her mouth scraped against a hatred he'd been nursing for years.

Still telling, but with flavor. It gives the emotional weight without dragging through body mechanics.

Summarizing Backstory Over-showing: At eight years old, he knew the sound of hunger. At twelve, he knew factory floors. By fifteen, he had overgrown his shoes three times without replacing them.

Better telling: He carried the kind of childhood that never left your bones; thin winters, hard labor, and a hunger that taught him endurance.

Pacing & Focus Over-showing: The bailiff called the court to order, witnesses swore oaths, attorneys rifled through paper, and the judge scribbled notes through a long afternoon of objections and testimony.

Better telling: The trail dragged on, the afternoon swallowed by procedure and paperwork.

The Point The skill isn't memorizing show vs. tell like its gospel. It's knowing which details deserve the spotlight. Some moments beg to be shown because they reveal character, heighten tension, or build atmosphere. Others are just clutter, better swept aside with a line of clean telling so the story doesn't drown in filler.

Show to deepen the story. Tell to keep it moving.

Mastering the balance is what makes prose breathe.

Check out my other post 👉 The Art of Show don't Tell for more examples.

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Writing Notes: Finding your Premise

A premise is the 1-2 sentence overview or central idea of your story.

Your premise should introduce your audience to the 5 major story elements.

Essentially, you will tell readers who the main character is, what situation they find themselves in, their objective, what or who they are up against, and the main challenge they will face.

Having a premise in your notes is helpful because it can be used as a guide to keep your writing on track.

EXAMPLE

Simba, heir to the throne (plains), believes he is responsible for his father’s death and vows never to return and bring shame on his mother and pride. But his uncle Scar is running the kingdom into ruins and soon the pride will perish.

Premise Example Breakdown

Character: Simba

Situation: Believes he caused his father’s death and runs away

Objective: To never return home

Who/what they are up against: Uncle Scar

Challenge: Scar is ruining the kingdom

Questions to Consider

Who is your main protagonist / hero? What is their defining characteristic?

What situation do they find themselves in?

What does your character want?

Who or what are they up against?

Where does your story take place? How does that impact your character’s journey?

What is the central conflict of your story? What’s at stake?

Source ⚜ More: Writing Worksheets & Templates Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ Worldbuilding ⚜ Notes & References

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Me thinking that I'm funny was probably the first problem

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Ahh this is so truee

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Writing Notes: The Sun

Acronycal - occurring at sunset.

Auroral - pertaining to sunrise.

Fulgid - shining, glittering, briefly flashing light.

Heliotropic - plants that turn towards the sun.

Lucific - light-producing.

Lucifugous - light-avoiding; nocturnal.

Soliform - like the sun; sun-shaped.

Solisequious - following the course of the sun.

Sun glitter - sparkling light on water.

The sun...

Rotates around its own axis every 25.38 Earth days.

Accounts for 99.9% of the mass of the solar system.

Can reach 15 million degrees Celsius at its core.

Could fit over a million Earths inside it.

NOTES

Your weight on the Sun would be 28 times that on Earth.

It takes approximately 8 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to the Earth.

Interaction between solar wind & the Earth’s magnetic field create the auroras.

Crepuscular rays are sunbeams or sun rays that appear to radiate from the sun.

A green flash sometimes occurs at the moment before sunset or after sunrise, caused by the bending and scattering of sunlight.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth.

Eclipses occur in pairs, usually with 2 weeks between a lunar and solar eclipse.

The Gregorian Calendar is a solar calendar based on a solar year of 365 days.

A heliograph is a device that uses a mirror to flash reflected, telegraphic messages, usually in Morse code.

A sun dog or parhelion is a phenomenon caused by the refraction of sunlight that creates the illusion of bright spots to the left and right of the sun.

The polar day or midnight sun occurs during the summer in the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, when the sun is still up at midnight.

The polar night is the time when the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon at Earth’s polar regions. Although it lasts for 6 months, only 11 weeks are spent in total darkness, the rest in twilight.

The subsolar point is the point on Earth at which the Sun appears directly overhead, and objects seem to cast no shadow. The subsolar points travel between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer.

There are two solstices a year, one around 21 June, and one around 21 December. The solstices mark the longest or shortest day of the year (except at the equator). They are also the point in time when the sun’s declination reaches its highest or lowest limit and appears to stand still before changing direction, leading to the Latin etymology: “sol” meaning, “sun”, and “sistere” meaning, “to stand still”.

IN THE ARTS

Many cultures have a dawn deity in addition to a solar deity.

An aubade is a poem or song about lovers who must part at daybreak.

Dawn is considered a sacred time by many religions and often dedicated to prayer and meditation.

Clytie was a nymph in Greek mythology who, because of her unrequited love for the sun god, Helios, was turned into a sunflower, which was believed to follow the course of the sun.

Sir John Herschel coined the word, “photography” in 1839. He also invented the “actinometer” which measures the heat of direct sunlight.

The Sun is the 19th card of the Major Arcana of the Tarot. It is often thought to signify vitality, optimism, and playfulness.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Word List: Sun ⚜ Star ⚜ Glow