365daysofwritings

[365daysofwritings]

So you want to make an OC?: A Masterpost of Ways to Create, Develop, and Make Good OCs!

i made this masterpost in hopes that it helps you in making your own OCs ah;; it can also apply to developing RP characters i suppose! if you’d like to add more resources then go for it sugar pea (´ヮ`)!

How to Write Better OCs:

basic tips on how to make your oc even better

tragic backstory? learn how to write one/make yours great

writing specific characters

a wordier, great guide on how to develop your character

kick out those vague descriptions and make them AWESOME

Character Development:

how to actually make an OC

Q&A (to develop characters)

more Q&As

giving your character a backstory

how to write an attractive character

Diversity

adding more racial diversity

avoiding tokenism, AKA, how to add diversity to your cast not just because you “need” it

writing sexuality and gender expression (doesnt include non binary, if you have a good ref to that, please add on!)

masterpost on writing more diversity into your story

cultures of the world

guides to drawing different ethnicities (not just a great art reference, but also really helpful in appearance descriptions!)

Mary Sue/Gary Stu

Test to see if your character is a Sue

Explains subdivisions of Sues/Stus

Powerful Characters Don’t Have to Be Sues

Villains

villain generator

need an evil sounding name for your evil character? bam

villain archetypes

what’s your villain’s motive for being a villain?

Relationships

character perceptions (What your character thinks of themselves and what others think of them)

how to write strong relationships between two characters

8 ways to write better characters and develop their relationships with others

OCxLove Interest Handbook 

develop your couple with good ol’ Q&A!

how to write realistic relationships

how to write relatives for your characters (this is more OC related to a canon character, but will help in writing family members in general)

ARCHETYPES

12 common archetypes

8 archetypes for male/female characters

female archetypes (goes pretty indepth from two main categories)

a list of archetypes

NAMES

how to name your character

random name generator

most common surnames

surnames by ethnicity

APPEARANCE

tips for better design

basic appearance generator

pinterest board for character design (includes NSFW and images of skeletons/exposed muscle (?) so tread carefully!)

clothing ref masterpost

DETAILS

give your character better powers

a list of professions

proactive vs reactive characters

positive and negative traits

interest generator

skills generator

motivation generator

123 ideas for character flaws

list of phobias

again, this is to help inspire you or help establish your OCs! i hope you get a lot of info and help from this ahh ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

[365daysofwritings]

masterpost for writers creating their own worlds, or even just characters

names that have specific meanings

meanings of any names

popular baby names

upper class names

common last names

fancy last names

aristocratic/royal names

random name generator

random place name generator

list of latin words

english to latin translator

english to greek translat

or

greek mythology database

the culture of ancient rome

list of legendary creatures

fantasy name generator

feel free to add in any links!

[365daysofwritings]

⚜ inspiration for crowns & tiaras ⚜

"queens crowned in golden-jeweled halos, rule like angels among demons. their eyes shine like ethereal emeralds and stunning sapphires."

[365daysofwritings]

I have no idea how to write conversations. I live a bit of a quiet life and I don't know how people talk. Pretty stupid thing to ask for help about but it's a recurring problem in all of my writing. Do you have any resources or advice

It’s not stupid at all, Anon. We all have different strengths and problem areas. There are loads of great resources for this, so I don’t believe there’s anything I can add to the advice that’s already out there. I hope some of these help…!

How Tos:

How to Write Dialogue: The Conversation

How to Write Dialogue

How to Write Dialogue, by John August

Writing Dialogue: Go for Realistic, not Real-Life

Improving Your Dialogue:

Exercises to Improve Dialogue

10 Ways to Improve Your Dialogue

How to Write Great Dialogue

6 Ways You’re Botching Your Dialogue

50 Clichéd Dialogues to Ban from Your Script

Stimulating Conversation

Good Dialogue

Technicalities:

Guide on: Dialogue Punctuation

Punctuation in Dialogue

How to Use Dialogue Correctly

Why You Shouldn’t Start With Dialogue

Dialogue and the ‘Said’ Rule

Dialogue Formatting Tutorial: Star Wars Version

Character:

Creating Differences in the Speech Patterns of your Characters

Character Points to Consider When Writing Dialogue

Dialogue and Voice

Using Dialogue to Reveal Character

Dialogue Types:

Writing Witty Dialogue

Flirting and Dialogue

Dealing with a Character’s Internal Thoughts

Writing for a Disembodied Voice

Dialogue with Ensemble Casts

Mute & Non-Speaking Characters

Expressing Characters Without Vocals

Writing Magic: Distinguishing Magic-Speak in Writing

Writing Drunk Characters

Useful Resources:

100 Mostly Small But Expressive Interjections

Dialogue Tag Alternatives

The 7 Tools of Dialogue

Word Lists: Alternatives to ‘Ask’

Contradictions, Your Style and ‘Fad’ Advice

Best of luck~

- enlee

[365daysofwritings]

Got writer's block? Try this little trick.

You’ll need paper, a pen, a handful of highlighters or colored markers, and whatever you’re working on. Using the paper and pen, copy your last page or two by hand. Don’t change the content yet. When you’re finished, read through the penned copy and look for anything you feel could be improved or tweaked. Don’t erase or scratch anything out. Instead, use the markers to make changes. Draw big swooping arrows to move things around, in different colors. Want to add a word? Do it in pink, or green. Or purple. If you can’t find anything to change, read through it again and highlight the parts you like, again in different colors. And draw stars, pumpkins or exclamation points.

Using color and changing the physical method of expression stimulates the creative half of the brain, your “right brain,” and encourages it to reopen communication with the analytical half of your mind, or the left brain. Like most artists, most writers are right-brain-dominant, heavy on creativity. However, we also depend on our left brains for the tools of writing. When you stimulate your creative mind with color and fanciful images combined with your analytical prose and sentence structure, it can open the channels of communication and get the ideas flowing once more.

[365daysofwritings]

The Roles of Characters

There seems to be some confusion on protagonists, antagonists, villains, heroes, and anti-heroes and who they are. Hopefully this will help clear it up.

Types of Major Characters:

Protagonist: The main character, but not always the POV character. The protagonist can be a villainous character.

Antagonist: The antagonist is the character who opposes the protagonist by getting in the way of the protagonist’s motive or ultimate goal. The antagonist does not have to be a villainous character.

Villain: A villain is a character who is a wrongdoer, whether this character is the protagonist or the antagonist. Villains are immoral while antagonists and protagonists alone can be morally ambiguous.

Hero: The hero is the opposite of the villain. This character has heroic traits and is morally good. This character, like the villain, can be the protagonist or the antagonist.

Anti-Hero: The anti-hero is a protagonist who lacks many heroic traits, but is either morally ambiguous or morally good. They tend to be pessimistic and they play by their own rules, but still get the job done.

And what about some examples?

The Great Gatsby: Nick is the POV character, but he is not the main character or the protagonist. Gatsby is the protagonist and his motive is to make Daisy come to one of his parties so that she’ll fall in love with him. All the characters who get in the way of Gatsby being reunited with Daisy, like Tom, are the antagonists. Given that Tom is abusive, cheats on his wife, and is racist, among other things, he can be considered a villain. Gatsby is an anti-hero because he is the protagonist who lacks heroic traits (though he does have some, such as charisma) and he is not considered “morally good”.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: Dr. Horrible is the protagonist because he is the POV character, but he is a villain as well because he is immoral and his main motive is to join the Evil League of Evil (so it’s pretty obvious he’s a villain). The antagonist is Captain Hammer because he gets in the way of both of Dr. Horrible’s motives (to get Penny to fall in love with him and to join the Evil League of Evil), but he is also a hero given the traits he has for the majority of the film and his role as a literal hero.

A Song of Ice and Fire: I’ll only use examples from the first book/first season to avoid spoilers. This series uses several protagonists and antagonists, depending on which POV you’re reading from. One character can be both an antagonist and a protagonist depending on POV. However, there are some characters who are heroes and villains whether they’re an antagonist or a protagonist. Eddard “Ned” Stark is obviously a hero because he follows a morally good code and has heroic traits.

The Godfather: Most of the characters are villains, but they either fall into the category of antagonist or protagonist. The book follows a different structure than the movies do, so the main character changes. In the movie, Michael Corleone is the main character and protagonist who starts out with some heroic traits, but he becomes a villain throughout the first book/movie while remaining the protagonist.

*Note about morality: it changes depending on culture. An anti-hero in one culture may be considered a villain or a hero in another.

Other Character Terms:

Dynamic: Characters who change over time.

Static: Characters who do not change over time.

Round: Characters who are well developed.

Flat: Characters who are poorly developed.

Stock: Recognizable characters through literary stereotypes, such as the comic relief character. 

Archetype: Universally recognized characters, such as the hero.

Of course, whether a character is a hero, anti-hero, or a villain is always up to debate while whether a character is a protagonist or antagonist (depending on POV) is much more rigid.

[365daysofwritings]

The Authors@Google Series

If you’re looking for talks from authors, look no further. Google has been recording interviews, speeches, discussions, and readings from authors who they invite to speak for their employees for years. Here is a list of most of those talks taken from the GoogleTalks YouTube page.

Do some scrolling. Find an author you love or click a random link to discover a new perspective. I promise you won’t be disappointed. 

Tina Fey

T.C. Boyle

George R.R. Martin

Rebecca MacKinnon

Dr. Ruth, “Sexually Speaking"

Austin Kleon: Steal like an Artist

Dr. Deepak Chopra

Cheryl Strayed

Steven Johnson: “Where Good Ideas Come From"

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Lee Child: “A Wanted Man" & “One Shot"

Tom Wolfe

Mary Roach

Ray Kurzweil “How to Create a Mind"

Junot Diaz: “This is How You Lose Her"

Anne Rice

Professor Richard Dawkins on The Magic of Reality: How we know what’s really true

Read More

[365daysofwritings]

Plotting Programs and Tips

Anonymous asked: Are there any programmes, websites, guides or methods that you would suggest for plotting as in writing out/ organising the initial outline of your plot?

You might find these posts helpful:

Novel-Writing Programs

Some Links for and about Scrivener

Alternatives to MyNovel

For plotting, check out:

The ABCs (and Ds and Es) of Plot Development

This Is a Towel: Beginning and Developing Plot

Thank you for your question!

-C

[365daysofwritings]

So You Want to Write a Fantasy: Your Writer's Arsenal

Anonymous asked:

I really enjoy your So You Want To Write A Fantasy posts. Do you have any recommendations of good examples of fantasy/sci-fi books or movies that I can check out?

I’m going to preface this by saying: Yes, I do. I have not read everything, but there’s plenty of things out there that have been recommended to me, or read by others or places that have good recommendations. I like to be upfront with people - I am half White (Mayflower) and Half Hispanic (Mexican American/Yaqui descent). It has been infinitely easier for me to connect in the Fantasy realms of my WASP American heritage than my Mexican American heritage. I think I’m hyper aware of how race is portrayed in Fantasy because I only have half of myself represented in the media. My mother (Mexican American) grew up reading and watching White Fantasy and Sci-Fantasy, which in turn, is what I read/watched.

My knowledge is limited, but I think I can give you some ideas; mostly resources that come up with these such lists plus some links to Authors of Color and a Few Specific Books:

Black Science Fiction Society

Mind Blowing Sci-Fi by POC

TOR’s Mindblowing SF by Women and POC

ColorLines: The Ultimate 21st Century POC SF List 

SF/Fantasy by POC

50 Books by Queer People of Color

50 Books POC DeLiCious Lists

Feminist SF Net

SF Bookswap

Dead Bro Walking (likely to have lists and commentary somewhere…)

ABW - Media SF + Fantasy tag

50 Books POC Lists

50 Books Community Recs

American Indians in Children’s Lit

A reflection on the 50_POC Challenge + List

Tu Books (A SF/Fantasy Imprint for Children’s & YA Novels)

African American Science Fiction

Speculative & SF in Color (comments are Recs)

SF Works by People of Color

So Long Been Dreaming: Post-Colonial SF & Fantasy (an Anthology)

AFRO Sci-Fi

The Carl Brandon Society (Spec. Fiction)

SBattle AFRO Futurism/SF

Ursula K Le Guin

Laurence Yep (Asian Children’s/YA Fantasy & Historic Fiction)

Diversity Rollcall: SF/Fantasy

Color Online

SFF YA POC list

Fantasy Magazine’s Recommended Reading List: Characters of Color

Cosmos Latinos: A SciFi Anthology

Dark Matter: Reading the Bones (an Anthology)

YA Fantasy of Color

Fangs for the Fantasy: Reviews from a SJ perspective

Seeking Avalon’s POC Carnival

Animation in Asia

DesiLit Magazine

Metempsychosis of the Machine: Science Fiction in the Halls of Karma.

Secret Identities Graphic Anthology of Asian American Superheroes

Also check out these Asian Indie Comic Creators: Bryan Lee O’Malley, Kean Soo, E.J. Su, Amy Kim Ganter, Kazu Kabuishi, Gene Yang

Seriously check out Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese

AfriComics

Khmer Comics (Cambodian Comic Reads)

Magical Realism is Fantasy written in Spanish.

Stealth (Comic)

Race in American Science Fiction  

Black Space: Imagining Race in Sci-Fi Film

Tropes of Women of Color in Sci-Fi

Race & Reality in TV and SciFi

Race in Space: The Representation of Ethnicity in “Star Trek” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation”

Star Trek and History: Race-ing toward a White Future

Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek: Allegories of Desire in the Television Series and Films

Decoding Gender in Science Fiction

Native American Author Project

On Eurocentricity in Fantasy Fiction

YA Fantasy Diversity

Black & Brown Characters in Anime & Manga

East of Elvendom: POC in SF/F Art

5 Sci-Fi movies really about Racism

10 Reasons why Steampunk Fans should watch Avatar: The Last Airbender

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (for the portrayal of the Ishvalans as parallel to the Japanese Ainu people and for the Buddhist undertones). Race is important in this series.

Dr. Who (specifically 10th Doctor for Martha Jones. Frankly she’s the only reason why I continued watching.)

Misfits (TV Series)

Attack the Block (Urban Zombie Sci-fi)

Star Trek (different series for different characters of color as well as the movies)

Read Racialicious for POC in pop culture. (they watch a lot of True Blood)…

Heroes before the show went downhill

Fringe, especially for Astrid

Sailor Moon for an all Japanese cast of badass girls.

Miyazaki anything but I insist you watch Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke

John Woo’s Red Cliff (the international version. It’s not quite fantasy, it’s more like a Chinese 300/Troy. Badass anyways.)

 Aida | One By One

Mulan (Disney version AND the Chinese film from 2009)

Steam Boy

Hulu by genre

Netflix - > Foreign -> Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Eon & Eona (which I have not finished reading but started, and liked.) The white author goes into the books she read for research on her webpage here.

Whew.

But wait, we’re not done. Here’s some more things to get you started. This links focus on Myth, Legend, History, and Folktales:

Warriors: Asian Women

Warriors: African Women

The Rest of ColorQ’s Articles which include: Same-sex/Female history and culture

The Beautiful Way of the Samurai: Same-sex love

Gay Tales of the Samurai

Comrade Loves of the Samurai

The Pillowbook of Sei Shonagun

Tales of Genji

Monkey: Folktale of China

Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan 

Passions of the Cut Sleeve: Homosexuality in China

The 3 Kingdoms (China)

Journey to the West (China)

The Ramayana (India)

The Epic of Giglamesh

Eskimo Folktales

Favorite Folktales Around the World

Myths and Legends of the Sioux

Tibetan Buddhist Folktales

Joseph Campbell’s Mythology books

Myths and myth-makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology 

The Mythologies Of Ancient Mexico And Peru

The Popol Vuh (Mayan)

Egyptian Mythology

African American Folktales: Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon Fairy Tale & Folklore Library)

Diné Bahane’: The Navajo Creation Story

An Illustrated Dictionary of Gods & Symbols (Ancient Mexico and the Maya)

Inanna: From the Myths of Ancient Sumer 

African Folktales (The Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library)

Encyclopedia Mythica

Useful Notes

Obakemono

“Pantheon” Myths Legend Collections.

That’s a small sample. Read. Read everything. You probably had to read Shakespeare or Beowulf or Chaucer. Now read the Tales of Genji or Popol Vuh. Read books on religion - read Buddhist Scripture or Hindu tales. Find the Mythology section of your local library or bookstore and park yourself there. Read stories. Many myths or folk tales are only a page or two long, and you can read them in short bursts, putting the book back when you’re done. Open up a book on Daoist philosophy or Confucianism or read about the Aztecs. Explore the Fertile Crescent. Read about the Mongolians, examine Art that isn’t western, isn’t European, and then figure out why the very core Philosophies of art were different. Discover perspective. Read about Africa, and not just Egypt. Study Archaeology or Anthropology or History. Take Art History. Read Non-western Literature Canon. File away everything for later use.

If you live in the US, go to a local Native Reservation and buy out their folktale book section. Or their history section. (Always patron Natives rather than buying rip off works! Boycott Urban Outfitters. You know the drill!) Hell, go to any culturally specific place, and buy their books. Chinatown, Little Mexico, the neighborhoods have books and libraries and they cling to them, because keeping this identity and cultural connection alive can be hard sometimes.

Walk into a Comic Convention. Tell yourself you cannot buy anything that doesn’t:

A.) Have a Protagonist of Color and/or

B.) Was written by a POC.

See how much you can buy besides a whole lot of manga or anime. (If you buy Manga or anime, buy the kind that contains specific cultural narratives.)

Actually, if you’re curious, I encourage the buying of Manga and Anime over American mainstream comics in general. Buy the hell out of Indie comics that feature POC/LGBTQ/etc. But be forewarned about DC/Marvel and their imprints: they will fuck your favorite characters over. Frequently. The fandom will not welcome you as a POC/Woman/WOC/LGBTQ unless you only hang out with those folks. The rest of them? They’re privileged assholes who will question your right to play in their sandbox or critique their toys. They’re rude, and they’re also in charge of the companies. Finding an American DC/Marvel comic written, inked, and colored by women is like finding gold lying on the sidewalk. It’s really rare. Finding that in Manga or Anime? Some of the most popular series are written by women. At least half the series on any given shelf are by women. You’ll find more LGBTQ stories in Manga/Anime than you will in any American comic. They may not all be portrayed in the best or most thoughtful light but you’re talking about having maybe one or two characters versus having entire ‘genre’ sections dedicated to these kinds of characters. Yes, Yaoi/Yuri can be fetishizing. There are also lots of really good romances within those genres or within the regular mainstream stories that are just presented as part of the story. (Hello Sailor Moon.)

If you don’t want to say, read a Buddhist scripture, pick up Tezuka’s Buddha. Look for the dozens of adaptions of different popular myths and legends into Fantasy series. Watch Wuxia films. Enjoy Toku live action. Find a place to see Bollywood films. Watch Nollywood films. Search for Novellas that have Fantasy elements or Korean Dramas or Japanese Dramas or Mandarin Chinese Dramas. Take advantage of Hulu’s Anime and Korean Dramas. Watch Generator Rex (he’s half Mexican.) Watch shows with subtitles. Movies with Subtitles. Steal away in the pages of History books. Read critical literature of your favorite series: read Harry Potter Critiques or Lord of the Rings Critiques or A Game of Throne Critiques. Read TVtropes and critique them.

Ultimately, that’s my good recommendation. Read everything.

[365daysofwritings]

Is your description dull? Does your figurative language fall flat? Are you forever stating the obvious in the quest to depict your world? Never fear! Here are some resources on effective description to help you put the punch back in your writing.

Using Vivid Description

Sensory Detail Word Bank

The Art of Description

Effective Description is not a Sin

Using Concrete Detail (Prezi)

Fictional Truth and Significant Detail in Short Fiction

On Some Fallacies of Some Amateur Fiction

Tips for Writers: Specific Details Spell Success

The Key to Descriptive Writing: Specificity

4 Reasons to Include Sensory Details in Writing

Features of Effective Writing: Support and Elaboration

Incorporating Imagery in Your Fiction Writing

Explaining too Much: Why Less is More

Writing Powerful Description

Sensory Details Chart

- Dr. K & Dr. E

[365daysofwritings]

I’ve reached the final battle/climax in my current story, where several characters come together to fight and the protagonist confronts the villain. Do you have any tips or resources for planning out and/or actually writing big, complex scenes? - Anonymous

Outside Links

Writing the Perfect Scene

Those Big Scenes

The Story Climax

Plot Development: Climax, Resolution, and Your Main Character

How to write the climax to a novel

4 ways to improve climax/plot 

Thriller: Writing the Action Scene

Writing Tense Action Scenes

Writing Action Scenes

Tags

All Fight Scene

All Scene Help

-Alex

[365daysofwritings]

[365daysofwritings]

[365daysofwritings]

they say that you’re born with your sexuality but idk, i think if you put a straight girl in a room with tegan and sara she’ll turn 400% gay

[365daysofwritings]

[365daysofwritings]

handmade (by tinydoll)

[365daysofwritings]

A skeptic adhering to a believer is as simple as the law of complementary colors. What we lack attracts us.