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This will save Writer’s lives.

The Best Writing Tip I’ve Ever Gotten

I just used it again and realized how often I use it so I thought I’d post it here.

I don’t remember where I learned it but the general idea is that if you’re writing something and need to stop, it’s VERY important to be conscious of that stopping point.

In my opinion, the best place to stop is in the middle of a sentence.

Stopping in the middle of your train of thought is super helpful because your first instinct when you come back to your writing is to fill that gap in, so to speak. Jump in like this, and you’ve already made some progress! This is especially helpful for someone like me, who has a hard time starting writing but really gets into it once I find my groove.

Example of where I left off yesterday: 

And here it is the moment I got back to my doc a few minutes ago:

Bam! A nice brisk start that leads to an extended writing session.

Anyways, that’s my tip! Hope it helps someone as much as it’s helped me.

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Reading through that one part you wrote at 3AM when you were pretty convinced you were the next Stephen King:

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Awesome, congratulations! 20,000 words is a huge number and you should be proud of yourself and your progress! Keep up the good work!

Woohoo!

I reached 20,000 words in my WIP!! I’m so happy! Time to reach for 30,000!

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Eyes, Skin, Face, Hair, Build: Character physical descriptions.

Eyes – General

large, small, narrow

sharp, squinty, round

wide-set, close-set, deep-set

sunken, bulging, protruding

wide, hooded, heavy-lidded

bright, sparkling, glittering

flecked, dull, bleary

rheumy, cloudy, red-rimmed

beady, birdlike cat-like

jewel-like, steely, hard

fringed with long lashes, with sweeping eyelashes, with thick eyelashes

Eyes – Color

chestnut, chocolate brown, cocoa brown

coffee brown, mocha, mahogany

sepia, sienna brown, mink brown

copper, amber, cognac

whiskey, brandy, honey

tawny, topaz, hazel, obsidian

onyx, coal, raven, midnight, sky blue, sunny blue

cornflower blue, steel blue, ice blue

Arctic blue, glacial blue, crystal blue

cerulean, electric blue, azure

lake blue, aquamarine, turquoise

denim blue, slate blue / slate gray, storm blue / storm gray

silver / silver gray, chrome, platinum, pewter

smoky gray, ash gray, concrete gray, dove gray

shark gray, fog gray, gunmetal gray, olive

emerald, leaf green, moss green

Eyebrows

arched, straight, plucked, sparse

trim, dark, faint, thin, thick, unruly

bushy, heavy

Skin – Color

amber, bronze, cinnamon

copper, dark brown, deep brown

ebony, honey, golden

pale, pallid, pasty

fair, light, cream / creamy

alabaster, ivory, bisque

milk, porcelain, chalky

sallow, olive, peach

rose / rosy, ruddy, florid

russet, tawny, fawn

Skin – General

lined, wrinkled, seamed

leathery, sagging, drooping

loose, clear, smooth

silken, satiny, dry

flaky, scaly, delicate

thin, translucent, luminescent

baby-soft, flawless, poreless

with large pores, glowing, dewy

dull, velvety, fuzzy

rough, uneven, mottled

dimpled, doughy, firm

freckled, pimply, pockmarked

blemished, pitted, scarred

bruised, veined, scratched

sunburned, weather-beaten, raw

tattooed

Face – Structure

square, round, oblong

oval, elongated, narrow

heart-shaped, catlike, wolfish

high forehead, broad forehea, prominent brow ridge

protruding brow bone, sharp cheekbones, high cheekbones

angular cheekbones, hollow cheeks, square jaw

chiseled, sculpted, craggy

soft, jowly, jutting chin

pointed chin, weak chin, receding chin

double chin, cleft chin, dimple in chin

visible Adam’s apple

Nose

snub, dainty, button

turned-up, long, broad

thin, straight, pointed

crooked, aquiline, Roman

bulbous, flared, hawk, strong

Mouth/Lips

thin, narrow, full

lush, Cupid’s bow, rosebud

dry, cracked, chapped

moist, glossy, straight teeth

gap between teeth, gleaming white teeth, overbite

underbite

Facial Hair 

clean-shaven

smooth-shaven

beard

neckbeard

goatee

moustache

sideburns

mutton-chop sideburns

stubble

a few days’ growth of beard

five o’ clock shadow

Hair – General

I threw a few hairstyles in here, though not many.

long, short, shoulder-length

loose, limp, dull

shiny, glossy, sleek

smooth, luminous, lustrous, spiky

stringy, shaggy, tangled

messy, tousled, windblown

unkempt, bedhead, straggly

neatly combed, parted, slicked down / slicked back

cropped, clipped, buzzed / buzz cut

crewcut, bob, mullet

curly, bushy, frizzy

wavy, straight, lanky

dry, oily, greasy

layers, corkscrews, spirals

ringlets, braids, widow’s peak

bald, shaved, comb-over, afro

thick, luxuriant, voluminous

full, wild, untamed

bouncy, wispy, fine, thinning

Hair – Color

black, blue-black, jet black

raven, ebony, inky black

midnight, sable, salt and pepper

silver / silver gray, charcoal gray, steel gray

white, snow-white, brown

brunette, chocolate brown, coffee brown

ash brown, brown sugar, nut brown

caramel, tawny brown, toffee brown

red, ginger, auburn, Titian-haired

copper, strawberry blonde, butterscotch

honey, wheat, blonde

golden, sandy blond, flaxen

fair-haired, bleached, platinum

Body Type – General

tall, average height, short

petite, tiny, compact

big, large, burly

beefy, bulky, brawny

barrel-chested, heavy / heavy-set, fat

overweight, obese, flabby

chunky, chubby, pudgy

pot-bellied, portly thick

stout, lush, plush

full-figured, ample, rounded

generous, voluptuous, curvy

hourglass, plump, leggy / long-legged

gangling, lanky, coltish

lissome, willowy, lithe

lean, slim, slender

trim, thin, skinny

emaciated, gaunt, bony

spare, solid, stocky

wiry, rangy, sinewy

stringy, ropy

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Complementary Character Traits

Anonymous said:

I know you are not back for a few days. But I’ll just leave this here. Could you please write up a list of character traits that compliment each other? Like for romantic relationships? Thank you.

Hey Nony! Before I start, thanks so much for your patience with me. I was out for about a week longer than I initially said and I really appreciate it.

So these are definitely a bit of a challenge to come up with someimtes; it’s hard to figure out which ones would go well together without creating too much conflict between your characters. 

The dictionary defines complementary as “combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasize the qualities of each other or another”, so that’s how I’m interpreting this. The qualities on the left side of the list were taken from The Positive Trait Thesarus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi (but that doesn’t mean that those on the right are definitively positive or negative).

You’ll find some tips for incorporating these qualities into your characters beneath the cut. But without further ado! Behold, the big ol’ list of complementary character traits:

Adaptable vs. Rigid

Affectionate vs. Withdrawn

Alert vs. Oblivious

Ambitious vs. Unmotivated

Appreciative vs. Ungrateful

Bold vs. Timid

Calm vs. Energetic

Cautious vs. Reckless

Centered vs. Scatterbrained

Charming vs. Antisocial

Cooperative vs. Independent

Creative vs. Unimaginative

Curious vs. Indifferent

Decisive vs. Indecisive

Diplomatic vs. Rude

Discreet vs. Inattentive

Easygoing vs. Strict

Efficient vs. Sluggish

Empathetic vs. Callous

Extroverted vs. Introverted

Flirtatious vs. Modest

Friendly vs. Antisocial

Funny vs. Serious

Generous vs. Stingy

Gentle vs. Rough

Honest vs. Dishonest

Honorable vs. Cowardly

Humble vs. Proud

Idealistic vs. Realistic

Industrious vs. Lazy

Innocent vs. Dirty-minded

Just vs. Partial

Kind vs. Cold

Loyal vs. Unreliable

Mature vs. Immature

Meticulous vs. Careless

Obedient vs. Rebellious

Optimistic vs. Pessimistic

Organized vs. Messy

Passionate vs. Indifferent

Perceptive vs. Ignorant

Philosophical vs. Shallow

Private vs. Sociable

Proactive vs. Stagnant

Professional vs. Inept

Protective vs. Negligent

Quirky vs. Conventional

Responsible vs. Irresponsible

Sensible vs. Foolish

Sentimental vs. Pragmatic

Sophisticated vs. Unrefined

Spiritual vs. Irreverent

Spontaneous vs. Deliberate

Spunky vs. Apathetic

Thrifty vs. Extravagant

Traditional vs. Modern

Trusting vs. Wary

Uninhibited vs. Careful

Whimsical vs. Serious

Wholesome vs. Indecent

Wise vs. Unaware

Keep reading

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Ian had long matted hair and buckteeth. You’d think the amount of grease on top of his scalp would help to untangle the knots in his mane but that didn’t seem to be the case. Every morning he took the same busy commuter train into the city and stuck out amongst the expensive suits and the ‘creative types’ in their plaid shirts and skinny jeans. Ian fancied himself a ‘one-of-a-kind’, even if he did wear the same ill-fitting jogging bottoms and slip-on vinyl sandals his mom picked out for him. This look served him at school, so why shouldn’t it serve him just as well in the office?   He always looked as though he’d been sleeping in the same clothes for weeks on end. Amongst the spaghetti sauce and beer stains, were loose threads and woollen peaks where cheap material had begun to ball. He always walked to the office alone. His co-workers – co-workers, not friends - never offered to travel with him, despite many living mere minutes away. And, truth be told, they purposely took the earlier train just to avoid him. He didn’t mind though. He used the time in-between getting off the train and walking to the office as an opportunity to look mysterious and blast the latest grime album thanks to a hidden speaker in his coat, much to the annoyance of the dozing homeless people he passed along the way.  

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My dad wasn’t at the hospital when I was born, he was ‘celebrating’ in the pub instead. That changed when I was going up though. He was always there – there to leave red and purple marks on my mother’s milky white skin and scream until his lunges were sore. A wave of relief with a bitter aftertaste of guilt washed over me when he was finally gone.

****

We were both newly single when we first met, leaving tangled and incomplete relationships behind us. We tied our broken hearts together in knots and kissed in the snow that Christmas Eve. We flew to Vegas three months later to get married in the wildest way possible. It wasn’t set up to last. I shouldn’t have been surprised when it didn’t.

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Hi! I started writing a sort of slice of life/romance/sports story. Basically I want to start by, say, events of March, but I also need to write all the stuff that has happened since September, and I want to make it quick (like, a few important scenes and that’s it) and then start the actual story from March. How do I do this?

     Hmm, an interesting question. Lucky for you, I have two answers depending on certain criteria!

     First of all, how important are these events that lie between September and March? Are they game-changing? Do they contain highly important details or plot points? Are they possible introductions to characters? If this is the case, then my advice to you would be to start off with one of these events rather than starting off in March. It can be jarring to hear anybody suggest you start a story in any place other than where you planned but sometimes, it’s necessary.     I know it’s not slice of life but it pretty much serves to say the same thing - take Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope as an example. The story could easily have started with Luke Skywalker being a whiny teenage space-farmer and stumbling across the droids. However, something more important happened beforehand - the space battle where Princess Leia jettisoned the Death Star Plans towards his planet along with those very droids. You could start your story somewhere, but if there is an important point before that time, consider whether it’s worth starting with that instead. You might be surprised with how smoothly it goes!

     However, you are in control of your own novel. If there aren’t any points to use instead or you are adamant in starting in March, no worries! Instead, you want a Prologue! Now these things have been slammed once or twice over the years for being too expository, but there’s a trick to them. They are there to administer the theme and pace of your book and to help set it up. If you have a slice of life/romance/sports story with events to be mentioned, perhaps they could be told by your protagonist in the form of a prologue?     A decent on-hand example of a monologue-style prologue that comes to my mind is the very first few minutes of the first episode of Gravity Falls, where the main protagonist Dipper Pines spends time explaining to the audience why he and his sister are driving in a golf cart away from a terrifying monster and what circumstances put them there. It can come off as entertaining and humorous, as well as informative without being too much of an info-dump.

     I hope this answer was helpful to you! If you have anymore questions or need further aid, please do not hesitate to ask! If this answer was helpful, please consider Buying Me a Coffee! Happy writing!

- CR

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How many scenes/change of setting is too much for a chapter? Like I feel like each of my scene is of, like, 100/200 words and so I have to like switch scene at least 10/15 times. Isn’t it too much? Do you have any recs? What about the “dialogue” novel? Which is sort of a script like, “X place - night. A:(opens the door) uhhh...” etc?

     Hi there! Thanks for yourquestion! :D

     To get in on the answer tothis question nice and sharply - yes, changing your setting andscenes that many times is too much. The reason for this is becausewhen you change the scene about ten times in a single chapter, thereader tends to either become too confused or not become attached toyour scenes enough. Although there are no strict rules to how manychanges of setting you should have in a single chapter, you’reprobably safe with two changes or perhaps three if you’re feelingparticularly ambitious, and whilst it’s wise not to treat your readers like idiots, ten times is a little hard to get away with.

     Worry not, however! This wasan easy question to answer because the solution is just as easy -Detail! When you write, you’re trying to project a scene from yourhead to the person reading it, and that scene needs to be good anddetailed in order for the reader to truly picture what the reader isseeing. Unless your scene is ridiculously snappy, it shouldn’t capat 100 or 200 words. The amount of words to a scene varies, but awell-detailed scene really should come closer to 800-1000 words.    The more words you have, the more believable a scenemight be to the reader. If you have trouble knowing what to say,establish where the scene takes place and at what time. Tell us whatthe weather is like and who else is there. Do the characters involvedwant to be here or are they just here out of necessity or even byaccident? What do they experience here? Explore the senses, and tellus what sights they see, what smells they detect, what noises theyhear, what feelings they perceive and even what taste is left ontheir tongue. Allow characters to hold fleshed-out conversations and try not to rush a scene. Your stories will feel a lot more streamlined for it!

     I hope this was helpful! If anybody Has any questions for me, please do not hesitate to ask! If this answer was helpful, please consider Buying Me a Coffee! Happy writing!

- CR

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This video presentation has been 115% Aether-Approved.

HEY EVERY WRITER OUT THERE!!!!! DO NOT MISS THIS VIDEO! 

This was specifically for screenwriting, but it totally applies to books.

This is the defining of an act, how an act functions within your story, and why you should/should not use 3 Act Structure or 5 Act Structure.  

If you’ve ever needed a layout of acts and—basically—how to structure a story for the story you’re writing, DO NOT SKIP THIS VIDEO. 

Here’s the link for Lessons From The Screenplay, an AMAZING YouTube channel that I recommend to any writers out there. He’s got stuff on antagonists, on structure, on characters, you name it he probably has a video about it.

I’m going to tag so that nobody misses this:

@panticwritten @golden-eyed-writer @brynwrites @cog-writes @lefoxwriting @albatris @christinawritesfiction @sapphicauthor @incandescent-creativity @homesteadhorner

SPREAD THIS AROUND, THIS HAS BEEN INVALUABLE TO ME. Spread the love to other writers!!

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Friend, Reading About My Character: I really love this character! I want to read more about them!

Me, Writer Who Plans to Kill Said Character:

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Weekly Update #2: The First Draft is Complete!

   You have no idea how good this feels. Sure, I love my story and all the characters therein, but mothers also love their own children, and spending too much time with one child can leave you feeling like you’ve just given a lump of rock a massage with your face. Finishing the first draft feels like somebody just gave me an cool pack and a glass of ice cold lemonade.

   I’ll be leaving the first draft for a while now so that when i go back to edit it, my eyes won’t be as familiar to my terrible first draft writing and I can purge it without bias. In the meantime, I can now look to other rogue ideas that kept popping up during my writing time and play with them without feeling the guilt of abandoning my main project!

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hi! You know when you want to write but at the same time are so lazy and can’t be bothered? And if you do it ends up being shitty anyway cause you weren’t focused and all? What do you do when this happens?

   Hi there! We’ve all been there, myself included! What do we do when we’re literally forcing ourselves to write and as a result, our work is suffering for it? Allow me to direct you to my favourite method which I have labelled the Bradbury Technique.

   This is named after Ray Bradbury, a particularly iconic science fiction novelist known for works such as Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles. He was an odd one, as when he was asked how he dealt with writer’s block or any similar problem such as this to do with writing, he answered by comparing trying getting motivation to trying to get a cat.

                                                     Hear me out for a minute.

   Getting his motivation or inspiration to write was like trying to pick up a cat - they will only ever let you pick them up when they want you to. If you try too hard to pick it up, it’ll run away cautiously from you. So what did good old Ray do? He ignored it and did something else entirely. If there’s one thing that cats dislike more than anything, then it’s being ignored.   Ray would see his wife, watch TV, do anything other than write. The cat, annoyed that it is being annoyed, would come closer to Ray and want to know why it was being ignored. Only when the cat least expected it would Ray turn upon it and snatch the little blighter up there and then.

   What all this esoteric nonsense about cats means is that when Ray was stumped for ideas or motivations, he wouldn’t try to stubbornly chase after it. Instead, he would relax and let that motivation come to him when it was ready to be picked up by him. Forcing yourself to write is bad for your health, your writing and your social life and you need to take care of yourself. Writers often forget that they are more important than their work.

   I hope this little parable was helpful! If you want to ask me more questions, please do not hesitate to ask! If this was helpful to you, please consider Buying Me a Coffee! Relax, enjoy and let that pesky motivation cat come to you! Happy writing!

- CR

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The Sword Of Ash and Death. Yikes...

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@ other writers: how the hell do you write short things????

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Weekly Update #1: Perspective, History and Classics

   Now then, seeing as I’ve introduced the function of these weekly updates, I might as well start by giving a proper one!

Perspectives

   I had the hope to finish my current WIP by the end of last year. Unfortunately, because the story is a fantasy novel, this ended up taking a LOT longer than originally intended. But that wasn’t even the problem, because I found myself drifting away from the story and, despite not making this any easier for myself, I stubbornly refused to let my mind wander onto another story until I had finished this one. My problem, it would seem, was that I had too many Perspective Characters.    My protagonist is a young individual who grew up in a city which not only hates magic but eliminates anything that resembles it. As a result, when he shows magical development, he ends up getting imprisoned, breaking out then legging it from home as fast as he can. This character, Shan, is incompetent when it comes to magic but his hopes of unwilling magical ignorance are seen to when he ends up at a magical academy. These places are always FULL of cool characters.    The moment I got here, I wanted to do scenes from the perspectives of about five other characters who already knew way more than Shan did. The problem is that whenever I came back to Shan, my main character, he always seemed really weak because that was the point, but giving perspective to other far more powerful students always seemed to hint to me that there were far more interesting characters to follow than Shan.    This broke the reason and intentions of Shan himself and therefore, I became bored. Because I noticed this, I have now decided that I need to just get past this dull bit and keep the perspective on Shan. Then during editing, to remove some of the other perspectives. This doesn’t mean their stories will be lost, it just means that we’ll discover them at the same rate and pace as Shan does, as was intended.    Morale of the story - if you’re making your main character to be the “exploring a new world” type, keep the perspective upon them and them alone. Sure, give perspective to another secondary character occasionally or even the antagonist to see what he’s up to, but never more than that. Learn from my mistake because trust me, it will save you a tonne of stress in the long run.

History and Classics

   This is where I want to mention two resources that I seem to be constantly going back to whenever they update. A few weeks ago, I mentioned @talefoundry but these two are also YouTube channels, one I’ve been watching for about a year now, another that I’ve recently become obsessed with - Extra Credits and Overly Sarcastic Productions.

Extra Credits

   Extra Credits (@extracreditsblog) started off by making tutorial videos about how to make and develop games, but they’ve really expanded since. They started up another series called Extra History, which basically covers historical figures and events in highly appealing and entertaining ways. If any of you out there are having trouble coming up with a story or are looking for past events to look to for story ideas, then history is a good place to start, and there are worse history reviewers than these guys!    Plus, they have very recently started a third series called Extra Sci-Fi, which covers the origins, tropes and history of Science Fiction. Whether you love Sci-Fi or not, the facts they bring up in these episodes are invaluable to those seeking to create a grand tale! I highly recommend checking them out!

Extra Credits on YouTube

Overly Sarcastic Productions

   These guys function on pretty much the same way as Extra Credits, only much more refined. Not only are they absolutely hilarious to listen to but they focus in on either Red (right) covering videos about classic literature, mythology and even plot tropes, and Blue (left) often covering historical factions and other subjects. The best part is that they compile them down into incredibly fun and easy-to-understand summaries to get the spirit of it across. Of course, occasionally they’ll both team up to simply make a funny video.    Unfortunately, OSP do not have a tumblr page as of yet, but I can give you a link to go check them out, they are really useful to help understand and inspire creativity and the construction of a good story!

Overly Sarcastic Productions of YouTube

   Well, that does it for my first real weekly update! Hopefully they won;t be this long in the future! Happy writing!

- CR