dyrewrites - Tumblr blog

[dyrewrites]

Go over the word count, keep going till you find your ending. Then go back and revise and revise until it's a short.

You need to know the ending before you can properly write to it. That's what drafting is for; figuring out your story. You revise to knock some sense into it.

I just realized that my problem with this short story is that it feels like it has no point. Because it's short.

Which is the point of a short story.

There can't be a massive arc in 3000 words, just a little one.

Maybe I'm just not made for short stories. It feels like I'm stopping just as it gets interesting.

[dyrewrites]

You can have the major arc and the minor arc, you just have to shrink them. Lead to them quicker, consolidate, and also suggest more than explain.

It should be interesting from the first paragraph, if not the first line. So take your process for longer fiction and shrink it.

I hope this helps, I've written a bunch but I write horror shorts so my approach might be different.

I just realized that my problem with this short story is that it feels like it has no point. Because it's short.

Which is the point of a short story.

There can't be a massive arc in 3000 words, just a little one.

Maybe I'm just not made for short stories. It feels like I'm stopping just as it gets interesting.

[dyrewrites]

Roleplaying night, playing a one shot, and we had pre-gen characters to choose from.

My son and I picked the same ones, so we decided they were twin sisters and also they hated eachother. His had a vampire boyfriend and kept lording it over mine.

I ended up sacrificing myself to deal extra damage to the end boss (I was dying anyway) and this little shit sang a little song and did a dance to celebrate.

I must reiterate that I love my son and that we fell into that dynamic so naturally it legitimately felt like I was arguing with my actual sister.

Super fun night, seriously. I never die in these games. I love it. They need to kill me more often.

Watching them flounder without the only one who takes lead is the best.

[dyrewrites]

Good stuff.

[dyrewrites]

even when i am not posting, know that horrible sentences are raging within me

[dyrewrites]

Reblog if you're shorter than 5'8.

[dyrewrites]

[dyrewrites]

Fair really, not much going on there and it takes so much work to be involved in the writing community...with barely any interaction.

Honestly a lot better here. At least here people communicate.

I just quietly deleted my Bluesky account. The app seems very promising but I kept forgetting about it. It's a sad day.

[dyrewrites]

I love editing. I love giving extra special attention to my story, because I feel more connected to it.

I hate editing. It takes forever and it's boring.

I love editing. I can actually see my story being strengthened and it gives me confidence as a writer.

I hate editing. I can see all the things I misspelled or fumbled with and question how I did that in the first place.

I love editing-

[dyrewrites]

As someone whose notes have been thrown out the godsdamned window because of this man's smart mouth and inherent desire to piss off things that can hurt him...

I will be genuinely surprised if he ever walks off this island.

This could be the whole book now.

With Lucient explaining to the crew, "We live on the Wandering Isle, we will be here until all of you wither and die or are consumed by the hungry pools of wretched blood and sap, because of your other Captain's big dumb mouth."

[dyrewrites]

I've used the word 'kitty' as an insult for Lucient in this thing and now...now I can't look at that word correctly.

It is a bad word now.

What have I done. T^T

[dyrewrites]

reblog for sample size !!

[dyrewrites]

I think some people forget that some literature and some media is meant to be deeply uncomfortable and unsettling. It's meant to make you have a very visceral reaction to it. If you genuinely can't handle these stories then you are under no obligation to consume them but acting as if they have no purpose or as if people don't have a right to tell these stories, stories that often relate to the darkest or most disturbing parts of life, then you should do some introspection.

[dyrewrites]

I complained about this over on the butterfly app, because a lot of erotica authors follow me there and I thought it would be relevant to them. But I've realized there's a lot of you here too (hello, frens, I loves) so I'm going to do it here as well.

Rant incoming.

It's been suggested to me that I release two versions of this book. One with and one without the sex scenes.

Listen.

Listen to me.

Hear these words as delicious thoughts inside your noggin;

These two tie their sex up in plot and character development, foreshadowing things by the way they treat each other at their most vulnerable, the way they treat each other depending on their current emotional state and even how they deal with trauma and solve arguments.

There is no 'removing the scenes'.

And how do you even do that?

I mean, if you can just yank all your naughty bits out and lose nothing of value…why is it there in the first place?

Can you explain this to me?

Is it to titillate, are you putting it in as a little show, a little bit of candy to keep your readers going? Or do you write it because you think you have to, that they'll expect it?

Unless the entire book is about sex, or you're writing fanfic--both examples where it is literally just to titillate--these are terrible reasons to write the sex.

If it is not so natural that your characters are doing it on their own and leading you through it or integrated in such a way as to feel like something is missing when it is removed...it doesn't belong.

Fade it to black. It's okay to do that! You don't have to write it out.

It's okay to do both even!

Show it all, show a little, show nothing and suggest it, but don't bother at all if it doesn't feel needed.

And if you come for my scenes I will bite you.

--

Okay...I'm done now.

I am sorry for the, whatever this was, but it wanted out. So there it is.

[dyrewrites]

I switched to LibreOffice, because it is free and feels a lot like Microsoft Word (or enough to be comfy if you used that ever). Also, its spellcheck and grammar check are not entirely useless. It misses some things, but understands enough not to be annoying.

Notes! I write notes, which end up going into little scenes and dialogue and whatnot that doesn't fit anywhere but gets me back into whatever world I need to be in.

I have it easy on this one, as I am essentially a housewife because writing is the thing I do for money (and it doesn't really pay...at all, if I'm honest >.<). So my struggle is cooking, chores, taking care of all the bills and house stuff and making sure my family is eating and not dead and screaming at medical professionals about bills and glaring at myself in every reflective surface and trying to figure out if I forgot to do a thing because I have this huge list but half of it isn't really important is it, I can put that off, and feeling like a useless sack of meat and a lot of crying. The writing is on a schedule; I get kid to school, make dinner for the husband what works overnights, make myself breakfast if I remember that food is a necessity for me also, make coffee and write for a few hours before tackling whatever house things or life things need doing (often this part doesn't happen because the writing eats me and then I have so many regrets later it's real fun do not recommend).

Questions for my fellow writers:

Are you still using google docs? If not, what do you use and would you recommend it to someone who mainly writes in google docs? (preferably free please, i live in Indonesia and anything in USD is gonna cost Way Too Fucking Much.)

How do you get back to writing when you haven't written in so so long? i miss writing so much but i struggle to get back to it due to uni work,,,,

Speaking of uni, how do you manage to write when you're busy with other things like work or school??? I am STRUGGLING.

[dyrewrites]

"This is going to be a nice creature they're meeting. She's going to be a little overly familiar and friendly, but nice and helpful. Ok?"

"Upon meeting them she greets them courteously, pointedly avoiding any names, and then picks them up and dumps them beside hungry waters completely naked."

"No! Nice! She is supposed to be nice!"

"Okay so they wake up in her house, in a bed, in clothes they've never seen anything like and they do not remember how they got there."

"You'd better be leading somewhere nice and not creepy."

"When she shows up she makes it clear they are not wanted there, and she'd fucking eat them if she were allowed. But she's been ordered to keep them comfortable, so she tries, while telling them nothing--snapping right back when either of them try to get information in their usual snippy ways. And is just generally not at all nice even a little bit."

"Why do you do this to me. Can they not make friends? Why can't they have friends?"

"They have the crew. Those are friends, more like family at this point."

"Outside of their ship, they need outside friends."

"I don't see why."

"Because people have outside friends!"

"They're not people."