elscapes

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The best dynamic for a group of characters: every single one of them is the weirdest person you will ever meet, but in wildly different ways.  Every time you think you’ve identified “the normal one” they casually reveal that they don’t think birds exist, or they fistfight grizzly bears on the weekends, or they collect human skulls, and you realize again that none of these people are remotely normal.

Also they’re found family.

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fav protagonist type is "guy who is just having a really weird day"

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Tips for Writing a Difficult Scene

Every writer inevitably gets to that scene that just doesn't want to work. It doesn't flow, no matter how hard you try. Well, here are some things to try to get out of that rut:

1. Change the weather

I know this doesn't sound like it'll make much of a difference, but trust me when I say it does.

Every single time I've tried this, it worked and the scene flowed magically.

2. Change the POV

If your book has multiple POV characters, it might be a good idea to switch the scene to another character's perspective.

9/10 times, this will make the scene flow better.

3. Start the scene earlier/later

Oftentimes, a scene just doesn't work because you're not starting in the right place.

Perhaps you're starting too late and giving too little context. Perhaps some description or character introspection is needed before you dive in.

Alternatively, you may be taking too long to get to the actual point of the scene. Would it help to dive straight into the action without much ado?

4. Write only the dialogue

If your scene involves dialogue, it can help immensely to write only the spoken words the first time round.

It's even better if you highlight different characters' speech in different colors.

Then, later on, you can go back and fill in the dialogue tags, description etc.

5. Fuck it and use a placeholder

If nothing works, it's time to move on.

Rather than perpetually getting stuck on that one scene, use a placeholder. Something like: [they escape somehow] or [big emotional talk].

And then continue with the draft.

This'll help you keep momentum and, maybe, make the scene easier to write later on once you have a better grasp on the plot and characters.

Trust me, I do this all the time.

It can take some practice to get past your Type A brain screaming at you, but it's worth it.

So, those are some things to try when a scene is being difficult. I hope that these tips help :)

Reblog if you found this post useful. Comment with your own tips. Follow me for similar content.

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I hope that you wrote today. That the words that can get so easily stuck inside made their way out. That the hardships of humanity did not deter your will to make or impede your capacity to create. That you put pen to paper, key to keyboard, mouth to microphone and breathed beauty back into a world chock-full of it.

I hope that you love what you wrote today. That the words flowed with a freedom unprecedented and unexpected. That the ideas that dawned on you will lead to a breakthrough in your next chapter. That the passion stirred inside your soul today would create an everlasting momentum towards your work’s completion. 

I hope that, if you don’t love what you wrote today, that you love yourself regardless. That all those jumbled phrases and run-on sentences will be better next time around. That you have faith in the messiness of your manuscript. That even the worst words ever to have come from your hands will not diminish your heart towards this beautiful art we partake in.

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writing should be fun.

make oc playlists. spend hours on moodboards that have no purpose. write self-indulgent fluff that’s never going to be published. scribble three lines of poetry in the back of your history notebook. draw fanart of your own characters. write stupid dialogue that your publishers might hate. start new wips that you might never finish but write those three chapters that make you happy because if you don’t write them, who else will?

writing shouldn’t always be about “will publishers like this” or “i have to reach this word count” or “how do i get the most likes”.

have fun with your writing.

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How to Kick a Reader in the Gut

Disrupt the reader’s sense of justice. 

This generally means setting a character up to deserve one thing and then giving them the exact opposite. 

Kill a character off before they can achieve their goal. 

Let the bad guy get an extremely important win. 

Set up a coup against a tyrannical king. The coup fails miserably.

Don’t always give characters closure. 

(Excluding the end of the book, obviously)

A beloved friend dies in battle and there’s no time to mourn him.

A random tryst between two main characters is not (or cannot be) brought up again.

A character suddenly loses their job or can otherwise no longer keep up their old routine

Make it the main character’s fault sometimes. 

And not in an “imposter syndrome” way. Make your MC do something bad, and make the blame they shoulder for it heavy and tangible.

MC must choose the lesser of two evils.

MC kills someone they believe to be a bad guy, only to later discover the bad guy was a different person altogether.

Rejection is a powerful tool. 

People generally want to be understood, and if you can make a character think they are Known, and then rip that away from them with a rejection (romantic or platonic) people will empathize with it.

MC is finally accepting the Thing They Must Do/Become, and their love interest decides that that’s not a path they want to be on and breaks up with them

MC makes a decision they believe is right, everyone around them thinks they chose wrong.

MC finds kinship with someone Like Them, at long last, but that person later discovers that there is some inherent aspect of MC that they wholly reject. (Perhaps it was MC’s fault that their family member died, they have important religious differences, or WERE THE BAD GUY ALL ALONG!)

On the flipside, make your main character keep going. 

Push them beyond what they are capable of, and then push them farther. Make them want something so deeply that they are willing to do literally anything to get it. Give them passion and drive and grit and more of that than they have fear.

“But what if my MC is quiet and meek?” Even better. They want something so deeply that every single moment they push themselves toward it is a moment spent outside their comfort zone. What must that do to a person?

Obviously, don’t do all of these things, or the story can begin to feel tedious or overly dramatic, and make sure that every decision you make is informed by your plot first and foremost. 

Also remember that the things that make us sad, angry, or otherwise emotional as readers are the same things that make us feel that way in our day-to-day lives. Creating an empathetic main character is the foundation for all of the above tips.

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Bitches will be all “I’m a writer!” then never write.

It’s me, I’m bitches.

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yes i am totally aware that my main character is currently going through the most dramatic shit ever n the threat of death is following them everywhere n they’re at breaking point n this is the entire plot of the novel n it’s very important n life changing but . my queer kids just vibing in the background are falling in love?? this is so much more important?? please have some respect.

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i remembered redwall abbey and i cried, because how could i ever have forgotten?

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i think its very cool that you can imagine things in your head i dont know wwhat i would do with my time if i couldnt do that

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Stop this “work hard” bullshit. You deserve free time, you deserve sleep and you deserve mental health. You deserve to procrastinate and you deserve to have your hobbies. You deserve it. You need it. No one should work & study all the time.

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who cares if i want to mentally live in my daydream universe while i physically rot away. that's my business

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ELLIE. she/her. 19. bisexual.

‧₊˚✩彡 — about me ♡

‧₊˚✩彡 — poetry/prose ♡

‧₊˚✩彡 — wips ♡

you can find me on twitter and wattpad ♡

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come on brain yip yip

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rules — make your main characters with these picrews and tag as many people as picrews you create!

thank u for the tag @ofbloodandflowers !!

introducing my bbys from my current wip Experimental👉🏻👈🏻

♡ celestial. ♡ karina.

♡ jax. ♡ felix. ♡ link.

♡ ember. ♡ storm.

tagging @firesidefantasy @trans1ence @fleetingfictions @tabbydrafts @alxdlast @piyawrites @asablehart (feel free to ignore this lmfao)

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Some reader, lightly commenting on my fic: hey i liked this.

me, me eyes enormous: you COMMENT me? you comment on my fic, like the story? oh! oh! love for reader! love for reader for One Thousand Years!!!!

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one — the good days.

‧₊˚✩彡 —— ❝ When things got too loud, when their haunting voices followed me no matter how fast I ran, through the alleyways and the supermarket aisles and the front door, I would repeat those words like a mantra. Who you are is not a source of shame. Even with Dominique’s voice ricocheting around my skull like an unsung prayer, I still couldn’t drown out the sound of my mother’s tongue. This isn’t the daughter we raised. It would be months before every word that fell out of my throat stopped sounding like an apology. ❞

hi! you can read my short story the good days here ᵕ̈

themes: found family / lgbtq+ / coming of age

tw: very brief mentions of homophobia!