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Love these edits <3

Daddy Jungkook 💓

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Resources For Writers

This is a list of resources for writers and people who enjoy writing! If you’d like me to include anything, please let me know! 

Are These Filler Words Weakening Your Story? (PS: yes they are!) 

Essay Help Masterpost 

How to Get Your First Draft Done 

How to Promote Your Fic 

Inspiration Masterpost 

Links To Help With Your Characters And Story 

Sites to help you find a word 

The Right Way to Introduce Physical Appearance and other helpful tips from Jacquelyn Eubanks 

The ScriptX Family as of 5/10/17 and friends of the blog/recommended reading (this is GREAT for asking questions about anything!)

Tips for Writing Bilingual Characters 

Ways to un-stick a stuck story 

Writing Tip Index 

Writing Tips 

Writing Tips 

Also check out these blogs for more good stuff: 

@theficwritersblock 

@thewritershandbook 

@oliviapaigewrites 

New ugly links because I’m on mobile: 

Have something to add to this list? Let me know! 

Last edited: September 12, 2017

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Are These Filter Words Weakening Your Story?

After putting my writing on hold for several weeks, I decided to jump back in. I expected to find all sorts of problems with my story–inconsistencies in the plot, lack of transitions, poor characterization–the works. But what began to stick out to me was something to which I’d given little thought in writing.

Filter words.

What are Filter Words?

Actually, I didn’t even know these insidious creatures had a name until I started combing the internet for info.

Filter words are those that unnecessarily filter the reader’s experience through a character’s point of view. Dark Angel’s Blog says:

“Filtering” is when you place a character between the detail you want to present and the reader. The term was started by Janet Burroway in her book On Writing.

In terms of example, you should watch out for:

To see

To hear

To think

To touch

To wonder

To realize

To watch

To look

To seem

To feel (or feel like)

Can

To decide

To sound (or sound like)

To know

I’m being honest when I say my manuscript is filled with these words, and the majority of them need to be edited out.

What do Filter Words Look Like?

Let’s imagine a character in your novel is walking down a street during peak hour.

You might, for example, write:

Sarah felt a sinking feeling as she realized she’d forgotten her purse back at the cafe across the street. She saw cars filing past, their bumpers end-to-end. She heard the impatient honk of horns and wondered how she could quickly cross the busy road before someone took off with her bag. But the traffic seemed impenetrable, and she decided to run to the intersection at the end of the block.

Eliminating the bolded words removes the filters that distances us, the readers, from this character’s experience:

Sarah’s stomach sank. Her purse—she’d forgotten it back at the cafe across the street. Cars filed past, their bumpers end-to-end. Horns honked impatiently. Could she make it across the road before someone took off with her bag? She ran past the impenetrable stream of traffic, toward the intersection at the end of the block.

Are Filter Words Ever Acceptable?

Of course, there are usually exceptions to every rule.

Just because filter words tend to be weak doesn’t mean they never have a place in our writing. Sometimes they are helpful and even necessary.

Susan Dennard of Let The Words Flow writes that we should use filter words when they are critical to the meaning of the sentence.

If there’s no better way to phrase something than to use a filter word, then it’s probably okay to do so.

Want to know more?

Read these other helpful articles on filter words and more great writing tips:

Filter Words and Distancing Point of View

The Reasons Editors reject Manuscripts

Filter Those words and Strengthen Your Writing

[iteaparty]

tru tru truuu. Absolutely love the Mercy Thompson series 

Okay, I’m book pushing again, and it’s a book series that I know I’ve pushed before but seriously guys, more people need to read the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs.  The characters are great, funny, realistic, and memorable, no one is portrayed as infallible, and moral dilemmas are often brought up and reacted to with many people acknowledging that there may not be a perfect solution but accepting that decisions still have to be made. 

The pacing is great as well.  It gives you action and when it does it moves fast and keeps your attention with great flow and timing, but it slows down enough to also let you catch your breath an build characters or lore.  Still the slow parts never seem to drag and you can frequently find yourself just enjoying the slow parts as if you were having a lazy hangout day with friends.

This is one of those fantasy creatures in our world type of series (specifically vampires, werewolves, shape shifters, ghosts, and fae) so if you aren’t into that I can’t promise that this’ll change your mind.  However if you’re on the fence or kind of like them (and especially if you really like them) then it’s sure to peak and keep your interest. 

Another interesting thing it does is bring up a lot of interesting social and sort of political issues and tackles them in a way that’s both relatable to the reader yet not out of place in the books.  It is interesting a head strong woman have to work her way around a mildly patriarchal system trying to both help and work against people who are very set in their ways (this is in part due to some wolf magic stuff and the fact that half the people the main character, Mercy, interacts with are a century or more old).  Some of the other issues looked at in this books are people’s reluctancey to change their ways,  at what point reasonable awareness becomes prejudice, homophobia, racism, panic attacks, rape, (both female and male and neither of them are treated as a joke or as less significant than the other) and a few others that do work there way seamlessly into the stories we’re given.

To be honest, the book series is great and highly recommended, I can’t think of anything I don’t like about it.  

Except Christy, fuck Christy. 

[iteaparty]

Great tip for struggling writers and outright procrastinators 

Writing tip

If you’re struggling to write, find yourself distracted during a writing session or just can’t seem to think of what comes next, I highly recommend writing sprints.

For those of you who don’t know, a writing sprint is where you write as much as you can within a certain amount of time: 5, 10, 15 minutes. You could even go for the 1k30min challenge.

The point of the sprints is to write as much as you can. It doesn’t matter about the quality. It doesn’t matter if your spelling is atrocious or if anything makes sense. The point is building your word count. Set the timer on your phone, and just type.

I do a minimum of 2 1k30min a day, and my writing output has increased from barely 600 words a day, where I’m distracted by the internet or struggling with what to write, to 2500+ words a day.

I plan to continue using sprints whenever I write because it helps me focus. I challenge myself to do better, to write more and with each sprint it gets easier.

Has anyone else here tried writing sprints?

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EPICCC

I STILL GET CHILLS

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IF YOU LOVE WRITING BUT DON’T HAVE THE INSPIRATION FOR A 10-PART BOOK SAGA YOU SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT THIS SITE

IT’S INCREDIBLY HELPFUL AND CAN FOR INSTANCE GENERATE TOPICS AND FIRST LINES, CONTAINS LOADS OF EXERCISES AND YOU CAN FIND PLENTY OF WRITING TIPS.

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source

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I love how the two exhibitions are completely different but both explains so well how humans’ approach of Love and seduction changes growing up.

With Viktor and Yuuri we have a self conscious kind of love

they are calm, take their time to appreciate themselves, caressing each others, watching directly their lover in the eyes.

A kind of love that is more mature, built on compromises. Not frenetic but at the same time passionate.

While Yuri and Otabek in my opinion are the exact example of “frenetic” first love… typical of teen years

(N.b. Based on my experience)

When you are young and in love you feel like living in a battle.

it’s everything angsty, more extreme and exaggerated.

They act rapidly, more rock and roll, like they’re fighting each others in a seductive way.

A love lived like they don’t have time.

it’s in or out

life or death.

[iteaparty]

How to get killed in two seconds?

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Me today

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Not complaining tho ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

–

WTTM killed me bye ;;

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Night Court Mocktail

☾ Coca Cola ☾ Sparkling apple juice ☾ Grape juice ☾ Lime ☾ Edible glitter

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so beautiful 

Glow

I’ve finally managed to finish this beast! Happy New Year, you wonderful Feysand lovers! <3

[iteaparty]

ACOWAR

---SPOILERS------

okay so is no one going to talk about this Azriel and Elain thing? as much as i like Azriel.. LUCIEN AND ELAIN ARE END GAME RIGHT? RIGHT?!!!! where do my loyalties lie ;-;

[iteaparty]

THIS GIVES ME LIFE

Feyrhys from A Court of Mist and Fury by @sjmaas​ + social media 

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Beauty and the beast casting ACOMAF

First book

Tamlin: I'm the beast and your the beauty

Feyre: k.

Secound book

Tamlin: I'm the beast an-

Rhys:lol nope