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[kosmoswriting]

Cheat Sheets for Writing Body Language

We are always told to use body language in our writing. Sometimes, it’s easier said than written. I decided to create these cheat sheets to help you show a character’s state of mind. Obviously, a character may exhibit a number of these behaviours. For example, he may be shocked and angry, or shocked and happy. Use these combinations as needed.

by Amanda Patterson

[kosmoswriting]

I cannot emphasize enough how much you need to read thoroughly through the terms of any publication before you send your writing to them. It is mandatory that you know and understand what rights you’re giving away when you’re trying to get published.

Just the other day I was emailed by a relatively new indie journal looking for writers. They made it very clear that they did not pay writers for their work, so I figured I’d probably be passing, but I took a look at their Copyright policy out of curiosity and it was a nightmare. They wanted “non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license and right to use, display, reproduce, distribute, and publish the Work on the internet and on or in any medium” (that’s copy and pasted btw) and that was the first of 10 sections on their Copyright agreement page. Yikes. That’s exactly the type of publishing nightmare you don’t want to be trapped in. 

Most journals will ask for “First North American Rights” or a variation on “First Rights” which operate under the assumption that all right revert back to you and they only have the right to be the first publishers of the work. That is what you need to be looking for because you do want to retain all the rights to your work. 

You want all rights to revert back to you upon publication in case you, say, want to publish it again in the future or use it for a bookmark or post it on your blog, or anything else you might want to do with the writing you worked hard on. Any time a publisher wants more than that, be very suspicious. Anyone who wants to own your work forever and be able to do whatever they want with it without your permission is not to be trusted. Anyone who wants all that and wants you to sign away your right to ever be paid for your work is running a scam.

Protect your writing. It’s not just your intellectual property, it’s also your baby. You worked hard on it. You need to do the extra research to protect yourself so that a scammer (or even a well meaning start up) doesn’t steal you work right from under you nose and make money off of it.

[kosmoswriting]

Writing fight scenes

masterlist. main navigation.

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1. Pacing

A fight scene should be fast-paced and intense. Unless it's a final battle with numerous parties, a fight scene that's too long tends to take away suspense. To speed up your pacing, use active voice to describe movement and don't overdescribe your characters' thoughts. Excessive inner monologue will be unrealistic, as people usually have no room to think during intense combats.

2. Character mannerisms

Here's a point that people often overlook, but is actually super important. Through fight scenes, you should be able to reveal your characters' contrasting mannerisms and personality. A cunning character would play dirty - fighting less and making use of their opponent's weakness more. A violent character would aim to kill. A softer one would only target to disarm their enemies, using weakened attacks. A short-minded character would only rely on force and attack without thinking. This will help readers understand your characters more and decide who to root for.

3. Making use of surroundings

Not only the characters, you also need to consider the setting of your fight scene and use it to your advantage. Is it suitable for fighting, or are there dangerous slopes that make it risky? Are there scattered items that can help your characters fight (e.g. nails, shards of glass, ropes, wooden boards, or cutlery)? Is it a public place where people can easily spot the fight and call the authorities, or is it a private spot where they can fight to the death?

4. Description

The main things that you need to describe in a fight scene are :

• Characters involved in the fight

• How they initiate and dodge attacks

• Fighting styles and any weapons used

• The injuries caused

Be careful to not drag out the description for too long, because it slows down the pace.

5. Raise the stakes

By raising the stakes of the fight, your readers will be more invested in it. Just when they think it's over, introduce another worse conflict that will keep the scene going. Think of your characters' goals and motivations as well. Maybe if the MC didn't win, the world would end! Or maybe, one person in the fight is going all-out, while the other is going easy because they used to be close :"D

6. Injuries

Fights are bound to be dirty and resulting in injuries, so don't let your character walk away unscathed - show the effect of their injuries. For example, someone who had been punched in the jaw has a good chance of passing out, and someone who had been stabbed won't just remove the knife and walk away without any problem. To portray realistic injuries, research well.

7. Drive the plot forward

You don't write fight scenes only to make your characters look cool - every fight needs to have a purpose and drive the plot forward. Maybe they have to fight to improve their fighting skills or escape from somewhere alive. Maybe they need to defeat the enemy in order to obtain an object or retrieve someone who had been kidnapped. The point is, every single fight scene should bring the characters one step closer (or further :D) to the climax.

8. Words to use

• Hand to hand combat :

Crush, smash, lunge, beat, punch, leap, slap, scratch, batter, pummel, whack, slam, dodge, clobber, box, shove, bruise, knock, flick, push, choke, charge, impact

• With weapon :

Swing, slice, brandish, stab, shoot, whip, parry, cut, bump, poke, drive, shock, strap, pelt, plunge, impale, lash, bleed, sting, penetrate

[kosmoswriting]

The Consequence of Magic

Some magic systems become more realistic if there is a consequence brought onto it’s user. Sometimes this can be as simple as balance— if you heal a life, another life must be given. Here are some ideas to get your mind churning on what consequences your magic could cause to its user.

1) Pain. If the magic is brute and aggressive (fire, lightning, mind control in a negative manner) the user feels all of that same pain they exerted onto someone else.

2) Emotional disconnection. The more the user plays with their power, the less emotion they can feel. Eventually, this could lead to complete disconnection from everyone they love and a decay into pure evilness.

3) Headaches. If the user has a mind-related power, giving them headaches could be a simple yet effective consequence. The headaches could make their power unstable, chaotic and truly dangerous. 

4) Years off their life. Every time they use their ability, it slowly takes days, months and years away from their life. If they’re immortal, they risk mortality. 

5) Slip into madness. The power either gets to their head or it has an evil origin thus causing them to become mad and insane overtime.

6) Freedom. The power is actually an entity of its own and while the user thinks they have control over this awesome ability— it’s really controlling them. Over time, it forces them into doing things or hurting people and one day they just become a soulless puppet. (Makes me think of a parasite 🤢) 

7) Increased aging. The speed at which you age is increased, but the user doesn’t realize it until they start seeing grey hairs or wrinkles. 

8) Blood loss. The magic draws upon the users blood and they have to wait for it to restore before using their abilities— if they don’t, or use a large surge of their ability, it can drain them of blood.

9) Memory loss. The wear and tear on the users mind causes them to slowly forget their lives until they have nothing left to remember. Alternatively, maybe the power needs to use these memories as source of energy.

10) Decay. The users body slowly begins to wither. Nails rotting, skin peeling, eyes drooping, knees weak… mama’s spaghetti. 

11) Extreme exhaustion or tiredness. The power keeps them up at night and takes a ton of energy to use. This renders the user constantly exhausted which can lead to death either from exhaustion, or from making fatal mistakes because they’re so tired.

12) Sacrifices. The power requires some sort of sacrifice to the gods or else they take their power back. An animal, a conjuring of different herbs and items, blood… a life. 

13) Addiction. Similar to foods or drugs, magic can become addictive and deadly at high dosages. 

14) Bad luck. The magic brings upon bad luck. The more magic you use, the worse luck you’ll receive.

Some interesting power + consequence combinations (from the top of my head and from literature/movies): 

The healer who is constantly bleeding internally.

The rebelled servant who has finally gained his freedom but becomes slave to the magic itself.

A magical ring that brings someone back from the dead. Every time this person comes back from the dead, they lose their compassion and humanity bit by bit. (The Vampire Diaries)

A witch brings someone back from the dead and as a consequence, the person begins to see dead people and can interact with them. (The Vampire Diaries)

The power induces OCD— after using their power they feel a compulsion to do something. Sometimes it’s as small as drinking a beer and other times it’s as intense as breaking their own bones. (Darker than Black)

Magic gained from a celestial source (the moon, a star, etc) causes earth to become painful to the magic users. In extreme cases, they are pulled towards that celestial body and need to weigh themselves down/tether themselves to something or else they will drift upwards. (The Anubis Gates)

Pt. 2 — Coming Soon! Because it’s really fun to just sit here and brainstorm and research magical consequences! I feel like the possibilities are endless!

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

📖 ☕ Official Blog: www.byzoemay.com

[kosmoswriting]

writing characters with one eye

i can pretty much guarantee that ↑that↑ is not a heading you see everyday.

now i will not be giving advice on writing cyclopses, (though it may be sort of the same thing) i still hope this will be helpful for some people out there that are looking to provide a more diverse cast to their wip!

i have never ever ever read a book, watch a show movie etc etc that involves a character with one eye. (aside from those badass characters who wear eye patches bc they lost sight in one eye in some badass way)

for context: i am one of many people who was born with microphtalmia, an eye disease that results in one or both eyes develope smaller than normal at birth. i myself was born with a smaller left eye, which resulted in my left eye being removed exactly twenty days after birth.

microphthalmia (along with many other eye diseases) typically leads to being half or fully blind. i lucked out and only lost my left eye which i am so so thankful for.

i would really really love to see more representation for my community in literature, especially so people would come to see that being half blind isn’t as unusual and weird as people make it out to be.

without further ado, i present to you, a list of information, facts, and first hand experiences from yours truly!

i’ve had prosthetic eyes made to fit my eye socket for about fifteen years (i’m 16 lol) (the first 6ish months after the surgery i never had a prosthetic)

in my life i’ve had four different prosthetic eyes made because just like other people, my eye socket grew alongside the rest of me, meaning the prosthetic needed to be made bigger

i’ve had my current prosthetic for four years now, the past ones lasted about 2-3 years at a time. this one will probably last me through the rest of my life unless i need/want a new one

as opposed to most media/assumptions, my prosthetic (along with most prosthetics) is PLASTIC (people always think it’s glass) and only half a circle!!

i’ve had three surgeries related to my eye

i do not have depth perception which makes doing certain things very difficult (estimating distance, how close/far i am from something etc)

driving is not affected too much, i just have to turn my head more than other people. i believe being blind in the right eye might be more difficult, but i couldn’t say

doing my make up is kinda easy, except for eyeliner is a pain in the ASS since most people close their eye to do it on their upper lid, but clearly i can’t close my right eye whilst doing it lol

my family as well as my friends and even myself often forget i have a prosthetic, which sometimes results in awkward/funny situations

i hate walking with people on my right bc i can’t tell where they are unless i’m constantly looking down at my/their feet

i sucked at basketball bc i had such a disadvantage (no depth perception, i could only see half the court, i was constantly turning my head) but professional swimming is much easier for me since it’s not a contact sport and doesn’t really require for me to be paying attention to a million things at once

i rarely have to take my prosthetic out, and if i do, it’s either to clean it, (we do get eye crusties on our prosthetics just like other people do when they have pink eye or sever allergies) it’s bothering me/really dry, or i want to take it out to show/scare people lol

a lot of people don’t realize when i first meet them that it’s fake bc my recent prosthetic is amazing accurate to my real eye. others notice and assume i have a lazy eye since it doesn’t move

for some reason people think i can’t cry out of my left (prosthetic) eye??? i still have a tear duct??? i actually think more tears come out of my left tear duct than my right lol

i am extremely self conscious about it, but i know there are other one-eyed beauties out there who aren’t which is amazing!! i try to live vicariously through them lol

i make sooo many jokes about my eye lol, and i’m usually ok w other people making jokes as long as they aren’t like overly rude/offensive, then i’ll feel a lil bad about my self

people never really made fun of it, but kids in middle school likes to wave things in front of my left eye/on my left side that i couldn’t see which got really annoying after a while

getting custom designed prosthetics are available, but they’re really expensive (so are normal lol) they costs thousands of dollars, just like other prosthetics do

i run into things that are on my left side ALL THE TIME it’s actually kinda funny lolol

i try to hide my left eye/turn more to my left side in photos bc my eyes aren’t always looking in the same direction, which really gets to me

i wear glasses for both protection and bc my right eye is -1.75 lmao but i did used to wear non-prescription glasses purely for safety

i do have contacts to wear during the summer, swim meets etc, for when i don’t want/can’t wear my glasses but need to see. bc of this, i have a second pair of glasses that have no prescription

if doctors/scientists managed to figure out a way to fix microphthalmia (a birth defect), or do a sort of eye transplant, i would not be able to have that done to me because all parts of my left eye have been removed from my body

microphthalmia is NOT the only disease that results in the haver losing sight in one or both eyes!! there are many others, but it is not my place to share any experiences for something i have not experienced!!!

for once i just want to see a clumsy character who has one eye that WASNT a result of some tragic event.

so please please please consider including a character with one working eye in your wip. it would mean the world to myself and all the other members of the community (there’s a lot of us, trust me) plus, i wouldn’t mind starting an acting debut playing a half-blind female protagonist, that would be so dope.

that’s about all i can think of for now! please send an ask or reply to this post if you have any questions, i’m willing to answer any!!! and if you happen to be a member of the one eye club, please add to this post!! that would mean the world to me:)

[kosmoswriting]

Vampyr, 1932.

[kosmoswriting]

i dont use this blog ever, but this is what im doing for my series set in space. originally it was a podcast but the individual arcs got too disconnected so now its going to be two books and a novella in the same universe that really have nothing to do with each other

Would it be crazy to have a couple of my book series take place in the same universe and occasionally even crossover, because, like, they have different topics and different adventures but it's a footnote that all of these are happening at the same time, just in different places.

Because I mean, when you think of it that way, it's actually kind of hilarious when you realize all these people are trying to fuck up or take over the world at the same time, and would be pretty upset if someone else beat them to it

[kosmoswriting]

Dancing Through the Decades - Part 1/?

All starters are taken from popular songs & films of the 1920s. Feel free to change as you see fit. (ie. grammatical tense, pronouns, etc.) 

“I’m always thinking of you.”

“Don’t forget your promise to me.”

“Your love belongs to me.”

“I’ve come to say goodbye.”

“Why won’t you take a day off?”

“She’s a gal who loves to see men suffer.”

“Why do you try to make me feel so blue? I’ve done nothing to you.”

“I’ll do my best to make him stay.”

“Have some pity! I’m all alone in this big city.”

“I’m clutching at straws!”

“She can make a pastor be a dancing master.”

“I want to be happy, but I won’t be happy ‘till I make you happy too.”

“When skies are gray and you say you are blue, I’ll send the sun smiling through.”

“You are revealing a plan so appealing I can’t help but falling for you.”

“I’m glad that I’m the one who found you.”

“That’s why I’m always hanging around you.”

“There’s a saying old; says that love is blind.”

“Won’t you tell her please to put on some speed?”

“Nothing but blue skies from now on.”

“How could words express your divine appeal?”

“You can’t blame me for feeling amorous!”

“Now, you’re glad you came with me!”

“I knew you’d love me as long as you wanted, and then someday … you’d leave me for somebody new.”

“I wanted to forget you and leave the past behind.”

“The light that gave you glory, will take it all away.”

“She’s got a pair of eyes that are brighter than the summer sky.”

“Your kisses are worth waitin’ for, believe me.”

“Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.”

“I’ll meet you tonight under the moon.”

“When I want to know anything from you, I’ll tell you, you long-legged son of a—!”

“I don’t think you’d love me if I were poor.”

“Of course, we still need a few finishing touches, but who doesn’t?”

“Right now I’d do anything for money. I’d kill somebody for money. I’d kill you for money.”

“What’s the use of worrying? It’s silly to worry, now, isn’t it. You’re gone today and here tomorrow.”

“The next time I see you, remind not to talk to you.”

[kosmoswriting]

another life

[kosmoswriting]

Battle in the Chess Castle

Just drawn for a chance to practice my background work - it’s usually awful. So yeah, lots of towers and stuff.

[kosmoswriting]

[kosmoswriting]

sweet devil ⚡️❤️⭐️

[kosmoswriting]

New Wip :)

Title: You Were Never Innocent

Genre: Murder Mystery, Romance, Thriller

Current Status: Writing Chapter 5

Synopsis (WIP):

When do missing person cases become murder cases?

Hari Dhawan is a wannabe detective living in a small town recently riddle with missing person cases. With an uncaring police force, he takes it into his own hands to find what happened. 

His investigation takes him to the local butcher's shop - where he meets the assistant, Silas. With the two working together they can solve the case quicker. But what happens when the truth is closer to them than they thought?

Main Characters:

Hari Dhawan is a 17 year old Indian American high schooler with a big passion for true crime and mysteries. When he’s not taking classes at his local dojo he’s people watching or reading. He has a soft spot for romance novels and wants to be a detective when he grows up.

Silas Mattison is a 18 year old high school dropout of Slavic descent. He currently works at the butcher’s shop of the man who took him in when his parents passed away. He doesn’t have a lot of ambitions in life but has an interest in history and frequents the library.

Things in this WIP:

- mlm romance between the main characters

- amateur detective work

- commentary on true crime

- murder + death of varying descriptions

Excerpt:

I devoured any mystery and thriller I could find, my shelves going from historical to modern-day, grand heroes being replaced by cunning detectives. The only constant my small collection of romance novels - a guilty pleasure. I went out of freshman year with my worldview shifted and my mind made up - I wanted to be a detective.

I taught myself to observe the world, to note how people walked, talked, move. Personality types, body language, how people looked at others. True crime became my new insomnia fix, the morning news going with my morning coffee, journalism club helping me with investigation. It became an obsession and it was paying off.

By 16 I was fully invested, my mind filling with scenarios and ideas, channeled into creative writing. A hobby to stave off my eagerness, to help not talk people's ears off. My world was filled with shows and books and journals. The craze of being fascinated about crime from afar was fully in effect, but that's all it was - watching from afar. In my mind, I'd have to wait to enter the workforce to really be able to see the action.

I was 17 when I saw my first dead body.

--

Finally putting this blog to good use and posting about my current WIP You Were Never Innocent! It’s been in the writing phase for less than a month and Im already on chapter 5 so Im very excited to actually share it with people! 

The tag will be #p: you were never innocent

Comment or interact with this post if you want to be on the taglist! Or send me an ask or anything.

[kosmoswriting]

[kosmoswriting]

horror but make it healing

[kosmoswriting]

i put too much effort into the aesthetic of this blog to not use it but i’m going away for camp so i’m just gonna make some WIP google slides those are fun

[kosmoswriting]

How I turned an idea into an outline

With NaNoWriMo around the corner, I thought I might show you how I plotted my novel.

This is the story structure I used:

0% inciting incident

0%-20% introduction in the world, ends with a point of no return

20% first plot point: the hero receives his marching orders

20%-50% response to the first plot point

35% first pinch point: reminder of the nature of the antagonistic force

50% midpoint: big fat plot twist that changes the hero’s AND reader’s experience

50%-80% attack: the stakes are higher now

65% second pinch point: again reminding the reader of the antagonistic forces at hand

80% second plot point: the final injection of new information into the story to give the hero everything she needs to become the primary catalyst in the story’s conclusion (no new information past this point)

80%-100% resolution + final conflict + return home

I didn’t make this up. I think it’s by Larry Brooks, if The Internet informs me correctly. Fun Fact: once you pay attention to it, you’ll see this structure everywhere. Just take a look at any Harry Potter book, for example.

These points are the “bones” of my story. Next, I decided what “flesh” to put on them.

I simply made a list of things I like to read about:

Books about books and libraries

Magic

Quirky characters

Intelligent, fast-paced and sometimes silly

So, I combined this list and the structure points into a story that makes sense. Because I don’t want to spoil my plot / I am still to shy about my wip, I will make up a new plot for this post, so I can show you.

0%: The hero does something magical without knowing how she did it. She discards it, because everybody knows it can’t have been real.

0%-20%: We see the daily life of the hero: she is unhappy because all she wants to do is read, but she is not allowed to. She reads in the dead of night and is punished for it by her evil stepcousin. She finds a book on magic.

20% It all clicks together: she can do magic!

20%-50% The daily life for the hero changes. Instead of reading all night, she practices magic. She now loves books even more. She has little victories over her evil stepcousin, but hasn’t won yet.

35% The evil stepcousin finds out that she can do magic and takes away the magic book.

50% She discovers she can do magic without the book.

50%-80% The hero is not the only one who is bullied by the evil stepcousin. Her younger cousin is a victim as well, and he doesn’t have magic to defend himself. The stakes are raised, this is bigger than herself now. The younger cousin also wants to read, so they have several bonding moments over reading.

65% The evil stepcousin hurts the younger cousin, he’s in a coma now.

80% The hero discovers the evil stepcousin could do all these evil things because he knows magic too.

80%-100% The hero confronts the evil stepcousin, fights him off, nearly loses but wins in the end. He gives up and releases his power over the younger cousin who wakes up from the coma.

It’s not the most genius plot ever, but I literally made this up in minutes. So can you! And imagine the genius plot you can come up with if you spend more than a few minutes on it.

Then I calculated how many scenes I need in which part of the story. My wip is a YA or 12+ book, so I want it to contain about 75,000 words in total. I want my scenes to be around 1,000 words long to keep it snappy, so I need 75 scenes.

Scene number 1 (0%) is the inciting incident, scene number 15 (20%) is the first plot point, scene number 26 (35%) is the first pinch point, scene number 37 (50%) is the midpoint, scene number 49 (65%) is the second pinch point, scene number 60 (80%) is the second plot point and scene 75 (100%) is the last scene.

Some sidenotes on the 1,000-word scenes:

That’s more of a vague rule of thumb than a strict rule. If your scene needs to be longer or shorter, make it longer or shorter of course. My wip has some 2,300-word scenes as well.

Having 1,000-word scenes does not mean I have 1,000-word chapters, that would be really short. I will divide my novel into chapters after I’m finished writing my first draft.

For NaNoWriMo, maybe you could write scenes of 1,667 words, so you do one scene per day. A 50,000-word novel has 30 scenes of 1,667 words. Inciting incident is at scene 1, first plot point at scene 6, first pinch point at scene 11, midpoint at scene 15, second pinch point at scene 20, second plot point at scene 24 and scene 30 is your last scene. That’s just an idea, you got to see what works for you.

Then I made up in one sentence what will happen in every scene. For example: “They meet the dragon and he sends them on a sidequest.” Now my outline consists of 75 one-sentence scenes. This way, I prevent the problem of the sagging middle and other pacing problems and I still get to surprise myself when writing.

From those one-sentence scenes, I flesh out every scene into a first draft, using the process I described in my post How I never have to face an empty page when I write.

And that’s my first draft! I hope everything is clear. Feel free to ask me questions if it isn’t.

I’m gonna tag a few people I admire, who I hope are interested. If you aren’t, feel free to ignore me, or message me to take you off my tag list. If you would like to be added to my writing advice tag list, let me know.

Keep reading