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Building/Architectural Terms for Writers

Trying to find a good word today and found these bookmark-worthy sites! Hope they help other writers with their descriptions.

Glossary of House Building Terms —if you're having trouble imagining a residential home for your story, this site's primary purpose is to offer house plans

Words That Describe Buildings or Rooms and Parts of Buildings — the sidebar on this page offers relevant glossaries for building materials, fences and outside walls, etc.

House Parts You Didn't Know Had a Name — this site is best for antique and historical homes, and offers professional DIYs for improving/maintaining every facet of an old home, which is good for descriptions

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spiritually you will never employ me

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we need the 8 minute workday

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becoming an adult cheat sheet!

learn to coupon

what to do when you can’t afford therapy

cleaning your bathroom

what to do when you can’t pay your bills

stress management

quick fix meals

find out if you’re paying too much for your cell phone bill

resume workshop

organize your closet

how to take care of yourself when you’re sick

what you should bring to a doctor’s appointment

what’s a mortgage?

how to pick a health insurance plan

hotlines list

your first gynecology appointment

what to do if the cops pull you over

things to have in your car in case of emergency

my moving out masterpost

how to make friends as an adult (video)

how to do taxes (video)

recommended reads for surviving adulthood (video)

change a flat tire (video)

how to do laundry (video)

opening a bank account (video)

laundry cheat sheet

recipes masterpost

tricks to help you sleep more

what the fuck should you make for dinner?

where should you go for drinks?

alcohol: know your limits

easy makeup tips

find seat maps for your flight

self-defense tips

prevent hangovers

workout masterpost

how to write a check

career builder

browse careers

birth control information

financial management software & app (free)

my mental health masterpost

my college applications masterpost

how to jumpstart a car

sex ed masterpost

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Hyper-specific advice because I don’t see enough of this!

make your characters have inaccurate perceptions of themselves. your character might think they’re selfish but at every opportunity they act selfless. we all have blind spots so give these to your characters too! (this works best with first person pov but I’m sure you can do it in third.)

make a character’s personality trait helpful sometimes and harmful other times. impulsivity that makes them act quickly in high-stress situations which is great but it also sometimes results in the wrong choices.

make an excel/google sheets doc for your outline. for mine i have the chapter number, the date, the character pov (since mine is first person and switches between 5 characters), a summary column, and a continuity column. my story takes place in one setting but most stories have multiple locations, so you could include a column for that, the time of day, even the moon phase (one of my wips is from the perspective of animals so that is super important for that story).

you can also use excel/sheets for keeping track of your conlang. for my animal wip i have constructed a language called Vannro and I have 300 some-odd entries into my excel doc. i have columns for the Vannro word, the English translation, etymology and derived words (for some), the part of speech, and the subject. you can easily sort in alphabetical either in English or your conlang, and also sort by excluding all entries that aren’t under the subject “derogatory” or “places” etc. I always forget what my “be” verbs are so I sort through the part of speech column so I can find “is” “was” “are” etc.

use perspective to create tension for your reader. for example, in The Blackwater Anomaly in a chapter from Rainer’s pov, we experience his nightmare, however in a later chapter from Holly’s pov, when she asks him directly, he lies and says he hasn’t experienced any nightmares. Holly doesn’t know he is lying but the audience does. I also have characters who do not get chapters from their perspective, who may or may not be lying, and so both the audience and the characters experience that anxiety and uncertainty together.

consider using deep pov. you can read some articles about it but essentially you make the audience experience the story at the same time as the character and it makes your narration more active. this can also be done in third person. this has a lot to do with “show don’t tell” (although sometimes its better to just tell). remove some “telling” words like “thought/felt/saw” and just get directly into what’s happening. instead of “Ava saw a shadow fall across her shoulder” make it “a shadow fell across her shoulder”. your reader will know who you’re talking about. this even jumps into the unreliable narrator when you change “I felt like Isaiah was blowing me off” to “Isaiah blew me off.” the former has room for doubt and makes your character seem weaker. if she thinks she’s being blown off and she’s pissed about it, make her say that! you have to make the audience believe it’s true, it makes them more invested in the character’s experiences and emotions. and then if they later find out Isaiah wasn’t really blowing them off, there was an emergency or something, both the character and the audience can feel regretful together over misreading the situation and being pissed at Isaiah. if you leave room for doubt, then your reader will just feel unsurprised during the reveal and frustrated at your character for being stupid up until then.

you don’t have to “show” everything. sometimes there’s boring parts of a narrative that no one really cares about. you can either make a break in the text to show a time skip happened when your character was driving from point a to point b or you can give a paragraph or two about the drive, just telling what happened, even include an accident on the side of the road or an unexpected and frustrating road closure. its a very mundane and relatable aspect in our lives and we don’t need to be “shown” these, we can just be told. summarize the nonessential by telling or just skip it.

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this is... the gleaner Erenville!

prints now available

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Writing Resources: WORDS ARE HARD

60 Synonyms for “Walk”

A list of sounds/onomatopoeias for writers

American vs British terms

Descriptionary

Insult names to use instead of "idiot”

Looking for a word you can’t remember

OneLook Reverse Dictionary

One look thesaurus

Power Thesaurus

Researching for WIPs : A Collection

Reverse Dictionary

Synonyms for Very

Using the appropriate vocabulary in your novel

Wild vs feral

Words to use instead of: cry/cried/crying

Writing websites

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Dialogue tips that actually work:

You are not writing a movie (ignore this if you are). The reader doesn't need to know every word the characters say for the duration of the story. Less is more.

Dialogue can happen within the prose. "And they awkwardky discussed the weather for five minutes" is way better than actually writing five pages of dialogue about the weather.

Balance your dialogues. Surprise yourself with a monosyllabic answe to a dialogue that's ten sentences long. Don't be afraid of letting your character use half a page for a reply or nothing at all!

Don't write accents phonetically, use slang and colloquialisms if needed.

Comma before "said" and no caps after "!?" unless it's an action tag. Study dialogue punctuation.

Learn the difference between action tags and dialogue tags. Then, use them interchangeably (or none at all).

Don't be afraid to use said. Use said if characters are just saying things, use another word if not. Simple. There's no need to use fancy synonyms unless absolutely necessary.

Not everyone talks the same way so it makes sense for your characters to use certain words more often than others. Think of someone who says "like" to start every sentence or someone who talks really slow. Be creative.

Use prose to slow down the pace during a conversation.

Skip prose to speed up the pace during a conversation.

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thank you again aaa

i would definitely like to work with you again in the future \o/

Commission for @/red-scorch, thanks for for commissioning me!💙 ᕙ⁠(⁠＠⁠°⁠▽⁠°⁠＠⁠)⁠ᕗ

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Pretty pretty butterfly

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[...] the courage to express and embrace my wants.

An incomplete image for something I was thinking about immediately after finishing Endwalker. I love to think about the in-betweens, tbh.

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hello! i don't use social media much At All anymore so i don't really know how to find specific artists open for commissions anymore hgjfds..... but i'd like to find an artist who is familiar with the game Code Vein and commission a piece or two from them :)

so if you know/enjoy this game and are open for commissions, please message me!

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scooby doo gang in the murder dungeon

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Hey, this question might be a bit unusual and I already appreciate all the help. I don't seem to be able to actually write my story (stupid mechanical writers block), but I do like to still do things related to my story. I have done moodboards and casting and a few other things. But I want to do more things, but I don't know what. Any tips on book-related things I can do while trying to overcome writers-block (besides moodboard and playlists)? Sorry if this is a bit confusing :)

Getting Unstuck: Motivation Beyond Mood Boards & Playlists

1) Draw a Map or Make a Layout - try making a map of wherever your story takes place, whether that’s a town, kingdom, or a whole country or world. You can even draw layouts of things like high schools, houses, or other buildings in your story. Not only are they fun to do, but it can be a helpful tool for visualizing your setting, and sometimes it can lead to ideas about scenes or plot points.

2) Do a Character Interview - imagine that you’ve pulled your character out of a story into the room and now have the opportunity to interview them. What questions would you ask them? What do you want to know about them that you don��t already know? What do you think the reader would want to know? What might be pertinent to the story that you haven’t thought about yet?

3) Do a TV Crew Follow Around - no matter when or where your story takes place, imagine that you’ve dropped an invisible TV crew into your story’s world to follow your character around through an average day. Follow them from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed that night. What are they like when they wake up? What is their morning routine? What do they eat for breakfast? How do they get ready? What do they do throughout the day? Who do they interact with? What else do they eat and drink? What do they do for fun or relaxation? How to they make money or meet their basic needs? What is their bedtime routine like?

4) POV Character Switch - take a scene in your story and try writing it from the perspective of a different character in the scene. If you do it with a scene you’ve already written, it can help you understand your characters and their relationship better, and might even give you things you can use in other scenes. If you do it with a scene you haven’t written yet, it can help you understand the scene better, make you excited to write it from the planned POV, and can even potentially help you get unstuck.

5) Story POV/Tense Switch - try rewriting a scene or chapter using a different POV (try first-person or third-person limited if your story is in third-person omniscient.) Or, try switching the tense. If you’re writing your story in past tense, try writing a scene or chapter in present tense. This is really just a fun exercise, but sometimes you may find that a different tense or POV actually works better, and that can sometimes be the thing that gets you unstuck.

6) Letter from One Character to Another - choose a moment or event in your story that you haven’t written about yet, but which you have pretty well planned out. Now, imagine that one character in the scene writes a letter to another character in the scene, but it’s a letter they never plan to send. What would they say to that character about whatever happened that they wish they could tell them but can’t?

7) Try a Writing Tool - there are all kinds of interesting writing tools out there, both online and things, apps, and physical things. Story Cubes, plot generators, plot twist generators, the Storymatic, StoryForge, Story Dice, tarot cards, the Writer’s Toolbox… just to name a few!

8) Do a Writing Prompt with Your Characters or Setting - look for some good writing prompts, then try doing one but use your character/s, setting, or both. You may have to augment the prompt a little. The point of this is just to open your mind to things you might not think about in the realm your story currently occupies.

9) Do a Favorite Character/Story Swap - Try swapping one of your characters into a scene in a favorite story, or try swapping a favorite character into a scene in your story. Once again, this kind of exercise can get you to thinking about things that wouldn’t occur to you that might actually benefit your story in the long run.

10) Figure out what’s making you feel stuck - Loss of motivation is pretty common when writing, but it can be caused a lot of different things. If you can figure out what’s holding you back, fixing it can get you back on track again.

Story needs more planning - some stories require more planning than others, and some writers just aren’t good “pantsers” and always need to plan. If you’ve lost motivation in your story, it could be because you’re feeling lost, not really knowing what should happen next. In that case, it can be a good idea to take a step back and do a little planning. Have a look at different story structures and story planning methods (like Save the Cat! and The Snowflake Method) to see if they can help you plan things out a little better. Just remember, you never have to stick to a template or method exactly. Use them as a guideline but make them work for you.

Something isn’t working - sometimes we lose motivation with writing a story because something about it isn’t working, and we may be well aware of that fact or it may be something we’re only aware of subconsciously. Either way, it can help to go back through what you’ve written so far and see if there’s something that’s just not pulling its weight. It could be an unnecessary character dragging the story down, a subplot that is cluttering up the story or drawing attention away from the main plot, or it could even be a scene (or multiple scenes) that don’t add to the story. It could even be a combination of these things, so if you can figure out what it is and fix it, that can often rekindle your motivation.

“Life stuff” is interfering - one of the biggest motivation zappers writers have to deal with is general life stuff. If you have a lot going on at the moment, such as a hectic time at work or school, are in the middle of a big project, you or a loved one are sick, or you’re dealing with anxiety and/or depression, you may simply not be in the mood to work on your story. Writers love to pump ourselves and each other up by saying things like “are you writing” or “get your butt in the chair” and talking about how we need to write every day, but the truth of the matter is there’s no shame in not writing if you have other things going on. Just promise yourself you’ll recommit to your WIP as soon as things calm down.

You’re distracted - if there are other things competing for your attention, like that series you’ve been binge-watching, that new book you bought, or that other story idea you came up with, it could be zapping your motivation. In this case, you just have to figure out how to plan your time so that you can indulge in the thing drawing your attention away while still having time to write. If it’s another story idea, you may not want to start on another project while in the middle of your WIP, in which case you should just take a little while to write down everything you’ve already got in mind, then set it aside someplace safe so you can come back to it later. Quite often that’s enough to get it of your mind.

You’re just bored with your story - if you’ve been working on a story for a long time, it’s pretty understandable that you might feel a little bored with it. In this case, keep trying the exercises I listed above.

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Have a question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

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~

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ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ ꜰɪɢʜᴛ ꜱᴄᴇɴᴇꜱ ɪɴ ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ ᴘᴏɪɴᴛꜱ

how is this fight scene crucial to the plot?

how does it reinforce the characters' beliefs?

what are the stakes?

keep the action moving

keep sentences short and punchy

how does this impact the characters mentally?

remove unnecessary sentences

what mistakes reflect the character?

how do their flaws impact the fight?

what is the goal of the fight?

what started it?

would the plot be the same without the fight? in that case, you may not need it.

mix dialogue and action

read fight scenes—Macbeth, the princess bride, Percy Jackson

watch fight scenes and rewrite them in your own words

how does the setting affect the tone and mood?

avoid blow-by-blow

research the weapons and techniques used for accuracy

what are the characters thinking?

show the aftermath.

requested by anon