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8 rules of thumb for writers

The Adverb Rule: Only use an adverb if it changes the meaning of the verb. ie. “He whispers quietly” vs “He whispers sadly”.

The ‘Said’ Rule: Similar to the adverb rule– only use a different dialogue tag when it changes the meaning of the dialogue. The most common exception would be ‘asked’.

The Dialogue Tag Rule: Only tag dialogue when absolutely necessary. My suggestion for this is to write the first draft with minimal tags then, while editing, add tags in where there may be confusion.

The Kiss Rule: When writing romance, if your characters need to kiss (or show any other physical affection) for readers to know they’re in love, they don’t have good chemistry.

The Infamous ‘Show Don’t Tell’ Rule: Not only is it fairly self-explanatory, but you’ve probably heard it a million and one times. Basically: if you can show it, do. ie. “she thought the man was annoying” vs. “she rolls her eyes when the man begins to speak”.

The Exceptions to the ‘Show Don’t Tell’ Rule: My personal rule for this is show stuff that’s relevant to the story but tell stuff that’s going on in the background. “She rolls her eyes when the man begins to speak” is a good place to show, but you should opt for, “she thought the curtains were ugly” when simply describing scenery.

The Really/Very/Etc. Rule: In exposition, don’t overuse ‘filler words’ like ‘really’ or ‘very’. Of course there are some exceptions, but just like other adverbs, only use them for a reason.

The Change Rule: Just like you wouldn’t end a novel if no change took place, don’t end a chapter unless there is a clear, apparent change from the beginning of the chapter. If a scene doesn’t have a change, recognize that it might just be a filler and consider deleting it, if not heavily revising.

Obviously no rules should be followed all of the time, but these are some good habits to get into while writing. Best of luck!

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me coming back to a WIP after not looking at it for months:

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How to Write During a Pandemic

Hi all, Normally I keep this blog focused on writing advice and steer away from politics, but with the COVID-19 pandemic raging and all the accompanying uncertainty about our future post-climate change, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a writer on a rapidly changing planet. What’s our responsibility in a time like this? What kind of stories do we need right now? Is it even possible—or desirable—for our individual creativity flourish when we’re scared for our very lives? With that in mind, I wanted to offer my thoughts on how to renegotiate your relationship with your writing during this crisis, as well as some proposals for how to navigate the changes to come.

WHY IT’S HARD TO WRITE RIGHT NOW

Did you think being stuck at home, underemployed, and/or socially isolated would translate to more time spent on your writing… Only to discover, um, it didn’t? You’re not alone. While shutdowns, quarantine, and self isolation may be theoretically creating conditions that give you lots of time to write, many writers are more blocked than ever right now. Here’s why.

You’re Terrified. Even in the best of circumstances, writers under capitalism are regularly paralyzed by the fear that spending time on their writing is “unproductive” (read: non-income producing), frivolous, or even reckless. So it makes sense that it would be difficult to put time into a purely recreational creative activity given the heightened survival fears arising from these extreme circumstances.

Your Stories Suddenly Seem Irrelevant. Even if you can get yourself to sit down and write right now, crisis conditions can create an existential angst that causes you to question whether what you’re writing is still relevant, important, or helpful to others. Personally, I haven’t been able to write in days. Prior to this outbreak I was working on a darkly whimsical fairy tale about a monkey and a bear that escape from the circus. I thought it was relevant and deep—the story deals with themes of feminism, transformation, and survival under capitalism. But under the bright light of a viral pandemic, stories that once seemed deeply significant can suddenly feel like irrelevant fluff.

You Don’t Know How to Do Anything Different. Let’s face it—your pre-pandemic writing life was created to work well with your pre-pandemic life life. Now that your life has changed, you need to change your writing habits, too… But you don’t know how to do anything different. So you either freeze up and get nothing done, or try to ignore what’s happening and charge ahead like nothing has changed. Neither of these techniques work well, though. Now that your life is different, you need to do something different with your writing.

HOW TO KEEP WRITING DURING A PANDEMIC

Warning: I’m not going to urge you to stay the course and push ahead with your normal writing life against all odds. I don’t think that advice is realistic, and frankly it’s not responsible, either. Creative people are the vanguards of social change. If shit is going down, it’s our job to innovate and pivot, not to cling like barnacles to the status quo.

Keep reading

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Tips on writing sign language

Disclaimers: while I have been learning ASL (American Sign Language, I am not yet fluent. Also, I am not deaf. Both of these things being said, I have been learning ASL for nearly a year and I’ve been doing independant research about the language itself and the Deaf community. What I’ve listed below are things that I have learned from my own personal experience signing, what I’ve learned in my ASL class, and what I’ve learned from my independant research.

1) When you write signed dialogue, use quotation marks and everything else you would use for any other type of dialogue. Yes, I know they didn’t do that in the Magnus Chase series, but many Deaf readers were made uncomfortable at the choice to depict sign language as not speech. Establish early on that the character signs and then use tags such as “xe signed,” or “hir motions were snappy with irritation.”

2) Without facial expressions, someone’s signs are going to be almost meaningless. All of the grammar is in the face, as are some descriptors. For example, if you can’t see a character’s face, and you’re only looking at their hands, the signs would be the same for the statement “Xe doesn’t have dogs.” and the question “Does xe have dogs?” 

3) There is no such thing as fluent lipreading. The best lipreaders in the world can only understand about 70% of what’s being said, and factors such as darkness, the presence of mustaches, lack of context, and a bunch of other common things can easily lower that ability. If someone’s lipreading, they’re taking little pieces of what they can lipread, and stitching together context and other details to get a general picture of what’s going on, but there’s still always going to be holes.

4) If you’re writing a character who can’t hear, know the difference between deaf (lowercase d) and Deaf (uppercase D). The medical term for not being able to hear anything is deaf. People who use their deafness as part of their identity are referred to, and refer to themselves as Deaf. They are part of the Deaf community.

(more tips below cut)

Keep reading

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Lawful Disaster...

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Me: *stops writing* well that’s enough writing for now

Me: *later* Alright time to write!

Me: *staring at where I left off*

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to all my writer friends out there.

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Gender-Neutral and Its Importance in Fanfiction

So, it was brought to my attention that there’s a lot of fanfiction with a fem!reader co-written within it, which excludes many nonbinary, male, etc. readers. I know I’m also guilty for a lot of my pieces, being primarily for femme readers. To help bring dialogue and attention to this problem, I decided to create this post. If more people are aware, hopefully fanfiction can be more inclusive in general. 

I promise, I’ll do my very best to be better in this regard as well. 

I understand this is not everything, but I want to at least start having this conversation within the community in order to be better. 

Thanks everyone for your time. 

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Characters I will write for:

Class 1-A, minus mineta

Shinsou

UA Staff

The League of Villains

The Big Three

The Shie Hassaikai

Pro Heroes, just ask.

Since this is my SFW blog, all characters can be either their canon ages or a requested age.

Relationships I will write:

Sibling! Reader

Friend! Reader

Lover! Reader

Spouse! Reader

Types of readers I will write:

Gender Neutral! Reader

Female! Reader

Male! Reader

Reader with a different body type

Reader with a certain ethnicity (please be specific I would hate to write something inaccurate)

Reader with physical/mental illness (will be tw's)

Type of content I will be making:

A masterlist (will be tagged as fluffgremlinmasterlist)

Ship requests (will be tagged as fluffgremlinshiprequests)

Imagines

Drabbles

Headcanons

Oneshots

Prompts

Preference

Fics

Everything will be tagged, but if I miss a tag please tell me.

Also, I'm also making an NSFW blog, @nsfw-my-hero-academia

Feel free to go there for your more degenerate requests.

If you see anything on here that you think is missing or are just confused about, feel free to send me an ask about it!