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sunshyne2014 · 2 years ago

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Designing Your Characters

Hey everyone, Abby here with another writing post! Today I want to talk about character designs and how to make them, and why they help me so much personally. Let’s get right into it!

What is a character design?

Have you ever been creating a character and bam, you get a sudden and (very) detailed image of this character in your head? Isn’t it the coolest? (Correct answer: yes.) Most people think of character designs as drawings of the same character in different poses and outfits and such, but some of us weren’t blessed with artistic abilities of the drawing type. So us writers turn to the character design using words and descriptions (then there are the lucky ones who have both, teach me your ways)!

Character designs are extremely important for your writing because you want to have a consistent reference for the appearance of all of your characters while you’re writing. They often take a while, but I think in the end they’re definitely worth it.

My Character Designs

I consider myself an extremely organized person, so I like to use two different “forms” that I’ve created. (The other one is for personality, which I’ll go over in another post.) So we’re going to go with a made-up character for this one, just so I can give some good examples.

Below the cut you’ll find a “form” that I fill out for all of my characters’ appearances. The effectiveness of this whole thing is decided by how in-depth you go with it. You can get the basics if you just answer the questions, but for a full understanding you’ll want to get in an much description as you can. Like I said, time-consuming.

[ A Note: While it will be helpful to know everything about your character’s appearance, there’s no need to include it all in your writing. Unless it’s super important to the story later, I’m not entirely sure readers will need to know about your olive-skinned character’s sloping nose with a bit of a snub at the end, slightly sculpted jawline, golden-brown eyes, and full lips all at once.]

Keep reading

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sunshyne2014 · 2 years ago

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sunshyne2014 · 2 years ago

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Some miscellaneous writing tips I've gathered over the years

Bear in mind that these are not rules. They are just things that work for me, and I'm passing them along in case they work for you:

Rewriting is a great cure for clunky prose

Make an outline at least once. If you don't want to make an outline before the first draft, that's okay, it can be just as helpful to make one after the first draft as a sort of play by play of the story.

Making an outline before you start writing does not mean you are anchored down to the outline. The outline isn't gonna come steal your firstborn. It's okay. It's just a guide for yourself. You are free to go with or against it as you please.

If you feel you've used "said" too much, reach for an action tag, or simply omit the dialogue tag altogether, rather than trying to come up with a clever synonym for 'said' (looking at you, 'uttered')

You do not need to remove every single adverb/adjective from your work; just be aware of them, and ask yourself if they're telling you anything that isn't already a feature of the noun/verb they're describing (eg: 'big elephant', 'smiled happily'). If the answer is no, consider removing it.

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sunshyne2014 · 2 years ago

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Writer Block First Aid Kit

We’ve all been there. Some people have it all the time. Some say it doesn’t exist. I class writer’s block as anything from lack of motivation to not being able to solve a plot problem. Whatever it is, here’s a list of activities to try and get those creative rivers running.

Move. Pick up your laptop and go to a different room. They say a change is as good as a rest and this can be true with writing. Move to the kitchen. Write outside. Go to a coffee shop. Sit in the cupboard under the stairs and block out the world. Just change up the scenery.

Swap Medium. If words just aren’t doing it for you make aesthetics, mood boards, draw maps or characters. Victoria Aveyard once said she designed book covers and let the plot stew in the back of her mind.

Write Something Else. Working on other projects can give you inspiration for what you’re working on now. Find some prompts. Write irrelevant short stories or character studies. Write about your characters as kids or at defining points in their lives.

Plot. Hands off the keyboard, open up one of those many unused notebooks I know you have and start scribbling vague, half formed ideas. Allow yourself to write things you might discard later. Allow yourself to try and work through an idea you like but don’t understand yet. Try and work out the next 10 steps. 10 things you want to cover. 10 scenes. 10 days. Whatever it is, just write it down.

20 Minutes Rule. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Sit your butt down in that chair and write for 20 minutes. I don’t care if it’s trash. I don’t care if you’re going to delete it all later. I don’t care if it’s nonsense. Do it. 20 minutes of writing nonsense is still more productive than 20 minutes staring at that wall. After 20 minutes if you still don’t want to write, leave it, but you just might find yourself inspired.

Finally, Take Time Off. If none of this is working, it’s likely a sign of burn out. Take some time for yourself and just do nothing. “Write every single day,” yeah sure if you wont to be a machine who pumps out words instead of art. Sometimes you need to recharge before you move forward and that doesn’t just mean getting a good nights sleep. Look after yourself and be kind. This isn’t a race against the clock, you have your whole life to publish a book.

[If reposting to instagram please credit my insta account @isabellstonebooks]

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sunshyne2014 · 2 years ago

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I love this!

Some Things I Wish I Knew as a Baby Writer

You can find writing advice of every shape and form online, and most of it will never fit your process entirely.

I wish someone had told me that it's ok to disagree with the advice you see, even if the person is more experienced than you.

I wish someone had told me that writing is part craft part art; there is no right way to build a fictional concept, only tried and tested ways to bring it to life.

I wish someone had told me that it's ok to fail.

So I'm telling all of you this:

Failure is a blessing because we can learn from it

Success is dangerous because it can make us complacent

The joy of creation outweighs the comfort of acclaim

Persistence matters more than talent in most cases

Writing as a hobby and writing as a job are two different beasts, neither is better or worse

The stories you hate most may be your best because they have tried you and frustrated you; we rarely see the beauty in our own faces - our writing is no different.

You deserve to love your stories, but it's not the only way to measure growth.

#writerscommunity #writing #writing advice #writing tips

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sunshyne2014 · 3 years ago

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So sweet 🥹🥰

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sunshyne2014 · 3 years ago

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Owls!!! 🦉❤️

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sunshyne2014 · 3 years ago

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It’s not bad enough the world has gone crazy, now IG is going through and every post I’ve ever made and randomly blocking videos I reposted! WTW?!

#earth is ghetto and I wanna leave

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sunshyne2014 · 3 years ago

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Great advice. ✍🏾❤️

One of my story ideas that I've become really attached too just isn't working no matter which way I spin it... any advice?

What To Do When Your Story Just Isn’t Working

I can really relate to this (and I'm sure every writer out there can as well). My advice would be to figure out where the problem is rooted: Is your structure the problem? Is every scene important and pushing the plot forward? Are your characters doing purposeful actions, or just wandering about?

When I get stumped in my writing, it's usually my structure, pacing or my backstory having holes, therefore leaving me clueless as to why things are happening in my own story.

Consider the timeline of your story. Loosely following a structural guide can help keep your story on track and making every scene important to the story as a whole. There is Save The Cat, The Hero's Journey, The Three Act Structure and more.

Here's an image that I got from Pinterest (Three Act Structure) that I look back on when my story hits a wall or I feel like my scenes aren't making an impact. You don't have to follow it religiously, but it's a good tool to make sure that your story is actually progressing (rather than just a bunch of scenes with no forward movement towards the end).

Larger Image More things to consider would be:

Character Goals

Does your character(s) have goals that they are perusing, therefore pushing the plot forward? The goal can be simple or extreme, but it is what begins their journey. They want to assassinate the king, or they just want to get a new job.

Passive characters are led by the events/plot of your story, whereas active characters have goals make decisions that force the story forward.

Begin to Fix Plot Holes

Find any contradictions, missing pieces of information that the reader (and you) need to know for it to make sense or add laws and rules. Sometimes our stories go through rough patches of not working because we haven't flush everything out enough.

Writing Prompts

Take your characters and put them in a scene that is completely separate from your story. You can follow a writing prompt or just explore a random event that you place them in. This can get your juices flowing, can be a nice stress reliver as it's just for fun and even bring to birth new ideas you never would have considered in the first place.

Scene Structure

Are you following a scene guide that ensures every part of your scene is important and needed in your story? Every action should have a reaction.

Your character needs to be in pursuit of something (a goal) in every scene, no matter how small or basic it is. Are they searching for an ancient relic, do they want a bowl of cereal from the kitchen or do they just want some peace and quiet on their day off?

They then face a conflict while trying to obtain their goal which leads to a negative or positive outcome (they get it or they don't). After dodging traps they find the ancient relic (positive), they are out of milk (negative), someone is outside mowing their lawn (negative).

They then have a moment to react which can be a quick display of emotion or a drawn out one. They kiss the ancient relic, in an upset motion they grab their keys to go to the grocery, the man who wanted quiet starts yelling out the window at the neighbors.

Then comes the reflection which can be as small as a single sentence or a long inner monologue on how your character feels about what just happened. They think about what they'll do next. The journeyman considers the possibilities of what he can do with the relic, the girl hungry for cereal curses herself for not remembering to get milk, the angry man considers going somewhere else to find quiet.

Lastly, there's the decision. What are their next steps, what have they decided to do? This sprouts a new goal and the cycle repeats. He's decided to use the relic's magic to help people in need, the cereal enthusiast goes and buys two cartons of milk instead of one, the angry man leaves to go to the library.

All those decisions set in motion new scenes.

I recommend looking at the page I linked because it goes into better detail. Once I started understanding scene structures, my story started flowing better and didn't have much room to get lost or astray.