#Writing Life

[theaftersundown]

*writes two paragraphs after months of literally nothing and it took three hours*

[luna-azzurra]

Character Movements — When They’re in Love (and Probably Don’t Want to Admit It)

Love doesn’t just blush and flutter. It aches. It stumbles. It leaks through the cracks, even when a character is trying to play it cool. Here’s what love looks like when it’s happening in the body before the character’s brave enough to say it.

╰ They lean in—and don’t realize it.

It’s instinct. Subconscious. Like their body is quietly screaming, closer. A slow drift during conversation. A head tilted slightly too far. A step forward they don’t take back.

╰ They can’t quite make eye contact—but they can’t stop looking.

They glance. Look away. Glance again. Maybe their gaze drops to the mouth. Maybe it hovers on the hands. Eye contact is too dangerous, it sees too much, but looking away entirely? Impossible.

╰ They fidget in specific, revealing ways.

Tugging sleeves. Adjusting jewelry. Touching their mouth when the other person talks. These aren’t nervous tics, they’re little release valves for all the don’t-say-it-don’t-feel-it energy.

╰ They mirror the other person.

Their gestures sync. Their laughs overlap. They cross their arms a beat after the other person does, and don’t even notice. Their body’s doing the bonding for them.

╰ They hover instead of touching.

The space between two people in love-but-not-there-yet is holy. Brushing hands. Shared drinks. Standing so close their shoulders almost touch, but never quite. Like if they make contact, it’s game over.

[itsawritblr]

That fic idea that won't leave me alone.

[atamascolily]

you should write fanfiction, actually. for your health

[se-conway]

no outlining, we struggle with the plot halfway through like real men /j

[roberttaylorsleeps]

What do you mean that starting with smaller projects is an easier way to build my skill with writing. You mean to tell me I can't just write an amazing novel as my first ever work?

Blasphemy.

[thepoeticpurplepotato]

🫣 oop

Me reading another person's writing: Oh they missed a period there, no worries mistakes happen :) Three adjectives in a sentence? Adverbs for days? No worries I love descriptions and this story is fire.

Me seeing the same thing in my work: Wow am I illiterate? Am I actually ok? Who the actual fuck told me I can write so I can go and curse their entire family for the time it took for me to carefully craft this GARBAGE.

[theaftersundown]

a constant problem

[xyywrites]

When Your Characters Feel Flat....

1. Give Them Contradictions

Nobody is consistent 24/7, and your characters shouldn’t be either.

“She was always kind, always helpful, always smiling.” what is she, Jesus? “She was kind, but she had a sharp tongue when someone pushed her limits.” not perfect but we can fork with this

Contradictions add dimension. A character who is kind and irritable when tired, is more human than one who’s perpetually pleasant.

2. Give them flaws and shit

“He was brave, but his impulsiveness often made things worse before they got better.”

3. Add habits or what they say, umm....quirks

Quirks make your characters memorable without needing an info dump.

“She was shy.” or maybe.... “She tugged at her sleeves whenever someone asked her a direct question, her gaze darting across the room like she was searching for an escape route.”

4. Their interactions with people, animals, objects

“He was a loner.” that's it? or...“He kept his coworkers at arm’s length — just a guy in the background, clocking his hours, counting down the minutes until he could go home to Dusty, his dog, his favorite being in the world.”

5. Their habits/traits/quirks could be explained by their backstories

Why are they the way they are?

“She never trusted anyone.” Or...“She never trusted anyone—not after her best friend turned on her in high school, a betrayal that still stung ten years later.”

6. Add some form of "Internal Conflict"

“He didn’t want to leave.” Or...“He didn’t want to leave, but staying meant admitting he cared—and caring always led to heartbreak.”

7. You could make them perfect if you want but please for the love of God, don't.

Just don't. It's a major turn-off.

“She was confident in her abilities.” or....“She was confident in her abilities—until she stood on stage and realized she couldn’t remember the first line.”

8. Allow them a character arc. Evolution.

Because simply put, Stagnant characters are flat characters.

Let's say there's a girl who sees asking for help as weakness — she hides her bruises, builds her walls, endures alone. But over time, not through grand speeches but through small seemingly unsignificant moments she learns that letting people in isn’t weak. She realizes relying on others, and letting others rely on her gives her strength and hope.

[luna-azzurra]

Writing, at its core, is about stepping into someone else’s shoes. It’s not just about creating characters who are like you, it’s about understanding characters who are nothing like you. 

Writing forces you to ask, “Why does this person act this way?” “What are they afraid of?” “What do they want?” You have to feel what your characters are feeling, even if you don’t agree with them. That’s how you create characters who are complex, layered, and real.

All My Books on Amazon 💛

[leanmachine5]

Cause of my insomnia number one:

[cr1ngetherapyyy]

Does anyone else experience this?

I know what happens in this chapter. It’s all in my head. I have an outline. I just need to write it out. But it’s been weeks since I’ve written a single word.

I started this project out strong. I wrote an average of 2-3k words a day over the course of 9 days. I ended up writing a total of 15k words. But now I have to fill in the blanks in between the initial scenes I was so passionately writing. So I’ve lost all that motivation and inspiration that initially kept me going.

I don’t understand why I’m like this. It’s infuriating.

[theaftersundown]

fanfiction truly being the savior for everyones sanity

[leanmachine5]

yall gotta learn to separate "this character deserved better" (as in "this character has an intentionally tragic story that is supposed to feel bad") and "this character deserved better" (as in "this character had so much potential and was failed by the writer")

[pastelpiggielol]

I’ve come to the harrowing realisation that the only way to write my book is to write my book

I may never recover