#advice with phahbiyah

[tenacious-scripturient]

Do I see right? You write your wip from first pov for 7 different characters? Wow, that's amazing. I'm worried about writing 4, and you go with 7😂. Do you have any tips? How is it, writing so many?

ah, thank you! that’s right! well, i technically write six, not seven, (the last one is very brief, only a few paragraphs) but close enough lol. 

four different perspectives is still a big number! i don’t have much experience outside of this one story, but i’ll try to help to the best of my ability. as always, take what i say with a grain of salt!

give each character a unique voice!

i don’t mean a literal unique voice—obviously, that won’t really help in writing—but a voice that is different and can be identified differently from the others.

for example: one character might use informal language, and a lot of contractions, while another might be very formal and never use contractions.

this helps the reader (and the writer!) differentiate between each POV so that every single one of them is important. it keeps the characters from being jumbled up and mushed into one, and makes each one even more special.

to add onto this, every character themself has to be unique. again, this helps with writing different POVs, but is also just good advice in general! if two characters are too similar or play the same role, it might be a good idea to scrap one or merge them!

what’s the purpose?

what’s the point of writing from multiple perspectives? now, someone might say that it enhances the story, but they’d need to expand on it some more. how does it affect the story? what would change if you made it a different character? what would it add to the experience, or take away? these questions can help pinpoint the reason for this perspective.

adding multiple POVs is great during a part where the characters are split up—it can reveal new details about all kinds of things.

but if you’re changing things just to mix it up a little, it may not be a good idea to do so. it’s best to stick to the simple things, yes?

in the first book of said WIP, the majority of the chapter POVs belong to my main character. i chose to do this because, not only would other perspectives be unnecessary, but it most likely would have messed up the experience.

so, ask yourself this question often! it might just be the deciding factor between a good or a bad chapter.

editor’s note: it got kind of long, so i’m putting the remaining two below the cut! they’re “add some kind of structure” and “experiment!”

add some kind of structure

now, this one is kind of a grey area. when i say structure, i mean some sort of order or organization for your POVs.

an idea often used is a cycle of character perspectives throughout the chapters: chapter 1 - character A, chapter 2 - character B, chapter 3 - character A, and so on. some might do only one chapter each time, or group it into threes.

you might often see this done in YA novels with many characters—the SIx of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan.

many authors take advantage of this so there’s a nice flow between chapters, and so it’s easy to follow! having so many character perspectives might be confusing to the reader, so this might help.

the reason it’s a grey area, however, is because i don’t follow it myself. if it’s your thing, i totally encourage you to do so! it’s just that it isn’t for me.

it might be difficult to follow at times, but i compensate for it by making it evident the POV has switched, and having the switches happen at times that make sense.

another thing that i see suggested often (but don’t follow) is that each chapter should have its own POV. again, chapter 1 - character A, etc. i don’t think it’s fully necessary, however—as long as the scene breaks / ends at a good time, you can change the POV within the same chapter. i do it all the time!

experiment!

yes, it’s oversaid. yes, it’s overstayed its welcome. but experimenting is the only way to find out what works for you and doesn’t!

you want to write a chapter in another POV but don’t know if it’ll work? try it, just a little scene! what’s the worst that could happen, after all? maybe that chapter becomes a masterpiece because of the change in POV!

i actually didn’t start my WIP with multiple POVs—the first third of the book was only my main character. but reading over it afterward, it really felt like it was missing out on certain pieces of info.

i decided to tell the story from multiple perspectives on a whim, and i think it’s much better this way!

—

that being said, writing so many characters isn’t so bad! i kept a lot of these in mind (especially the first two), and it comes almost natural to me! writing the perspectives of so many characters is actually quite fun, once you get the hang of it.

by the way—which WIP is this? flickers in the dust, i’d imagine, but i’m not sure lol

feel free to reblog and add on to this post! and pop into my inbox with these kinds of questions sometime—i’d love to help!

[sowingtheseeds]

Why were you picking on those other blogs when they have an opinion on how they feel about THEIR work? I think that what you were saying to @phahbiyah and @writingonesdream was way too harsh. It's up to you if you want to give advice given your very valid credentials, but people don't HAVE to take it, and the consequences of that are on THEM if they don't. It's still not a reason to lash out at others for having different opinions on how people view their own work.

Don’t publish a post filled with writing tips if you can’t understand the basic premise you’re writing about. Simple as. 

If offering valid critiques is “picking on” an author, I pray they never try to publish anything. Look up what a beta reader does, look up what an editor does, and get back to me (but really don’t, because I don’t care)

[tenacious-scripturient]

How detailed do you get with your worldbuilding? That’s one of my favorite parts of writing, but I feel like I spend too much time focusing on all the little details and not on the things that are important to the story. I’m trying to find a balance between self-indulgence and actually getting stuff done, so any advice would be appreciated!

i definitely agree—worldbuilding can be really fun, but it can be too fun at times, and we focus on the little unimportant things. what can i say, self-indulgence is something we all fall victim to!

i’ll have to apologize, though; i don’t have much advice on this kind of thing, but i’ll try my best! as always, take this advice with a grain of salt, as i’m not an experienced writer, and far from it.

know what’s important

it’s exactly as it says—know what is important and what isn’t, and focus on what’s more crucial. that’s a given, but like you said, it can be hard to do so sometimes.

really, i don’t blame you! you’re creating a world with your mind, and you can so anything you want in it! but it’s vital to understand how much worldbuilding you really need to do.

the process is simple—if the story doesn’t call for that piece of worldbuilding, it isn’t important.

for example, my WIP doesn’t feature any religion, really. i’ve always wanted to make some sort of religion in a story, but i know that it isn’t important to this one. instead, i can save my ideas for another WIP!

even make a list if you need to! any sort of graphic organizer can help set ideas and clear your head.

stop yourself before you go too far

we all get lost in our own heads while building worlds sometimes, but you need to stop and ask yourself: do i need to do this?

you said a problem you had was focusing too much on the little things, so simply being aware of it might help! it would probably save a lot of your time, which can instead be put into other worldbuilding or writing!

of course, this is easier said than done, but just get into the habit of doing so!

you just gotta stop

at one point, you just have to stop making the base and actually start creating the product. if you keep adding onto the base, you’ll never get to the actual cake! (is that a good analogy? i have no idea)

if you’ve got everything you need to write, why not just dive in headfirst? it’s true that failing to plan is planning to fail, but planning has an end.

you might have to leave a lot of your ideas alone, but like it said: you just gotta stop!

both? both is good

again, it might be easier said than done, but why not include all the self-indulgence pieces of worldbuilding? even just a throwaway line with vague information might hint toward your subtle worldbuilding, and could be a nice easter egg for your readers to find!

this could even lead into some sort of story about the extended universe, or other characters. for example, i make mention of a war from 800 years ago in my story. it’s not really important to the plot, but it’s so brief that it doesn’t affect the flow of the story!

like you said, finding a mix of self-indulgence and actually getting stuff done is pretty important, but also hard. i think you’ll just have to experiment in order to know what works for you!

-

feel free to reblog and to add onto this post! if anyone has any questions like these, just pop into my inbox—i’d be happy to help to the best of my ability!

[tenacious-scripturient]

As someone who’s trying to build up the confidence to share their writing (and maybe start a writeblr, I haven’t decided yet), I have to ask, how do you get the word out about your writing? What are the best ways to bring people’s attention to your blog? (Sorry that this is so out of the blue and worded EXTREMELY poorly, but I’m just looking for advice.)

hey hey hey, no worries at all! i’m just glad i’m someone you can turn to and ask for help, and i’m happy to give it my best shot!

it’s really awesome that, despite low confidence, you’re feeling up to sharing your writing with the community, and that’s a great thing! i totally understand that. i also have some advice for gaining followers as a writeblr! this list has some aspects of that on here, but this is more in-depth and detailed.

of course, i’m in no way an expert, but here are what i believe to be the most critical things to know:

1. interact with the community

this is probably the most important thing to keep in mind as you navigate the waters of writeblr. it isn’t super important when you have more followers and mutuals, but it’s crucial at the beginning.

when you start off, you’re essentially alone. but you can interact and communicate with other writeblrs so you’re not, and this can help you gain traction! i started by following writeblrs that intrigued me and asking them to be on their taglists for most things, but especially tag games. those helped me to make a name for myself on tumblr and have fun in the process!

talking with others in the community gives you the final push you need to start gaining followers, and you gain some awesome writeblr friends, too! i know i have.

2. reblog, reblog, reblog!

the saying “an eye for an eye” is usually true in most cases, but especially here on writeblr and other creative blrs. unless you give attention to other writeblrs, they’ll never you the time of day. kindness and generosity is super important!!

when you reblog and comment on other people’s original posts, they feel appreciated and loved! even adding a little comment like “i loved this!” in the tags can make someone’s day. so of course they’ll be more inclined to do the same to you!

reblogging can spread word of something quickly, so this is really important to note!

3. post about your WIP

how is anyone going to know about your WIP if you don’t make a single post about it? truth is, they won’t.

post a bunch of stuff! be your biggest supporter and reblog those incredible posts about your worldbuilding, story, and characters! do it! your work is amazing and so are you!

but, as much as you want to post about your WIP, don’t overwhelm them, especially with things like memes, characters, and miniscule worldbuilding facts. people usually don’t have the same knowledge of your story as you do, and can easily get lost. plus, who wants to see the same thing on their dash over and over again?

that’s not to say you can’t post memes and character intros, but not too much. i’ve seen too many writeblrs constantly posting some weird character facts whose name i’ve never even read... more than 15 times a day. not even joking. yeah, that’s kind of a turn off. sorry.

4. bring something unique to the table

now, doing this can be really hard, but if you can pull it off, followers will come flocking to you like birds. well, maybe not completely unique, but at least something rare.

for example, there’s a great writing advice blog i know of that has TONS of followers because those blogs are so rare and the advice is so good!

there are a lot of ways you can be unique—the blog’s content, the genre you write, or maybe something completely different.

5. join contests and raffles

this one is kind of a strange one, but trust me—it helps. when i was much smaller, only about 100 followers, i entered a contest where my WIP was to be advertised on someone’s writeblr and won. i’m pretty sure this boosted my count by quite a bit and kept it secure.

along with that, it’s tons of fun and you can win some cool stuff! it can be a contest for anything—moodboards, art, maybe even having a song written for you... (not naming anything but i’m awfully close to 1.5k) so yeah. do that.

and that’s all i have! i hope this helped in some way, but as always, take this with a grain of salt! if anyone has any other ideas, feel free to reblog with said ideas.

[tenacious-scripturient]

Happy Storyteller Saturday! What's your method to writing so much? (Tell me the secret hnghhhhh I always have such a low word count) - @fruzsiwrites

@fruzsiwrites !! is this a general question or specific for me / people who write a lot? because i don't feel like i write a whole ton, but i guess it might seem that way from my posts lmaooo. anyway....

HOW TO WRITE A LOT

the idea of "a lot of words" can differ from person to person, but for me it's more than 1.5k words in one day. my average is about 1000, so that might give you an idea on your goal.

but how do you end up writing a lot? well...

1. be motivated

it's true that nobody is always motivated, but it certainly helps with writing a lot! there are a lot of ways you can be motivated, but here are a few i thought of.

talk about your wip with others! your friends, your mutuals, rant about it in a post! whatever it is, it's definitely going to get you excited to continue to work on it.

create moodboards and aesthetics! don't forget about actually writing, though.

edit the previous parts of that WIP! it's a little strange, yes, but it definitely helped me when my motivation was 0.

art, if you do that?

2. get into the groove

it's kind of similar to being motivated, but there are some slight differences.

i'm not talking about the actual writing part, but more the preparation. by that i mean: playing (instrumental) music, grabbing some snacks, water, whatever you need to be able to write for a while! it also helps with motivation.

this can prevent you from pausing your session to grab something to eat, which obviously isn't a good thing. you might become distracted, or you might just forget about writing altogether. and plus, you'll probably lose at least some of your motivation to write for that session!

so - prepare, and get into the groove!

3. set your schedule and make goals

let's face it: writing is a task. it's exhausting, it takes up a lot of time, and there's not much payoff until the end. that's why we need to set our schedule for writing!

everyone writes for a different amount of time, but we can all agree that it's painstakingly slow. i don't need to worry much about a schedule, as i'm still in school. i come home in the afternoon, finish my homework, chill for a bit, and start writing! this gives me at least a few hours to write, if i want to.

but for people with busy schedules, finding the time to write can be very difficult! so, if you're working on something you want to finish quickly, i suggest setting aside at least two hours to write, twice a week. this way, you'll grow at a steady pace!

and goals - listen, everyone needs goals to be motivated. maybe this session you want to finish this scene, or reach a certain number of words!

don't deprive yourself of something until you finish, though. rather, reward yourself when you're done!

and finally...

4. just write!

i know, i know, it's over said, people get it, whatever. but i think the real trick is to just focus on writing, not editing. which can be very hard - i fall into editing all the time!

it's the first draft - it doesn't need to be perfect, by any means. so don't edit.

just write.

as always, be sure to take this with a grain of salt, and feel free to add on to the list!

[tenacious-scripturient]

I have a question about writing characters with stutters: what is the best way to describe how a character with a stutter speaks? is it like with an accent where I'm just supposed to directly tell the reader the character stutters, or should it be spelled out, or something else? thank you so much!!

hey!! thank you so much for reaching out to me about this, i’m really glad you’re willing to learn! :D

my original post for stuttering actually got reblogged many, many times with all sorts of advice on it! you can find it here, and thank you to everyone who contributed. you can also look through the notes for more advice, if you need it!

before i give advice, i just want to say that, although i stutter, i do not speak for everyone. just like everything else, stuttering differs from person to person!

stuttering and how to write it.

to answer your question directly, i would definitely go for incorporating the stutter into a characters dialogue. writing ‘they stuttered’ on the side doesn’t have the same effect, i feel.

for example: ‘“I promise I’m okay,” he stuttered,’ is pretty different from ‘”I… I promise—I promise I’m okay,” he reassured,’ if you ask me. 

i’m not entirely sure what you mean by accent, or being spelled out, but i think that having it in the dialogue makes the most sense! you should use your own judgement if you think there’s a better way of writing it, though!

there’s a lot of good information in the post i think you would find helpful, but here are a few important points i’d like to make note of the following:

the traditional “s-st-stage f-fr-fright” stutter really isn’t as common as you might think, and, being honest, doesn’t sit very well on a page. it’s much better to spread the stutter out along the sentence using em-dashes (which i overuse hehe) and ellipses!

a much more common stutter is the repeating of words. ex: “I wanted to… I wanted to save—save her.” a good way to make this flow better in writing is to add a dialogue tag or action during one of the mentioned stutters/pauses!

not only people who stutter can have a stutter. of course, when someone is nervous or panicked, they might stutter. this can be used for dramatic effect in dialogue in numerous ways, such as surprise.

if someone is really focused, they can actually stop a stutter if they feel one coming on. it also usually works when they’ve completely memorized something! unscripted speech tends to be filled with stutter.

thanks so much again for sending in the ask and i hope this helps!

[tenacious-scripturient]

How do you keep yourself focused on one project at a time? I always seem to have a millions WIPs at once, and none of them ever get done...

hey! thanks for the ask, anon, hope you’re having a good day :)

well, i’m not sure if i’m the most qualified to answer this, seeing as i have very few WIPs in general LOL. but i’ll try. personally, i have one main project i work on, which is the biggest, and the rest are much smaller (usually fanfics lmao)

but, i can still try to give some advice. there are different pathways you can take, and the first is:

having fewer WIPs and ideas in general.

personally, i don’t have an abundance of crazy ideas for stories. when i do, they’re usually minuscule ones that power only short stories and flash fiction. 

but see, i don’t act on every idea i have. or rather, i don’t make them into their own separate universes. when there’s a line, a prompt, a character, or anything i want to write about, i usually integrate them into my other WIP(s). that helps with motivating me to write more (since i’m excited) and keeps my focus on a low number of WIPs.

or maybe a better idea is to let your new ideas ferment in the sun a little. over time, new things get added to it, and it becomes even better than before! or, like i said, it might be integrated with another idea. just make sure you note it down or something, so you don’t forget.

setting goals.

if you want to focus on a certain WIP, create goals for it. have them be bigger for the one you want to put most of your energy into, and small for the rest of them. that way, you’ll have more motivation to work on that certain WIP.

but also, remember to keep them reasonable. you can’t have 8 WIPs, and want to write 1000 words for all of them in one day. (well maybe you can. i’m not the boss of you, go do what you want!)

pacing yourself.

you probably know this, but working on so many WIPs at once can be exhausting. they gnaw at your mind all day, and that can lead to less motivation. not very fun, huh?

so you have to figure out how to pace yourself with all of your WIPs. for each person, it’s different. maybe you can work on each WIP for a certain amount of time every day, or change it up after one week. maybe you could even have a proper schedule. it’s just like any other work—it really depends on the way you function.

taking breaks.

taking breaks from your WIPs is just as important as pacing yourself. not only does constant working demotivate you, but it also hurts your writing. pausing from your work gives you time to replenish your energy and ideas.

and note that i don’t only mean lunch breaks and whatnot. i mean that, if you need to, you can take days, weeks, and even months off of your writing. i took a year-long break from Project: Easton after getting nowhere for 4 months, but now i’m back and better than ever!

taking longer breaks helps your ideas to grow, and once you get back into writing, you’ll have more motivation than you’ll know what to do with! tending to ideas takes time and patience.

and… that’s all i have. please remember to take my advice with a grain of salt! i am in no way qualified to teach lessons on writing, and these are just some things i noticed in my time as a writer :) 

[tenacious-scripturient]

Hey so I saw you were questioning on whether or not to give your MC a tragic backstory and I have some advice: give them small traumatic moments. Maybe make them a survivor of a car wreck, or make them a house-fire survivor (but don’t leave them scarless in any instance unless you wanted psychological trauma), or make their dog die protecting their human, but don’t make them have this huge tragic backstory. Just little moments.

thank you so much for this!! i did not expect people to be sending me asks LOL

but yeah, that’s actually a really good compromise! meeting in the middle, kind of thing. i may still keep it on the less intense side, but i do want to add a reason why Easton is so… hero hopeful, for a lack of better term.

i may make it that he got into some sort of accident a long time ago but someone saved him, sparking the ‘hero’ mentality. it could also play a role in his slight claustrophobia. hm.

[tenacious-scripturient]

Man how do you gain followers quickly? Do you have any tips? I just want a few so people might send in some requests 😂

hey, thanks for sending me an ask! i hope you’re having a good day :)

honestly? i’m surprised too. 900 followers in three months is something i never would’ve thought! and i still consider myself a newbie writeblr lol.

i assume this is about writeblr? if it is, you should check out @pens-swords-stuff’s post about how to gain influence in the writeblr community! theirs is probably a lot better than mine lol.

but anyway, here’s a small list of things i’ve comprised. take them with a grain of salt, though! (since tumblr is an ass, here’s my second attempt at making it)

post often, but not too often. of course, posting often means more people will see your things! but nobody wants their dash clogged up by a single writeblr. i usually keep it to 5-8 a day, no more unless i need to. also, your queue is your friend.

speaking of posting, make sure your posts vary! for example, if you have a few original posts about your wip, mix it up a little. add some writing advice, or a reblog from someone else. of course, there are always exceptions, such as a blog that only posts writing advice.

this one is probably just me, but i don’t like to reblog writing memes a lot. sure, they’re funny, but they don’t really… help anyone. sometimes if it’s really good i’ll reblog it, but it’s rare.

and reblog your own stuff! be your biggest supporter! of course, don’t go overboard with it. two or three times is enough, or if you haven’t in a long time.

post the things you promise. by that i mean, if you’re a writeblr, don’t constantly post articles about politics. of course, the occasional ‘i love my mutuals’ or gofundme page is fine! but i don’t want to be overflowed with it.

reblog lots from other people! whether it be someone’s original wip or writing advice, reblog it, and show interest in it as well! after all, you only get what you give.

use tags wisely when posting original works! @pens-swords-stuff​‘s post on effective tagging is great. things like #writeblr #my writing #my wips and #my ocs are good.

join in tag and ask games! people will see your url more often and start to recognize you, which is good. also, they’re fun! keep these to a minimum, though, and make sure most of them have to do with writing. (i once followed a guy who constantly reblogged ask games about completely random things. i unfollowed him after a while)

also, if you’re reblogging an ask game, please send an ask to the person you reblogged from. one of the most annoying things is when i have an ask game and get 15 reblogs and 1 ask. like, please. even if you aren’t interested in the answer, it makes the other person happy that they get to talk about their wip. this is especially important if you want requests as well.

the most important thing to do is to interact with other writeblrs! if you’re starting small, just go through the writeblr tag and find some things or people you like! ask to be on their tag list for their wips, tag games, or whatever. but that’s the only way you can grow your influence in the community!

i hope this helped! again, these are mostly just my observations. in no way can i be considered an expert on this, but it’s worth a shot. if anyone else has more/ better advice, don’t hesitate to reblog with it!

also, anon, pm me sometime. we could totally become mutuals, and i’ll definitely send you a request!