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#cat's writing advice
purrincess-chat · 2 years
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Cat’s Writing Tips: Show Don’t Tell
Welcome back to another Writing Tip Monday with Cat! My name is Cat, and I’ve been writing for 16 years. I’m by no means a professional, but I’ve learned a thing or two in my time. That being said, take this with as many grains of salt as you see fit. Let’s get into it!
Showing vs Telling
If you’ve been in any kind of writer space, you’ve probably heard this phrase being passed around with varying degrees of importance. Some say show only, never tell, but in my honest opinion, it’s a balancing act. Sometimes it’s better to just tell the reader that something has happened, and we will get to that in a minute. For the most part, however, if you want your readers to be immersed in the story, you’re going to want to show them what’s happening.
“Cat, what do you mean by showing vs telling, though?” 
If you’ve read my filtering tips, you have seen some examples of telling already, but telling is exactly what it sounds like. You tell the reader exactly what is happening or what characters are thinking and feeling.
"But Cat, isn’t that the point of storytelling."
Let me give some examples: “Character A is tired. Character A didn’t like that. Character A wants to do that. Character A is sad.” Obviously those are some very simplistic examples, but you get the gist. Let’s take that first one and contrast it with an example of showing:
Telling: Marinette was tired after fighting supervillains and going to school all day. She crawled into bed and fell asleep immediately. 
This example cuts straight to the chase. Your character is tired, and they go to sleep. Let’s try an example of showing:
Showing: Marinette pushed open the door to her bedroom, shrugging her backpack onto the desk. The herringbone floors of the attic creaked with each drag of her feet across the dark room toward her bed. Not bothering to change from her day clothes into pajamas, she collapsed into the sheets, soft linen whispering promises of rest. Her eyelids fluttered closed, the dull ache of her muscles melting into the mattress, and the lure of sleep’s lullaby overtook her. 
That example was a little flowery, but you get the idea. Let’s take a look at a few details here and talk about why this shows the reader that Marinette is tired after a long day of school and crime fighting without explicitly stating it. 
First and foremost, she enters her room and drops her backpack. Presumably a scene like this would be after other scenes where she was at school and fighting supervillains, so restating that she is tired after those specific events that the reader has already experienced is redundant. They can glean that from having already read those scenes. 
Next, the room is dark signaling that it’s probably nighttime. People tend to be tired at nighttime. She’s also dragging her feet. Body language can say a LOT about how a character is feeling. Also, the first thing she does upon entering her room is head straight for the bed. She doesn’t bother to change out of her clothes because she’s too tired. I don’t have to explain that, you can infer it from the rest of the scene. Collapse is a specific verb. Most people don’t collapse when they’re fully rested. Marinette is exhausted in this scene, and the language you use to describe that can convey that without telling the reader outright. 
Most people can relate to an experience like this and picture a time in their mind when they’ve been so tired that their bed felt like the best thing in the world. That’s what you want. It engages the reader and allows them the opportunity to relate to what your character is feeling. It puts them right down into the story next to your character, which is exactly where you want them to be. 
The main difference between showing and telling is distance from your characters. What do I mean by that? As I stated in the showing example, by describing the ways that your character is tired rather than just saying they’re tired, you allow the reader to put themselves into the character’s shoes. They can picture what the character is going through and imagine exactly what that feels like. It brings the reader close to the character. Telling the reader a character is tired holds them at a certain distance. It prevents the reader from getting in their head. 
Think of telling like an old fairytale narrator. “Once upon a time, your characters did this, and then this happened, and they all lived happily ever after.” Seeing as you most likely aren’t narrating a fairytale and are instead letting the character tell the story, you’re going to want your readers to experience the story through that character. You want them down in the action as much as possible, and you do that by showing them what’s happening and letting them experience it with the character. 
That being said, there are times when telling is probably better. For instance, if you’re including a time skip or if you’re providing details that don’t really need to be shown like character relationships. You can say that a character is another character’s mom. That’s fine. You can say things like “The next day” or “Later that night.” That’s totally fine. Obviously, there are other instances than just these, so use your judgment when writing. It's a balancing act, but if your objective is to pull your reader down into the action, you’re going to want to show them the action. 
Showing isn’t as hard as you might think, but it does require you to think a little bit. Put yourself in your character’s head and go through all of their senses. What can they touch? How does that feel? What can they taste or smell or see or hear? How are they feeling emotionally? What do those emotions feel like physically? What tole is their exhaustion taking on their body? Get specific, especially if you are dealing with more abstract concepts like anxiety for example. 
Telling the reader that a character feels anxious isn’t going to convey the same experience for everyone. Maybe the reader doesn’t have anxiety and has never felt it before, so knowing that a character feels anxious doesn’t do a whole lot for them. But if you were to say that your character’s hands were shaking, their heart is pounding, their stomach is churning in knots, their breaths are shallow and rapid, their eyes are watering, etc. That gives the reader a much clearer picture of what anxiety feels like to the character. Details matter. 
This isn’t to say that you need to include every sense all the time or go into excruciating detail about every little thing. Like I said, this is a balancing act. Finding that sweet spot of giving just enough detail to set the scene is one of the main challenges of writing. Pick a few to ground your reader and help them down into the narrative. Reading is all about escapism for most people. They want to experience what it’s like to fight bad guys with superpowers or to kiss the boy they like. That’s why they’re here. Your job is to take them there. 
Hopefully this makes sense and gives you a bit more insight on how to pull your readers closer to your story. Showing will be far more engaging and rewarding for the reader in the long run, and it will allow them to relate to your characters even more. If you have any further questions on this topic, or have another topic you’d like to see me cover, let me know in a reply, reblog, or shoot me an ask! I’m happy to talk writing anytime, not just on Mondays. See you all next week! 
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bonefall · 4 months
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post/734733274896809984/do-you-ever-worry-your-own-writing-might-come-off that makes sense. i was asking because i'm afraid of accidentally writing misogyny myself and i kind of admire what you do
Hmm... I wish I had better advice to give you on this front, but honestly, the only thing I can tell you is to consider the perspective of your female characters.
Women are people. They have thoughts and feelings of their own, so like... just let them have their own arcs. A lot of the worst misogyny in WC comes from the way that the writers just don't care about their girls (or, in the case of tall shadow, actually get undermined and forced to rewrite entire chapters), so they're not curious about their lives, or WHY they feel the way they do or what they want, or any direction for their character arcs.
Turtle Tail as an example. She'll often just end up feeling whatever Gray Wing's plot demands. She's gotta leave when Storm dumps him to make him feel lonely. She shows up again to love him in the next book. Lets her best friend Bumble get dragged back to Tom the Wifebeater, but is sad enough about her death to be "unreasonably angry" with Clear Sky, and then calms down and accept Gray Wing is right all along.
And then she dies, so he can have his very own fridge wife.
In this way, Turtle Tail's just being used to tell Gray Wing's story. They're not interested in why she would turn on Bumble, or god forbid any lingering negative feelings for how she didn't help her, or even resentment towards Clear Sky for killing her or Gray Wing for jumping to his defense. She isn't really going through her own character arc.
She does have personality traits of her own, don't misunderstand my criticism, but as a character she revolves around Gray Wing.
So, zoom out every now and then, and just ask yourself; "Whose story is being told by what I wrote? Do my female characters have goals, wants, and agency, or are they just supporting men? How do their choices impact the narrative?"
But that's already kinda assuming that you already have characters like Turtle Tail who DO have personalities and potential of their own. Here's some super simple and practical advice that helped me;
Tally the genders in your cast. How many are boys, how many are girls, how many are others?
And take stock of how many of those characters are just in the supporting cast, and compare that to the amount you have in the main cast.
If you have a significant imbalance, ESPECIALLY in the main cast, fire the Woman Beam.
It's a really simple trick to just write a male character, and then change its gender while keeping it the same. I promise women are really not fundamentally different from men lmao. You can consider how your in-universe gender roles affect them later, if you'd like, but when you're just starting to wean yourself off a "boy bias" this trick works like a charm.
Also you're not allowed to change the body type of any girl you Woman Beam because I said so. PLEASE allow your girls to have muscles, or be fat, or be old, or have lots of scars. Do NOT do what a cowardly Triple A studio does, where the women all have the same cute or sexy face and curvy body while they're standing next to dwarves, robots, and a gorilla.
Or this shit,
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If you do this I will GET you. If you're ever possessed by the dark urge, you will see my face appear in the clouds like Mufasa himself to guide you away from the path of evil.
Anyway, you get better at just making characters girls to begin with as time goes on and you practice it. It's really not as big of a deal as your brain might think it is.
Take a legitimate interest in female characters and try not to disproportionately hit them with parental/romance plots as opposed to the male cast, and you'll be fine. Don't think of them as "SPECIAL WOMEN CHARACTERS" just make a character and then let her be a girl, occasionally checking your tally and doing some critical thinking about their use in the story.
(Also remember I'm not a professional or anything, I'm just trying to give advice)
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rightwriter · 5 months
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This is THE video for anyone looking for a comprehensive and thorough way to outline your book! Kat goes chapter by chapter with the beats you need to hit, and also gives an example from her own story, which really helps you understand! If you watch only one video from this blog, it should be this one! Reposting this because it's SO GOOD
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pastafossa · 1 year
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Using Tarot To Help You Write
Right ok, so I’ve wanted to do this for a bit - there are vague references to tarot in my story TRT and I’ve answered a few questions about how I use the RWS-style tarot to write but now I have a little bit of time while I wait for my laundry to dry. So let’s get into it.
If you’re looking for another tool in your writer’s kit, you could strongly consider adding a box of tarot cards to the bag. Set aside, for a minute, what you’ve heard about it. Set aside any spiritual aspect, telling the future, the ‘OoOOOooOOh evil’, or even the ‘DRAW DEATH MEANS DEATH’ you see in movies. Instead, strip it down to its base.
Tarot is about telling a story.
(Below: Oak, Ash, & Thorn Tarot)
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From a storytelling perspective, the first 18 cards of the RWS style tarot, known as the Major Arcana, essentially tell the Hero’s Journey as the Hero sets out on an adventure and searches for knowledge. There’s disaster, love, temptation, and wise people they meet along the way before eventually finding enlightenment at the end of their journey. The Major Arcana contains major archetypes and themes present through so many stories. When you add in the rest of the cards in the Minor Arcana - the other 56 cards, encompassing a variety of emotions, archetypes, figures, and various life events you might run into - you’ve got something perfect when you want to introduce new elements to your story. I keep a small deck on my desk and use it frequently when creating random OCs, plotlines, or problems for characters to solve.
And before you go, holy shit Pasta that’s a lot to take in, using tarot for your story doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to have 20 years of tarot experiences, you don’t need to be an expert, you don’t need A Great Gift. You don’t have to know about tarot at all, really. You just need one thing:
The right storytelling deck.
More below the cut.
Look, there are a million styles out there, some that focus heavily on storytelling imagery and some that focus more on symbols; some that feature animals or nature, and some that focus on people. I generally lean towards animal-based decks since I’m more familiar with animal/nature imagery, body language, and symbolism, but in reality the best deck to use for writing is simply the one you’ll actually use. If you’re drawn to one, go for it. That being said, if you’re looking for something to use without needing to get into all the symbolism of each card, I generally recommend using a deck in which all cards, including the Minor Arcana, depict a scene you can examine - aka, one that plays up a story rather than a straight up symbol. Let me show you an example with three decks.
Left: Mystical Cats tarot; Middle: Oriens tarot; Right: Children of Litha tarot
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These all depict the same card: the Seven of Swords, meant to depict deceit, theft, betrayal, lies, and trickery. The middle card relies a little more heavily on symbolic meaning (the black widow spider, which ‘betrays’ when mating and uses a sticky web - symbolizing a potential trap), whereas the other two cards show an active scene (Card 1: OH NO HE’S GONNA STEAL YER MOUSE WHILE YOU’RE NOT LOOKING; Card 3: YOU LOVESTRUCK DIPSHITS, TURN AROUND, THE SNAKE’S EATING YOUR EGGS). I’ve found cards like Card 1 and Card 3 are faster and more convenient for storytelling, because you’re basically presented with a scenario/characters/a situation right off the bat, whereas a symbolic card is more open-ended and might require some digging unless you’re already fairly familiar with the symbolism. If you’re going to get a deck that depicts people instead, I recommend looking for a deck that’s diverse. Humans come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and having a deck that reflects that (something like the Modern Witch tarot) is valuable for storytelling. So if you’re picking a deck to help you write, look for:
Decks that use scenes/storytelling imagery for all cards
Decks with imagery/body language you can easily read at a glance
If you’re looking for a deck with people - decks with a diverse range of body types, ethnicities, sexualities, and genders
A deck with imagery you actually like, otherwise you won’t want to use it
‘Ok, so let’s say I’ve found a deck, or I already have one. What does using tarot for fic even look like?’
Let’s do two quick readings for two writing scenarios you might use this for! This will also show you can be as complex or as simple as you need to be. These are also the two scenarios I use tarot for most when writing - character construction, and plotline construction. First I’ll use the Children of Litha tarot, which uses a moderate amount of storytelling imagery. Then I’ll use the Mystical Cats tarot, which is probably the most story-heavy deck I have, imagery-wise. That way, you can see how construction gets a bit easier depending on how scene-heavy a deck is.
Scenario: I need an original character for this chapter or scene! Quick, draw three cards!
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Quick reading: she’s very gentle but there are also two tigers inside her and one of them wants to kill you, especially if you fuck with her pet birds
More complex reading - Personality, Flaw, Backstory:
Card 1 - Personality: This character is someone who’s unafraid and bold in their kindness even when faced with danger, and they know when a gentle touch is needed. They believe strength is found not in being cruel or violent but in responding with love. This usually works out for them, to the point that even Scary People (TM) seek this character out, knowing they’ll find love and affection. Alternatively, this character is one half of the Brooding Rough One Loves The Gentle Soft One trope. Whatever works for you!
Card 2 - Flaw: Despite all that, the gentle character’s got a temper, and it exists in direct conflict to what they believe about strength, thus producing cognitive dissonance. This is someone who’ll dodge conflict to avoid showing their temper, but eventually that repression’s going to blow up into a real fight and it’ll be messy.
Card 3 - backstory: This temper and conflict avoidance is due to some tragic incident in their past that left them deeply wounded. It’s one reason they’re so gentle, but there’s a lot of lingering anger and trauma. These wounds are not healed, and if you look deep enough, you’re going to find blood.
Depending on how important this character is, you could add even more: a card for a strength, a card for a challenge they need to overcome to grow as a person, their family dynamic, etc. Again, you can make it as detailed or as simple as you need.
PASTA NOW I NEED A LITTLE PLOTLINE FOR CHARACTERS TO SOLVE. Quick, draw four!
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Quick reading: holy SHIT your characters gotta move fast, cause there’s a pissed off dude out there who wants revenge NOW and is ready to fuck up a *shuffles cards and draws* religious temple of peaceful cat loving monks, one of whom is the one that fucked up Angry Dude in the first place WHEN HE WAS A BABY WITH HIS MAMA, PLOT TWIST OH NO, IT’S PROBABLY THAT ASSHOLE STEVE IN THE BACK OF THE THIRD CARD, LOOK AT HIM LOOKING OFF INTO THE DISTANCE.
More complex reading - Theme, Problem, Setting, Solution:
Card 1 - Theme: As you can tell from our cat with zoomies, your protagonists are on a clock. The theme here is urgency, it’s speed. Things will start off with a bang and they won’t have much time to slow down. This’d be good for a one shot or a chapter.
Card 2 - Problem: look at that cat, they’re so ANGRY, they are PISSED, someone did them dirty and they’ve been stewing over it for a while. They can’t stop feeling that betrayal no matter how much they try to lick it off shake it off forget about it. They want REVENGE for what was done to them and they’re gonna cut someone up.
Card 3 - Setting: Ah, a peaceful, sunny place where everyone’s just chilling. Everyone’s happy. Maybe a religious place, say, a church or a convent or hell, a nudist retreat. Either way, no one knows what’s coming. Except (and this is why scene cards are so fun)... for STEVE there in the back. Look at him. Everyone’s relaxing in the sun but he’s staring out into the distance. He knows. And just like that, Steve’s the In Hiding person who betrayed our Problem - Steve the Asshole isn’t a part of the Sun card’s meaning, but a storytelling scene card lets you stretch like this and have fun.
Card 4 - solution: Clearly the only person who can stop Bad Person... is their MAMA (or potentially his siblings). Maybe a character goes to find the Problem’s mother and brings her to the church to talk the Problem into giving up. Maybe the protagonists desperately tell the Problem that your family wouldn’t have wanted this, even if that family was hurt - the Empress is generally very nurturing and loving, so that’s a fair bet. Either way, the solution to the Problem is their family.  
Once you get the hang of this, you’ll start to find other ways you can use it. I’ve used it for creating quick or more complex or more randomized characters, for creating plotlines and character arcs, for a few of Jane’s cases in TRT. You can use it for backstories, for settings, for problems and solutions, for deeper themes to explore with your characters. Hell, if you want some practice, you could literally go through the Major Arcana and write one-shots dealing with each card’s theme. Ultimately the possibilities are endless, whether you want to construct a detailed plotline or if you just have a new character you want to randomize or flesh out a bit.
In short: go get yourself a deck and have some fun!
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the-hawthorns-ocs · 7 months
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how does your creative process work? i always struggle to have ideas and create worlds that still have cats but are unique with unique roles. any advice?
Ok so the biggest piece of advice I can give is don't get caught up worrying about if your story/world is unique enough! Everyone gets inspiration from somewhere, especially in fandom spaces! Plus with so many of us making silly little cat worlds, our ideas are bound to overlap!
Tbh I think some of the best ways to make your world come across as unique is to take inspo from lots of different sources and just mix them together in your own fun ways! Just think about different things that you like the world building for and make a world building soup out of them!
For the Kinship world I took a lot of inspo from The Guardians of Ga'hoole, I love the owl society in those books, I liked the idea of multiple roles that one could train to become a part of, I liked the more advanced tools, materials and weapons, I liked that the world took place in a post human extinction that is just never explained. I took all of these things and made them my own for the Kinships! I mixed together ideas from Warriors with TGoG and then customized it to fit the vibes and setting/environment of the Kinships!
Also speaking of environment, the setting of your story can really help make your world your own. Coming up with a cool place or just a place that you like a lot can really help in giving you ideas for your world and story! I love Yosemite National Park and California's Pacific Northwest in general so I decided to set the Kinships in a territory that is very similar to that area! Deciding this really helped me come up with more ideas, how would this society interact with the environment? How would they need to adapt to the seasons and world around them? What sorts of things would they eat? Ehat plants could they use for healing? What objects from their territory would they use as names? Idk.. it just really helps get the creativity flowing!
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fixyourwritinghabits · 6 months
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I am trying to write a story where a dog is a prominent part of the main character’s life (a guide dog). I am struggling to write the relationship between the character and his dog, as well as how to write about a dog in general. Do you have any suggestions?
Phew, okay, you've asked a very cat person about dogs, so there's not much I can offer you, but I'll give it a shot.
Breed matters. Different dog breeds were bred for specific jobs, and no matter how little their current lives have to do with that job, the traits remain. Herding breeds will try to herd everything from cats to small children. Small hunting dogs were bred to dig prey out from holes and will continue to dig when they can. Small, yappy dogs were often guard dogs, which is why every little thing will set them off. Even mixed dogs will retain such behaviors, so your first step is to figure out what kind of dog you want. Guide dogs are often labradors, retrievers, and german shepherds, but those aren't your only options, and you can always mix things up by going for an unconventional breed.
Personality matters. Dogs may display traits based on their breed, and you'll find a lot of generalizing about how each breed behaves, but most pet owners will tell you dogs have their own unique personalities. Your dog character is going to have their own quirks, from favorite food to toys to how they play, react to new people, and signal that they want something. Think about how the dog not only interacts with the main character, but also their environment and the people around them.
Training matters. Guide dogs go through very specific and careful training depending on what job they're being tasked with. Not all dogs, no matter the breed, are suited to be guide dogs, and the training process is structured to ensure if they're entrusting the dog with a person's safety, they can do the job. Researching what kind of training your dog would go through and what reward system they rely on will be important.
How your character interacts with the dog is also something worth exploring. If you don't have any experiences with owning a dog yourself, reach out to people who do. See if you can volunteer at a shelter and pick the brains of the people there. You can find a dog park to do some dog-watching (like bird-watching!), or you can see if you can tag along with a friend when they take their dog for a walk.
The best way to figure out how dog/human relationships work is to spend some time around dogs and their humans. If your opportunities are limited, you can also reach out to collect stories from people. How would they describe their dog? What kind of interactions do they have? What weird things do they do?
When you have a decent amount of material, give yourself permission to write the story even if you don't think you'll get it right. You can always seek feedback and fix things in the future.
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iselsis · 6 months
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Bengal Cats vs. Tabby Cats
I keep seeing people describe cats that are stripy as Bengal cats. I can see their logic: Bengal tigers are stripy, there is a breed of house cats called Bengal cats, and the cat they're trying to describe is stripy like a little tiger. Basically cat is stripy > tiger stripy > tiger bengal > cat bengal is the thought process.
However, Bengal refers to a region of Asia, not a pattern. Bengal cats look more like little jaguars with spots than they do tigers, even though they have the tabby M. Bengal cats are a breed.
Tabby is the word these people are looking for. Tabby isn't a breed; it's a coat pattern. Tabby cats have a cute little M shape on their foreheads and stripes on its face, back, and tail. Tabby cats look like little baby tigers.
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powwidge · 9 months
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Society if WaCa fandom kept it's ship hate our of the ship tags
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righteous-pines · 23 hours
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Chivetiger joined the clan long ago under the lead of Pinestar, but his life as a loner isn’t even a distant memory now. Though he spends much of his time alone, thinking up dialogues and stories in his head that fill his chest with pounding excitement, he is often the cat others in the clan turn to with their problems, as he always seems to have a hypothetical on how to handle everything. He’s happy to spit out his opinion on the matter, and then be left alone, no other conversation necessary. He can often be found in a shady corner, off to himself, sorting his collection of shiny rocks and mumbling softly to himself in little voices.
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hi! sending this on anon bc this is a sideblog, lol. but! i’ve been very inspired by your drawings, your world building, and everything else that you’ve been doing with ofnd. i’ve just started my own warriors rewrite, and i’m really inspired by what you’re doing!
anyways, i wanted to ask if you have any tips? like for world building, character designs, names, etc. i’m new to warriors as well as rewrites, so it would really help me out! no pressure, ofc. but thank you again!
— @rust-wc
🥺🥺🥺 I’LL CRY, HELLO?? AAHHH
Well first and foremost: welcome not only to OFND, but to the rewriters community as a whole!!
As much as I’d love to offer as much advice as I can, I do want to preface that every individual’s work will be different, even when offered the same materials. Admittedly I’m a bit cluttered when it comes to my resources and “tips”, but I will absolutely do my best!!
For OFND specifically, I suppose my “main pillars” when it comes to considering every detail of the story (to the characters, to the world building, to the cultures and setups of various groups, to the lore and science behind everything) is: environment, intelligence, and the impending change.
Environment: This is the setting, not only of your story but of your world as a whole. It’s easiest to start at the very beginning when it comes to making something new, so I try to split the ‘building blocks’ into questions that are easily digestible and fun to answer! So: What is the immediate setting of your story? What is the landscape like? Who (or what) can be found here?
Intelligence: A bit more of a steeper hill to tackle. What does intelligence look like within your story; how is consciousness handled, considered, and split? Do they behave similarly to something found in our world? What are their cultures? Their beliefs, either via superstitions, personal, or religious? This question can also be broken down into something far more specific when it comes to characters; it’s usually my very basic building block when it comes to them.
The Impending Change: In other words, the main conflict. The turning of the tides. What are the small conflicts found within the setting of the story? What are the big conflicts? Are they devastating, a promise of destruction, or are they smaller, more personal?
Though of course, those’re just my basic rules! They obviously leave a lot to be desired, but where I struggle to fill in the gaps, I use public resources! The following are a few personal favorites:
Mass World Building Mind Map
Elements of a Binge-Able Story
How to Write a Believable World
A Step-by-Step Guide to Immersive World Building
Some Quick Character Tips
How to Develop your Characters
10 Rules for Writing a Good Novel
I hope these help!! And best of luck to you! <3
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purrincess-chat · 2 years
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Cat’s Writing Tips: Filtering
Welcome back to another Writing Tip Monday with Cat! My name is Cat, and I’ve been a writer for 16 years. I’m not really a professional, but I’m also not a noob, so take this advice with as many grains of salt as you see fit. Today I want to talk about filtering, and no I don’t mean the kind that make it look like you have a giraffe head or a butterfly crown. 
Filtering in writing refers to words that filter your experience through the character. Words like saw, felt, thought, watched, looked, decided, touched, etc. In general, filtering is considered weak writing because it typically tells the reader what’s happening rather than showing the reader what is happening. Filtering is an easy enough fix, but it does require you to brush off your description skills. I’ll give some examples.
Filtering: Adrien felt his hands shaking at his sides. (weak)
Not filtering: Adrien’s hands shook at his sides. (stronger)
Filtering: She felt her heart hammering in her chest.
Not filtering: Her heart hammered in her chest.
Filtering: She looked at the boy sitting across the room and saw that his hair was black.
Not filtering: The dark haired boy across the room leaned back in his chair with a yawn. 
In general, filtering can easily be fixed by just removing the filter words and literally describe things as if you were that character experiencing them. Pick stronger verbs and lean more into descriptions. This will help make your story more immersive for the reader, for instance the last example I used, you don’t learn much about the boy in the filtering example other than that your character is looking at them and his hair is black. In most cases, it’s understood that your character is seeing/feeling/experiencing these things (unless they’re blind or have their eyes closed). Typically people don’t just walk around in the world with their eyes closed though, so you don’t have to tell us that your character is looking at something. It’s understood. Instead of saying that your character saw a mountain, describe what specifically they are seeing. “Rolling hills climbing to a snowy peak. Jagged rocks jutting along the cliffside. A purple sunrise peeking over the summit.” Get creative. Put yourself in their shoes. In real life, if someone asked you to describe a sunset, you wouldn’t say “I see orange and yellow colors and think they’re very beautiful.” You’d describe it. 
You don’t have to get overly flowery with it, but 9/10 times, you do not need filter words, and your writing will be much stronger without them. In very few instances, it’s probably fine, but I typically make it a goal to eliminate as many of them from my writing as possible. Sometimes it is better to tell vs show, but not very often, especially during key moments when you really want to ramp up the tension or really hone in on the character’s experience. This will also help develop your character’s voice within the story (a topic I’ll touch on another day). 
If you have any questions about filtering or if you have another writing topic you’d like to see me cover, feel free to let me know! I’ll see you all next Monday with more writing tips ;)
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scary-senpai · 7 months
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What am I working on? Nothing, really. Just an exceedingly self-indulgent fic where Garou and Genos come from the same place.
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bastienbun · 6 months
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I've been going through my old work and it's SUCH a trip. I love seeing my writing style change and evolve and remembering what kind of stuff I was reading at the time. Like yeah, obviously my older writing makes me cringe, but its also *better* than I remember because my brain assumed it would be hot garbage.
If you're not already in the habit of doing so, I'd totally recommend you go through your old works and observe how you've grown. It's a real motivation booster, and I feel more confident in my present writing.
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fluffypotatey · 5 months
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any tips and tricks for getting into the writing zone?
ok so i have 2 methods and they depend on what i'm writing on: story writing and essay writing (waring: this is a mini-ramble)
with essay writing,
get mad, get super fucking mad, write that shit with spite flowing in your veins. even when i'm writing essays and stories i enjoy, i drag my feet.
i whine and complain like a toddler in my head because despite this topic being one i enjoy, putting my excited tones and rambling into coherent words always tends to feel like i'm butchering that (which is why academic papers should simply let me swear in them and use the 1st pov bc it is sO easy and my thoughts flow a lot better but noooOOOOoooooOOOOOooooo, i have to be formal and proper and-)
also, outlining. fucking godsend with essays. it's why a lot of my longer essays have headings bc i use them to outline and keep my thought on one line of thought bc i have a rambling issue (which is then easily solved with parentheses, my beloved)
with story writing (notice how this is basically a heading? good job! you've found my mini outline for this reply! have a cookie 🍪)
i find that jotting down that scene that is nagging at your brain immediately is super helpful. and do it even if you're now writing out of order. pro-tip: writing out of order is THE best, endorphins be going crazy bc you're actually not fighting with your brain with the story but writing alongside your brain-map.
personally, i find it very difficult outlining a story (how contrary) because sometimes my mind changes ideas or switches the order of scenes, and it is exhausting trying to keep up with all of that in your outline. but i guess, my "outline" with stories is simply me jotting down a very quick summary of the plot that invaded my mind in one document, never touching it again, but staying true to it because i wrote it down. therefore, it exists no longer in the recesses of mind but it a physical statement/promise to complete.
also (this advice goes for both story and essays) it is ok to take a break, step back, and not look at your writing for some hours, days, weeks, months, years--fucking whenever.
my midterm essay? a fucking nightmare. loved the topic, would write something similar about it for fun, but the reason it took me so long to complete (and why i dragged my feet) was because of the "short" timeline i had to complete it. i felt like i was on a time crunch and that led to me procrastinating, stressing over it, and taking my grand old time researching for it. however, when i was able to work on it? i allowed myself to simply do as much as i could. if i was unable to look at that stupid document, i didn't look at it. if my mind had a really good thought or example for the topic rotating in my head? immediate sit down and get that thought onto the paper. it must exist.
i have fics sitting in my folders that have been unfinished in so long, but i still consider them as wips because (and here’s another subpart-advice) i tend to work on them when i am unable to touch my current work. to be frank, working on something else helps keep you in the writing zone even if you cannot stand to look at the blank/unfinished work you wanted to complete originally. when i was incapable of writing for the Monkie Destiny Challenge, i switched to working on writing and editing my teen wolf fic (a fic i had not looked at since July) because while i still had that itch to write, something was blocking me from completing the prompts. and when i switched fics, getting into the zone was a lot easier.
so, to recap:
when jumpstarting the writing zone for writing an essay, you get passionate (can be read as mad/spiteful), and outline your thought process of the essay with headings to keep the writing flow flowing (the headings do not need to stay in the final product but they are good to have in the draft) .
when jumpstarting story writing, write! that! shit! down!!!! chronological order doesn't mean shit when you're in the planning/writing phase. your readers don't have to know that you wrote/planned a character's death before writing/planning out the beginning. they just read it in the order you publish it in!
to keep the writing zone stable and in working condition, TAKE THOSE BREAKS BOO! who cares about your personal deadlines???? if you feel exhausted before opening up a doc, then take that break, babygirl. again, your reader(s) will not need to know (nor do they need to know) how long it took you to get your writing piece done. hell, if you still feel the itch to write but the thing you wanna do is not working, then work on something else you haven't touched in a while because that itch WILL get its scratch somewhere, so help me god.
so yeah, i hope this was helpful, anon (and coherent jfc there better not be a plethora of typos T^T). happy writing, and may your weekend be a healthy dose of eventful!
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cottoncandyramen · 11 days
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twa cats
greed and charlie
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[image ID: a digital drawing of Greed (who is shown as a green cat) trapped inside a cage while glaring at Charlie (who is a blue cat). the blue cat avoids eye contact while walking around outside of the cage. end ID]
(charlie is wearing a lanyard that doubles as a clipboard designed for cats (the other side is a wax tablet they can use their claws to write on))
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hello-eeveev · 1 year
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thee/thy/thou usage: a brief explanation for writers.
Every so often, I see people attempting to use Early Modern English in their writing, and so many people get it wrong. From fanfic to published works, I see little misuses so frequently that it’s become a bit of a pet peeve of mine, because one thing that growing up reading the King James Version of the Bible and other related religious texts gave me was an instinctual understanding of Early Modern English. And as a grammar nerd, I would like to share my knowledge with all of you. So here we go:
THOU is the subject form of you. THEE is the object form.
Example: “Thou hast given me an egg, and in return, I giveth thee flour.”
(Modern translation: “You have given me an egg, and in return, I give you flour.”)
So while you can be both a subject and an object, THOU is only ever a subject and THEE is only ever an object.
THY is the possessive form of THOU. Use it in place of your. HOWEVER, the most frequent error I see is the misuse of THINE, the other possessive form of THOU, but I promise the rule is so simple.
THINE is only used in front of words that start with a vowel. If the thing that is being possessed starts with a consonant, use THY.
Examples:
“Thy marvelous egg.”
“Thine excellent egg.”
MY and MINE follow the same rule:
“My marvelous egg.”
“Mine excellent egg.”
See that ye take this lesson to heart. I have faith in thee and thy capabilities. Shouldst thou err, fear not, for such is the process of learning. If thou art unsure, if thou needest a question answered, ask of OP, for I am here to guide thee on thy way. But bear in mind, no one knows all, and I am but one man. Google is also thine ally in this, for scholarship abounds, and it may aid thee when I cannot.
Now go forth, my friends! Write prose with such confidence as to make our forefathers weep! Yea, they shall sing thy praises: Lo! how our children command our language with such beauty! Such skill!
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