#how to write fantasy

[alicentflorent]

I admire Ella Purnell’s commitment to taking time out of her busy schedule to make her regular guest appearances as a mean lesbian ghost on yellowjackets

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

Alternatives for "She Smiled"

If you can't seem to find an alternative for this common phrase "she smiled". here's a list of different sentence variations.

She beamed brightly.

Her lips curled into a smile.

She flashed a radiant grin.

A smile lit up her face.

She offered a sheepish grin.

Her smile twinkled mischievously.

She gave a soft, serene smile.

A wry smile played on her lips.

She smirked subtly.

Her smile spread slowly across her face.

She smiled wistfully.

A gentle smile graced her features.

She smiled with her eyes.

Her smile was tinged with sadness.

She bestowed a gracious smile.

Her smile glimmered in the dim light.

She smiled coyly.

A giddy smile bubbled up.

She smiled, lips parting lightly.

Her smile was infectious.

She gave a knowing smile.

A tentative smile flickered across her face.

She smiled, eyes sparkling with delight.

Her smile warmed the room.

She smiled ruefully.

A conspiratorial smile crossed her face.

She smiled, a trace of irony evident.

Her smile was wide and welcoming.

She flashed a quick, evasive smile.

She smiled as if recalling a sweet memory.

[cheseely]

[thewordsarestuckinmyhead]

when the scene was great in your head but now you see it on the page…

[beetleandfox]

I love how unsanitized The Terror feels. Like there’s grime everywhere. You can tell those men smell bad. When they do surgery you can hear the bone being cut, when they get sick they look genuinely ill. The main character’s actor even has pockmarks, he LOOKS like he could be from the 1800s! And idk, I think it’s cool that we’re so aware of the characters’ carnal desires. They’re hungry, thirsty, freezing, etc, and it is so obvious that they have a body with needs!!

I think this also accounts for how horny the show feels, even though everyone is bundled up 90% of the time and there are no real romantic subplots. Besides the fact that it’s a very carnal show, it just has the intimacy and grime of true horniness. Is this thing on

[heavenlyraindrops]

World Building Checklist

Have you ever started writing a story and realized your world has a bunch of unexplained shit and you have to fill in the gaps as you go? Me too, buddy. Me too. Here’s a checklist so that you can fully flesh out your world to the max. (I’m dying)

How does Time work? (Minutes, hours, days, the daylight cycle, years, ect.)

Species (if Fantasy. Will probably make another post on this.)

Countries, Nations, Tribes, ect. (nationalities/ races. Will probably make another post on this.)

The geography of the world (draw a map. Doesnt have to be good. Just for a general idea.)

Rivalries between races (includes prejudice, racism, ect.)

Religions

Technology

The Magic system. (Will probably make a whole other post on this.)

animals, plants, ect.

The sky: Sun, Moon(s), Stars, Constellation, Are there rings? (If the planet has rings)

Educations system

Government system

Politics

Methods of transport (Vehicles)

Medicine

Can’t really think of anything else. If you have more to add then reblog and add to the list! :) bye bee

[unboundprompts]

Hello! I've been struggling with how to depict and voice an eldritch horror entity. They are far removed from this universe, so I'm at a loss at how they would speak and act when interacting with a host/human. Can you help me and/or give me examples of what that might look like?

How to Give an Eldritch Horror Entity a Voice

-> feel free to edit and adjust pronouns as you see fit.

Emotionless Curiosity or Cruel Fascination

The entity may observe humans like a scientist would observe test subjects. It is not inherently evil, just so far removed that it doesn't comprehend pain or morality.

Example: "You break so easily. Such a soft mind, blistering with thoughts. Why do you weep?"

Example: "Fear. I recognize the shape of it now. Like heat in the bones."

Predator and Prey

The entity is aware of its power but it enjoys the chase. It is patient, and speaks low and slow to stretch out the dread.

Example: "I can hear your pulse like music. Louder now. Louder still."

Childlike and Curious

The entity is innocent and sounds sweet and playful, but does not understand the reality of what it is doing.

Example: "You're leaking! Why do you leak like that? Should I put it back in?"

Timeless Watcher

The entity speaks as if it has witnessed countless lives, deaths, and civilization. Everything the human feels is insignificant.

Example: "You are not the first to beg. The first was a king with gold in his mouth."

Curious but Growing Self Awareness

The entity is just beginning to understand language, humans, and itself.

Example: "Pain. You... do not like it."

Example: "Lonely. That is the word. I have never been lonely before you."

Foreign Language

The entity can't (or won't) use grammar like a human. It might communicate in fractured bursts, in symbols, in numbers, etc.

Example: "Lightlightdarkfolding--fold--fold--fleshwrongYES."

Example: "WE--I--MANY come through the not-between. Hello. Hello. Nothello."

Nonverbal Communication

The entity doesn't speak in the traditional sense. It communicates via dreams, hallucinations, physical sensations, etc. Words might appear as taste, as pain, or involuntary thoughts in the character's mind.

Example: She smelled salt and rotting roses. Then the message came: "Let me in."

Example: He tasted metal and heard weeping in the back of his mind.

[becca-e-barnes]

Bucky pinning you down so you can’t squirm and he’s just sitting inside you while he tortures your clit feeling you clench around him. He makes you cum over and over until he finally cums.

Overstimulation + super soldier stamina = …

- 🍯

Dear God, I know I just don't have it in me to behave during cock-warming. When it comes down to it, I genuinely have no patience at all 😵‍💫

"You..." Bucky begins, pressing you down onto the bed before gripping your ankles and forcing you to flip over onto your front. "Have a problem with control."

With your face turned away from him, you can't help but smile to yourself. No one has ever said it out loud but you know he's right.

Being in control is where you're most comfortable. No hands are safer than your own. Except maybe his. You know he won't fuck this up.

"And you..." He continues, gathering your wrists behind your back, holding them tightly with one hand. "Need to learn how it feels to have control taken from you. Do you understand?"

As soon as you begin to nod your head, you feel him start to tape around your wrists, holding them together behind your back. Once he's content they're secure, he sits on the edge of the bed, facing the mirror before he pulls you onto his lap.

"Legs spread over the top of mine." He orders and you do as you're told, not because you have to but because you want to.

You notice the way your cunt is already glistening in the mirror and you're almost embarrassed because he hasn't even touched you yet.

"Fuck, you're made for this." He groans, lining his cock up to your slick entrance and you wonder if he's holding his breath too while he slides into you, as deep as your bodies will allow.

You're obsessed with the sight in front of you; your own naked body, with your legs spread so far apart you can see how your cunt is stuffed full of him.

Being shorter though, your feet can't touch the ground like this. There's no way you'll get enough leverage to fuck yourself on him but as soon as you start to tell him that, he silences you with two thick fingers between your lips.

"I'm not letting you fuck me." His free hand roams over your body, squeezing your breasts, pinching your nipples and then settling between your spread thighs.

"I'm going to play with you. I'm going to see how much you can take. I'm going to work out exactly how you like your clit stroked and I'm going to do that until your legs are shaking and your body won't let you cum any more. Maybe then I'll fuck you but sweetheart, that will be hours from now." His breath is hot against the side of your face, his fingers slipping from your mouth to your waist while he starts to flick gently against your clit.

"I'm going to start slowly. I'm going to do everything I can to drag this out as long as possible. I can feel every clench and flutter of this pretty little cunt and I'm going to enjoy it until you're dripping over my balls." At this rate, it won't be long until you're dripping onto the carpet, never mind over him. You dreamed he'd want to take control like this but you never imagined the way your body would respond.

"And then, when you've cum more times than you can handle, I'm going to tell you that I love you while I fuck you like I don't."

Update: Part 2

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

🍖 How to Build a Culture Without Just Inventing Spices and Necklaces

(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)

So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented: → Three types of ceremonial jewelry → A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed → A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn

Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.

And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.

Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.

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🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style

Ask yourself: → Who’s in charge, and why? → Who has land? Who doesn’t? → What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?

Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.

Start there. Not at the embroidery.

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2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict

Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?

→ What was destroyed and mythologized? → What do the survivors still whisper about? → What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?

No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.

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3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists

Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about: → Death? → Love? → Time? → The natural world? → Justice?

Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.

You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.

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4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)

Culture shows up in: → What people apologize for → What insults cut deepest → What people are embarrassed about → What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately

For instance: → A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?” → A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.

This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.

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5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals

Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about: → Breakfast routines? → How people greet each other on the street? → Who cooks, and who eats first? → What’s considered “clean” or “proper”? → How is parenting handled? Divorce?

Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.

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6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture

A culture isn’t a monolith.

Even in deeply traditional societies, people: → Rebel → Question → Break rules → Misinterpret laws → Mock sacred things → Act hypocritically → Weaponize or resist what’s expected

Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.

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7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap

Worldbuilding gets boring fast when: → The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure → The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric” → Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like

You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy. → Let ugly things be beloved. → Let beautiful things be corrupt. → Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.

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📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy): → Culture is not food and jewelry. → Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction. → Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter. → Let your world feel lived in, not curated.

The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list. It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.

Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)

—rin t. // writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range // thewriteadviceforwriters

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

[bacchuschucklefuck]

they tried to rebrand as The Criminals but riz is literally the city council's treasurer and also turns out people in their late 20s don't really name their friend groups. so now they're The Intrepid Heroes

[smhallow]

“I made a wish too,” you say. “A long time ago. I wished someone in the world would care about me.” “That’s a heartbreaking wish.” “I was heartbroken when I made it.”

Ebook preorders are now available for my dark, romantic fantasy HOW TO SURVIVE THIS FAIRYTALE. For fans of T. Kingfisher, Tamsyn Muir, Slay the Princess, and Into the Woods.

Preorder here!

[tiniest-hands-in-all-the-land]

Been playing FFXIV recently desperately searching for my cunty lil man :)

I love my tiny little friend who insists I come with him for all of his political negotiations where I just sit and nod and occasionally smack a dude senseless

[coffeebeanwriting]

Quick Tips on Writing Better Characters

Here are a handful of quick tips to writing stronger characters and understanding them better as a writer.

Give your characters a title. This can help with worldbuilding and placing your protagonist into the environment. What do others call your characters? The emperor, the bastard son, the Grinch, the chosen one, the class clown, the evil witch, the popular girl, etc.

Use your settings to enhance your character. You can use the locations of your novel to mirror or contrast your character. Do they blend in or stand out? What they focus on can say a lot about them (ex. a fearsome character mishearing things on a dark street, a princess in a ballroom only focused on the exit.)

Know your protagonist's motives and goals before you start writing. What is something they need that fuels their actions throughout the novel? Money, freedom, an artifact, food? To protect their sister at all costs and survive the Hunger Games? 

Now that you know their motive, make it more complex. A character's motive can be made more complex by putting them in high-stake situations that force them to make decisions. For example, Katniss wants to protect her sister, a very common motivation. However, present-day conflict makes her to do it in the most extreme way by volunteering in the Hunger Games. The plot forces her to make an extreme choice fueled by her motivation.

Your protagonist should be active. It's okay to have your story's events sometimes happen to your character (this is referred to as the character being passive, ex. a tornado sweeping them away) but your protagonist should be active a majority of the time. This means they should always be making decisions, thinking, reflecting and progressing through obstacles.

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

[noctunis]

brain worms about pre-nibelheim sephiroth who has to wake up extra early for his duties at shinra, despite his soft mumbling about it being too early. he’ll rise up from the bed, the sheets lowering in a smooth, velvet pool at his legs — until he catches sight of your hair peeking out under the covers from the other side of the bed. his brows’ll raise a bit, cat-like eyes flickering over your figure before he slowly leans over you to see if your eyes are open; a low sigh escapes him once he realizes they’re not.

his skin, foreign to the new wave of temperature, pebbles at the cool as his feet touch the cold floor. he can feel some of the small tangles in his hair and he cringes, immediately heading straight to the bathroom in need of a brush and some hair oil. but when he walks out — he’ll hold his breath at the sight of your figure that’s shifted positions in your sleep.

(he contemplates army crawling to get to the door considering how small the room is, before scoffing at how ridiculous the idea seems).

so he practically tip-toes through the rest of the room before making his way towards your kitchen, a warm feeling washing over him when he sees the small tupperware you packed filled with the contents of last night’s dinner. the post-it loosely stuck to the lid reads, ‘for seph’, with two small hearts drawn next to it. his lips are threatened to be tugged into a small smile.

he’ll cook you breakfast with a concentrated face, furrowed brows and all as he tries his hardest not to make noise with the pots and pans. while the eggs are on the stove, he’ll slip back into the room to grab his stuff for work; protective measures he wears under his armor, shoes, et cetera et cetera before rushing down to complete the rest of breakfast. before you, he didn’t cook much — the first morning he had woken up with you and you asked him how he liked his eggs, he didn’t know what to say. instead, he asked how you liked yours.

(a soft laugh and a shake of your head before you turned towards him again. “it’s rude to respond to a question with another question, you know.”

sephiroth half-heartedly cocked his head at your answer. his mouth opened to apologize before you ended up speaking before he did with a casual, “i don’t mind scrambled.”)

so you served him scrambled eggs, his favorite (now). to be honest, he hasn’t tried any other type of cooked egg — but in any dish with eggs, he’ll always look to you before asking if you could scramble them, even if the recipe calls for over-easy.

a deft hand grips the spatula firmly as he scrapes all the food into another tupperware, decorating it with some small garnish here and there to make it look extra tasty for you when you when you wake up — but when he’s on his way back to the bedroom and placing the food on your nightstand drawer, his eyes stay glued to you.

his chest softens at the sight; your head resting on the satin pillow with your lips slightly parted. his hand, now leather clad with the rough texture of his gloves, come to swipe away at your baby hairs stuck to your face. lashing fluttering at the sensation, you squirm a bit and sephiroth holds his breath as he silently curses himself. to his relief, you grumble something before turning your head to the opposite side, your hands coming to rest at your stomach.

his head turns curiously as he studies you for a bit, the back of his throat tightening a bit once he swears that he sees you lips upturning in your sleep and a small mumble of something indistinct. a sharp exhale leaves him before he rips his eyes away and they fall back on the food. his hand goes to a nearby shelf where he spots a pack of old sticky notes. brushing off the dust and ripping one off, he grabs a pen off your nightstand before writing your name, slanted cursive decorating the note before he sticks it on the lid.

you stir in your sleep a bit more, your hand coming down to the rest upon the sheets right where sephiroth would be, the lack of body heat making you pout as all you’re left with is the coolness of the blanket. he notices this, and it only makes it harder for him to part with you. even when he was sure that his heart was full to its content, he found a large gap as it slowly formed in the shape of you.

sephiroth looks back at the food — before grabbing the post-it with a sigh and clicking the pen again. he looks back up at you, and then draws a little heart next to your written name.

𐙚 taglist ; @xiansiii @snoopicle @ch3rryfiles

𐙚 requests are OPEN — january fourth, 2025

[doverstar]

can't express accurately how happy it makes me that c.s. lewis did not leave room for many interpretations in narnia. it's christian and you can't get around it. susan chose to care more about worldly things than what matters and he said what he said. the lion is Jesus. evil is evil and good is good and people have to choose. and that makes some readers angry because it's nearly impossible to ignore and they want to ignore it. they want it to be something else and they can't make it something else without making it not narnia. love that. that is doing it right

[writingwithfolklore]

How to read more

In my last post, I talked about how professional authors need to be reading always, not just for skills or inspiration reasons, but also to understand their own market and what’s going on in their industry. But if you’re someone who struggles to read that much, here’s some things you can do to help:

1. Schedule a time

Even if it’s only half an hour before bed or the fifteen minute train ride you take to school/work, reading for any amount of time consistently will finish the book. Build it into your routine somewhere that ensures you always have some sort of time to spend putting pages behind you.

2. Turn to digital content less

If the choice is between an easy to put on and turn your brain off TV show over a book… how often are you going to choose the book? Try powering off your phone/other devices when you’re looking to get some reading in. I found I started reading a whole lot more the less time I spent on social media.

3. Join a club or pair up with friends

Book clubs or finding another person to read with you is a great way to hold you to finishing a book. Plus, some of the best parts of reading are connecting with others over a story, and sharing theories, art work, head canons, etc.

4. Try other formats

If physical books aren’t your style, try an e-reader or an audio book. I sometimes get a bit car sick reading a book on the bus, but I can listen to it on my phone and finish it far faster. It doesn’t matter how the book gets done if the book gets done.

5. Don’t be afraid to DNF

If you’re not enjoying a book and coming back to read it is a chore—you don’t have to finish it. It’s okay to put down a book and choose something new if it’s not grabbing you. Reading, while informative for the reasons we already talked about, is also supposed to be fun. Put it down and move on if you aren’t having fun.

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