#writerlife

[mjgauthor]

Writing advice that changed my sentence

When I was a young writer, I was told that I often started my sentences with "there is/there was/there are." I was told to eliminate those as much as possible.

I couldn't believe how often I used them. My first novel was completely littered with them.

I learned to diversify and grow my use of verbs. Instead of the state-of-being verbs, like "is" which isn't very descriptive at all, I started using stronger verbs.

Instead of writing "There were a bunch of trees on the hill" I wrote "A cluster of trees towered over the hill."

"Towered" is a much stronger verb than "Is"

Use the state-of-being words, but if you can, try replacing them with more active verbs. You might be surprised how much your writing improves.

[gl0v3s]

The Sacred Pen

Pairing: Moira O'Deorain x Reader

Summary: You lost your favourite pen, and it turns out it's with Dr Moira.

As you observe Dr. Moira from your hiding spot, a chill runs down your spine, recognizing her as one of the most intimidating figures you've ever encountered. Her presence exudes an aura of authority and power, making you feel small and insignificant in comparison.

'So what are we doing?' Kiriko's unexpected whisper startles you, you can't help but yelp in surprise, drawing Dr. Moira's attention towards you. The way she turns her head, her gaze piercing through the shadows, sends shivers down your spine, and you instinctively duck behind the desk, hoping to remain unnoticed.

You shove your hand on Kiriko's shoulder, annoyed that she almost caused you to get caught. Watching your frown, Kiriko chuckles softly and furrows her eyebrows at your preoccupied attention, her kitsune bandana glimmering in the light.

'Wait a minute....are you stalking Moira?' Kiriko widens her eyes, exaggeratingly, but you don't answer her, causing your best friend to let out a frustrated groan.

Your frustration mounts as you watch Dr. Moira casually pick up your pen, your most cherished possession. It's not just any pen; it holds sentimental value and significance beyond measure, a symbol of luck and protection. Seeing Dr Moira handle it with such disregard fills you with anger and dread.

A grimace forms on your face as your eyes follow the doctor's movements. An idea forms into your head and you slowly and eerily turn to Kiriko, who is grumbling beneath her breath at how its rude to ignore your best friend and that she won't be sharing with you any doughnuts anymore. She sees your eerie grin and widens her eyes.

'Kiri...can you do me a favour..' You ask sweetly, which leads to Kiriko narrowing her eyes but sighs with a whisper. 'Fine, what do you want?'

'I need you to teleport to Dr Moira's desk, grab my pen and teleport back,' You place your hand behind Kiriko's neck and force her to peek at Moira who is casually using your pen without a care in the world. You clench your jaw in annoyance. Clearly, the doctor has no respect for such a beautiful special pen.

'I love you, Y/n, but I'm not that crazy,' Before you can react, Kiriko teleports in a blink, leaving you alone with the person you dreaded most. Your heart pounds in your chest, and a sense of impending doom washes over you. How are you going to retrieve your pen now?

The best solution would be to get the pen when the doctor won't be here anymore. However, for some crazy reason, she is always in the lab. Like, go eat or something!

'You have permission to come out from your hiding spot,' You hold your breath and swallow harshly but remain hidden. Dr Moira was probably talking to someone else. Which makes you unnecessarily curious. Could it be you weren't the only other person who forgot something in the lab?

'I'm speaking to you, Y/n, not the ghosts in the walls.' Hearing the deathly calm tone In Dr. Moira's voice, you bite the inside of your cheek. So she knows it's you and your name. You don't remember ever speaking to her except hearing about the rumours circulating about her, mainly from Kiriko.

However, you're too scared to exit your hiding spot. You peek just a bit at the desk, but you don't see Dr Moira anymore. But a towering and overbearing presence makes you turn around and your eyes lock onto Dr Moira who has a perfectly raised eyebrow as she stares down at you.

She is watching you, holding your pen in her hand like a trophy. You feel a pang of secret admiration mingled with fear. Despite her intimidating demeanour, there's something undeniably captivating about her, something that draws you in despite your better judgment.

In her hand is what you've been after the entire time. Your pen. Which Dr Moira seems to be enjoying as she twirls the pen and elegantly waves it at you.

'How childish can you be for such a mundane object. Pathetic.' Even though it might seem trustworthy, you purse your lips at the insult. Scraping some of your dignity, you stand up from your position, and as expected, the height difference is large since you have to tilt your head to stare at Dr Moira in the eyes.

You fix your clothing and dust off imaginary dust.

'I fell.' You lift your head, trying to show Dr Moira that her analyzing attention on you didn't affect you in the slightest. Which, of course, you did, and by her obnoxious smirk that she directed to you, she knew how her presence affected you.

You clear your throat. 'Excuse me,' You muster your most confident tone and leave the lab. Although a few steps outside the lap, you mentally facepalm yourself as you realise you still didn't have your pen.

---

Entering the lab with your head held high and a straight face, you walk towards Dr Moira, who holds your pen in a way that she knew you would come back for it either way.

As you stand before her, trying to maintain a façade of confidence, you can't help but feel a surge of conflicting emotions. Beneath the fear and resentment lies a hidden attraction, a forbidden desire that you dare not acknowledge, even to yourself.

Dr Moira's smug smirk only serves to fuel your frustration, but deep down, you can't deny the thrill of being in her presence, even if it scares you to admit it.

'Thanks..' You force out and grab your pen, walking out of the lab.

'If you wanted an excuse just to speak to me, all you have to do is ask..' Her voice echoes through your ears. However, you don't pay her any mind and continue to walk as she chuckles darkly.

As you walk away, her taunting words echo in your mind, leaving you torn between attraction and repulsion, longing and fear.

[kspendragon]

Hi, i am trying to connect with other authors on different platforms, but I am kind of scared to message them or approach them.

but I really really want to make some writing buddies but a part of my anxiety jumps in. I would be glad if someone could give me some tips on what to do. 😭😭😭

[uchiwife]

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

I wanted to thank the readers who every day (on Tumblr or ao3) read; like and reblog my work. Over time I've come to recognize some of your usernames because I often see them in my notifications.

To these people; please know that even though we may never have interacted directly; I'm very happy to count you among my loyal readers and I love you.🩷 THANK YOU for your support. It means a lot to me.🥹

I hope you'll join me in the new year and enjoy my upcoming and ongoing fics. (๑˃̵���˂̵)

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

[niche-kitsch]

Writing your book’s synopsis is way harder than it needs to be. It’s MY book, I KNOW the story, why can’t I make it sound good in like 500 words?

[itsdynotdaddy]

“when you have something bothers your mind, write it down, use your creativity and countless imaginations to make artworks, to turn your worst into the greatest creation you've ever done.”

-dy [29/7/22]

[moxiepoxy]

What if when Sasaki and Miyano were discussing music and Miyano was all like 'oh I don't think we have the same tastes' and it's because he listens to heavy metal screamo

Meanwhile Sasaki's ed sheeran ass could never

JUST... WHAT IF

[writingandwritten]

Does anyone get the feeling of wanting to write but you can’t? Not the same as Writers’s Block because you can come up with all sorts of ideas and you can put them all down into words but you just can’t seem to actually do any writing?

[somerandomblog69]

[theauthorpaula]

(via Point of View in Your Fiction: First, Second, or Third Person?)

[jolvika]

Your voice is forever engraved in my head, I could recognize it anywhere

~ Jenna Leona

[kspendragon]

Hey there! Random Writer Question: How do/would you write fight sequences?

Hey. Fight scenes are quite tricky to write so a few things that help me out are

Research: as weird as it sounds, I try to find scenes from movies or animes that match the scenes I'm writing (for example, war battle, or one on one fight). this helps me work out a rough image in my head.

Music: themed music that matches the vibes helps the imagination. usually, the ones that have a lot of buildup and theatrical themes.

just sitting and imagining: sometimes when I can't work a scene out, I'll place my hands on my eyes and imagine the whole sequence like I'm watching a movie. it often clears things up without the hiccup of writing as you imagine.

Charting (this is for scenes with multiple people): this is like a visual guide if you prefer having a visual image of the scene before writing. I would use a sheet as the ground where they are fighting and mark important places in the setting. Then use anything as my characters(chess pieces, bottle caps, legos). I move them around as the scene progresses, this helps keep me keep track of I have many people fighting or the people fighting are shifting locations.

Reading: it's as simple as it is, pick a book with a fighting sequence and read it. It helps translate the scenes in your head into words.

These are the things I use often when I'm writing fight scenes, and most often they work very very well. I hope this helps you out.

[author-a-holmes]

Day 21 of the #writerfriendschallenge - Share a Proud Moment…

Making my first £10 in Royalties

I have a locket that I always intended to keep my first £10 in royalties inside. But I expected that to take several months.

I never even dreamed that would happen in the first month, the first week, that Changeling was on sale.

And then the absolutely wonderful reviews? I honestly couldn't have hoped for more.

[yulia-inferis]

Hedonistic Sprees

Another club, another girl, another tongue in my cheek 

When you told me your ex was never like me

Another binge, another drink, another DUI spree 

When we threw our beer bottles off the mountainous mornings 

Another brawl, another date with the courtroom in a week 

When the judge might choose more than probation for me 

Another fling, another haircut, another identity 

When these old ones have come to meet their expiry 

I remember when she undressed within the taxi at 3 

In the night when he asked for money from what he'd seen 

At the gas station, I cashed all my savings this week 

Heading toward a hotel to finish the deed 

Your male friend was supposedly jealous of me 

Showing his muscles and flexing for free 

Then he began to shout at you and scream 

As you knocked his ass straight off the balcony

Your girlfriend came to break up these things 

And decided to also tag along up with Me

I splurged on a motel with both women on their knees

Finally, seeing how dull is this reality  

I woke up with pain all over my body

Went to the cupboard and found a Bible with writing

Saying there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying 

Seeing blood stains and white streaks on the edge of that sighting 

Realizing I mysteriously lost a portion of my money 

What am I doing? This is never what I'm pursuing 

I called up a friend to pick me up before they leave

These girls were mechanical in their sniffing of speed 

Emotionless and uncaring in the way that they speak

They demeaned their male friend in the way that he leaves

Saying all men are not worth the suffering 

They’re uncanny in the way they act like human beings

Questioning if I'm similar to what I'm actually seeing  

I headed out the door before they could follow me 

And I drove with my friend...

3 hours back to my city 

[mjgauthor]

Characterization

There are two types of characterization: Direct and Indirect.

Direct characterization is the simplest to accomplish. It is when the narrator tells the reader something about the character. Examples:

He is tall.

He has brown hair.

He is a womanizer.

He is a sore loser.

Direct characterization is often associated with "telling" in storytelling, where instead of allowing the reader to piece things together and figure it out on their own, they're told exactly as it is.

Indirect characterization, on the other hand, takes more of a "showing" approach to helping the reader uncover information about a character.

Instead of saying that a character is a womanizer, an author might write several scenes showing the character being a womanizer.

Instead of calling the character a sore loser, the author could write out a scene where the character claims the system cheated him when he lost, or, if he's young, he could be the boy who picked up the basketball and took it home with him when he lost a game.

With direct characterization, it takes less words, generally, and you'll never have to worry about a reader misinterpreting. How is a reader going to misinterpret you saying, "He works as a cook at a restaurant"? It is useful and can help transmit information to the reader very quickly.

But what makes books so magical is their ability to transport us into a scene and experience it as if we're there. "Telling" won't pull the reader in, but "showing" will.

Use both direct and indirect characterization. Mix it up for your reader. Direct to move things along, and indirect to bring us into the moment.