#writing lessons

[me-writes-prompts]

nervous/awkward couple prompts?

Yes! Hope you enjoy these :)

By @me-writes-prompts

“I…I wasn’t sure if you’d like this, so I just bought all the colors they had there.” 🥹🥹

“Can we please kiss?” “Yeah, I was about to ask you that.”

“Ummm, sorry to disturb you while you’re working, but I wanted to let you that dinner is ready.” “Oh, yeah. It’s fine, uh, I’ll finish it here. Be there in ten.” “Great.”

“That was really awkward there, wasn’t it?” “Yeah, I could not stand it a moment longer. Haha.” “Same. Hah.”

“We should…take this to the bedroom, yes?” “Yeah, got carried away a little. Oops.”

“That was my first time trying Indian food. Very spicy, but kind of good. I guess…” “Yeah, definitely. Uh huh.” *laughs awkwardly because that wasn’t the reaction that they had expected from them*

“Well, you guys seem close.” “Yeah, we’ve been friends for forever, so…that’s why I wanted you to know them!” “Oh, okay.”

“I did okay back there, right? Like I didn’t look stupid or anything?” “No, no. You didn’t. You could never look stupid, baby. You did awesome back there. I promise.”

“Umm, I got you something for our first anniversary.” “Omg, I-I’m sorry, I didn’t get you anything. I’m really sorry, my love. I was just so busy and forgot.” “Oh, it’s fine. Really.” “No, no, it’s not fine. I’ll get you one right now.” “No, really it’s fine.”

Accidentally bumping into each other on their way to fro the bathroom, and laughing awkwardly.

Going to kiss each other at the same time

^^Trying to escalate things in car but they can’t because they are just so uncomfortable, so they have to move to the back seat

Coincidentally buying each other the same thing

[mercurial-thrills]

I've been taking writing seriously for eight years. Here are eight lessons I've learned.

*Buckle up, this is going to be a long one*

As I squinted at my phone in the darkness, I stared at my Calendar. Blocks of red and pink were blocked into my schedule: do schoolwork, take a quick break, attend an online co-op class, sign up for a school workshop, finally read the first chapter of that thick textbook I bought.

Then, I looked above it all, the day of significance in magenta.

"Anniversary of Secrets." September 9th. The day I chose to take writing seriously. Between unfinished stories on loose-leaf paper, and untitled documents of characters on my desktop, writing had only been a spur-of-the-moment activity.

But then, September 9th came along. From visions of girls riding dragons and comments of classmates writing their own stories, I realized I could be like them. I could take writing as seriously as they did, spending more time on my stories than fixated on my favourite series.

In fact, writing became a fixation of my own. Over these eight years, I have watched countless videos, read a few books, and wrote hopefully around a couple hundred thousand words. As well, I have amassed a fair amount of writing advice. Here are eight of the lessons I learned over the years.

Lesson #1: Outline First, Write Later.

Ideas popped into my head like a game of whack-a-mole. They popped in and out whenever they pleased. I dreamed of cat-eared superheroes, of zodiac themed dystopias, of strange, American-style Isekais before I knew what that word meant.

My attempts to outline the story were inflated by my urge to write it. By the time I started writing my first official project, I decided to write the outline and FINISH the outline before jumping into the story.

Lesson #2: Embrace Diversity

If you've been on the Internet in literature or writing related circles, it's hard to avoid the topic of diversity, and for a good reason. Diverse situations and characters create new perspectives for readers and writers alike.

I learned to embrace diversity through a video made by Jenna Moreci:

After watching this, I thought more about my character's racial and ethnic backgrounds. Along with that, my characters became much more queer, and far more neurodivergent than I could've fathomed back in the day. Their backstories and family situations are more diverse as well: some of them were in foster care. Others came from big families.

The most important thing is to not do this offensively, and honour every culture you come across that's different than yours. Thankfully, there are plenty of resources online, such as Writing With Color(https://www.tumblr.com/writingwithcolor).

Lesson #3: Take Inspiration From Your Favourite Things.

My first story, Secrets, took direct inspiration from the books Harry Potter, Bone, Percy Jackson, Masterminds, and Eragon, respectively. But my second big project became a result of my Voltron obsession (which, assuming you're reading this on Tumblr, I'm sure you're familiar with).

The story formed as a space opera with alien planets I invented myself, and a human species who evolved to conditions on Kepler-22b. I'm not going to deny that I drew inspiration from the "Leakira and the Defenders Of Tomorrow" AU. Though this project is now its own being, I cannot deny where its origins came from.

Lesson #4: Do NaNoWriMo. Seriously.

First of all, I'd suggest staying away from the actual site. There have been numerous controversies, including demonstrating support of AI for creative works, and predatory behaviour on its forums. That doesn't mean we cannot still participate in writing a novel within a month.

Doing an unaffiliated one-month writing challenge will likely not help you get better at writing. Quality over quantity, after all. However, it will help to create a writing habit, and force you to think of unorthodox situations where you could write words… like, on the bus, in a bathroom stall, or in a waiting room.

Lesson #5: This is not going to be a career. Not for a while.

I was a 17-year-old, frothing at the mouth, obsessed with what my hands could produce at the click of keys. I wanted this to be my career. Badly.

However, college loomed around the corner, and I could not fathom spending so much money to learn creative writing in university, when it would have so little pay-off later down the line. Plus, I knew the field was a competitive one, and boy, I was not ready to compete.

If you want writing to become a career one day, go for it. Work hard on your writing. Focus on it like a bird focuses on looking for its worm. Keep in mind, however, whether the pay-off will be worth it for you.

For example, if you are willing to compete and set yourself apart, it would be beneficial to study English, Creative Writing, or Journalism at a university. You could become a copyeditor, a journalist, or a teacher, with some extra learning. However, what if becoming an author feels unstable? You could consider a career in a transferrable field such as office administration, library technician, marketing, psychology, or accounting.

Lesson #6: Fanfiction is good.

When I got into the game Terraria, I spent many hours traversing the right side of my world and building cube-shaped houses, and far too many hours before I thought I was powerful enough to fight the Eye Of Cthulhu. That aside, I started writing fanfiction inspired by the franchise.

Surely, there’s not much canon material regarding the NPCs whose names change when they get killed. So, I made my own. I elaborated on characters that had pre-existing relationships and made up my own where there weren’t any. It was a brilliant practice in writing when none of my other ideas seemed appealing.

I have since finished said fanfiction, but I still write about certain fandoms from time to time. It helps to have an outlet for creative ideas that would not fit your other stories.

Lesson #7: Don’t Fear The Critiquer

Reading my works aloud startled me to the bone. Thankfully, my friend clarified that this writing club gave good critique on his own worldbuilding. So, I showed up, and oh, am I ever so thankful I showed up, because it has, quite literally, changed the way I see writing.

Reading out my writing to others has made me better at sharing, and at accepting critique. I received a lot of praise, and I also realized a lot of mistakes. Most of all, I learned not to fear what people thought of what I wrote: chances are they’d like at least part of it.

Lesson #8: Every little bit counts.

After many years of taking it slow, life started to get busy again. Life became more cluttered, and I fought to balance my classes with any extracurriculars I may have had, with therapy appointments and going to the doctor’s to sort out health shenanigans, with the full time summer job I had, and with nurturing my relationships.

If you had a hard time reading that sentence, that’s what my life has been like for the past year or so. Busy, cluttered, hard to organize, but still manageable in small chunks. This is what writing while busy should look like. Little bits and pieces of writing, whether it be in a chapter or short stories.

The Big Conclusion

Plot twist: These eight lessons I learned were relevant to each of my eight years spent learning the craft. I spent them embracing the craft, learning to make good settings, and understanding how to create interesting plots. At the same time, I have yet to self-publish any fiction other than a short story.

Still, I’m happy with the progress I’ve made in these past 8 years. It’s been a long journey, but with every year, I learn so much more.

If you’re looking for where to start, this is where you should: whether it’s writing down that random idea that’s been sitting in your head, or scribbling down a drabble about the rain outside, just take one first step.

[keepmycandleburning]

Over the past few months I've seen a ton of Marauders fandom content, probably hundreds of posts scrolling Tumblr and a few dozen fics, and one of the most obvious and most interesting differences is how explicitly and directly they will write about certain identities and experiences. Many of them are the exact same identities I include in my writing, but we approach it so completely differently.

It actually matches perfectly into the general genre I'm observing in Marauders fandom works: they're written in a style that's very recognizably fanfic; the writing and themes and lessons in the work are spelled out quite explicitly (partly because there's a strong incentive to not be misunderstood and cause offense based on these identities they're trying to write about). This has been an interesting contrast to Voldemort/Bellamort/DE works I've long been consuming, where the writing is significantly more literary and there's often nothing to mark it as being fanfiction other than literally the characters and the universe (please understand what I mean... lol); if there are morals or lessons or statements being made in the text, they're implicit and woven into the text, not directly given to you by the writer. Though I much less often feel like a fic writer is trying to communicate some sort of moral at all.

Similarly, I've noticed a much smaller degree of separation between Marauders fandom creators and their works, where the fics are pretty direct statements of who the writer is and what they believe, and the story often seems to be some sort of lesson or even almost activism. (Though it's also equally as interesting the number of fics that in their author's note where they further spell out that they're not trying to be offensive and tell you how the story is meant to be read, they will reveal that they don't even have any identity similar to the one they're trying to write an entire story about. If you can do this tastefully? Definitely proceed. But is what I'm seeing tasteful and intelligent? No, not typically.)

Versus when I write Voldemort for example, the narrator is Voldemort, it's very much not me. Any messages that appear to be in the text are Voldemort; the way certain identities or experiences are approached is through my Voldemort. The way that any queer identity or mental illness or anything else is approached and handled in Keep My Candle Burning is through the lens of my narrator Voldemort.

One of the most visible markers of the difference between these two genres is the presence of direct labels. Mental illness and depression are a consistent theme in KMCB, yet the words 'depression' or 'depressed' are not in the fic, not even once. Characters who feel they're not a man or woman can exist anywhere, as you can find those humans anywhere — but when your character starts saying in dialogue 'I'm nonbinary and my pronouns are they/them' I don't think there's really any way to redirect a piece of writing like that into something more mature and literary. You are stuck in the genre of 'obvious fanfic.' And maybe partly just because language like that feels so jarringly out of place for this particular series. Well it feels out of place anywhere let's be honest. I have to assume in the future, people's identities and experiences will overall be spoken about in more natural ways in general.

In my opinion, it's much more interesting and compelling and realistic to simply write some of your characters as having various identities just in the story you want to tell, not to try to write a story that's 'about' these things, because that really seems to lead in the wrong direction. I'd suggest making sure the identity is not the point of the character. This identity can still profoundly affect both the character and the story, and be just as significant of a theme, but when it starts to become unnatural in its explicitness is I think where the writing starts to lose value. Implicit and natural writing seems to give much more valuable depictions of identities and experiences which I think is the ultimate goal.

[bonnibelleangelica]

Writing: Things I Learnt The Hard Way #10

~Side Quests~

Establishing character motivation can be tricky. Sometimes you’ll overdo it and sometimes your readers will have no idea what’s going on, but sometimes, you have the opportunity to set everything up in just a few sentences. You can do this by giving your character a side quest.

Let me explain...

Caught Red-Handed: Chapter 1 Fascinating

After we’ve caught our breath, the stunning girl gets dressed and slips out the door, back into the pulsing music and wandering hands. I can’t remember her name… Oh well, she probably didn’t even tell me. It would have been a fake name anyway. So why do I still feel guilty?

Here we have my main character (Jaune from RWBY) out for a night on the town having multiple meaningless hookups in one night. This concept, detached anonymity, is only briefly mentioned, but it’s one of the first things he thinks about in the entire story.

So, the next night, he makes a point to ask a girl’s name as they strip each other. He repeats in back to her and remembers it when they are introduced later. It’s mixed in with the wider plot and a lot of dialogue which is important for keeping this quest subtle and almost subconscious to the reader.

Why is this important?

This little storyline takes up no more than 50 words. It could have been dragged out, I suppose. He could have learnt his love interest’s name first instead, if they didn’t already know each other. Doesn't it undercut the concept to have it start and finish in the same chapter? Well, that comes down to one very important point.

It was never about names.

What does Jaune want? To be able to call out to strangers? Have something to put as their contact in his phone? Maybe brag about girls he’s hooked up with by name?

NO!

Jaune wants to connect with people. He doesn't realise it for a long time, but what he’s feeling is a discomfort with how disposable he and every girl he meets seems to be. This sets the stage for the entire story. From this point on, every decision he makes can be traced back to his need for intimacy. The point of his quest for names isn’t to identify someone, it’s to highlight this entire facet of his mentality. Those 50 words light the fuse of the entire story.

And I bet you didn’t even notice...

So, here’s the formula:

1) Understand what your character wants and where they're headed

2) Give them a taste of success, one tiny goal in the background

3) Let them have it

4) Show how they react to achieving the goal to pinpoint how important it is to them

5) Leave the success open-ended. It’s not enough and we all know it, but now we understand the direction they’ll take as the story progresses. If a name is important to Jaune, imagine a real relationship with someone he’s already known for years. What would that do to him? What might he do to keep it?

Good luck and thanks for reading, XOX.

If you liked this, click My Writing Tips in the tags for more!

[gigigazelleloves]

I think the problem with this newest episode is they combined a "Tarlos" storyline with a "Carlos Reyes" storyline. They didn't just combine them but they also marketed the episode to be Tarlos when it was more about Ranger Carlos Reyes.

Lonestar has combined Tarlos and one of Carlos or TK's storylines before and done it successfully but they tend to focus on either the character or the ship more.

An example of this is the story line arc where Tk is dealing with his mom's death (3x08). Sure Tarlos was present to show how strong their relationship is, however TK's storyline was obviously more of the front line (which is why Carlos couldn't be involved for most of the hospital).

A reverse example of this is how the original "kids or no kids, that is the question" conversation (4x12). Tarlos is at the front of this episode as we see progress in the relationship through a huge conversation dealing with both Carlos and TK building a future together. At the same time as a result of this topic being brought up in their relationship, we see it's confirmed that Carlos has major Daddy issues and is not in the right headspace for children.

The common thread between these two episodes is that a resolution and development was made for one storyline and the other was just a side reaction that may be used to confirm something, not progress anything further in that arc.

That's where the problem with this episode comes. The fact that they resolved/developed two storylines at the same time could've worked but became kind of messy.

The Tarlos and Carlos storyline has been meant to go together all season but you can feel it kind of clash. From episodes 1-5 we have a focus on Carlitos and his development then we focus on Tarlos development from episodes 7-8 then back to Carlitos to finish episode 9 but never get a proper resolution seen on screen for Tarlos, it's shown to be a side reaction, when really, it should've been more than just that in the end.

I get where the writers were coming from but damn, it's messy from an audience perspective. It's also misleading when you market this arc as pure Tarlos. Again I get why they did it, as they wanted to finish and tie together the storyline from season 4 and do it within less episodes than usual, but it doesn't read well. I think they also tried marketing towards Tarlos because that gets them a lot of views, not Carlos alone, but that's a whole other conversation.

Bottom line: Great Ideas, Not the Best Execution (to clarify writing wise not acting wise, Rafa killed it this episode)

[morallysuperiorlips]

You know how you know you're DEFINITELY a writer?

You might just casually be going through the most traumatic experience of your life, or just casually be in a shit-ton of pain, and when it's all said and done you might find yourself thinking:

"Well, shit, at least I now know how to write something like that realistically in a story!"

For example (TW: robbery, guns), I was robbed at gunpoint in front of my house almost 10 years ago, and I had to go down to the police station with the cops to do a sketch of the motherfucker who held a gun in my face and as I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs (because the robbers took every last portable electronic I had on me so I had NOTHING to do), I actually found myself thinking "Huh! Now I have a frame of reference about how to write someone giving a police sketch, and I also know how to write a realistic mugging scene!"

In an equally as fun instance, I recently passed out for the first time in my entire life, and when I came to and finally stopped crying I remember texting my friends excitedly and being like "y'all I know I just passed out but THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES. I now have a realistic frame of reference on how to write somebody passing out!"

All of that to say something something the best writing comes from experience and if you do this, you're a writer at heart for sure...or you're just as mentally ill as I am and finding ways to cope ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[scareuary]

MONSTER DESIGN 101

In which we learn the golden rule for designing horror monsters.

Tried to keep it shorter this time; it's only 15 mins! Also, there's this annoying background sound that I realized too late was coming from my mic; it's not as big of a deal if you listen on speaker instead of using headphones. One day I'll re-record it.

SCAREUARY 2025 - M-M-MONSTER!

[telugu-girl-13]

as someone who once attempted to write a book with multiple perspectives and no true understanding of every character, i have learned valuable stuff. for example, only have characters share traits if it contributes to the plot. i had three characters with a love of reading, though i wanted it to be unique to a single character. i thought i could include it in some sort of love triangle scheme, but then i realized that was never actually going to happen. so like, unless you have a definite plan, don't have characters share traits, or hobbies, unless it contributes in a way that makes sense!

[nine-is-not-a-ten]

WRITING TIPS: character archetypes

alright buckle up fuckers im aboutta take you & ur ocs on a wild ride about *character archetypes*

first of all, there are 12 character archetypes, and they fit evenly into four categories. a good, complex character is usually multiple archetypes, but this questionnaire is to help you figure out their MAIN one.

to begin, answer this question:

WHAT IS YOUR OC'S MAIN MOTIVATION? (it can be good or bad)

a) to leave a mark on people/society

b) to make connections with people

c) to maintain/disassemble the structure of their society

d) to fundamentally change themself (whether they want to OR need to)

if you chose A, then they fit into the category: LEAVE A MARK

if you chose B, then they fit into the category: CONNECTION

if you chose C, then they fit into the category: STRUCTURE

if you chose D, then they fit into the category: SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

now find the category on the chart and narrow it down to which one your OC is by matching them to the characteristics. REMEMBER, no archetype is fundamentally good/bad. also, your character will definitely be a mix of many of them. finding their archetype will help you understand them better!

thank you, have a terrible day <3

[hyba]

Lots of lessons are being learned as I work on this course.

I've lost 2 lessons so far. Which isn't a lot when you're talking about 50+ lessons, but it's still a big source of frustration since you suddenly find yourself behind schedule when you were right on track just a moment earlier. It's also a little frustrating when you feel like you're not sure you can make it flow as good as it did the first time around.

I've realized that there are limitations to the course platform I'm using, such as not being able to embed audios from Google Drive.

I have to re-do a whole lesson because I don't like the direction I took it in, and all those hours of research and writing that went into this chunky lesson now have to happen all over again.

Sometimes, even when you plan and carefully design a lesson, you can still find yourself back to square one.

But there are good lessons too!

I've figured out how to work with discussions in certain lessons, so that writers can share their ideas with one another and discuss specific concepts, techniques, stories, etc.

I've been able to add donwloadables (worksheets, printables, references, etc.) to the course, and I can even create criteria tables for the final project.

I've been adding a lot of fun challenges to the course, including little games, and I hope that writers will enjoy tackling those challenges themselves or along with other writers in the discussions.

[maybe-im-dark]

Hi sorry to bug you or bother you I hope I'm not wasting your time on this but how do you feel about X-Men origins wolverine especially team x like how do you feel about the group like Chris Bradley, Fred dukes, John wraith, agent zero, you know those type of characters cuz I feel like they hardly ever get talked about and there's no fanfics about them there should be also if it's okay with you can you please write a hc about reader being new on the team like you can decide what reader's mutation would be I feel like if reader were any kind of mutant I feel like she would be I think she would have the ability to not only communicate with any animal but with anybody of any language and she would also pretty much shapeshift too not like mystique but you know more powerful than mystique you know what do you think also sorry that I have waste your time I understand if you don't want to do this and if you're not taking any requests I understand so I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful New Year's sorry for wasting your time 😊😞🤗😇

I really appreciate you enjoying my writing so much. And i don't mean this in a rude way but since you already have so many ideas why don't you write it yourself? You can only get better if you write it yourself. I don't do x reader scenarios and I don't do unpaid requests. No offense, but i write what i feel like because first and foremost i write for myself. I write what i enjoy. Sure feedback helps and is great but i don't do it for praise. I write the stories that are in my head and that i want to read. And when i feel they are good enough i'm sharing them online for a wider audience.

I really do encourage you to practice writing. There are so many tutorials for character building and how to pace the plot online i'm sure you find something helpful. It's what i've been doing and still do. And if you still don't feel up to it, there is surely gonna be someone on here that will fulfill your request. But it's not gonna be me. Sorry.

Have a wonderful christmas and a happy new year!

[me-writes-prompts]

-:Betrayal prompts-:

(You better believe that I LOVE this trope(and hate it). TAG ME OMG)))

By @me-writes-prompts

"How could you do this to me?"

"Why? Just why?"

"What did I do to deserve this?"

"I fucking knew this would happen." "Well then, you shouldn't have believed me so much."

Person A is on their deathbed, and Person B has a twisted confession to make.

Person B should've noticed the leading signs and the little hints, but they didn't want to if they could just ignore them. It came back to bite them later.

Person A expected everything to happen, however, not this. Not the betrayal of trust and love.

"I can't...please. Please don't do this to me. Don't do this to us."

"Let's go back to the way it was, yeah? We could pretend this never happened."

"I trusted you."

"I loved you." "I wanted to ruin you."

"We can start over, right? I'll-I'll forget this ever happened." "You can't keep lying to yourself, love. It's about time you faced the truth."

They both betray each other because, in the end, it was about who would be more hurt.

[ant80in3]

I- I really need to clean my room once and for all, dust really stings my eyes these days.

[keepmycandleburning]

Something I've been pondering for a while now is what sorts of sexual content mean a fic should be rated Mature vs Explicit on AO3. All the guides I've ever found seem to only describe two things at the very opposite end of the sex scene spectrum with a massive difference between them and no clue what to do at various points along this distance.

These are the obvious things -

Mature: sex is alluded to but not described, they're about to have sex but it fades to black, very brief and vague description of sex scene with no graphic detail

Explicit: detailed sexual content that functions as written pornography, graphic sexual language (ex: anything with a giant, dripping, throbbing cock is E)

This is everything else I've gathered or have made up -

Signs a sex scene is M-rated:

-Its purpose is to move the plot forward or build the characters' relationship. The scene is plot-necessary and adds something relevant and important to the story

-It invokes feelings of sensuality and perhaps minor arousal; if someone wanted to get off to this, they would have to use their imagination to go beyond what's written

-The sex acts, bodyparts, etc are described with just enough detail to understand what's happening, and not much detail beyond that

-It's straight-forward, easy to understand, and doesn't require high levels of discernment from the reader: either proper consent, or improper consent that is clear and straight-forward, where the text itself provides any necessary analysis

-Some mentions of how pleasurable the characters find it woven into the text

-The scene is brief (shorter than other scenes in the fic)

-Genital terms are written around (ex: he filled her, he was inside her, she took him in her mouth) (less important, E can also use this style)

-Genitals are not described or only described with basic and brief terms (ex: he was big and hard) (less important, E can also use this style)

Signs a sex scene is E-rated:

-Its purpose goes beyond plot and relationship-building due to the level of detail, length, or writing style, and the purpose of the scene is that it's a sex scene. It could be edited down significantly in length or level of description without losing anything regarding the plot, the characters, or the relationship

-It invokes feelings of sustained arousal while reading; if someone wanted to get off to this, they could do that just by reading what's written

-The sex acts, bodyparts, etc are described with more detail than is needed to understand what's happening; the level of detail serves a purpose other than simply making sure the reader knows what action is happening

-It contains dubious or improper consent, or otherwise requires the reader to have the mature ability to distinguish between fiction and reality and/or use their own judgment to know what is right and wrong. Anything in which dub-con or non-con is being eroticized, even ambiguously

-Frequent and/or detailed mentions of how pleasurable the characters find it, beyond what is necessary to communicate what's happening

-The scene is long (comparably as long as other scenes in the fic, or longer)

-Use of genital terms like cock, dick, pussy, cunt, tits

-Genitals are described in detail (ex: his cock was big and thick with prominent veins running along the shaft)

Questions I may ask myself:

-Is the point of this sex scene to communicate something important about the plot and characters (M), or is it partly/entirely there just to be a scene about sex (E)?

-Are the length, level of detail and description, and writing style all necessary to communicate what actions happened and how the characters felt about them (M), or are some unnecessary (E)?

-Are there a few and/or minimally descriptive (M) or many and/or more descriptive (E) mentions of feelings of sexual pleasure, appearance of sex organs, or descriptions of physical effects of arousal?

-Is the writing style and language used more matter-of-fact (M), sensual (M), or erotic (E)? Is the language used to describe arousal and pleasure sensual, metaphorical, indirect, poetic (M) or graphic, direct, erotic (E)?

-Does it cause any feelings of arousal, and if so are they minor and seamlessly go away a few paragraphs later (M), or significant and sustained (E)?

-Does it require a notable level of discernment from the reader, requiring them to use their own brain to analyze complex mature themes in it (E)?

-An M-rating means it's intended for audiences 18 or older; do I feel the need to restrict/label it even further (E)?

-Would I be minorly (M) or majorly (E) embarrassed if my mother read this?

Many sex scenes aren't going to fit clearly into one category or the other, which is what has caused me to have to think about this in detail. So they're not going to fit every checkpoint here. After much reflection, I've rated His most loyal, his most faithful, his most precious as Mature because all of the sex and sexual details are plot-relevant, it's much more sensual than erotic, it doesn't contain graphic or detailed descriptions of sex acts or bodyparts, and because I think anyone clicking on M-rated content should be fine reading this.

[ahleecollaborations]

One of the first times I ever publicly shared my writing will forever be tattooed into my brain and burned into my heart.

I was so very young and making sense of the world. I was transferring schools after years of being bullied and alone. One year before, my mother found me contemplating ending my own life. I had given up on making genuine friends and was just hoping for the years to go by faster. My parents were scared and rightfully so. They made a choice - they chose their daughter.

For the first time in a long time, I felt hope and seen. So I shared a poem I wrote. I in my little child of a heart was so purely inspired by Finding Nemo.

The first time I saw that movie, I said to my father “he has a little fin like I have a little leg! He’s like me! Squirt’s the best! We share a name!” - not quite seeing how that little turtle was excitable, and independent just like I was

I wish I could remember that poem word for word. I only remember that it meant to say Yes life can be hard, but there’s some good in it too. So Just Keep Swimming (a phrase of encouragement that became a staple in our home to this day).

But what I remember the most was the lesson after. Not everyone is going to understand what you write and many will try to discourage you.

My uncle called my mother up at 3 am to tell her he thought I was suicidal and that I should take that poem down. That maybe I needed therapy. An unrealized moment of shaming - don’t share those parts of yourself to the world he was saying. Go back to the happy little girl you were, we don’t want to see the times where you break.

But the right people will inspire you to keep at it. Even the smallest interactions can make a difference.

My parents have been my biggest supporters even in that moment. They didn’t make me feel ashamed for my words. My mother even saw immediately what I was trying to say. They made sure I was okay.

They never missed a single graduation or literary conference I presented at in college. Every rough draft, can I read it? They ask. Never obnoxiously persistent, but a gentle support of “are you willing to share this part of yourself?” And my mother is not a reader.

The first time I was published they sent out copies to every person in my family, “look what she did, did you see it? Did you see it!”

Tattoo and a burns will leave a permanent mark.

But both can be so beautiful once healed.

[ariellewm]

Arielle W.M. Presents: Crafting Characters

This is a new thing I'm trying out not only on Instagram but also on here. To give fellow upcoming writers, aspiring writers or those curious to wonder the tools, the science, ways that writers construct their stories. From its characters, dialogue, worldbuilding, to the actual structure of the story.

Let me know if there is a subject you wish to learn more about in the comments. It'll give me more time to make posts and have this be a Friday posting.

So...here is the first in the series! Enjoy!

Curious about "Coils of the Naga"? Link to the audio is down below here!