tellmetowrite-blog

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I don’t normally get political on this account but I think it’s super ironic and disappointing that someone literally got harassed off this website for making a misinformed comment on a post about how treating prisoners with compassion is better than isolating and torturing them. :| y’all real good at practicing what you preach here.

Norwegian prisons are nicer than my apartment.

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concept: a character in a high fantasy setting who’s just… straight up allergic to magic. 

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Can you reblog this if you’re genuinely interested in my writing?

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NaNoWriMo Prep: How to Plan a Novel without a Story

Before you start writing, when your story idea is in its very earliest stages, if you even have one at all, you should make a list of things you love in the books you read. List all of the story elements that draw you to novels. List the ones that excite you when they appear. Find patterns in the books you enjoy, and list those too. 

If you don’t know exactly what you love about books, or how to start a list like this, go to your bookshelves, pick out four or five of your absolute favourite novels, and examine them. If you have time, read a few chapters of each. List what you love about those books specifically. 

If you like Harry Potter–and I will always use HP as an example, because who doesn’t like HP?–instead of listing things like “Hermione” or “Hogwarts,” think about what you actually like about those story specifics. 

For Hermione: Do you like Hermione because she’s a smart, self-determined female character? Or do you just like that she’s a bit of a know it all? Or are you happy to see characters with unruly, frizzy hair?  

For Hogwarts: Do you like the boarding school setting? Or the enchanted castle? Do you like Scotland? 

Whatever the answer is, write that down, and steal those story aspects to create something original and amazing. 

Look for obvious things like character, plot, and setting, but also take into account how books are narrated and formatted. Think about themes, tropes, and language. Think about mood and tone and structure. The wider the variety of story elements you collect, the more helpful your list will be.

Here are some examples of story features to include in your list:

Mystery

Third person narration

No love interests

Alliterative names

Exciting chapter titles

Diverse characters

Autumnal settings

Main characters with unusual interests

Scenes of friends bonding besides crackling fire places

Magic but you don’t know if it’s actually magic or not

What to do with your list?

Use it to plan your novel:

Use this list to help you figure out not only what your story is going to be, but how you’re going to tell it. You don’t have to include all of the things in your list in your story, but it will be an amazing source of story elements to have in your back pocket.

Use it as motivation:

While writing, keep track of the story elements you love that you’ve managed to fit into your novel. Keep that list on your desk or wherever you write. When you can’t find any other inspiration, take a look at it. Let it remind you of what you love about your story. Let it motivate you to continue writing it.  

Use it when you get stuck:

Do you ever see those random story generators that get shared around the internet? They’ll generate random settings, random plots, random character names, random character traits, random murder methods. The list is long. 

I don’t recommend putting random story elements in your book. I may be wrong, but that has never seemed like an intelligent idea to me. 

However, if you have a large list of things you personally enjoy in books–if you have your own pile of character traits, settings, plots, etc.–there’s a good chance one of those things will inspire your next direction for the book when you get stuck. You may very well find a plot element, or type of scene, or character quirk that you will be excited to add to your story. 

The Anti-List

If you’d like, you can even keep a list of things you hate in novels, to remind you of what you should keep out of your book by all means necessary. Knowing what you don’t like can even help you figure out what you like. Simply look to do the opposite of the things on this list. 

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I made this today as I find it’s a helpful tool when I make characters. I call it the 1-2-3 method.

1 value: Their core belief.

2 flaws: The limitations of the character. Things that can affect their actions and abilities.

3 traits: What makes them, them. the aspects of their behaviour and attitude.

It’s important that you justify their personality through their backstory and home life, however, and it’s good to have conflicting flaws/traits within a group which will help create tension and drama.

I’m using this today to create characters for my campnanowrimo WIP and thought I’d share.

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Your ideas aren’t useless, trite, or overdone. You’re good enough, and you’re gonna make something great!

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I love writeblr but the “lol i hate my writing” attitude here can sometimes be just as annoying as the “lol i havent slept in three days" student attitude and like, guys, neither are healthy. Neither.

What you say about yourself is what you internalize, and I know some people who feel guilty (guilty!!!!) when they admit they got a good night’s rest, and others who feel bad when they admit they actually like their own writing. 

Celebrate yourself. Lift others up but don’t feel Peer Pressured™ into saying pessimistic shit about something you’ve worked so damn hard on and have every right to be proud up. You don’t have to hate yourself to be part of the community. Nowhere is there a checklist of requirements you need to fill out to participate in writeblr stating that you must “hate your writing” to be accepted. 

Sometimes the community is so focused on lifting other people up that we forget about ourselves. 

You and your writing are just as important and special as anyone else’s. You deserve to love your writing. You deserve to feel like your wip is going to make millions. You deserve to be supported. You deserve writer friends who love what you make.

Less “my writing is so shitty!!!! lmao!!!!” memes more “IM THE NEXT J.R.R. TOLKIEN BITCHES” memes. Self-love only in 20biteen.

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My Personal Character Files: The 6 Box Method

This is for my science fiction WIP, so some things may need to be added/modified depending on your genre. I will also include a screenshot of an example at the bottom so y’all can see how I set it up in my Doc.

1. The Quick Ref

I use this as the first page of my “Character FIles” Doc.

I put all my important characters in a list, then add their height, age, and the page their complete file can be found on. This is helpful when I need to know if a character would have to crane their neck upward to look another character in the eyes. Comes up more than I’d have guessed.

2. The Individual Profile: 6 Box Method

I add and subtract stuff based on how important the character is. Without further ado…

Box One: Reference Photo

This is where I add in any actor, model, drawing, etc that I base the look on. When I don’t need one, sometimes I’ll put in a picture that represents the character’s style.

Box Two: The Introduction

Full Name

Nickname(s) 

Age 

Occupation 

Current home 

Situation How do they enter this story?

Motivation What do they want?

Favorite quote/saying

Biggest strength

Biggest issue 

Strongest trait 

Box Three: Behavior

Personality

Habits

Ambition/Short and Long Term Goals

Greatest fear(s)

Phobias

Biggest secret(s) 

Social skills

Interior talents

Box Four: Background

Home moon/planet Apophis

Important history

Family

Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Colleagues

Finances

Education

Phys. Health/Mental Health

Religion

Romantic/sexual preference

Interests/Hobbies

Box Five: Appearance & Physicality

Height

Body type

Skin tone/Ethnicity/Species

Facial description

Prominent/distinguishing features

Dress 

Mannerisms

Physical talents

Box Six: Speech

Normal tone

Language & accent

Favorite phrases

3. The Example

Rey from The Force Awakens.

Boxes 1 and 2

Boxes 3 and 4

Boxes 5 and 6

Best of luck on your writing journey!

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Tips for fight scenes

If you get punched in the nose your eyes will water, a lot, even if it didn’t really hurt

Your body follows your head, your head gets pushed one way and your body will want to go that way

Getting hit in the stomach isn’t good, it hurts, getting hit in the diaphragm is worse. Causes your lungs to kinda spasm and make it hard to breathe (diaphragm is between stomach and chest)

When fighting a larger person they will have an easier time forcing you back

The jaw is the knockout button. Hit it hard enough and down for the count

Back of the head is very vulnerable, can cause serious damage if hit there

Kidney punches. They hurt. A lot.

People with experience will try to be where they are comfortable. A wrestler will try to get their opponent on the ground, a boxer will stay on their feet, etc.

Easiest counter to a kick is to get closer to whoever is throwing it, then they won’t have enough room for it to be effective

If you want realism, avoid fancy, flashy moves. They’re less practical and easier to counter.

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5-ITEM CHARACTER OUTLINE

1. CHARACTER A Character is made up of all their descriptors - their name, age, gender, sexuality, appearance, etc.

2. GOALS What is your Character trying to do, get, or achieve?

WIN - Battling against an opposing force and defeating it.

STOP - Trying to stop someone from doing something, or to stop something from happening.

ESCAPE - The character is trying to get out of one place/situation and into another, usually from danger to safety.

RETRIEVE - Trying to get something, or someone, whatever that may be.

3. MOTIVATIONS This is what drives your Character toward their Goal, making them do the things they do in your story. It is comprised of their Desire (what they stand to gain from accomplishing their Goal) and the Stakes (what they stand to lose if they fail).

4. CONFLICTS This is what gets between the Character and their Goal.

PERSON VS SELF is between the character and their own thoughts, feelings, ego, or body.

PERSON VS THING is between one character and something else, be it another person, object, or animal.

PERSON VS EXTRA-PERSONAL is between a character and the greater world or forces around them, such as society, nature, gods, or curses.

5. DEPTH We get to know the true nature of your Character when they are forced to act under stress. Regardless of who they appear to be, or who they think themselves to be, when they are forced to make difficult choices in pursuit of their Goal, the truth of who they really are is revealed.

“Pressure is essential. Choices made when nothing is at risk mean little. If a character chooses to tell the truth in a situation where telling a lie would gain him nothing, the choice is trivial. But if a character insists on telling the truth when a lie would save his life, then we sense that honesty is at the core of his nature.” - Robert McKee, STORY

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How to create scientifically realistic creatures!

Hi everybody! I was studying for my biology finals when I suddenly noticed, A LOT of it could be used for writing. Especially science-fiction and fantasy where authors often create new species. I decided to create a post all about it, in the hopes of helping some of you out!

How to get started

“What makes a scpecies scientifically realistic?” When they fit in their environment. This applies to all creatures living in relatively stable environments. If, say a magician, has just created a new species and just puts it in the forest, it might not fit in there. It will either have to adapt itself (through evolution) or it goes extinct. It might even change the environment in some ways! So the environment is the key factor to how a species lives.

So, before you go around creating some species, you first need to think about where they live. I highly advise you to build an environment for them as the first step and then actually create the species. It does not have to be complicated at all, as long as you get some of the basics down.

You might think about so called “abiotic factors”. Those are basically environmental factors, that aren’t based on life. This includes:

How intense is the light? (Is there a lot of light throughout the day?)

How much water is there?

What is the temperature?

Where is the water? (lakes? in the air? in the ground?)

What does the ground consist of? (stone, sand, soil, etc.?)

Are there seasons/what changes during the seasons? (are there any seasons at all? What are they like?)

And the list goes on. Please keep in mind that you do not need to know any exact numbers or whatever. It’s enough if you know a little bit about it (e.g. there is very intense light from sunrise to sunset). You also don’t need to have every single one of these factors thought out, in the end it would get too complicated. Now, these factors directly influence how the plants/animals live in this area. I will be talking about more specific things that happen later (only with the animals!). What to do with these informations now? Think about it; Have you ever seen full grown, green trees in the desert? Have you ever seen a flower in winter? This way you can roughly get an image of your plants/animals in your head.

Then there are biotic factors. Those are factors that are based on life. Some examples:

What other species live in the area?

Who hunts who?

Are there plants?

What kind of/how many plants are there?

There are obviously a lot more of those. Especially when it comes to concurrence, it can have an influence on how many individuals of the species there are. Keep in mind that just because a population has a lot of predators, it doesn’t mean that there are only a very small amount of their prey living. They might be perfectly adapted to having so many predators.

Based on this knowledge, you can roughly think about how your species behaves, where it lives and so on.

Traits of animals on the earth

So, now that we know the environment of the species, it’s time to actually create it! I have decided to list a few traits that species living in certain places on earth show and that are very common.

Animals living in dry places usually have a few special traits that help them survive the dryness and with it most probably also the heat. Living beings very, very rarely live in places hotter than 45°C (113° Fahrenheit). This is because the proteins in their bodies break when it’s hotter; and these destructions cannot be reversed. To add: All life depends on these proteins. In order to save as much water as possible, animals living in deserts do not sweat (or only a tiny little bit), have a very concentrated urin and there is barely any water to find in their excrements. If their body temperature normally stays the same (mammals and birds have a constant body temperature), it may be able to have a higher tolerance border without doing any harm (it would kill us humans quickly if the temperature rose only by 10%). This is a thing, so no water has to be used to cool them down. Camels have a lot of fat in their humps. This is both an energy store and a water ressource, as the burning of this fat produces water. Even their nose is designed to save water! There’s a rule in biology that animals living in hot places are smaller than their relatives living in cold places (e.g. penguins in the Antarctic and the ones living in Australia). They also have bigger body attachments (ears, tails, etc.) than the ones living in the cold. Some animals simply move to places with more water during dry periods (mostly if the deficiency is due to the seasons). Very few animals (mostly microorganisms) shrink down in size and sort of “sleep” in order to not waste any water. As soon as there’s water again, they grow back to their normal size.

Animals living in cold places are more or less the opposite. They are bigger, have very small body attachments. A lot of animals sleep during the winter, some of them can be woken up rather easily (bears) and some of them not. They usually have a thick fur or any other type of protection against the below freezing temperatures. If their body temperature drops below 0°C (32° Fahrenheit) they would die. Some animals take advantage of their bodily fluids freezing; but only those, that have a body temperature that can vary (i.e. reptiles, fish). They let their body “freeze” and just wait until winter is over. A few species specifically create fluids with a lower freezing point.

Animals living underwater often do not breathe through lungs. If they do, they have to breathe over the water surface (but they can keep their breath for quite a long time). Their bodies are in an “auqadynamic” shape, making it easy for them to move through water.

Light is the main source of energy. Plants are only able to produce oxygen and biotic material when there’s light around. And that’s what every single species needs, in order to survive (as long as it isn’t able to produce oxygen). But it plays a much bigger role. It synchronises the rhythms of all animals. When to get up, when to go back to sleep, when birds should start singing, when to release hormones, etc. It tells certain animals when summer’s coming/going, so they can move.  It tells them when to search for a partner to make some babies.

Of course, there is a lot more about this and it’s far more complicated! This is more or less all that I know, if you don’t understand something or just have another question, feel free to ask me. Keep in mind, I am not a specialist and am very sorry if I got something wrong. Now go out there and create your OCs weird pets, beasts or whatever else you want these creatures to be! I recommend sticking by these rules if you create species living on a completely untouched planet, where nature was just able to do it’s thing. In a world with intelligent beings, things may vary a bit (talking about genetic engineering, creating artificial environments, etc.). Be creative with what you know!

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WIP Bloodlines Excerpt

“Hey, Mom. It’s me, Fern.”

“And me!”

Fern laughed softly. “And Aris.”

“Thank you,” Aris said. “Hello, Mrs. Gardner. And of course— hi, Mom.”

Fern thought for a moment. “If you want to know what’s new… Dad finally replaced the busted microwave, so that’s good.”

“Fern started to read for fun,” Aris added. “Something she should’ve done a while ago. And, Mom, I put the other license plate on the car. You’d been bugging me about that for months.” A weak laugh escaped him. Aris had swerved into dangerous territory.

Fern did her best to ignore it, looking for a way to lighten the mood. “Oh!” She exclaimed. “Mrs. Douglas, your son has a huge crush on one of the baristas at the Crossroads. He goes there almost eve—

“Shut up! That’s not true!”

Fern laughed again, loudly this time. Aris’ face was red and he could only look at the grass they were standing on. “It’s true!” Fern continued. “Aris goes there every day and has figured out his fucking work schedule but has no idea what his name is.”

Aris sighed loudly. “She doesn’t need to know that.”

“Yes, she does.” Fern said, hesitating. She chose to go on. “Your mom was always so invested in your love life.”

There was a silence, except for the wind. After all, this cemetery wasn’t far from San Francisco, and you could never escape the constant breeze of the bay.

Fern and Aris shivered in the cold. Their mothers had been best friends— ride or die, really. It was only fitting that they were interred right next to each other.

Tag List: @fruzsiwrites @thewritertiffany

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Sitting in the middle of the field, surrounded by his flock of sheep, Grim sighs. The sun is setting, the moon rising. It’s time to get to the protected field. Yet Grim can’t make himself move, can’t make himself get up.

“Ya ever feel like you’re lost?” He murmurs to the lamb in his arms, petting her white wool.

The only response he gets is the soft baaing and rustling of the sheep. He sighs again and buries his face in the lambs side, almost wanting to cry. But he doesn’t. He musters up his willpower and stands. Protecting his sheep is more important than moping.

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Literally none of my story ideas come with a plot, ever. WITHOUT FAIL, it’s always just an Aesthetic, like two and a half characters, some very, very vivid settings, and a weird concept. Never plot. Not even an inkling of a plot. My brain tosses me this cool stuff and is like welp i’ll be back in 4-5 business months 

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tfw u write some smut and ur surprisingly good at it....................

i guess the fact that i over explain everything isn’t always bad lmfao

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not sure what should happen next in your story?

Embarrass your protagonist. Make them seem weak and vulnerable in some way.

Shoot someone. That always takes the reader by surprise. 

In relation, kidnap someone. Or, rather, make it seem to your protagonist like someone has been kidnapped. 

Have one of your side characters disappear or become unavailable for some reason. This will frustrate your protagonist.

Have someone kiss the wrong girl, boy, or person, especially if you’ve been setting up a romance angle. It’s annoying.

If this story involves parents, have them argue. Push the threat of divorce, even if you know it won’t ever happen. It’ll make your readers nervous.

Have someone frame your protagonist for a crime they didn’t commit. This could range from a dispute to a minor crime to a full-blown felony.

If this is a fantasy story involving magic or witchcraft, create a terrible accident that’s a direct result of their spell-casting. 

Injure your protagonist in some way, or push them into a treacherous scenario where they might not make it out alive. 

Have two side characters who are both close to the protagonist get into a literal fist-fight. This creates tension for the reader, especially if these characters are well-developed, because they won’t know who to root for.

Make your protagonist get lost somewhere (at night in the middle of town, in the woods, in someone else’s house, etc.) 

Involve a murder. It can be as in-depth and as important as you want it to be. 

Introduce a new character that seems to prey on your protagonist’s flaws and bring them out to light.

If it’s in-character, have one of your characters get drunk or take drugs. Show the fallout of that decision through your protagonist. 

Spread a rumor about your protagonist. 

If your protagonist is in high-school, create drama in the school atmosphere. A death of a student, even if your protagonist didn’t know them personally, changes the vibe. 

If your story involves children, have one of them do something dangerous (touch a hot stove, run out into the road, etc.) and show how the protagonist responds to this, even if the child isn’t related to them. 

In a fantasy story, toss out the idea of a rebellion or war between clans or villages (or whatever units you are working with). 

Add a scenario where your protagonist has to make a choice. We all have watched movies where we have screamed don’t go in there! at the top of our lungs at the main character. Make them go in there. 

Have your protagonist find something, even if they don’t understand the importance of it yet. A key, a document, an old stuffed animal, etc. 

Foreshadow later events in some way. (Need help? Ask me!)

Have your protagonist get involved in some sort of verbal altercation with someone else, even if they weren’t the one who started it. 

Let your protagonist get sick. No, but really, this happens in real life all the time and it’s rarely ever talked about in literature, unless it’s at its extremes. It could range from a common cold to pneumonia. Maybe they end up in the hospital because of it. Maybe they are unable to do that one thing (whatever that may be) because of it.

Have someone unexpected knock on your protagonist’s door. 

Introduce a character that takes immediate interest in your protagonist’s past, which might trigger a flashback.

Have your protagonist try to hide something from someone else and fail.

Formulate some sort of argument or dispute between your protagonist and their love interest to push them apart. 

Have your protagonist lose something of great value in their house and show their struggle to find it. This will frustrate the reader just as much as the protagonist.

Create a situation where your protagonist needs to sneak out in the middle of the night for some reason.

Prevent your character from getting home or to an important destination in some way (a car accident, a bad storm, flat tire, running out of gas, etc.)

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NaNoWriMo Prep: How to Write 2000 Words a Day

Two thousand is a big number. Sitting down to write 2000 words can be extremely intimidating, so the first thing you should do is make that number friendlier.

Write 500 words in 4 writing sessions.  

Chop up that big, intimidating number. Start with a goal of 500 words. In one session, with no breaks, write them all. Take a break, then write the next 500. Repeat until you reach at least 2000. 

If you write 650 words in one session, don’t aim for 350 in the next. Let those extra words add up. A few hundred extra words each day will get you to 50k quicker than you could imagine.

I recommend timing your sessions, aiming for 20 minutes each time. The deadline will help you get the words out, With 10 minute breaks between each session, you can reach your 2000 word goal in two hours. Which brings me to the next point: 

Write fast. 

Don’t stop and think about your words. Don’t go back and improve a previous sentence. Save all of your edits for later. Focus on writing as quickly as possible, throwing everything you have at that blank page. This will actually help boost your creativity. Make your brain work so fast, be so focused, that it doesn’t have any space to doubt itself and you’ll be amazed at what you can come up with. 

But don’t worry if you can’t write 500 words in 20 minutes on day one. Writing quickly is a skill and it will take a few days of training. 

Let the words suck.

This is absolutely key if you want a high word count. When you’re writing an entire chapter in a day, you shouldn’t expect the words to be beautiful. You’re not aiming at lyrical prose. You’re mining raw material that you can work into art later.

Letting the words suck can include:

Writing [something happens here] in place of a scene.

Letting yourself use cliches as shorthand.

Dialog that is really exposition.

Long descriptions of things that don’t matter.

Letting your characters ramble until you discover what it is they actually need to say.

As long as there are 2000 words and they relate to your story, they’re exactly what you need. And if you hate having bad words on a page, once you have your 2000 for a day, you can go back and fix all of it. Take all the time you need. Just reach that word count first. 

Tip: if you do edit at the end of each day, make that a separate document from your official NaNo doc. This way, you can trim scenes, descriptions, and dialog without worrying about its effect on your word count. (If you make a scene/description/sentence longer, feel free to include that in your NaNo doc.) 

Don’t know what to write next?

So you’ve written 1200 words, completed a scene, and you have no idea where the story is going next. Here are some things you can do to get those 800 words in anyway:

Go to writeordie.com and FORCE the words out.

If that doesn’t work, reread the scene you’ve just written and see if you’re missing some obvious foreshadowing, some clue as to where the story’s headed. (You can also add a few lines to bulk up your wc.)

If that fails, take a walk and let the fresh air usher a solution to you.

If that fails, skip the next section. Write another scene. Go where the story is waiting for you. Come back to the other scene at a later time.

Helpful tip:

Instead of breaking your writing session into four parts, break it into five. Use your first writing session to sketch out an entire chapter, like an outline, but with bits and pieces of dialog and description. Figure out where you’re headed and a couple of key stops along the way. Knowing what you’re writing towards will make doing the actual, fleshed-out writing much easier and quicker.

You can also do an outline for the next day’s writing after you’ve gotten your 2000 words for the day in. Future you will be extremely pleased.