wordsbysarah - Tumblr blog

[wordsbysarah]

Helena Freyson:

Demon sire of Andrew McQueen & Damian Redthorne, not much is known about her, but that her guardian animals or childern are the snake and the wolf, fire resides within her, she is a goddess of fire, some call her Hela, Hela is known as the goddess deity of hell.

WIP Character of a Raven’s Tale Series.

[wordsbysarah]

Character aesthetic - Abbey, Walking in Starlight

I know a girl with the wind in her hair. Just try to tell her to stop if you dare. I know a girl who nobody knows. She walks in starlight wherever she goes.

[wordsbysarah]

Maybe if my characters would stop fighting for my attention, we might actually get somewhere.

[wordsbysarah]

Most writers fret over developing characters and getting down to every last detail, but what about introducing them?

The introduction of a character is the reader’s first impression of who this character is. If this character is important, you’ll want to make it stick out to the reader.

What to Avoid:

Queerness: If you introduce a queer character, forget the queer part. Ignore it during introductions unless absolutely necessary. Showing that a character is queer during the introduction creates a bias in the reader. Some readers nitpick queer characters and examine every detail to make sure the author didn’t screw it up. Establish this character first. Paranorman did this beautifully with one of their characters. It was the absolute last thing the viewer learned, after the film explored the character in all other ways available. However, you don’t have to wait until the very end. You can introduce this whenever you want, just make sure it’s not the absolute first thing you mention about a character’s life.

Appearance for a POV Character: The first thing you introduce about a POV character should not be his or her appearance unless it’s relevant. For example, if your character is in a jail cell during the 1700’s, you could describe his long beard or thinness to show poor conditions and neglect. But when do you introduce appearance? Well that’s the beauty of writing. Unlike a film, your reader cannot see everything. You are in charge of opening this world to your reader. Describe the appearance whenever you want, preferably after your reader has a little insight on the personality of the character, but don’t wait too long to do so. Give your reader at least a little bit of information in the beginning.

The Mirror: When introducing a main character for the love of everything do not make them look in some sort of reflective surface. It’s lazy and it’s overdone, especially in first person POV. A way you can use this without being cliche is if the character is looking at something specifically like an injury.

All at Once: Don’t reveal everything about your character at once, including character traits and appearance. Do this gradually, to keep the character fresh in the mind of the reader. If you info dump, the reader may have to go back to keep track of what characters look like.

More Than One: Be careful when introducing two characters at the same time. I can’t recall how many books I’ve read in which the main character meets up with two friends and says nothing more than what they look like and the fact that they both like the same hobby. It’s hard to tell these types of characters apart and it just becomes annoying when the author tries to introduce more than two characters at the same time. If you need to introduce more than one character at the same time, try giving some time between them. Even just a couple minutes will do.

First Pages: Don’t introduce all your characters within the first few pages. It gets messy and disorganized.

Back Story: Don’t introduce a character with tons of back story. Save that for later. The reader does not care about the back story yet and it’s too much information for them to hold at once. Readers needs to know the character before they are able to attach a back story to a face.

Too Many Names: 

“Hello, Mary.”

“Where are you going, Joe?”

“The pizza came, George.”

“I’m not going, Hannah.”

Avoid writing a bunch of dialogue like that at the beginning. Some of it can flow naturally, but keep it to a minimum and reveal names within the narration. Don’t wait forever to reveal a person’s name though. Doing it once is okay, but when you’ve got a larger cast it can be difficult to keep track of who is who.

Exceptions:

Of course, these are not rules and there are exceptions. For example, in Brave New World, a person’s appearance gave hints to where they stood in society and thus giving a person’s height upon introduction was useful.

How to Introduce a Memorable Character:

When introducing a memorable character, try to think about who that character is. 30 Rock is a great example. During the first episode, one of the characters makes his introduction by literally kicking down a door in a casual manner. The behavior fit the character perfectly, as the watcher learns as the show reveals more about that character.

Characters should be introduced in their natural habitat. Again, using Paranorman as an example, the main characters are shown in ways that help define them. The main character is first shown talking to a ghost because he is able to see the dead. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark opens with Indy on one of his many archaeological journeys/treasure hunts and shows just how bad ass he is. Basically, you should introduce the major aspects of your character first and get on to the details later. You want to hook the reader with characters instead of starting out quietly.

How to Introduce Other Characters:

When you introduce any character, you should not think of them as something that has not existed before the page. Force the mindset that your characters existed before the story began. They already have mannerisms and voices that have been developed. You’re just focusing on one part of their lives. Therefore, it’s not really an introduction. You’re basically taking a picture of one time period of a person’s life. That picture is just a small part of what your characters are and what you see in that picture is what you get in an introduction.

You also need to introduce the motive, especially for the main character. This doesn’t have to be the main motive, but your character should want something. The reader needs to root for this character from the beginning to keep reading.

Once you’ve introduced your character, you have to keep that introduction consistent. It can’t be all dramatic at first and then die down for the rest of the story.

Summary of What to Introduce:

A motive, large or small.

A little bit of the appearance.

A behavior or a character in action.

Hints of personality (both good and bad qualities).

The reason the reader should care about this character.

Basics (name, age, gender, etc. (if applicable)).

[wordsbysarah]

Writing About: Pirates

The Characters and the Fiction

Tips for writing about pirates

10 Tips for writing pirate fiction

Types of pirates 1

Types of Pirates 2

Not Even Pirates Spoke Pirate

6 Absurd Pirate Myths Everyone Believes

Ten Facts About Pirates

Life

What did pirates drink? 

Pirate Life

Oh to be a Pirate

Real life pirates

Real-life pirates of the caribbean

Ten Facts About Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Historical Female Pirates

Women Pirates, Female Pirates in Story

History of Black Pirates

Raids, Not Race, Were What Mattered to Black Pirates

Wikipedia’s List of Pirates

Historic Periods

The Golden Age of Piracy

1680-1730: Pirates and Anglo-American Piracy in the Atlantic

1700-1725 The Golden Age of Piracy

Big Cities during the Golden Age

The Ships

Category: Pirate Ships

6 Famous Pirate Ships

Ship Parts (possibly flawed but very long list)

Ship Parts

Definitions of Caribbean-used Ships

Positions and Duties on Board of a Pirate Ship

Weapons and Fighting

History of Pirate Weapons

Pirate Weapons

Sword Fight and Pirates

Writing Sword Fight Scenes 101

For Writers: How to Write Sword-Fight Scenes

Books

Villains of All Nations

The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues

Popular Pirate Fiction Books

Websites

x The Way of The Pirates

x Historic Naval Fiction

x The Pirate King

x Swashbuckler

x Pirates & Privateers

-Alex

[wordsbysarah]

I hope the universe blesses you with a moment of peace this week. You’re doing the right thing, and you’re going to be okay.

[wordsbysarah]

Screenplay/novella idea: An aroace boy who’s a hopeless romantic, obsessed with the idea of being swept off his feet someday, who finds that friendship can be just as beautiful. Working title: HopelessFUL.

[wordsbysarah]

@ihearducksaregoingquackers

Excerpt from my new untitled dystopia

Heyyy fam, so I’ve always LOVED dystopia books and I recently had the pleasure of thinking up my own. After doing some world building, I’ve come up with the first 2k or so words, posted below. I’m currently calling it “Other” but I’ll probably think of something better eventually. Anyway let me know what you think!!

Tagging some peeps in it, just let me know if you don’t wanna be tagged: @largeindamargin​ @kaylewiswrites​ @ramblingsofabourbondrinker​ @authorisada​ @minny-king​ @gh0st-writes​ @writingacepilot

I was young when I saw the government fall.

People always said that capitalism was the most American thing you can experience. That it’s someone’s God-given right to try and make their fortune in this world, and if you fail, you deserve to fail. Because it must mean that you’re just not good at being an entrepreneur – whatever that means to you. That you have the right to eat and eat and eat until you’re five hundred pounds and then die of a heart attack, if that’s what you really want. No one expected that capitalism would be the fall of America.

Keep reading

[wordsbysarah]

When I was in school, one of my art teachers used to say “this world needs more creators. There’s more than enough destroyers in the world today.”

Just a reminder, if you create anything–art, writing, food, machines, ideas, equations, knits, tools, gardens–the world needs you.

[wordsbysarah]

To Tired Writers. To the people out there whose hearts very, very much want to write and work on WIPs, but who are just mentally and physically exhausted right now. It’s okay. It is okay to rest sometimes. Allow yourself time to rest. 

[wordsbysarah]

reblog this if ur a writeblr i need more people to follow 

[wordsbysarah]

Omg I’m in such a bad slump this new job has me always working or tired and all I wanna do is rewrite Earth to Abbey but I can’t think straight

[wordsbysarah]

“Where am I?” she called to the void. “You’re home,” the void called back.

Earth to Abbey, Sarah Dutton

[wordsbysarah]

You call it treating your readers like idiots, I call it filling in implied things so that autistic people can read it too. But tomato tomahto.

[wordsbysarah]

you ever get motivation to write something with a specific vibe but no…actual plot?

[wordsbysarah]

i wanted to make a lil collage or smth but a ms paint creation will have to do.

anyway

if ur following me bc i’m gay and ur gay - send me a vibe/aesthetic description (in an ask ofc, preferrably off-anon but i’ll take anons as well) of whatever you want (like,, “soft wlw with music and stars” or “black and white gay” or literally just “peanut butter” idc i’ll work with it!) and i’ll make a lil moodboard for you!!

if ur following me bc i’m a writer and u write - send me a description of ur oc or ur wip or a quote from ur wip and what character it came from or the tag for ur desired wip/oc or literally anything related to ur writing and i will make an edit/moodboard for u

if ur following me for any reason and u do whatever and want none of the above^ - send me a prompt for a blurb or a request for a poem or even an aesthetic built off of your name (like, u know those tag urself posts that are like “word: [cute aesthetic description of things that remind someone of the ‘word’ or whatever]”??? i’ll do that kind of thing but with ur name) or if you want a blog rate or something cheesy like that??? i’ll make/find a template and get right on it!!

i really don’t mind^ so whatever u want, just send it right on in!! please!!