writingtipsandtricks

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Announcement

Hello,

As of today, December 3rd, 2018, the Writing Tips and Tips Blog will be going inactive. We are not deleting the blog, but we will no longer be posting or answering questions.

There are many reasons for this, the chief among them being that we simply do not have the time, energy, or motivation to keep this going. As many of you have noticed, we’ve been pretty inactive already, and while both Dabiyyah and myself hoped things would get better, they have not.

However, the WTT community is still around and strong on the Discord server! Here you may ask your questions to the whole community, not just us, find friendship with other writers, work on your writing and have a bit of fun along the way. (Plus with Tumblr doing weird things, honestly, this full migration is well timed.)

Along with my full team of mods (including Dabiyyah, whom I know you all love as much as I do), we’re planning a year of events for 2019 to help writers all over the globe and strengthen our community.

Sincere apologies to those with unanswered asks in the askbox, but we will not be answering them due to the age of most of the asks.

Thank you for all the love and support you have given to all of us. We appreciate you and look forward to growing the WTT community on Discord.

Love,

Amanda and Dabbiyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

How do i get over the notion writing is for 'other people' ? I always feel too poor, uneducated and unworthy to write. In high school I loved writing essays / homework / emails and was told I was good at it and then life happened and everything is about money and life and creativity has been on the back burner for so long the pan twice boiled over and all is left is a smoking pa(i)n.

spite.

like i want to say something super deep and inspirational here, but seriously. spite is the only way out. sheer, unwavering, feel-it-in-your-bones rage. 

when you’ve had the absolute core of who you are ripped out of you by circumstance, there’s no taking the high road. there’s no greater understanding or wisdom i can offer. be sixteen years old again, and when your parents tell you not to go out, sneak out anyway. be six, and when your mom tells you not to touch stuff in the store, go around touching everything. be a toddler and scream when you don’t get what you want. creativity is not a practice of the higher mind. it’s a practice of play, and to reach it, you need to let yourself be young again.

when it comes to writing, you have to be selfish. be greedy. be the absolute worst version of yourself, the one that wants and wants and takes and takes. be a narcissist. be an egoist. be a hedonist. humility, rationality, moderation – it’s all a farce. you can’t be creative and still conform to expectations. you have to choose. and once you’ve chosen, all that stuff, money and life, it’s all in the background. it’s stuff that needs done, it’s an obligation to make sure you eat and keep a roof over your head, but everything else, every other second of the day, you can be creative. you can choose that life for yourself, and you never have to look back. 

so, writing is not for other people. it’s for you. it’s yours. it’s the shiny expensive toy on the shelf, and you might not be able to afford it, so that means you have to steal it. 

[writingtipsandtricks]

Well, your writing is just fine. Don't doubt your writing because of this. As to actual advice, maybe that means your mc isn't actually your mc? Maybe your mc may be what you think are your side characters. However, your mc might just feel boring because you've been examining them for so long, so they feel boring to you. Maybe if you take a break for a bit and come back with fresh eyes, it will look better.

~Dabiyyah

anyone got any advice for when your mc is the least interesting character in the story?

[writingtipsandtricks]

Hey! Was wondering if you did international cards too?

Yup! I’ll do international cards. 

~Dabiyyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

The holiday seasons are coming up! I’m following in the grand tradition of @scifigrl47 and sending out holiday cards! I can send out either physical ones or digital ones, entirely up to you (especially if you’re not comfy giving your address to randos on the internet). If you’re interested, just send me an ask or a dm and we’ll go from there!

~Mod Dabiyyah

[writingtipsandtricks]

Creating an army

For the needs of Rising Queens, I had to create an army. Since I’m an accountant and have never served in the military nor lived sometime between 1650 and 1820… I knew nothing about how to do that, so I researched, not a lot, but enough I think to give some tips and directions to anyone planning to do the same crazy thing.

Let’s get started. Please note this is for fantasy writers, a number of elements do not apply to modern or futuristic armies. (words with a * are translated in French at the end, because I’m a little chauvinist)

1. How big is your army ?

So, if your army is a professional army, in clear if soldiers are soldiers all year long and paid for it, the size of your army is limited. Mostly because resources are not infinite, and your army depends on the rest of the population to be fed. This rule would also apply for mercenaries, as your nation must still be able to pay them.

In consequence, its size should not be more than 1% of the population. This number was true in the past, and is still true today. And 1% is the upper limit, it assumes your nation is able to collect taxes efficiently!! If it’s not, your army must be smaller, or your nation will go bankrupt.

If your army is not professional, then the problem is a little different: your soldiers are no longer working all year long. The question is how big can your army be during x time? The longer the war/conflict lasts, the smaller your army will be, as your resources are limited and you need people to tend to the land. Or you can have a big starving army, your choice (or a starving population… or both…). After some research, it happens that number is 7% of the population for a period of 90 days (which was the length of a campaign season).

2. Support

So, yes, your soldiers are soldiering, or at least a part of them is… the rest is working as support, they are the spine of your army, without them everything could crumble. Without them you don’t have supplies, or meals, or doctors, or clothes, or payslips or…

Among the various support departments in military, we will first start with one that probably was the biggest: Supplies (aka Furir*). They originally were in charge of housing and food for men and animals, but over time they came to be in charge of all supplies, including their logistics. In the French Navy, they once were in charge of payslips. Without them, you don’t have food, but you also don’t have uniforms, weapons, or munitions…

While we are here, let’s note that most armies, while away from home, survived through plunder of the land around them. Which is great if you’re not staying in the same place too long, and if your enemy does not decide to burn everything left behind. Mercenaries, who were not paid by their employer, also plundered the land of their employer as a form of revenge.

The Postal Service* is like a web, they have a presence everywhere in the military organisation (including schools, jails, navy…). Not only do they make sure the letters are sent to the right person, but they also take care of censoring the letters of the soldiers. This is a job that require discretion as you might end up in the confidence of secrets that do not concern you nor the public.

The War Commissaries* are in charge of the administration of the army, which includes: finances, human resources, audit and control, law assistance, accounting. In some cases, Furir and Postal Services are also incorporated under their supervision.

One of the support functions we probably don’t think much about are the surgeons. Doctors, especially, surgeons were a priority on a battlefield. Mostly they acted after the battle, but they also took care of the soldiers all year long in a professional army. Military hospitals were created, some of them were used as medical schools too, and not all of them were situated in a military base. I haven’t been able to find if any ancient military hospital was opened to the public, but I personally don’t see why not. Generally each company (about 100 men) had one surgeon.

I will not discuss soldier being soldier, if you want more information on this, I will leave some links at the end of this article, please refer to it.

3. Army or Not ?

Some people, depending of your organisation, of your country, may be considered part of your army, even though their role is unrelated to the protection of the country against foreign forces, such as: police, spies, customs…

It really depends on how you see your organisation as a whole, and also who pay who, or what Minister these people depend from. For example, the police might be paid directly by the city thanks to local taxes, while customs are under the supervision of the Finance Minister, and spies answer directly to the Crown. Or you can incorporate them in your army.

4. Equipment

The main question in regards to equipment is who provides what. There have been times, when each soldier was expected to procure themselves their own equipment: armor and weapons, horse, sometimes even food. You could tell a soldier's social background with just a look. 

In some cases, the obligation to procure one’s own equipment was attached to citizenship. Only citizens were required by law to serve in the army, and to be citizen you were required to have a given level of revenues.

At all times, heavier weapons (for siege, and later canons) were provided by the State or the lords.

5. Hierarchy

There are two main type of hierarchies: hierarchical (or traditional) and flat. My partner could tell you all about the advantages and disadvantages of both in details (and how mixed/new models exist), but for our purposes let’s keep it simple.

Here is a drawing of both systems:

The bigger your army is, the less likely your hierarchy will be flat, for the very simple reason that your general in chief (or king, or whatever their actual title is) cannot be everywhere at once and has to delegate their power to keep the whole system working. In fact, at some point, the higher men in the hierarchy become strategists and/or administrators. Furthermore, if the official leader of your army is indeed the king, they might still need to delegate as 1) they are running a kingdom, and might need the time for something else, 2) they are very bad at leading an army (not everybody can be Frederic II or Napoleon…).

Next thing to determine is the numbers of levels in your hierarchy. I would advise to keep it as simple as possible. As an example, in Rising Queens, my army has 7 levels of hierarchy (including the soldiers without rank). Each rank correspond to an unity (i.e. company, regiment…). I merely added some nuances to distinguish some Navy ranks: a General and an Admiral have the same rank, but the later serves in the Navy.

If you want to get an idea of what ranking system you can implement, I would suggest you hit Wikipedia, as they have the organisations of a few armies listed. Just never forget reality is always more complex than fiction.

6. Magic

If you have magic in your universe, consider how it changes war strategy and organisation.

And since someone wrote extensively on the subject, allow me to redirect you to @warsofasoiaf post, right here.

Don’t hesitate to drop me a message for questions, clarifications or comments :)

Some Useful Links

On Demography

Medieval Demography made easy (French version only, as it seems the original version is no longer online…)

Notes on Medieval Population Geography

Medieval WorldBuilding Mega-Tutorial (includes info about army, and many other details)

On Armies and fighting

@transcriptroopers is a great resource about the life of modern soldiers.

@writenavy for anything related to Navy, both ancient and modern.

@howtofightwrite advices for anything regarding fighting, in nearly any context.

Medieval Warfare

Writing a War

Vocabulary - French translations

Furir - Fourrière (du mot fourrage)

Postal service - Vaguemestre

Commissaries - Commissaires (du mot commission, dans le sens de paie)

[writingtipsandtricks]

Is this page still functional? i'm asking because I see that the last post is from this summer

Yes, we still live. We've been on somewhat of a hiatus because life (physical illness, moving, new jobs, etc) but yes we're still here.

Thanks for checking in,

Dabiyyah