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6 tips from John Steinbeck for aspiring writers

Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.

Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person–a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.

If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it–bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.

Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.

If you are using dialogue–say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

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SYNONYMS FOR WORDS COMMONLY USED IN STUDENTS' WRITINGS

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fashion encyclopedia: Basil Soda spring 2015 couture

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borders / granice - photo exhibition by Piotr Bondarczyk & Piotr Sikora

Polish traditional costumes presented by people of different nationalities!

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Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard. It’s one of the hardest things that people do.

William Zinsser (via maxkirin)

To all those followers of mine who might be writing essays, dissertations or theses (thesi?) you should remember this. We were often told this kind of thing during our thesis help sessions, told to remember that writing is hard and not to get despondent when it didn’t flow as one would think. Writing, like any skill, comes slowly through hours of practice. Don’t rush it, don’t panic, and don’t be afraid to ask for help from friends, peers or colleagues. 

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I'm an aspiring author, but I feel like all of my ideas are too heavily inspired by other works of fiction. I really like them, but I'm worried that if I show people they'll think I copied X or Y. Any advice?

When we start out, we sound like other people. 

As we write we sound more and more like ourselves, and we become ourselves. We learn that it’s not the ideas that matter as much as the way we express the idea. 

As we live we accumulate life experience, and it’s where we get our own ideas from. We stop sounding like other people, stop doing things their way, and start doing them our own way.

My advice is to keep writing.

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P h i l i p p i n e  M y t h o l o g y  S e r i e s | x | T A G A L O G  G O D D E S S E S 

The goddesses of the Tagalogs represented important aspects of everyday life from agriculture, the stars that played an important role in farming, raising animals and crops, fishing, and of love, marriage, and childbirth. There were even those representing precolonial society’s views and acceptance on more than two genders. There was the primordial goddess, Aman Sinaya, who represented the sea and was the patron of fisherman who invented the fishing nets. People gave their offerings to Diyan Masalanta to find love and marriage, for a safe childbirth, and the safety of their child. Tala was the goddess of the stars, the morning star in particular, which was used in timing the seasons, as well as being the first anito. Idiyanale was the goddess of husbandry, labor, and good deeds who people looked to in raising their animals and crops. However out of all the goddesses worshiped by the Tagalogs there was Lakapati, or Ikapati, who was one of the most revered deities other than Bathalang Maykapal. Lakapati was an intersex goddess of fertility of the fields who farmers would hold up a child in the air invoking the deity directly during rituals in the fields, saying “Lakapati, pakanin mo yaring alipin mo, huwag mo gutumin.” (Translation: Lakapati, feed this servant who is yours, let him/her/them not be hungry). 

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the worst beauty misconception dark girls are fed is that they can’t experiment with their look

you can go as loud as you want

or keep it simple

stick to the neutrals 

or go on all out galaxy chic

go out sultry

or go out sweet

cause your skin is so versatile

that there’s no such thing as “the right colour”

be a goddamn mermaid if you like

 dress down

or up

go natural

or not

you’ll still look flawless

so go ahead and shower in gold

or do nothing at all

cause at the end of the day

you’re still a queen

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✿ Daily Story Seed ✿

Eyes on the Inside Write about a character who has been recently suffering from awful headaches, and hallucinations. Except that they’re not sick, but blessed. Explore the point of view of a character chosen by an ancient cosmic deity, as they discover that their visions are showing them the world humans can’t see.

Any work you create based off this prompt belongs to you, no sourcing is necessary though it would be really appreciated! And don’t forget to tag maxkirin (or tweet @MistreKirin), so that I can check-out your stories!

Want more writer inspiration, advice, and prompts? Follow my blog: maxkirin.tumblr.com!

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✐ Daily Weird Prompt ✐

The Clock Empire Write about a character who happens to live in a small world at the center of all dimensions. The catch? This character’s world serves as the bastion to the powers of Time, and enjoy great powers because of it. Double catch? Suddenly, the city is shaken by the artillery fire of an unknown army.

Any work you create based off this prompt belongs to you, no sourcing is necessary though it would be really appreciated! And don’t forget to tag maxkirin (or tweet @MistreKirin), so that I can check-out your stories!

Want more writer inspiration, advice, and prompts? Follow my blog: maxkirin.tumblr.com!

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(part 1) (part 2)

Part 3: Developing Crowd Characters

Now that we’ve established the pyramid of character hierarchy, and we understand that not all characters are created equal, it’s time to talk about why these characters are different and what sort of questions we, as the writers, need to ask ourselves when creating them. I decided to start with crowd characters at the bottom of our metaphorical pyramid since characters higher up will build on the ideas you form while blocking out the basic crowd-level.

As I said in Part 2, crowd characters are non-plot essential, background, world-texturing characters. You need to know the absolute least about these folks in terms of lifeline details. These are the ones in the market and lingering on street corners and making traffic a total pain. They’re who’s hanging around when you describe a scene and say, “A tall man muttered with a girl in an undyed linen tunic at the alley’s end.” That tall man? That girl in linen? Those are crowd characters (unless, of course, I decide to pull them into the plot somehow, later, but let’s not muddy the waters). They are only mentioned to let the reader know that the alley is not completely empty. But how much do you need to know about them?

These are the easy characters, with the shortest descriptions. You can literally make up, on the spot, anything about these characters. But be sure you keep your world in mind when you make up those details. That’s the biggest concern with crowd characters. Take into account the scene’s setting and what you’re trying to get across with these background, texture characters.

When writing with a large crowd, say, in a marketplace, think about who belongs there. Who visits this market? Does it only get internal trade from within the country? Are there trade caravans from other countries coming through? Is there a port anywhere near-by that would draw in people from other countries? Be sure to take those things into account when describing your crowd.

Crowd characters often provide a nice opportunity for the writer to give basic descriptions of races and ethnicities in their world. Saying something as simple as, “The pearlescent skin of the northern Leviathan Ridge Reef stood out among the darker, more purple tones of the local people,” helps define and paint the overall backdrop of race and territorial differences between peoples. Lines as simple as these can provide so much information: this market gets external trade; there is the possibility of huge mythical water creatures in this world; there’s a north relative to where the market is; there are ocean-dwelling people, and more. This tactic may make use of stereotypes; be aware of this and handle it carefully.

Some questions to consider as you’re creating crowd characters:

What are you trying to portray by mentioning specific crowd characters?

Where are they within the setting?

How many are you portraying?

How are they moving?

Where are they from?

What are they doing there?

Who are they with?

Are they wearing traditional outfits?

Do they belong/are they out of place?

Next time we’ll talk a little bit more about tertiary characters and their function within a story.

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1. Kiowa Girl, Indian Portrait by Edward Curtis. 2. Spokane Indian woman, ca. 1897 3. Noatak Inuit 1929. 4. hopi girl 5. Lakota 6. Sioux Indian Man by Edward Curtis, 1890s

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★ Daily Character Question ★

Daggers From The Past Pick one of your secondary characters: Write a scene where this character realizes that the event that nearly ruined their life was caused by the actions of one of their closest friends. How do they react to this? Will this be the end of their friendship?

Any work you create based off this prompt belongs to you, no sourcing is necessary though it would be really appreciated! And don’t forget to tag maxkirin (or tweet @MistreKirin), so that I can check-out your stories!

Want more writer inspiration, advice, and prompts? Follow my blog: maxkirin.tumblr.com!

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ENTHRALL [aka INTHRALL & INTHRAL]

[verb]

1. to captivate or charm. 

2. to put or hold in slavery; subjugate.

Etymology: en-, prefix forming verbs with the general sense “to cause (a person or thing) to be in” + thrall, from Old English thrǣl < Old Norse thrǣll, “slave”.

[Emily Balivet - Snake Charmer]

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♥︎ Daily Writer Positivity ♥︎

#314 Never forget that There is NO one way to write a “type” of character or personal experience, because life affects everyone differently.

Want more writer inspiration, advice, and prompts? Follow my blog: maxkirin.tumblr.com!