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My redesign hot take is that if you’re aiming to “desexualize” a female character, don’t make her boobs smaller. You’re implying a lot here.

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Encouragment for writers that I know seems discouraging at first but I promise it’s motivational-

• Those emotional scenes you’ve planned will never be as good on page as they are in your head. To YOU. Your audience, however, is eating it up. Just because you can’t articulate the emotion of a scene to your satisfaction doesn’t mean it’s not impacting the reader. 

• Sometimes a sentence, a paragraph, or even a whole scene will not be salvagable. Either it wasn’t necessary to the story to begin with, or you can put it to the side and re-write it later, but for now it’s gotta go. It doesn’t make you a bad writer to have to trim, it makes you a good writer to know to trim.

• There are several stories just like yours. And that’s okay, there’s no story in existence of completely original concepts. What makes your story “original” is that it’s yours. No one else can write your story the way you can.

• You have writing weaknesses. Everyone does. But don’t accept your writing weaknesses as unchanging facts about yourself. Don’t be content with being crap at description, dialogue, world building, etc. Writers that are comfortable being crap at things won’t improve, and that’s not you. It’s going to burn, but work that muscle. I promise you’ll like the outcome.

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My fandoms and my fandom neighbors!

TODAY, August 12, 2024, The Animation Guild begins negotiations with the AMPTP to win a new contract for animation. This is a huge fight with severe stakes for the future of the Animation Industry in the US, and the guild needs your support!

TAG is fighting, Right Now, to stop exploitative practices that are weaponized against animation professionals across the globe, and working hard to ensure this industry has a future here in the states.

If you are a fan of animation, whether it's major or independent studios, eastern or western, tv or movies, we need you to get LOUD in support of The Animation Guild. The crews who work so hard to bring these works to life are struggling to pay their bills, if they can find work at all, while studio CEOs are getting multi-million dollar raises to cancel projects and gut streaming libraries.

We can win this fight, but we need public outcry and support. If you work in animation, if you've ever dreamed of working in animation, or if you just love animation, please stand with TAG and support the union effort to keep animation a viable career and a valuable medium!

Check out the Website Here: #StandWithAnimation

AnimationWorkersIgnited Twt / LinkTree

AnimationGuild Twt

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Writing Tips Master Post

Character writing/development:

Character Arcs

Making Character Profiles

Character Development

Comic Relief Arc

Internal Conflict

Character Voices

Creating Distinct Characters

Suicidal Urges/Martyr Complex

Creating Likeable Characters

Writing Strong Female Characters

Writing POC Characters

Building Tension

Plot devices/development:

Intrigue in Storytelling

Enemies to Lovers

Alternatives to Killing Characters

Worldbuilding

Misdirection

Consider Before Killing Characters

Foreshadowing

Narrative:

Emphasising the Stakes

Avoid Info-Dumping

Writing Without Dialogue

1st vs. 2nd vs. 3rd Perspective

Fight Scenes (+ More)

Transitions

Pacing

Writing Prologues

Dialogue Tips

Writing War

Writing Cheating

Worldbuilding:

Worldbuilding: Questions to Consider

Creating Laws/Rules in Fantasy Worlds

Book writing:

Connected vs. Stand-Alone Series

A & B Stories

Writer resources:

Writing YouTube Channels, Podcasts, & Blogs

Online Writing Resources

Outlining/Writing/Editing Software

Writer help:

Losing Passion/Burnout

Overcoming Writer's Block

Fantasy terms:

How To Name Fantasy Races (Step-by-Step)

Naming Elemental Races

Naming Fire-Related Races

How To Name Fantasy Places

Ask games:

Character Ask Game #1

Character Ask Game #2

Character Ask Game #3

Miscellaneous:

1000 Follower Post

2000 Follower Poll

Writing Fantasy

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Here’s something I don’t see writers practicing enough: how big things can permanently change your character.

I see people putting their characters through war, abusive relationships, health disorders, and intense grief. Since popular writers often fail here, I hope you guys are also considering how these things will affect your character in the long run. I don’t mean “Oh, they have bad dreams now and are jerks to everyone, but only for a little while.” I mean has their entire outlook on life changed dramatically, and if so how? Does it show? Do they try to hide it and move on, or do they accept that this is who they are now? Does it take them a long time or a short time to realize things can never again be the way they were? How does that affect them? Do they choose to keep this new personality, or do they try to change it?

Not everyone wants to acknowledge this type of development in a character because it gets in the way of their plans or disrupts plot. Also, some characters are made of stern stuff or are just flexible enough to survive with their personality intact. Yet, major events in a story should leave a noticeable impact on a character, the more personal the event generally the bigger the personality change.

Just think about it if you haven’t already, y'know?

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✨UNCONVENTIONAL WRITING PROMPTS✨

An entire city with no secrets Inheriting a haunted amusement park The villain who only wants peace A reclusive artist forced into the limelight Underdog superhero with mundane powers A rivalry between two rival cafes Friends to nemeses A love triangle where the protagonist ends up alone by choice Time travel only to fix minor historical inconveniences A ghost that's afraid of the dark Characters who communicate through song An alien invasion where the aliens just want to learn about our pets A post-apocalyptic world where plants have taken over A detective with a supernatural partner Instead of fake dating, everyone believes you're happily married A love interest who fakes being evil to protect their loved ones A library that transports you to the book you read An entire city with no secrets Inheriting a haunted amusement park The villain who only wants peace A reclusive artist forced into the limelight Underdog superhero with mundane powers A rivalry between two rival cafes Friends to nemeses A love triangle where the protagonist ends up alone by choice Time travel only to fix minor historical inconveniences A ghost that's afraid of the dark Characters who communicate through song An alien invasion where the aliens just want to learn about our pets A post-apocalyptic world where plants have taken over A detective with a supernatural partner Instead of fake dating, everyone believes you're happily married A love interest who fakes being evil to protect their loved ones A library that transports you to the book you read A magical creature running a mundane, everyday business A hero with a sidekick that's much more competent A kingdom where the throne is won through a cooking competition A witch who specializes in healing broken friendships A pirate crew that rescues endangered sea creatures A time loop that brings people together instead of tearing them apart A character who can speak to buildings A diary that writes back A robot learning to appreciate art High school reunion with a twist: everyone now has superpowers Lost in a video game, but loving the adventure A world where dreams and reality blur A secret society of professional good luck charms A musician whose notes can alter reality A detective who solves crimes with the help of a supernatural entity A character discovering they're the villain in someone's else story The heir to a magical kingdom who just wants a normal life A friendship tested by a sudden, unexplained power The enemy who is actually a long-lost friend under disguise

Hope this sparks some creativity! 😊

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I've been thinking about Sasuke's trauma a bit today to try and convey him better in my writing. And I had an epiphany of sorts that may help others too, not just for Sasuke but other characters aswell.

Every corpse has an insanely strong smell. Scientists think its a defense mechanism so other humans can recognise danger near by. Because the smell of rotting Is said to be unlike like any other scent. Under the main scent of regular rotting you'd get, is described to be this powerful, sickeningly sweet smell.

Every corpse will smell different depending on their genetic makeup. Some will have a fruity smell, some sugary, it's all pungent and absolutely vile.

The smell is stronger than anything you'll ever smell, it clings to your clothes, it goes through the walls and it doesn't leave easily.

Sasuke would routinely visit the Uchiha district, and sit right in front of where his parents were murdered. That smell must have been everywhere. When he walked through the district, his own home, his clothes and himself. It all would have radiated death.

Even after the district would have been wiped clean. The smell would still be there, and it would be overwhelming. When Sasuke finally stopped visiting his old home, the smell would have already seeped through his clothes, and been all around his new home.

He went to school during that time too. Do you think his classmates didn't notice that putrid smell? And do you think every single one of them knew what death smelled like- and would they have been respectful enough to leave him be?

And imagine, when he became a ninja, him having to face that scent again. Plus- would he ever have been able to forget it? A scent so strong you can taste it, it makes your eyes water. Not only the image of his brother slicing his parents up would have been on his nightmares, but that horrific scent would have infected his nostrils aswell.

Just something to think about.

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How is your personal process for coming up with a book title?

Guide: Coming Up with a Story/Book Title

It’s funny you should ask this now, because normally I’m someone who tends to come up with titles, or title possibilities, fairly easily. If anything I may have to tweak a title to make it shorter or stronger, or choose my favorite out of a list of possibilities, but I rarely find myself in the position of having to find a title from scratch. Except that’s where I am right now…

Working Title

First, I want to clarify that I don’t think it’s necessary to come up with anything other than a working title prior to writing the first few drafts. Final titles should usually be chosen after all the revision is complete and you’re into the polishing stage. You’ll probably want to come up with a working title as soon as you figure out your plot. Working titles don’t have to be fancy or even related to what the final title would be. I seem to recall Maggie Stiefvater referring to The Raven Cycle as “magical story” back during its early days. A working title for The Hunger Games could have been Katniss’s Story. A working title for the first Harry Potter book could have been The Train to Hogwarts. Whatever it is, don’t put too much thought into it. This is simply your placeholder title. Just something for you to use in reference to your WIP when you don’t want to just call it “my WIP.”

Final Titles and Traditional Publishing

Second, a word of caution… if you’re planning to pursue traditional publishing, you should know in advance that publishers are very unlikely to use the title you come up with, especially if you’re a debut author. While that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still try to find a perfect title, it does mean you should be prepared for them to go in another direction. That will hurt less if you’re not “married” to the title you pick. So, just keep that in mind.

Coming Up with a Final Title

1. Research Your Genre

Before you even get started, take some time to compile a list of ten or twenty current/popular titles in your genre… preferably nothing more than a couple years old. Pay attention to patterns, length, the kinds of words used, and anything else that stands out multiple times. This can be a helpful guideline to follow as you start brainstorming and coming up with ideas.2. Brainstorm List

When you’ve completed the major editing/revision phase of your WIP and are heading into the non-structure affecting edits and polishing phase, you’ll need to go ahead and start thinking about your title. This is especially important if you’re planning to self-publish and are hiring a cover designer, as they will need to know your title when they create your cover. The first step in this process for me has been to have a brainstorming session in which I list out every possibility I can think of, no matter how lame. I keep this list even after I’ve chosen a final title because A) there may be some gems on there that will work for future stories, B) you never know when you might realize you need to change your title, and it’s handy to have that document to go back to. That’s where I find myself now. Needing to go back and look at my original brainstorm list to see if there’s anything that works.

3. General “Title Ideas” Document

One of the most important things you can do as a writer is have places where you can record ideas when they occur to you. That may be an app on your phone, a notepad or word document on your laptop, a physical notebook, or all of the above. For me, it’s all of the above. One of the documents I have is a general “title ideas” document where I’ve listed random title ideas that have occurred to me in the past. This could be a good place to keep any unused gems from your title brainstorm lists, too, if you want to save yourself from step three…

4. Look Through Old Title Ideas

If that doesn’t work, I’ll probably go back through my brainstorm lists from previous novels and stories just to see if there’s a hidden gem somewhere that would work for this story.While I’m at it, if I see any particularly good unused gems, I’ll go ahead and transfer them to my general “title ideas” document to save myself the trouble of this step in the future.

5. Create a New Brainstorm List

If I still haven’t found a new title by this point, I’ll have no choice but to come up with a new title brainstorm list. The first thing I’ll do to get this list going is write down several keywords to use as inspiration. These can be story elements, themes, motifs, places… anything. Next, I’ll probably come up with a list of adjectives that relate to my story in some way. I might even look through my bookshelves at book titles I like and write a few down as further inspiration. Then, I’m going to sit down and start spitballing possibilities based on my keywords, adjectives, and inspiration titles. These will likely be horrible, possibly hilarious, but the point is it gets your brain waves in sync and moving in the right direction. If all else fails, I might even go in search of some title generators to bulk up my list. Sometimes you can find ones that allow you to put in keywords and it will spit different combinations back at you. You could also try taking titles you like and plugging your own keywords in. Like, instead of The Fault in Our Stars, maybe you come up with The Problem with Your Parents. Or, instead of All the Crooked Saints, you come up with Every Parent Lies.

6. Title “Mad Libs”

Try filling keywords from your story into the following title templates…– The __________– The  __________ __________ – The __________ of  __________–  __________ of  __________–  __________ of the  __________– The  __________  __________ in  __________ – The  __________  __________ on  __________ – The  __________ in the  __________ – The  __________ in  __________ __________ – A  __________ – A  __________ for  __________ – A  __________  __________ And so on… you can actually look at book titles on your shelves to come up with other templates to try out. Ultimately (hopefully) you’ll be able to come up with something!

7. Go Back to Basics

Sometimes, you just have to look at your keywords, find the strongest one, and go with that, because sometimes one-word titles just happen to work the best. Twilight, Forever, Graceling, Wintersong, Magonia, Ballad, Emma, Caraval, Everless… you get the idea. And you can always go for the two-word title, too, like: Crooked Kingdom, Catching Fire, Dark Shores, Deep Blue, Catching Stars, Cruel Prince, Little Women.

I hope something here works for you! (I hope something here works for me, too!)

Good luck to us all!

————————————————————————————————-Have a writing question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check through my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

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Listen.

EVERYBODY knows (or should) that you DO. NOT. STOP. in Vidor, Texas. 

It’s best to just run out of gas elsewhere. Whatever you do, black folks, DO NOT STOP IN VIDOR, TEXAS. 

There’s a good chance you’ll get lynched or just come up missing - and I’m not joking.

also do NOT stop in Harrison, Arkansas!!!! (relatively close to OK and MI) a nazi town with a BIG KKK organization.

Reblog To Save Life

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Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

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hi! i found your submission on the beta file and was wondering if you were still beta reading? i have a durarara WIP i would love any extra eyes on. if you are interested lmk! thanks :D

sure! send it over~

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Writing advice/resources links

On using epithets

Flowchart of when to use epithets

Filter words

Writing dialogue

Punctuating dialogue

Using "said"

Varying sentence length

Guide to naming conventions in different cultures

Resources for describing physical things in great detail

Guide to adding "cool things" to AO3 posts, eg. footnotes, custom dividers

Writing chronic pain

Dialogue tips

Timeline of what foods were available when

Historical fashion references

Improving plot

Communicating time passing

When to use an apostrophe

Who vs whom

Using a semicolon

Describing characters

Gestures and body language

Reverse dictionary

Personality traits

Body language

Commonly mispelled words

Ending sentences

Show, don't tell

Punctuation grammar (another)

Etymology dictionary (often including date of first recorded use)

See when words first appeared in books

origins of idioms

Stanford model of the Roman world

Purchasing power / conversions dating back as early as 1207

YouTube channel dedicated to historical clothing

Military history/weaponry combat [youtube channel]

Medieval armour and weaponry [youtube channel]

resources on the napoleonic wars

life in the regency era

wide variety of info on victorian england

ancient egypt

medieval studies

search engine for historical maps

Youtube channel on various history things

massive resource list for historical fiction

slang timeline

historical theasaurus

developing minor characters

multiple bible translations from different eras/languages

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the whole point of a zine is that it's cheap to produce, amateur and homemade. if you're being asked to apply to participate in a print project, it is not a zine. if the final product is being printed and bound professionally, it is not a zine. if you are being asked to enter into any kind of licensing agreement more complex than "my work can be reproduced as part of this publication" it is not a zine. nine times put of ten if the final product costs more than $5 you have left zine country. im so serious about this.

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I need everyone’s best character advice. STAT.