bellaleighwrites

[bellaleighwrites]

Trick or Treat? 🦇

I hope people will consider this a treat. Have some world-building Lore in the form of my magic system. Below the cut, cuz this is gonna get long.

So, in the world of Sangue Collina (which, I'm 90% sure I'm changing the name of the city to Collina Insanguinata - which I totally need to double check the spelling of) there are three groups of people that exist in the shadows, unknown to most of the world. The vampires, werewolves, and Mages. Don't ask me why Mage is capitalized. It just is. Anyway, vampires are made, werewolves and Mages are born.

Werewolves are hereditary. They usually shift for the first time around puberty. They are not tied to the moon, shifting is completely voluntary. And, most injuries can be healed by shifting. They have a strict hierarchy that is honestly pretty similar to the line of succession to a Monarchy. Pregnant werewolves cannot shift, and because of this, cannot heal themselves if they're injured. Werewolves and vampires are usually mortal enemies. But, there's a truce here. Exactly what caused that, I don't know. It's a pretty basic truce. The vampires stay out of the forest, the werewolves stay out of vampire-owned businesses, and they both refrain from trying to kill each other. The wolves honestly mostly stay out of the city at night.

The vampires are made by having vampire blood forced down their throats after they've died. There's a fairly short window of opportunity for this. They get super-speed, super-strength, and enhanced senses. Though they can turn the enhanced senses on and off at will. The one enhanced sense they cannot turn off, is their sense of time. Vampires will always know exactly how far away sunrise is. That one is a survival trait. They become projective telepaths (though, they can only Send to one person at a time). And they also become effectively immortal. They stop aging, and don't get sick, so they won't die of natural causes. The only ways to kill one are sunlight, fire, and chopping off their head. (No, a stake through the heart won't cut it.) Their bite contains two different kinds of venom. One acts as a hypnogenic allowing the vampire to alter their victims' memories. That's how they remain hidden, because nobody who has been bitten by one remembers it. The other can, like their enhanced senses, be turned on and off. It causes an almost sexual pleasure in their victims. The theory is that it's to keep the victim from struggling, which actually makes it easier to not accidentally kill them. They can heal wounds with either their saliva or their blood, and will usually lick a bite to close it when they're done feeding. Vampire bites are not automatically fatal, and it's actually rare for someone to die of a vampire bite. Vampires can be affected by drugs, including alcohol, in their victims' blood, or by adding blood to a drink.

Mages are where I had the most fun. Mages are born. And there are several types.

Time Mages can see the future or the past, and can control time. Stopping it, rewinding it, slowing it down, and speeding it up.

Energy Mages can do all sorts of fun things. They can control the weather, start or put out fires, fuck with gravity, they're telekinetic. Basically, they can manipulate just about every form of energy to varying degrees that vary from Mage to Mage.

Spatial Mages basically manipulate space. They're clairvoyant, and able to see things far away. They can teleport themselves, other people, or objects. This is different from telekinesis. Where an Energy Mage would move something from one place to another by moving it through the intervening space, a Spatial Mage would simply connect the space the object currently occupies with the space they want to move it to for a second and then holding it in the new space while they disconnect the spaces.

Mind Mages are telepaths. They can read minds, project their thoughts, read and manipulate emotions, and have the power of compulsion.

Life Mages are healers. Pretty self-explanatory, I think.

Necromancers are... well... necromancers, LOL. They can create zombies (by force-feeding a corpse their blood). and can control the dead. And yes, that includes vampires.

There's another kind of Mage that is almost completely passive. They can sense magic, but not really use it. The one bit of active magic they have is the ability to make the amulets that all Mages wear and bind them to their owners. I'm sure I had a name for this, I do not remember it at the moment.

By the time a Mage child is five or six that last type of Mage will be able to tell what kind of Mage the child is going to be. Some families have a predisposition towards one type or another, but any child can really end up as any kind of Mage. The amulet the child is presented with reflects their type. Time gets a sun, Energy is a lightning bolt, Spatial is the only 3-D amulet - they have a globe, Mind is a brain, Life is a tree, and Necromancers get a skull. This amulet is made out of obsidian, but it glows. A Mage can have another Mage charge their amulet and use it to store types of magic they don't naturally possess.

It is possible for somebody from a Mage family to not become a Mage. And it is possible for there to be entire family lines that are actually descended from Mages, but have no magic, themselves. It is also possible for somebody who has Mage blood but isn't a full-fledged Mage to have some latent abilities that can be triggered. The trigger is a combination of a traumatic experience and a magical trigger. Yes, this means that there are vampires who had no idea that magic was even real, much less that some ancestor or other of theirs was a Mage who suddenly find themselves able to do some pretty freaky shit beyond the "normal" vampire abilities. (For instance, Catie is an Empath, Eli is a firestarter, William can Send to more than one person at a time, Polly is a Seer - though Polly knew she had Mage blood.)

And finally, there's the Medeas. They are vampires who used to be Mages. They can only be turned by another Medeas. If any other vampire tried to turn a Mage, not only would they stay dead, but even a Medeas wouldn't be able to turn them after that. Though, a Medeas can turn a normal human. They lose most of their old abilities, including the ability to use their amulets. They do keep some, but become no more powerful than any other vampire who happens to have Mage blood.

And that is the gist of my magic system. I have no idea if something this long was what you had in mind when you created this event, but apparently I've been dying to share this nonsense, and you opened the floodgates.

[bellaleighwrites]

Send help. So, a couple weeks ago, I came up with a new romance novel idea. Title is What Happens Here Stays Here. It's a contemporary about a couple who meet in Vegas and wake up one morning married. My brain will NOT let this story go. And keeps adding to it. I know SO much about the FMC and her relationships with her mother and sister. I know less about the MMC, but it's not unusual for me to know more about one half of my couples than the other.

So, here's my problem. My brain kind if wants to put You're Still The One on the backburner and focus on this one, instead. Logically, it's genuinely because I think I actually have a slightly better handle on it. Plus, it would give me more time to do research for my historicals. But, I'm afraid this could just be my ADHD brain going "ooo shiny" rather than a genuine logical decision. Plus, I NEED to learn to focus and actually FINISH something.

So... let's put this to a vote.

[bellaleighwrites]

Sangue Collina - Welcome To The (Urban) Jungle

All right, I'm doing this. I mentioned (threatened) that I was thinking about it a while back. Then got sidetracked trying to decide if I wanted to do this now, or wait until it had gone through a bit of revision. And realized that the people who had inspired me were posting first drafts, so... Why not? Anyway... this is rough draft. I'm currently working on analyzing it in order to plan a proper revision. I know that a lot will be changing - including plot things. I'll probably repost when it's closer to being ready for betas, too.

One note, included in the things that will change, is the name of the city. I kind of Anglicized it, and am starting to not like that. I have a few ideas on what to change it to, and will probably end up posting a poll for help deciding. But, for simplicity's sake, the tag will stay the same, even after I figure out the real name of this city. So... without further ado... the first scene of Book 1 of The Vampires Of Sangue Collina. Below the cut due to length

Sangue Collina. Its name means blood hill and many a historian has spent far too many hours hunched over old records, trying to find some indication of the battle or tragedy that earned it its name. They looked in vain. Those that know the truth about who founded it have their own theories, though. Perhaps one of them, or even both of them, is correct. Those in the know suggest that it was to the founders what a name like New Hope or New Haven would have been to a human. A hope for a brighter future. For the founders of Sangue Collina, a land flowing with blood would have been a mecca. Others, those who know even more, suggest that the battle it was named for simply hasn’t happened yet.

Historians aren’t the only ones who scratch their heads over it, though. Architects wonder at the flat roofs that do not seem designed with midwestern winters in mind. And at the number of balconies, not just on houses and apartment buildings, but the upper stories of businesses, as well. Business owners question why so many businesses, from stores to bars, to nightclubs, to movie theaters, have apartments above them. Interior decorators find the number of homes and apartments with heavy-duty blackout curtains fascinating. And, if any of them could remember their own involvement in its existence, there would be a great many people who would question why there is a forge in the basement of a nightclub. Not that any of them would ever guess the truth behind those many mysteries.

The night of the fall equinox begins much the same as every other night in the city. Most of the people go about their usual business, unaware of the two groups of people for whom sunset is either the end of their day — or the beginning. As several people make their way out of the city, heading for the safety of their homes in the forest outside of town, behind those blackout curtains there are others who are just about waking up. As the last of the sun’s rays fade from the skies, the true rulers of Sangue Collina open their eyes and prepare to own the night. Curtains are opened, and men, women, and at least one apparent child leap from balconies. Either down to the streets below or up, turning those flat roofs that architects wonder at into highways. The nightly hunt is on. Not that any of the prey would even know if they had been caught.

There is one house where the curtains are opened, but nobody emerges onto the balcony. For Elijah Cavendish, there will be no hunt. There is no need. Nor is there a desire for it. For him, blood bags work just as well, without the fear of taking too much and accidentally killing someone. And so, his evenings start differently than the others’. With blood drunk, not from a vein but out of a wineglass. Sitting at the desk in his study, staring up at the portrait of the woman he once planned to marry, but who instead was the first person he ever killed.

He finished his glass of blood and set it down on the desk. And then he closed his eyes and Sent his thoughts to his housekeeper. :Good evening, Beverly. Is there anything that needs my attention, this evening?: He smiled when she appeared in the doorway. How she could walk so quietly that even he couldn’t hear her was a mystery. Though, perhaps that had been part of her gift from Nicolaus.

“Nothing at all. The daytime managers of both the Rhiannon and the Athenaeum have checked in and things seem to be running smoothly. As of right now, you can safely take the night off.”

He had to laugh at how well she understood the rest of what he was asking her. Then again, that could have either been in the way he worded the question, or simply because she knew what this night was for him. “I think I will, then. Get some painting in. I’m almost finished touching up Edward’s portrait. Maybe after that I’ll start on something that is more just for fun.”

“It would be nice to see you working on something that wasn’t designed to cause you pain. Maybe a nice landscape? Or the view of the city from the penthouse window?” She came in and picked up his glass. As she was leaving, she turned around. “Happy birthday, Mr. Cavendish. Do try to spend at least some of it doing something other than wallowing in guilt and self-pity.” And with that final jab, she walked out of the room, leaving him alone with his own thoughts.

Too bad what she suggested was easier said than done. He left the room and walked to his studio. And let himself spend a few hours lost in the past. Maybe not the best way to spend his birthday, but in some ways it was easier to think of those who would be long dead even if he had never been born. There were far too many for whom that was not the case.

Though, truth be told, his family did not actually fit that, either. While it was true that they all would have died of old age centuries ago, that was not at all what happened. No, their deaths all came in one blood-soaked night. The night, nearly three centuries ago, that the war between him and Ana started.

Eli would never forget that night. How he had huddled in the wardrobe Edward had hidden him in and tried not to cry as he listened to his parents' and older siblings' screams of pain and terror. Tried to be the brave boy his brother had begged him to be. Tried to block out the noises. All the noises. Not just the screams, but the other noises, as well. Noises he couldn't begin to understand at five years old. Noises that he blocked from his memory as he got old enough to understand what they were. Because they made no sense. Until the night, eighteen years later, that he was made to understand what had caused them. Moans, not of pain, but of the vampire venom induced erotic pleasure they were experiencing even as they were being drained dry.

And, somehow, that was all his fault. It was the opening shot in Ana's centuries-long vendetta against him for some crime he hadn't even committed yet. Two hundred ninety-five years later, and he still didn't know why. Why she had ordered his family killed. Why she had saved him. It was probably why she was still alive. Why he could never bring himself to kill her. Because the night Anastasia Delaney died, would be the night that Eli lost any chance he had of learning why she had hated him so much. What he could have possibly have done to deserve the living Hell she plunged him into. Again and again.

[bellaleighwrites]

40k in 42 days. How does it work?

Hello writerly friends!

Let me answer a few FAQs regarding this project:

When does it start?

The first Sunday of August. For 2024 that's:

Start: 4th of August

End: 14th of September

I want to make this a yearly event.

Do I have to write 40k?

No. You don't have to do anything like that. I'm a strong supporter of individual, personal goals, and if your goal is higher or lower than 40k, that's totally fine.

Do I have to work on one thing the whole time?

No. You can switch projects however your inspiration guides you and just add up all the words for your daily wordcount. (Psst, I do this all the time!)

Do you have a website where we get pretty graphs as we count our words?

Well, I don't have one (maybe by next year I can get something to work, but my coding days are quite long ago and websites cost money...) but I suggest we use https://www.mywriteclub.com/ for now. It's been in beta for the last 10 years but it works. Create a project with September the 14th as the deadline and add me (barbex) as your friend, then we can see each other's progress.

Do we get some community?

I hope so. This is difficult but I'm trying my best to draw you all together. Mywriteclub will help with seeing how other people write, we also have a discord server with a check-in channel to post daily wordcounts and do some chatting. I'm also posting on Instagram (very screaming into the void there), Xitter (not sure if anybody sees posts there at all), and bluesky (the voidest of voids), but I feel the most comfortable here on tumblr. So here is where I will post the most with tips, advice, and motivational shenanigans (with the help of some friends, maybe).

A community needs action from everyone, so I would love to see (mention me) posts about your WIP, how you plan to write, what your mywriteclub name is so that other people can friend you there. I will also try to make daily posts from my writing blog, maybe even make some videos (???) and talk about my work(s) in progress.

40k in 42 days

Start: 4th of August

End: 14th of September

Let's write.

[bellaleighwrites]

WIP Intro: Sangue Collina

Figured it's past time I started actually talking about my writing in here. We'll start with the novel I'm revising.

Working Title: The Vampires of Sangue Collina, Book 1. I don't actually have a working title for it. The Scrivener file is called Eternity's Sacrifice, but I'm not sure I still like that.

Status: In revisions

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Setting: A city in Illinois called Sangue Collina - which means "Blood Hill" in Italian. The city is unique for the world that it's in, in that the vampires and werewolves have a truce. In most of the world, they're mortal enemies. The vampires rule the city from the shadows. And the humans are totally unaware of the existence of these two groups of supernatural beings. And unknown to anyone except a very select few, the night is fast approaching when the fate of the world will be decided in the streets of this city.

Summary: Once upon a time, Elijah Cavendish was a duke. But, that was back before he died. Our story starts 277 years later, on his 300th birthday. A newcomer to the city has contacted Eli's nephew, Benedict, claiming to be a friend of theirs that they both thought died twelve years ago. When it turns out to actually be that friend, her arrival sets in motion a chain of events that only the local Seer, her Time Mage older brother, and the man who has been working with them for over a millennium to try to prevent the premature end of the world could have ever seen coming. When Eli has reason to believe that his homicidal Sire is in town and gunning for his friends, he decides it is time to cut his losses and do something permanent about her. Only to be told that if he comes back from his confrontation with her in one piece, then within a year the city would be covered in the ashes of their kind - but if he doesn't, then within a decade, the whole world would be. Eli just wants to keep Catie, the woman he's loved for decades, safe. But, his world is going increasingly mad. There's a war coming, a war that will actually prevent World War Three. There's a Necromancer on the loose in a city full of walking corpses. And Eli's own long-dormant firestarting abilities have made a surprise resurgence - but are now out of his control. But, when he discovers just who the Necromancer is, the price he's asked to pay to protect the people he cares about may prove to be too high.

Tags: general tag: #Sangue Collina

Snippets: #Sangue Collina snippets

Progress reports: #Sangue Collina progress

Character intros: #Sangue Collina characters

[bellaleighwrites]

Oh help! I'm cackling. Trying to make a spreadsheet of my scenes in Sangue Collina (the book I'm revising), and some of my notes on this thing are hilarious.

For one scene, in the things needing more description, I have "Fucking everything. I need to describe Polly through Eli’s eyes. Describe this house. Right now, she is a faceless child in a featureless void."

Then, the next scene, what the antagonist wants is "The corpse doesn’t really want anything, seeing as she’s a corpse."

I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do with any of this. Have I mentioned that I hate revision?

[bellaleighwrites]

I am currently in the first stages of a new writing project. It will be historical fiction set during WWII. Any advice you can offer on writing engaging and compelling fictional characters while staying true to that period of history would be greatly appreciated.

Creating Engaging Historical Characters

There's this tendency to think of people in the past as being completely foreign beings to us, but here's the thing... they weren't that different. Sure, their worlds were different. The societal rules, roles, and expectations were different. They had different technology and different opportunities, but so many of the things were the same. They still loved their families but fought with their siblings and pushed back against parental boundaries. They didn't want to do their chores or learn the things they were supposed to learn, but they did it anyway because they didn't want to get in trouble. They wanted to spend time with their friends, gossip about love interests, enjoy hobbies, and do the things they thought were fun. They wanted to tell stories and hear stories, and laugh, and try new things. They wanted to listen to music and dance and socialize. They wanted to dream about their future, and sometimes they stressed about it. They had their own "celebrity" role models, their own trends, their own versions of "social media" (even if it was writing letters or hanging out in a tavern), and they looked forward to a good party as much as most of us do. Except for the introverts. They preferred to stay home with their cats then just as we do now. You get my point, though. People in the past weren't that different from us.

So... writing engaging and compelling characters living during World War II is no different from writing engaging and compelling characters who live now, or in 1981, 1802, 1577, or 1112... Just write people. Research what their world was like... what societal rules governed their behavior, what their daily lives were like, what their love lives were like, what they did for fun, who and what captivated their interest, what they wore and how they styled their hair, what they liked to eat and drink, what social occasions looked like... and then remember that just as we push against the boundaries of our own world now, so did people in every point in history. If you asked someone to describe the fashion of the 2020s, they would describe specific clothing styles, but that doesn't mean people aren't wearing other things, too. If you asked someone to describe the popular music or dances of today, they'd name specific music styles, artists, or dance styles, but that doesn't mean everyone listens to that style of music, those artists, or dances in that style. There are always people on the fringe, always people doing other things. So just keep that in mind.

Happy researching and writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[bellaleighwrites]

I always knew the day would come. From the moment the girls' powers started to appear, I knew that the day would come when one or both of my parents would come looking for them. And so, I wasn't exactly surprised to see my mother standing on my doorstep.

"Can I come in?"

"If I say no, will you leave?"

"Come on, Carley. Don't be that way." It wasn't actually an answer, but it was the only answer I was going to get, and I knew it.

I opened the door the rest of the way. "Fine. You can come in for ten minutes. But, if you upset my girls, I won't be responsible for what happens." It was the only warning I was going to give her. Let her take it how she wanted.

Not surprisingly, she immediately assumed I meant Madison. Of course she did. Maddie was the one who had to be registered as a deadly weapon. "We both know that your daughter can't hurt me." And, she was right in that sense. Her own powers made her immune to Maddie's. It was probably why she had come alone. My father had no such immunity.

I didn't answer. There wasn't really anything I could say. I wasn't about to tell her that Maddie wasn't who I was warning her about. If she behaved herself, she'd never know just what Morgan was capable of. And if she didn't, well... Like I had said, I wouldn't be responsible.

A door slammed closed upstairs and footsteps could be heard on the stairs. A few seconds later, Maddie appeared in the doorway. "What's going on?"

My mother turned to look at her. "Oh! Which one are you? Come give your grandmother a hug."

Maddie snorted and rolled her eyes. "I would give my grandmother a hug if she was here. But, I don't see her." She sounded like a typical snarky teenager. But, as she said it, she walked around the room to stand near the front door. Positioned herself so that in order for my mother to look at her, she had to turn her back on the door to the hall. I knew it for what it was. She was making it so that my mother wouldn't see Morgan if she came in.

"Why, of course I mean me, my dear! I'm your maternal grandmother. Don't I get a hug?"

Maddie snorted. "You aren't my grandmother. Just because you gave birth to my mother, that doesn't make you anything to me. Where were you for the past thirteen years? You didn't want my mom because she was different from you. And you didn't want me until you found out that I'm like you. Well, you're wrong. I'm not like you. I am nothing like you."

"Your mother ran away from home. We didn't even know about you until you showed up on the registry. It's not my fault that I haven't been around until now."

"Oh? Yes, my mom ran away from home. But, whose fault is that, Patricia? Whose fault is it that she would rather live on the street than live with you?"

"I don't know what kind of lies she's been filling your head with. But, I loved her. And I took care of her."

Maddie snorted again. "She's not the one who told me what living with you was like."

My mother just stared back and forth between us, obviously confused. I didn't blame her. After all, who else could have told her what my childhood and adolescence had been like? Who else, indeed.

The room was definitely getting warmer. How my mother didn't notice, I couldn't guess. Maybe she was just distracted with trying to engage my daughter into some semblance of a civil conversation. I glanced at the thermostat. I wasn't exactly surprised to see that the temperature had gone up five degrees since Maddie had walked into the room.

"Tamp it down, Maddie." I wasn't talking about the fire simmering beneath the surface. We both knew it.

A moment later I felt a gentle probe inside my head. A very familiar feeling probe. Morgan. I dropped the outer shield around my mind. And then, a few seconds later, there was another probe. This one at my inner shields. The wall I had put up to protect Morgan.

"Are you sure, baby girl?" I couldn't project my thoughts, obviously. But, I didn't need to be able to with Morgan. I could call her to dinner with my mind when she was next door, as long as she was listening for me. The only response was another probe at that shield.

I dropped the shield. And all Hell broke loose. Though, it took several minutes for my mother to realize just what had been unleashed.

Morgan walked into the room. "Hello, Grandmother. I am so pleased to finally meet you."

The temperature in the room dropped as Maddie's rage burned out. Eased, as it always was, by her sister's presence. Morgan always gave back exactly what you gave out. And since Maddie had never given her anything but love and acceptance, that was what she got in return.

My mother was about to find out what happened to people who couldn't say the same. "Well, I am glad to know that at least one of my granddaughters has manners." And then she froze, a look of sheer terror on her face.

Terror that soon mixed with pain as Morgan poured all of my trauma into her head. Every bit of emotional and mental abuse I had suffered at my parents' hands was pumped into my mother's brain by a thirteen-year-old avenging angel.

I had never been on the receiving end of Morgan's wrath. But, Maddie had been. On accident. When their powers first manifested, and Morgan started picking up my nightmares, she accidentally sent them to Maddie. That was the downside to twins. Maddie couldn't shield against her, even if she knew how. Their psychic link had formed in the womb and there was no severing it.

And so I knew just what it was that my mother was experiencing. I knew that she was living through the entire eighteen years I lived with her. All at once. From my perspective. She wasn't an outsider, looking in. She was feeling everything as if it was happening to her.

I watched impassively as my mother tried to keep from screaming. Until eventually, I felt Morgan leave my head and I put my shields back up.

"Get out." Morgan's voice was cold. "And Patricia? If you tell anybody about what I did, I will show them just what it was that you saw. I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is for child abuse. But, even if the law can't touch you, there is still the court of public opinion. I wonder what the people will think about a so-called super hero who went home every night and tortured her own daughter for the crime of being normal?"

My mother whimpered, but she left. And I knew she would not be back. Morgan had scared her away for good.

As soon as the front door closed, both of my girls ran to me. I wrapped my arms around them and kissed the tops of their heads. "Your father will be home soon. Go get cleaned up for dinner." I smiled at them as they ran off.

It was ironic, really. As a firestarter, Maddie was registered as a deadly weapon. But not Morgan. Nobody considered an Empath to be dangerous. Then again, the only ones who knew differently could never say anything. Because nobody who had ever been on the receiving end of her wrath could ever let anybody know just what it was that she showed them.

You get what you give.

Your bloodline is known for carrying superpowers, but you didn’t inherit them. And so your family cut ties with you. But after having children who did inherit those powers, your family tries to reinsert themselves into your life.

[bellaleighwrites]

Guide To Writing Historical Fiction

PLEASE REBLOG | Tumblr suppresses posts with links :/

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

–

Finding Credible Sources

This can be a major struggle, especially for those who don’t possess a lot of skill in writing research papers or writing informative works. I could write an entire article on this subject alone, but instead I’ve decided to link a few helpful articles that can help you identify credible sources. A good rule of thumb is to pay attention to how recent the information is, who wrote it (what are their credentials), and who/which organization published the information. If you’re unsure of whether one or all of these things indicates a lack of credibility, cross-reference against other material, and always keep the list of sources you’ve used handy for future reference.

Familiarity vs. Accuracy

The ultimate goal of writing historical fiction is creating an immersive experience for the reader, which takes place during a period in time they didn’t live through, or in a location they didn’t experience during that time. It’s about immersion, and it’s important that you don’t sacrifice that experience in an effort to make the material as factual as possible. You are an artist, and you have the room to pick and choose where accuracy is necessary, and where familiarity can supplement it.

Keep reading

[bellaleighwrites]

Okay y'all, I'm ashamed to admit this and this is very difficult for me but since I want to try to get back into it:

If you are a writeblr and I can tag you for games, please— for the love of whatever you believe in— interact with this post

Reblog? Like? Comment? You're getting tagged by me in future games

[bellaleighwrites]

Hi I'm thinking about writing a romance novel that took place between the 1950s and 60s. The setting is in Kenya, Africa from the Mau Mau uprising against Britain until indepence. Could you kindly suggest how I can put that into words Thank you

Yeah dude, you know we can’t do your research for you,right? You know you’re going to have to spend many, many hours doing thatresearch, right? So, how do you get started? And I hope I can assume this is a topic about which you are passionate because, done right, a project like this will by necessity consume you. 

Everything you need to know about what you need to know canbe found in this Goodreads summary about one of the best-selling historicalnovels ever, Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth. It’s set in 12thcentury England and the overarching story is about the construction of thefinest cathedral ever. 

Sounds fascinating, yeah? No. Not to most people, at leastnot that they think. It’s the detail and research and craftsmanship – and oddly, the relatability – that’s madeit a bestseller for longer than most of you reading this have been alive. 

Follett, btw,began his writing career as a journalist; he got bored, went into publishingand began writing his own stuff on nights and weekends. The result: He’s soldmore than 150 MILLION MOTHERFUCKING BOOKS in not quite 40 years. 

But let’s break down the book summary into what you’ll needto know to write: 

1. It’s incredibly detailed, in both natural and humanscenery

2. It incorporates the Big Historic Events and People of thetime period

3. It incorporates the small, personal events of thecharacters – things that might be unique to the time and culture and yet areuniversal to the human experience

4. There are many intriguing characters. We get to knowtheir dreams, their labors and their loves.

5. Characters are shaped by details about their place insociety.

6. There’s a damn good plot – betrayal, revenge and love –which is probably why the dude’s sold 150 million motherfucking books; this onealone has sold more than 18 million.

You need to be organized. This post here has good ideas and a list for getting started. Everyone’s method is going to be different, but if you need a place to start setting up your system, you could do much worse. 

If you aren’t already, you need to familiarize yourself with the primary, secondary and tertiary sources for the information you need. Once you dive down this rabbit hole, you’ll be well along the way to being able to find what you need to fill out your descriptions and your characters. Take notes. Keep track of your research and your sources. 

Never, ever forget that you aren’t writing a textbook. Historical fiction author Lindsey Davis has this advice and it cannot be stressed enough:

“You are not writing history. You are writing a novel. This requires you to master plot, characterisation, dialogue, narrative tone and description. Note that nowhere in my list do the words ‘research’ or ‘history’ appear.” 

(quote found in this book, which you might also find helpful.)

This is discussed elsewhere at length, and this blog can help more than we can, but please for the love of the stars do not whitewash or appropriate the culture of your setting. Don’t get caught up in white savior nonsense, a particular pitfall about stories set in Colonial and soon-to-be-post Colonial Africa.  

As we’ve mentioned many times before, the best way to write a good story that doesn’t fall into these traps is to write fully realized, well-rounded characters in a setting for which you’ve given your blood, sweat and tears to research. 

Our tags can help you with the other nuts and bolts of writing mentioned above. Writing tools might help with planning ideas, too. 

Good luck! 

– mod Aliya

[bellaleighwrites]

hello hello! i'm looking for writeblrs to follow, do you have any recommendations?

Hi! :D Here's a few of my followers and mutuals:

@akindofmagictoo @zmwrites @mel-writes-with-her-dragons @oh-no-another-idea @forthesanityofstorytellers

@tabswrites @writegriffinsect @sleepyowlwrites @lychhiker-writes @writernopal

@the-golden-comet @diabolical-blue @mrbexwrites @radiowrites @enchanted-lightning-aes

@ashen-crest @avrablake @winterandwords @sarandipitywrites @sarahlizziewrites

@cljordan-imperium @kaylinalexanderbooks @kittensartswriting @ahordeofwasps @autumnalwalker

@eccaiia @rhikasa

Aaaaand lots of others I'm forgetting 😅

[bellaleighwrites]

British Titles

I usually don't share posts of this type, but I've taken the liberty of doing so because I've read several fanfics and seen too many posts both here and on TikTok, in which it's more than evident that many people don't know how British noble titles worked in the 18th and 19th century. This is something I've seen more in the Bridgerton fandom, but many content creators or writers from other fandoms have made the same mistakes when interpreting noble titles.

First of all, I would like to clarify something. English and British noble titles are not exactly the same, although they are related. The following explains the difference and the historical context:

Historical Context.

England:

Before the formation of the United Kingdom, England had its own system of noble titles.

Titles such as duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron were common.

2. Great Britain:

In 1707, with the Act of Union, England and Scotland united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

After this union, noble titles became titles of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

3. United Kingdom:

In 1801, with the incorporation of Ireland through the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

This further expanded the scope of noble titles.

Noble Titles.

Despite these political changes, the titles themselves (duke, marquess, earl, viscount, baron) remained consistent in terms of hierarchy and honor. The main difference was the realm and origin of the title:

English Titles:

Referred specifically to those created in the Kingdom of England before 1707.

Examples: Duke of Norfolk, Marquess of Winchester, Earl of Derby.

2. British Titles:

Refers to those created after 1707 in the Kingdom of Great Britain and later in the United Kingdom.

Examples: Duke of Marlborough, Marquess of Rockingham, Earl of Chatham.

Differences and Similarities.

Similarities:

The hierarchy and responsibilities of the titles remained the same, regardless of the change in the kingdom's designation.

Titles granted by the British crown maintained the same forms of address and privileges.

2. Differences:

British titles cover a broader scope, including Scotland and Ireland (later Northern Ireland).

English titles were specific to the Kingdom of England before the formation of Great Britain.

In short, while English and British noble titles are part of the same hierarchy and nobility system, the main distinction lies in the political and historical context in which they were created. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this difference was based on whether the titles originated before or after the unions that first formed Great Britain and later the United Kingdom.

Now then, with that said, I want to mention that my main reference for this is the article 'ENGLISH TITLES IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES' by Jo Beverley, who is a Member of the RWA Hall of Fame for Regency Romance. Here is the link if you want to read the original article: On Titles (jobev.com)

It is also important to mention that, as Jo Beverley said, this brief run-down of English titles is for use by fiction writers. It is by no means comprehensive, but covers the more common situations arising in novels set in the above periods.

Now, the peerage basically runs according to primogeniture, ie the eldest son gets nearly everything. If a peer has no eldest son, the title and possessions that belong to it go to the next male heir, probably a brother or nephew.

There are a very few titles that can pass to a female if there is no direct heir, but they will revert to the male line when the lady bears a son. (Such as the monarchy.) Some titles can automatically pass through a female heir (when there is no male heir) and most can be revived by subsequent generations by petitioning to the Crown. But that's getting into more complicated areas. If your plot depends on something unusual, please do research it thoroughly before going ahead.

As Beverley said, this is a bit more complicated and requires further research if it's something you wish to incorporate into your work, especially if it's set in the 18th or 19th centuries. In the 20th century, this was more common. A clear example would be Lord Mountbatten (1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma), who had no sons, only two daughters. Therefore, he passed his title to his firstborn, Patricia Knatchbull (née Mountbatten). Thanks to this title, the Countess was entitled to a seat in the House of Lords, where she remained until 1999, when a House of Lords Act removed most hereditary peers from the chamber.

But returning to the main topic, the eldest son is called the heir apparent, as he is undoubtedly the heir. If there is no such son, the next in line is called the heir presumptive because, however improbable (such as the duke being on his deathbed), there remains a possibility of a closer heir being born. Therefore, an heir presumptive does not hold the title of heir, if there is one. (See below about heir's titles.)

If a peer dies leaving a wife but no son, the heir inherits unless the widow says she might be with child. It is for her to do that. If she stays silent, it is assumed that she is not. If she's pregnant, everything waits until the child is born.

These last two paragraphs can be perfectly illustrated by an example that many know. In 'When he was wicked', after the death of John Sterling, Earl of Kilmartin, Michael Sterling is not immediately named as the new Earl upon his cousin's death, as Francesca announces her pregnancy. But since she had a miscarriage, there was no longer a possible heir to the late Earl of Kilmartin, and therefore, the title is immediately inherited by Michael.

Continuing with the main topic, an heir must be legitimate at birth to inherit a title, though that could mean a marriage ceremony performed while the mother is in labor. A peer may raise bastards with devotion and/or marry the mother later, but a bastard child can never be his legal heir.

It's also crucial to mention that peers automatically had seats in the House of Lords. Note, however, that courtesy titles (those held by heirs) do not give seats, or any of the other privileges of the peerage.

Something else that is highly important to clarify, as confusion is quite common, is that most peers do not use their surnames as their title. Thus, the usual pattern would be something like Sebastian Burgoyne, Earl of Malzard. He is Lord Malzard NEVER Lord Burgoyne. (Or, for that matter, Lord Sebastian.) As an author, you might like variety, but take as a general rule is that no one ever had two forms of address.

THE RANKS OF THE PEERAGE

Duke.

Leaving aside royalty, this is the highest rank. His wife is the Duchess. They will be duke and duchess of something.

If we use the famous main couple from Bridgerton Season 1, the example would be: Duke and Duchess of Hastings. Address is "your grace", though familiars may address them just as Duke and Duchess. Like, "Fine weather for shooting, eh, Duke?" or may address the duke by title. "Care for more port, Hastings?"

The duke will also have a family name, that is, a surname, but he will not use it in the normal course of events. And something crucial that is also commonly confused, the duchess does not use the surname at all. Continuing with the same example, if Daphne Bridgerton marries the Duke of Hastings (whose surname is Basset), she will be the Duchess of Hastings and will informally sign as Daphne Hastings, NOT Daphne Basset.

The duke's eldest son is his heir and will have his father's second-best title as his courtesy title. Nearly all peers have a number of titles marking their climb up the ranks. The heir to a duke is often the next lowest ranking peer, a marquess, but the title could, however, be an earldom, or even a viscountcy. For example, the eldest son of Daphne and Simon, the Duke and Duchess of Hastings, holds the courtesy title that his father had when the Late Duke of Hastings was still alive: Earl of Clyvedon.

Important note, a courtesy title does not give the holder a seat in the House of Lords or other privileges of the peerage.

If the heir has a son before the heir becomes duke, that son will take the next lowest title as a courtesy title. If the heir dies before his father, his eldest son becomes the heir apparent and takes his father's title.

Apart from the heir, a duke's sons are given the courtesy title Lord with their Christian name. (Lord + firstname + surname). Continuing with the example of the Duke and Duchess of Hastings, assuming that like in the book, they also have David and Edward in the series, their courtesy titles would be: Lord David Basset and Lord Edward Basset. They are NEVER Lord Basset.

All duke's daughters are given the courtesy title (Lady + firstname + surname). And continuing with the same example, the daughters of the Duke and Duchess of Hastings, Belinda and Caroline, would be: Lady Belinda Basset and Lady Caroline Basset.

And also, if they marry a commoner, they retain the title. Let's say Lady Belinda marries Mr. Sticklethwait, she becomes Lady Belinda Sticklethwait. But if she marries a peer, she adopts his title. If Lady Belinda marries the Earl of Herrick, she becomes Countess of Herrick, Lady Herrick. And if she marries the holder of a courtesy title, then she may use his title or her birth title as she wishes.

I make this clarification because it's the most common mistake in these types of novels. Note that in all cases, titles like Lord or Lady with both first and surname (eg. Lady Anne Middleton) and Lord or Lady "last name" or "title" (Lady Middleton) are exclusive. No one can be both at the same time. Moreover, Lord or Lady "firstname" is a title conferred at birth. It cannot be gained later in life except when the father accedes to a title and thus raises his family.

So, Lady Mary Smith is not Lady Smith and vice versa. Lord John Brown in not Lord Brown and vice versa. If Mary Smith marries Lord Brown she becomes Lady Brown, NOT Lady Mary. (If she marries Lord John Brown, she becomes Lady John Brown. Yes, it may sound odd to modern ears, but the past is, as they say, a different country. That's the charm of historical fiction.)

Marquess.

This is the next rank. (As above, it can be spelled marquis or marquess, but in either case is pronounced markwess.)

Similar to the duke, he will be the Marquess of something, for example: He is Richard Byron, the Marquess of Salisbury, or Lord Salisbury, or simply Salisbury to his family. His wife is the Marchioness of Salisbury or Lady Salisbury. She would sign with her firstname and title, for example: Diana Salisbury, never Diana Byron.

His heir apparent takes his next highest title as a courtesy title (eg. Earl of Cranborne). All other sons have the title of Lord with their first and surname (eg. Lord Arthur Byron and Lord Albert Byron). All daughters have the title of Lady with their first and surname (eg. Lady Alexandra Byron and Lady Amelia Byron).

Earl.

He will nearly always be earl of something. His wife is the Countess. If we take another famous couple from Bridgerton, they would refer to him as "the Earl of Kilmartin" or "Lord Kilmartin," or simply "Kilmartin" among family. His wife will be the Countess of Kilmartin or Lady Kilmartin, and she will sign as Francesca Kilmartin. In the same way as with the wife of a duke or marquess, considering that the Earl of Kilmartin is named John Stirling, Francesca will NEVER be called Francesca Stirling. That's why in the series, when she introduces herself to Michaela, she says that her name is now Kilmartin and not Stirling.

It's important to mention that some Earls do not use 'of' like Earl Spencer, and in that case, the family surname is the same as the title (following the previous example, the surname would be Spencer), but this is quite unusual and I think it should be avoided in fiction unless it's a crucial plot point.

As with a duke, the earl's heir will take the next lowest title as a courtesy title, and the heir's son, the next again. Continuing with the example of the Kilmartins, it's not very clear what the courtesy title for John Sterling II (son of Francesca and Michael in the books) is, but if Michael Sterling is the Earl of Kilmartin and has a subsidiary title of Viscount, then their eldest son, John Sterling II, would use the courtesy title of Viscount Glenmore or Lord Glenmore. If there is no specific subsidiary title, then the eldest son would simply be known as Lord John Stirling.

All the daughters of an earl are given the courtesy title: Lady + their first name. Again, using the Kilmartins as an example: Lady Janet Stirling. Younger sons of an earl, however, are merely "the honorable" which is not used in casual speech. So, assuming in the books Michael and Francesca had another son, for example, Michael Stirling II, he would simply be The Honorable Michael Stirling, but in casual speech, he would simply be referred to as Mr. Michael Stirling or just Mr. Stirling.

Viscount.

His wife is a Viscountess. He will not use 'of'. He will be, for example, Viscount Bridgerton, usually known as Lord Bridgerton, or just Bridgerton. His wife will be known as Lady Bridgerton and will sign herself Kathani Bridgerton.

His heir has no special title. All children are known as "the honorable". Continuing with the example of the Viscount and Viscountess Bridgerton, their children would be called:

*The Honorable Edmund Bridgerton, and simply be referred to as Mr. Edmund Bridgerton.

*The Honorable Miles Bridgerton, and simply be referred to as Mr. Miles Bridgerton.

*The Honorable Charlotte Bridgerton, and simply be referred to as Miss Charlotte Bridgerton.

*The Honorable Mary Bridgerton, and simply be referred to as Miss Mary Bridgerton.

Baron.

This is the lowest rank in the peerage. His wife is a Baroness. NOTE that the terms baron and baroness are only used in the most formal documents, or when the distinction has to be made elsewhere. General usage is simply to call them Lord and Lady.

She will sign with her name and title. The children are known as "the honorable".

Using another character from Bridgerton, if we assume that Colin and Penelope Bridgerton's son is named Elliot, then Elliot Bridgerton, the new Lord Featherington, would sign as Lord Featherington and NEVER as Lord Bridgerton. Therefore, his wife would also sign with his title, that is, Featherington. For example, if the wife's name is Elizabeth, then she would be Lady Featherington and would sign as Elizabeth Featherington, and NEVER as Elizabeth Bridgerton or Lady Bridgerton.

Baronet.

The next in the ranking—and not of the nobility—is Baronet. A baronet is addressed as Sir + first name + surname. For example, using another couple from the Bridgerton universe, Sir Phillip Crane. His wife would be called Lady + surname. For example, Lady Crane and not Lady Eloise Crane unless she is the daughter of a duke, marquess, or earl (which is not the case). She would sign with her full name, as Eloise Crane.

His children have no special distinction. However, the title is inheritable. So, continuing to use Sir Phillip as a reference, when he dies, his baronetcy will pass to his eldest son Oliver, who will then be called Sir Oliver.

It's worth mention that although in the series Oliver is NOT Sir Phillip's biological son, he still married Marina before the birth of the twins and acknowledged them both as his own, so the baronetcy title will pass without any issue to Oliver. In the event that he did not acknowledge them as his children or that Sir Phillip and Marina married after the birth of the twins, then the title of Sir Phillip would pass to his next legitimate son, Frederick (son of Sir Phillip and Eloise in the books).

Knight.

A knight is essentially treated the same as a baronet, but with the difference that it is a lifetime title only. His wife will be Lady + surname.

OTHER MATTERS

Dowagers

When a titled lady is widowed she becomes a dowager, but the practice has generally been not to use that title until the heir takes a wife, since there can be confusion about who the true Lady Bridgerton is, for example.

And even if she has a daughter-in-law, in general usage she would still be referred to by the simple title unless there was likely to be confusion. So, if the Dowager Viscountess Bridgerton was at a house party while her daughter-in-law was in London, people would not be constantly referring to her as the Dowager Viscountess.

Female titles in their own right

There are a few, very few, titles that can pass to a daughter if there is no son, as in the Royal Family, for example. In this case, the usage is the same as if they were the wife of a peer of that rank, but their husband gains NO title from the marriage, just as the Duke of Edinburgh was not king.

A Peeress in her Own Right retains her title after marriage, and if her husband's rank is the superior one, she is designated by the two titles jointly, the inferior one last. Or she can say what form she wants to use. (eg The Marchioness of Rothgar is also the Countess of Arradale by right. She chooses to be Lady Rothgar and Arradale in the most formal situations, Lady Rothgar in general, but Lady Arradale in private, especially when attending to her duties as Countess of Arradale. Unusual situations do tend to get complicated.) Her hereditary claim to her title holds good in spite of any marriage, and will be passed on.

Since the husband gains no title from such a marriage, it's possible to have the Countess of Arbuthnot married to Mr. Smith.

Her eldest son will be her heir and take her next lowest title. If she has no son, her eldest daughter will be her heir, but until she becomes the peer she will hold only the title that comes from her birth — eg. Lady Anne — if any, because an eldest daughter is always an heir presumptive. There might still be a boy.

The most common errors observed in novels:

Interchanging courtesy titles like Lady Mary Smith and Lady Smith.

Interchanging peerage titles, as when Michael Downs, Earl of Rosebury is variously known as Lord Rosebury, Lord Downs, and Lord Michael Downs.

Applying titles that don't belong, as when Jane Potts marries Viscount Twistleton and erroneously becomes Lady Jane, a title form that can only come by birth.

Having the widow of just about anyone, but especially a peer, remarry before time has elapsed to be sure she is not bearing a child. Or rather, whose child it is that she bears!

Having the heir presumptive assume the title and powers before the widow has made it clear that she's not going to produce an heir.

Having an adopted son inherit a title. Legal adoption was not possible in England until the twentieth century, and even now an adopted son cannot inherit a title. Even if the son is clearly the father's offspring, if he wasn't born after a legal marriage, he cannot inherit the father's title. However, since they didn't have DNA testing, a child was assumed to be legitimate unless the father denied it from the first. Even if the son turns out to look suspiciously like the vicar, the father cannot deny him later. This, I assume was to avoid the chaos of peers coming up with all sorts of excuses to switch heirs on a whim.

Having a title left in a will, which follows from the above. A title cannot be willed to whomever the peer in question chooses. It goes according to the original letters patent, which almost always say that it will go to the oldest legitimate male in direct descent. The property can be left elsewhere, unless it is entailed, but the title goes by legitimate blood.

Having an heiress (ie a daughter without brothers) inherit a title and convey it to her husband. It could be done — anything could — by special decree of the Crown, but it was not at all normal.

Now, when you've arrived at the title you want to give your character, perform an internet search to see if it exists. You can also check The Peerage or do an advanced search on Google Books. You wouldn't want to give your fictional character a title that was already in use at that time. Additionally, some readers will be knowledgeable about the real nobility and it could disrupt the fictional reality you're trying to create.

If you really like the title but it already exists or existed, you can modify it while still retaining its appeal. For example, if Lord Amesbury exists, you could create Lord Aymesbury or Lord Embury. If your character's family has been in Suffolk for generations, names of places in Suffolk can provide ideas for names.

I hope this helps, although I'm sure it can be subject to debate and improvement.

[bellaleighwrites]

A selection of strange and cryptic personal ads from The New York Herald, 1860s to 1890s. 16/?

[bellaleighwrites]

I feel like I struggle with describing scenes and doing imagery. I try and do "show don't tell," but that doesn't help much, especially when it comes to characters emotions. How to I write better descriptions of scenes, places, and/or characters, or at least get better at "show don't tell?"

This is a common struggle, so I do have a #writing descriptions tag for any advice or examples you need. However, I don't think I've ever stressed enough how much being observant in everyday life helps in writing descriptions. If you know you're having trouble "showing," maybe it's because you first have a problem seeing what is being shown to you.

Stop and notice,

how things are made and why: why did they add this feature? why did they choose this material? why that style or color? who was this meant to appeal to? who does this help, and who does it not?

how things deteriorate and why: why has the color faded from this one spot? why is this side dirty, but not the other? how did this level of damage occur? why might it make that sound?

personal habits of yourself and others: unique movements, daily rituals, peculiar tastes, catchphrases, etc.

personal details about the looks, wardrobe, and possessions of others: stickers on a laptop, repairs in a garment, placement of facial wrinkles, immaculate makeup, etc.

analyze the behavior and body language of yourself and others: a crooked smile, an awkward shrug, a changing of subject, a private grimace, a sudden mood swing, etc.

analyze the cause and effect of different emotions in yourself and others: a bad experience in the morning makes someone act out in the evening, a series of little discomforts leave someone feeling anxious without knowing why, an upbeat song putting someone in a great mood and making them kinder, etc.

Using examples from real life can give a story important doses of authenticity. Readers will feel like the story is relatable to their real life experiences if they can identify real life through your descriptions. Even if you're writing spec fic like fantasy or sci-fi, knowing how to describe the world around you will help you describe the world in your head.

Additional advice, if you're writing about the past, a real place you've never been, or even about where you live now, the internet has tons of resources about things you may think are obscure and unknowable. What was the weather like in London in 1912? Where do residents do their shopping in Las Vegas? What types of trees and plants were once native to your area? A small amount of research can produce realistic details to help you "show" something you may never have seen or noticed before.

Be careful not to get too hung up on "show, don't tell." Some descriptions require a straightforward telling, not an abstract or flowery show. But when the writing sounds dry and lifeless, start taking details from real life.

---

+ Please review my pinned Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you.

+ If you benefit from my updates and replies, please consider sending a little thank you and Buy Me A Coffee!

[bellaleighwrites]

So, You Want to Write Original Fiction and Post It Online? Here's What to Expect.

I finally saw a post that pushed me over the edge of talking about this subject, because a lot of people go into posting their original fiction online and they end up extremely burned out and disappointed because their ambitions did not line up with reality.

To be clear, posting original fiction can be one of the most fulfilling experiences that you can have as an internet denizen (it certainly has been for me!) and I absolutely encourage everyone who wants to to try it, but like, at the same time I think everyone should know what they are getting into. I’d like to cover here what your goals might be for getting into web serial writing, and what a realistic level to set those goals at is, as well as some tips on how to meet them. This isn’t so much as a how-to or concrete advice, it’s more like “lessons I’ve learned (or seen other people learn) the hard way but that I rarely see talked about frankly.”

Before we begin, just so you know where I’m coming from (and so you can decide if I’m worth listening to) here are my bona fides

I have been posting fiction online since 2018, nearly 2 million words total. It can be read on ao3/royalroad

About half of what i’ve written is original fiction and half is fanfic

I write things that you might generously call “extremely niche”

My total audience (which i’m broadly defining as “people who have read a significant part of either of my major series”) is probably on the order of 500 people. this is a difficult/impossible metric to really track, but you can make fairly accurate guesses from view counts

I am friends with some moderately successful web serial writers (moderately successful here defined as “makes enough money via patreon that it affects their taxes, but is not enough to live on”)

I have never attempted to traditionally or self publish my work, or monetize it in any way

I try to keep up with the broader web fiction zeitgeist

All that is to say, I have been there in the webfiction trenches.

Through this guide, I will be using numbers pulled from the statistics pages of my own stories (and those of friends) to back up some of the conclusions that I’m drawing. I do believe the statements i make are illustrative of broad trends, but do keep in mind that I am one person with one experience, and everyone’s experience will differ.

With that out of the way, I think the most important thing before you post your writing online is to understand what you’re trying to achieve. If you understand that, you can manage what you’re actually expecting much more closely. Here are some super common goals/desires that people posting web fiction can have.

I want to have as many people as possible just read my work (but I do not care about engagement or monetary gain)

I want to have an audience that I can talk to and who talks to me; writing is about sharing a part of myself and I would like to be friends with my audience/connect with them.

I want to improve my writing with reader feedback.

I want to improve my writing by figuring out what readers like and tailoring my writing to them.

I want to make money off of my writing via patreon.

I want to test the waters before I self-publish my book, and maybe gain an audience who will purchase my books.

I want to test to see if my writing is “publication worthy” by posting it online and seeing how it does.

I want to test myself and my ability to complete a long form story/project; having an audience will be motivation to keep at it.

I’m not doing anything else with this piece of writing that I have, so I might as well post it and see if people like it.

If any of this sounds like you, read on! I'm putting the rest of this below a cut b/c it's disgustingly long.

I will be brutally honest here: some of these goals and desires are much easier to achieve than others. I’m going to break these motivations down into a couple broader categories: popularity, reader engagement, publishing, financial, and intrinsic.

Popularity

On some levels, this is the simplest metric. It’s pretty easy to count things— views, followers, comments, reviews, etc— and all of this is so good for the “number goes up” reward button in our monkey-brains.

If you do not care about engagement, and only care about view counts, it’s actually pretty easy to rack up views. But that is only the case if you really, honestly, truly do not care about comments. Here are some statistics from my own work

On royalroad, my story ItSoH has ~160,000 pageviews and 711 comments (a 225:1 hit:comment ratio). Keep in mind that many of those comments are also my own replies or copy/paste “thanks for the chapter” messages— I reply to every substantive comment)

On scribblehub, the same story has ~10,000 pageviews and 6 comments (a 1666:1 hit:comment ratio!). Granted, i’ve never been truly active on SH and only crosspost there for kicks, but still!

Views are very very cheap as a metric, and it can feel really dispiriting to have a big viewcount and a much smaller amount of audience engagement.

The things to understand if you are writing to be popular

You need to know what metrics mean (how they are tracked by the website you’re posting on, how they are used by your audience, how much they actually tell you) and how they relate to each other (what are the typical ratios between hits/comments/follows/likes/financial support)

If you are hooked on watching the numbers go up, there is not going to be a time when you feel satiated by the metrics. It’s always going to be a jolt of good feeling when they go up, and when they stagnate it feels bad. This is unavoidable and just how brains work.

If popularity is your only goal, you can tailor your work specifically to gain an audience

Luck has a lot to do with it, unfortunately.

Here are some tips about popularity.

Location, location, location. If you are posting on the wrong website, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

Every website has a niche, but not every niche has a website. If you want to write BL, you need to be somewhere like Tapas. If you want to write progression fantasy: royalroad. Fantasy erotica for men: literotica. TeenLit: probably wattpad. Hard sf: spacebattles or sufficientvelocity. Asian light novel inspired stuff: webnovel. Etc etc etc. there are many many many websites, and each of them has managed to snag a different audience who go there looking for the type of content on that website.

You should be reading the content that you want to write, and you should be posting in the place where you are reading.

Not All Websites Are Created Equal, and there may be reasons to choose one over another, or to crosspost in only a few places. i will ditch a website if their UI/UX frustrates me (and many of them do). The statistics and metrics that different websites offer vary greatly, as do the ways in which site users interact with your content. Some websites will have active author communities, others won’t. The ways readers discover your content can vary greatly between platforms as well. Some websites have built in monetization systems that affect the way stories are read (thinking of webnovel and tapas specifically here). It’s all over the place. Once you find a home, you can dig deep into what works there.

A note on hosting your own website: you make the major tradeoff of control to discoverability. (+ you have to put time and effort into creating and maintaining a website.) if you are willing to make that tradeoff, godspeed, but it is not going to do anything for increasing your readership, especially at the beginning before word of mouth can carry you

You should be reading the popular stories on the website that you are posting on, and figuring out what the common denominator is that makes them popular (usually this will be pretty easy to figure out)

Some readers will go to a story that is just parroting out the same thing as everyone else, but it can really help to have some sort of unique twist

Tailor your writing to match site expectations. If the average chapter length of popular novels is 1.5k words, do not post 10k word chapters.

Consistent uploads are great; rapid uploads are better (usually). If you can post three times a week, you will have a /massive/ edge over someone who posts once a month

Every website will have its own scheme for ranking stories: figure out what it is and what the best way is to game it.

Some websites have too many authors and not enough readers, and/or no easy way for readers to find your work. Wattpad is especially heinous in terms of discoverability. Avoid these places, or at least don’t make them your primary platform.

Being affable and friendly and participating in a community can help you get your foot in the door, but it probably will not be the thing that skyrockets you to fame. But it’s also just good to be part of a community so i do recommend doing this anyway.

Explicit self promotion almost never gets you anywhere. Paying for in-house advertisements, if you’re willing to pay for it, might.

An audience for something else (social media following, writing fanfiction, etc) WILL NOT translate into an audience for your writing. Maybe 1-2% of your social media or other thing followers will click on your writing, though it doesn’t hurt to post the link to it.

This should go without saying, but having a well written summary, a nice cover image, and an interesting title are like. Crucial. These are the only things that a prospective reader will see, so you need to use them to their full ability.

Reader Engagement

Ok. Here’s the tough pill to swallow: reader engagement, be it in the form of comments or reviews, for original web fiction is difficult to get. It’s also, unfortunately, probably the most satisfying thing to have. You will likely have to have a couple hundred clicks for every one comment you get. See the popularity section for some tips on how to get those clicks in the first place.

Some websites are better at being a comment environment than others— an especially noticeable difference is in sites where anonymous commenting is allowed vs needing an account to post— but it also depends heavily on the community culture, which is something that you will just have to feel out.

As always, I suggest being an active reader on the site where you are an active poster, and checking out the ratio on stories you read between hit counts (this info is often public) and comments on new chapters. You may be surprised at what you find.

You can improve reader interaction somewhat— be chatty in your author’s notes, always reply to comments to foster discussion, ask question prompts for readers to answer, solicit suggestions for upcoming plot points, etc. None of these are guarantees, but they are things that you can do that encourage people to talk to you.

I will also be completely honest here: it is way, way, way easier to get reader engagement if you are writing fanfiction (especially on AO3). For one thing, the community culture is vastly different, and the way that readers find your work lends itself to being more active commenting. This is not to dissuade anyone from writing original fiction, but it is a fact of life that I would be remiss if I didn’t mention.

If you are looking for constructive reader feedback (along the lines of actual “here’s how to improve your story” and not “here’s the typos I found in this chapter”), stop, do not pass go, do not collect $200. You are never going to get what you want out of it. If you are looking for constructive criticism, the best thing that you can do is find a trusted friend to beta read for you— ideally someone who you exchange works with. Reader criticism, when you get it, is often not given with your best interests at heart, and a fellow writer will usually understand/express what is working and not working in your story in ways that you can interpret and put into action better than a reader can.

Community and friendships =/= reader engagement, but they are good to have. I have writer friends from my time on royalroad who do not read my work, and whose work I do not read, but are nevertheless very good friends of mine, who have helped me improve as a writer, and have also been invaluable at helping me navigate the web fiction community space. Making connections with other people in a community can help make writing fiction online more satisfying feeling, even if they do not directly read your work. I promise!

[sidenote: ime, the webfiction writing community is a much better place to find writing friends than groups focused on tradpub or selfpub. I think the nature of how public everything is with webfiction helps remove some of the weird… idk… not knowing where you stand wrt everyone else around you. That’s not to say it’s a perfect community (lol) but it meshes with my brain a whole lot better than most other writing communities i’ve participated in. ymmv on that though, especially if you are coming from more traditional writers groups]

Publishing

Big caveat lector: I have never self or traditionally published anything, and I don’t have any particular intention to try. But here are some things I’ve noticed.

Novels =/= web serials. The things that make a web serial good and popular do not always translate into a good novel, and the reverse is also true. Web serials do better when they’re longer; novels typically have a set length (what that length is varys by genre, but you’re rarely going to find a 500k word novel, while web serials of that length are dime a dozen). Of course, you can break your long serial up into shorter light-novel esque volumes, but this comes with its own pain. And you /can/ post a traditional length novel on the web, but with fewer opportunities to post chapters (since there are a limited number of them) that leads to a smaller window to gather and keep an audience.

Also, I think it’s important to be aware that the audience of web fiction readers as a whole and the audience of novel readers are two completely different beasts. (There is also a difference between people who read mainly self published novels and those who read mainly trad pub novels, but that is Beyond The Scope Of This Post.) Web fiction readers will be lenient about things that would never fly in a trad pub book, and sometimes the other way around! The expectations of genre and professionalism are different. So using web serial popularity as a metric for “should I publish” can only get you so far.

Your free web serial audience =/= a paying audience for a self published novel. It can /help/, and sometimes readers will want to support you by buying your book, but there is no guarantee of either of those things. There’s no great way to do it: if you have your entire serial published free online and have a “buy my book to support me”, that’s a voluntary donation your readers are making, so is pretty equivalent to patreon. If you gate off chapters (like have the first half of a serial up and then say “buy my book to read the rest”) be prepared for people to be Pissed at you. Also, if you’re publishing via Amazon, there are rules about how much free content of your book you are allowed to post. Self publishing is an arcane and complicated system, and there are many more people who know much more about it than I do. If you’re serious about self publishing, there are lots of resources out there for you, and it’s just a totally different ball game than web fiction writing, though the two are often connected.

If you intend to traditionally publish your book: maybe don’t post it online. Every piece of advice I’ve read on this subject says that posting your full novel text online makes it extremely hard to get it published. The only exception is if you become massively popular (think andy weir’s the martian. I read that story while it was being serialized way back in like 2011 😅 this is a very ‘i liked it before it was cool’ moment of me :p ). But people who become massively popular in webfic are extremely rare, and also tend to monetize their content in other ways that are not being picked up by traditional publishing (patreon, mostly).

Financial

So, on the topic of monetizing your work. The most common thing that people do is gate off new chapters on patreon for a couple weeks before posting them publicly, but many people also just use their patreon/ko-fi/whatever as a tip jar without offering bonus rewards. There’s benefits and disadvantages to both approaches, but I don’t have the experience to get into it (i have never personally tried to monetize my writing).

But for a second, let me talk numbers. These are examples pulled from my friend unice, who is a pretty popular writer on royalroad. Across her stories, she has ~7000 followers (though probably ~1000 of those are duplicate follows on both stories). Those 7000ish followers translate into ~30 patreon supporters with an income of ~$200/chapter (her patreon info is public, you can check it out here). Her actual readership is likely much higher, since the majority of people who only read stories on royalroad never make an account, and so can’t press the follow button. You can expect a ratio of >100 readers:1 paying customer.

And Unice is a success story!

My friend Nil, who also writes on royalroad, has on the order of ~1500 followers across his two active stories. He has 4 patreon supporters, from whom he makes $8/mo. Also i think one of those is Unice giving him seed money so his patreon is less dire looking. (that’s a protip— people are less likely to pledge to an empty patreon. Always have some seed pledges in there given by a friend.) But his ratio is not actually that different from Unice’s— you need hundreds of readers to get even one paying customer.

This is why i’ve never tried to monetize my anything haha. It would not actually be worth the sadness of trying. And I think that you should be aware of that before you set up any kind of patreon or other monetization scheme. Temper your expectations. If you have a dream of making enough money to live on, you are going to need at bare minimum in the high tens of thousands of readers (not an easy feat by any means).

Intrinsic Motivation & What Posting Your Writing Can Actually Do For You

Look, at the end of the day, you have to be writing for yourself. Writing is a solitary task that takes massive amounts of time and effort, and it is often difficult to get the kind of extrinsic motivators that you’re looking for.

It’s important to keep in mind that a reader’s time and attention are valuable things to them, and although you may be providing them with entertainment, they are also giving you the gift of listening to what you have to say. Attention is not a thing that anyone owes you by virtue of you putting your work out into the world, and feeling like it is will only hurt you in the long run.

It’s a reciprocal relationship. For me, it’s occasionally important to step back and remind myself of that— there are people out there beyond just the numbers who have let me into their lives, even in a small way. If I take into account my total pageviews across ao3 and royalroad, to date about 200,000 hits, and I assume each one of those hits is someone spending 10 minutes reading a chapter— that’s 32 THOUSAND hours that people have collectively spent reading my work, or about 3 ¾ years. Like that’s an almost unimaginable amount of time that people have given to me as a gift, and I’m so ;0; every time I think about it.

Aside from that, if you do write things to consistently publish online, you are going to improve. Even just brute force typing out words into sentences into stories, that WILL make you get better at writing. And web serials are a great place to learn, because the only things at stake are your ego and your time (and while both of those are valuable, hey, they don’t cost anything!). When I first started writing seriously in 2018, I made pretty much every mistake it was at all possible to make, and four years later, I am an unimaginably stronger writer, because of dedicated practice and keeping at it.

I know that I’m kinda a rare breed when it comes to perseverance (admittedly, this is one of those things that will come a lot lot easier to you if you have my flavor of autism lmao), but if you can find whatever the spark is within yourself to keep going, the rewards of writing web fiction are like. Immeasurable.

I feel like I can attribute 95% of the good things in my life right now to writing web serials. It has made me dear friends who i know i will cherish for the rest of my life. It has improved my writing skills beyond what i ever thought possible. It has opened professional doors for me. It has made some of the darkest hours of my life a lot easier to bear, because of having a project that I can cling to and dump nearly endless amounts of time into. It has improved everything about the way I see myself as a person and as an artist. And I’m not even a web serial success story! I’m kinda a flop, except for the fact that I keep on going :p

I know that a lot of things that I’ve said here about audience and money and whatever are pretty dire (they are) but I think it’s important to say those things at the beginning, because going into this without realistic expectations is a way to get burned the fuck out from an artistic project that can be extremely rewarding. I honestly think that if you have a story you want to tell, you should consider writing it as a web serial! I want there to be more of us! Please join me!

Thank you so much for reading my screed; I hope it was helpful. If you think it sounds like I know what I’m talking about, consider reading either of my web serials: A Wheel Inside a Wheel and In the Shadow of Heaven. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to answer.

[bellaleighwrites]

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