bluejay-in-write

[bluejay-in-write]

How to plant information elegantly

Say, for example, you’re writing a swimming pool scene and you need to plant the fact that Susan is blonde, because in a few chapters, the detective will find a blond hair at the crime scene.

You want the planted information to be memorable, but at the same time not stand out too much. The ideal is to push the information into the reader’s subconscious without a neon light arrow saying, “You might want to remember this, dear reader. This will be relevant!” The planted information needs to feel natural, organic, but memorable enough so when it turns out to be ✨a clue✨, your reader thinks, “I should have seen it!”

Let’s look at some options.

Susan, who is blonde, took a deep breath and dived into the pool.

This feels forced and awkward. The two pieces of information (pool + blonde) are not connected, the fact that she is blonde feels irrelevant and shoved in. If the reader remembers this, it’s because they noticed how the information is forced upon them.

Elegant ⭐

Memorable ⭐⭐

Organic ⭐

The blonde Susan swam across the pool. / The blonde, Susan, swam across the pool.

This feels more natural, but there’s a danger that only the swimming will stick into the reader’s mind because her being blonde is so unnoticeable. There is also a minor danger that the reader will expect an non-blonde Susan to show up in the first variation.

Elegant ⭐⭐

Memorable ⭐

Organic ⭐⭐

Susan was annoyed. She had just washed her hair with that ridiculously expensive Luscious Blonde shampoo and now her friends wanted to go swimming? What a waste of money.

This feels natural and organic, because both elements are conveyed from Susan’s point of view. They are both relevant and connected, and on top of that you get to build Susan’s character.

Elegant ⭐⭐⭐

Memorable ⭐⭐⭐

Organic ⭐⭐⭐

Her friends were already in the pool, but Susan held up her pocket mirror, making absolutely sure that the latex cap wouldn’t let any water in. She just had her hair bleached and after the debacle of 2019, she would never forget what chlorinated water did to bleached hair.

Susan’s POV makes her blond hair relevant to the swimming, as with the example above, but this time you’re presenting a completely different character. It feels organic and personal, and the fact that she is blonde will be lodged into the reader’s mind without screaming “It’s a clue!”.

Elegant ⭐⭐⭐

Memorable ⭐⭐⭐

Organic ⭐⭐⭐

I hope this is helpful! Follow me for more writing tips or browse my entire collection of writing advice now.

Happy writing!

[bluejay-in-write]

Me at age 8: I might not have any friends, but I can make imaginary friends with rich social lives to fill that hole. I bet when I’m older I’ll grow out of this. 

Me at age 20: I need to make another OC to try and simulate human connection or else I’m gonna lose my mind.

[bluejay-in-write]

Tips from a Beta Reading Writer

This one's for the scenes with multiple characters, and you're not sure how to keep everyone involved.

Writing group scenes is chaos. Someone’s talking, someone’s interrupting, someone’s zoning out thinking about breadsticks. And if you’re not careful, half your cast fades into the background like NPCs in a video game. I used to struggle with this so much—my characters would just exist in the scene without actually affecting it. But here’s what I've learned and have started implementing:

✨ Give everyone a job in the scene ✨

Not their literal job—like, not everyone needs to be solving a crime or casting spells. I mean: Why are they in this moment? What’s their role in the conversation?

My favourite examples are:

The Driver: Moves the convo forward. They have an agenda, they’re pushing the action.

The Instigator: Pokes the bear. Asks the messy questions. Stirring the pot like a chef on a mission.

The Voice of Reason: "Guys, maybe we don’t commit arson today?"

The Distracted One: Completely in their own world. Tuning out, doodling on a napkin, thinking about their ex.

The Observer: Not saying much, but noticing everything. (Quiet characters still have presence!)

The Wild Card: Who knows what they’ll do? Certainly not them. Probably about to make things worse.

If a character has no function, they’ll disappear. Give them something—even if it’s just a side comment, a reaction, or stealing fries off someone’s plate. Keep them interesting, and your readers will stay interested too.

[bluejay-in-write]

writing is so fun

[bluejay-in-write]

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[bluejay-in-write]

I've just finished watching the talk "How to craft an emotional journey for your readers" by Erin Swann and at the end we did an exercise writing a lil paragraph to put the lecture in practice.

I decided to write an alternative version to one of the key moments in the first book of Project New World for practice, so here it is!

CW for blood and that's about it.

"Father, have you seen my scissors?" Neepfin asked, looking around the study.

"Why would I know where your scissors are?!" He yelled back, his voice loud and overpowering even when he was not in the same room.

"I'm sorry, it's just…"

She stopped.

The scissors were under a pile of rugs she'd recently woven, glistening red with fresh blood. Her ears buzzed. The world grew muted around her, eerily quiet. The scissors were now in her hands, staining them. A drop of blood fell onto her shoes and the buzzing in her ears grew louder, swallowing everything else with it.

As she turned around, the door burst open. There were soldiers, and then there were hands on her, pushing her down and slapping the scissors from her hands. They skidded on the floor, leaving red marks on their wake.

Neepfin looked up at her father. There were tears in his eyes, but his lips still quirked up as he asked, "How could you do this to your mother?"

Inside her, something crumbled, like the sand castle she had built once when she was five and her mother had taken her to the beaches in the far south. She felt herself go limp in the hands of the guards, what else was there to do? Her eyes had been forced open to the truth she'd always been blind to: her father had never, and would never, love her.

Neepfin looked him in the eye and said "She wasn't my mother," before they took her away.

--

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[bluejay-in-write]

one of my worst writing sins is abusing my power to create compound words. i cannot write the sentence "The sun shone as bright as honey that afternoon." no. that's boring. "The sun was honey-bright that afternoon" however? yes. that sentence is dope as fuck. i do not care if "honey-bright" is a word in the english dictionary. i do not care if the sentence is grammatically correct. i will not change. i will not correct my erred ways. the laws of the english language are mine.

[bluejay-in-write]

[bluejay-in-write]

Hey I'm feeling bold and just had a pretty good slice of cake so I'm gonna go ahead and make a grand declarative statement.

If you are a beginning writer, any advice or expectation that evokes a sense of shame is incorrect and should be ignored. You might work more and grow more and realize the core of what that book or comment or online post said is true, but for now it's wrong. If the advice is phrased in a way that does not inspire you, if it feels like an obligation that makes the act of writing sound tiring, it does not apply to you and your work at this time.

That's all I love you maybe write a little bit today or take a nap.

[bluejay-in-write]

My characters: *having a peaceful moment*

Me, whipping out my laptop:

[bluejay-in-write]

Friendly reminder to not punish yourself for creating. 

[bluejay-in-write]

— Rudy Francisco

[bluejay-in-write]

Hey everyone, I know it's going to be a busy day for a lot of people, but Google enrolled everyone over 18 into their AI program automatically.

If you have a google account, first go to gemini.google.com/extensions and turn everything off.

Then you need to go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini and turn off all Gemini activity tracking. You do have to do them in that order to make sure it works.

Honestly, I'm not sure how long this will last, but this should keep Gemini off your projects for a bit.

I saw this over on bluesky and figured it would be good to spread on here. It only takes a few minutes to do.

[bluejay-in-write]

[bluejay-in-write]

There's a version of the "don't go grocery shopping while hungry" rule specifically for writers where you should never under any circumstances be allowed to touch your draft within 3 hours of reading a really good story. Because sometimes when you read something great your head goes "fuck this is so much better than my stuff I should make that more like THIS instead!" Look at me. That's the devil talking and you should close the document NOW.

[bluejay-in-write]

I want to write something but I don’t feel like writing ahh this is torture

[bluejay-in-write]