kelyghtbooks

[kelyghtbooks]

I didn't give the armchair enough dialogue in this chapter.

[kelyghtbooks]

As gen-AI becomes more normalized (Chappell Roan encouraging it, grifters on the rise, young artists using it), I wanna express how I will never turn to it because it fundamentally bores me to my core. There is no reason for me to want to use gen-AI because I will never want to give up my autonomy in creating art. I never want to become reliant on an inhuman object for expression, least of all if that object is created and controlled by tech companies. I draw not because I want a drawing but because I love the process of drawing. So even in a future where everyone’s accepted it, I’m never gonna sway on this.

[kelyghtbooks]

Regarding Reedsy Discovery...

I am hard pressed to submit The House of Dentium there. As you may have noticed, I took down the posts from that site on my first two books after a reviewer falsely flagged The Rose of Landow and had it taken down.

They accused me of submitting an unedited manuscript (I didn't) and then the website told me I could resubmit my book if I pay the 50 dollar fee again.

50 dollars.

Just for someone who didn't like my book to straight up smear it and take it down.

As you can probably guess, I didn't do that.

The House of Dentium may do better there and I could use the reviews. I have to be honest, the whole experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that I am quite content never to use the service again.

[kelyghtbooks]

Being a writer means googling the definition of words that you already know the definition of to make sure you have it right

[kelyghtbooks]

Words Related to Pirates

Ahoy - used in calling out to a passing ship or boat

Avast - a nautical command to stop or cease

Bilge - the bulging part of a cask or barrel

Booty - goods seized from an enemy in war or by robbery

Buccaneer - a person who tries to become wealthy or powerful by doing things that are illegal or dishonest

Cannon - any device for propelling a substance or object at high speeds

Capsize - to turn over; upset

Crow's nest - a partly enclosed place to stand high on the mast of a ship for use as a lookout

Cutlass - a short heavy curved sword

Hijack - to stop and steal or steal from a moving vehicle

Jolly Roger - a black flag with a white skull and crossbones formerly used by pirates as their ensign

Landlubber - a person who lives on land and knows little or nothing about the sea

Mutiny - a turning of a group (as of sailors) against a person in charge

Plunder - to rob or steal especially openly and by force (as during war)

Swashbuckler - a swaggering or daring soldier or adventurer

Source ⚜ More: Word Lists ⚜ Writing Notes: Pirates ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[kelyghtbooks]

Happy New Year 2025!

In 2024 I finished my manuscript of the last 7-ish years, was published in several places, helped you guys edit your pieces, wrote and posted more og posts than last year, and made some good friends on here! I hope you all had a good 2024, and are looking forward to what's to come in 2025 <3

Here's a recap of the WWF posts of 2024, see you next year!

Your Readers Don't Know

Backstory is Revealed When You Need It, Not Before

Your Hook

Fortunately, Unfortunately

Your Prologue is for Stuff You Can't Put in the Book

All New Information Belongs in the First Three Chapters

Describing Foods - A Masterlist

How To Nail Your School Essays

A Note for New Writers

It's Okay Your Writing Isn't Like So-and-So's

Specificity, Voice and Backstory

10 Tips for New Writers

Pop Culture References in Fiction

Creating Paragraphs

3 Important Things about Trad Publishing

Taking Notes from Editors

When to Reject Feedback

5 Tips for Creating Intimidating Antagonists

When Your Antagonist is Not a Person

When Your Antagonist is Also Your Protagonist

Failing with Momentum

Kill Your Darlings

When to Cut a Character

Do Well By Your Female Characters

Character Agency

Writing Fictional News

How to Hold Yourself Accountable as a Professional Author

Making the Most Out of Your First Draft

Tips for Moving Out for the First Time

Sequels and Series

5 Things About Working in a (small) Publishing House that Surprised Me

5 Ways to Set Yourself Up for Success as an Aspiring Author

How Conflict Causes Character Change

Character Deaths

Monsters and Creatures

Ways to Reveal Backstory

Show Don't Tell: Symptoms Versus the Affliction

Descriptions: Seeing Versus Feeling

Momentum

Writing With Folklore Discord

You Don't Need Thick Skin to be a Writer

6 Ways to Develop Your Writing Intuition

Writing Prompt: Stress

The Yadda-Yadda

Description is for the Character, Not the Reader

The Characters Serve the Reader

Relationships and Closeness

The Rest of the World Continues on Without your MC

Writing Prompt

20 Questions to Ask your Beta Readers

3 Most Common Notes I Give While Editing

How to Translate Feedback

How to Incorporate a Ticking Clock

Every Line Adds Something New

Subplots are your Side Character Arcs

The Exposition Dump is a Myth

Questions from Beta Readers are Rhetorical

If It Doesn't Impact the Rest of the Story, You Didn't Raise the Stakes

Line Transitions

Why Don't Edit As You Go Is Actually Maybe Good Advice

About My Manuscript

There's Only One Reason I Didn't Give Up on My Manuscript

Your Beta Readers are Always Right

How to Get the Most out of (professional) Editing

How to Ask for Stuff

Who Holds the Power in Your Scene?

Getting Characters from A to B

Emotional Exhaustion

[kelyghtbooks]

writing dialogue is just advanced theater where you play every role and silently judge yourself as the audience.

[kelyghtbooks]

Literature...

Is uncanny.

Is about the strange borders or boundaries between text and world.

Entails thinking about writing and monumentalization.

Entails thinking about stories, including the impossibility of stories.

Is an intimate encounter with the interiority of other people.

Is about listening to voices.

Prompts us to reflect on language, especially on the ways in which the figurative and the literal can be deceptive or productive or both.

Is about feelings, not only our own but, even more perhaps, the reality of other people’s, it’s a form of telepathy.

Is a force of creativity, governed by the unforeseeable.

Is funny, it’s a way of encountering and sharing the joy and laughter of being alive.

Is sad, painful, even unbearably so, and thus teaches us ways of thinking about trauma and loss.

Is writing that shows up in odd ways or odd places, like a message in a bottle, or in writing generally considered to be non- literary, such as history, politics, astrophysics, biology, law.

Is migrant.

Is about the interconnectedness of everything.

In a more immersive way than any other kind of writing, shows us our human frailty and vulnerability, and our profound connections with other animals.

Is ghostly, it’s about outliving and coming back to life.

Is a physical, bodily affair, it’s invasive, it gets inside you, under your skin.

Is emotional cinema, always on the move.

Is the linguistic space in which questions of sexuality and sexual difference are most memorably and even most provocatively explored.

Is close to God, even or especially if God doesn’t exist.

Is where ideology gets exposed, but also exploded.

Is nothing without love.

Is queer.

Is the best form of suspense.

Is about the human and therefore, also, the monstrous and the machine.

Doesn’t just describe, it does things with words, it’s performative.

Is secret, it never gives everything away.

Is pleasure, it plays with us, it takes us to the limits of what we can think and feel.

However weak or innocuous it may seem, is at war, it’s contestatory, it’s an affront.

Is apocalyptic, it is powered by the enigmas of revelation and finality.

The above are propositions to answer the question, "What is literature?" It is argued that this question cannot fully be answered, but a good attempt seeks to explore a wide range of ideas and arguments.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Word Lists ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[kelyghtbooks]

Word List: Root

beautiful words with "root" for your next poem/story

Abscessroot - a perennial herb (Polemonium reptans) of the eastern U.S. with compound leaves and blue flowers

Birthroot - any of several trilliums with astringent roots used in folk medicine

Bitterroot - a succulent herb (Lewisia rediviva) of the purslane family that grows in western North America and has starchy roots and pink or white flowers

Enroot - establish, implant

Eyeroot - goldenseal i.e., a perennial North American herb (Hydrastis canadensis) of the buttercup family with large leaves and a thick knotted yellow rhizome sometimes used medicinally; iceroot

Irisroot - orrisroot i.e., the fragrant rootstock of any of three European irises (Iris florentina, I. germanica, and I. pallida) used especially in perfumery

Liferoot - golden ragwort i.e., a ragwort (Senecio aureus synonym Packera aurea) of the U.S. having basal cordate leaves, lyrate or clasping stem leaves, and an open cluster of yellow-rayed flowers

Redroot - a perennial herb (Lachnanthes caroliniana synonym L. tinctoria) of the eastern U.S. whose red root is the source of a dye

Sweetroot - licorice

Unroot - to tear up by the roots; eradicate, uproot

Whiteroot - butterfly weed; windroot

Yellowroot - any of several plants with yellow roots

If any of these words inspire your writing, do tag me or send me a link. I'd love to read your work!

More: Word Lists ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[kelyghtbooks]

I am really excited about this chapter of HUL! I finally get to delve into the history of the Kelzen species and even get to show off some of their royalty!

The Aeln have been front and center of the narrative for TOO long!!

This universe is EXPANDING!

[kelyghtbooks]

Have any ideas on how a spy's job would work? I'm struggling to write about one

Writing Notes: Spy Characters

In the intelligence world, a spy is strictly defined as someone used to steal secrets for an intelligence organization.

Also: agent or asset; a spy is not a professional intelligence officer, and doesn’t usually receive formal training (though may be taught basic tradecraft). Instead, a spy either volunteers or is recruited to help steal information, motivated by ideology, patriotism, money, or by a host of other reasons, from blackmail to love.

From an intelligence perspective, their most important quality is having access to valuable information. For this reason, a government minister might make a great spy—but so might the janitor or a cafeteria worker in a government ministry.

Espionage - process of obtaining military, political, commercial, or other secret information by means of spies, secret agents, or illegal monitoring devices; sometimes distinguished from the broader category of intelligence gathering by its aggressive nature and its illegality.

Double Agent - someone who works for two sides.

Intelligence - In the spying world, intelligence means information collected by a government or other entity that can help guide decisions and actions regarding national security. But intelligence can also mean the process by which that information is acquired

How are spies recruited? Spies are recruited via an approach or pitch by a case officer. This often seeks to persuade the individual through appealing to ideology, patriotism, religion, ego, greed, or love, or sometimes by using blackmail or some other form of coercion. 

How do spies go undercover? Intelligence officers often operate abroad under some form of official cover, perhaps as diplomats in an embassy. Others operate without the protection of their government and must create a convincing cover that explains their presence and activities in a country—a businessperson, perhaps, or a student. The Russians call these officers “illegals,” the Americans call them “NOCs” (for Non-Official Cover). If caught, they’re on their own, and face arrest, even execution.

How do spies communicate?. Face-to-face meetings can be impractical, even deadly—especially if spies are caught red-handed passing or receiving classified information or carrying spy equipment. That’s why sharing information relies on covert communication or COVCOM. Methods include secret writing (such as invisible ink or tiny microdots) or sending and receiving secure messages using special technology (often concealed or even disguised to look like everyday objects).

How much does a secret agent make? Professional intelligence officers receive salaries based on their level of experience, like all government employees. Few own vintage Aston Martin DB5s and order beluga caviar on a regular basis. Spies can earn a lot more money, though. In the 1980s, CIA officer Aldrich Ames received over $4 million from the Soviets for betraying US secrets, enough to buy himself a half-million-dollar home in cash and a flashy red Jaguar. But living beyond his salary aroused the suspicions of US intelligence, which ultimately led to his arrest.

The Intelligence Cycle

Refers to the process through which spy agencies acquire information. It consists of at least 5 stages:  

Planning: Decision-makers task an intelligence agency to acquire information on certain topics or specific issues of concern (“requirements”). 

Collection: This is where the spies, agents, case officers, tech ops, scientists, hackers, and others come in, acquiring information from different sources in a myriad of creative ways. 

Processing: Collected information needs to be narrowed down, prioritized, and put into some kind of digestible format. This might also involve having to decode information. 

Analysis: This is the stage where collected information becomes something useful that decision-makers can use: intelligence.

Dissemination: Intelligence agencies get the final product to the decision-maker or “customer.” Of course, it’s quite possible that this might prompt more questions… and the intelligence cycle begins all over again. 

Tips on Writing About Spies

Some tips from different sources:

Being a real-life spy isn’t always James Bond-glamorous. Spies are typically brilliant when it comes to reading people—your spy character needs to be curious and patient. It may take seven years for a spy to get their footing.

Normal people make the best spies. In real life, handlers are looking for a Regular Joe or Plain Jane with access—they don’t want someone who sticks out in a crowd or whose life is in disarray. They also want someone who is honest and immediately willing to own up to any mistakes they might have made. (Elizabeth Bentley may have had problems with this.) So, having a character who is bland as vanilla (at least on the outside) may work well in your favor.

Your spy could be overheard at any moment. It’s a good idea to have your spy flip on the radio to cover important conversations, or meet in a loud restaurant. (Which also solves the problem of having a potentially bugged apartment.) Even better is to meet near a water feature—the sound of falling water is unique and difficult to filter out even in modern-day recordings.

Spy gadgets are really cool. Ticking off the KGB is not. If your spy character runs afoul of the KGB (or one of its many predecessors), be prepared for creative assassination attempts that may or may not make use of more lethal spy gadgets. (Just ask Bohdan Stashynsky, a KGB officer who used a cyanide spraying spray gun to assassinate two Ukrainian nationalist leaders.) In a pinch, the Russians might resort to a tactic like Leon Trotsky’s ice pick to the face, but either way, it’s not going to be much fun for their target.

You need a good reason to be a spy. Idealists often make the best spies, but there are other motivations that might get your character to join up with the CIA, KGB, or some other spy organization. Does your character need the money being offered? Are they looking for a sense of purpose or belonging? Do they have an axe to grind with the government? Also, remember that the CIA doesn’t coerce people into informing for them. The Russians, on the other hand… Well, they’re a different story. 

Don’t draw portraits of spies, but draw portraits of people who happen to work as spies. The choices they make in their lives emerge from who they are, and those choices might conflict with the requirements of their spy work. The spy’s job may be to suborn friends, lie to adversaries, betray a trust, but it is the spy’s nagging, perhaps inconvenient, humanity that makes them suffer their choices, and excites the reader’s empathy.

Writing Tips: Spy Thriller

A step-by-step guide to writing a spy story with international intrigue and non-stop action:

Think of a killer concept. There are a lot of spy novels out there, so you need to come up with a story that has a new and unique angle. If you’re a history buff and have a specific area of interest—like Russian operatives, Nazi Germany during WWII, or American soldiers in the Middle East—go with where your passion lies. Come up with a fresh idea that people won’t feel like they’ve read before. Do some research. Find inspiration in real-life spy stories to tell yours.

Get familiar with spy tools. From spy cameras to surveillance equipment, the cool tools and gadgets of espionage fiction are part of what makes the genre fun. Get to know spycraft and tradecraft—the technology and techniques real spies use to track the enemy. Read news stories to see how espionage works today or in the time period you’re writing about. While espionage can also be incorporated into another genre, like science fiction, for the most part, spy novels emerge from actual events. That doesn’t mean you need to just use real tools of the trade. Create your own spy tech for your story.

Create an incredible protagonist. From Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, a CIA agent first introduced in The Hunt for Red October, to Ian Fleming’s most famous secret agent, James Bond, the protagonists of spy stories have long been ingrained in popular culture. Create a main character who readers will root for and who will persevere no matter what obstacle you throw in their way.

Send your character on a world-saving mission. Think about James Bond. His heart-pounding missions crossed international boundaries, and they always involved more than just taking down a bad guy: He always had to stop a massive attack that would kill innocent people. You need to justify the intense action by making the consequences big. To do this, start by coming up with your antagonist. Who are they and where are they from? What is their goal in the story? Once you know that, you’ll have your protagonist’s quest that will propel your plot.

Write highly visual action scenes. Red Sparrow and The Bourne Identity are action-packed films based on bestselling espionage novels. Spy books make great movies because the action translates well to the screen. When you sit down to start your story, think in pictures. Readers are expecting action so you need to lead with a dramatic scene that shows your protagonist at work in a perilous situation. You’ll need a few of these big scenes throughout your story—not to mention the climax which has to be big, suspenseful and, yes, visual. Use descriptive words to get the reader into the middle of the pulse-racing scene.

Use page-turning literary devices. Plot twists, cliffhangers, dramatic irony, foreshadowing, red herrings: When you write a spy novel, you’ll get to employ literary devices you might not have used before. To write a real page-turning story of espionage, make sure you take advantage of the tools that literature has to offer for maximum suspense.

You can also read about real life spies to guide your writing. Some examples:

John Walker (American spy)

Donald Maclean (British diplomat and spy)

Mata Hari (Dutch dancer and spy)

Nancy Hart (Confederate spy)

Audrey Hepburn as a WWII resistance spy

Famous Women Who Were Secretly Spies

Some of history’s most notable spies

List of spies

Some Terminology: Espionage

Agent - A person unofficially employed by an intelligence service, often as a source of information.

Black Bag Job - Secret entry into a home or office to steal or copy materials.

Clean - Unknown to enemy intelligence.

Dangle - A person who is made accessible to a foreign intelligence agency with the intent of being recruited by that agency to then work as a double agent for the person’s own country.

Eyes-Only - A designation signifying who may read a specific, classified document.

False Flag - A deliberate misrepresentation of motives or identity; an operation designed to appear as if it were conducted by someone other than the person or group responsible for it.

Ghoul - Agent who searches obituaries and graveyards for names of the deceased for use by agents.

Honey Trap - Slang for use of men or women in sexual situations to intimidate or snare others.

Innocent Postcard - A postcard with an innocuous message sent to an address in a neutral country to verify the continued security of an undercover operative.

L-Pill - A poison pill used by operatives to commit suicide.

More spy-related terms: 1 2 3

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[kelyghtbooks]

Fun fact!

I hit a writer's block in my first book and the idea of making a Christmas themed chapter was what helped me break through!

That's one of my favorite scenes from The Fitzroy Puppet Theatre! Christmas with mobsters!

[kelyghtbooks]

Writing Reference: Facial Hair

Chinstrap beard - Features full sideburns and a beard, but no mustache. It was part of the signature look of Abraham Lincoln, who famously grew out his facial hair at the request of 11-year-old Grace Bedell. She promised Lincoln she would try to get her four brothers to vote for him if only he would grow a beard. “All the ladies like whiskers,” Grace wrote to Lincoln.

Five o'clock shadow - The stubble that appears on a man’s face, typically in the late afternoon, if he shaved that same morning. A very short beard is also called a five o’clock shadow.

Fu Manchu - This term describing a mustache with ends that droop to the chin or beyond is named after the character Dr. Fu Manchu, a master criminal from the novels of Sax Rohmer. These novels were made into popular films in the 1920s and ’30s, and the term took off from there.

Goatee - First starting growing on human chins in the mid-19th century. This Americanism got its name from its likeness to the tuft of hair that grows from a goat’s chin.

Handlebar mustache - Marked by its long curved ends. Its resemblance to a bicycle handlebar gives it its name. Famous wearers include surrealist artist Salvador Dali and fictional Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.

Horseshoe mustache - Grows down from the upper lips to the chin in two thick vertical lines, thought to resemble a horseshoe.

Muttonchops - sideburns that resemble pieces of mutton growing out from under the ears, down to the jaw. Though this style is sure to be spotted in any Pride and Prejudice adaptation, the word didn’t come about until the mid-1800s, more than 30 years after Austen died.

Pencil mustache - Ultra-thin mustache that sits neatly above the upper lip and requires impeccable upkeep.

Sideburns - Though this retro style is associated with the 1970s, the word sideburns entered English almost 100 years earlier. This eponymic fuzz is named after Civil War general Ambrose Burnside, who sported sideburns, or as they were first called, burnsides, so long they connected to his mustache.

Vandyke beard - The 17th-century Flemish painter Anthony Vandyke is perhaps just as famous for his portraits of the aristocracy as he is for his short, pointed beard paired with a thick, upturned mustache.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[kelyghtbooks]

Progress report!

My sister manuscripts started out as twins but now one of them has firmly asserted herself as the big sister! To elaborate, both books are at about 3 chapters done. One is 8,486 words however and the other is at 14,394!

TIOPS has swelled in size and may only keep getting bigger! While I'm fine with that, I'm a unsure about how I feel about HUL being so small.

I've never written a short story before. I hope it won't put off my readers too much. I may go back and fluff it up a bit once it's done but honestly this kind of story doesn't need too much fluff.

[kelyghtbooks]

Do you have any detective-like key words?? I'm attempting to write a mystery fic. Tysm in advance! :D

Common Terms in Detective Fiction (scroll to the end)

Words Related to Mystery

Writing Notes: Mystery Novel

Hope this helps with your writing :)

[kelyghtbooks]

I wrote a Christmas story featuring everyone's favourite 1906 French Adventure book character who happens to have a passable resemblance to William Hartnell, Doctor Omega!

[kelyghtbooks]

hello !! i'm not entirely sure if you're still doing these, but do you have any alternative words for destruction? like as in war, or the annihilation of something?

Word List: Destruction

Destruction—the state or fact of being destroyed; ruin

Aneantizing - Destruction, ruin; loss.

Bloodbath - A battle or fight at which much blood is spilt; a wholesale slaughter, a massacre.

Butchery - Brutal or indiscriminate slaughter, carnage.

Carnage - The slaughter of a great number, esp. of men.

Carnifice - Butchery, murder, torture.

Decimation - More generally: the action of destroying or removing a large proportion of a population, crop, etc., as by disease or war.

Degast - Devastation, ruin, waste.

Depredation - Lay waste; plunder, ravage.

Devastation - The action of devastating, or condition of being devastated; laying waste; wide-spread destruction; ravages.

Discreation - The action or process of unmaking something; destruction.

Eradication - The action of pulling out by the roots; total destruction; extirpation.

Excidion - Extirpation, destruction.

Havoc - Devastation, destruction

Herriment - Harrying, ravaging, devastation.

Holocaust - The complete destruction of something (esp. a large number of people).

Interemption - Destruction, slaughter.

Internecion - Total destruction, slaughter, extermination.

Massacre - The indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people or (less commonly) animals.

Occision - Killing, slaying (esp. of a number of people, as in battle); slaughter, carnage; (also) an act of killing or slaughter.

Panolethry - An act of general or widespread destruction or slaughter.

Perition - Destruction, annihilation.

Pernicion - Total destruction; perdition; ruin.

Populicide - The systematic killing of a people or nation.

Ravage - The action or practice of ravaging; the result of this action; destruction, devastation, or extensive damage caused by a person or animal.

Slaughter - The killing of large numbers of persons in war, battle, etc.

Strage - Slaughter.

Sword-wrack - Destruction by the sword.

Trucidation - A cruel killing or murdering; in use humorous: slaughter.

Undoing - The action of bringing to nought, destroying, or ruining.

Wrake - Destructive harm or injury; wrecked, ruined, or impaired state or condition; ruin, destruction, wreck.

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ More: Word Lists ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Yup, still doing these! Just had to finish the PDFs first, but now back to doing the requests. Hope this helps with your writing :)