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Dark Academia Names For Writers + Includes FREE PDF DOWNLOAD

I previously made a post about this, but I felt compelled to share again. I've created a free PDF that’s available on my Gumroad, which features a list of over 75 names, both male and female. It’s a little guide that I hope you can refer to as you develop your characters and worlds. I understand how challenging the naming process can be, and I truly hope this resource brings you a bit of inspiration and ease in your creative journey.

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD:

80 Dark Academia Names | For Writers, Gamers, and Artists

🖤 Dark Academia Names 🖤

Female Names:

Athena - Greek origin, meaning "wisdom"

Beatrice - Latin origin, meaning "she who brings happiness"

Cordelia - Latin origin, meaning "heart"

Daphne - Greek origin, meaning "laurel"

Elowen - Cornish origin, meaning "elm tree"

Felicity - Latin origin, meaning "happiness"

Genevieve - French origin, meaning "tribe woman"

Hermione - Greek origin, meaning "messenger, earthly"

Iris - Greek origin, meaning "rainbow"

Juliet - Latin origin, meaning "youthful"

Lydia - Greek origin, meaning "from Lydia"

Minerva - Roman origin, goddess of wisdom

Niamh - Irish origin, meaning "bright"

Ophelia - Greek origin, meaning "help"

Persephone - Greek origin, meaning "bringer of destruction"

Quilla - Incan origin, meaning "moon goddess"

Rosaline - Latin origin, meaning "beautiful rose"

Sylvia - Latin origin, meaning "from the forest"

Theodora - Greek origin, meaning "gift of God"

Viola - Latin origin, meaning "violet"

Male Names:

Ambrose - Greek origin, meaning "immortal"

Barnaby - Hebrew origin, meaning "son of consolation"

Caspian - Persian origin, meaning "from Caspian Sea"

Dorian - Greek origin, meaning "from Doris"

Ezra - Hebrew origin, meaning "help"

Fitzroy - Norman origin, meaning "son of the king"

Gideon - Hebrew origin, meaning "feller, hewer"

Hugo - Germanic origin, meaning "mind, intellect"

Ichabod - Hebrew origin, meaning "no glory"

Julian - Latin origin, meaning "youthful"

Killian - Irish origin, meaning "bright-headed"

Leander - Greek origin, meaning "lion man"

Magnus - Latin origin, meaning "great"

Nikolai - Greek origin, meaning "victory of the people"

Oscar - Irish origin, meaning "deer lover"

Perseus - Greek origin, meaning "to destroy"

Quentin - Latin origin, meaning "fifth"

Raphael - Hebrew origin, meaning "God has healed"

Silas - Latin origin, meaning "wood" or "forest"

Thaddeus - Aramaic origin, meaning "gift of God"

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD:

80 Dark Academia Names | For Writers, Gamers, and Artists

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that footage of the CEO getting shot is axtually pretty sweet and the guy is a hero tbh. lets bring assassinating CEOs energy to 2025

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HOPE THEY NEVER FIND U COMRADE; MAY THEY NEVER FIND U; THEY WILL NEVER FIND U like to charge, reblog to cast

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Please read this post

On March 12, 2022, 12-year-old Kelaia Turner hung herself with a belt. By the time her mother found her, she was bleeding from her nose and starting to cool. Paramedics were only able to find a pulse after eight minutes. She spent the next few weeks in a coma and now lives with severe neurological damage, unable to breathe, eat, or move on her own. Her mother has set up a GoFundMe, which I strongly recommend that you contribute to:

Kelaia hung herself after enduring a year and a half of severe bullying from five other students at the school she attended, Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher Middle School. About a month after she hung herself, two students managed to get to her bed in the ICU. They took pictures of her and posted them on social media. A third student also spread rumors about her injuries.

Her family is now suing Greenville County School District (GCSD) for negligence in handling the bullying. Major allegations include:

Students would call Kelaia a man and a roach in a class taught by Olivia Bennett. In December 2021 one of them asked Bennett, "Where's the roach?" Bennett pointed at Kelaia.

After the roach incident, Kelaia's parents met with Principal Smith to discuss solutions. One of the proposals was to separate Kelaia from HCJ, one of her bullies. Kelaia also emailed a school counselor, Michelle Kirby, to request a schedule change that would keep her away from HCJ. Nothing changed. In fact, Kelaia and HCJ were both added to a new class for spring semester. HCJ subsequently cursed out Kelaia in the new class.

A student attacked Kelaia in March. Kelaia was suspended; her attacker was not. The school failed to inform her parents, leaving that task to Kelaia herself.

A student in one of Kelaia's classes was constantly disruptive. When Kelaia would ask the student to quiet down, the teacher, John Teer, would scold her instead of the student. In May, another student played the Youtube video "The Black People Song." Teer allowed the song to play and did not comment on its offensiveness or scold its player.

By October 2022 one of Kelaia's bullies, BA, had begun literally pushing her around. School faculty did not intervene, even after Kelaia's mother contacted them about the pushing. BA eventually hung up Kelaia's clothes, poured water all over them, and then threw them in the trash.

After Kelaia's suicide attempt, her mother lodged a formal complaint about the school's failure to enforce its anti-bullying policy. The principals told her, and I quote, "they have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying but no way to enforce it."

While the lawsuit does not emphasize any racial component, racism hangs like a shadow over the incident. Kelaia is Black; Greenville County is 76.3% White. Olivia Bennett, who pointed Kelaia out as "the roach," is White, as are most of the nine teachers named in the lawsuit. Kelaia's mother, Ty Turner, also posted a list of the names that her bullies used on Facebook, and it's pretty indicative:

Not to mention, the US has a long history of insulting Black women by calling them masculine. All those gendered insults have a secondary meaning. In the same Facebook post, Mrs. Turner notes that the bullying started in elementary school, when Kelaia began wearing her natural hair.

GSCD's school board (ten White members, two Black members) are denying the allegations, insisting that they conducted a full investigation every time Kelaia's family made one of their many, many complaints. Their legal response only admits to exchanging emails with Kelaia's parents and that Bennett pointed to Kelaia as "the roach." Bennett is still teaching at Fisher Middle School today.

I don't usually ask this, but please, please, please reblog this post. Even if you don't live in South Carolina. Even if you don't live in the US. I suspect that GSCD wants to sweep this incident under the rug as soon as possible. It'll be a lot harder for them to do that if the world is watching them and demanding justice for Kelaia. If you can, please donate. Kelaia's care will require a lot of money; her parents could use all the help they can get.

And if you're from the Greenville area, message me. We need to put the board's feet to the fire.

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Tips for writing those gala scenes, from someone who goes to them occasionally:

Generally you unbutton and re-button a suit coat when you sit down and stand up.

You’re supposed to hold wine or champagne glasses by the stem to avoid warming up the liquid inside. A character out of their depth might hold the glass around the sides instead.

When rich/important people forget your name and they’re drunk, they usually just tell you that they don’t remember or completely skip over any opportunity to use your name so they don’t look silly.

A good way to indicate you don’t want to shake someone’s hand at an event is to hold a drink in your right hand (and if you’re a woman, a purse in the other so you definitely can’t shift the glass to another hand and then shake)

Americans who still kiss cheeks as a welcome generally don’t press lips to cheeks, it’s more of a touch of cheek to cheek or even a hover (these days, mostly to avoid smudging a woman’s makeup)

The distinctions between dress codes (black tie, cocktail, etc) are very intricate but obvious to those who know how to look. If you wear a short skirt to a black tie event for example, people would clock that instantly even if the dress itself was very formal. Same thing goes for certain articles of men’s clothing.

Open bars / cash bars at events usually carry limited options. They’re meant to serve lots of people very quickly, so nobody is getting a cosmo or a Manhattan etc.

Members of the press generally aren’t allowed to freely circulate at nicer galas/events without a very good reason. When they do, they need to identify themselves before talking with someone.

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How to Make Your Writing Less Stiff 8 | "to-be" and auxiliary verbs

Part 7

Part 6

Part 1

As I go through editing my latest manuscript, I'm faced with the dilemma of when to drop a to-be verb, but also when to keep it and how the differences between the two in any given situation can make just a little... a little *garnish* of a difference.

To-be verbs:

Am, is, are, was, were; a subset of auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs:

To do, to be, to have (simplified)

Auxiliary verbs tend to indicate tense, but we use them more often as crutch verbs, filler verbs, because you can just conjugate the verb itself to the proper tense without the need of the auxiliary verb.

The advice generally goes to remove these, as they count as filler words when followed up by a second verb. Versus the TBV or AXV and an adjective.

He does look / He looks She is cooking / She cooks They were standing / They stood I am fishing / I fish She does cry / She cries We have slept / We slept

vs

He is afraid / He fears She was sorry / She regrets They were happy / They cheered I was confused / I hesitated

The verb+adjective combo can't so easily drop the verb without changing either the tone, the flow, or the actions of the characters, because one is an act of doing, and one is a state of being (for the most part, 'fear' is one of those exceptions in English).

You would have to rearrange the sentence, e.g. "I was confused by this" to "This confused me," to elimiate the TBV. Which, most of the time, does help the narrator feel less passive in the story, but, again, we're here for flavor text, not an MLA formatting guide.

So, sometimes the inclusion of the TBV or AXV adds subtext to the action itself.

"He does look" has slightly more urgency and weight than simply "he looks" because the AXV emphasizes that this is an action the actor might not have taken otherwise, for better or for worse.

In the silence, she stands there huffing, voice wrecked from crying as he heads for the open door. “Don’t you walk away from me.” He turns, face impassive. “There’s nothing left to be said.” vs He does turn, face impassive. “There’s nothing left to be said.”

The latter indicates that this might be hesitation or regret on his part, as opposed to a decisive, quick action, or that this is an action that she, the narrator, didn't expect him to take.

It also helps convey the tone of voice (or at least the general direction of the level of emotion in a voice). This absolutely varies on a case-by-case basis and the context of the action and should not be abused.

One of the juicier verbs for subtext here is "try"

He tries to coach her through how to do it properly. vs He does try to coach her through how to do it properly.

The former is direct and simple. He is attempting (he attempts) to help but through the act of "trying" and not "doing" there's an indication that she isn't getting it.

The latter is a little more hopeless, where he and she both know that whatever she's attempting to learn, she won't succeed, but he's doing it anyway. Maybe because he cares or he feels bad, or, that he wasn't going to help her, but something changed his mind.

Deciding when to use these helps convey the inner thoughts of non-narrating characters without head-hopping, and also shows the biases of the narrator.

Hope this helps!

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A Possible Theory on Why Some Fandoms Are More Popular And Long Lasting Than Others

So i was thinking the other day, why the hell are some book/movie/game/etc fandoms lasting for 50+ years and others die in a year?

I was comparing some of my favourite fandoms, the Percy Jackson fandom and the Harry Potter fandom and what I noticed and discovered is to make a good fan base, you HAVE to create a good organisation in your story/game/movie/book etc.

What do I mean?

In Percy Jackson for example, we have our main character’s home base. Camp Half Blood. It’s developed in the background throughout the whole series, there is a companion book on the Camp itself, and the whole area is relatively fleshed out and utilised throughout the whole series. It’s described in detail, there are official maps released, people love the camp.

In Harry Potter, we have, of course, Hogwarts. It’s by far more developed than Camp Half Blood, with detailed classes, architecture, art, story, lore, founders. And our main characters spend majority of their time in the building itself. Hell, even the villains of the story used to attend Hogwarts

Why does this matter? Why does world building matter?

Aha. Here’s my hook. Fandoms stay alive as long as fans stay connected to the community. And how else to develop the strongest connection possible than fans being able to build their own original characters or ocs and imagine they’re in the story?

Human imagination is a powerful thing, as soon as they have a world (Hogwarts and Camp Half blood) to build off of, they can create their own characters and imagine more stories building off the Canon to keep their love for the universe alive.

This is why role play communities are so popular, in addition to having your original character and developing a story for them, having a community to showcase and use your character greatly increases your attachment to this community.

Once you make your fans feel like they are part of your world, it’s the strongest connection. Because by default, humans are selfish, they feel more close to something if it’s like they have involvement in it.

Characters VS World Building.

It’s the age old question, what’s more important?

Neither.

No one is more important than the other, it’s just a matter of what you’re trying to accomplish.

With focusing on world building, you almost confirmed yourself a space for your fans to imagine themselves in. And you can have a lot of fun with world building! Creating your own original words, terms and concepts. Your own take on real world events and items and applying it to your story.

However you can’t focus on both so your characters might need to be limit to 2-3 main ones, to balance out your complex and intricate world.

With focusing on characters, you build yourself loyalty based on attachment to characters. This may not yield as much original characters/fan led creation as focusing on world building, but the perks are your characters explode into main stream. Art will be drawn of them, fanfictions will be written about them, headcanons, adaptations etc. By pouring effort into your characters, you create deep and meaningful bonds with specific characters that people will remember.

Maybe 10 years down the line, your fans may not remember everything about the story, or the environment or the world you created, but they will look back one day and go “Good lord, that was an AMAZING character that I still love to this day.” And that’s amazing for you.

This is exactly the case with Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. In my opinion, Hogwarts is wildly more developed than Camp Half Blood for obvious reasons. Hogwarts is a school and CHB is a homebase. Most of the time PJO characters are on quests away form their home base but HP characters are almost always in Hogwarts.

So how do you world build?

1. Of course create your organisation, base it off maybe a real life historical organisation with your own twist.

2. Build a rich and complex backstory, with specific historical figures that contributed to the creation of your organisation.

3. Build ROLES. Build divisions and department in your organisation. Think houses in Hogwarts and cabins in Camp Half Blood. Build specific roles your fans can imagine themselves as. Prefect, Head Girl/Boy, Head Counsellor.

4. Describe describe describe. You have all this amazing lore in your arsenal, now weave and intertwine your characters with them. Make your characters attached to the organisation and want to protect it. Mix your plot and story with it, make it so your organisation MATTERS to the story.

TL;DR

World building is hella important.

Heyyy, this isn’t proofread. Reblog or like if you enjoyed it. Or don’t.

Tags: ask to be added or removed

@lovely-rants-alot @shinchansbitch @jeahreading @totally-not-castor @unhinged-as-hell @sunshinerainbowsandlollipops @zeherili-ankhein @cafffeineconnoisseur @schrodinger-ka-billa @mireyaaaaaaaaa @your-dazzling-sun @daonedaonlyskh @iamgayforyourmom1510 @the-lying-heavens @abyssmita @mentallyunstablequeen101 @debacleofdaemons

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harmony, do you have any advice on writing sunday?? been trying to write in his pov for like, days now and i feel i'm making him too generic tbh

Hi Psyscio! I apologize for the slight delay in writing this, I've just been a bit occupied with irl things ^^; I do hope you find these helpful!

— FOR POINT OF VIEW

Based on significance, we can divide Sunday's character thus far in three parts : early childhood, Bronze Melodia period and Oak Family Head.

The Stellaron disaster was undoubtedly the spark that ignited his later concerns. We see from the conversation about the Charmony dove that Sunday was an empathetic and inquisitive boy, albeit, his concerns mostly centered around others.

During his Bronze Melodia days, the segment where he's questioning Ena (I assume), we see a sort of overlap between concerns for himself and for others. It seems that he's projecting the doubts, insecurities and helplessness he feels for himself through the suffering that he's observed in the outer world. We can also see this as a kind of a protective barrier.

This is the time where he's already reached his conclusion and has started (or has already finished) the planning for the utopian dreamscape. One point which I think is very important to remember is that, despite how he presents himself, a small part of him has always doubted this method. But since he was never able to share his ideas with others (since they'd expose his entanglement with the Order) and since Gopher Wood never addressed the faulty nature of them, he wasn't able to think deeper into them. Which is why, even during his boss fight, he's inviting the Astral Express to prove him wrong — to give evidence to the doubts he's always had.

After these three, we have post-Penacony-arc Sunday. He isn't going to be a completely different person, of course. From the snippets we've gotten so far, we see this pattern : Sunday reminisces about [x] thing and how he used to do that in the past, he comments that there's no need to be as rigid as he used to be but he isn't completely ready to fully embrace that and circles back to his previous belief. Which is fine, old habits are never easy to get rid of.

When you listen to Sunday's ideas, you'll find yourself simultaneously agreeing and disagreeing. Similarly, there's a sense of obscurity in the flow of his emotions. This is intentional of course. So, I think it's alright if you notice this convolution while writing him. Emotions and thoughts are abstract by nature. But the way I'd recommend doing this, is pointing out that vagueness after that flow or an action has passed.

Thanks to Sunday's Myriad Celestia, we know that there's a sense of discord between his inner voices. We see him as both the interrogator and the answerer. The former appears to be firm, harsh and disappointed, while the latter appears nostalgic, remorseful and tired. You can use these voices to address his inner conflict.

Speaking of inner conflict, I think it's one of the most powerful tools you can use to write his perspective. I recommend not dodging it.

I've personally never agreed on the opinion of Sunday being delusional. He's quite lucid and we've received many hints of it. There's a difference between just being aware of something and acting upon that awareness. Sunday has many restraints that prevent him from acting, but it doesn't mean that he's ignorant. Oftentimes, the truth is just in his peripheral, but he can't bring himself to look at it due to a lack of support.

Sunday probably overdoses on psychoanalyzing people. Luckily, perceptive characters are very versatile. Now, I think Sunday prefers to see the best in everyone, unless he's been pushed far enough or has a particular history with an individual, he isn't one to harbor antagonist thoughts about someone. According to this post, Halovians can read the minds of people within a certain distance and use telepathy to communicate with other Halovians. Consider how you might use these together.

I like to have this mental image that Sunday is always holding onto a set number of ‘straws’ in his head. Events and people gradually come, ‘snap’ those metaphorical straws and he allows them to, to an extent — until he's left grasping onto the last of them. Use a mix of allegories and ‘telling’ to illustrate this.

— FOR BASIC CHARACTERIZATION

Sunday is in the ‘emotions revealed through unintentional body language’ group. But I think, when he's confronted with unwanted emotions, he gets even more rigid and guarded (as we saw during that scene with Gallagher). There's the popular hc that his wings flutter in certain ways in response to emotions, so, you can use that as well.

Sunday often thinks about the collective instead of the individual, which is sensible considering he's a leader and all. A romantic interest will challenge this, you can use the ways he breaks his own rules to illustrate how deep his investment in the person goes.

I think having a reader who makes him feel safe or understands him can save you a good amount of emotional turmoil. But of course, I also believe in unexpected pairings. Trust that Sunday, being who he is, can always find something worth appreciating about anyone.

One of the most fascinating things I've observed about Sunday are the similarities between him and Aventurine, as addressed by Ratio. Studying them side by side was very fruitful for me.

For resources to better understand Sunday, I recommend this video and this video.

— FOR DIALOGUE

I mentioned this in my Aventurine post, but in case you missed it, there's this channel that compiles character dialogues individually which can be helpful if you're seeking to refresh your memory. However, I'd like to add here that listening to how a character interacts with others ; as in, how they respond to what, can be even more useful for dialogues.

I've only observed Sunday's English voiceover so I'm not sure how the performance differs in other languages. Based on my observation, Sunday prefers to maintain a gentle, almost airy tone. This appears to be a result of practice though. Sometimes his manner of speech gives this impression that he's viewing you from an elevated space, where he's seeing everything about you. We hear his true voice when the people he cares about are in danger, or, when he's alone with his thoughts.

— MISC. TIPS

Sunday may appear hypocritical, you'll notice dissonance between his words, actions and subconscious — which is okay, characters and people aren't meant to be flawless. What you need to remember is that all of these discrepancies are intentional and results of his upbringing.

Sunday has been groomed by Gopher Wood for the Order's propaganda. In addition, he has survivor's guilt, religious trauma, trust and attachment issues and (possibly) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Do your research on how these affect people in relationships.

It's okay if you struggle to fully grasp his character, he isn't understood within the game either. In my opinion, it's a very well done representation of how little we'll know about other people. Fiction allows us to gaze into the inner world of a character and see them from different perspectives. This isn't possible in reality and that's okay. Approach Sunday's character with an objective mindset, because the beauty of his writing is not centralized, but scattered.

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Writing Notes: Compelling Characters

Characters & Goals

“Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.” –Kurt Vonnegut

Characters should almost always have clear goals, even if these goals are not immediately made obvious to the reader.

Without goals, characters lack motivation—that is, they have little reason to do anything interesting.

For this reason, many writers connect the main character's goals to the main conflict in the story. This generally means that the main obstacle to those goals plays a key role in the plot as well (for instance, in the form of a villain).

Often, the main character is most interesting and when confronting his own shortcomings in pursuit of his goals.

There are a few ways to construct this character-plot connection:

CHARACTER-FIRST APPROACH

Constructs a story’s plot for a character that already exists.

It asks a writer to build a character that they find interesting and then assemble the plot around them.

Example: A character who is struggling to overcome a phobia might, as a plot element, come into contact with the thing she fears. Success in this instance would mean that she doesn’t let the fear overcome her.

PLOT-FIRST APPROACH

Starts by defining the major conflicts the writer wants to include in a piece of fiction and then builds a character who will be motivated by those conflicts.

Example: A writer could decide to explore the effect of a catastrophic storm on a city before writing a main character. A character that would feel motivated by this conflict would be one with a connection to the city or to someone living in the city. Therefore, the son of someone who went missing in the storm would likely be a good focal character for this story.

Small Goals & Big Goals

Though it’s important for characters to have at least one big goal, it can be boring for the reader if a character is totally preoccupied with a single motivation.

Strong characters generally have two or more goals of varying sizes that they might confront separately or at the same time.

The reader excitedly anticipates your character's success or failure in achieving their goals.

Believability

Another factor that can contribute to a successful character is an element called “verisimilitude,” also called “believability.”

When writers talk about believability, they talk about whether the constituent parts of a character make sense and feel cohesive.

Example: We might expect a character who gets paid minimum wage to struggle to pay her bills, so if we see her driving an expensive car or spending several hundred dollars on a meal at a fancy restaurant, we would question these details.

There are, of course, stories in which these situations could exist, but the reader would need to know what allowed them to happen (inheritance from a late relative, perhaps, or an irresponsible approach to personal debt).

Suspension of Disbelief

Stories that take place outside of a realistic modern setting will generally require some extra work on the part of the writer to make them believable.

This is because of an idea called “suspension of disbelief.”

This refers to the tendency of readers to challenge details of a story that seem out-of-place, but not to question those details if they are presented with enough contextual justification.

Example: A story contains people who can fly with human-size wings. The reader would need to learn early on that this is a normal event that occurs in the story world. A reader who unexpectedly encounters flying humans three-fourths of the way into a short story could easily be baffled by this development, and might also consider it a cheap cop-out if it's used to resolve a plot conflict.

Adding Physical Detail

In addition to planning your characters thoughtfully, you must also sketch them coherently on the page.

Careful selection of physical and environmental details will make some of your character’s traits visible to your reader without you having to tell them outright what you mean. Examples:

A character who is disorganized might have wrinkled clothing or might consistently arrive late to appointments.

An introverted character might bring a book or notebook everywhere they go and might also stay out of crowded spaces (or feel uncomfortable in those spaces).

Symbolic Meanings

Be aware of the other meanings that a detail can bring into a piece.

A physical detail, especially one that appears multiple times within a work, might also develop symbolic meanings in addition to its literal meaning.

Writing Exercise

In a short vignette, and using only physical details (e.g., characters' clothing, appearance, or body language), make it clear to a reader that a character is experiencing one of the following conditions: worry, hunger, grief, joy, confusion, lack of sleep, anxiety, homesickness.

The word you chose should not appear in your vignette, nor should any synonyms.

Adding Personality

Broadly, “personality” refers to the collection of beliefs, thought patterns, and other mental qualities that dictate a character’s actions.

A personality trait could be the character’s bubbly disposition, their self-deprecating humor, or the fact that they’re always nervous.

When constructing a character, it’s important to think about how she would react in a number of situations.

Here are some questions to help you discover your character’s personality traits:

Is he fond of attention, or does he avoid it?

Is she curious to learn more about a topic/location/person, or does she keep to herself?

How big of a role does fear play in his day-to-day activities?

How does this character react if things don’t go the way she wants them to?

Does he think that he’s more intelligent/less intelligent than others around him?

Does she think she’s average? How would she define “average?”

How does he feel about making decisions?

Does she make decisions quickly or slowly?

Does he tend to regret decisions they’ve made?

It’s helpful to connect these traits to elements from the character’s life or past.

Example: A character who grew up with a controlling parent might have difficulty making decisions once they start living on their own.

Personality traits might also overlap with physical traits.

Example: Talking too loudly or too softly or interrupting others.

It’s also important to make sure that your characters aren’t good at everything they come across.

Doing so will reduce your story’s believability because—let’s face it—no one is good at everything.

To this end, you should allow your characters to fail at something, whether that something is huge or inconsequential.

Writing Exercise

In a short vignette, deliver some news to your character.

The news can be good or bad.

It can affect just the character, or the entire world population, or any number of people in between.

How does this character react?

Who do they tell, if anyone?

How do they interact with the space they’re in (e.g. punch a wall, hug a stranger)?

Try this exercise several times with the same character but different contexts (e.g., the character receiving the news alone versus receiving it in a public place) to see how they react under different circumstances.

CAUTION: Using Fictionalized Versions of Real People

It’s common for writers to borrow details from real life—the shape of a stranger’s chin, a classmate’s clicking of their pen during a quiet exam, or the restaurant server’s shrill laugh, to give just a few examples—but a writer should be wary of recreating an entire person on the page.

There are legal reasons not to do this, of course, but there is also the danger that a story filled with too many real-life people and events will be flat and boring.

Fiction should generally be a healthy mix of the ordinary and extraordinary.

If the mix is skewed too far in one direction, the reader can find the piece too unbelievable or too boring.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Writing Worksheet: Conflict Lists: 170 Character Quirks ⚜ +600 Personality Traits ⚜ 100 Sensory Words

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girls who say bruh

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Posting my current AO3 fanfic links here, please enjoy!! Crossovers will be colour-coded in purple 😊💛💜

Harry Potter/Marauders:

ziggy played guitar

Short, no-magic modern AU, domestic Wolfstar fluff one-shot with trans(ftm) Remus and ace Sirius (ft. their cat Magnus). 1,355 words.

la lune and i

No-Voldemort Hogwarts AU Moonwater potions partners slow burn with trans!Regulus Black. Ft. Rosekiller, Xenodora, and Dorlene. 6,700 words.

less than three, you love me (typing out my fantasy)

Texting/social media no-magic modern AU Marauders Era. Genderfluid!Sirius and Remus date each other anonymously and don’t realise. Ft. Wolfstar, Jegulus, Marylily, Rosekiller, Dorlene, and Xenodora. 1,664 words.

JOYRIDE

Modern no-magic AU one-shot Rosekiller get freaky in a car (HEAVY SMUT) inspired by Kesha’s new song. Ft. Wolfstar and Jegulus. 2,501 words.

Sleepily, Venus sinks and hollows

Modern PJO-AU Marauders. Centred around Wolfstar and Jegulus. Everyone are demigods and go to CHB, but Kronos is rising. Ft. Rosekiller, Dorlene, Marylily, and Xenodora. 6,751 words.

Percy Jackson:

XOXO (Kisses Hugs)

Discontinued(?) PJO kinktober with trans!Percy/Ganymede. Only chapter up is pegging, though I may continue it this October?? Possibly?? 3,681 words.

My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia:

Gold-skinned eager baby

MHA/BNHA AU where Touya Todoroki survived and got custody of Shoto and raised him. Ft. Autistic Shoto and Seroki. 2,797 words.

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also on adhd in the series—annabeth's hyperfixating, social-cues-who?/"I will speak when I want and do what I want and you cannot physically unglue me from this task" adhd is so cool to see on screen. that girl is neurodivergent af and we're gonna spend the series praising her brain as a daughter of athena, on and off screen, and holy shit that is so powerful

[lackluster21]

Writing Descriptions

Wednesday’s post was all about writing dialogue, and now we move on to my personal favorite of the two: descriptions. In my opinion, both dialogue and descriptions can be extremely hard to write, but something about descriptions is just a little bit harder even though I prefer writing them. I also prefer reading descriptions. A well-crafted description can absolutely pull a reader into a story. It brings far-off lands and creative settings to life, and makes made up characters feel as familiar as our own best friends. That was my little poetic appreciation for descriptions which does not help you write them at all, unfortunately, so without further ado, here are some tips that help me when I’m writing descriptions. 

But I Already Know That

More often than not if you hear the word sky, you’re going to picture the color blue. If you hear the word ‘clouds’, you’re going to picture some thing fluffy and white, maybe a nice cumulonimbus if you will. If you hear the word grass, you’re going to picture that green. My point is that generally with common things like the sky, clouds, and grass, we already have a clear enough picture of what those things look like in our minds. Something I see all the time is that authors will take the time to actually write out, “the sky was a beautiful shade of blue with fluffy, white clouds. The grass beneath was green.” Well, yes, most readers would assume all of those things. Using basic adjectives that already come to mind when you say something defeats the purpose of having descriptions. They’re unnecessary, and they bog down your writing. If you want to describe the sky, it better not be blue, and if it is blue, either describe what about that blue is so particularly noteworthy or write a much shorter sentence. The sentence “Clouds dotted the sky.” brings the same image of the sky as the sentence above, but it’s much more focused and less redundant. Just because you’re writing a description, doesn’t mean you always need tones of uber descriptive words.

Thesaurus.com: Friend or Foe?

Which leads us into our second tip. I used to get annoyed when teachers told us not to use the thesaurus on our writing assignments, but now as someone who has read things where the author most definitely used a thesaurus, I get it. Using a thesaurus isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They can give some really interesting words, or jump start the creative process when you’re trying to figure out what word fits in a sentence. But, if a peasant character in your story is suddenly describing things as ostentatiously opulent instead of just saying beautiful or fancy, I’m going to be suspicious. That’s also why you have to take into account who is describing things and whose POV you’re in. Just like with dialogue, a well-educated princess and an illiterate peasant are not going to describe things the same way. Even when you’re trying to make descriptions beautiful and such, they should still fit in with what we know of the character and they’re knowledge level, ability, etc. And, yes, you should probably use more interesting words than beautiful or fancy, but if you feel like beautiful and fancy are the way to go and fit within your story, go for it! Honestly, my favorite descriptions are simple ones where the author wasn’t trying to impress me with their SAT-level vocabulary. 

All the Senses

Descriptions tend to focus heavily on sight, but using all five senses in your descriptions can make for a lot more detail and make your reader feel like they’re right there beside your charters. It really brings the scenes to life and makes them so much more interesting to read. One of the common writer saying is “show, don’t tell” and including a lot of vivid sensory details can help you make sure that you do a lot more showing than telling. For a quick rundown, here are the five senses and some ways to use them: 

Sight: the most obvious, what does the character see around them. 

Touch: how does the environment around them feel? Are they running their hands across the damp, cracked stones of an old castle? Are they barefoot at the beach feeling the sand on their toes?

Hearing: sounds are some of my favorite! The sound of rain on a cold, dark night. Waves crashing against the shore. Birds chirping in the distance. 

Smell: Are they in a factory district that smells like smog? Or are they in a beautiful garden full of fragrant, sweet-smelling flowers?

Taste: Taste is a little harder, but describing the different taste of foods when describing a new culture in your story is a great place to start!

Back to Third Grade Language Arts

In third grade, my teacher told me that after third grade, I would only be allowed to write in cursive. She was completely lying, and because of her, I now physically cannot write in print. But, she was not lying about the importance of literary devices and figurative language. Of course, in third grade, my knowledge of similes started and ended with my mom saying that looking for something was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Thankfully, my literary device skills have grown since third grade even though I still cannot write in print. Silver-linings, I suppose. Even though there are a plethora of of different literary devices at your disposal, oftentimes sticking with those simple similes and metaphors makes for the best descriptions. Metaphors especially. They’re a great way to tie a character with a certain object and sprinkle in a little foreshadowing while you’re at it! Another good literary devices for descriptions (when used in moderation) is onomatopoeia. They’re normally super descriptive and immediately conjure up a very specific image in the reader’s mind which makes them especially great for shorter descriptions!

Five Pages to Describe a Dres???

Add it to the list of reasons one Sarah J. Maas, owes me a personal check. It might not be exactly five pages, but it was a long, freakin time. Pretty much every time the character changed clothes, we got an exceedingly long description of her new dress or pants or tunic or whatever. Please, don’t be that person. I think one or two descriptions of an outfit could be a great thing to add to your story, but adding several in or describing every time your character gets a new outfit will just bog down your story with descriptions and bore your reader. Granted, I am no fashion guru, but still. And, I think a lot of authors fall into the trap of over-description. Everyone is so scared of falling into white-room syndrome or not providing the reader with a vivid enough description that they describe every single detail of every single room the character walks into. Especially, if it’s a place your character will be at frequently, you don’t have to describe all of it in one setting (because that does count as an info-dump). You can describe enough to give the reader an idea, but also let them fill in the rest. For example if I write, “Every aspect of her bedroom was pink and frilly. Typical of a girl of seven.” You have a pretty good idea of what the bedroom looks like, but I didn’t have to write a whole paragraph explaining every aspect of every single dresser, curtain, or chair in it. Everyone always lauds descriptive paragraphs, but sometimes less is more!

[lackluster21]

How To Write And Create A Subplot

A subplot is an essential aspect of any book. It helps drive your story forward and hook your readers in with a compelling narrative. A good subplot raises the stakes for the main character by introducing side characters, creating plot twists, adding another dimension to the story or revealing information from the past or future. 

However, if executed incorrectly subplots can overshadow your main plot and deviate from the heart of your story. Unsure how to create and execute a subplot? Here are some helpful tips to get you started! 

Why Are Subplots Important? 

A subplot is a narrative thread that supports the elements of your main plot. They often build conflict or shed light on a secondary character’s story. Subplots help you create multilevel narrative arcs and build complexity and depth. 

Your readers certainly don’t need to know what your antagonists were doing while the protagonist underwent secluded training, but adding this subplot builds tension, heightens the stakes and easily portrays personality traits and character flaws. This is especially true for genres such as SFF or horror where your characters often don’t know their enemy’s plan until the last moment. 

Subplots are often what make your readers connect with your characters and world-building. To put it simply, if Harry Potter was written without any subplots Rowling could have wrapped up the entire series in one book. 

Types Of Subplots 

It’s important for authors to branch out and implement more than one subplot in their manuscript. Sticking to one subplot can often result in a poor portrayal of an important moment or make an interesting arc fall flat. A simple way to avoid this is by combining different subplots when working on your manuscript. 

Mirror Subplots

Mirror subplots are essentially a subplot that mirrors what your protagonist or antagonist is going through in order to illuminate their personality traits and how they dealt with said situation. A great example of a mirror subplot would be Sophie and Agatha’s dynamics during the first book of A School For Good and Evil. 

Sophie and Agatha both start off with essentially the same introduction to characters like Tedros, the faculty, their roommates, etc. but while Sophie uses a negative outlook to harm those around her Agatha focuses more on a problem-solving approach. 

Contrasting Subplot 

A contrasting subplot is when a smaller character faces the same situation as your protagonist/antagonist but handles the situation differently. For example, a protagonist allowed themselves to be injured in order to safely evacuate a nearby citizen but an antagonist in a similar position used the civilian to shield themselves from the attack. 

Contrasting subplots cannot exist unless both characters undergo the same situation, which is why it is important to plan this subplot out before executing it. 

Complicating Subplot 

Complicating subplots are the most common subplot used in literature. They’re pretty self-explanatory and involve a secondary character creating complications for the protagonist. This can be as simple as your love interest’s sister spreading gossip about the protagonist, or as complicated as a grand political scheme created to turn the protagonist’s allies against them. 

Romantic Subplot 

Romantic subplots are often confused with romance written as a subgenre. The difference between the two is simple—a book with romance as a subgenre simply includes romantic themes, however, a romantic subplot uses romance to deviate from the main plot. 

For example, if your protagonist left their usual environment to attend an event with your love interest for a couple of chapters, that counts as a romantic subplot. However, a character simply having a romantic moment does not constitute as a subplot. 

Things To Keep In Mind When Creating A Subplot 

Now that I’ve divulged all of the facts associated with writing a subplot, here are some personal tips writers should take into consideration when creating a subplot. 

A Subplot Is NOT Its Own Story 

This is an important factor many writers often forget when creating a subplot. Subplots are meant to tie into the main plot and move the story forward. They are supposed to be an arc in your story, not a story of their own. 

Subplots are a great way to foreshadow events, drop hints, reveal character traits, etc. however, you need to consider whether or not your manuscript needs to have these characters. Your deuteragonist’s tragic past with the antagonist might make for a good story, but you could probably summarise those events within one chapter. 

The same can be said for past love interests, ex-friends, training arcs and backstory arcs for minor characters. These factors would all propel your plot forward, however, incorrectly implementing them can ruin your reader’s immersion and deviate from the actual plot. 

If you’re unsure whether or not your subplot should be included in your novel, take the time to consider these few questions: 

Does your subplot help your protagonist accomplish their main goal? Or does it drastically deviate them from their initial purpose? 

Does this subplot introduce a new character, a new side to an old character, or the ‘true’ version of a seemingly good/bad character? 

Would your character be unable to attain their long-term goal without this subplot? 

Would your world-building, character development, or a certain aspect of the main plot feel confusing if not for this subplot? 

If your answer to these was yes, then you probably have a valid subplot on your hands. If not, then you should genuinely consider questions and take into account why you want to include this subplot, to begin with. If your answer is something along the lines of ‘it has so and so scene/dynamic which I really enjoyed or think the readers will like’ then your manuscript would probably do better without that subplot. 

Create Conclusive Arcs 

Unlike your main plot, subplots are supposed to have a start and finish. They need to have a complete arc and some semblance of a conclusion. 

For example, if you were writing a contrasting subplot where the side character decided to abandon another character in order to save themselves, you need to consider what happens once you write out this scene. How do the other characters react to it? Does this impact your side character’s position in the story? And most importantly, how does this impact the rest of your plot? 

You need to know where you’re going to go with your story once you have concluded your subplot, and figure out a way to tie your subplot into your main plot. 

I hope this blog on how to create and execute a sub plot will help you in your writing journey. Be sure to comment any tips of your own to help your fellow authors prosper, and follow my blog for new blog updates every Monday and Thursday.  

Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks? 

Are you an author looking for writing tips and tricks to better your manuscript? Or do you want to learn about how to get a literary agent, get published and properly market your book? Consider checking out the rest of Haya’s book blog where I post writing and marketing tools for authors every Monday and Thursday. 

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Writing Description Notes:

Updated 17th July 2024 More writing tips, review tips & writing description notes

Facial Expressions

Masking Emotions

Smiles/Smirks/Grins

Eye Contact/Eye Movements

Blushing

Voice/Tone

Body Language/Idle Movement

Thoughts/Thinking/Focusing/Distracted

Silence

Memories

Happy/Content/Comforted

Love/Romance

Sadness/Crying/Hurt

Confidence/Determination/Hopeful

Surprised/Shocked

Guilt/Regret

Disgusted/Jealous

Uncertain/Doubtful/Worried

Anger/Rage

Laughter

Confused

Speechless/Tongue Tied

Fear/Terrified

Mental Pain

Physical Pain

Tired/Drowsy/Exhausted

Eating

Drinking

[lackluster21]

Writing Description Notes:

Updated 17th July 2024 More writing tips, review tips & writing description notes

Facial Expressions

Masking Emotions

Smiles/Smirks/Grins

Eye Contact/Eye Movements

Blushing

Voice/Tone

Body Language/Idle Movement

Thoughts/Thinking/Focusing/Distracted

Silence

Memories

Happy/Content/Comforted

Love/Romance

Sadness/Crying/Hurt

Confidence/Determination/Hopeful

Surprised/Shocked

Guilt/Regret

Disgusted/Jealous

Uncertain/Doubtful/Worried

Anger/Rage

Laughter

Confused

Speechless/Tongue Tied

Fear/Terrified

Mental Pain

Physical Pain

Tired/Drowsy/Exhausted

Eating

Drinking