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PLEASE for the love of the universe read anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy written from marginalized perspectives. Y’all (you know who you are) are killing me. To see people praise books about empire written exclusively by white women and then turn around and say you don’t know who Octavia Butler is or that you haven’t read any NK Jemisin or that Babel was too heavy-handed just kills me! I’m not saying you HAVE to enjoy specific books but there is such an obvious pattern here

Some of y’all love marginalized stories but you don’t give a fuck about marginalized creators and characters, and it shows. Like damn

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Fanfic writers, I am begging you- even with dialogue that is clearly attributed, start a new paragraph with each new speaker. The reader shouldn't have to wait until after the dialogue is spoken to understand who is saying it.

Even if it's one word?

Yes.

But it makes things so long!

Great! Your stories will be the king of scrolling, a feast of thumbs, and a gentle stroke across a phone screen.

This convention exists for a reason! Each new paragraph should be a new idea or a new speaker. It's a shortcut for our brains to know that we have jumped across a gap and into the unknown, and you as the writer are about to explain to me where we have jumped to, but at least I know we are somewhere different.

Please practice this! I see so many good fanfic I want to read but except for this huge, glaring issue and it becomes impossible to understand what is happening.

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writing tip:

if you push buttons on a keyboard, letters will appear on the screen. and with that power you can do anything

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Writing Websites

1. a website with a list of superpowers and what they are

2. a website that generates random au ideas

3. a website that generates names, basic info and futures in a bunch of languages

4. a website that checks your grammar

5. website that lists types of execution in the states

6. a website with info on death certificates

7. a website with info on the four manners of death

8. a website with info on the black plague

9. website with information on depression

10. a website with info on the four types of suicide

11. website that lists famous quotes

12. website with different kinds of quotes

13. a website with info on food in every country

14. a website with a list of different colors

15. website with a list of medieval jobs

16. website with a list of fabrics

17. website with a list of flowers and pictures

18. website with a list of flowers and no pictures

19. website with a list of poisonous plants

20. website with a list of poisonous and non-poisonous plants

21. website with a list of things not to feed your animals

22. website with a list of poisons that can be used to kill people

23. website with info on the international date line

24. website with a list of food allergies

25. website with a list of climates

26. website with info on allergic reactions

27. website with info on fahrenheit and celsius 

28. website with info on color blindness

29. website with a list of medical equipment

30. website with a list of bugs

31. website with an alphabetic list of bugs and their scientific name

32. website with a list of eye colors

33. website (wikipedia sorry) with list of drinks

34. website with a list of religions

35. website with a list of different types of doctors and what they do

36. website (wikipedia again sorry) with a list of hair colors

37. website that generates fantasy names

38. website with a list of body language

39. website with a list of disabilities

40. website with an alphabetic list of disabilities

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the suffering never ends

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Literally none of my story ideas come with a plot, ever. WITHOUT FAIL, it’s always just an Aesthetic, like two and a half characters, some very, very vivid settings, and a weird concept. Never plot. Not even an inkling of a plot. My brain tosses me this cool stuff and is like welp i’ll be back in 4-5 business months 

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She-Who-Fights-And-Writes FAQ

If any of your asks can be found on this page, I probably won’t answer. (Sorry!)

I also don’t really answer asks that can’t be applied universally to everyone; I can’t tell you how to write your story! Sometimes you have to be able to work out issues in your WIP on your own; it helps you become a better writer!

There’s A LOT more than this, so if you need anything feel free to check out my answering asks tag!

Once Upon A Time (Starting)

How to Outline (For Short Stories and Longer Works!)

How to Get Into Writing Fiction

How to Overcome Writer’s Block

How to Choose Which POV to Use (Source @evans-writing)

How to Write First Person POV

How to Write Certain Tenses

Is Your Story Better as a Fanfic or an Original Work?

Stuff Happens (Plot)

How to Write A Scene (AKA get through the boring parts) (Source: Jerry Jenkins)

How to Write a Fight Scene

How to Write Gangster/Mafia Fiction

How to Make Your Story Longer

How to Make Your Story Less Sad

How to Make Your Story Scarier

How to Write About School

How to Write an Apocolypse

How to Write Magic

How to Write a Missing Person’s Report

How to Write Pain

How to Write a Sub-Plot

How to Write a Terrorist Attack

How to Write a Villain Redemption Arc

How to Write Switching POVs in Fanfiction

How to End Your Story (Source: Now Novel)

Descriptions + Dialogue

How to Expand Your Vocabulary and Utilize English Idioms/Figures of Speech

How to Write a Smooth, Rhythmic Narrative

How to Write Dialogue

How to Avoid Purple Prose

How to Balance Description and Dialogue

Prologues and Info Dumping

Master List of Speech Tags

Characters (Who you will inevitably wind up torturing)

How to Write Complex Characters

How to Write (Good) Female Characters

How to Write a Villain

Villain Motivations

Ways To Tell if Your Characters are Too Similar (How To Cut Characters)

How to Write Young Children and Babies

How to Write Siblings

Love Stuff

How to Write a Romance

How to Write Falling In Love

How to Write Healthy Relationships

How to Write Makeout Scenes

How to Write Toxic Relationships

How to Write Teasing in a Romantic Relationship

Fantastic Beasts (And How to Write Them)

How to Write Shape-shifters

How to Write Characters With Wings

How to Write Angels (A History of Angelic Lore)

How to Write Characters with Tails

How to Write Zombies

How to Write Gods, Goddesses, and Dieties

How to Write Animals in Battle

How to Write a Hive Mind

Diversity

I am a straight, white, cisgender woman and shouldn’t give you any advice but to DEFINITELY include diversity! Here are some great blogs for you to follow!

@writingwithcolor

@yourbookcouldbegayer

@scriptautistic

@actuallyblind

@cripplecharacters

Writing Deaf of Hard of Hearing Characters

Miscellaneous

My Writing Playlist

How to Become a Writing Advice Blog

How to Write Constructive Criticism

Books You Should Get As a Writer

Writing Memes

Worried About Your Search History?

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i’ve been doing my homework on how to break into a writing career and honestly. there’s a Lot that i didn’t know about thats critical to a writing career in this day and age, and on the one hand, its understandable because we’re experiencing a massive cultural shift, but on the other hand, writers who do not have formal training in school or don’t have the connections to learn more via social osmosis end up extremely out of loop and working at a disadvantage. 

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a handful of (probably) unpopular opinions on writing:

a kiss scene doesn’t have to lead to sex. it can, ofc, but it doesn’t have to. your characters can kiss for the sake of kissing and nothing more. kissing is hella enjoyable in and of itself, so it doesn’t always have to be a means to an end

a story doesn’t have to be steeped, marinated, and executed with tragedy to be a Real Story. obviously you can and should put your characters through the wringer, but if you don’t tell a story with hope and happiness it’s not really a story worth telling. be brutal but don’t be 100% dismal and bleak

a fantasy doesn’t have to be centered on a war, especially if you don’t feel fully capable of writing about war. they’re tricky and unruly beasts, and if you aren’t willing to give them the proper treatment (read: not romanticizing them), you’re better off not writing about war in the first place

your royal character can be fine with arranged marriages. they don’t always have to run away to escape them only to fall in love with the betrothed they were running from in the first place

on the note of romances, your story A. doesn’t need a romance if it doesn’t fit and B. doesn’t necessitate every character getting into a relationship by the end. for some people, romance isn’t their idea of a happily ever after, so you don’t have to force that into your book

perhaps the most unpopular, but it needs to be said: your female character should not slap your male character. ofc there are times when a slap is warranted, but if he’s just being a dick he doesn’t need to be slapped. that’s physical assault and abuse, which should never be acceptable, even if it makes some people laugh (it shouldn’t and yet it always does 🙄)

your female character A. doesn’t have to be thin, B. doesn’t have to be a Strong Female Character, and C. doesn’t have to go through nauseating hardships (read: sexual assault or physical abuse) for her story to be worth telling

these are all i can think of off the top of my head. feel free to add on if you think of any!

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Forever indebted to @mostlysignssomeportents for this one. 

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Writing Asexuality in Fiction - Masterpost

I’ve finally built up a nice series of essays on writing asexuality and asexual characters in fiction. Here they are, all together in one place. They’re intended to be useful for asexual and non-asexual writers alike. They are also meant to be inclusive of gray-asexual and demisexual characters, although my knowledge is limited there.

These essays assume you already have a basic knowledge of what asexuality means: a general lack of sexual attraction to other people. This is not Asexuality 101; for that, check out the links on my resources page.

Character Development Questions

Demisexual Characters and Relationships

Glossary of Words and Concepts Used in Asexual Communities

Fetishization of Asexuality

How to Show That a Character is Asexual

Negative Responses Asexual Characters May Get When Coming Out

Plot Ideas

Potential Sources of Conflict For Asexual Characters

Sex Scenes with Asexual Characters

Stereotypes to Avoid

Other potentially relevant topics

Aromanticism 101

Aromantic Representation, or Lack Thereof

Lithromantic Story Prompts

Relationships That I Want to See More of in Fiction

Sherlock Holmes as an Asexual Character - May be useful if you need an example or inspiration for how asexuality can influence a character and their relationships.

This post may be updated in the future as I write more stuff on this subject; I’ll link to it from my blog’s homepage so it’s easy to find.

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fun studying tip: if you’re a procrastinator, play tom jones’s “what’s new pussycat” on repeat while writing your papers and do not turn it off until you are finished, it will motivate you to finish that essay as quickly as possible

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reasons to not quit writing:

your writing is a skill, not an inborn talent (unless, yeah, maybe it is). not everyone can do what you do and love

everyone says they want to write a book. everyone has what it takes to write a book. not everyone does it anyway. you be the small percentage of success you read about

your writing will always seem brickshit horrible because you wrote and read it a million times

you love this writing thingy. quitting it will be like cutting off your fingers one by one.

someone out there will want to read what you wrote.

someone out there wants to know what is on your mind. 

someone out there appreciates your art. they will share it with their friends. they will share it with their loved ones. they will share it with their future self because maybe what you wrote saved them.

if you give up now, you know you will just come back to it again, whether it’s years from now, months, or next week. you love writing, that’s why you planted the seed of thought that you are going to write this book, and whether you come back to it or not, your unwritten stories will come back to you.

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Literally none of my story ideas come with a plot, ever. WITHOUT FAIL, it’s always just an Aesthetic, like two and a half characters, some very, very vivid settings, and a weird concept. Never plot. Not even an inkling of a plot. My brain tosses me this cool stuff and is like welp i’ll be back in 4-5 business months 

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Trying to find the perfect name for a character, but you only have a vague idea of what you want, like “he feels like a 2-syllable kind of guy” or “It need a hard consonant at the end.”   

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“Nope,” I whisper as I exit out of a fic with no paragraph breaks.