#Advice for writers

[novlr]

Don't be afraid to use your character's name!

To avoid repetition, new writers will often resort to descriptions like "the tall woman," or "the dark-haired man", which breaks up narrative flow and reads as unnatural. Don't over-describe, when just a name will do.

[piffany666]

Writers! Here's some advice

If your re reading your work and aren't sure If something sounds right or could be phrased better

Just imagine it being read in the voice of Jonny Sims

If it sounds weird THEN you change it

Trust me this works I know I do it!

[writerystuff]

Note especially item (2), and for "magazines," read "online stuff."

[she-who-fights-and-writes]

hello! i checked your blog and couldn’t see anything but i apologise if i missed it! do you have any tips on writing regret? for example character a does something to upset character b and now character a is dealing with the aftermath of that

Tips on How to Write Regret

Characters make mistakes, but sometimes it can be difficult to write how they're feeling in the aftermath of those mistakes. Here are some tips and tricks on how to write regret!

These are what I personally try to take into account when writing regret, and I definitely can't cover everything, so feel free to add in your own tidbits of advice!

1. Measure the Regret Based on the Mistake (and your character!)

Regret is a spectrum. It ebbs and flows, rising up to be absolutely suffocating at some times and fading into the background at others. Depending on the mistake your character made and the way that your character personally deals with the knowledge of making such a mistake, their regret is going to differ in intensity.

The reactions of your characters to regret are an incredible way to make them more three-dimensional--especially when the regret (seemingly!) doesn't match the mistake.

Why are they so apologetic and remorseful over something as simple as breaking a mug?

Why do they not seem to care at all that a civilian has become collateral damage?

A character's supposed overreaction or underreaction to certain things can be a great source of tension between your cast.

Just be sure that an overreaction/underreaction to a situation matches your character's personality...or, if it doesn't, make sure the moment counts!

A reader is going to be incredibly jarred if the normally stoic character breaks into tears over a mistake, or if a normally emotional character is cold in the face of a tragedy, so you'll want to save these moments for points of high tension or importance!

2. Pace Your Regret Carefully

Sometimes regret isn't as simple as an apology and resolution. Regret can linger, which is why it's important to pace your character's regret carefully if it's prolonged throughout the story.

If your character's regret is coming from an unresolved argument with another character, you may want to avoid dragging the argument out in a dramatic, constant unwarranted miscommunication kind of way; many readers have started turning their backs on the miscommunication trope, so be warned! Instead, you can have it simmer and fester rather than exploding in bursts, forcing the characters to come to terms with this wall between them as they try to rebuild their relationship.

(Also, make sure you don't completely eliminate apologizing from the equation! Sometimes an apology and resolution can be better for your plot than a cycle of miscommunication; there's nothing more potent than the big "I'm Sorry" scene!)

If your character's regret comes from past mistakes that can never be corrected, you may want to explore the healing process, and how certain people cope with long-term regret.

3. Some Symptoms of Regret

Rapid or unsteady heartbeat

Shaking (hands, legs, etc.)

Chills

Insomnia/Fitful sleep

Rumination

Ruthless criticism of oneself

Perfectionism/high expectations

Crying

Embarrassment/shame (and all the things linked to that: i.e. face feeling hot, wanting to hide, wishing you could melt into your shoes)

Avoiding talking about the mistake

Constantly going over the mistake in their head

Short temper from stress

Defensiveness

Denial

Headaches

Resentment

Queasiness (since regret and guilt are linked to anxiety, they're often described as "a pit in your stomach" or "a bad feeling in your gut" so play around with ways to talk about this feeling)

At times, your character may forget about their regret if they're occupied, which is why regret often hurts the most when they're alone with their thoughts. Either that, or another character brings it up or there is a trigger of some kind to remind them of their mistake.

4. Ways that People Cope With Regret

Therapy/talking about it with others (the healthiest way!)

Refusing to think or talk about it at all

People pleasing and approval-seeking behaviors/attempts to make up for their mistake

Inability to say no (especially to someone they've wronged)

Convincing themselves that they were in the right

Over-apologizing or refusing to apologize at all

Turning to alcohol or drugs

Hope this helped, and happy writing!

[indignantlemur]

I was wondering if you had any advice for beginners writing a long fanfic?

Thank you.

Hello! I actually do have some advice, though of course I must stress that what works for me is not necessarily what will work for others.

I'll break this down into two categories - general and specific.

🖊️GENERAL WRITING ADVICE:

🌟FIRST: Find a process that works for you to stay on track.

Some people find making a diagram or a mind-map of ideas and plotlines helps them stay on track. Some people make a bullet-point list of what they need to accomplish in each chapter. Some don't even bother making a list at all, and write on the fly.

Personally, I've found that making an outline helps me immensely. I can flesh out the outlined points as I need to, throwing in possible bits of dialogue or descriptions that come to me when I think about a scene I've planned, and I can move each plot point around as needed. Not only does this keep me organized, but if I need to take a break from writing, I'm not left floundering when I come back to it. I can pick up the threads right away, because I know exactly how and where I left them and what they're meant to tie into. I keep all of my plot notes on a separate document that I can switch over to (or keep open on a second screen, or even just open on my phone, really) and I reference it constantly.

I do this for shorter stories as well as longer ones, and the key to make this approach work is understanding that the plot points and tidbits I have prepared are guidelines. Only the bare bones are set in stone, and even then I give myself as much flexibility as possible. Sometimes, the scene develops in such a way that I can't include the dialogue or descriptions I'd hoped to because now it doesn't make sense - and that's fine. I save the defunct bits, cut and paste it to a junk drawer document where I put all my missing and cut scenes, and see if I can reuse them in the future. No writing is a wasted effort.

🌟SECOND: Get a second pair of eyes on your work.

Find a beta-reader, or a very good friend who isn't afraid to tell you when something needs work. Ideally, both. Beta-readers are worth their weight in gold twice over (I love you @emilie786!) and will help you with the grammar and the flow of the scene, often catching mistakes you miss. Some beta-readers only want to proof-read, and some want to be more involved in your writing process - clear communication about goals and expectations is key!

Likewise, a writer-friend who's willing to look at your work while it's still rough and give you feedback on it (becoming your alpha audience, as it were) is an amazingly helpful person. They can help you by suggesting different takes on a scene, or alternate phrasing when your writing feels a bit awkward in places, or even workaround for plot problems and any difficulties you run into. I frequently chat with @the-lady-general about our different writing projects, and it's been immensely helpful for both of us.

🌟THIRD: Be prepared to kill your darlings.

So, you've written a thing. You worked hard on it, poured your heart and soul into it, and you love it to pieces. Of course you do! Only... your beta-reader had torn a scene or a character to shreds, however kindly, and now you have to cope with rewriting it.

A kneejerk response a lot of new writers have to this is to get defensive and upset - I've been guilty of this myself, in the distant past when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. I'll tell you now what someone should have told me then: sometimes, a person has to be cruel to be kind. A beta-reader or a friend telling you a scene needs work is a gift compared to your story being panned by negative reviews after the fact, especially if you are the sort to put a lot of emotional value on your reviews (as many of us do).

When this happens, because it inevitably will, listen.

Step back, take a day or two to reset your brain if you need to, and then review what your beta-reader told you. Look at it objectively, without emotion. If you cannot, bring in a friend or mentor who can help you do so. Go over what's been said, the chief complaints and concerns, and open up a new document. Copy the scene. Paste it over. Rewrite the scene in the new document, taking all of the advice given to you into account. Once you're done, take a break. Make a cup of tea. Grab a snack. Go for a walk, even. When you're done, come back and read both the original and rewritten scenes.

You may very well find that your writing has benefited from the exercise, if nothing else, but I suspect you will find you like the rewrite a little better.

🌟FOURTH: Writing tutorials and guides are goldmines.

If you're struggling with writing a scene, or even if you just think it doesn't flow the way you want, look at what other writers who can write these scenes suggest. I struggle with action scenes, personally, and I've been referencing a lot of guides for Hoarfrost (which is still in the works but getting closer to completion!) to shore up those weak points in my writing.

Heck, I spent a literal week reading nothing but smut guides and writing tutorials, learning everything from phrasing to atmosphere-building, before I felt brave enough to try writing TSKW, never mind actually posting chapter 44 of Emigre. My ads haven't been the same since. The VPN did nothing.

Of course, a thesaurus is a valuable tool as a writer, but learning how to stitch your words together to create a scene is more than just knowing twelve different synonyms for the word "said." To that end, I would say that there is absolutely nothing shameful about taking inspiration from other writers and published authors, or from guides and tutorials. So long as you're not copying another's work or borrowing their ideas without permission, of course.

And, finally,

🌟FIFTH: Don't be afraid of writing badly.

I started writing when I was 8 - silly, nonsensical things with no particular plot or plan. Charming, but terrible. I got into fanfiction at 12, and the stuff I wrote was beyond cringe-inducing. Mary Sues, flat descriptions with no life to them, using too much emotion or too little, unrealistic reactions and irrational decisions from every character unfortunate enough to be involved - you name it, I wrote it.

All of this is a perfectly normal part of writing, even if I'd rather walk into the sea with a canon ball lovingly bundled in my arms rather than let any of it see the light of day ever again.

Through these horrible, absolutely godawful first steps into the world of writing, I grew. I got negative reviews, and supportive ones. I took breaks and tried again later. I wrote and rewrote. I erased entire documents and started from scratch more times than I can count (which I kind of regret, hence my advice to make a junk drawer document). I spent weeks, months, even years using my maladaptive daydreaming to hone scenes, refine characterizations, and tweak plot ideas. I have stories and worlds in my head that have been percolating for a literal decade or more, and they still don't feel ready to put onto paper yet - but if I don't start despite that, they never will be.

So don't be afraid of writing badly, and certainly don't let that fear stop you from writing at all. After all, churning out a rough, unrefined first draft is the first and most important step to learning how to write well.

✒️SPECIFIC WRITING ADVICE

The first, best piece of specific advice I ever got when starting out was this:

🌟Describe the scene as if you were describing it to a blind person.

(I always took this advice to mean someone who had recently lost their sight, rather than someone who would have no shared frame of reference for visual descriptions, but you're quite welcome to interpret it differently.)

The colours and shapes we readily think of when it comes to describing a scene are important, but what about texture? Scent? Taste? Scent in particular is hugely important to people because it's directly linked to our memories, but sound and touch are also very important for setting a scene. By excluding those details, you are robbing the audience of layers of immersion.

Think about the sights and scents and sounds around you as you go about your day. How would you describe them? The smell of coffee from across the room - is it earthy, bitter, burnt? Is Karen from accounting eating fish tacos again, despite multiple complaints, and now the cloying, oily aroma of microwaved fish has saturated the entire office? What about the warmth of sunlight streaming through a nearby window against your arm, the way the light catches on the hard edges of the furniture and the highlights in a woman's hair. What about the sound of your shoes against the floor as you walk, the click of heels and the shuffle and squeak of sneakers? Think about how you would describe what you're wearing, beyond bare facts. The softness of the fabric, the sturdiness of the construction, the weight of the material - how would you put them into words?

Spend time actively paying attention to the world around you, to conversations and scenery and people, and ask yourself: how would I write this?

The second piece of advice may seem contradictory, given the first, but it's worth hearing anyway:

🌟Sometimes less is more.

Descriptions and explanations are an important part of story-telling, enhancing the scene and building the world around it, but there's a time and a place. We don't need to know every single descriptive detail about the main character in the first paragraph, or even the first chapter. We don't need to know the entire history of the new alien species the moment we meet them, or even for years after the first encounter. We don't need to wade through ten pages describing how strange and bizarre the alien trees are, nor do we need three different descriptions of the shape of each leaf on every branch.

Learn to space out your expositions and descriptions. Treat them like sprinkles - they look better when they're spread out over the whole cake, rather than clumped in one spot.

My third bit of general advice is this:

🌟Don't rush it.

It's really, really tempting to rush towards that one amazing scene you have planned out in your head - the one with the big emotional impact, the plot twist, the big scene - but don't! Hold off! We, the readers, don't know about all the details that lead up to that scene. We don't know about the layers of meaning and all the build up that leads to that great pay-off. Without that, we simply won't get it. We won't understand what you're trying to convey, or why it's such a big deal.

Take the time to build up the story, to show us how your characters learn and adapt and grow with each challenge. That journey is important. It might feel tedious, like a slog you have to get through to get from Point A to Point B, but we need it! We need those scenes, those moments, in order to stand where you want us to stand when the big scene begins, to know what we need to know and feel what you want us to feel as we watch it happen.

And finally, my fourth and final bit of specific advice:

🌟Wish fulfillment is fun, but realism is what draws us in.

We have all made Mary Sues, Gary Stus, and every possible permutation of them, even if we never quite put pen to paper with them. Many folks who get into writing start by imagining a character who serves as a kind of wish fulfillment or power fantasy put into writing. It's perfectly normal - but the thing to remember is that those characters are a bit... bland. They don't struggle. They don't fail. They don't lose. Or if they do, it's not in a meaningful way. That kind of character is so divorced from reality that it breaks the readers' suspension of disbelief.

Everyone alive has a combination of talents and failings, weaknesses and strengths, insecurities and weird quirks. That's part of the Human experience. A perfect, flawless character defies that experience, and thus we cannot relate to them. The character becomes flat and uninspiring to the audience, and once that happens all that remains is apathy. When there are no stakes, there is no investment. Why should we care about a character who will never fail against even the most overwhelming odds? We already know the ending, because the character cannot lose.

So I urge you to really look at your characters. Some folks recommend taking "Mary Sue Litmus Tests" and such to get a rough idea of how your characters might be received, and those are certainly useful tools - but they are not the only tools at your disposal. Read constantly. Watch films and documentaries alike. Try out new show and book genres, even the ones you don't think you'll like. Really look at the people around you, at how they act versus what they do, and how their unique combination of personality traits and flaws coalesce into a perfectly ordinary person. Inspiration is literally everywhere around you, if you look for it.

Now, everyone creates characters differently. Some folks start with an idea, or a core concept, and build the character around that. Others make characters more procedurally (wherein those "20+ questions about your OC" posts are actually quite useful), and some even use generators to slap a bunch of traits together to see what sticks. Some characters seem to spring fully formed from the ground one day, and others can take years of tinkering to really come into being.

Look for inspiration everywhere, and you'll eventually find a way that works best for your writing.

...I know, I know. You asked for advice and I wrote you a book. If you've made it this far, kudos. Writing can be a lot of work, but never let it be anything other than a labor of love.

[erraticprocrastinator]

A personal anecdote that I think might be helpful for others

A reminder to all writers (and everyone else) to be kind to yourself and try not to compare yourself to others. I was in such a horrible rut of burnout and writer's block at the start of this year that I thought I'd be lucky to manage my school work, let alone anything extra, and I felt absolutely awful and somehow guilty about it. As of September, I've found a new fandom, branched into new genres for the first time and have completed my longest story to date. Turns out my mind needed time to rest and recuperate from the craziness my life has been for the past few years and I needed to allow myself to slow down for that to happen. Hindsight is 20/20. So yeah, don't beat yourself up if your writing isn't going the way you'd like it to, and don't be discouraged by what you see others achieving. Chances are they've gone through something similar, most of us have, we're all human. I know it's easy to tie your self-esteem to your productivity, especially if you're anything like me (a neurodivergent mess), but trust me, the best thing you can do is give yourself grace. You never know when things might take a turn for the better.

[breaniebree]

[dreamy-conceit]

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? ... ... But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.

— Franz Kafka

[manicpixiedreamboots]

How to write your book Step 234

Remember that little ditty you were writing once? That experimental poetry you were unleashing your emotions through?

Get it Published.

That's right. Nothing will light a fire underneath you like accomplishing goals! If you're anything like me the only reason you really want to write a book, is to get it published. Now I'm no expert on publishing, you'll have to do a google like I did. But I found a small company that helped me publish a book of poetry.

Evidence: Kraken by Anna (Span) Streatfeild

Once you have one Actually Published piece of writing, it will bolster your confidence. Invest in yourself. Even if you don't already have an audience, even if the only copies you sell are to your partner and your mum... at least you have a book published!

Look at you go you little Author!

You got this! Keep writing!

[ajwinter-is-a-nerd]

Advice to fanfiction writers:

Don’t beat yourself up too much over plot holes or “stretching reality”. Basically any show over a season will have more of those than you can create 😂

[novlr]

How do you set a scene without overusing visual descriptions?

Practical Tips to Show, Don’t Tell

Show, don’t tell is probably the most common writing advice any author will ever receive. Instead of explicitly telling readers what is happening or how characters are feeling, showing allows them to experience the story firsthand. It’s good advice, and important for writers to take to heart, but sometimes it can be difficult to get the balance right. Here are some practical tips to show, don’t tell:

Set the scene

To really immerse your readers in your story, you want them to feel as if they’re in it – experiencing the world you’ve built. By writing about how characters perceive and interact with their surroundings, you’ll draw your readers in.

Examples:

Telling: It was winter, and the water was cold.

Showing: I hunched my shoulders up, burrowing deeper into my coat as my heavy boots crunched through the thin ice forming at the water’s edge.

Keep up the pace

Excess scene description will almost always bring your narrative pacing to a screeching halt. Instead of describing the scene every time, describe your characters’ actions within it.

Examples:

Telling: The lake was frozen and the trees were covered in snow.

Showing: My heart pounded as I almost lost my balance on the ice beneath my feet. I ducked and weaved my way home, dodging the snow that the howling wind shook loose from the treetops above me.

Keep your language descriptive, but simple

When it comes to show, don’t tell, it can be easy to fall into the trap of over-describing. Language that is too flowery or over the top can be just as bad as telling. You want to set a scene, not explain it to death.

Examples:

Too much: The azure-blue lake glinted like diamonds under a glittering sun that shone like a lightbulb in the darkness.

Just right: The sun reflected off the ice brightly, highlighting the deep blue of the water beneath it.

Create a sense of character

The way a character speaks and acts can be the perfect way to show your readers who they are and set a scene without over-describing it. For example, you can use body language, like gestures and posture to reveal a character’s emotions or attitude in a way you can’t reveal by simply describing the scene. Sometimes an intricate description of the location is not as important as how the character feels in the moment

Examples:

Telling: The room was the same as he remembered as a child, with its red carpets, brown-papered walls, high ceilings, and huge wooden table propped in front of large bay windows. It made him anxious.

Showing: He shuffled anxiously to the table overlooking the garden, his mind heavy with the weight of childhood memories.

[yairqq]

Halloween season is over so now that we have all these scary movies recent in our brains: how do you create tension in stories?

My favorite method to create a spooky feel is giving the reader confusing descriptions of the main senses.

- the contradicting sounds of giggling and anxious mumbling melted in her ears, seamlessly coming from every single corner of the darkness. She was unable to pick out what energetic words she was hearing and who....or what... spoke them.

- there were the formerly indistinguished smells of guts and ... perfume? The mix assaulted her nostrils, a saccharine and wet concoction that made her face contract from repulsion.

- the rain feels as if it's clinging too much to her back, warning her to not take a step further into the empty forrest and making her coat as heavy as her pulsating heart

PLS share your methods with me!! :)

[universitypenguin]

Research, I hate it. But how do you do it anyways?

Research! My favorite! 😍 It’s also my IRL job… so, you’ve come to the right place. Pull up a chair.

- - - - - - - - - -

In writing, I usually do the first draft as quickly as possible and then mark out the places that need more detail. For example, if I’m writing something where the character has to use technical skills, I’ll just insert brackets. In the brackets goes this comment in pink letters, so it’s easy for me to spot during revisions: [Character fixes it in a really cool way.]

Then I move on. When I get to the second draft, I’ll go back and research and fill in the details.

Documentaries are a great resource, because it gives a visual representation of what’s being done. Since I have to describe the process when I write this is ideal. Reddit threads are really helpful for POV experience with different activities and emotions. What is it like to live with bipolar disorder? I don’t know. But someone on Reddit probably posted about it extensively. This is a fantastic place for primary source documentation of life experiences. Going out and doing something yourself, if possible, is often the best form of research. For example, if I was going to put a character in a scene that required snow shoeing, I could definitely do that in my area. (Because I don’t want to have to re-learn how to walk, and fall on my face, I haven’t done it myself. However, for the sake of a story, I’d try it.)

User manuals are a fantastic resource for learning about guns, industrial machinery, cars, and electronic devices. I don’t know how a satellite phone works, but if I want to learn, the manufacturer has a guide on their website. I can use that information to make my character look smart. If they’re following the correct procedures to fix a device, it instantly shows their knowledge and readers can draw conclusions about them based on that information.

The comment in brackets method helps me narrow down exactly what needs to be researched for the most efficient use of time. However, I often find researching a topic inspiring. It sparks new ideas and thoughts about the plot. For this purpose, I sometimes just dive in and see where the internet surfing takes me. I also keep a notebook handy for storing random ideas and thoughts that I don’t know how I’ll use, but they seem cool.

If you’re asking about medical research, I work in the medical research field, so that’s quite a bit easier for me than most people.

One good tool for trauma is the ISS scale. It’s an abbreviation for “Injury Severity Scoring.” This is how we calculate someone’s probability of survival after an injury. We can also extrapolate from that data to measure the performance of trauma centers, EMS personnel, and surgical interventions. The scale goes from 1-75 with a 75 being a fatal injury. There are guides to using this method online and descriptions of what each injury is and how they’re weighted. The ISS scale has been used since the 1960s. After decades of improvements and revisions, it’s very accurate. (If you need more details, I can show you how to use it. Or even run the numbers for you.)

Having a background in EMS (and a little SAR experience) is a great help to my writing. I’d recommend anyone who can go get a certification for first aide, basic/advanced EMT (or anything similar) that’s accessible to you.

Being able to do something during a disaster is very empowering. It will serve you well beyond your writing career. I’m sure automation and other technologies will change a lot in the future, but you can’t ask a machine to pry you out of the vehicle that you wrapped around a tree. Paramedics have great job security on that front.

Here are my final recommendations:

Documentaries

A few ideas: DW Documentaries on YouTube. They’re a very neutral perspective because they’re produced by the German state news channel. As an American, I find that they’re far enough away from our sphere of influence to make content that challenges some of my pre-conceived assumptions that come from a lack of international experience.

PBS frontline also has some interesting documentary content. ABC News in-depth is pretty good. 60 minutes Australia tends to be another great show for gathering information. Top Documentary Films is a website that offers a ton of free documentary films. Here is a link to their website.

Reddit threads

This is great for discovering how people feel and think about events that you haven’t seen or experienced yourself. There are posts from individuals in various communities with unusual life experiences and from different cultures and backgrounds. For example, I’ve not been paragliding, but I can read a play-by-play of what it feels like from some daredevil who does it every weekend. This is fantastic, because I don’t want to go paragliding. Like, at all.

Real life exposure

This is only when it’s possible. Real life experience is the best for medical exposure and physical activities.

User manuals

Read a user manual for things you don’t know about. There’s a lot of information on guns that can help you learn the proper terminology. For example, a clip is different than a magazine

You can apply this method to learn a lot about a particular weapon quickly. The Glock firearm has a website with links to their user manuals. I went to their information section and retrieved the user manual. Here’s pictures of some of their diagrams:

Reviewing the manual will only give you so much information. Having real life experience shooting a Glock will help you fill in those gaps. This is why that real life experience is still very important. For example, hitting the release mechanism for the Glock’s magazine requires you to stretch your fingers around the grip of the gun, particularly if you have smaller hands. In order to hit it with enough pressure for the magazine to drop is rather difficult with shorter fingers.

User manuals will allow you to identify the specific vocabulary, and give you a clear idea of how the gun works. As a bonus, this is the best tool to learn how to break something. If you want to learn how to throw a kink in the scene for your character and cause problems, check out the user manual. They tell you a lot about vulnerabilities and issues with devices. In my opinion, user manuals tend to be the most reliable source of information for a lot of things.

I hope this helped! Message me if you need anything. I’d be glad to talk about trauma medicine if you need specific details on realistic injuries.

[writerystuff]

ADVICE FROM A MASTER

"You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different worlds on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write."

– Annie Proulx

[sarahspy]

I know this about myself: I finish things. Most people can’t start things or most people can’t finish things, but if you can start something and finish something, you’re going to be fine. As for status, riches, fame, and splendor? Those are out of reach for everybody.

Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko, interviewed by Alexis Cheung for The Believer