#building a writing habit

[icamefromadream]

°•°Habits to Give Your Characters°•°

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Constantly crosses legs when sitting

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Doodles when zoned out (if there's no paper around they could trace doodles like little hearts on a table or even on the back of their hand)

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Crucks knuckles

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Braids hair when their bored (or just generally plays with their hair)

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Stands way to close to people when talking to them.

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Avoids eyecontact when people talk to them.

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Clutches on to other's sleeves.

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Bites nails when nervous

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Raises their eyebrows when interested.

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Offers food to others, before taking a bite themselves.

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Scratches top of nails (like when you're scratching the coat of nail polish off your nails.)

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Whistles to ease nerves.

Follow @paranoia-art for more!

Do message me if you have anymore you would like to add!

[rileys-battlecats]

girl help I started writing down oc thoughts and have started contemplating the logistics of how a city carved into the walls of a ravine would have access to fresh water

[femmefatalevibe]

any tips for getting into copywriting?

Learn the basics of copywriting & writing fundamentals/ marketing skills

Study the different types of copywriting (web/banners, email, social, ads, direct mail, sales letters, etc.)

Decide on your niche(s). Study everything you can about the industry, trends, latest news, customer demographics/psychographics, customer behavior, types of lifestyles/preferences they have, how they speak, where they spend the most time (IRL or digitally)

Craft an inspiration folder full of compelling copywriting examples you find when browsing on the web, going through your email, scrolling on social media, billboards, magazines, direct mail, etc.

Practice rewriting these examples with your own flair. Evaluate it, and keep practicing until you're proud of your copy.

Be as concise, clever, and convincing as possible. Keep your tone conversational (write like how you would speak), catchy, simple, and witty. Take out any extraneous or fluff words. Pepper in cultural references, puns, and relatable anecdotes understood by your target audience when relevant to your messaging/CTA

Create a portfolio with these mock-ups or projects done for family/friends (state they're spec work, not client-commissioned samples) or clips from an internship, school work, etc.

Craft a USP for yourself (including your niche, copywriting specialties, and the specific expertise you offer within your broader niche/service offerings that makes you unique)

Create an Upwork profile and share your services on LinkedIn (optimize both of these profiles)

Research local clients and small businesses within your niche. Also, take time to create a list of dream clients. Study their copy, brand voice, and keep tabs on updates regarding these companies' happenings

Learn the art of a cold email/LinkedIn pitch/Upwork proposal. Introduce yourself and your services to your prospect and share with them how you can fulfill a specific need they're seeking out (For local and smaller companies, feel free to offer suggestions. With more established companies, connect the dots as to why your experience/expertise is a great fit for their brand/target audience), and attach your work/link to your LinkedIn profile, website, and any other relevant hub for your professional services & content

Ask for referrals from friends/family to get started. If they're not a relative, get a testimonial to include in your portfolio

Follow up once if you haven't heard back from a prospective client after an initial pitch after a few days

Search for potential gigs on sites like Upwork/ProBlogger/People Per Hour

Once you land a gig, execute to the best of your ability and hand in your work by the deadline (strategies surrounding best business practices is a whole other post, lol)

Gather testimonials from all clients of successful projects. Confirm with clients whether you can use their work in your portfolio if you're unsure

Continue studying copywriting from books, courses, and everyday reading & living

Stay knowledgeable about advancements/updates in your field, keep updated on current events, and culture/social trends, and read a lot in general. Have interesting, multi-faceted conversations with others. Observe what makes people tick & remain engaged in a verbal dialogue or content

[saetoru]

and before i part with you all once again i wanted to share that i have for the first time (and perhaps last time) 36 starred abyss

[laspocelliere]

Day Twenty-Eight: Deleterious

In darkness and silence, the Ascian appeared in Ishgard.

He wasn’t unfamiliar with the city. In recent years, even, it had come to resemble his familiar Garlemald, locked in an icy grip from which its citizens needed to shelter against. It made them, in his opinion, all the easier to control; fear was quite conveniently sowed where challenges and difficulty lie.

It would likely be ripe to revisit in a few short years. When certain…inconveniences had died off.

In the snow-capped night, Emet-Selch gazed, unimpressed, down on one such inconvenience.

He was asleep, and the state didn’t improve him any. It had taken very little effort for the Ascian to trace the glamoured ring on the hero’s finger to the hollow attempt at a knight who currently lay atop his fully made bed, brow furrowed with restless sleep and nightmares. Worry, likely, and the simplicity and naivete of it all made him want to slit the Commander’s throat where he lay. Save him the mess and the heartbreak that was certain to follow, if he continued to follow his current path.

If he continued to follow her.

Despite knowing the hero of the Source for only a short period, Emet-Selch had known her, instantly and immediately. She reeked of death; destruction followed her like a plague. There was armageddon in those eyes of hers, and anyone who fell into their path would be met with only doom.

He had encountered eyes like hers before.

Only one of them had walked out of it alive.

The same fate waited for this son of Ishgard. The Ascian peered down at him with vague disgust in the darkness, watching the nightmares flit worry across his closed eyelids. With their hero stranded on the First, clearly the pair had been separated, and it was taking its pathetic toll; Emet-Selch could see the dull shadows under the boy’s eyes even in the dim light. He longed and yearned for her in ways that the man Emet-Selch had once been might have done, centuries ago.

Back before he knew what women of her sort could do. What the follies of hearts not meant to be could do to topple a society, to fracture and destroy thousands of lives.

This Warrior held the same nuclear power in her very being.

He intended to use it. Incidentally, by turning her into the weapon she had been designed to become, he would unintentionally save this poor, unassuming boy from the fallout of her blast.

Tilting his head as though studying an insect beneath a magnifying glass, Emet-Selch considered the sleeping knight. He found him lacking and sorely wanting in every way, and the disappointment he felt annoyed him more than it should have. What about this powerless, unimpressive knight had turned the hero’s head on that lovely neck of hers? He was plain, and Emet-Selch had seen similar of his ilk dozens of times over the centuries; princes who thought they could make a difference.

They bled just the same as every one who had come before them.

After a few moments, as his annoyance grew, the Ascian disappeared as seamlessly as he’d arrived. Back to the First, back to the plans he’d laid, and back to their precious hero with her icy anger and fire-torn eyes.

Maybe, in her destruction, he might actually create a net good for the first time in millennia.

[joelliies]

Third-Person Limited Vs Third-Person Omniscient

The third-person point of view and third-person omniscient point of view both tell stories from an external narrator's perspective, but they differ in terms of how much knowledge the narrator has and shares about the characters’ inner thoughts and feelings.

Third-Person Limited

In third-person limited, the narrator focuses on the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a single character at a time. We only see what that character sees and knows, even though it’s told from an outside perspective. This viewpoint brings readers closer to one character but doesn't reveal the inner thoughts of others.

Example:

Sarah hurried down the street, clutching her coat tightly. She glanced behind her, heart pounding, sure that someone was following her. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, she thought, trying to calm herself. But she couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.

In this example, we’re limited to Sarah’s perspective. We know her thoughts and feelings, but we don't know what anyone else is thinking or feeling.

Third-Person Omniscient

In third-person omniscient, the narrator knows everything about all the characters and events in the story. This "all-knowing" narrator can jump between characters' thoughts, feelings, and experiences and offer insights that the characters themselves might not have. It provides a broader view of the story and can add depth by revealing multiple viewpoints.

Example:

Sarah hurried down the street, clutching her coat tightly, unaware that the man across the road had been watching her intently. I have to catch her before she leaves, he thought, his gaze fixed on her. Meanwhile, Sarah felt a growing sense of dread, though she couldn’t tell what was causing it.

Here, the narrator shares Sarah's inner thoughts and the man's as well, moving freely between their perspectives to give readers a fuller picture of what’s happening.

Key Differences

Third-Person Limited sticks to one character's thoughts and feelings at a time, creating intimacy with that character.

Third-Person Omniscient offers a broader perspective, with insight into multiple characters' inner thoughts, often providing a more comprehensive view of the story.

[muirmarie]

writing fic more consistently than i have for, yikes, like 8 years??? is funny because i keep realizing i'm writing directly in conversation with myself? like i find myself raising points that i inadvertently answer in something else? just internally, i mean, i don't think it is/should be noticeable from the outside, per se. but for example the time loop fic had the "when did you stop believing in me?" line, and in the knife to the throat fic i kind of realized i was writing it directly in response to that idea? idk it's just interesting when writing more consistently how my brain is just doing a call and response across different stories? i always feel so awkward talking about the process of writing lmaooooo, but anyway general reminder you can always block that first tag <3

[quillyfied]

So I’ve been trying out writing 200 words a day. I’m someone who can write about 2000 words an hour when properly motivated. The goal felt silly and like it was…not beneath me, but not equal to my potential. But the challenge isn’t the length; it’s the daily repetition of it.

I’ve had a convention and a baby’s birthday party this past fortnight so I haven’t been super consistent, but. Since I started at the beginning of February. I’ve written 2500 words. Which is 2500 words more than I would have written while waiting for a spare moment and inspiration to crank out many thousands of words.

Setting up a daily routine of small, simple maintenance steps is super hard. But the satisfaction of the small, undeniable steps of progress is really cool, actually. Really motivating.

(Plus the process is becoming like playing telephone with myself. I’ve stopped at 200 words today; wonder what’s gonna happen next 200 words?)

[thomine]

beneath the surface : xiao

pair: xiao x reader info: general audiences, sport injuries, past experiences of drowning, modern au, intentionally lowercase, not proofread

summary: your love for diving is tested, and xiao doesn’t make quitting easy either.

word count: 1.1k words series: day 1 of au august 2023 / prompt: sports links: work tag

“watch,” the sports anchor says as the crowd at the olympic hall hushes. 

you shut your eyes and take a deep breath. this isn’t just any ordinary diver—it’s olympic diver xiao from liyue. he broke as much bones as he did for records in diving. this is a chance you don’t want to miss, yet seeing him wobble his weight on the flimsy board makes your palms sweaty.

you can feel the tension of the board beneath you, experience the rush of air as he leaps. you are no foreign to the procedure as a diver yourself.

breath hitched in your throat, you lean forward as he does his twist and jumps, but before he can rip the water, you find yourself victim to fear. you close your eyes and cover your ears. the audience roars. only then do you release that breath you held, and watch in awe as xiao’s dark hair breaks through the water’s surface.

shamefully, you look down, avoiding the heavy gaze of your coach that brought you here to teach you a lesson, one you know but find hard to execute.

thinking about it attracts pain in your knees to return. you press them together, a hand over your right knee as your fingers graze over the scar.

“graceful, isn’t he?” your coach says, arms crossed. “to think he had an ankle sprain a few weeks before this dive.”

you nod slowly, unsure what you should say. you can’t promise your coach anything, not when you’ve yet to win your fears.

it’s uncomfortable to hear him remain quiet as the background cheers. the announcer releases xiao’s marks. no surprise he jumps to first place.

“i need to use the washrooms,” you mumble, placing your items down. your coach barely gives you any form of acknowledgement as his eyes are fixed on xiao who does a bow before heading off.

finding an abandoned spot beside the toilet behind the hub, you sit on the floor.

sigh.

you wear your hoodie up, pulling its strings so the edges cover your face.

the longer you stall the harder it is for your body to return. your coach was right that you had to make your decision now.

you do love diving, but when you tore your ACL, the months in the hospital were a perfect place to begin reflecting if you’re willing to do it again.

and you did, but you didn’t love diving to the extent you’d go through such pains a third time. 

your career, although amounting to nothing compared to xiao’s, was still something, and your coach had faith if you pushed past this mental barrier as all divers do with the waters before their dive, then you’d go big.

“bigger than xiao?” you asked once.

“of course not,” the coach said. “you can’t even go through an ACL tear twice, you think you can experience it 5 times?”

a slap to the face, but a little reassuring that you wouldn’t dethrone your idol. 

something cold touches your hoodie and wets it. you bring it down to give whoever who messed with you a strong glare, only to meet with amber eyes and familiar mess of dark hair.

it’s a sports drink, fresh from the vending machine a few meters down. xiao’s holding it, arms outstretched towards you.

“… thank you,” you mutter as you take it.

“how’s your knee?” he asks, arms in his pockets. he changed from his swimsuit to his casual clothes fast.

“the news really loved covering it, huh?” you quip as you open the bottle, the fizz of the drink rising.

xiao doesn’t respond to your commentary. just stares, patiently waiting for a reply.

“well, uh,” you add after trying not to be awkward in the silence he brings, “i guess it’s fine. sometimes it feels like i tore it again while doing small tasks, but the doctor inspected it and said it’s healing fine. how’s your ankle?”

he balances his weight on the healthier ankle, then gives his left a twirl.

“it’s recovering.”

“have you ever thought of taking a break?” you ask out of the blue, although this question has haunted you for months. “even with new injuries, you never seem to stop.”

xiao takes the empty spot beside you. it’s crazy to see him so close. the last this happened was when you first tore your ACL at the Olympics. you almost drowned if it wasn’t for him jumping into the waters the moment he noticed something went wrong.

he was also nice enough to volunteer going with you to the hospital. throughout the ambulance ride, he held your hand and told you tips to bear with the pain.

“i don’t know what i’d do if i wasn’t diving,” he answers, voice barely there. “the pain becomes an afterthought soon enough.”

before you can question him further, he stands and makes his leave.

can you see yourself doing anything other than diving?

yes, you can. you have dreams of opening a little cafe at one point in your life. there’s also that dream of using the money earned from diving to travel the world. you can’t be diving forever, right?

head in hands, it dawns on you how isolating xiao’s fame is. to think he has nothing he can look forward to after his career as a diver… it was depressing.

“xiao!” you call out impulsively before his figure disappears. when he turns to you, you find yourself lost for words. would it be out of your place, a mere fan whom he so happened to have exchanged a few words on certain occasions, have any right to say anything? 

his dreams; his passions; who he is beyond diving? they are questions that bog your mind every time your eyes land on him. who is the boy behind the poster and newsletter and whatever the news make him out to be?

you fiddle with the ends of your hoodie. time is slipping away yet the words don’t co-operate.

there are too many things to say—

“i owe you two,” you settle in the end.

he looks at you confused.

you raise the drink, then add, “plus, that time you accompanied me to the hospital. after my… accident.”

he nods.

“diving is a dangerous sport,” he says. “if you don’t have to means to bear with the pain behind a diver’s elegance, then don’t. it is not worth.”

and he leaves. you’re alone with the drink and his advice.

it pushes you oh so gently to your preferred answer to your coach, but something tells you that you need to brace whatever impact this career will bring to your weary body if you want the opportunity to repay him what he did to you.

you gulp down the drink like fuel, readying yourself to face your coach who’s probably looking for you right now.

will you regret this?

author's note: first post for au augst! not my best work but i think about this au occasionally. i just think it's so fitting for xiao considering his gameplay and the nature of diving.

[dnschmidt]

How to Achieve a Daily Writing Habit

Before you can master the art of writing, you first have to master the habit. Whether you want to write professionally or as a hobby, the best way to build your skills is to write every day. Read on to learn how to start a daily writing habit.

[hongluboobs]

book reader i have a copy of dream of the red chamber (volume 1) that ive been trying to get through for over a year how do i motivate myself to finish it

I'm recently coming out of a half a year ish period of not reading very much so trust me when I say the lack of motivation comes for us all. I think I have some tips for how to motivate reading in general+ some for DOTRC specifically :)

(Real quick, I assume because you mentioned a volume 1 you're talking about the Hawkes-David translation published by Penguin in five volumes under the name 'The Story of The Stone'. This is the translation I read through, and it's the one I see recommended most to english speakers looking for an enjoyable reading experience, so to any other prospective readers of this novel I HIGHLY recommend reading this translation as opposed to any other ones. I don't know if I need to say this or if it's well-known to seek out that version, but because Hong Lu's canto is coming up I want to make sure anyone interested in reading through the source material can have the best experience possible with it👍)

It's important to remember that reading is a hobby, and the best way to keep going with it is to make it a habit. Unfortunately, this means forcing yourself to read sometimes, but it comes easier the more you do it. The trick is: it doesn't have to be a lot of reading.

The hard part for me is really just picking up the book and starting to read. Normally with books I like to set a goal of a chapter or so per day, but because this book has longer chapters that wasn't always feasible for me, especially if I had stuff to do. But once I had the book in my hands and started reading I would usually go above my goal I had set :)

Last year a lot of my DOTRC reading was done while I was waiting in line for things, getting/eating food, waiting on the bus, or killing time between classes/during boring lectures (I don't know if I'd advise that last one). This is moreso once you get in the rhythm of things, though.

Another tip is sometimes the format is the thing to stop me. I don't know if you're reading from a physical book or an ipad/kindle/etc or a computer or what, but sometimes I read better on my laptop than other things because it's Always Around. Sometimes I don't feel like grabbing a book or I don't have it with me, but my laptop's already open and I'm bored so maybe I'll do a little bit of reading instead of scrolling social medias. Lately, i've been jumping between my laptop and kindle for reading (laptop for convenience, kindle for portability and reading before bed at night) but I've gone between physical books and digital devices before. (If you want the epub versions of dotrc, I'd be willing to share them as well. The only difficulty is page numbers change between reading formats so I can only really switch at the start of chapters or if I skim to where I last was.

Something that saved me while reading DOTRC specifically (as well as other sinner books) was having a place I could discuss/"liveblog" the book. These books can get LONG and the reading experience varies from "really interesting and compelling" to "oh my godddd I do not need 20 pages of Outdated Whale Facts right now". (no offense to Moby Dick. I'm only slandering that one because I read the whole thing and in spite of enjoying it I understand why there are SO many abridged versions around.) It's kind of just the classic lit experience to deal with these types of things, but it's a lot more tolerable to me if you can talk to other people about it.

When I read DOTRC I didn't have anyone else reading with me, but just having a place to tell people about all the things that happen in this book helped me to keep track of events and characters. It also motivated me to keep reading so I could tell The People what happened next. Having someone else read with me would probably have helped as well, but it's hard to sell people on reading a 5-volume behemoth of a novel with so much stuff in it it has it's own field of study dedicated to it.

You can really yap anywhere. I have a channel in my Limbus Discord dedicated to the books so I don't drive everyone insane with my rambling and it seems to have helped some of my friends get through some of the other books as well so I think this method is a pretty solid success? You could also pretty easily do it just in someone's DMs if they're already familiar with the book (this has the bonus of them potentially being able to clarify things for you and help you get a deeper understanding of the book) or even yapping on a tumblr sideblog or empty notes doc or something.

So TL;DR:

Picking up the book is the hardest part. Reading a little is better than not reading at all.

Subjecting your friends to this book will make it easier to keep going :)

Also: for Dream of the Red Chamber specifically: the book starts slow. I don't know how far in you are, but so many people drop it early. I started reading it during a 12-ish hour car ride and that might've been the play because i can see people getting bored during the first few chapters. It definitely picks up though, so trust me when I say it gets a lot easier to read as you keep going. Chapter 5 is an incredibly interesting chapter, and from there I find things pick up and start going faster. (It helps that chapter 5 is pretty relevant for the direction I think Limbus is going to take canto 8 in!) The later volumes were able to go by a lot faster for me than the earlier ones as well.

This is a long ass book, but it's gonna be a while before Hong Lu's canto drops and we get to Witness that Surrender. Or Surrender that Witness. I'm not actually sure. But regardless, you've got plenty of time to get through it, even if you're a slower reader or don't have much time to dedicate to reading. Steady progress is the name of the game for stuff like this.

Worst case, you've killed a bunch of time during the wait for Hong Lu's canto (because oh boy, I have a feeling this one's gonna be a wait) and you are able to gain a better appreciation for canto 8 by understanding some of the nicher bits of how it adapts stuff from the source.

Best case, you really enjoy reading it and end up like a bunch of the Hong Lu fans I know who were permanently changed by reading this book and started reading scholarly analysis of it for fun (or start seeking out every adaptation of it you can find, or read the book 5 times over... I am coming to realize this book does something to people.)

This book is legitimately incredibly good, even outside the context of me reading it because I was very invested in that beautiful cyan freak from a game I like. I might not have been able to get through it without Limbus providing me the push to keep going on days where I really didn't want to read, but it's a legitimate interest of mine now I will seek out information on regardless of its connection to Limbus! Trust me when I say it's worth getting through even if it feels hard or tedious.

(and if it helps- a solid amount of the stuff I feel is most likely to be Limbus relevant happens near the end of the book. There's so much in this book so things that could be relevant are scattered throughout almost all of it, but I've been picking up so many end of the book vibes from stuff we've seen lately. so you've got to get there!!)

[foremyth]

incredibly mesmerized by aizen operating under daily/ordinary or even domestic circumstances

[throughtrialbyfire]

in the spirit of NoSkipNovember, i worked on my plotting document for my main fic Cycle of the Serpent today! i managed to get two chapters i've written annotated and highlighted so i have all the reference points i need for future parts, and i may knock out part of another before i go to bed.

[slowdesire]

walking getting sunlight regularly reading playing guitar eating dinner consistently and slowly eating lunch + breakfast too every now and then (work in progress lol) these all sound bare minimum and i guess they are but this is DEVELOPMENT for me 😫

[woolysocks]

going thru my journal usually helps me get back in the swing of it so here's a tour thru some pages i like :')

[joelliies]

when writing is it better to use Third-Person Limited or Third-Person Omniscient?

That depends on the type of story you want to tell and how you want readers to connect with your characters.

Third-person limited is often chosen when:

You want readers to connect deeply with a single character: By focusing closely on one character’s thoughts, emotions, and experiences, third-person limited creates intimacy, letting readers see the story through that character’s lens.

You want to build suspense or surprise: Because the perspective is limited, readers only know what the character knows. This can be useful for mysteries or stories where you want to reveal information slowly.

You’re exploring personal growth or character transformation: Third-person limited works well for stories with a strong character arc, as readers experience the character’s development and insights alongside them.

Example genres: YA, fantasy with a single protagonist, romance, psychological thrillers.

Third-person omniscient is often chosen when:

You want to provide a broad view of the story world: Omniscient narration can easily switch between characters, settings, and even time periods, creating an expansive view of the story.

You have multiple main characters or perspectives: Omniscient is effective in ensemble casts or complex plots where multiple perspectives are essential. It allows for “head-hopping” to understand each character’s motives and experiences.

You want to create dramatic irony: An omniscient narrator can reveal things to readers that characters don’t know, creating tension as readers watch the characters unknowingly walk into certain situations.

Example genres: Epic fantasy, historical fiction, multi-generational sagas.

Which Is “Better”?

It really depends on you! For character-driven stories where you want readers to see the world as a single character does, third-person limited is usually ideal. If your story involves complex relationships or multiple intertwined plots, third-person omniscient may serve you better.

Some authors also mix the two, using limited perspective for most of the story but occasionally shifting to omniscient for key scenes.