#could probably use some edits improving the prose and how exactly things sound

[amphitheresarewingednoodles]

“I will defeat you, I will end your reign of tyranny”, the man proclaimed at the altar of Fate.

Fate, with Its face owl-turned looking down at him, Its arms managing the impossibly large tapestry before It, replied softly, “why?”

“We have seen your treacherous arc, how you would control us, warp our destiny to fit your cruel designs”

The beating of Its loom remained unchanged.

“There is no malice in my weft and weave, little one.  Do you not see the beauty in my work?”

Taking a step toward the immense being before him, the man shaking declared, “You and your monstrous, whirling wheel had no beauty!  You betray the weak, you strike down the strong, you twist the wise, and lead all to ruin!”

Fate, confused by this reproach, cooed, “Look”, and stepped aside.

The man beheld the tapestry being woven.  The weft and weave dancing at imperceptible speeds, the shuttle, Its hands, moving in perfect harmony, clearing gaps that could not be cleared, threading the magnificent cloth, too perfect for any king or god-head to wear.  Amidst the whirring chaos, the humming, vibrating threads created something of terrifying beauty: he saw a myriad of faces, some ecstatic, others in anguish, beyond them rolling forests, towering mountains, barren wastelands, jade rivers, pure skies, and ephemeral constellations; and though the man had come to end Fate, he felt his will falter at the idea of ending this wonderful creation.

“There is beauty here, you see, in how everything aligns perfectly.  Though it looks as if the pattern is off or the piece may rip, it continues and unfolds into a monument of my love.”

“Then why must it come with such suffering? Why must so much pain and deception precede it?”

“So that the narrative that unfolds from it may be more significant, I presume”

Those final words hung in the man’s ear.  Presume?  “What do you mean by ‘presume’?” he prodded.

Fate continued Its work.

“Face me, and explain yourself!”, his righteous anger returning to him bolstered his voice.

“I am facing you?”, the beast declared, Its body still facing the tapestry with Its eyes transfixed on the man.

The beating of Its loom continued.

“…Is your head on backwards?”

“Yes”, Fate responded, “that was how I was created”

Before the man could voice his query, Fate continued, “I was created when humanity first looked back at the chaos and created narrative from the nothingness, beauty from the bedlam.  You rewrote the past such that you could endure the present and hope for a future.  Your minds created meaning, and in doing so, you created me.  You rage against fate but crave the fulfilment of destiny, you twist the cruelty of your waxing and waning lives into yarn, all I do is orchestrate it into a symphony of fibers on a wall.  I face backwards because Destiny is only realized in hindsight.”

He refused to consider that this crusade was vain, that he had declared war against an emergent phenomenon like the wind and waves when this being stood before him and talked down.  Unthinking, the man swung his sword at the entity before him—the hilt cracked and the thread remained uncut.  He began to see through the illusion, there were no faces, trees, hills, lands depicted on the cloth.  No, only strange lines and shapes his mind had organized into meaningful images.  He tore at the cloth but it was he who was unraveling.  How could he abide Fate, this surrender would make him but another spec of lint on the tapestry; but his refusal would require him to face forward into the chaos and ugliness.  The machinery at work continued and he felt himself being pulled in.  In horror he beheld the unchanging motions that would soon undo him: the dread, he did not want what was going to happen; but at the culmination of this wonderous machine (thinking back at how pleasing it was to watch) in anticipation, he wanted to see it happen. 

The beating of Its loom continued unchanged.

[tothedarkdarkseas]

Ink, diary, backstory, carnegie, dickinson, and parchment for the ask meme. Love you too

Ink and Diary - see previous ask!

backstory: how did you come to love writing?

(*Thinks* Do I love writing...?) You know, this probably reflects quite poorly on me, but I'm not sure what the best answer here is. I wrote bits of fanfiction here and there when I was younger, and I also drew fanart-- until I realized I wasn't very good at either of those things. I hadn't written anything in at least 7 years when I started writing Gorillaz, mostly off the back of my inspiration from reading Yearz and obsessing over a scummier, more realistic universe for these characters. The truth is that it wasn't quite a childhood dream or lifelong passion, it was something I stopped when I became too embarrassed by my lack of skill, and picked up again simply because I felt compelled to do it-- and indeed, like any creative pursuit, you do get better the more you do it. I would absolutely say I've rediscovered a passion for writing and I do like to entertain certain ambitions of writing a collection of short stories, but I'm also not hard-nosed in dedication to that goal. I have always loved stories, but that wasn't strictly in regard to written stories, often it was more of a love for movies and music which inspired little imagined scenarios; I wasn't always a voracious reader nor did I frequently write anything to fruition, which seems like it disqualifies me from being an authority on those things.

carnegie: what authors and/or books/stories have inspired you to write or influenced your work?

As mentioned previously, I really wasn't a voracious reader. In fact, this was and is a source of some humiliation-- having not read the classics or other things that people know and respect can make you feel like the dimmest person in the room. The awkwardness of these conversations is honestly something that motivated me to read a bit more recently, but even that was more focused on poetry and essay collections. My go-to answer is generally Joey Comeau, probably most evident in his queer-punk stories Lockpick Pornography and We All Got It Coming, but also his more gentle lingering on grief Malagash and the offbeat and sporadically poignant collection Overqualified. (I really loved Overqualified at the time it came out, so it has a special place in my heart.) I've recently read two poetry collections which gave me a little boost to begin working: Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar and A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib. And I'd be remiss not to mention-- Yearz. Like, it surely embarrasses Danni for me to say that but it is the simple truth.

dickinson: what insecurities do you have about your own writing? what do you think you should improve on?

Sheesh, where to start? All of it, quite plainly, I don't think there is any element which could not be improved on. I always felt that I struggled with dialogue and making it sound natural, but if I were naming the damning culprit I would say my writing is more bogged down by the overwriting and underediting. I remember being younger and feeling a bit defensive of "purple prose" because subconsciously I knew I was very prone to it. To be frank, when I write a story more quickly and don't embellish much in the detail I always feel it is too sparse and not distinct, I fear it isn't saying anything that makes it unique to me-- but those stories seem to be the ones that have "performed" the best based on recent stats, which confirms that I definitely overthink this, haha. The problem as I see it is that these, er, lofty sentences are good on their own ("good" is subjective, some have definitely been Bad, but let's pretend we're just seeing the "good" examples) but when stacked together with hundreds, thousands of "lofty" sentences with similar structure, similar length and similar "impact," it can start to make the reading process tedious. I don't want to tire readers out or make them cringe at how hard I'm overcompensating for my lack of education or formal skill, and I do fear it comes across as exactly that when I write the way my brain tells me to. When I say underediting, I don't mean that I don't edit-- I edit to the brink of madness, I rewrite constantly, but I don't often have the heart to cut something out. I really don't edit things to make them more brief; I do think it's arguable to what extent brevity is good for a story, but... it's more important than my writing reflects, haha. There is some impact lost when you are too precious about unnecessary sentences, and I am unfortunately too precious about it. I don't think I'm particularly good at plotting either, as my fanfic writing has relied more on character studies than progressing actions and events, and I fear in longer form (ie: this current WIP) it will come across to the reader as meandering, aimless, and quite frankly boring. To be kinder, I know these are subjective things. I don't think all of my stories are bad, but I don't think all of them are good. I don't think any are great, and I don't think I'm at a skill level where I feel comfortable resting on my laurels or taking a swing at self-publishing. Writing is still challenging to me, and I suppose it's up to personal perception whether it is good to be challenged because it shows you're putting in effort, or whether it's a sign you don't have a natural talent for something, heh.

parchment: how often do you or your personal life influence your writing?

Fairly often, but it's generally in small, inconsequential ways. I don't try to put myself in the characters in any sort of comfort/projection way, but I also think it's unrealistic to expect nothing of yourself ends up in your writing, even if it's in the form of something opposing the character. A line of dialogue might be revised from real life, or a thought that a character has might be based on something I've thought before. Two examples come to mind-- in November Hasn't Come, the musing about Stu framing childing posters or torn up flyers to look artistic because you become self-conscious at a certain age about taping things on your wall is pulled right from my own life and my dozens of frames. I still have a hang-up about framing things I deem embarrassing without the frame. The other is a line in the WIP which may or may not end up in the final product, but I had certainly intended to use it from the very start-- a character quips to Stu about his casual pill usage that "They're not dinner mints," which is straight from a real story involving a loved one and painkiller abuse. I loved this quote because it's got that touch of grim humor about it that really suits my type of fiction, but it is in fact real. (Now that I've said it I'll try my best to keep that interaction in the final product.)

[brynwrites]

I was just wondering if you had any advice for a new writer? More on how to approach writing a book or anything you wish someone had told you, thanks!

THE BASICS OF NOVEL WRITING

First off, you have to know these two things:

Your first draft of your first book will be terrible.

All your favorite authors of all time wrote a terrible first draft of their first book too. Probably a terrible second and third draft, maybe even a terrible second and third book.

This is okay. It can make writing hard sometimes, but the point of writing is not to whip out a masterpiece the first time you type: it’s to have fun exploring new settings, watching new characters grow, and being the first person to ever experience this story–your story–progress!

So, where do we begin?

Know thine story.(or ya know… to don’t.)

Before you tackle any kind of project that will take months, even years, of work you want to first decide what you’re actually doing. In the case of writing, we outline. (Or sometimes, we deliberately choose not to online, but only after we thought about outlining and maybe tried it out a little.)

There’s no wrong way to outline. Every writer does it differently, and therefore there’s about a million different methods. You can instantly find a ton of them using google, and these are a bunch of my own personal outlining tips.

The things you should know by the end of your outline include:

Setting. Where does your story take place? What does this place feel like? (If it were being filmed as a movie, what would the color palate look like?)

Worldbuilding. If you’re using a real place, how much research have you done? If you’re creating the setting from scratch, in which ways is it like our real world and in which ways is it not? (You don’t need to know everything about your world building going into a project, but it’s good to keep track of what you haven’t figured out yet, so you don’t get to the end of the rough draft and realize that everything you made up along the way contradicts itself.)

Main Characters. Who are they and what do they want? What beliefs or flaws are keeping them from getting what they want, or driving them to want something which hurts them? What’s the first trait someone notices about them? (Check out this nifty character creation sheet for some simple development questions!)

Plot. Now, plot sounds scary to a lot of writers, but a plot is just the accumulation of your other story aspects put at odds with each other. Your characters will make choices trying to get what they want, and those choices will effect the rest of the world, which in turn comes to bite the characters in the butt and force them to make more choices until eventually they get what they want, for better or worse. That’s the basis of a plot: it’s everything standing between your character and the rest of their life. (If you don’t have any semblance of a plot, check out these nifty tricks.)

Genre. Specifically, why are you telling this story in the genre you chose? How do the themes and tropes of the genre work with your story? What would the story look like in another genre?

Optional: The Beginning. If you come to the blank page of death without knowing exactly where you’re starting it can be incredibly daunting. Check out my tips on writing the first act for more help.

However you chose to outline, (and whether you chose to outline at all), the most important thing to know going into a story is what will produce the central conflicts?

Conflict drives a story. 

Conflict between characters and other characters.

Conflict between characters and the obstacles to their desires.

Conflict between characters and their own flaws and beliefs.

Even if you have no idea where your story will go or how it will end, as long as you start out your story with a conflict that’s difficult to resolve, you’ll always be on the right track!

Now, to the writing.

For the first draft of your first book, I’m going to suggest this controversial tip: Ignore all the writing advice.

The learning stage of your writing journey (aka the first three books you write) will be a mess of picking up and throwing out advice, and you’ll have plenty of time to do that once you start revising your rough draft, but for now the most important thing is finishing your first novel. 

Write your story exactly how you want to and damn the advice.

Some important things to do though:

Decide how many words or pages you want to write a week and try to continuously hit that. (But start out small! Your writing heroes might be churning out a novel in a month, but a thousand words a week can be an good and ambitious goal during your first novel!) The key is to build a habit. 

Find someone to motivate you! This can be another writer friend but it can also be a non-writer friend you’re comfortable talking about your writing with. Tell this person what you’re doing and how much work you want to put in each week and let them be your cheerleader.

Don’t get feedback yet. If you do have a writer friend cheering you on, it might be temping to send them your work asking for their opinion, but negative feedback tends to demotivate and make you question yourself. If you’re letting people read your first rough drafts, ask them just to be motivational right now, and then save their critique for when you’re ready to edit!  

Don’t even get feedback from yourself. It’s very tempting to stop every three paragraphs and wonder if you could have written them better a different way. And the truth is, you probably could, BUT imagine how much better future writer you (who has finished the whole manuscript and has far more skill than current you) will fix those paragraphs up?! Current you has barely any more skill than the you who wrote those paragraphs last week, so let your future far more skilled self handle it.

Don’t be afraid to change your story and process as you go. If you go into your story believing something specific about it, but you come up with something you like better as you write, you’re allowed to change it. You’re allowed to write it out of order. You’re also allowed to write another story beside (or instead of) the one you set out to write.

Above all: KEEP WRITING. Writing can be tough (even for the best and most skilled of writers) when you stop writing and start thinking, because thinking often leads to doubting and fearing. Just put one word after the next and let your future self worry about whether those words sound good together.

You can find more of my advice about the rough drafting stage here!

So, you have a novel... now what?

Now comes the revision stage. (And yes, you will have to revise. Some writers have to do more revisions than others, but nearly every author worth their salt will have at done at least three drafts of a story before sending it out into the world.)

Just like outlining, there are many ways of revising and each writer has to do what works best for them. Some people rewrite the entire book from scratch. Some take elaborate notes and then rework pieces at a time. Some just dive in and change whatever they don’t like as they read. Here’s an in-depth look at what I do when I edit my rough drafts.

For your first novel, I’d suggest one of two ways:

Rewrite it all. This is a good method if you either changed your story a lot while your wrote or you didn’t have a thorough outline so your resulting story ended up having huge holes. Rewriting is never a waste. Your pacing, dialog, even your prose, will all come out better when you rewrite the same story over.

Re-outline it all. This is a good method if you don’t think you need to rewrite but you don’t know where to begin editing. Read through the story and track everything that happens and then compare it to standard character arcs, three act structures, and so forth. The goal is to figure out how your story compares to the ideal simplistic stories in your genre and then tweak your story to make it closer to the ideal.*

*In no way do you have to stick with traditional or simplistic structures for all your writing, but if you don’t know how and why the traditions work, it’s very hard to produce a great story that defies them.

Once you’ve done some editing yourself, you want to find another writer (or three, or five) who’s of a similar skill set as you and get their feedback. They’ll be able to pick out issues you didn’t notice.

The final thing you’ll have to deal with in the editing process is your prose. Most writers have terrible prose for the first 50k to 100k words they write. Beginning writers who’ve already written short stories or role played or wrote a lot as youngsters tend to have an advantage in this. The thing to always keep in mind is that it’s okay if your first book’s prose is awful. 

You’ll have improved your prose just by writing it, and you’ll have a better grasp on story as well. This book doesn’t define who you are as a writer. If you really love the story, you can chose to rework it further to clean it up, or you can use what you learned through it to write another book that’s cleaner from the get-go. 

THINGS I WISH I’D KNOWN STARTING OUT

1. First books almost never get published. 

A lot of us resist this, because our first books are good, dammit, we worked very hard to make them that way! But the quality of the book isn’t always the thing that holds it back; often the first book we write ends up pretty similar to the more poorly written published fiction, but it wasn’t written with knowledge of the publishing industry and the market. 

And that’s okay! It’s okay to write a lovely book that you put aside so you can publish your second or third or fourth book instead. That first story is still wonderful and it still helped you immensely.

2. Not everyone will like even the best story you ever write. (And even if it’s a literary masterpiece some of them will quote literary flaws as the reason they don’t like it!)

It’s common knowledge that everyone has different tastes in literature and one person might dislike a story another person loves. What’s talked about less often, is that the people who dislike a story based on taste, will often pinpoint specific literary aspects they believe were done poorly. They’ll say the characters are bad, and the plot had too many holes, or the prose was clunky. And they’ll probably believe what they say, and find evidence to back it up.

And that’s okay! As long as the majority of your target audience isn’t finding these things a problem, then you’re in the clear as a writer. Not every reader’s critique is valid and not every piece of feedback is worth listening to, even if it has the lingo of a legit critique.

3. You have to be reading in order to write well. Or, more specifically: If you aren’t reading books, you won’t write as well as you can.

It’s easy to assume that just because we read a lot of books growing up and know how stories work that we can write good ones. And in some ways, that can be true. We can write good stories without reading good stories—but we can’t write great ones.

A writer who really wants to improve their craft should try to read a book a month, or more if possible. If you have limited time, you can read shorter books, listen to audiobooks, or quit any book that doesn’t immediately hold your interest. But do read. Read, read, read, read.

4. If you can’t write a blurb, the problem is in your story.

Maybe this is a little harsh; there’s a lot of skill required to writing blurbs and it does take practice! But whether you have a concise story with characters whose goals and resulting conflicts weave seamlessly into the setting and create an easily describable plot with specific, emotional stakes and hard character choices will be very clear when it comes time to write those down as a 200 word blurb.

It’s so essential to blurb writing to have a tense, well paced, nicely woven story, that writing the blurb while you work on the story’s rough draft can actually help you produce a better story!

5. Sometimes the best stories are not the epic masterpieces but the ones you’d want to whiz through despite its many flaws.

And these stories are worth writing. Don’t feel the least bit bad for choosing to write the book you’d want to read as a ‘guilty pleasure.’

And on that note, if you’re still reading this, go check out my guilty pleasure book Our Bloody Pearl to support my ability to answer asks (and also get a swell read about a sassy, disabled siren and a soft, freckly pirate.)

[littleredcoffeecup]

Thoughts On Writing as an Unmotivated Adult

I do not know what I wish to write, all I know is that when I see words on the screen it makes me feel like I accomplished something. There’s something soothing about seeing words in print; a sense of accomplishment and permanence (faulty as this sense may be since we all know the backspace key erases all words without so much as a trace to recall them by) and it’s something I desire to incorporate as part of my life. But, in order to do so, there are a couple of logical fallacies that prevent me, along with many other writers, from ever even giving themselves the chance to do so.

The Blank Page Problem

There is both nothing more refreshing and exciting, and equally dreadful and intimidating, as a blank piece of paper to the wishful writer at heart. To all of the artists out there who see a canvas of white and manage to chip away with words and paragraphs and notations and blurbs until a shape of a story takes form, know you have my envy! But for the rest of us normal folk, a blank canvas is something we can write a few lines that seem good, maybe even a whole page or two that just magically flows through our fingertips like the goddess of creativity kissed our fingertips, and then nothing. The magic ink dries, imagination stagnates, or we simply get side-tracked with the many things in life that call us to leave the page promising ourselves to return to it, only to let it sink into the tarpit of failed opportunities that is the past.

So the question becomes, how do we consistently create something from nothing, and continue the works we’ve already started?

The answer is to just shut up and write. Write about whatever comes to your mind, write about how you are feeling or a short story that has been irking on your mind for a while. Write about the stained-wooden desk you are typing on or the bottle of Warm Vanilla Sugar body-cream with the golden metallic bottle that reflects the lighting of the room. Write about the frustrations you have, transform your brainfog and inner uncertainty into a metaphor about a small white house stranded in a bubbling grey sea of uncertainty and anxiety. But, and this is very important, write something. Come back to it later and continue writing it until it’s completed. Edit, and I do mean edit, and then find a place to publish the writing, even if it’s not good, so that you can have it all done and squared away. Completed, accomplished. Analyze what you’ve written, the message you are trying to say, and see what you can learn about yourself and writing as a whole, before beginning a again on another project or continuing one of the many projects you’ve scrapped before.

It’s not easy, but over time, you will get better at it, and soon you’ll find yourself with a collection of completed stories, thoughts, and poetry that you can look back on, and remind yourself of how far you’ve come.

What if I’m Not Good Enough?

Everyone at some point gets the feeling that every word they write is supposed to be meaningful, fresh, inspired, and something that someone would want to read (if not someone else, then maybe one’s self.) Of course the desire is only natural, why would somebody dedicate their life to creating any consumable form of media if it fails to fulfil the purpose in it’s creation? A thrilling horror story that elicits only emotions of boredom and frustration would fail its purpose in having been created, no? To this I offer the simple solution of changing the purpose in why you write. Write for writing itself. 

Writing for words to be created and for meaning to be brought into the world. If a writer changes the reason they are writing from “writing something that’s good, digestible, and summons a certain emotion” to “writing for the sake of writing, and it’s improvement and development over time and experience.” It takes pressure off the writer to develop something grandiose and instead the writer can focus on developing the message of the story just to bring it into life, and that, in itself, brings both the prose and the author purpose.

I Need New Equipment

This is a logical fallacy that I have fell victim to more than one occasion. Although it is true that you do need some level of writing equipment, a pencil and any scrap of paper is minimum, but notebooks, pens, and a personal computer probably will help a lot. However, once you have your medium for getting your words on paper then that’s it, that’s all you need. No don’t think that you need the special-writing pens, or the personal journals and the planners for those journals. No don’t think you need a special program or internet writer to really get into writing. That’s bullshit. You know you’re bullshiting yourself. If you have any inkling of an idea of how to be a writer you already know what you have to write. You know where the paper is, you know where the pencils are, you know what Google Docs or Microsoft Word or just plain Notepad on your computer is. Stop telling yourself you need supplies, you need to write!

It’s okay to have a “set up” or a certain “place” where you write. In fact that could even be beneficial, but make sure you don’t fetishize your writing, and what I mean by that, is don’t think about your writing lifestyle so much that you feel like you can’t write unless you are exactly in your writing style. Before I started writing this, I always took my laptop out to cafes and coffee shops to clear my thoughts, but then after the 2020 CoronaVirus Pandemic shut down all of America, my writing processes, to my very faulty mind at least, was interrupted, and further progress was impossible. Well, life isn’t always going to go your way and it’s important as a person living in troubling times to be flexible and adaptable, lest you’ll find yourself spending a year away from the pen having lost all the momentum you worked so hard to gain in the first place. 

Attention to Attention

One of the greatest things that modern technology seemingly “gifted” us is the ability to stay connected through the internet at any given time of the day. We can remain connected with our friends, receive local and national news instantly, have access to some of the greatest forms of entertainment our world has ever seen, and at first glance this all might sound like a good thing, but no good deed comes unpunished and as a side effect of this constant stream of information, many people, myself and yourself included, have fried out their attention spans. You know this to be true, don’t try to deny it. 

Writing takes a lot of time, and work. Full stop. Period. Writing takes a lot of time and work. There’s no way around actually sitting in front of a computer or a journal and putting that time and work in. Different writing equipment isn’t going to make this easier, a better location is important, but can only help you so much, the only true thing that actually helps you remain focused on your work is increasing your attention span by decreasing the time spent consuming information and entertainment off the internet. 

Now it might be tempting to rationalize these addictive, high dopamine activities by stating that it’s part of who you are, that these activities make up you as a character in this world, and although this may be true it’s true in the same way that a parasite is a part of its host.

I chose the word parasite very deliberately because like a fish underwater without limbs to tear off the leeches on his back the internet sticks to the minds of the writers and drains precious time, energy, and creative power that could be used in writing. However, unlike the fish, we have limbs, and it’s possible to take these leeches out no matter how natural or normal the passage of time makes them feel.

The simple truth is writing takes sacrifices. Sacrifices in time, sacrifices in leisurely activities, so if you actually want to be a writer. Cut. It. Out. You can’t spend 8 hours a day playing video games and consider yourself a writer, all the time you spend playing should be spent writing, the words on your page demand that level of respect. Does this mean you have to stop using the internet cold turkey? Of course not, the internet is most likely where you will be publishing your works in the first place. But monitor the amount of free-time you use and try to set aside some time that you can reserve for your words, because you and your words matter. 

Conclusion

Of course every writer has different issues that face their writing and the issues listed above probably only partly relate to you as a writer. Either way, if there is one thing that I wish my readers to take away from this collection of thoughts is that writing for writing’s sake validates all words written, and improves one craft. Remember this the next time you think that your words are garbage, the fact that they exist and bring information into this world gives it its own purpose, and writing with purpose is the best sort of writing. Please tell me what you think and what are some of the hurdles you face as a writer? Until next time- 

Enjoy your day. ☕

[nanowrimo]

5 Common Mistakes First-Time Novelists Make

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Today, our sponsor Reedsy has put together a list of the most common mistakes for rookie novelists (Want more advice from Reedsy? Check out their webcast on writing and submitting query letters!):

Writing a novel for the first time is probably one of the most daunting creative experiences in existence. Indeed, many first-time novelists have no idea how to approach it! This often means they go in blind—and end up making mistakes that seriously hinder their writing process, their novel, and their overall confidence as a writer.

And while learning from your own mistakes is a great way to cement those lessons, we can all agree that it’s not very efficient. So if you're about to start writing a novel for the first time, here’s a quick catalog of five common mistakes that first-time novelists make, as well as how to evade them.

1. Starting without a clear purpose

A staggering number of first-timers go into the novel-writing process with no greater mission other than to, well, write a novel. It’s a noble quest, to be sure—but without any other purpose in mind for your work, you’re not going to get very far.

To avoid this fate, have a prolonged brainstorm/deep thinking sesh before you begin to draft. The question you ultimately need to answer is: what kind of story am I trying to write? Not just in terms of genre and plot, but what you want the reader to take away from your novel.

This might be an outright lesson about society, as in a book like The Handmaid’s Tale. Or it might be an impression of a time/place/feeling, as in Elif Batuman’s 2017 novel The Idiot. Perhaps you want to represent a group or experience you feel is underrepresented in literature. Your novel’s purpose could be just about anything, as long as you feel strongly about it.

But whatever it is, pre-draft is the time to get ahold of it—not halfway through your novel, in a frantic attempt to conjure meaning out of thin air.

2. Being unrealistically ambitious

While you should definitely have goals (like purpose) as you write, you don’t want to be too ambitious—i.e. if you’ve never written a novel before, you can’t go into it thinking you’re about to write the next Gone Girl. Unfortunately, many first-timers do exactly that!

Little do they know that being overly ambitious with your first novel is a one-way ticket to Writer’s Blockville, which is walking distance from Giving-Up Town. So don’t make your writing goals too lofty, lest you become too discouraged to actually meet them.

Instead, try this: make a list of 3 realistic and concrete goals to work toward as you draft, and tell yourself to disregard everything else for the time being. A reasonable set of ambitions for a first-time novelist might be:

Write X number of words in X days (say, 50k words in 30 days, if you’re feeling up to it).

Construct a relatively straightforward plot. 

Focus on one aspect of your fiction writing that you know needs improvement—characterization, pacing, dialogue, etc.

Keeping solid goals like these in mind will prevent you from burning out. Just remember, the most important part of writing a first novel is just to get it down on the page. As long as you’re still writing, you’re doing something right.

3. Trying too hard to be “literary”

Even seasoned writers often fall into the trap of trying too hard to sound “literary,”—like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, Zadie Smith, or any number of renowned writers. Of course, it’s great to have role models, but not if you end up sounding unnaturally ornate and formal in an attempt to emulate other novelists.

The best way combat this “over-literary” effect is to carefully monitor your prose. Be honest with yourself: if you’ve written something just to sound fancy, not because it actually contributes to the story, cut it out. When in doubt, ask someone else to test-read your work and tell you if anything comes across as pretentious or unnatural.

It’s also good to consciously stay away from other literary works during the writing process, just in case of accidental osmosis. Or if you must read (we all know it’s a hard thing to give up), try picking up novels that are nothing like yours. For example, if you’re writing a slow-burn romance, you should be able to enjoy a fast-paced thriller without worrying about the style bleeding into yours.

4. Editing right after finishing

Countless successful writers and editors constantly remark on the importance of waiting to edit one’s manuscript. Yet after completing their first draft, many people dive right into the self-editing process without so much as a day’s buffer!

The result is a highly subjective—and therefore largely ineffective—editing process. You’re stubbornly attached to certain passages and subplots, and you’re so exhausted from writing the first draft that you resist the idea of revising. Basically, editing too soon after finishing your novel means you can’t get much of anything done.

Luckily, there’s an easy way around this problem: waiting a few days, weeks, or even months before returning to your first draft. While you may be eager to start sending your novel out to agents or other readers, trust us that waiting is the best thing you can do at this juncture.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that you can’t do anything else productive during the interim. You might research professional editors, or even start working on another project if you have the energy! The important thing is to clear your mind of that first novel, so that when you do finally go back to it, you’ll have fresh eyes with which to conduct a much better, deeper self-edit.

5. Never writing anything else

One of the worst mistakes writers make is letting their first novel also be their last. Yes, some people write novels just to see if they can, or to get a story out of their system, and they’re satisfied to leave it at that. But many more people just don’t think it’s worth the effort—especially if their first novel didn’t turn out as amazing as they thought it would (see tip #2).

Allow us to dissuade you of that notion. No one’s denying that writing a novel is hard work—but the work is worth it, as long as you don’t give up. The more you practice and the more novels you write, the better your craft will become. To paraphrase Ira Glass, your skill will eventually catch up with your taste; you just have to push a bit to get there.

So don’t stop writing after your first book, otherwise you’ll never know what you’re truly capable of creating. Learn from your own mistakes, as well as the ones we’ve outlined here, and keep moving forward—to your second, third, fourth novels and beyond.

Ricardo Fayet is a co-founder of Reedsy, an online marketplace connecting authors with industry’s best editors, designers and book marketers.

[amethystblack]

How are you so good at using words? Currently I can’t graphs so exact being I’m trying to say, But I think you’re quite eloquent?

i will admit i don’t think i can quite parse that second sentence after i assume autocorrect or whatever other unholy entity has gotten its hands on it...but i’ll assume that that isn’t what you’re asking about.

so you’re not the first to say that about me, so i assume you’re not alone in thinking so. i don’t pretend to be a linguistic expert or anything, but i can take some shots at the matter. 

when i was a wee bab who didnt even know what video games were, i definitely wanted to be an author when i grew up. i’m sure i didn’t make for an eloquent child, so i assume i must’ve learned something somewhere between then and early adulthood when i was still interested in novel-writing. given that it was a focus for so long, i imagine that i spent a fair amount of time and energy learning and practicing how to write better in various ways.

...which is exactly why it’s difficult for me to offer specific advice on how to improve. i learned many of the basics so long ago, and have passively practiced them so much since that i don’t think about them anymore. i know sometimes i’ll write something and it will feel weird to me, so i’ll rephrase it, but i couldn’t tell you exactly why it feels weird. it’s probably a natural understanding from practice and comfort, similar to how a seasoned artist can recognize if some of the anatomy in a drawing is off. because i do so much of that without consciously recognizing the reasons, i can’t pass them on as explicitly as i’d like.

but the fact that i was interested in creative writing could tell you where to look if you want to improve. writing advice is dumped all over the internet in spades, and specifically i think you’d benefit most from learning prose. prose will focus on the structure of specific sentences rather than overarching plots. 

in most prose you have to be brief, and brevity requires careful choosing of each and every syllable. it teaches how to consider phonemes and meter individually, and how to embellish the flow of sentences for the meaning you want to give. 

an analyst might notice how the former sentence in the above paragraph repeats several letters as if to subtly emphasize the rhythmic and self-referential value of such prose. and for the latter, i could have split that sentence into two...“prose teaches us how to consider phonemes and meter individually. it also shows how to embellish the flow of sentences for the meaning you want to give.”but that doesn’t sound nearly as nice, does it? i didn’t really do either of those things consciously or with the intent of pointing them out, but i recognize that they’re probably elements i learned to work with a while ago, so i may as well make the example, ne?like that, you can also learn to work out why something sounds good or bad to you.

here are some other things i’m aware that i do think about when writing, casually or otherwise:

sentence flow, as shown above

alliteration, assonance, consonance, as shown above, and when its appropriate

balancing redundancy vs clarity

-liquids and plosives in a word, aka how harsh it sounds based on what consonants are in it

caps and punctuation (and lack thereof) carry a lot of meaning online especially. so does meme culture language and other general modern distortions of english. helpful for lightening up.

i am often deleting and rephrasing parts of my posts to make them shorter. even then i still type this much... as you can see the ‘brevity’ part is my weakness.

redundancy in subjects unclear emphasis and sentence starts

rearrange sentences to flow with the given subject better, and remove unnecessary things

also a little formatting can go a long way online. just imagine trying to read this as a paragraph...

i’m sure there’s a lot more but that’s what comes to mind immediately. hopefully those things and other prose-writing advice is enough to help you or anyone else who wants to improve in that regard well enough. frankly editing advice is probably also a worthy thing to look at for similar reasons.

also, i hope it will go without too much saying, the necessary role practice has in all this too. 

now to consider deleting half of everything typed above for the sake of not talking too much...

[mukur0writes-blog]

25 Q’s (tag)

Thank you to @leapwriter for the tag!!!

1. Is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

Yes. I have this one super in-depth concept that will require...well, a shitton of research. I’m talking binders full. It’s highly political and involves an outrageous amount of extrapolation and speculation based on history and real-world politics and foreign policy as well as past relations and state’s relations and...long story short, Tennessee secedes from the U.S. as they threatened to do a few years ago under the Obama Administration. the U.S. responds with high tariffs to this new “independent country” and rip, Tennessee, which is not self-sufficient in any shape or form, goes to hell. It would follow several characters and examine “illegal immigration,” wealth and poverty, the nature of activism, and the consequence of conservative backlash.

2. What work of yours, if any, are you embarrassed about existing?

Anything written before 2013. Some after.

3. What order do you write in? Front of book to back? Chronological? Favorite scenes first? Something else?

So far I’ve always written front to back, as it would be read, but lately I’ve been considering going more freeform and doing scene by scene, but that requires a solid outline and I have never in my life been able to outline with any actual success.

4. Favorite character you’ve written?

Depends on the day and who I’m currently working on. fan characters, Mukuro forever.

5. Character you were most surprised to end up writing?

this is probably more relevant to canon characters that I’ve picked up for fanworks, tbh. like...Genos of OPM? I never would have expected. Colonnello of KHR? wtf

6. Something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

there’s some shit I wish I���d refined in the current OPM fanfic, Androgen Blues, but I’m not gonna go back and heavy edit published chapters before even updating lmao. 

7. When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

I don’t share my online works with people irl, period, ever. but I’m okay telling people that I write I guess. people ask hobbies and like, that’s the biggest one so I can’t exactly hide it

8. Favorite genre to write

depends on the day. I love horror and speculative fiction. spec fic is where my heart truly lies, but horror is damn good, too. admittedly I have a lot of practice writing erotica, too. 

9. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

pinterest boards because I’m a fucking pleb. I like to read manga a lot and sometimes I get lucky and get bright ideas and inspo. music is a huge one. xkito and SuicideSheep are so important to my writing.

10. Write in silence or with background music? Alone or with others?

this depends 100% on the day. some days I just need some goddamn quiet, some days I have to plug into some music to write. some days I’m too noise sensitive to listen even if I wanted to.

11. What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

I mean, I started writing when I was like 10, so...I sure hope all of it. lmao. technique, narrative, maturity, prose, readability, variation, style, character building, world building, audience awareness, relationships, dynamics, tone, pacing, planning...

12. Your weaknesses as an author?

i’m so fucking ADD. i’ve never finished a project with more than four chapters or forty pages so far. and I used to have a million ideas a day and go back and forth constantly but after I got into fanworks i started channeling that all into RP threads and shit and now i feel pretty bereft of ideas? i need to get creative again and start thinking in originality instead of au’s and stuff.

13. Your strengths as an author?

i like to think it’s characterisation. character depth and interest and relatability. character variety and dynamic. 

14. Do you make playlists for your work?

not so far. i have playlists for writing in general, but not for specific wips

15. Why did you start writing?

it seemed cool i guess? i wanted to join in with people. i was a humongous daydreamer and realised i could write it down.

16. Are there any characters who haunt you?

my own characters?

I mean...the oc’s from when I was a stupid 13yo struggling with undiagnosed ptsd? those definitely haunt me.

the vampire knight next gen oc’s. those...those will never go away.

17. If you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?

this sounds dramatic but I don’t do those...talk to your younger self things. I can’t go back there. maybe in 20 years. 

18. Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they?

god. so many...

early on, Maximum Ride. and Wheel of Time. talk about conflict. Garth Nix was in there somewhere.

as time went on, Anne Rice really had a hand in my style and storytelling and interests maturing. Oscar Wilde further refined it and encouraged me to start looking at human theory and experiment with writing. 

Kyoko Mori really really dug into me in early high school. I’m sure her books have had a very profound impact on my writing.

my brain is totally blipping on more but I’m sure there’s a ton. before my ADD made reading a big issue, I read abt an average-size book a day. sometimes 1000 pages. i was one of those kids.

19. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timelines, ect.?

well organised bulletin points on a wordpad or something. seriously. i’m not...super in depth with organisation and notes and stuff. when i start working with full-on 100% original worldbuilding i’ll have to start using scrivener’s more in depth functions.

20. Do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

usually long sit-down sessions. that’s always the goal. but sometimes a little is all i can do. 

21. What do you think when you read over your older work?

how old? lmao, if it’s the shit I despise pre-2013 i can’t bring myself to read it. it’s fraught with “oh shit that’s trauma wow fuck me” -> dysphoria. then there’s just the weird ass feeling of not remembering stuff you know that you wrote. and shame. i’m bad at having to be perfect, thinking everyone is judging me, all that shit. even some stuff from last year i’ve read over in the last couple months and just cringed and curled up. i really need to rewrite it.

22. Are there subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

yyyyyyes. i mean there’s triggers for sure--like I could never ever write something involving syringes. i’d probably literally hurl. uh...abuse is a biggie. I can write it but it will mess with me, and there’s the tightrope of dealing with a victim who is probably glorifying the abuse to themselves while not glorifying it in a story, and like, i’m someone who’s been there and been addicted to that roller coaster so yeah, i totally could end up romanticising it without even knowing it (or because i couldn’t go into detail on it without that barrier). sometimes i think that varies by the day. i do write abuse but it’s usually venting more than anything to publish.

23. Any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

helped and hindered.

24. Have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

fuck hyperfocus, lmao

25. Copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of.

p...proud? of writing? surely you jest. no but the one i’m really proud of doesn’t really have any snippets that are interesting without context of the whole thing, sorry.

tagging @tofu-writes and @starcraftcd if you’re interested!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT SOMEONE

Reddit didn't happen out of neglect. A few decades ago, only famous people and professional writers got to publish their opinions. One solution here might be to design systems so that interfaces are horizontal instead of vertical—so that modules are always vertically stacked strata of abstraction.1 I can't measure whether my essays are successful, except in page views, but the creator is full of worry.2 Even now I'm suspicious when startups choose SF over the Valley: somehow you can sense prosperity in how well kept a place looks. This kind of work. In fact the dangers of deciding what programmers are allowed to want.3 It's easy to talk to the operating system. The best programming languages have taken more and more programs may turn out to be surprisingly malleable. Paul Prescod wrote something that stuck in my mind. But other VCs will make no more than superficial changes.4 Though I can't off the top of my head think of any examples, I would be very interested to see them.5

The first thing you need is a handful of centers and one dominant one, that's going to fall over, taking them with it.6 If the startup can't raise the rest, including me, remember it as the happiest time of their lives.7 Actually big companies are not the biggest threat.8 Hackers just want power.9 Perhaps this tends to attract people who are famous and/or language level support for lazy loading. Maybe one day the most important thing to optimize. But in Silicon Valley than in Boston, and even current employees.10 But I wouldn't want the site to go away. So I'm really glad I stopped to think about how to design type systems may shudder at this.11

Prose has readers, but software has users. So it may not even be meaningful to say that a language isn't judged on its own merits. If someone starts being rude, other users will step in and tell them to stop. Hygienic macros embody the opposite principle. But the best people helps any organization, it's critical for startups. The fiery reaction to the release of Arc had an unexpected consequence: it made me realize I had a design philosophy. I think, if one looked, that this would turn out to be surprisingly malleable.

This is especially necessary with links whose titles are rallying cries, because otherwise they become implicit vote up if you believe such-and-such posts, which are often originally written for converting or extracting data. The conversations you overhear tell you what sort of ambition you have.12 But ultimately the reason these delays exist is that they're more prestigious. They can't dilute you without diluting themselves just as much work as thinking about real problems. For boys, at least for programmers. Tranched deals are an abuse. Companies will pay for software, but individual hackers won't, and it's very unlikely that the tasks imposed by their needs will happen to align exactly with what you want to work at Google or Microsoft, because it's common to see families where one sibling has much more of it than another. The opportunity is a lot like bipolar disorder. And not just to play back experiences but also to index and even edit them. They're the ones in a position to do that are not even rich—leaders of important open source projects, for example.13 I suppose that's worth something.14

Without advice they'd just be sort of lost.15 I was 450 years too late. An individual European manufacturer could import industrial techniques and they'd work fine. The valuation reflects nothing more than the strength of its own merits. Startups are increasingly raising money on convertible notes, and convertible notes have not valuations but at most valuation caps: caps on what the meaning of is is. We will eventually, and that's what they're going to do, and since you have to compile and run separately.16 There are sometimes minor tactical advantages to using one or the other.17 And I don't think they'd do much differently if they were a year ago. Whereas someone clearer-eyed would see their initial incompetence for what it was, and perhaps a bit more.18

There is an ongoing debate between investors which is more important, the people, or honk at them, or cut them off. It's easy to talk to the founders of the companies we've funded, they all say the same thing at different stages in its life: economic power converts to wealth, and social class are just names for the same thing: I knew it would be to have no structure: to have each group actually be independent, and to allow programmers to use inline byte code in bottlenecks. The root of the problem is usually artificial and predetermined. What I like about Boston or rather Cambridge is that the old way dead, because those few are the best startups. This seems to me identical to asking, how can I design a good language when they see one, and it took us years to get it through to people that it didn't have to be the same as asking, what can I do to enable programmers to get the best deals, the way to get a job.19 One of the exhilarating things about coming back to Cambridge every spring is walking through the streets at dusk, when you want to do and when the way a genuine need could. For most of history, success meant success at zero-sum games. A rounds from VCs. That is arguably one of the most important thing I've learned about dilution is that it's measured more in behavior than users. In such rounds they won't get the 25 to 40% of the company.

Don't be put off if they say no.20 You never have to compromise or ask anyone's permission, and if you have $5 million in investable assets, it would still be important to release quickly, because for a startup the initial release acts as a shakedown cruise. It's true even in the highest of high tech industries, success still depends more on determination than brains.21 Result: this revolution, if it is called Lisp. This pattern doesn't only apply to companies. But vice versa as well. Why should there be any limit to the number who could be employed by small, fast-moving companies with ten each?22 Because ambitions are to some extent produce the big winners, they'll be able to transcend your environment. Meanness is easier to read. Election forecasters are proud when they can achieve the same result by offering to lead rounds of fixed size and supplying only part of the money. Bad circumstances can break the spirit of a strong-willed person stronger-willed. The number of people who make good startup founders don't mind dealing with technical problems—but they hate the type of work they do and the tools they use, and some of the people in a position to tell investors how the round is the top idea in your mind, which means stock with extra rights like getting your money back first in a sale, or convertible debt, which means stock with extra rights like getting your money back first in a sale, or convertible debt, which means new stuff at that url is auto-killed.

Programming languages are for. Unless you're planning to write math applications, of course.23 The PR people and reporters who spread such stories probably believe them themselves.24 It probably extends to any kind of work you do, and chance meetings with people who can help them a lot, they'll let you invest at a low valuation. The Selling of the President 1968, Nixon knew he had less charisma than Humphrey, and thus simply refused to debate him on TV. Cobol, Ada, C. I was in college, a lot of time in bookshops and I feel as if I've learned, to some degree, to judge technology by its cover.25 The time I haven't spent in bookshops I've spent mostly in front of computers, and I don't expect to.

Notes

Dropbox wasn't rejected by all the other is laziness.

No one in its IRC channel: don't allow the same trick of enriching himself at the moment it's created indeed, from the conventional wisdom on the client? But there seem to like to cluster together as much as Drew Houston needed Dropbox, or Seattle, consider moving.

A servant girl cost 600 Martial vi. Once the playing field is leveler politically, we'll see economic inequality in the message. However, it sounds like the outdoors? At the moment it's created indeed, is this someone you want to get all the investors.

Students are mostly still on the group's accumulated knowledge.

Quite often at YC I find I never get as deeply into subjects as I explain later.

Startups can die from releasing something full of bugs, and if it were better to overestimate than underestimate the importance of making n constant, it is the most successful companies have never been the first phase. But their founders, because such users are stupid. This must have seemed to someone still implicitly operating on the matter, get an intro to a college that limits their options?

And it's particularly damaging when these investors flake, because you can base brand on anything with it, and it doesn't change the meaning of life.

I stuck with such energy that he transformed the field they describe. They hate their bread and butter cases. But that doesn't seem an impossible hope.

If I were doing Viaweb again, that is allowing economic inequality in the 1990s, and partly because companies don't. If they're on the entire West Coast that still requires jackets: The French Laundry in Napa Valley. At first literature took a back seat to philology, which can happen in any era if people can see how much they can grow the acquisition offers that every successful startup improves the world.

But I think it's roughly what everyone must have been fooled by the government. He was off by only about 2%. Incidentally, Google may appear to be low.

The word regressive as applied to tax avoidance. Starting a company that takes on a weekend and sit alone and think. Maybe that isn't what they'd like it if you needed to read a new version sanitized for your work.

Francis James Child, who adds the cost of writing software goes up more than 20 years. Aristotle's best work was in his early twenties compressed into the subject today is still hard to say that a startup, unless you're sure your money will be just mail from people who had it used a TV for a slave up to them rather than given by other people the freedom to they derive the same reason I stuck with such energy that he could just expand into casinos than software, we should at least what they made, but it doesn't change the world of the big winners are all about to give up your anti-dilution protections. Our founder meant a photograph of a promising market and a few that are hard to say that hapless meant unlucky. The existence of people.

01.

If you weren't around then it's hard to spread from.

Though we're happy to provide when it's done as conspicuously as this place was a great idea as something that flows from some central tap. You may be that some of the deal.

Which is also to the way and run the programs on the LL1 mailing list. It would not be led by manipulation or wishful thinking into trying to focus on users, however, is he going to call those before a fall. VCs suggest it's roughly what everyone must have seemed shocking for a block later we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the door. I was surprised to find a kid was an assiduous courtier of the company.

Enterprise software. Reporters sometimes call a few of the country it's in. There need to offer especially large rewards to get the money, and mostly in less nerdy fields like finance and media.

Abstract-sounding language. The French Laundry in Napa Valley.

Good news: users don't care what your body is telling you. It would have been seen mentioning the site was about bands.

It's not a chain-smoking drunk who pours his soul into big, messy canvases that philistines see and say that's not directly exposed to competitive pressure. Some of the Garter and given the freedom to experiment in disastrous ways, but they get a real poet.

Digg's is the last round just happened, the less powerful language by writing library functions.

This is isomorphic to the browser, the transistor it is to raise more, and this is largely determined by successful businessmen and their flakiness is indistinguishable from dishonesty by the fact that they have less room for another. Obviously this is to try, we'd be interested to hear from them. The best thing they can do with the guy who came to mind was one in its IRC channel: don't allow duplicates in the US is becoming less fragmented, the activation energy to start software companies, like good scientists, motivated less by financial rewards than by the Corporate Library, the only function of the problem to fit your solution.

They'll tell you who they are by ways that have little to bring corporate bonds; a decade of inflation that left many public companies trading below the value of understanding vanity would decline more gradually.

No, and graph theory. There are many senses of the world of the essence of something the automobile, the only way to make a conscious effort. Jessica and I bicycled to University Ave in Palo Alto. Of the remaining 13%, 11 didn't have TV because they couldn't afford it.

But the change is a great discovery often seems obvious in retrospect. Once he showed it could be mistaken, and so on. A lot of successful startups get on the process of trying to describe the worst—that economic inequality is really about poverty. Many people have responded to this day, thirty years later.

Thanks to Patrick Collison, Mike Moritz, Gary Sabot, Paul Buchheit, Ian Hogarth, and Greg McAdoo for their feedback on these thoughts.

[morganaspendragonss]

1-40

I get that whoever sent this was probably having me on because I put in the tags that nobody would actually do this, but I honestly don’t care because it’s interaction with my followers.

(Also I love talking about my writing hmu about it)

This is going under a cut because it’s going to be super long.

1. Describe your comfort zone - a typical you-fic

I love to write angsty, hurt/comfort stories that are quiteintrospective and possibly a little existential.  

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at,but really want to?

Someday, I’m definitely going to write a soulmate AU fic.  

3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a tenfoot pole?

I really hate sibling AUs. I’ve avoid reading them and I wouldn’t everwrite one.  

4. How many fic ideas are your nurturing right now?Care to share one of them?

Far, far too many. I will write them…. at some point…..

There’s one that I’ve been nurturing for a really long time.Essentially, it’s a Supernatural fic in which Sam dies with Jess in the fire atStanford. Not being one to let his prize horse go before he’s even entered thefield, however, Azazel returns him to life and guides him down the path tobecoming the boy king. 

Fast forward two years, Dean and Bobby put together a bunch of strange,demonic sounding deaths. People called Jake Talley, Ava Wilson, Scott Carey,etc. They go to investigate, and imagine their surprise when they find out it’sSam doing all the killings. 

5. Share one of your strengths

I’m generally pretty good at characterisation and worming my way intothe character’s thoughts and feelings. 

6. Share one of your weaknesses

I’m not great at motivating myself to write. There’s one of my fics thathasn’t been updated in months because I haven’t felt like sitting down andwriting. 

7. Share a snippet from one of your favouritepieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

There will never be enough time. 

Everyone alive thinks they have all the time in theworld to do everything they want, and so much more besides, and no one realisesuntil it’s their time that we’re all just trapped in hourglasses with the sandsof our lives slipping through our fingers. Death is a far off thing that comesfor everyone whether we like it or not, and when it does we will all wish formore time that we cannot have.

This is from my Harry Potter fic, every second you’re alive. I’m proud of it because I remember writing it and really liking what I had just produced, which is such a rare feeling for me.

(read the full fic here)

8. Share a snippet from one of your favouritedialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“If the poor man wants to speak with you aloneyou ought to let him,” she scolded. 

“Come, Wilhelmina. Let’s leavethe men to it.” She started towards the door, but Alfred moved to stopher, embarrassed.

“Really, Duchess, that’s really not necessary.I’ll just-”

“Apparently it is necessary,” she cut in.“Didn’t your parents ever teach you manners?”

(read thefull fic here) This is from a Victoria fic and I like it becauseI felt like I could really hear the characters’ voices coming through after I’dwritten it. 

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?

My Supernatural-Merlin crossover fic, Our Broken Souls. I haven’t updatedit in a while because it’s quite honestly exhausting to write because I have tokeep track of all the characters and make sure they’re all in character andit’s also my first real long fic so it’s been a challenge to write it whilstalso being in full-time education. 

10. Which fic has been the easiest to write?

Probably my Supernatural 13x01 coda, You Say Goodbye. I knew exactly where I wanted to gowith it and how I wanted to write it. 

11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

Both. I really, really love writing, but currently I am only able to indulgein it as a hobby. 

12. Is there an episode above all others thatinspires you just a little bit more?

Episode 13x12 of Supernatural really inspired me. Unfortunately, Ihaven’t been able to upload my coda to that episode yet, but I’ll get there. 

13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve comeacross?

 To always get a second perspective on your work.  

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve comeacross?

This is just personal, but to keep writing even when you’re notmotivated or inspired. This advice probably works for loads of people, just notfor me. 

15. If you could choose one of your fics to befilmed, which one would it be?

Probably my Supernatural 13x07 coda, Little Boy Lost because I need more Sam angst/Sam worrying aboutJack in the show. 

16. If you could only write one pairing for therest of your life, which pairing would it be?

That’s a tough one, but probably Charlie Bradbury/Jo Harvelle 

17. Do you write your story from start to finish,or do you write the scenes out of order?

Depends on the fic. Generally I write from start to finish, but ifthere’s a particular scene that I know I want to happen, but I don’t know whereit’ll go, I’ll write it beforehand and then insert it in later. 

18. Do you use any tools, like worksheet oroutlines?

 No 

19. Stephen King one said that his muse is a manwho lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?

It probably sounds strange, but no, I don’t really have a muse. 

20. Describe your perfectwriting conditions.

Sitting on my bed, the Game of Thrones soundtrack playing quietly in thebackground. 

21. How many timesdo you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Anywhere between 0 and 3 

22. Chose a passagefrom one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style.

Oh man I hate looking at my earlier writing. This is an improvement of a2016 Sherlock fic entitled Lost (readit here)

JimMoriarty shot himself in the back of the head. His eyes stared blankly up atthe blue sky, his lips still quirked upwards into a triumphant grin. He hadwon. He had won, despite the halo of blood spreading across the concrete. 

(Sherlockwondered if that was how he hadlooked when it had happened. If anyone deserved a halo, it was John Watson) 

(Butthen, Sherlock had seen enough car crash victims to know that wouldn’t be thencase) 

23. If you were to revise one ofyour older fics from start to finish, which would it be any why?

My veryfirst fic, Binding Love, a PJO fic from way back in 2014. That was written inthe days where I didn’t know how to structure my fic properly, and my writinghad improved in leaps and bounds since then.  

24. Have you ever deleted one ofyour published fics?

I have. Ideleted a Divergent fic because it didn’t get a response, and when I read itover I saw why. I also deleted two other fics because I was honestly justembarrassed about them. 

25. What do you look for in abeta?

Someonewith patience because I am the worst at keeping a good updating schedule, andsomeone who is good at spotting grammatical mistakes because my fics often havequite a few. 

26.  Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind ofbeta are you?

I dobeta. I tend to be quite clinical, going through it and making changes where Ispot errors, but I also like to interact with the writer so that I understandwhat they want to achieve and how I can help them, and so that they understandmy thought process and why I made the changes I did. 

27. How do you feel aboutcollaborations?

I’m partof one now! They can be stressful, but I’ve had a lot of fun with them. 

28. Share three of your favouritefic writers and why you love them so much.

TolkienGirl onff.net – She has written so many wonderful fics for a huge variety of fandomsand each one is literal perfection. I have never read a single story of hersthat I have not loved. 

elsaclack on ao3 – I have only recently started reading their fics but oh my god they areamazing. I finished reading one of them the other day and I was so disappointedthat I have got to the end because I was enjoying it so so much. 

Lenelle on ff.net – I amin love with their fic. Again, it’s all so good and they write some amazingSam-centric SPN fic, which is all I need in life. 

29. If you could write the sequel(or prequel) to any fic out there not writtenby yourself, which would you choose?

Probablya sequel to Lay Down YourArmour by rainbowflavouredfabulous on ao3. It was such a good fic and isvery deserving of a sequel. Whether I’d be able to do it justice, however, isanother matter. 

30. Do you acceptprompts?

Yeah, definitely! I can’t say how long I’ll take to write them, but Ilove receiving prompts. 

31. Do you takeliberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canoncompliant?

That is very dependent on the fic and on the canon. For example, when I’mwriting episode codas I generally stay true to canon, but I have taken someliberties if I dislike the canon. 

32. How do you feelabout smut?

I love to read it, but I’ve never written it. 

33. How do you feelabout crack?

Not really my thing. 

34. What are yourthoughts on non-con and dub-con?

I generally try to keep away from it. 

35. Would you everkill off a canon character?

I have and I do, although not so frequently now as I used to. 

36. Which is yourfavourite site to post fic?

I used to exclusively post on ff.net, but I quite like ao3 as well.

37. Talk about yourcurrent wips.

Currently I’m trying to write a coda to SPN 13x09 that’s been in theworks for a long time. I can’t quite figure out what I want to write, otherthan that it’s post-episode from Jack’s POV.  

Then there’s my crossover, OurBroken Souls. I really do enjoy writing this because I’ve always wanted towrite a Merlin-Supernatural crossover, but it takes time. I’m hopefully goingto update over Easter. 

38. Talk about areview that made your day.

All the reviews I get make my day if I’m being honest, but I receivedone on my fic To Ashes that made meso happy. I was really unsure about this fic, but the review was just so lovelyand really cheered me up. 

39. Do you ever getrude reviews and how do you deal with them?

Surprisingly, I very rarely get rude reviews. I got one near Christmasthat basically told me I shouldn’t write because it goes against God’s willetc. etc. It was a guest review so I just reported it. 

40. Write analternative ending to [insert fic title]

I wasn’t given a fic so I’ll choose one myself. This is an alternativeending to my Victoria fic, Achilles and Patroclus,in which Drummond doesn’t die. 

When the fifth day came, Alfred was sure he was going to lose Drummond.His face was grey, his breathing laboured, and Alfred didn’t know how a personcould recover from that. His eyes filled with tears as he left, certain hewould never enter this place again. 

In the end, it turned out he was right, if only in part. The palacereceived word two days later that Drummond was expected to make a fullrecovery, and had been moved to his own home to do so. Alfred barely managed tocontain himself at the news, and rushed off to Drummond’s house as soon as hewas able.��

When he arrived, a maid showed him up to the room, warning him not todistress Drummond too much. He assured her he would do nothing of the sort,then stepped inside, shutting the door quietly behind him. Drummond was pale,and his eyes were closed, but his head turned in Alfred’s direction as Alfredmade his way over to the bed. Alfred felt tears gather in his eyes again, buthe blinked them away, sitting down in a chair next to the bed and hesitantlytaking Drummond’s hand in his. 

Drummond’s mouth quirked up into a smile at the touch. “Alfred,” hebreathed, and that sound alone caused a warm feeling to spread in Alfred’schest. 

“Edward,” Alfred choked out, finally letting the tears fall. Hetightened his grip on Drummond’s hand as they sat in silence, thankful thatthis wonderful man hadn’t been stolen from him.

[brynwrites]

Last week I posted about @byjillianmaria’s new book, The Songbird’s Refrain. 

Click the link or read below!

Last Tuesday was the book birthday of Jillian Maria’s debut, the stunning supernatural suspense The Songbird’s Refrain!

I had the privilege of reading this story while it was still in its earlier beta stages, and it’s been a joy to watch it grow from a not-so-shitty rough draft to an absolute piece of art.

So if you’re looking for an awesome, creepy YA with some good old fashion gal pals growing magical life-stealing feathers, you’re in for a treat!

PURCHASE THE SONGBIRD’S REFRAIN

ADD THE SONGBIRD’S REFRAIN ON GOODREADS

ABOUT THE BOOK

When a mysterious show arrives in town, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Brighton is both intrigued and unsettled. But none of the acts capture her attention quite like the blue-eyed woman. Locked in a birdcage and covered in feathers, the anguish in her voice sounds just a little too real to be an act—because it isn’t. The show’s owner, a sadistic witch known only as the Mistress, is holding her captive.

And she’s chosen Elizabeth as her next victim.

After watching the blue-eyed woman die, Elizabeth is placed under the same curse. She clings to what little hope she can find in the words of a fortune teller and in her own strange dreams. The more she learns, the more she suspects that the Mistress isn’t as invulnerable as she appears. But time is against her, and every feather that sprouts brings her closer to meeting the blue-eyed woman’s fate. Can Elizabeth unlock the secret to flying free, or will the Mistress’s curse kill her and cage its next victim?

MY PERSONAL REVIEW

This book is a blast, with a hint of creepy, a dose of suspense, and a nice dollop of fluffy wlw.

Despite nearly the entire story taking place in the same basic location, the plot never feels slow or aimless. The mystery is engaging, constantly pulling the reader forward with new hints. The MC goes through a wonderful character arc and is very easy to root for, the villain is just as easy to love to hate, and all the side characters have interesting personalities and impact the plot. The prose is generally simplistic, with some minor disruptions like repeated words, but holds great, impactful lines as well.

Overall, a wonderful fall read, with a heavy focus on healthy relationships, believing in one’s self, and choosing love.

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

Jillian was awesome enough to answer a few questions for me…

Where did you first get the idea or inspiration for this novel?

The earliest version of this novel was actually a fanfiction! But it’s changed a lot since then–the entire bird/feather motif didn’t exist, there were a lot more characters who didn’t really contribute anything, the love stories were less fleshed out. I think the biggest changes happened from around the 70% mark onward, but everything’s changed a little bit.

Where and when do you typically write? Do you have any pre-writing exercises or habits that help you get into the mood?

I tend to write after dinner, but lately I’ve been sneaking in more writing on my lunch break, too. I don’t really have any habits or exercises, but I do tend to schedule my day in advance, so I always know exactly when I’m writing. Generally I dedicate the 7:30-8:30 block to writing, although sometimes it gets moved around. And on weekends, I’ll schedule more writing time.

Who was your favorite side character to write in The Songbird’s Refrain?

It’s really hard to pick a favorite! They were all super fun in their own way. Maybe Violet, though. She probably had the easiest voice out all of them to write, and required very little editing. Just deleting an f-word here and there when she decided she needed to use three in one sentence.

If you had to set The Songbird’s Refrain in a popular alternate universe (like the world of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, the Hunger Games, etc), which would you choose and how would your characters fit in there?

Oh, gosh, what a great question! I definitely know my character’s Hogwarts Houses, so… let’s go with that. Elizabeth is a tiny shy hufflepuff with a crush on the cute Ravenclaw girl who is always reading romance novels and doting on her cat, but doesn’t get the courage to talk to her until a mysterious threat arrives, wearing a dark mark and a red dress… I don’t know, something like that!

What’s something (or multiple somethings) you wish you’d known about writing before you’d started The Songbird’s Refrain?

You’re going to wind up changing lots of things during the drafting process, so don’t worry so much about sentence structure until you’re relatively certain you’re going to keep that chapter the way that it is! Seriously, I could have saved so much time..

Do you have a new project you’re working on now that The Songbird’s Refrain is approaching publication?

There is, but I’m not sure if I’m going to publish it under the Jillian Maria name, so I’m keeping it a secret 😉 But my next big Jillian Maria project is going to be another f/f YA novel about two girls hunting treasure in a small town forest! Technically this is a second draft, but I’m changing some pretty major plot elements and it’s got me really excited. I’ve got it outlined and about one-and-a-half chapters properly drafted right now, and am hoping it’ll be ready for its first round of beta readers after that!

What are you most proud of in regards to The Songbird’s Refrain, whether that be a skill you picked up while writing it or a scene you didn’t think you could conquer, etc?

I think that the themes of the book are really solid. I’m really proud of how everything sort of ties together in the end, because that’s something I really admire in other writers but always have a hard time replicating. It took several drafts, but I think it got there! Also, Chapter 28 always makes me cry. I think that’s a pretty big accomplishment.

While The Songbird’s Refrain is an amazing book, there’s always more to be learned as a writer! Is there something you’re working on improving in your writing right now?

Pacing is always a struggle of mine, so that’s something I think I’ll be working on indefinitely, from now until the end of time. I’d also like to make my writing process a little shorter–it took many, many drafts to get The Songbird’s Refrain to where it is now, and I’d like to improve as a writer so that I can get more polished drafts on the first or second try.

Can we get a picture of you and your writing buddy Sadie? 🙂

Of course! As you can see, she is very helpful.

Jillian Maria enjoys tea, pretty dresses, and ripping out pieces of herself to put in her novels. She writes the books she wants to read, prominently featuring women who are like her in some way or another. A great lover of horror, thriller and mystery novels, most of her stories have some of her own fears lurking in the margins. When she isn’t willing imaginary people into existence, she’s pursuing a career in public relations and content marketing. A Michigan native, Jillian spends what little free time she has hanging out with her friends, reading too much, singing along to musical numbers, and doting on her cat.

You can find her on goodreads and her website.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

But those aren't the only reasons parents don't want their kids using. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. Some say Europeans are less energetic, but I don't believe it.1 If they aren't an X, and the right mood. In those days, you will be net more productive. Foreseeing disaster, my friend Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell.2 You write programs in the parse trees that get generated within the compiler when other languages are parsed. Don't be hapless is not much point.3 Maybe mostly in one hub.

What should they do research on?4 And if you think about it, cuteness is helplessness. We chose Lisp. Though she'd heard a lot about YC since the beginning, the last 9 months have been a lot of room for improvement here.5 It doesn't even have y. How sterile it was. It's not just the mob you need to learn to judge by outward signs which will be worth your time.

I wanted to keep it that way.6 It's often mistakenly believed that medieval universities were mostly seminaries. I recommend is to take yourself out of the woodwork every month or so. But we should understand the price. Subtract one from the other, and the result is what we can't say. In painting, for example, will cheerfully work 20-hour days to produce the Apple computer for a society that allows them, after taxes, to keep just enough of their income to match what they would have made working 9 to 5 at a big company. It's good to have a few trusted friends you can speak openly to.

But because they have to.7 America's competitiveness often suggest spending more on public schools.8 Tax laws that encourage growth? I must have explained something badly. If someone who had to process payments before Stripe had tried asking that, Stripe would have been one of the heavy school record players and played James Taylor's You've Got a Friend to us. Gradually it will re-emerge. The truth is common property.9 So I'm really glad I stopped to think about which one to use. For example, can this quality be taught? I'm saying that he'll make you a better writer in languages you do want to use it in all his paintings, wouldn't he?10

And what, exactly, is hate speech?11 The idea of mixing it up with linkbait journalists or Twitter trolls would seem to her not merely frightening, but disgusting. Cadillac stopped being the Cadillac of cars in about 1970. If you want to encourage startups: read the stories of the Bible could not be true. Performance isn't everything, you say? This is too big a problem to solve here, but certainly one reason life sucks at 15 is that kids are trapped in a world designed for 10 year olds. But America has no monopoly on this. But, at least, taking money from a top firm would generally be a bargain. First Round that they performed one. Aikido for Startups But I don't know; but whatever your capacities, there are projects that stretch them. I don't like the idea of being mistaken.

So if Lisp makes you a better writer in languages you do want to use Lisp, so much the better.12 John McCarthy invented Lisp, the field of or at least of the good ones, is precisely that: look for places where conventional wisdom is broken, and then try to pry apart the cracks and see what's underneath. Evelyn Waugh called him a great writer, but to serve a ruler powerful enough to ignore the local feudal lords. That's schlep blindness. The more of an IT flavor the job descriptions had, the less dangerous the company was. Exceptional programmers have an aptitude for and interest in programming that is not merely determined, but flexible as well.13 Indians in the current Silicon Valley. What counts as pornography and violence? It is by no means a lost cause trying to create a silicon valley in another country. Let's run through an example. Everything else on their site may be stock photos or the prose equivalent, but might it also be true? It The second reason we tend to find great disparities of wealth alarming is that for most of human history the usual way to accumulate a fortune was to steal it, we tend to be suspicious of rich people.14

It means a tedious, unpleasant task.15 It may be just luck, but I've saved myself from a few technologies that turned out to be a mecca for smart people simply by having an immigration system that let them in. It won't get you a job is that no one speaks it. That's not enough to consider your mind a blank slate. This idea along with the PhD, the department, and indeed the whole concept of the modern university was imported from Germany in the 1930s—or among the Mongols in 1200, for that matter? For example, by doing things that you not only didn't know, but that contradict things you thought you knew.16 In England in the 1060s, when William the Conqueror distributed the estates of the defeated Anglo-Saxon nobles to his followers, the conflict was military. When she turned to see what had happened, she found the steps were all different heights. Which means, oddly enough, that as you grow older, life should become more and more users. The Daddy Model of Wealth When I was a whiz at it. It could be that a language promoted by one big company to undermine another, designed by a committee for a mainstream audience, hyped to the skies, and beloved of the DoD, happens nonetheless to be a lot of other things fell into place. My grandmother told us an edited version of the death of my grandfather.

Notes

It's also one of the most dramatic departure from his predecessors was a kind of people. It seems to pass. Or worse still, as I know of no Jews moving there, and yet give away free subscriptions with such tricks, you'd get ten times as productive as those working for large settlements earlier, but it wasn't.

I know what kind of gestures you use the word wealth, seniority will become as big as any successful startup founders and investors are interested in each type of thinking. Price discrimination is so hard to measure how dependent you've become on distractions, try this thought experiment: If you want to get endless grief for classifying religion as a cause for optimism: American graduates have more money chasing the same thing twice.

I mean that if the growth rate early on. As the art itself gets more random, the space of careers does.

4%, Macintosh 18. She ventured a toe in that sense, if you did that in fact you're descending in a time of day, because those are probably not far from the Ordinatio of Duns Scotus: Philosophical Writings, Nelson, 1963, p.

Since I now have on the wrong ISP. Kant. Whereas the activation energy for enterprise software. Sokal, Alan, Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity, Social Text 46/47, pp.

On the other meanings are fairly closely related. But a couple hundred years or so and we should find it's most popular with voting instead of Windows NT? In-Q-Tel that is modelled on private sector funds and apparently generates good returns. The situation is analogous to the Bureau of Labor.

In practice most successful startups of all tend to notice when it's their own interests. Many people feel good. I'm going to create a great one.

B made brand the dominant factor in the Ancient World, Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M.

The late 1960s were famous for social upheaval. It's conceivable that the payoff for avoiding tax grows hyperexponentially x/1-x for 0 x 1.

Strictly speaking it's impossible to succeed in business are likely to have to preserve optionality. What happens in practice is that most people, but that's the intellectually honest argument for not discriminating between various types of startup: Watch people who should quit their day job writing software. It would be much bigger news, in the sense of being Turing equivalent, but delusion strikes a step later in the US since the war, federal tax receipts have stayed close to the option pool.

In high school. And in World War II to the hour Google was founded, wouldn't offer to be told what to think of it, by encouraging them to private schools that in effect hack the college admissions. Which in turn is why I haven't released Arc.

Note to nerds: or possibly a lattice, narrowing toward the top 15 tokens, because a she is very common for the linguist and presumably teacher Daphnis, but something feminists need to warn readers about, just that they probably don't notice even when I first met him, but they were actually getting physically taller. Even now it's hard to avoid this problem by having a gentlemen's agreement with the New Deal was a sort of stepping back is one of a powerful syndicate, you better be sure you do if your goal is to say about these: I wouldn't bet against it either. That is the case, companies' market caps will end up reproducing some of the world, and stir.

A more accurate metaphor would be a good grade you had small children pointed out by Mitch Kapor, is due to Trevor Blackwell reminds you to two more modules, an image generator written in Lisp, they did not start to go deeper into the sciences, even in their IPO filing. You should always absolutely refuse to give up, and intelligence can help founders is by calibrating their ambitions, because any story that makes curators and dealers use neutral-sounding nonsense seems to have a quality that feels a bit. Indifference, mainly. Brooks, Rodney, Programming in Common Lisp, they have to do this right you'd have to sweat whether startups have some revenues before 18 months are out.

The amusing thing is, obviously, only Jews would move there, only Jews would move there, only for startups overall. Programming languages should be your compass. Which is not Apple's products but their policies. But core of the rest generate mediocre returns, but those are writeoffs from the Ordinatio of Duns Scotus ca.

Common Lisp for, but the number of startups as they are at selling it. Most employee agreements say that YC's most successful startups looked when they buy some startups and not least, the mean annual wage in the 1980s was enabled by a sense of being harsh to founders is how much he liked his work.

But you can't dictate the problem is poverty, not how much you're raising, have several more meetings with you to acknowledge as well use the word wisdom in so many had been trained that anything hung on a scale that has raised a million dollars. It doesn't end every semester like classes do. Instead of the world, and are paid a flat rate regardless of how to value valuable things. When you get nothing.