the-writers-library

[the-writers-library]

20 Emotional Wounds in Fiction That Make Readers Root for the Character

Abandonment: Characters who have been abandoned by loved ones or caregivers can evoke sympathy from readers.

Betrayal: Being betrayed by someone close can create deep emotional wounds that make readers empathize with the character.

Loss of a Loved One: Whether through death or separation, the loss of a loved one can be a powerful emotional wound.

Rejection: Characters who experience rejection, whether in relationships or by society, can be relatable and evoke empathy.

Abuse: Physical, emotional, or psychological abuse can create complex wounds that shape a character's personality and behavior.

Neglect: Characters who have been neglected, especially in childhood, can evoke sympathy from readers.

Failure: Experiencing a significant failure or loss can create emotional wounds that make characters more relatable.

Guilt: Characters who carry guilt for past actions or decisions can be compelling and evoke empathy from readers.

Shame: Feelings of shame can create internal conflict and make characters more relatable and sympathetic.

Injustice: Characters who have experienced injustice or unfair treatment can evoke strong emotions from readers.

Trauma: Characters who have experienced traumatic events, such as war or natural disasters, can be sympathetic and relatable.

Loneliness: Characters who feel lonely or isolated can evoke empathy from readers who have experienced similar feelings.

Fear: Characters who face their fears or struggle with phobias can be relatable and evoke empathy from readers.

Self-doubt: Characters who struggle with self-doubt or low self-esteem can be relatable and evoke sympathy.

Identity Crisis: Characters who are grappling with questions of identity or struggling to find their place in the world can be sympathetic.

Addiction: Characters who struggle with addiction can be complex and evoke empathy from readers.

Betrayal of Trust: Characters who have had their trust betrayed can be sympathetic and relatable.

Unrequited Love: Characters who experience unrequited love can be sympathetic and evoke empathy from readers.

Isolation: Characters who feel isolated or disconnected from others can be relatable and evoke sympathy.

Fear of Failure: Characters who struggle with a fear of failure can be relatable and evoke empathy from readers.

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WORLD BUILDING CHECKLIST

If you are writing a book/story that takes place in another world, I have provided for you the complete world building checklist to ensure that you know your world inside out.

Economy A. Currency B. Poverty rate/line

Government A. Crime & Legal System B. Foreign Relations C. Politics D. War

The Land A. Physical & Historical Features B. Climate C. Geography D. Natural Resources E. Population

Society & Culture A. Arts, Entertainment, & Recreation B. Architecture C. Calendar D. Daily Life. E. Diet F. Ethics & Values G. fashion & Dress H. History I. Dining Customs J. Education K. Language L. Gestures M. Manners N. Meeting & Greeting O. Religion & Philosophy P. Social organization

Magic A. Magicians B. Magic and science C. Magic & Technology D. Rules of Magic

Technology C. Technology D. Medicine D. Transportation & Communication you're welcome <3

Fell free to reblog and fill it out if you want. I am curious to see the worlds in my fellow writers heads.

Follow me @leisureflame for more posts like this!

[the-writers-library]

If a scene feels flat and you can't figure it out, ask yourself:

• What can MC smell? Is there an ocean breeze, sweat, a cinnamon roll fresh out the oven?

• What can MC hear, besides the dialogue? Is a bird singing, river flowing, a car speeding, clock ticking?

• Can they taste something, even if they're not eating? Previously drunk alcohol or juice, aftertaste of a cigarette, smog, too instense perfume?

• Can they feel something on their skin? Rough clothes or delicate material, blowing wind, an allergy or a rash, grass that theyre laying on?

• What does the character see, besides other characters? Is the room dark or is sunlight coming in nicely? Are the colours vibrant or dull? Are there any plants?

• What's the weather? Is it snowing and the cold is making goosebumps appear on their arms? Is it hot and sweaty and clothes are clinging to their body?

• HOW DOES IT MAKE THEM FEEL? To any of the above.

Do they like the smell of cinnamon rolls or are they weirdos (I'm a weirdo, I don't fit in).

Does the clock ticking calm them down or annoy them?

Do they enjoy the aftertaste of a cig and like how dirty it makes them feel?

Are they sensitive to touch and how their clothing feels on their skin or are they indifferent?

Would they enjoy the scenery more if it was more sunny out, because they're afraid of the darkness?

Do they like it snowy or are they always cold and hate winter?

Come on, give them persoanlity, likes and dislikes, don't be scared to make them people and not only likeable characters.

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I'm struggling to find comp titles that would be appropriate to include in a pitch. American Gods and The Sandman by @neil-gaiman are the best examples I can think of. My dream is for Even Angels Falter to be sitting on the same shelf as these books one day.

But all the advice I see on writing a pitch says don't use titles that are too big or well known. So, what do you think, Mr. Gaiman? May I use your books as comp titles in my pitch?

[the-writers-library]

How To End Your Story

The Circle Ending: A story that does a full circle and comes back to the beginning

The Moral Ending: An ending where you learn a lesson and see the character develop

The Surprise Ending: A big plot twist last-minute

The Reflection Ending: The character looks back on their past achievements and experiences

The Emotional Ending: Leave your readers feelings sad, bittersweet, or happy

The Cliffhanger Ending: End on something that will leave your readers at the edge of their seat

The Humor Ending: Finish in a funny or humorous way

The Question Ending: Make the reader wonder what will happen next

The Image Ending: Show, don't tell

The Dialogue Ending: Finish with a quote from one of your characters

[the-writers-library]

Ninjas don’t wear black. They used to disguise themselves as civilians. Unlike ninjas in movies, the real guys were smart enough to know that wearing a black outfit with a face mask wasn’t the best strategy for blending in. Source

[the-writers-library]

It annoys me unreasonably when you want to ask people "what bird and what mammal would make the worst gryphon" as a fun thought exercise, and people with no joy and no imagination always interpret it as "a gryphon that sucks, is physically impossible, and would hate being alive", and - being predictable and lacking in imagination - always, always answer with "a hummingbird and a blue whale lol".

Like come on. Why do you have to suck the fun out of everything. Why not use a fraction of imagination and delightful whimsy. Imagine the combination of a mouse and a sparrow. That creature would be merciless, burtal, absolutely determined to get into your trash and has the power of both wings and hands to do its will. Or a crow and a cat - that thing is smart enough to fuck with people and not afraid to do it. Imagine the ungodly shriek of the noble fox-seagull, also determined to get into your trash.

A gryphon that is a combination of a kangaroo and a cassowary. The only proof we have of a loving god is the fact that those things do not exist. If hell is real, it's full of them. That thing can't fly, but it will run you down, it will kill you, and you will look stupid the whole entire time you're dying.

Why would the first thing that pops into your mind at the words "the worst gryphon" automatically be "a gryphon that hates being alive". Can you not picture a gryphon that fucking loves being alive, and has both the power and the will to make it everyone else's problem.

[the-writers-library]

#writing advice #show don't tell

How to show emotions

Part II

How to show happiness

big smile

eyes going wide

corners of the mouth going up

showing teeth

squealing

speaking rapidly

laugh lines appearing

smiling

being animated

direct eye contact

How to show sadness

shoulders slumped

looking down

turning head away

frowning

not seeing properly anymore

slow movements

corners of the mouth going downwards

quivering lips

eyes filled with tears

running nose

breathing fitfully

How to show disgust

wrinkled nose

gagging

eyes narrowing

no eye contact

upper lip pulled up

How to show fear

wide eyes

heart pounding

feeling paralyzed

shaking / clammy hands

trying to close eyes

open mouth

heavy breathing

cold and clammy hands

clenched hands

tensing up

eyesbrows going together

trying to look for an exit

How to show surprise

raised eyebrows

jaw going slack

open mouth

eyes widening

gasp

How to show frustration

groaning

rolling eyes

throwing arms in the air

pacing up and down

huffing

tapping your foot

tapping your fingers

crossing your arms

stomping

checking watch

More: Part I + Part III

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Surviving Death

                I am a sucker for revival after character death—as long as it’s done well. Maybe in the future we’ll do a separate post on killing characters, but what I’ll say about it now is that revival can be a fantastic plot twist or narrative turn as long as both it and the death has proper meaning.

                While you may want to revive a character for a happy ending--they wake up and not only is the world saved but everyone made it out alive! This can also sometimes feel a bit cheap. What was the point of suffering the death if they were just to get to come back easy-peasy? Consider, would End Game have been as revered if Tony got to survive his sacrifice?

                So here’s some ways to bring a character back to life without losing the meaning of their death:

They are forever changed from the experience

A classic “came back wrong”, one of my favourite things in fiction. You get to choose to the extent they are wrong. Maybe the ‘wrong’ isn’t some supernatural influence, but rather just a result of the experience of dying.

                They saw something about the afterlife, they’ve lost memories, they’ve gained new memories about a past or a future or alternate timeline, they realize how much they mean to certain people, they discover just how little they meant to others, etc. etc.

                Their death (and subsequent revival) should quite literally change the course of their life. That’s not something one could go through lightly. Whether it gives them trauma, new perspectives, or a complete shift in personality/morals, they definitely didn’t come back how they left.

2. Sacrifice for a Sacrifice

Also a pretty common trope—you don’t get to gain something unless you lose something. To bring them back, someone else has to take their place, or something important is lost. Maybe to trade for their companion back, the main character loses the greatest asset to their quest. Maybe they have to choose between two people, and the two who live have to live with that fact.

                I read a book once where the main character had to choose between his love interest and his brother in a Saw-like trap. He chooses his brother, and the villain kills him anyway. Now he must continue his quest with his love interest, who knows he didn’t choose her. It was tragic, and completely changed their dynamic.

3. They’re only half back

They come back, but only some of the way. Maybe they are cursed to die again in a year. They’re tied to one place and will disappear if they leave it. They’re a ghost, or otherwise not fully present. They exist only in relation to certain objects or people. Their communication is lost, or certain other abilities they used to have.

                They came back, but only some of them—the rest is lost to the beyond.

Most importantly to reviving characters is the permanent consequences. Death is no easy thing to overcome, and whatever the circumstances are--it should remain with them forever.

                What are some other ways to revive characters?

[the-writers-library]

Thrawn is like 50-60+ HE CAN'T LOOK LIKE HIS 20-SOMETHING LEGENDS ARTWORK. Is that so hard to understand

[the-writers-library]

I can see my character, Flora Una, in this painting. She is a fae, a creature of the Air and the Earth.

Large, dragonfly like wings. Long hair that is both green and brown; like the mottled forest floor.

Her skin burnt umber like fertile soil. She has a dusting of green freckles.

Flora Una fights for her smallest kin. They are being harvested for their magic, and she's going to make the hunters pay.

Dolce Far Niente by John William Godward (1897)

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97 character motivations

Here’s our masterlist of 97 character motivations that you can use in your novel to spark an idea for a character arc!

Saving a family member from capture

Saving a sibling from disease

Saving a pet from danger

Saving the world from ruin

Saving a friend from heartbreak

Saving the town from financial ruin

Saving friends from dangerous deadly situations

Saving a love interest from dying

Saving themselves in a dangerous world

Saving a community from falling apart

Saving a child from a potentially dangerous circumstance

Saving a place or location from evil forces

Saving a ghost from limbo

Overcoming a phobia

Overcoming an addiction

Overcoming marital struggles

Moving on from loss

Finding a significant other

Finding a new family (not blood-related)

Finding true biological family

Finding out an old secret

Finding a way home

Reconnecting with long-lost friends

Getting out of a dark state of mind

Finding peace in life

Beating a disease

Beating an arch nemesis

Forming a peaceful community

Transforming a location

Bringing someone back to life

Winning a competition

Going on an adventure

Getting a dream job

Keeping a secret

Escaping a location of capture

Proving a moral point

Proving a political point

Winning a political campaign

Betray someone

Ruin someone’s life

Find a suspect or killer

Find the answer to a mystery

Discover ancient sites & secret histories

Perform a successful ritual

Summon the dead

Save a country from dictatorship

Become the most powerful in a community

Outshine a family member in business success

Prove someone wrong

Win prize money to help someone in need

Get revenge on someone who wronged them

Find the person who wronged them

Develop significant scientific progress

Gain respect from family

Get over an ex-lover

Move on from a painful death

Keep their community alive

Lead their community

Heal people in need

Preserve a species (animal, alien, plant…)

Discover new world

Get recognition for hard work

Become famous

Get rich to prove themselves to people who doubted them

Break a long tradition

Challenge the status quo of a community

Defeat a magical nemesis

Take over a location to rule

Find out truth behind old legends

Help someone get over their struggles

Prove their moral values

Prove their worth to an external party

Become a supernatural creature

Keep something from falling into the wrong hands

Protect the only person they care about

Start a revolution

Invent new technology

Invent a new weapon

Win a war

Fit in with a community

Atone for past sins

Give top-secret information to an enemy as revenge

Kill an ex-lovers current partner

Reinvent themselves

Raise a strong child

Make it to a location in a strict time period

Find faith

Find enlightenment

Find out more about the afterlife

Confess love to a friend

Solve a moral dilemma

Have a child of their own

Avoid being alone

Run away from past struggles

Reinvent themselves as a new person

Impress a colleague or boss

Avoid a fight or war breaking out

If you need a hand getting started on your novel, we have 3 coaches at The Plottery who can work with you intensively for 4 month to skill up your writing and help you finish your first draft.

Apply through the [link here] or below!

[the-writers-library]

escapist media in general is an ongoing fascination for me. media written with escapism as a main priority typically requires very little thought from the reader - the whole point is to kick back and live vicariously through a fun story, after all. they're narratives written to prioritize reader comfort.

but because they are written to be as unchallenging as possible, they often come with a set of underlying assumptions that can be just fucking fascinating to unpick. like yeah, why IS it assumed to be escapist and indulgent to enjoy colonial wealth without thinking about it in regency fiction. why IS the self inserty female protagonist, who is assumed to be as universally relatable as possible, written to be sweetly naive and sexually inexperienced. why does this "queernorm" contemporary world replicate patriarchial structures exactly but just with Gay People Allowed. why are these ideas assumed to be easy and comforting? can the writers not imagine anything better than the status quo but except maybe with more gay people and poc if you're lucky?

the fact of the matter is that "unchallenging" fiction tends to just simply replicate dominant cultural narratives as a point of comfort. we won't challenge the reader, so we won't think about the way we write certain things. everything we think of as comforting and safe are, of course, universal, and could not be founded on any harmful ideological assumptions. there is nobody who could be alienated by this.

and that's the sticking point to me, in terms of escapist fiction: it's always necessary to ask whose comfort is being prioritized. you've got to interrogate who gets to escape and the mechanisms by which that escape happens. escapism can be good and necessary to survive the current world, but it does not exist in a vacuum separate from the real world, even if it pretends it does!

[the-writers-library]

Don't you sometimes get an absolutely extrodinary, mind blowing, such an awesome idea for a story, but you just don't have enough skill level to pull it off?

[the-writers-library]

Are there any significant effects of a character swordfighting or fighting with other weapons while wearing fingerless gloves VS wearing no gloves? How about with normal gloves?

The short answer would be, it's not a huge difference, until it is. When you're looking at most melee weapons, gloves will provide a little bit of protection to your hands, sometimes at the cost of a little bit of grip on the weapon itself.

Somewhat obviously, if you have a plate gauntlet that's protecting your hand or fingers, that will provide more protection, same thing if you're wearing chain gloves. In fact, chain gloves can be pretty useful in specific situations to protect your hands against cutting impacts.

However, as I mentioned, you lose a little bit of grip. This isn't a huge difference, but it can start to impact things like your ability to engage in fine manual dexterity with the weapon. For example, if you can quickly reverse a knife with one hand without thinking about it, you might not be able to replicate that feat while wearing a heavy glove. You can think of this as more of an armor familiarity issue, though. If you train, and practice, while wearing gloves, this should be a pretty minimal loss.

Archery is a case when you really want those heavy gloves. The fletching can scrape up an exposed arm, drawing can scrape up your fingers. Having gauntlets, and even bracers to protect your forearms, can dramatically reduce the amount of cuts and scrapes you suffer from your own arrows. You really do not want fingerless gloves while using a bow, and in some cases, you may even get archer's gauntlets that are just finger protection, leaving the hand itself exposed. (This is for the draw hand, not the bow hand.)

Fingerless gloves work best in situations where you'll expect to take hits across the palm or back of the hand, but need your fingers to operate controls. Firearms are a prime example of this, where most shooters would rather have their finger directly on the trigger, and it's much easier to operate things like fire control settings, mag releases, and bolt catches, when you can actually get the tactile feedback from it. (Also, if you have normal to large hands, a lot of guns don't really accommodate the increased bulk of the glove on top of your hand.)

It should probably be mentioned, that I am assuming the gloves in question are heavy leather, or some similar material (there are synthetic work gloves now.) So, if you're thinking about something like a thin fabric glove, that's mostly going to be a cosmetic change. It will probably protect against some minor nicks and scratches, but won't offer much use as armor, while a heavy leather glove will provide a little more protection. Something like chain or plate gauntlets can offer some significant combat protection, and depending on the design, you can even minimize the loss of grip on your weapon. In a modern context, there are even work gloves with rubberized inserts on the palm and fingers to increase grip, though I'm unsure exactly how useful those would be in a combat situation. Fingerless gloves do have practical applications (I used to wear a pair for years at an old job), but they're not uniformly better, just specialized to different tasks.

-Starke

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Anon #1 - I have trouble writing parts that aren’t dialogue. i feel like my writing is almost all dialogue. I dont know how to just write what’s happening in between, like large paragraphs where nothing is being said??? 

Anon #2 - Any tips for how to write parts without dialogue? I seem to excel at writing dialogue and getting the plot rolling, but I can’t have my novel be 95% dialogue, can I? I seem to use dialogue as a crutch and I’m not quite sure how to use… actual words.. and sentences… ? 

When I first started writing I also had too much dialogue—it read like a half-finished script. The storytelling suffered, the characterization suffered, and it was annoying to read (some genres and writers can get away with large amounts of dialogue, but as per my previous post it’s best to know the rules before you break them).

There was no quick, easy fix for this, and unlike you smart people I did not research or ask how to fix it. I just started paying attention to the ways dialogue was framed in my favorite books, TV, and movies.

Things I Learned About Dialogue

Dialogue needs to be broken up by the other senses. People rarely sit still and expressionless while speaking. When we talk our other senses do not suddenly stop working, nor does our mind stop thinking.

Recall how you’ve kept yourself entertained in waiting rooms, lectures, and long conversations. You daydream, go over mental shopping lists, curse that noisy thing in the background, focus too much on strange blemishes on the other person’s face. We almost never give people our “undivided attention” even when we mean to.

Example: 

“How long did they make you wait?”

I look down as the cat’s tail sweeps across my knees. “Not very long.”

“Well, it felt like—” she sputters as the wind blow her hair into her mouth and moves it back behind her ear, “—it felt like forever. Mom was going ballistic.”

A horn honks down the road, and while she bitches I watch the neighbor kids come rushing across their lawn with backpacks bouncing to get in the car. I remember what that was like. Kinda miss it.

“I mean if you can’t run a business well you just shouldn’t.” She fumbles with her lighter, having already planted a cigarette between her teeth like she does when she’s frustrated. “Oh, would you look at that. Already chipped a nail.”

Dialogue is often unnecessary when describing characteristics or emotions. If your characters are actually talking to the reader instead of each other then that dialogue might need to be cut and that information related to the reader in some other way. 

Example (bad):

“You are my mother.” 

“Yes, son. And your father died six years ago.” 

“Indeed, in a car accident. We miss him so much.”

You save on dialogue and clutter by just using one line of inner monologue or various context clues to let the reader know who’s who and what’s what (i.e. showing instead of telling).

Likewise, instead of dialogue like, “Katy, the pretty secretary, is really unhappy today” use non-verbal cues to show Katy is pretty and unhappy.

Example:

Katy trudged into her office and sighed as she sat down, her purse hitting the desk with a clunk, her unbrushed hair lacking its usual enviable lustre. 

Dialogue is not the only way to communicate. In real life, and in films/theater with good acting, much of the communication is through body language and vocables (e.g. grunts, scoffs, sighs, snorts). 

Visual and physical cues can also convey ideas whether intentionally or not. Sometimes just different forms of eye contact, like that knowing look from your friend across the room or that glare from your mom after you’ve said something in public, are all that’s needed to understand a scene.

Example:

Miguel looked at Elise. She raised her eyebrows. He frowned. She rolled her eyes and turned away. He sighed through his nose and went back to reading his book.

Dialogue cannot be trusted to describe a setting or scene. Every character has their own perception of their surroundings. Witnesses to a crime are notorious for having conflicting accounts of the same event. Some see details others didn’t, some lace their stories with unintentional bias, and others simply have a unique point of view based on their life experiences.

Therefore, you have to use your own descriptions of what a place looks, sounds, and feels like in order to let the reader know that’s actually what it’s like. No two of your characters should agree on all aspects of their environment and circumstances even if they are experiencing it together. If one thinks the sky is blue and beautiful today, the other sees the storm clouds on the horizon.

Example:

People were screaming and running in all directions as the alien spaceship flew calmly overhead. A woman fell down in the street.

“She’s been shot!” someone shouted. 

The woman had actually slipped on someone’s personal belongings that had been abandoned with haste.

“They’re shooting at us,” shouted another person. 

People started scrambling for cover. One man fired his gun at the ship’s hull, having no idea how close the ship actually was or where the bullet might come down. No one helped the woman who had fallen and twisted her ankle, and she was left alone on the deserted pavement.

Some scenes won’t need dialogue at all. Your speaking characters likely won’t inhabit every scene in your book. Even in first person POV, there needs to be another character to bounce dialogue off of, and if your character must talk to themselves it will likely be inner monologue.

The storytelling itself, the meat of the book, has to come from the author. Yours is the main voice in every scene that decides the outcome. By speaking only through your characters you limit yourself and your story. Shut them up once in a while so the reader can listen to you.

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How am I supposed to write in these conditions?