writers4all

[writers4all]

Want some easy tip to make your characters 100% more believable??

I learned this some time ago, and wanted to share it because it has really helped me A LOT.

Think of your characters and imagine how they would be in their best moment and in their worst. But not like, happiest and darkest moment. Think of it as their healthiest and most toxic moments. Everyone is healthy sometimes and toxic sometimes. USE THAT. Write a about it, describe them and their actions in both situations.

Maybe you have a character that can be crazy possessive when toxic, but really supportive when healthy. Who knows?

Once you write that, chances are you already know how their gonna behave in almost any situation that pushes them to be healthier/ more toxic. Plus, you can also use it for your characters' positive/ negative arc or to develop relationships with other characters.

Happy writing!! 😙😙

Other tips for writers: next

[writers4all]

"BAD GUYS DESERVE HAPPY ENDINGS, TOO!" Except It's A Random Person's Essay Opinion On It.

So I've legit lost count the number of times I've seen people say that villains deserve to get a fairytale Happily Ever After and whatnot. But here's the thing ... I always get the vibe that they mean it as in it's always rainbows and butterflies (it's not) where the good guy gives the bad guy a Heel-Face Turn.

No, no, no. Stop right there.

While I don't entirely mind there being complicated af relationships going on in stories — OG Fiction or Fanfiction, it matters not — we really need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. How about instead of having the bad guy having a Heel-Face Turn or whatever we just flat out have The Bad Guy Win? It's actually been done before, and quite a lot, surprisingly. Here are a couple of examples down below:

Pokemon USUM where the big bads from Gen 1 to Gen 6 (Giovanni, Archie, Maxie, Cyrus, Ghetsis, and Lysandre) won in an alternate timeline.

Most of the SAW films with a vast majority of the traps.

Batman Arkham Knight actually succeeded in doing this by having Scarecrow reveal who Batman truly is ... ... ... ... ... TO THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD VIA LIVE TELEVISION.

Injustice: Gods Among Us played with this when The Joker manages to successfully brainwash Superman into killing Lois Lane. This one's pretty triggering, though, so head's up.

Dragon Ball Z plays with this as well for the timeline Future Trunks is from Cell actually won due to everyone except for Bulma and Trunks dying by the hands of Androids 17 + 18 and Cell.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers played with this for the Rangers actually lost the ability to morph permanently via the morphers they had at the end of the series thus having to obtain the Zeo Crystals to morph into the Zeo Rangers and not the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Mortal Kombat 11 plays with this if you choose Shang Tsung over God Liu Kang and have it to where Raiden and Fujin are mindless servants.

Something similar happens in Injustice 2 where you choose Superman over Batman to where the latter becomes a mindless servant of the former (thus scarring the young Supergirl).

With all of that being said, why not have it to where the villains do have a happy ending but not in the way we expect it. Get your readers emotionally invested to where they're not happy with the outcome kind of like when Sephiroth killed Aerith out of nowhere in the OG FF7. Or, if you really want to, make it to where they get a kick out of it kind of like how The Joker makes Batman laugh at the end of The Killing Joke. Just have the bad guy win every now and again.

[writers4all]

Three Tips for Self-Editing Your Manuscript

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. ProWritingAid, a 2022 NaNo sponsor, helps you turn your rough first draft into a clean, clear, publish-ready manuscript. Today, Hayley Milliman, Head of Education at ProWritingAid, shares some tips on how to successfully edit your own manuscript:

So you’ve finished NaNoWriMo? Congratulations! You should be proud of the hard work you did to complete your manuscript.

Now is when the fun begins: editing.

For many people, the editing process is murky and complex. Drafting is straightforward: your goal is to end up with a finished manuscript. But how do you know what to do when editing? And how do you know when editing is done?

Keep reading

[writers4all]

A confession:

Most 'character development' help posts do nothing for me. Nada. Zilch.

This is not a denunciation of such posts - they evidently work for a lot of folks! But if I see questions like 'what is your character's favourite colour?' or 'what is your character's biggest fear?' I am clicking away.

Obviously, working this sort of thing out is important! These details add fun little quirks to your character, or shine a light on their backstory. But when I'm developing a complementary cast of characters, with a smorgasbord of unique and interesting personalities...

I just put them in situations.

I call this the fanfic approach, as it basically amounts to writing mini fics about how your characters would react to a variety of stressors. For instance: let's start with a simple scenario with a potential for conflict!

A barista gets the character's coffee order wrong. Like, horrifically wrong. They create an unholy abomination of syrup shots and espresso that probably tastes of cough syrup, and hand it to your character, straight-faced. How does the character react?

Working with the cast of No Man's Sky...

Mavrik would shrug and chug the coffee anyway. She's drunk worse; she ain't bothered. No point causing a fuss.

Vox would threaten to kill the barista and their entire family, in graphic detail, until they were escorted out of the coffee shop and banned for life.

Oleander would smile politely, engage the barista in small talk, show genuine interest in their hopes and dreams, then proceed to make such a pleasant yet insistent song-and-dance about how this was not their order that the barista would apologise profusely, remake his drink, and offer him complimentary free croissants for the rest of the year.

Jagura would drink the coffee-trocity without noticing the error.

Renzou would apologise to the barista.

As you can see, we have five distinct, diverging reactions - and thus, five unique characters! I like to repeat this exercise with three-ish prompts of varying intensity. Here's some ideas, if anyone wants to play along:

Your character is waiting for a train. It's running late, but only by five minutes. However, they are hoping to catch a connection at the next station, and this will reduce their transfer time by half.

Your character finds a box full of sickly kittens, abandoned in a rainy street. There are far too many for your character to adopt and look after alone.

Your character walks into a room where there is most definitely not supposed to be a dead body. There... is a dead body.

You get the idea! Your characters don't always have to react in a unique way to every scenario, but there should be some individual flavour to their actions, whatever they may be.

Go forth and put those little guys in situations and scenarios! And pretty please feel free to reblog and let me know how your cast would react!

[writers4all]

The Art of War For Writers by James Scott Bell

I bought this book several months ago because I'm a big fan of The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Not only that but I'm always up for buying books that have neat little tips and tricks on how I can improve my confidence, self-esteem, and writing abilities. This book is sectioned into three parts with Part 1: Reconnaissance (1 to 22), Part 2: Tactics (23 to 56), and Part 3: Strategy (57 to 77). With that being said, let's get down to business with me typing out all 77 strategies, tactics, and exercises!

The writer who observes the battlefield before entering the fray will be better equipped to plan strategy and tactics.

The writer must understand the essentials of success for a long-term writing career, and count the cost accordingly: Desire, Discipline, Commitment to Craft, Patience, Honesty, Willingness to Learn, Business-Like Attitude, Rhino Skin, Long-Term View, and Talent.

Know the difference between a hero and a fool.

A foundation in discipline is always the first step toward victory.

Career fiction writers must be aware of what the successful writing life is like.

A wise and well-respected writer once said, "Nobody knows anything." Listen to him.

Whining will not help you win the battle for publication.

"Do the one thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain."

The outsized ego is not a weapon of value.

Status, worry, and comparison are ways to madness, not victory.

To keep from turning off those who can publish you, you must not be desperate.

The career novelist will develop a writing improvement program, beginning with a notebook.

A writer must always be prepared to break through "the wall."

Turn envy into energy and more words.

The successful novelist will not worry about competition, but will concentrate only on the page ahead.

Don't worry about being worried, and don't let worry drag you down.

Stay hungry so your determination will not flag.

An army travels on its stomach, so spear some fish.

The fiction writer must rely on self-motivation.

A gentle reminder can deliver great force at just the right time.

Put heart into everything you write.

Finish your novel, because you learn more that way than any other.

The writer of potential greatness settles not for "mere fiction."

A writer with a credo will not be tempted to settle for mediocrity.

Write hard, write fast, and the fire of creation will be yours.

Edit slow, edit tough, with a process both clear and cool.

Test your premise to prove it worthy.

The fully engaged writer must extend operations to the two levels of story.

Disdain not the freshness of small improvements outside comfort zones.

The key to reader bonding is falling in love with the Lead.

Deploy a character who reveals both inner struggle and inner conflict.

The writer who understands redemption is on the border of enduring fiction.

A premise must be supported by fresh, solid scenes.

When you are stuck, call on a word and its cousins.

The use of a voice journal will keep characters from becoming little versions of the writer.

Speed is the essence of the opening.

Discipline clichéd or predictable story beginnings.

Learn to pace your scene openings for specific effects.

Remember that love means never having to say, "I love you."

Characters all alone do more than think.

Apply the Spencer Tracy secret for creating memorable characters.

Utilize the Q Factor as a strategic weapon for motivation at just the right time.

Give backstory the proper respect, and it will help readers bond with your characters.

The dropping in of backstory should be active.

Progressive revelation keeps readers turning pages.

Dialogue will compel the turning of pages if it is a compression and extension of action.

The innovative writer will sometimes write dialogue only, then fill in the blanks.

For scenes to move with deliberate speed, the writer must grasp behind RUE: Resist the Urge to Explain.

The clever use of narrative dialogue will avoid the sin of small talk.

Success may be found in three great scenes, and no weak ones.

To write comedy, make the characters believe they are in a tragedy.

To the question of whether or outline or not outline: Yes.

The writer who is anxious to start writing should follow a mini-plan.

The wise writer draws on select weapons to keep his story moving forward.

Do not miss the opportunity to warm up your third-person point of view.

First-person point of view is the most intimate, thus requiring special handling.

You are a business, and your books are the product.

A goal is just a dream unless it has legs.

Network according to the law of reciprocity.

Take a writing Sabbath and recharge your batteries.

Become a snatcher of time, and maybe you'll hit 700 books, too.

Know when to get an agent—and when not to.

If you charge ahead without an agent, be sure you have something worth selling.

In the hunt for an agent, take aim at more than one.

Approach agents intelligently by knowing what they do and don't want.

Unwise is the writer who quits his day job too soon.

Your weapon for pursuing publication is the killer proposal.

Your opening salvo i the killer cover letter.

Wow agents and editors by grabbing them with your opening chapters.

Utilize the principle of overcompensation to generate a killer synopsis.

Always be ready to talk to someone in the elevator.

Plan your actions when attending a writers' conference, then work your plan.

"Never assume that a rejection of your stuff is also a rejection of you as a person ... unless it's accompanied by a punch in the nose."

Promote as you will, but never let it affect your ability to write your best book.

Nurture your relationship with a trusted ally, your editor.

For long-term success, design a typical writing day and stick to it.

To survive over any length of time, you must turn any criticism into a strength.

[writers4all]

Hey, so I saw your post about chatgpt and I was wondering, Can someone who has an expressive language delay and receptive language delay use chatgpt to help. I have those two language impairments plus autism (the kind of autism that gives me aphantasia and makes me struggle with writing) so is it okay that I am using chatgpt to help me write? I use it in a guide kind of way where I send in my writing then ask it to refine it and tell me what I did wrong. I also ask it things like 'how do I fix my imagination when I have none' and "how do I write dialoge/pacing/show and tell" is that fine? I would ask an actual human but the questions I have are so weird that they always get sick of me and they judge and condescend me so I prefer an ai like chatgpt who really helps. I write myself for the most part and chat gpt has helped me improve but I still lack so much clarity in my writing and so I struggle. Also I can't read other things sometimes so I have to send in that to help it explain it to me cuz its just really hard for my brain to understand.

Please help, I don't want to do the wrong thing but if my brain can't understand some writing then I kinda have to use a tool to help... Also audio books didn't help

Hello, anon!

That's an excellent question! I genuinely see nothing wrong with people using it due to impairments, disabilities, disorders, and whatnot. Let's take Stephen Hawking for example. He basically used an AI in order to speak. And let's not forget that the GPS is basically an AI that gives us map locations and the best routes to get from Point A to Point B. We also have voice-to-text as well and various programs that allow us to speak words into our documents and turn it into works of art.

Something else I recommend is going to your local bookstore or thrift shop to see if there are any textbooks or writing guides on how to improve your own writing. In fact, I plan on making posts in the future talking about various textbooks and writing guides that I own along with going into detail about my thoughts and opinions on them. They're rather neat. Now if, for whatever given reason, you're not able to afford said books I would just write down the Book Title + Author and then go to Library Genesis's website to see if you can download it for free.

AIs are great in practice and to genuinely help people. Heck, I don't even mind people using it to get some ideas for their fanfics or to have it give randomized prompts. It's just that I'm not too keen on the whole "I want ChatGPT to write out a 50,000 word fanfic or story for me so I can upload it, publish it, and claim it as my own originality." fiasco. Stating that you had an AI write the whole thing is one thing. But if you used the AI to help you get into the right direction because you genuinely need help? That's okay! There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, I promise. Why? Because we all need help. Not only that but socializing is hard.

I also want to say that I'm genuinely sorry that people find your questions annoying. As someone who struggles with properly wording and phrasing thing properly, myself, I feel your pain. One of the reasons for this is because vocabulary and definitions have never been my strong suit — it's always been spelling, ironically enough. I always feel like I'm going to confuse and/or annoy people with my questions because I'm a genuinely curious person who loves learning new things but am unable to properly phrase anything. So I can 100% sympathize and empathize with you on that!

There's also nothing wrong with audio books not helping. It's not for everyone. Some people do better reading in silence. Some people do better reading aloud. Some people do better reading with music. I'm sure you get the point by now. And the same is equally true for white noise and ASMRs. I often think people forget that it's never a "One Size Fits All" kind of scenario. The same can be said about clothes, medicine, makeup, programs, video games, languages and the whole nine yards. We're not made out of clay and made to be exactly the same. We're all uniquely different. Besides ... it's like one of my best friends says, "I don't want to be normal. Normal is a cycle on the washing machine."

With that being said, I definitely recommend you doing whatever helps you and makes you most comfortable. I can guarantee that there's no judgement coming from my end and the most I would ask is "Why?" Simple as that.

[writers4all]

AI Bots - Are They Problematic and Should I Use Them?

With all of the uproar going on with Artificial Intelligence having the capabilities of scraping various fanfiction sites (AO3) as well as artwork sites (DeviantArt) and plagiarizing them, I wanted to give my two cents on whether or not it's okay to even use AI sites or AI programs or AI chatbots.

Some of the most iconic programs, sites, and chatbots include Cleverbot, Grammarly, Notion, and ChatGPT. Everyone has used Cleverbot at one point or another for laughs and seeing what nonsense it'll come up with. Grammarly is great when it comes to ... well ... grammar. Notion is unique in the sense that it's a writing document app with an AI built into it (and you can actually use Grammarly along with it). Which leaves us with none other than ... ... ... ... ... ChatGPT.

AIs like ChatGPT (and Dall-E) are nothing short of problematic because there are ways for people to scrape various websites. This is problematic because not only do they invade privacy but also tends to more or less take bits and pieces, if not all, of people's works (be it written, drawn, both, neither, etc.). Another problem with using AI bots is that there are a lot of people who use them to write their essays and creative assignments for school (especially college). This is incredibly problematic for a couple of reasons.

It can be taken as (and assumed that) the students were being lazy and aren't learning anything. It's like what this article on Scribber says, "Not doing the work yourself is academically dishonest, undermines your learning, and is unfair to other students."

It can, and perhaps will, cause problems later on down the road. The reason for this is because we all have a distinct voice and way we phrase things. And this is true when it comes to not only writing stories and drawing art but doing essays, art projects, and what have you.

AIs are slowly, but surely, making people lose their jobs. There are fast food restaurants and movie theaters that are already using AI machines and are somewhat in the process of hiring fewer people than before. We also have those who are in the art industry (mainly writers and drawers) who are in constant fear of losing their jobs because of AI. Doesn't help that we, the artists, aren't taken seriously as it is hence there being a Writers Strike.

Now me bringing up these three major points doesn't necessarily mean that I'm anti-AI. I'm anti-plagiarism and anti-scraping. I'm also perfectly fine with people who are disabled and are in need of using AI bots (or a program) to assist them. That's why we have programs such as Grammarly, Hemmingway App, Notion, Google Translate, and DeepL. They help us get a general idea of how to phrase, word, punctuate, and even translate things. They might not always be 100% accurate or reliable but they are there.

So, at the end of the day, it all really boils down to what you're using AI bots for. Using it because you want to improve on your grammar, spelling, and punctuation? That's okay. Using it to write your whole entire five page essay? That's not okay. Using it for research purposes like briefly explaining the similarities and differences between Thor and Raijin? That's okay. Using it to write a whole ass fanfic for you? That's not okay. Using it because you have a disability and need a voice (or whatever the case may be)? That's okay. Using it as your sole resource for research, translation, and whatnot followed by saying "AI bots are flawless, you're just jealous."? That's not okay.

So with all of that being said, AI works aren't exactly transformative, original, or creative. It's amusing as hell to see kind of shenaningans and malarkey will pop out when asking for a fanfic of a specific pairing, sure, but I wouldn't post any of it online because it's not my cup of tea. Something else to keep in mind is that, like us humans, AIs tend to make mistakes. And last, but not least, keep in mind that many of them genuinely don't care about our privacy. You can use the argument that most websites don't, and I wholeheartedly agree with you, but the point still stands.

Either way, I think it all ultimately depends on the situation for what is and isn't okay in terms of AI usage. The same is equally true on personal preferences and opinions.

[writers4all]

hello, all !! shin here with another tutorial blog of sorts over on @writers4all !! this blog is strictly for those who want to improve their writing skills for transformative works and/or original works !! i also have a bachelor's degree in CREATIVE WRITING & ENGLISH that i've obtained from snhu !! not only that but i own all sorts of writing tutorial books ( + textbooks for all sorts of subjects ) and excel at doing research !! i enjoy looking up all sorts of things when it comes to mental disorders, personality disorders, the lgbt+ community, mythology, and more !! so feel free to follow me, ask me questions, and the whole nine yards !!