writingtipsforfanficwriters

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

How to write kids, if you don't remember being one or haven't lived with any

1. Kids never feel as small as you see them. A three year old thinks a one year old is a baby and a six year old is grown up. A six year old thinks a three year old is a baby and a twelve year old is an adult. Age is about perspective. One year is a huge age difference to a little kid.

2. Little kids might not be conscious of their physical limitations, but they can still be frustrated by them. A seven year old might see an adult do something relatively simple, like draw a straight line or perfectly crack an egg, and try to do the same thing, only to be frustrated when it doesn't work.

Imagine suddenly having an injury that makes a skill you use every day become difficult- you feel you should be able to do the thing, and you understand the thing should be easy for you, but it isn't. It can be immensely frustrating to have a brain that grasps a concept that language or fine motor skills haven't caught up to.

3. You know when you forget a word, and have to make something up on the fly to describe the word? That's pretty much exactly what learning your first language is like.

You know what you intend, but you don't have a way to express it, and it can move you to tears with frustration when everyone around you is suggesting the wrong thing, or seems completely certain they understand what you mean, and they don't.

You don't have a word for "Later"? You might try saying "next time", or, "after", or, "before tomorrow".

This might result in saying, "Are we going to the park next time?", "Are we going to the park before tomorrow?", or, "Are we going to the park after?", all of which can result in different answers.

4. Kids feel like adults are a different species. They don't get why we do certain things, and they don't understand why we don't want to run around with them all the time.

If sitting still is boring, coffee tastes bitter, and long conversations only happen with weird-smelling strangers who talk to them like they're stupid, then they truly will not understand why anyone would *want* to be left to have coffee with a friend without welcome distractions to make it bearable.

Aren't you bored? You aren't doing anything. How could you possibly be stimulated without any food or toys or music or anything? Why don't you just leave? Do you *have* to be there, the way you had to go to work? Adults are weird.

5. Children have complex social relationships that are just as varied as yours.

A room full of third graders might look like indiscriminate chaos to an adult, but pick a well connected kid, and they'll tell you that Megan is the fashion icon who can do hair really well, Thomas is the athlete, Gray gets mean when he has to share so nobody wants to play with him, Paisley can't read and the boys make fun of her for it so don't make her work in a group with Anthony, Dillon put a bug in their food once so they'll never trust him again, and Matthew's parents let him watch family guy so he says bad words and makes grown-up jokes that make other kids uncomfortable.

You don't see this stuff because you aren't inside the society. They are, and they do.

6. Time. Moves. So. Slow. Five minutes really does feel like half an hour. Sit still for five minutes? That's like you sitting in a waiting room at the DMV for an hour. Wouldn't you get annoyed and impatient? They haven't learned to hide their irritation yet. That's really the only difference.

7. "Reading in your head" requires understanding that you have a Voice, which people can hear, and Thoughts, which are audible only to yourself. This can be a difficult concept to grasp. If a kid is reading out loud, and you tell them to read quietly, there's a good chance they're going to whisper or mouth the words instead of going totally silent the way you might. Splitting the self into multiples like "Internal monologue VS public perception" or "What I look like VS how I think I look" is alien and bizarre. If a kid thinks they look like a Dragon and you laugh at them? Ouch. They might be mad for a while.

8. Repetitive chores make no sense when your awareness of time doesn't extend beyond a week or so. Why should I wash my blankets? They don't look dirty and I don't smell anything bad. Blankets don't get dirty unless you put dirt on them. If you put a blanket in a washer, you can't use that blanket AT ALL the ENTIRE TIME it's being cleaned. That might be an hour, but it will *feel* like a week. And you have to do that every two weeks?? That's overkill. Why even bother?

9. Kids have opinions about adults. They will have a sense about whether an adult is "real-kind" or "fake-kind". An adult who listens respectfully to what they have to say, asks thoughtful questions, and takes their concerns seriously? That's a good adult. An adult that oversimplifies their struggles, ignores their complex social rules, and gives bullshit advice like "just walk away from bullies" and "turn your chores into a fun game"? That's not a trustworthy adult. That's an Adult™. An Adult™ doesn't consider them to be a real human being with thoughts and emotions. An Adult™ sees them as an inferior, amusing pet. And they will actively sabotage An Adult™ like that.

10. Emotions are physical at a young age. Joy might make their body buzz until they can't help but wiggle or jump around. Sadness might be a huge physical pain in their throat and heart. Everything they experience is still relatively new to them, so there is very little frame of reference to decide if this is a "big hurt that will last forever and ever and never go away", or a "small hurt, that can be fixed easily and won't matter in five minutes". If someone lies to them about getting a cookie, that very well might be all the betrayal of your best friend sleeping with your husband.

Fortunately, a child probably won't be able to burn all your clothes in the yard without your notice.

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

I am a(n):

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can't remember

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

That post that's like "stop writing characters who talk like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy" really blew the door wide open for me about how common it's become for a character's emotional intelligence to not be taken into consideration when writing conflict. I remember the first time I went to therapy I had such a hard time even identifying what I was feeling, let alone had the language to explain it to someone else. Of course there are plenty of people who've never been to therapy a day in their life who are in tune to their emotions. But even they would have some trouble expressing themselves sometimes. You have to take into account there are plenty of people who are uncomfortable expressing themselves and people who think they're not allowed to feel certain ways. It also makes for more interesting conflict to have characters with different levels of understanding.

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

Writing Craft

Well no one said it was a bad idea so… here’s what I’m thinking.

I think I want to start with The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing: 2nd Edition (because that’s the edition I have lol). The reasons being 1) it’s got a crap ton of information 2) that information covers a very broad spectrum and 3) it’s articles from a lot of well known authors so you’re not just getting one perspective on everything. It’s a good all purpose starter.

After that I was thinking about doing:

On Writing by Stephen King Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson

The reason for this is that you’ve got a pantser (King) and Plotter (Weiland) and someone in the middle (Ingermanson) so it’ll let people see different styles and hopefully help them figure out where they fall on the spectrum.

I’m a full on pantser myself though I really wish I were a plotter, or organized at all really, so I don’t have to deal with the freaking out that is my daily writing hoping something clicks, but that’s neither here nor there.

I’m going to try to keep my own style bias out of things but I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to pick out all the things that are relevant to other people so if there are any comments or questions on my summaries or exercises, feel free to ask.

After those four I’ll see if there’s any particular books or topics people want me to go through and we’ll go from there. If you would like recommendations on books for specific issues in the meantime feel free to shoot me an ask. I’ve read a lot of books on craft so it’s likely I’ll be able to come up with something.

Hopefully this makes sense, but let me know what you guys think or if you’d rather I start with more specific aspects of writing. I do tend to focus on books related to Novel writing because, in case you couldn’t tell, I really have problems writing short pieces, but the vast majority of them can be applied to shorter fiction as well. After all a Novel is just a bunch of scenes put together and every good scene is supposed to be a mini story in itself.

Tag List

@magica-est-in-aerem @18-fandoms-unite-08 @xxxshinx @whatsupwithjinx @krispydefendorpolice @corabeth11 @claaydoh

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Writing Craft: The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing Ch2

AO3   Intro   Previous

The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing Chapter 2: Mastering Fiction’s First Rule by Jack M. Bickham

Okay so this is an article on ‘Show, don’t tell’. I hate this subject and not just because I’m bad at it. No one explains it the same way and a lot of what most authors do say is subjective. So what I’m going to do is try to summarize this author’s advice and then add on other pieces of advice I’ve found useful.

Alright so this is verbatim from the book pg 12:

The phrase “Show, don’t tell” is shorthand for this advice: “Don’t lecture your reader: she won’t believe you. Give her the story action, character thoughts, feelings, and sense impressions as the character would experience them in real life. Let her live the story for herself as she lives real life, by experience.”

Maybe this will help someone else but it’s got two glaring problems for me. First it’s still vague and yes he does go deeper in the article but I think most people have heard some form of this before. Second, it assumes that people experience things the same way and we don’t. If you’ve read any of my writing it’s obvious I’m not a visual person. I don’t describe settings or character’s physical appearance unless I have to and then as sparsely as possible. Why? Because that’s how I experience life especially in books I form a mental representation of a character in my head, not a physical one and it shows. However I know that other people want the visual, some even need it to connect with the character. So advice that I think is more helpful is to use the five senses. Again this is not my strong suit so I’ll try to get as much advice from other sources tagged onto the end as possible.

From Facts to Feelings

In this section the author explains that school and most work environments do not prepare you for creative writing. You’re expected to give facts without embellishment and with as little personality as possible. You’re there to relay information not entertain. Writing stories on the other hand you absolutely don’t want to lecture your readers.

“Fiction can only involve and convince and excite readers if it lets them experience the story world the way they experience real life: By taking in stimuli and drawing their own conclusions.” (pg 13)

This right here is what I have a hard time with. Partly because I’m afraid I won’t be able to give readers the correct stimuli to form the conclusion I’m going for and partly because it’s so much simpler to allow whatever character I’m writing to give their assumptions and opinions than really go into too much detail. Some people will call me lazy for that, but it’s more than I just never learned how to do it any other way.

The author illustrates his advice with an example saying that you don’t list off facts when you’re observing something, you observe with your senses, which is true.

First part of example: “Cloud cover is thick. The temperature is 64 degrees, the humidity is 42 percent, traffic on the highway is heavy, it’s late September, the postman is irritable today.” (pg 13)

Second part of example: “What you do is walk outside and see with your eyes that it’s gray and dim; you look up and see thick gray clouds; you feel the temperature with your skin … and relax, or feel warm, or shiver. If you breathe deeply and the air feels thick to you, you may conclude it’s humid. You hear the roar of cars nearby and conclude traffic is heavy on the highway. You see the postman coming up your driveway. Your eyes meet and you smile at him. His mouth turns down, his eyes squint and he glares silently back at you. You conclude he is feeling grumpy.” (pg 13)

I get what the author is trying to do, really I do, but at the same time there’s so much more you have to think about when adding details like this. However this can be a decent starting point to help you think about why you come to the conclusions you do rather than just focusing on those conclusions. Most of the time we aren’t consciously aware of the input our system receives so it can be difficult to break things down this way. My only advice is to study resources on description and body language and try to take some time to really focus on your surroundings when you can. Also try and focus on the things you don’t notice normally. For me that’s anything visual, for you it may be sound or smells.

Get Into Viewpoint – And Stay There!

“The process of showing, not telling, can be broken down into four essential steps. They are: Selection of, and adherence to, a single character’s viewpoint Imagining the crucial sense or thought impressions that a character is experiencing at any given moment Presenting those impressions as vividly and briefly as possible Giving those impressions to readers in a logical order” (Pg 14)

And this is the point where it’s impossible for me to be objective. If this seems to make sense to you feel free to message me and I’ll take pictures of the article and send it to you so you can read it in full. As for me, this author makes far too many assumptions and takes to simplistic a view on writing as a whole for it to be of any use to me. The viewpoint thing especially bothers me because I can tell just as much from one character’s head as I can head hopping.

Divining the Dominant Impression

This for me is the only useful part of this article and it boils down to this; in order to show and not tell, and be as concise as possible, focus on the dominant sense. When you walk into a new environment what is the first thing you notice? Well it depends on the environment. If you walk outside and there’s road construction going on chances are it’s the sound. Walking into a bakery it’ll likely be the smell. Yes you want to use details from other senses to flesh it out, but it’s a lot easier to focus on one thing at a time.

Revealing Characters

This section basically tells you to use character actions to show their personalities rather than using the conclusions you make from those actions. It’s the difference between:

Carmen was sad

And

Carmen’s shoulders were slumped and she had tears in her eyes.

It’s good advice and another reason to study body language. Again, try to focus on the important part. If you’re trying to get across a character’s anger you don’t need to describe his hair. Pick and choose what’s important at the moment.

When to “Tell”

“The data are objective and absolutely essential to reader understanding. The factual information is so fascinating that it may “sell” the story. (This is very rare.) The point is quite minor and we can risk “cheating.” Economy of words is vital at the moment.”  (pg 18)

Again this is overly simplistic and assumes a specific writing style.

That’s it for this chapter and because I know I suck at this part of writing…

Other articles on Show, Don’t Tell https://jerryjenkins.com/show-dont-tell/ https://blog.reedsy.com/show-dont-tell/ https://self-publishingschool.com/show-dont-tell-writing/ https://jerichowriters.com/show-dont-tell/ https://writingcooperative.com/my-golden-rules-to-show-dont-tell-f4d030eca8c9

And you can google others. Most of these say about the same thing but everyone is different and seeing things worded just a little differently can make all the difference on whether you can understand and apply it to your own writing.

The third link down is my top pick because it not only gives examples but practical advice to find places in your own writing where you can improve.

Again, I apologize for the less than stellar summary but I honestly can’t stand the way the author handled this subject.

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[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

If your plot feels flat, STUDY it! Your story might be lacking...

Stakes - What would happen if the protagonist failed? Would it really be such a bad thing if it happened?

Thematic relevance - Do the events of the story speak to a greater emotional or moral message? Is the conflict resolved in a way that befits the theme?

Urgency - How much time does the protagonist have to complete their goal? Are there multiple factors complicating the situation?

Drive - What motivates the protagonist? Are they an active player in the story, or are they repeatedly getting pushed around by external forces? Could you swap them out for a different character with no impact on the plot? On the flip side, do the other characters have sensible motivations of their own?

Yield - Is there foreshadowing? Do the protagonist's choices have unforeseen consequences down the road? Do they use knowledge or clues from the beginning, to help them in the end? Do they learn things about the other characters that weren't immediately obvious?

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[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

🧵

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[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

What stereotypes should I avoid when writing a trans woman? What should I take into account when writing them?

Obviously, don't make her entire existence or personality based around her gender, but be sure to actually represent it instead of pulling a J K Rowling and claiming she's trans without ever actually representing it.

Most trans people won't talk about being trans unless it's to discuss issues we face or if the subject is brought up. It's no different from writing a cisgender woman 😊

AVOID DEADNAMING HER. I see authors doing this quite a lot. Unless it's relevant to the plot in some way or the character was closeted/hadn't transitioned yet. TBH, the readers don't need to know that Kylie used to be a Kyle.

Avoid harmful tropes and stereotypes. There are SO many stories where the only queer characters end up dead or some other form of suffering. We rarely see queer and trans characters getting happy endings, so it would be really nice to see.

Research and understand methods of transitioning

Trans women are often stereotyped as predators, so try to avoid villainizing trans characters while also making sure you're not writing unrealistic characters with only positive traits as well.

Another thing —— I'd really recommend is actually talking to trans women! Hearing trans people and listening to their stories is one of the most informational things you can do in this kind of situation. You could also look at how other people have written trans women in books and television, etc. but be sure to check that the characters are accurately written like POSE, EUPHORIA.

Terms to Know:

Trans: an inclusive term that includes all who are transgender, non-binary, or otherwise gender-nonconforming

Cis/Cisgender: someone who is not trans

AMAB: Assigned male at birth — someone who was marked as male on their original birth certificate

AFAB: Assigned female at birth — someone who was marked as female on their original birth certificate

Gender Binary: the one-or-the-other way that most societies view gender; one is either a girl, or a boy

Non-Binary: Someone who doesn’t identify as either male or female. They can identify as both, neither, fluctuating, or somewhere in between.

To Pass/Passing: Appearing outwardly as the gender one identifies with. This can include clothing, voice, and mannerisms, and it implies that any stranger who comes across them will see them as the gender they identify with without question.

Misgendering: Calling someone by the pronouns (he/she/they/etc) of the gender that they do not identify with. Most often, this is calling them by the pronouns generally used to refer to people of the gender they were assumed to be at birth — AFAB people called “she” and AMAB people called “he”.

Dead Name: Also known as birth name, this is the name one was assigned at birth. Offensive/incorrect terms for it include real name or legal name.

T-Slur: Tr*nny is an extremely offensive term that refers to AMAB trans people. It should not be used, ever, even to make a point, unless it is handled very carefully.

Sorry for the rambling! Hope this helps. Most trans people are very open to questions like these, so if you have any questions, I'm sure someone will be willing to answer them. 😊❤️

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

Writing Websites

1. a website with a list of superpowers and what they are

2. a website that generates random au ideas

3. a website that generates names, basic info and futures in a bunch of languages

4. a website that checks your grammar

5. website that lists types of execution in the states

6. a website with info on death certificates

7. a website with info on the four manners of death

8. a website with info on the black plague

9. website with information on depression

10. a website with info on the four types of suicide

11. website that lists famous quotes

12. website with different kinds of quotes

13. a website with info on food in every country

14. a website with a list of different colors

15. website with a list of medieval jobs

16. website with a list of fabrics

17. website with a list of flowers and pictures

18. website with a list of flowers and no pictures

19. website with a list of poisonous plants

20. website with a list of poisonous and non-poisonous plants

21. website with a list of things not to feed your animals

22. website with a list of poisons that can be used to kill people

23. website with info on the international date line

24. website with a list of food allergies

25. website with a list of climates

26. website with info on allergic reactions

27. website with info on fahrenheit and celsius 

28. website with info on color blindness

29. website with a list of medical equipment

30. website with a list of bugs

31. website with an alphabetic list of bugs and their scientific name

32. website with a list of eye colors

33. website (wikipedia sorry) with list of drinks

34. website with a list of religions

35. website with a list of different types of doctors and what they do

36. website (wikipedia again sorry) with a list of hair colors

37. website that generates fantasy names

38. website with a list of body language

39. website with a list of disabilities

40. website with an alphabetic list of disabilities

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, or Blind Characters

 Despite the fact that I am not deaf, mute, or blind myself, one of the most common questions I receive is how to portray characters with these disabilities in fiction.

As such, I’ve compiled the resources I’ve accumulated (from real life Deaf, mute, or blind people) into a handy masterlist.

Deaf Characters:

Deaf characters masterpost

Deaf dialogue thread

Dialogue with signing characters (also applies to mute characters.)

A Deaf author’s advice on deaf characters

Dialogue between Deaf characters

“The Month I Suddenly Went Deaf”

What It’s Like Going Deaf In Your Thirties

9 Women Share What It Feels Like To Lose Your Hearing

What It’s Like Being a Deaf Teenager (video)

Parenting With Sign Language (video)

Deaf Teen Talks About Losing His Hearing To Meningitis (video)

Things Not To Say To A Deaf Person (video)

Deaf Kids Shining in High School (video)

I recently discovered the youtube channel of the amazing Jessica Kellgren-Fozard, a vintage-loving, lesbian, happily married queen, who talks about her deafness in many of her videos.  I can’t recommend her enough.

Black Deaf Culture Through the Lens of Black Deaf History

Black Deaf History

Video: How to Sign in BASL (Black American Sign Language)

Mute Characters

Life as a Mute

My Silent Summer:  Life as a Mute

What It’s Like Being Mute

21 People Reveal What It’s Really Like To Be Mute

I am a 20 year old Mute, ask me anything at all!

Selective Mutism: 

Story Time - Selective Mutism (video)

My Selective Mutism Story (video)

When I Grow Up, I Want to Talk: My Story of Selective Mutism

Myths About Selecive Mutism

The Experiences of Adults With Selective Mutism

Blind Characters:

Things Not To Say To A Blind Person (video)

What It’s Like to Go Blind (video)

The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Blind Characters.

@referenceforwriters masterpost of resources for writing/playing blind characters.

The youtube channel of the wonderful Tommy Edison, a man blind from birth with great insight into the depiction of blind people and their lives.

As does Molly Burke, “a typical sushi and makeup loving millennial girl who just so happens to be blind.”

And Alyssa Irene, who talks about her experience going blind and life as a blind person.

An Absolute Write thread on the depiction of blind characters, with lots of different viewpoints and some great tips.

And finally, this short, handy masterpost of resources for writing blind characters.

Characters Who Are Blind in One Eye

4 Ways Life Looks Shockingly Different With One Eye

Learning to Live With One Eye

Adapting to the Loss of an Eye

Adapting to Eye Loss and Monocular Vision

Monocular Depth Perception

Deaf-Blind Characters

What Is It Like To Be Deafblind?

Going Deaf and Blind in a City of Noise and Lights

Deaf and Blind by 30

Sarita is Blind, Deaf, and Employed (video)

Deaf and Blind:  Being Me (video)

Born Deaf and Blind, This Eritrean American Graduated Harvard Law School (video)

A Day of a Deaf Blind Person

Lesser Known Things About Being Deafblind

How the Deaf-Blind Communicate

Early Interactions With Children Who Are Deaf-Blind

Raising a DeafBlind Baby

If you have any more resources to add, let me know!  I’ll be adding to this post as I find more resources.

I hope this helps, and happy writing!  <3

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

Literary Devices Similar to Foreshadowing

There are a number of literary techniques and practices that have some overlap with foreshadowing. Here are a few to keep in mind.

Chekhov’s gun: is a writing best practice often confused with foreshadowing. Russian playwright Anton Chekhov famously said, “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off.” The refers to the idea that every element in a story should contribute to the whole, and that every detail that “sets up” an outcome should “pay off” in some way. In the example of Chekhov’s gun, that could mean one character shooting another, but an author may also choose to defy that expectation—say, by filling the gun with blanks.

Red herring: Unlike foreshadowing, which is designed to hint at something that will happen in your story, a red herring is a literary device that is designed to mislead the reader, distracting them from the eventual twist. Red herrings are often used in mystery novels, with characters suspected of a crime turning out innocent. (Learn more about red herrings here.)

Flashforward: The opposite of a flashback, a flash forward (also known as flash-forward or prolepsis) brings your reader forward in time for a glimpse at the future. This is different from foreshadowing, as you’re explicitly showing your readers what is to come. Stories that employ flash forwards derive their suspense not from readers wondering what will happen, but rather how it will happen.

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

It is increasingly obvious that most people have no idea how to indicate an illness is slowly killing someone without making them cough up blood. Doesn’t matter what it is or if it has anything to do with your respiratory system, if you’re dying, you’re coughing up blood.

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

How to Kick a Reader in the Gut

Disrupt the reader’s sense of justice. 

This generally means setting a character up to deserve one thing and then giving them the exact opposite. 

Kill a character off before they can achieve their goal. 

Let the bad guy get an extremely important win. 

Set up a coup against a tyrannical king. The coup fails miserably.

Don’t always give characters closure. 

(Excluding the end of the book, obviously)

A beloved friend dies in battle and there’s no time to mourn him.

A random tryst between two main characters is not (or cannot be) brought up again.

A character suddenly loses their job or can otherwise no longer keep up their old routine

Make it the main character’s fault sometimes. 

And not in an “imposter syndrome” way. Make your MC do something bad, and make the blame they shoulder for it heavy and tangible.

MC must choose the lesser of two evils.

MC kills someone they believe to be a bad guy, only to later discover the bad guy was a different person altogether.

Rejection is a powerful tool. 

People generally want to be understood, and if you can make a character think they are Known, and then rip that away from them with a rejection (romantic or platonic) people will empathize with it.

MC is finally accepting the Thing They Must Do/Become, and their love interest decides that that’s not a path they want to be on and breaks up with them

MC makes a decision they believe is right, everyone around them thinks they chose wrong.

MC finds kinship with someone Like Them, at long last, but that person later discovers that there is some inherent aspect of MC that they wholly reject. (Perhaps it was MC’s fault that their family member died, they have important religious differences, or WERE THE BAD GUY ALL ALONG!)

On the flipside, make your main character keep going. 

Push them beyond what they are capable of, and then push them farther. Make them want something so deeply that they are willing to do literally anything to get it. Give them passion and drive and grit and more of that than they have fear.

“But what if my MC is quiet and meek?” Even better. They want something so deeply that every single moment they push themselves toward it is a moment spent outside their comfort zone. What must that do to a person?

Obviously, don’t do all of these things, or the story can begin to feel tedious or overly dramatic, and make sure that every decision you make is informed by your plot first and foremost. 

Also remember that the things that make us sad, angry, or otherwise emotional as readers are the same things that make us feel that way in our day-to-day lives. Creating an empathetic main character is the foundation for all of the above tips.

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

Advice for writing plot twists and foreshadowing them

Credits: @/michael.bjork on TikTok

Transcript:

How to foreshadow a plot twist without giving it away. Here’s one way I like to do it: get the reader to believe a lie and then, when you start dropping hints, use the hints to reinforce the lie.

Here’s an example. Let’s say your hero is a young wizard. As they explore an ancient crypt, they find a mysterious spell on the wall and out of naivety, they cast it, summoning a shadowy creature that wrecks havoc across the countryside.

What is the creature? An older, wiser wizard says it’s a demon from another realm- and that is the lie you tell your reader. It is not a demon but your reader is new to this world and has no reason to doubt this explanation.

After they believe the lie, you can start hunting at the truth. Maybe the creature only attacks people the hero knows, maybe it knows the hero’s darkest emotions, and maybe its eyes are hazel, just like the hero’s.

But as you drop this hints, don’t let them raise questions. Instead, use the hints to reinforce the lie, such as by establishing that demons have a strange intimate connection with their summoner. That way (hopefully), your reader will never question anything until you reveal that instead of summing a demon, the hero actually created the creature out of the darkness of their own heart.

[writingtipsforfanficwriters]

the suffering never ends