Tag: writing

fuckingtomatoes:

MUSIC TO INFLUENCE YOU TO WRITE

Feel like you need a song to influence you to write a scene or character? Here are a list of Playlists and Songs you can listen to to get you going!

HAPPY BASED

SEX SCENES

SAD SCENES/ HEARTBREAK

PSYCHOPATHIC CHARACTER/SUSPENSE SCENE

BADASS CHARACTERS/ACTION-FIGHT SCENE

INSTRUMENTAL/ CALM 

____________________________________________________

»»>FANMIXES

HANNIBAL

BBC SHERLOCK

SUPERNATURAL


I’d love to add more (music and fandoms) but let’s just give you this for now! Happy Listening! 

ALSO: These (obviously) are not my fanmixes/playlists so give some props to the people who made it! They would love it! Also, if you see your playlist on here and would like it removed, tell me! Thank you!

Writing Advice Master Post

summerscourtney:

summerscourtney:

Hi!  I am Courtney Summers.  I write YA novels.  Since a lot of the questions I get asked on my Tumblr are about writing, I decided to make a master list of the advice posts I’ve made for convenience.  Yay, convenience!  I will update it for as long as I continue to get these types of questions.

Note:  the writing process is such a personal thing.  What works for one writer might not work for another, what works for one writer for one book might not work for them for the next… all of my writing advice is of the ‘your mileage may vary’ variety.  If what I am saying sounds impossible to you, that’s okay!  Listen to your gut!   You will figure out what you need to do. 

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to reach out.  I hope I’ve offered something that’s helped you.

MY BLOG POSTS ABOUT WRITING
Make Words (Writing Tips)
On Writing for Girls
Doors Won’t Always Open for You
Thoughts on Reader Response to Character Trauma
Thoughts on Reviews
Characters Don’t Have to Be Likable

IDEA & DEVELOPMENT STAGE
Don’t know where to begin
Lots of ideas, where to start?
Pinning down your first chapter
Unable to pick and stay on one idea
Worried your idea isn’t original or belongs to someone else
Outlining advice
You know your characters but don’t know what to do with them
Tips on making cardboard characters come to life
Writing unlikable female characters 
Tips on writing unlikable characters
How much is too much with unlikable characters
On happy endings
Is it okay to have an unhappy ending?

GENERAL
Writing about things you haven’t experienced
When you start strong and the writing just dies
Staying focused
Dealing with writer’s block
Writing too much of one thing
Getting too attached to your characters, to the detriment of your work
How much action is too much action? (Balancing scenes.)

TECHNICAL
What font do you use when writing?
How I format my novels
How grammatically correct do novels have to be?
Punctuating Dialogue

REVISION
How to get as excited about revision as you are about drafting
Can’t stop editing/unable to tell if your novel is ready
Revising an old story
Revision tips
Falling out of love with your work before you’re done
Brief strategy suggestions for major revisions
Should you share your work on Wattpad (or similar sites)?
Can’t stop making big, unexpected changes close to deadline

CONFIDENCE LEVELS, EMOTIONAL ROADBLOCKS & OTHER ISSUES
When you don’t enjoy writing anymore
Everyone says you’re not good enough
Suffering from self doubt/finding self belief
Having and coping with envy
Reading good books makes you feel inadequate as a writer
You’re close to done and convinced you suck
Worried about the people you love reading your work
Tips on managing insecurity
How to deal with negative reviews
Struggling to find inspiration after finishing a project
Just started, already overwhelmed
Dealing with a crippling fear of missing deadlines
When you love the story, but you’re bored of writing it
When you take a break before revising, return and dislike the work
Do you have to suffer emotionally to be an artist?
Can you be too young to take writing seriously?
“Good enough”

PUBLISHING
Should aspiring writers be nervous if they write in multiple genres
Exploring the next steps
Do you find an editor or an agent first?
Do you submit your first draft to agents? 
Tips on narrowing down your agent search
Tips on querying + deconstructing my query for CRACKED UP TO BE
Advice on querying and what age does/doesn’t have to do with it
More advice on querying and getting published
How to deal with rejections that feel personal
How much do authors make per book?
Choosing a pseudonym
Can you be an author if you have trouble meeting deadlines?
When querying, does it matter if you have won writing contests?
Does age matter?

OTHER
Tips on writing short stories

Updated August 7th, 2014.

Thank you to readers/writers who have helped me with build this resource with their great questions and everyone who has shared it. I hope it continues to be helpful to writers at all stages of their journeys.

maxkirin:

Hello, dear followers~ ♥︎

Recently I got a bunch of questions about the difference between Showing & Telling, so I thought that I would summarize my thoughts on the subject as a slideshow!

Of course, those of you who have been following my blog for ages can guess my thoughts about this ‘Show VS Tell’ debacle. Personally, I feel that Telling (the act of Summarizing) gets a reputation for being a lesser tool— which I disagree with greatly. Show and Tell are both important tools of the Writer’s Tool-Box, and they serve different purposes~ ♥︎

Are you a writer? Then follow my blog for your daily dose of writer positivity, inspiration, prompts, and writing advice: maxkirin.tumblr.com!

How do I make a reader care about a character very quickly?

nimblesnotebook:

Take away something at the beginning. I saw a comic on Tumblr a long time ago about a woman who discovered she wasn’t real. The comic was short and it was just her inner thoughts. Just a few panels of her inner thoughts were able to make the reader sympathetic because something so integral to her was taken away and now her identity is shattered while everyone around her has something that she doesn’t. Do that to your character. Take something away from them that makes the reader feel bad for them.

It can be difficult to do this with everyday situations unless you show what it was like before that something was taken away. You can show your character in “the everyday world” at the beginning of the story and the inciting incident can happen right away. A common theme that makes readers care for a character is loneliness.

Give them something at the beginning. Or you can do the opposite. Show your character in a situation that makes the reader pity them and then fix it in a way that makes the reader feel happy for them. Again, a common theme for these situations is loneliness. The lonely rejected kid on the playground who is approached by another reject kid is a familiar scene that achieves this.

Introduce an antagonist. If you introduce an antagonist that the reader ends up hating right away, they’ll be more inclined to side with the protagonist.

Make them relatable. It’s quite difficult to make a character that almost anyone can relate to, but you can make a character a good chunk of people relate to from the very beginning. Think about the age of your character and relatable problems that surround that age. For example, identity, individuality, and relationships are important to teenagers. Introducing a character dealing with one of those issues from the very beginning can draw readers within that age group into the story.

Torture your character. Put them in a physically and/or emotionally painful situation at the beginning of the story. The trick is to make the scene honest and genuine enough that the reader wants this character to come out victorious. 

More:

deejayshorty:

thewritingcafe:

BASICS:

Genres:

  • Alternate World: A setting that is not our world, but may be similar. This includes “portal fantasies” in which characters find an alternative world through their own. An example would be The Chronicles of Narnia.
  • Arabian: Fantasy that is based on the Middle East and North Africa.
  • Arthurian: Set in Camelot and deals with Arthurian mythology and legends.
  • Bangsian: Set in the afterlife or deals heavily with the afterlife. It most often deals with famous and historical people as characters. An example could be The Lovely Bones.
  • Celtic: Fantasy that is based on the Celtic people, most often the Irish.
  • Christian: This genre has Christian themes and elements.
  • Classical: Based on Roman and Greek myths.
  • Contemporary: This genre takes place in modern society in which paranormal and magical creatures live among us. An example would be the Harry Potter series.
  • Dark: This genre combines fantasy and horror elements. The tone or feel of dark fantasy is often gloomy, bleak, and gothic.
  • Epic: This genre is long and, as the name says, epic. Epic is similar to high fantasy, but has more importance, meaning, or depth. Epic fantasy is most often in a medieval setting.
  • Gaslamp: Also known as gaslight, this genre has a Victorian or Edwardian setting.
  • Gunpowder: Gunpowder crosses epic or high fantasy with “rifles and railroads”, but the technology remains realistic unlike the similar genre of steampunk.
  • Heroic: Centers on one or more heroes who start out as humble, unlikely heroes thrown into a plot that challenges them.
  • High: This is considered the “classic” fantasy genre. High fantasy contains the general fantasy elements and is set in a fictional world.
  • Historical: The setting in this genre is any time period within our world that has fantasy elements added.
  • Medieval: Set between ancient times and the industrial era. Often set in Europe and involves knights. (medieval references)
  • Mythic: Fantasy involving or based on myths, folklore, and fairy tales.
  • Portal: Involves a portal, doorway, or other entryway that leads the protagonist from the “normal world” to the “magical world”.
  • Quest: As the name suggests, the protagonist in this genre sets out on a quest. The protagonist most frequently searches for an object of importance and returns home with it.
  • Sword and Sorcery: Pseudomedieval settings in which the characters use swords and engage in action-packed plots. Magic is also an element, as is romance.
  • Urban: Has a modern or urban setting in which magic and paranormal creatures exist, often in secret.
  • Wuxia: A genre in which the protagonist learns a martial art and follows a code. This genre is popular in Chinese speaking areas.

Word Counts:

Word counts for fantasy are longer than other genres because of the need for world building. Even in fantasy that takes place in our world, there is a need for the introduction of the fantasy aspect.

Word counts for established authors with a fan base can run higher because publishers are willing to take a higher chance on those authors. First-time authors (who have little to no fan base) will most likely not publish a longer book through traditional publishing. Established authors may also have better luck with publishing a novel far shorter than that genre’s expected or desired word count, though first-time authors may achieve this as well.

A general rule of thumb for first-time authors is to stay under 100k and probably under 110k for fantasy.

Other exceptions to word count guidelines would be for short fiction (novellas, novelettes, short stories, etc.) and that one great author who shows up every few years with a perfect 200k manuscript.

But why are there word count guidelines? For young readers, it’s pretty obvious why books should be shorter. For other age groups, it comes down to the editor’s preference, shelf space in book stores, and the cost of publishing a book. The bigger the book, the more expensive it is to publish.

  • General Fantasy: 75k – 110k
  • Epic Fantasy: 90k – 120k
  • Contemporary Fantasy: 90k – 120k
  • Urban Fantasy: 80k – 100k
  • Middle Grade: 45k – 70k
  • YA: 75k – 120k (depending on sub-genre)
  • Adult: 80k – 120k (depending on sub-genre)

WORLD BUILDING:

A pseudo-European medieval setting is fine, but it’s overdone. And it’s always full of white men and white women in disguise as white men because around 85% (ignore my guess/exaggeration, I only put it there for emphasis) of fantasy writers seem to have trouble letting go of patriarchal societies. 

Guys. It’s fantasy. You can do whatever you want. You can write a fantasy that takes place in a jungle. Or in a desert. Or in a prairie. The people can be extremely diverse in one region and less diverse in another. The cultures should differ. Different voices should be heard. Queer people exist. People of color exist. Not everyone has two arms or two legs or the ability to hear.

As for the fantasy elements, you also make up the rules. Don’t go searching around about how a certain magic spell is done, just make it up. Magic can be whatever color you want. It can be no color at all. You can use as much or as little magic as you want.

Keep track of what you put into your world and stick to the rules. There should be limits, laws, cultures, climates, disputes, and everything else that exists in our world. However, you don’t have to go over every subject when writing your story.

World Building:

Cliches:

Note: Species (like elves and dwarves) are not cliches. The way they are executed are cliches.

CHARACTERS

Read More

Name Masterpost

notesfromthescribe:

Brand Name Generator: (1)

Novel Title Generator: (1)  (2)  (3)

School Name Generator: (1)

Kingdom Name Generator: (1) (2) (3)

Planet Name Generator: (1) (2) (3)

Search for Surnames by…

Newspaper Generator: (1)

How to Name Your Characters: (1)

Place Name Generator: (1)

Names for the Upper-class: (1)

Fantasy Name Generator: (1) (2)

Names for Nobility: (1)

Surnames: (1) (2)

Miscellaneous: (1) (2)

clevergirlhelps:

Biology

Constructed Language (Conlang)

Culture Guides

Economy

Everyday Life

Government

Read More