Hey, A Chart! This Is Inspired By An Ask I Got (I’m Gonna Be Honest, I Promised The Person I’d Tag

The Easiest Way to Name a Character

Nameberry.com

I have to mini-rant about this website. It’s a baby-naming site, but it is one of the best out there for authors– and I’m about to tell you why.

It’s a beautiful and organized site. And there are three main things that I love about it.

1. They have a list for everything.

Whether site-made or user-made, the list categories can range from basic to specific. Here’s a few examples: Baby Names with Animal Meanings, Biblical Place Names, Celestial Baby Names, One Syllable Baby Names, Classic Baby Names with a Twist. It’s good for when you know the country of origin of the character, you want them to have a certain tone right away, you want religious symbology, or you want something simple– whatever it is, if you have a general idea for a name, Nameberry has lists that have you covered. 

2. They have THE best search engine!

For this, click on “Find A Name” in the right top corner below the search bar.

As you can see, you can get really specific. You don’t have to fill out all the boxes, so if you just want to see all names of Italian origin or all names that start with “X”, you totally can! This is especially helpful to writers with the “meaning” section. Add in that easter egg symbology!

They also have something called the Namehunter, where you put in names you like to bring up similar ones.

3. They are really in-depth with background on a name

This includes (usually): > the meaning > the origin > Commentary from “experts” (sometimes this section is BS, I ignore it.) > Famous people with that name > Pop Culture references with that name (which can include literature) > Nicknames and Variations > Variations from different languages/regions > Similar names > Popularity over the years

Trust me, if you’ve never used this website before– just try it! I love it so much, it’s so helpful. Easier than scrounging through a hundred websites for names that mean “earth” or “savior” and are also of Armenian origin.

WIP: Godlings

Genre: Sci-fi

Synopsis: The five survivors of a medical experiment gone wrong wake up from their commas to find that they now possess incredible powers. They use these new powers to escape and exact revenge on the people who did this to them. But one of them, Xavier, doesn’t just want revenge. He plans to take over the world and nothing will stand in his way. Not even his fellow survivors.

hitch your heart to one small thing

Death never brought itself onto her, but she noted how it always felt like a distant memory.

Maybe she had died once before—death at the hands of an executioner for her vile felonies that she was lucky to have only been imprisoned for, or at the hands of her own, the rich heiress with a family heirloom using her breast as a sheath she had buried there. Maybe, once, she’d seen death, seen his skeletal hands and his shrouded face and the infamous scythe to steal her soul and escort her onto the next host body as if she were a parasite. The baby she’d inhabit until death, when she was reunited with what would feel like her one and only true love, the only love she’d ever really know as she continued to cycle back to him and be in his arms once again.

Or maybe she was a new soul. A soul fresh from the womb of her mother, a fire forged and made to burn hot until the day she fizzled out into the cold hands of the being she’d like to envision as friendly and be forever trapped in the abyss of nothing, wandering in a place that certainly wasn’t Hell but did not match the stories of Heaven with the gates or whatever God or gods there were or the familiar faces of family and friends long since passed.

‘where lucia died’ tagslist: @theforgottencoolkid @vandorens @whorizcn @alicekaiba @evergrcen @goldbonne @babeineauxs @the-writers-blocks @suswriting @lucamused @noloumna @shezadis @semblanche @emdrabbles @sapphospouse @waterfallofinkandpages @calfromzeroday @andinbetweenwegarden @aphteavanawrites @bbabyapollo @hillelf @milkyway-writes @the-introvert-cafe | ask to be added/removed

anyway most writing advice is frequently contradictory to other writing advice you might receive from people who have just as much/more writing ~expertise~ and a lot of writing advice is just flat-out terrible even if it’s coming from an ~expert~ so if you’re a writer consider this post a reminder that

writing advice that comes up on your dash should be looked at as tips you can choose to follow or discard as it suits you, not hardline rules you MUST abide by or else you’re a ‘bad writer’

you’re allowed to look at a piece of writing advice and say, “wow, that’s a shit idea and i don’t want write like that” and forget about it – even if the post has thousands of notes full of other people agreeing with it

there is no One True Right Way to write, your writing does not have to be just like everyone else’s – if all stories were written the same way and with the same style, reading would be a much more boring thing to do

if you try to write in a way that pleases everyone, you will fail because pleasing everyone is not possible – your own satisfaction with your work, your own desire to write a story, and your own enjoyment of writing are more important than that

a writeblr introduction

hello writeblr! i’m zie, a long-time writer and perhaps poet but that’s sort of stretch who just decided to publish my stories and other collection of words here. i had a tumblr account way back in 2013 but i wanted to start anew, so here i am.

about me:

she/her, aro-ace, infj(p), type 4, libra but pisces at heart, ravenclaw

overly enthusiastic for art, literature, books, music that punctures your inner psyche, psychology, philosophy, and you guessed it, theatre!

the superior time are afternoons and midnights, it’s when my imagination goes crazy and my aesthetics shift and morph

guilty pleasure is watching barbie movies and writing long-ass essays that i’m sure my professors are tired of reading, but oh well

i don’t know how to make cool edits like all the other splendid authors here on tumblr so heavens PLEASE, i hope my words will suffice

about my writing:

i love writing themes about mental health, fantasy, magical beings, and anything that borders on idealism, much like one of my favorite authors

pantsing or outlining a storyline really just depends on my mood. characters always go first before the plot, because i usually deem them as real people and the book revolves around them. they deserve just as much.

i am a sucker for symbolisms, metaphors, and paradoxes, it’s not that i overuse them, it just gives you a feel of what my oc’s are feeling.

i love creating dialogues, you’ll see a lot of ‘em. don’t get sick of ‘em, i beg of you.

current wips (all of which are subject to change):

sleeping at last is a mental-health centralized and mystery fiction set in the modern times of a fictional country/city. it explores the death of a recurring female character and how her friends try to search for the events leading up to it, making themselves subjects to ill-starred events all the while being under the same roof of adwell house, a mental wellness sanatorium for orphans such as them.

of curse and glory is a fantasy and dark academia story set in an alternate universe unbeknownst to humankind. it narrates the story of four kingdoms which do not know their history. but when the heirs of each kingdom receive an ancient message from those who claim are the oldens, they begin to uniyeld truth from a provocation—saving everyone else’s lives in the process.

in our orbit is a fictional romance story set in new york city, manhattan where two men meet each other in chaotic circumstances inside an art museum. when push comes to shove, they must decide whether or not love is worth keeping in the sacrifice of their dreams.

poems and essays is pretty much self-explanatory. this will be a series of thoughts constellated into words that i’ll share with the world. from my heart to yours.

please reblog if you’re also a writeblr because i would love to interact, be mutuals, and follow all of you! writeblrs supporting writeblrs, everyone!

contents coming very very soon in a poeticparchment near you!

Hello, Writeblr!

I’m new and very socially awkward but I made this blog to collect character/story inspiration and writing advice, and I’d love to make some connections with fellow writers and hear about the cool stories you’re all working on. Maybe even share some writing positivity and snippets of my own work.

A litte bit about me: I’m Laura, I’m from Wales, I’m fast becoming a ‘tumblr old’ (if I’m not there already), and I’ve been writing since I was about twelve or so. Up until now though I’ve mostly concentrated on play-by-post roleplay on various message boards. I’ve never actually written anything particularly lengthy and I’d like to branch out a little bit and try my hand at plotting out a whole story.

I love to read fantasy, magical realism, historical fiction, children’s literature, and anything based on folklore, myths or fairy tales. Those are the kind of genres I’m primarily interested in trying to write too. Outside of reading and writing I’m primarily a history nerd, a (partial) dog-owner, a student, and a folk music junkie.

I’ve only got the one WIP at the moment, a Harry Potter fanfic featuring an older Charlie Weasley as he tries to unravel a mystery at a dragon sanctuary in Wales. I’m more of pantser than a planner so it’s all still very vague at the moment but I’m hoping it’ll have a little bit of adventure, some original-ish worldbuilding, and a lot of cool dragons. Everyone loves dragons, right? A lot of OCs will be involved too so I ever get close to finishing it I might try to turn it into an original NaNoWriMo project or something. (Hey, if Stephenie Meyer and E.L. James can do it… )

Anyway, if you think our interests might overlap in any way please do like or reblog this and I’ll most likely follow you (as @lothlaurien, since this is a sideblog).

Writing great friendships

Some of the best chemistry/relationships in fiction exist between characters who are/become friends. Here are some tips for making friendships come alive on the page:

1. Banter

One of the most interesting aspects of fictional friendships is the way the characters interact with each other whilst important plot points are occurring.

If your characters have easy banter, teasing one another without missing a beat and managing to bounce off each other even in the toughest circumstances, it will be clear to the reader that these two are/should be good friends.

Friends know each other well. They know the other’s character so well that they can easily find something to tease each other over. However, this also means knowing which topics are off-limits.

If you want to write a good, healthy friendship, your characters shouldn’t use humour/sarcasm as a way to hurt the other. It should be good-natured and understood as such from both sides.

Different friendships will have different types of chemistry. Some friends may tease each other with facial expressions. Others may already anticipate a snarky remark and counter it before it’s been spoken. Others will have physical ways of goofing around. 

Some friends might not tease each other at all. Banter isn’t necessary; it’s just a good way to make your characters come alive and make their friendship one that is loved by readers.

What’s important is chemistry - the way they automatically react to each other.

Think Sam and Dean in Supernatural or Juliette and Kenji in the Shatter Me series.

2. Mutual support 

Unless you purposefully want to write an unhealthy/toxic friendship, your characters should both be supportive of the other. 

This means that, even if one is the MC and the other the side-kick, both should be cognisant of the other’s feelings and problems, and should be considerate in this regard.

Few things will make your MC as likable as remembering to check in and be there for their best friend even when they are in the thick of a crisis.

You need to show your characters being vulnerable in front of each other and being supportive in ways that are tailored to the needs of each friend.

So, if one of the characters really responds to physical comfort, the other should know to give hugs/rub their back when they’re not feeling well. Similarly, if one of them doesn’t like being touched and responds to material comfort, have the other bring them ice cream and join them for a movie marathon. Whatever works for your characters.

What gets me every time is when a character is falling apart and won’t listen to/be consoled by anyone but their best friend (but this is just personal preference).

3. Knowing the other’s past/family life

This really only applies to characters who have been friends for quite a while.

Good friends know each other’s backstory - the highs and lows and mundane details. They know they layout of their family home and they probably know their family members well.

Friends will often talk about these things, only having to mention a few words for the other to know what they’re talking about i.e. “The ‘09 Thanksgiving disaster” or “You know how Uncle Fred is”

This will instantly make it clear that your characters are close and have come a long way together. 

Perhaps there are issues at home/trauma from the past that the other character will immediately understand. So, if one character appears with a black eye, their friend might know that the father was probably drunk the night before and got violent. Or if the character has a nightmare, the friend might know that it was about childhood abuse etc.

This can also apply to good things i.e. if one of the characters gets a nice note in their lunchbox, the other might know that their grandma is in town.

Whatever works for your story should be used to indicate the level of unspoken understanding the friends have.

4. Being protective

Few things will make your readers love a friendship more than the friends being fiercely protective of each other (in a healthy, non-territorial way).

Has someone hurt one of the characters? The other should be furious and want to exact revenge. Does someone say something demeaning to one of the friends? The other should defend them immediately and vehemently.

This can also take on a humorous twist if one of the characters starts dating someone. The friend can make extra sure that said date is sincere and promise to exact vengeance if their friend is hurt.

This can also be a great plot device, since it could explain why the MC’s best friend joins the quest/goes along on the journey. Perhaps this is the main plot point: a character seeking to protect/avenge their friend.

If you want to go in a toxic direction, this can be taken too far i.e. a friend who never lets the other spend time with anyone else/stalks the other/is patronising etc.

5.  Common interest(s)

Even if the two characters are vastly different, there should be something that keeps them together besides loyalty.

This is especially important for characters who become friends throughout the course of the novel.

This doesn’t have to mean that both of them go hiking every weekend or want to become pilots one day. It could be something small, like a love of cheesy movies or a shared taste in music. Maybe they both enjoy silence/don’t like other people. Maybe they are both social justice warriors, but for different causes. 

This could also be common characteristics instead of interests. Perhaps both are very ambitious/funny/social.

There should just be some factor that ignited the friendship and brings the two of them together.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a big part of your story, but you should at least have it mentioned to make the friendship appear more authentic.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment if you would like a Part 2. Follow me for similar content.

OKAY LISTEN UP YOU BEAUTIFUL OC-DEVELOPING FIENDS

After my long and lengthy years of developing characters (not really) I have a nugget of wisdom for y’all.

Do this:

Look. You don’t need any artistic talent. Hell, this could be a vaguely brain-shaped oval with some words in it.

But the point of this is that you draw your character’s brains and fill it with the things they think of most, the things that matter to them most, the things that are so essential to them that they are nothing without it.

I find that doing this helps so much when shaping a character’s voice, and it visually maps out their personality in a way that character sheets can’t.

For example, my character Isha is logical and she compartmentalizes things, so I drew a more angular design, while Aster’s mind more resembles her anxiety and wandering thoughts.

Yeah that’s all.

Knock yourself out friends.