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Latest Posts by yourwriters - Page 3
WHAT THEY CALL GOD.
Cain sighs heavily, the cigarette held loosely between his fingers as he rests his forehead against my bare chest. “God, Dima,” he murmurs, his voice thick with self-loathing. “I fucking hate myself.”
“Good,” I mumble, fumbling with the bottle of vodka. The bed is soft under me as I lift it up to my lips and take a long draught. My other arm goes around his shoulders and presses him to me. “You should. You’re a fucking asshole, Cain. You’re unlovable. No one loves you, and no one ever will. You’re lucky that I let you love me.”
“I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me,” Cain quotes, almost dreamily, as he presses a kiss to my chest.
“Christ, I fucking hate you.”
taglist: @just-george-here @whorizcn @semblanche @emdrabbles @aepreall @sol-writes @agnodice-writes @farrradays @nallthatjazz @birdquils @latrantem @sunlight-and-starskies @vandorens @asherscribbles @romanticsrn
Light Up the Forge!
WorldAnvil.com!
WorldAnvil is a suite of worldbuilding and rpg tools. We help authors, GMs, hobbyists, and creators of all sorts write and keep track of their worlds!
WorldAnvil introduces templates for writing about every aspect of your world, from characters to nations. They act as a guide, allowing you to have all the things you need at your fingertips when your memory fails you on what to describe!
Our templates also let you create placeholder links on the fly! Never have to stop mid-flow to create the other article you just mentioned, or go back later to add links!
The system will connect the articles and provide a link. If your article doesn’t exist yet, it is as easy as clicking on it to create a new article and start writing!
Our timeline system lets you keep track of everything that has ever happened in your world.
Use it to keep track of worldbuilding, party encounters, character’s lives and more. Attach a timeline to an article, or keep it as an independent summary of world history!
A visual person? We have you sorted with our maps suite! Upload your own maps, and bring them to life with markers that connect to your articles, layers and overlays!
Come join us, your world awaits! WorldAnvil.com
WRITBLR A-Z CHALLENGE
hi, friends! i simply cannot believe the amount of interest in this project!
and credit where credit’s due: i became exposed to the idea through @ibuzoo’s multiple [a-z aesthetic challenges]. i highly recommend following them, their graphics are always so lovely and i periodically look through their blog for inspiration. c:
anyways, i thought the idea seemed like a great way to explore themes and aesthetics for my project [holiest], and i made myself some guidelines/instructions when i started working on it. since so many of you are also interested, i’m posting them here!
GUIDELINES / INSTRUCTIONS
write out the letters A through Z on a paper or in a document, and brainstorm any/all words you can think of for each letter that relate to your WIP or project.
decide on a template. i like @ibuzoo’s idea of the 8 or 10 panel layout because it challenges me to come up with as much visual information for each word as i can. but it doesn’t have to be that many panels, it can really be any template or number of images you like! here is a link to [the template i use] by @dreamsymphony
gather your visuals! i like to compile images in folders on my computer or in pinterest boards. again, try to come up with as much visual information as you can. i also use this part of the process to decide on a color palette for each word.
start designing your graphic! and honestly, you don’t even need photoshop in order to do this. you can even use instagram and the layout app to make it!
optional: for [my own graphics], i chose to exclude characters and specific places, since i’ve already made a good amount of character moodboards and have a different project in mind for places. but you can use whatever options for words that suit you!
optional: to relate the words and aesthetics to my WIP more, i decided to search for the words in my draft to see the different ways they were used in my story! i will then choose one of the lines containing the word and use it as a caption. this also lets me know which themes i need to expand upon or include more about in my second draft.
and that’s it! feel free to add or change any of these to suit you! and anyone can do it, no need to sign up or ask to join! c:
you are also more than welcome to tag me (@sancta-silje) in your posts! all my reblogs go to @saintcherubim, and i absolutely will check out your graphics! :3 and if you like, feel free to tag it with ’#writblr a-z challenge’, i’m following this tag now and will peruse it periodically!
Obligatory Scenes and Conventions
Today I want to talk about Obligatory Scenes and Conventions™️ 😱 These are things that often writers, particularly new writers, don’t like … all that much.
Why?
Because they are …
Obligatory Scenes and Conventions™️ 😱
Okay, they aren’t all that bad for all of us … but some of us go out of our way to avoid them because they feel so contrived, and it ends up just hurting our book 🙄 (#guilty).
So what are obligatory scenes and conventions?
They are the stuff, the elements, that are “obligatory” for your genre.
Meaning, if I’m writing a romance, I need to write a first kiss scene. If I’m writing a murder mystery, I need to write about the discovered body at the beginning. If I’m writing a superhero origin story, I need to show how the superhero got his or her powers. And if I’m retelling Sherlock Holmes, I better have his deductive reasoning in it.
In some genres, the conventions are really obvious:
Others are a lot less noticeable.
But every genre has them.
Shawn Coyne, an editor with over 25 years of experience, has noted that many writers he works with try to avoid writing obligatory scenes. They feel they are stupid or even “cheesy.” Writers may try to leave them out in order to write something “fresh” and “original.”
But this is sort of like saying you are going to be “fresh” and “original” by ignoring the “Show, don’t Tell” rule, and instead “tell” your whole novel. In fact, it’s like saying you will be “fresh” and “original” by disregarding any writing rule.
In reality, it isn’t ignoring the rules that makes you great, it’s understanding and respecting them, and then knowing when to break them. Ignorance rarely, rarely, rarely (I used it three times, so I hope I get the point across) leads to “fresh” and “original” content. In fact, ignorance most often leads to poor content.
And yet writers often want to try to leave out the “rules” of their genre. Sometimes it’s not because they want to be original, but because they want to be surprising. But this doesn’t work.
Why? Because the most surprising things are surprising because of conventions.
What’s more “surprising,” a story where you don’t have any grasp or idea of where it is going, or a story where you think you know where it is going before it twists a different way?
The most satisfying surprises come not from disregarding conventions, but from flipping, twisting, or inverting them. From breaking them.
In order to create true surprises, the audience must have some kind of expectation. We need to understand and respect the conventions, first.
It’s like that with every rule in the arts.
You have to know the rule inside and out before you can break it.
One of the most important aspects of writing surprises is that the surprise isn’t a disappointment. If you ignore the obligatory conventions instead of respect them, you are more likely to disappoint. After all, the reason your audience is drawn to your genre in the first place is because of the conventions. Surprises usually work better when they are more than what the audience expects, and they almost never work if they are less than what the audience expects. But I don’t want to spend too much time on surprises–if you want to know more about them, check out my post “5 Types of Surprises.”
For some of us writers, obligatory scenes and conventions can be a little annoying. A few months ago, I saw a romance writer lament on social media something along the lines of, “Just HOW many ways can you write a first kiss?!” After writing several romance books, it can be hard to think of new ways to portray it.
But while originality doesn’t usually come from ignoring the conventions, it can come from respecting them.
HOW many ways can you write a first kiss?
As you struggle to write it a brand new way, you may well breathe some originality into the story. Because again, what makes something feel satisfyingly original often isn’t something that has no relation to any conventions, but rather something that bends, twists, and properly breaks conventions.
In order for something to feel “fresh” and “original,” the audience has to have some kind of expectation–formed from what they’ve seen before.
As you respect and bend obligatory scenes and conventions in satisfying ways, your target audience, immersed in their chosen genre and surprised over a sense of originality, may not even notice them for what they are.
For example, in a typical fantasy story, at some point, the protagonist must face some sort of hellish creature or entity. In old stories, this is your traditional dragon. Usually this creature is in the earth or underground, or at least comes from somewhere deep and remote or secluded. In old stories, this is related to tunnels or caves, a sort of symbol of hell, which is “beneath” or “downward”–the underworld.
If you look at some of the most famous fantasy stories, you’ll see this convention respected in some way.
Keep reading
A Guide to Making Up Diseases (as Explained by a Biologist)
So listen up y’all, nothing drives me crazier as both a writer and a scientist than seeing alien diseases that make no fuckin’ sense in a human body.
If you’re talking about alien diseases in a non-human character, you can ignore all this.
But as far as alien diseases in humans go, please remember:
DISEASE SYMPTOMS ARE AN IMMUNE RESPONSE.
Fever? A response to help your immune cells function faster and more efficiently to destroy invaders.
Sore/scratchy throat? An immune response. Diseases that latch onto the epithelium of the throat (the common cold, the flu) replicate there, and your body is like “uh no fuckin’ thanks” and starts to slough off those cells in order to stop the replication of new virus in its tracks. So when it feels like your throat is dying? guess what it literally is. And the white spots you see with more severe bacterial infections are pus accumulation, which is basically dead white blood cells, and the pus is a nice and disgusting way of getting that shit outta here.
(No one really knows why soreness and malaise happens, but some scientists guess that it’s a byproduct of immune response, and others suspect that it’s your body’s way of telling you to take it easy)
headache? usually sinus pressure (or dehydration, which isn’t an immune response but causes headaches by reducing blood volume and causing a general ruckus in your body, can be an unfortunate side effect of a fever) caused by mucous which is an immune response to flush that nasty viral shit outta your face.
Rashes? an inflammatory response. Your lymphocytes see a thing they don’t like and they’re like “hEY NOW” and release a bunch of chemicals that tell the cells that are supposed to kill it to come do that. Those chemicals cause inflammation, which causes redness, heat, and swelling. They itch because histamine is a bitch.
fatigue? your body is doing a lot–give it a break!
here is a fact:
during the Spanish 1918 Plague, a very strange age group succumbed to the illness. The very young and very old were fine, but people who were seemingly healthy and in the prime of life (young adults) did not survive. This is because that virus triggered an immune response called a cytokine storm, which basically killed everything in sight and caused horrific symptoms like tissue death, vasodilation and bleeding–basically a MASSIVE inflammatory response that lead to organ damage and death. Those with the strongest immune systems took the worst beating by their own immune responses, while those with weaker immune systems were fine.
So when you’re thinking of an alien disease, think through the immune response.
Where does this virus attack? Look up viruses that also attack there and understand what the immune system would do about it.
Understand symptoms that usually travel together–joint pain and fever, for example.
So please, please: no purple and green spotted diseases. No diseases that cause glamorous fainting spells and nothing else. No mystical eye-color/hair-color changing diseases. If you want these things to happen, use magic or some shit or alien physiology, but when it’s humans, it doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense.
This has been a rant and I apologize for that.
Wow, interesting idea!
💡
Hey yourwriters, thanks for the light bulb 😁
One of the ideas I still have to write is about a group of children that are taken away from their parents under the pretense they are in need of special teachers who end up on a different planet because the government knows the world is dying and theses kids DNA tells they will develop powers outside earth and the politicians thought the best way to guarantee survival of mankind is to send these kids away so they will start a new society with the help of adults who were picked for this.
Bad thing is the kids and their caretakers strand on the other planet and are forced to survive there and deal with the native inhabitants.
writing characters with dyslexia
by me !! a dyslexic
hopefully this might be a useful little guide so you can avoid the misconceptions and any stereotypes - I saw someone do this with adhd and I thought a dyslexia one might be interesting
reading
this differs from person to person but for me I have to read over things four or five times before they actually go into my head, sometimes this gives people headaches or makes them nauseous. letters often “jump” or sentences merge into one long word; people often have trouble with light sensitivity and pages can seem too bright
writing
some people have vary varied handwriting and can go from neat to messy to big to small within minutes, spelling is often phonetic but PLEase doNt Talk AbOUt thIS For AgEs it’s only a very small part of being dyslexic
speaking
dyslexic people often speak faster than their brains create sentences so can trip over words or stutter or mix up words (par kark instead of car park), this can be embarrassing so could make for a good scene ?! people also get a lot of tip of the tongue experiences where they can’t find the right word (I once couldnt remember the word ‘embarrassed’ and I called it ‘when you go red and nervous’) so that makes for more interesting speech patterns in your characters
memory
oh my lord this is so overlooked but lots of dyslexic people have really bad short term memories - things like listening to instructions and forgetting them immediately, or forgetting that they were saying mid sentence
sense of direction
not so common but people often lose their sense of direction and can struggle telling left from right - I don’t know too much about this one though so I’m not going to go into it too deeply !!
hearing
filtering out background noise can be super difficult so people can seem like they have poor hearing but really everything can just seem very loud - this can be distracting and frustrating too and it bugs my friends so much because I make them repeat everything whoops
I’m sure there’s more things but this is just a short list, I’ll add anything if I think of it - feel free to add anything yourselves !!
Writing blessing
May your creativity never get lost and the words flow easy May your health be stable and give you no troubles May your troubles be small and the joy big May the fire of creativity burn in you strongly the waters of speech make you eloquent the earth of the now keep you grounded so you can have your heads up in the air of dreams. May happiness and joy be with you and pain only be small when it finds you May you be a beacon of hopeful and inspiring light in these dark times May you find peace and freedom in what you do and people who support you the way you are. May you be loved and feel how valuable you are
“One of the biggest, and possibly the biggest, obstacle to becoming a writer… is learning to live with the fact that the wonderful story in your head is infinitely better, truer, more moving, more fascinating, more perceptive, than anything you’re going to manage to get down on paper. So you have to learn to live with the fact that you’re never going to write well enough. Of course that’s what keeps you trying – trying as hard as you can – which is a good thing.”
— Robin McKinley
How to Add Dimension to Your Story's Theme
A lot of writers believe you cannot intentional write to a theme. I completely disagree. And I’m suspicious that those who say that, just don’t understand how to write to theme intentionally. They claim that if you do, you’ll just become preachy. Sure, that can absolutely happen, but it only happens when you don’t understand how theme actually works in a story.
You see, for a theme statement to be powerful, it needs to have opposition. Who cares if the tortoise in “The Tortoise and the Hare” wins, if he isn’t racing the hare to begin with? No one. The thematic statement (“It’s better to move forward at a steady pace than go so fast we burn ourselves out”) is only powerful because we see it paired up with its opposite (the hare).
Often it’s helpful to breakdown how theme functions, like I did in this article. But here is a quick recap.
Every story has a thematic statement.
A thematic statement is essentially the teaching of a story. So for the Good Samaritan, the thematic statement is, “We should love, be kind to, and serve everyone.”
The Little Red Hen: If you don’t contribute or work, you don’t get the rewards of those efforts.
The Ant and the Grasshopper: If all we do is have fun and entertain ourselves, we won’t be prepared for difficult times.
Harry Potter: Love is the most powerful force in the world
On a broader scope, we have a theme topic. The subject or topic about which something is taught. It’s the concept, without the teaching attached. It’s what the theme or story is “about,” in an abstract sense.
Here are the theme topics of those stories:
The Little Red Hen: Contribution and work
The Ant and the Grasshopper: Preparation
Harry Potter: Love
In a strong story, the theme topic will be explored during the narrative, through plot or character or both. The story will ask (directly or indirectly) questions about the theme topic. This can happen through main characters and main plots, or side characters and subplots, or all of the above.
Often, in most stories, the protagonist’s character arc starts an a false or inaccurate idea about the theme topic and ends on the true thematic statement. Example: Harry starts unloved and powerless, living in a cupboard. By the end, he’s surrounded by supporters, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself (the ultimate manifestation of love) to pave the way for Voldemort’s defeat.
Between the false thematic statement and the true thematic statement is the struggle that leads to transformation, or at least, demonstrates a point.
Sounds great, right? But what do we put there? After all, that transition part of the story will take up most of the story, and so far, we only have black and white: false thematic statement vs. true thematic statement. I mentioned that the theme topic needs to be questioned and explored. And by the climax, it needs to be proven. Do we just reiterate the same false statement and true statement over and over?
Life is rarely so black and white. It’s more complex.
To get ideas, it’s helpful to give your theme topic more dimension.
Luckily, Robert McKee (who I’ve been re-studying, as you may have noticed) has a method that will help you do just that. He doesn’t technically relate this to the term “theme,” but he relates it to what he calls a story’s “value,” but I consider that concept nearly the same thing as “theme topic.” (He’s just coming at it from a different angle.) So, I’m going to show how it applies to theme.
I’ll be honest, this was hard for me to wrap my head around, at first. But over time, the idea has become clearer to me.
So here is how this goes, from my perspective, in relation to theme (I’ve altered it slightly).
First, identify the theme topic of your story.
Then identify its opposite. Its contradiction.
From there, you have what he calls the “contrary.” It’s not really the theme topic’s exact opposite, but it’s not the theme topic either. It’s contrary to the theme topic. It’s not the thing, but it’s not the direct contradiction of the thing. It’s different, in some way.
Then we take it a step further. We look for something more negative than the negative. What is worse than the opposite? What is a step more extreme? McKee calls this the “negation of the negation."
Let’s fill this in with the theme topic of love, so you can see how this works.
The opposite of love is hate. Simple. But then it gets more complex. What is contrary to love? It’s not the same, but it is not a direct opposite either. Indifference isn’t love, but it’s not really hate either. It’s in between.
What is worse than hate? What is a step more negative? Or more extreme? What is the negation of the negation?
As McKee explains, it’s one thing to be hated and to know it. But to actually be hated by those who you think love you? People who want to pretend they care about you, but actually wish and do you ill? Now that gives me shivers.
Lees verder
PREPPING YOUR NOVEL.
if you want to start your novel but you’re not sure where to start, i’ve collected a bunch of resources to help you along! this includes characterization, plotting, worldbuilding, etc. @made-of-sunlight-moonlight
CHARACTERS.
name generator: this one is pretty handy. it has a bunch of different generators based on language, gods, fantasy, medieval, archetypes, etc.
➥ reedsy name generator
personality types: this is just the standard mbti personality list. it lists the strengths and weaknesses of each type, as well as how they do in relationships, etc.
➥ mbti 16 personalities
enneagram: the enneagram personality types. this may help with characterization because it has “levels of development.” it also lists common fears, desires, and how each type interacts with one another.
➥ enneagram types
emotional wound: your character should have something they believe about themselves that isn’t true. (ex: i’m worthless, i’m powerless.) this should start with an “origin” scene from their past, where something happens to create the wound. then there are three “crossroads” scenes to brainstorm, where things could have gone right for your character, but didn’t due to the wound, and because of that strengthened their belief in the wound. this helps you figure out why your character acts like they do. this is a really important one!!!
➥ emotional wound explained
WORLDBUILDING.
worldbuilding template: this is a pretty good template / guide about how to build your world. it talks about geography, people, civilizations, magic, technology, economy, and politics. (you have to download this through email though.)
➥ reedsy worldbuilding template
world anvil: if you really really want to go in-depth — this website is for you. there is so much you can do with this; i can’t list it all. history, timelines, important objects, cities, species — you name it, it’s probably on there.
➥ world anvil website
worldbuilding bible: this is just a general list on things to think about when worldbuilding.
➥ ellen brock’s worldbuilding bible
world creator: this website generates an entire planet. you can play around with the amount of land, as well as climate, although i’m not sure since i haven’t used it too much. here is the link if needed, though!
➥ donjin fractal world generator
inkarnate: this is a really commonly used one. it’s free and makes good quality maps. you can lay out cities, landmarks, regions, and they even have little dragon drawings you can put on your map.
➥ inkarnate website
a tip: don’t over-worldbuild! you’ll end up spending a lot of time on things you won’t need. focus mainly on the things that you will use!
PLOT.
plot generator: this one’s kind of nice because you can lock elements of the plot that you like. that way you can get rid of the ones you don’t like while keeping the ones you do.
➥ reedsy plot generator
writing exercises: this one has a couple different generators, including one that gives you a situation, characters, and themes.
➥ writing exercises
plot cheat sheet: this lists a whole bunch of plotting methods and their basic steps. i would play around with them and see which one works best for your method.
➥ plot cheat sheet by ea deverell
plot formula: this is mentioned on the cheat sheet, but it lists a bunch of beats and scenes which you might want to consider for those beats. kind of fill-in-the-blank-ish sort of thing?
➥ plot formula by ea deverell
save the cat: a method of plotting also on the plot cheat sheet above, but i wanted to point it out. i have been using this recently by taking a giant piece of paper, laying it out onto the floor, and making a timeline. pivotal scenes go on the right (ex: catalyst), while the bulk of scenes go on the left (ex: fun and games). i didn’t really have a website on this, but here is one that explains the beats. (i might make a post about this later, though?)
➥ save the cat explained
ETC.
story planner: this basically has a lot of templates that cover everything up there. the problem is that you get a free trial for a little while where you get as many documents as you want, then you have to pay for it. (although you can get around this by copying and pasting into a doc...?)
➥ story planner website
describing / related words: these kind of go hand in hand. if you put a word intothese websites, they will give you either a list of related words or adjectives respectively.
➥ describing words website
➥ related words website
ea deverell: i've pulled a lot of stuff from this website to put in this post, but there's a lot more that can be used. Like a lot on basically anything — plot, character, world, outlining, writing itself.
➥ ea deverell website
reedsy: again, i've pulled a lot of stuff from them to put in this post, but there's much more. it's similar to the ea deverell one.
➥ reedsy website
canva: this is more for making aesthetics and covers. (this thing is really helpful —and free!) although if you use this, i'd suggest pulling pictures off a website like unsplash; that way the pictures are free to use.
➥ canva website
i hope you found this helpful!! :) happy writing!!
This is a great idea and it looks so pretty!
What have I been up to, you ask?
Oh, I've started a bullet journal for what else my WIP, Forsaken Gods. It's the first time I've tried it since I'm not very artsy or crafty and my color coordination sucks,
If you have the time and resources, I encourage you to try it!
Pros:
Fun and relaxing!
Helps you keep track of your WIP
And keeping it organized!
Gets your creative juices flowing
Passes time while you're trying to get your writing mojo back
challenges your artistic skills especially if you're someone like me who badly needs improvement
Doesn't have to be expensive unless you want fancy stuff
Cons:
you're still gonna need a couple of things so a budget might be required.
Time consuming esp if you want to make it pretty
Messy. So messy.
Right now I'm making character spreads for the Main Squad, which I might also post here or a second tumblr idk yet.
Hey I love your blog, it helps me a lot and now I've a question myself. How can you write about older people while you're still young yourself? The main character of my story is 43 years old but I'm 17... I try to pay attention to how her life experience has shaped her personality but sometimes I feel like she seems too much like a teenager. Have you ever written about characters older than you? And what helped you the best to make them realistic? Do you have any general tips on writing adults?
Thanks for asking, this is a good question, and I like that your MC is much older than you. You'll learn a lot by writing them.
I've written for a number of ages, and aside from some extremely minimal research online, I just started paying attention to other people. I watched films about X age group, read books by/about X age group, listened to interviews of adults with certain fields and backstories, listened to people older than me at work, listened to customers, neighbors, relatives, my own parents. Kids are tougher since I don't know many little kids, but just asking questions of teachers and family friends gave me insight into the lives of people older than me.
Once you know what a person is like on the inside and why, writing their dialogue and behavior is a piece of cake. Surely you know some adults or can look up some public figures and study their lives, dialogue, and behavior. Base your character off several real people and they will come across as more authentic.
Never mow the same grass twice — How to improve faster as a writer
One of the most important writing lessons I ever learned came, surprisingly, from my college trumpet instructor.
“Michael,” he’d say with a heavy sigh, pulling off his glasses and rubbing the lenses with the bottom of his shirt. “You know I hate to mow the same grass twice.”
It was a phrase he used a lot, in band and private lessons, whenever someone made a mistake he’d already told them to correct. Because in his mind, once he’d identified a mistake in your performance, you needed to do everything you could to keep it from happening again, for two reasons.
First, because as he said, he doesn’t like to mow the same grass twice. And second (and more importantly), because if you let yourself repeat a mistake, that mistake will start to become a habit.
A bad habit.
And the more you let yourself repeat that habit, the more deeply ingrained it becomes, making it increasingly difficult to fix and slowing your progress as a musician (or artist, or writer). So his suggestion was this: Identify what needs to change, and firmly commit to fixing it now.
Confession Time
So. I was a very average trumpet player. My instructor and I had a great rapport, but he had to tell me to mow the same grass twice, three times, and more often than he ever would have liked, because I just wasn’t focused or passionate enough about trumpet to fully commit to his advice.
But I was focused and passionate enough about fiction to commit to his advice when it came to writing. So I applied his mindset in my creative writing workshops, particularly when I started my MFA.
And I tell you what, everybody. It worked wonders — helping me improve enough in that first year alone to win our MFA program’s top fiction prize and to earn a teaching assistantship.
3 Steps to Quickly Improve Your Writing
With my trumpet instructor’s advice in mind, I put a 3-step process on loop throughout my time in the MFA:
Share a short story with your fellow writers. (A workshop is great, but online writing friends work too.)
Sift through everyone’s feedback to find one high-priority “bad habit” in your writing that they seem to be honing in on.
When you sit down to write your next story, commit to breaking that habit at any cost, even if it means making other mistakes because of it. (New mistakes are better than old mistakes.)
This is How it Went for Me
The first short story I shared in my MFA workshop had a clear issue: the narrator was passive and underdeveloped. One of my classmates called him a “window character,” someone through whom we could observe the other, more interesting characters who actually drove the plot. The rest of the workshop agreed, and looking back at some of my past stories, I realized that passive narrators had become a deeply ingrained habit of mine.
So the next time I wrote a story, I strictly committed myself to writing a more active narrator.
The Result?
A moderately active narrator. Not perfect, but better than I’d done in a long time. It was progress — me chipping away at the bad habit.
The next story I wrote showed much more progress. It had a highly active narrator, and so did the story after that. And that’s when a new, better habit formed: writing active narrators without even thinking about it. And that let me shift my focus to improve upon something else (such as making all my narrator’s actions stem from their core emotional struggle). And something new again after that (using more figurative language, loosening up my writing voice, etc.).
And that’s how you can improve, too. The goal, again, is to use peer feedback to identify habits in your writing you don’t like, and then to mentally commit to replacing them with habits you want, one by one.
It’s a slightly different way to approach feedback. We tend to primarily use feedback as a way to help us improve an individual story — but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to improve your future first drafts.
You’ll be surprised how quickly your writing improves when you do this.
The key, though, is to commit to tackling just one major habit at a time. Why? Because writing is hard, friends, and fiction is a complex tapestry of various techniques, all coming together at once. That means your attention is always inevitably split while writing, so if you try to fix multiple habits at once, you’ll likely spread your attention too thin to succeed.
So identify a single change you want to see in you writing. Make it happen the next time you write a story, no matter what. Then, before you sit down again to write the next story, find something new you want to change or improve.
You’ll love what happens to your writing when you commit to never mowing the same grass twice.
And when you do, far away, in a brightly-lit college band room in Minnesota, my old instructor will raise a hand to conduct a trumpet ensemble, pause — and smile.
— — —
For writing advice and tips on crafting theme, meaning, and character-driven plots, check out the rest of my blog.
And if you’re feeling discouraged, remember this: Every story has something wonderful inside it, including your own.
Never Confuse Characterization for Character
Lately I’ve been revisiting Story by Robert McKee, a famous book on the craft of storytelling. It can be pretty intense and heavy at times, so it’s not something I would recommend for beginners. In fact, the first time I read it, a lot of it was so deep and new that it went over my head. It’s been interesting reading it again. Now, parts seem to be validating my ideas, rather than turning and twisting them.
One thing in particular stuck out to me this last week: character vs. characterization.
Regularly, I see writers hyperfocused on characterization.
Characterization is all the surface or near-surface stuff: voice, demeanor, likes and dislikes, hair and eye color, clothes, habits, etc.
Honestly, I personally consider these things to be part of character, but for the sake of this post, we are going to look at them as two different things, to communicate specific ideas.
Characterization can be really important and really effective. Give us the right voice, mannerisms, and appearance, and we can instantly be drawn to someone. Jack Sparrow is a good example. Johnny Depp combined Pepe le Pew with Keith Richards to come up with a unique, iconic characterization. In fact, Depp is often very good with characterization. A lot of actors have the same demeanor for all of their characters (I’m trying so hard to not name anyone in particular right now), but Depp’s Jack Sparrow, Mad Hatter, Willy Wonka, Grindelwald, Mort Rainey, etc. all have unique characterizations.
You are very familiar with characterization. All over online you can find long questionnaires to fill out to get to know your protagonist (or any other character). Back in the day, I would fill these out because they were fun (and they are, and that’s okay!), but I often found that despite how personal the questions could get (i.e. “What is his/her greatest fear?”), I wasn’t quite satisfied with the person on the page, not to mention that a lot of the stuff I ended up brainstorming seemed irrelevant to the story. And in some cases, I had to change what I’d filled out to write a better story “for some reason.”
I’ve actually heard/read a few writers get on the character vs. characterization bandwagon and go on to kind of … knock down characterization. I don’t agree with that. I strongly believe in the power of rich characterization. And I have zero problems if you want to be like Johnny Depp and give each main character a super unique demeanor. In fact, as long as it doesn’t get too outlandish for your world, I enjoy that and think it is a good idea.
After all, if Jack Sparrow had a demeanor like the Mad Hatter, Pirates would be totally different.
But here is the problem that past me, and I see a lot of writers run into, characterization is not the sum of character. You might be filling out questionnaire after questionnaire, trying to find The Thing™️, but it’s not coming together, because you only know about characterization.
Characterization is part of a character, but it isn’t fully “character.” When it gets down to it, when you want to get really, really deep, characterization isn’t going to get you there.
As J.K. Rowling famously wrote, it’s our choices that determine who we are.
You can be the gothiest goth kid, or the preppiest prep kid, but who you truly are is what you choose to do, and perhaps, I would probably add, why you choose to do it. When encountering a stray dog, do you kick it away or give it some food? You can cut out all the external stuff; you can cut out the hairstyle, the age, the clothes, the likes and dislikes, and at the heart of it, is choices.
But it’s not just any choice.
As Robert McKee and others have stated, to get into that inner gem of character, it’s the choices the character makes when there are significant stakes. If a character chooses vanilla ice cream over chocolate, that doesn’t really tell me a lot, unless I want to read symbolism into it (which could be there).
Maybe your protagonist tells the truth to his parents about putting a frog in his sister’s bed. Does that really matter if there are no potential consequences involved? Telling the truth when there are no dire consequences is easy. Telling the truth when there are important things at stake is harder. What if telling the truth meant he would be grounded and could not participate in a talent show he’s been practicing for, for months? There is prize money involved, and he was hoping to use that money to buy a chemistry set. Chemistry is his passion and he wants be a world-renowned chemist someday. Which is more important to him? A potential chemistry set or telling the truth?
This can be a great way to add depth. Well, it is depth. Especially if their characterization seems to be at odds with who they truly are. A vampire who craves human blood but chooses not to drink it is interesting. A prince who’d rather be a beach bum is interesting. The bully who, when it gets down to it, sticks up for an enemy is interesting. It makes them more complex. It draws us in so we want to know more. Why doesn’t this vampire drink human blood? Why doesn’t this prince want to be a king? Why did this bully stick up for someone? The answers to those questions makes them complex.
We all have layers after all. And we all have boundaries. I almost never lie. But if I was stuck between telling the truth or lying to save a loved one’s life, well, I’d pick the latter. But if I picked the former, that would say a lot about me as well.
Some writers throw in contradictions to create character depth (a vampire who refuses to drink human blood), which works, but if it’s a main character, and I never get an idea or hint of the “why,” I sometimes find myself feeling … cheated. Like it was just thrown in (and maybe it was). I also then get stuck, fixated on the why that I never get, so it’s distracting. I don’t know that we always need to explore the why, but I would say for main characters, it’s almost always more effective, more powerful, more meaningful, to address the why, to some extent. Unless, of course, the reason is ridiculous, in which case, maybe you need to reevaluate that and come up with something better.
There is an important part to all of this, which is that we need to see your character making significant choices, which means they must be placed in situations where they can make decisions. If you don’t give your character opportunities to make significant decisions, it’s probably going to be a problem. This is another reason why people ask for “active” protagonists. They must want something and make choices with stakes attached.
Don’t be afraid to make your protagonist’s true self a bit negative or flawed–after all, they need to grow during the story (usually). Maybe near the beginning of the story, you show your character being selfish, but at the end, we see he is willing to sacrifice his life, literally or figuratively. This is called character arc.
The way your character changes through the course of the story can also bring more “character” to him or her than characterization can alone. If we have a character that starts as a villain, but ends up being a good guy by the end, well, that’s interesting and complex, and the transformation demands depth to be satisfying. This can all get more complicated real fast, because there are degrees and variations, and I don’t want to muddy the water quite yet.
But if you are only trying to find character by filling out endless characterization questionnaires, you might never write a fully formed, deep, complex character. Instead, consider choices, contradictions, and arcs.
Resources For Creating Characters
Physical Appearance
Face Shapes
Hair Types
Hair Colors
Hair Styles
Facial Hair
Eyebrows
Eye Shapes
Eye Colors
Lip Shapes
Skin Colors
Skin Types
Height Comparison
Types Of Piercings
Body Types
More Specific Words For Body Types
Nose Shapes
Voices
Speech Patterns
Speech Impediments
Distinguishable Facial Features
Fashion Styles
Personality
Hobbies
Archetypes
Secrets
Quirks
Mannerisms
Bad Habits
Fears
Religions
Mental Disorders
Pet Peeves
Strengths
Weaknesses
Flaws
Talents & Skills
Character Motivations
Miscellaneous
Character Building Chart
Character Name Generator
Basic Character Appearance Generator
Character Detail Generators
Backstory & Origin Generators
Outfit, Costume, Clothing, & Wardrobe Generators
Basic Character Premise Generator
Character Cast Generator
Alternative Character Cast Generator
Zombie Generator
Vampire Generator
Teen Generator
Pirate Generator
Music Band Generator
Murder Mystery Victim Generator
Merperson Generator
Fairy Generator
Fantasy & Sci-Fi Race Generator
Elemental Person Generator
Deity Generator
Villain Generator
Other Resources From Wordsnstuff
Resources For Describing Physical Things
Resources For Describing Characters
Resources For Describing Emotions
Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics
Useful Writing Resources
Useful Writing Resources II
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So, I heard that some of you were having issues with the download. Here’s my outlining guide just as is in photos. Same quality. Enjoy!
Random Question Time! Do you make art of any sort (mood or aesthetic boards, playlists, face claims with minor quick changes) for your characters?
Thank you for the question!
I often make aesthetics and playlists and sometimes edits with face claims.
I also like to play scenes and background stories out in my head while playing a piano piece with the right mood.
I'd love to hear more about the characters! And about the city, it seems so cool!
hi i want to post stuff about hound isle as we get closer to nano but i don’t know what to post so if anyone wants to know anything pleaseeeeee let me know
(i’m tagging the people who reblogged the wip intro bc maybe one of y’all will have an idea or like. info you want idk pls help: @patiwritesstuff, @ditzysworld, @wildswrites, @bexswritingadventures, @gaybullies, @vviciously)
Looking for a random cause of death for a character? Click here.
Looking for a random city? Click here.
Looking for a random city that people have actually heard of? Click here.
Need a random surname for a character? Click here. (They also give prevalence by race, which is very helpful.)
Helpful writing tips for my friends.
hello i changed my nano wip pls support my terrible decision and equally terrible characters
Something that’s helped me a lot when writing/designing characters is to make associations with them. Usually I pick an animal, a season, or an abstract concept to define them, and I keep metaphors and similes relating to that character within those categories. It adds a nice bit of symbolism, plus it gives the story more of a mythical feeling. It also lends more weight to interactions. If character x is the moon, and character y is the sun, then their interactions are suddenly more meaningful, especially if they have a relationship that is like that of the sun and moon in mythology or astronomy.
Hi! I was just wondering, what's the best way to make/write out a plot?
Guide: How to Outline a Plot
The best way to write out a plot isn’t the same for everyone, and sometimes it’s even different from story to story. There are lots of different methods, and most writers use a combination of them, so you just have to try different things to see what works best for you. Here are some of the most common methods:
1. Just Write
Some writers are what’s known as “pansters” meaning that once they have a story idea in mind, they prefer to “fly by the seat of their pants” and start writing without any planning in place. The key to making this method work is to remember that you’re only writing the first draft. Nothing you’re doing is set in stone, so don’t feel the story has to be perfect in one shot. Follow your gut and write the story to the best of your ability. Worry about tightening and polishing in subsequent drafts.
2. Synopsis
Some writers prefer to start by writing beginning to end summary of the story, describing all the important details and events in the order that they unfold. Summaries can be a great way to flesh out an idea for a plot, and they can also serve as a nice guideline if you want to “just write” your story but need a bit more structure first.
3. Old-Fashioned Outline
Do they still teach academic outlining in school? I don’t even know… when I was a kid, we learned how to do outlines with Roman numerals for the main points, capital letters for the minor points, and numbers for sub-points. If you’re good at outlining, this can be a great way to outline your plot.Edit: to clarify, it looks like this:I. Main Idea A. Minor Idea 1. Sub-Idea i. sub-idea ii. sub-idea 2. Sub-Idea i. sub-idea ii. sub-idea B. Minor Idea 1. Sub- Idea i. sub-idea ii. sub-idea… … and so on. And no, I don’t mean the “seven step story structure outline.” This is an academic outline. It can be used for anything, including outlining a story. :)
4. Timeline
Creating a timeline for your story can be a great way to map it out. All you need is a beginning event, climax event, and end event. From there you can start filling in the events that follow and precede those events. Even if you don’t know the exact date for when a scene takes place, you can still mark it down in the right general place.
5. Scene List
If you have a pretty good idea of the scenes that need to take place, or at least a good number of them, you can start by writing out a scene list. It’s nice to do them in a table if you can so you can organize important details, like chapter, scene number, date and location, who’s in it, and then a short summary. Though, how you organize it is up to you. If you prefer, you can just write the scene number and then a brief summary.
6. Story Structure Map
Some writers like to map out their story according to whatever story structure they want to follow. They’ll pull up a graphic or chart of the structure, transcribe it onto paper or into a document, and then note each relevant event for each structure “mile marker.”
7. Subway/Tube Map
This is a new one I recently heard about. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but I think it’s fascinating. And there are even subway map creators you can use if you don’t want to draw it out. Ultimately, the goal is to map out the events of your story in the style of a subway/tube map. This method makes it easy to illustrate subplots and see how they relate to the rest of your story.
8. The Mind Map
Mind maps can be a fantastic way to get the most important parts of your story out on paper, and to start figuring out where other parts fit in and how they relate to everything else.
9. Index Cards
Some writers have luck writing out key scenes, moments, bits of dialogue (or anything else they have in mind) on individual index cards, which can then be laid out in order on a table, allowing for cards to be easily moved around, added, subtracted, etc. until a more complete story starts to emerge. Some writers even invest in giant cork boards for this purpose. Others use a dry erase board and draw out the “cards” instead. A lot of story writing software, such as Scrivener, even includes digital bulletin boards and index cards that you can use to visualize your story.
10. Method/Theory/Template
There are numerous methods/theories/templates dedicated to building/fleshing out plots. Some to look into:
- The Snowflake Method- Dramatica Theory- Save the Cat! for Novels- The Hero’s Journey
If one of the above doesn’t work for you, you’re sure to find even more ideas online. Try doing a search for “how to outline a plot” or “outlining a novel” to see what comes up. You might even try searching for your favorite author’s name plus “outlining” to see if they’ve done any posts sharing their own methods. You may also want to look into books, software, and apps/web sites that offer ways to help you plot your story.
Good luck!
WriterofthePrompts Ultimate Ask Masterlist 2 (Updated)
Wow, first of all I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the support on the First Ask Masterlist! Obviously I had to make a second one with all the asks I’ve answered since then so here you go. You can also check out my list of Random Writing Tips. As last time, some of these posts have notes from lovely people who have added onto my answers with their advice and you can also help out fellow writers by adding your tips or ideas to the posts in the replies or by reblogging. Hope you enjoy! 😊
Writing Tips
Writing unnecessary scenes with your characters just for fun
Can’t think of what to write for a scene? Cut it.
The “organized chaos” form of outlining
Resources for writing a story synopsis
Can a comedy also have a good message?
Writing a fantasy fit for most ages (also under Fantasy)
When you’ve got an idea but don’t know how to expand it
Building on your story yourself
Will posting writing online hurt publishing chances?
Using a prompt for a series
Ways to give information to a character
Dialogue tips
Coming up with a title (expanded)
Making the real villain a plot twist
GRAMMAR CHEAT SHEET
Some resources for creating a language
Coming up with villains
How to decide if you want a good or sad ending (Also, how not to screw up an ending) (Also, why the GoT ending makes me sad)
Story Structure Tips
Travelling scenes: when to skip and how to make them impactful
Writing a sloooow carriage ride without being boring
Moving back and forth in time in the story
difference between inciting incident and plot point 1
Blending backstory with present to further the plot
Writing scenes with a lot of characters
Writing a story as a journal or video log style
Third or first person?
Writing a long series
Connecting your ideas
When to introduce major and minor conflicts
Motivation and Positivity
Worrying about “originality” with your writing
Staying focused on writing
Turning off the editor voice
starting to write and keeping motivation
quick tip on writing down inspiration in the moment
How do you know you are cut out to be a writer?
When you feel your plot isn’t exciting enough*
When you think your idea is stupid (it’s not)
Character Development
Tips for writing a fully-fledged peppy girl
Teen raised by twenty-year-old family member
Mentor/Mentee relationship
Describing nature the way a nature-lover would
Showing a dead family member’s impact on the MC
Writing about a character losing loved one
Ways to show a character’s disgust
Why a “good” character would switch to the bad side
Why the “White Saviour” thing is a cliche and sucks
Villains who do things like “killing the dog”
Good and bad reasons to kill off a character
Character exercise when you lose their voice
Resources for learning more for a Jewish character (in the notes)
A reason a character might feel cliche
Representations of Gluttony and Laziness as humans
Writing Types of Characters
Writing a good guy MC who turns out to be the villain
Bad guy turning good and making them sympathetic
Dr. Doof: how to write a great villain
A character raised by a computer
Bilingual character tip
Interracial couples
Some negative traits for someone in a zombie apocalypse
Flaws for a Gary Stu type
a character trying to learn the language on a new world (also under World Building)
Good guy vs bad guy stories aren’t a cliche
Writing a CIA/FBI/Military character (also under Thriller)
writing a drunk character with some heartfelt moments and humour
Why NOT having diversity in your story cast is odd
A character with diabetes
Fictional races where one is “superior” to the other
Writing a serial killer as your main character (also under Thriller/Crime)
Writing a good Strong Female Character™
World Building
Creating a creation myth
History research post
Making an acronym from an organization
Naming world building aspects
strange weather ideas
ideas for ridiculous rules to join an excuse club
Why someone would put on a massive tournament
a character trying to learn the language on a new world (also under Types of Characters)
Making a magical setting exciting (also under fantasy/paranormal)
When you have too much information for an expansive world
Weaving a complex magic system into your story (also under fantasy/paranormal)
Using words referring to our world in a fictional world
Fantasy/Paranormal
Why gods would abandon their world
Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Ares: the original love triangle
basing gods on multiple gods
Why someone would control dreams
Dark fantasy with a dream shop
Conflicts for someone with the power to share dreams with others
Ways to break the curse to get the Prince out of the tower
Prince/ss of one kingdom raised by another king
why a princess would run away
Prompts for a King or Queen getting assassinated
Why a villain would overthrow a royal family
Reasons two Kings would marry each other
which fairytales deserve retellings
Writing a fantasy fit for most ages (also under Writing Tips)
Vampire and human couple meeting
Angel and ex-demon hanging out together
demons that feed on love and joy?
mythical kids meeting humans
Sword fight resources
Using an axe as a weapon
Haunted house story from ghost’s perspective
A family moves in to a house that is alive
Does the afterlife have to include religious aspects?
Witch sisters with unequal powers
Reasons a village would be afraid of a kind wizard
Making a magical setting exciting (also under world building)
Weaving a complex magic system into your story (also under world building)
Things a magic council would use money for
Prompts about cities that are always in night
Prompts about a changeling
Coming up with a good curse for your character
Reasons a magical world would need a saviour
mirroring strengths and weaknesses for magic manipulation
How an immortal could die under mysterious circumstances
How to get regular folk involved in a magical world
“Underused" fantasy settings
Thriller/Crime (aka I-swear-I’m-not-a-criminal-just-a-writer asks):
writing assassins
Clues that would make a character suspect another for murder
Writing a CIA/FBI/Military character (also under Types of Characters)
Serial/mass murder…causes?
Quick reasons why genocide doesn’t just happen overnight
tests to get into secret organization
Writing a serial killer as your main character (also under Writing Types of Characters)
Tips for writing a consistent murder mystery
Murder mystery party prompts (humorous)
Superheroes and Super Villains
Sidekick wanting to be a superhero
Super villain cause ideas
Sidekick and villain falling in love (also under Romance)
Superhero story originality
How a super villain can get notoriety
Woman unknowingly falls in love a super villain
World building ideas for superhero stories
Effects of the power of intangibility
Romance
How a princess and a pirate fall in love
two exes who end up working together
How two random kids could meet at school
Sidekick and villain falling in love (also under Superheroes)
Cliches in romance scene?
Original ways that a couple could break up
How to introduce a living girl and ghost love interests
Miscellaneous
Prompts about being abandoned
Character who has never danced in pressured into it
Futuristic space pirates
The best ask ever
MC and sister get kicked out of clan. What next?
Reasons characters would hate another (a concubine)
How to tell who is the clone and who is the original
Artifacts curious aliens would steal from Earth
A disturbing cultish 1950’s-esque town
VERY BASIC WRITING PLANNER
This is the template I start off with whenever I have a new idea.
Overall
Themes :
Aesthetics :
Protagonists :
Antagonists :
Premise :
Subplots :
Characters
Name :
Age :
Sexuality :
Race/Ethnicity :
Role :
Position :
Goal :
Motivation :
Greatest Fear :
Secret :
Physical Description :
Recognizable Physical Traits :
Important backstory (if any) :
Biggest flaws :
Important Relationships : (Love, sibling, mentor, enemies, close friends)
Plotting
Everything has a beginning, middle and end. Therefore, I divide my whole book into three acts, three acts into three blocks, and three blocks into three chapters. They can all vary of course- but having 27 points really helps. This method is not my own- I used Katytastic’s. Click here to learn more.
Basically everything has these three points-
Set up
Conflict
Resolution
World
Races :
Creatures :
Religions :
Magic System :
Technology :
( This is very basic but a good place to start imho)
This also follows something Brandon Sanderson said: a story is the intersection of characters, plot and world tied together by conflict.
I really hope this helped you! Reblog if it did :)
The 8 Laws of Foreshadowing
Underwriting: ways to boost your word count
I wrote a fic recently and the word count for the first draft came to about 40,000 words – roughly the length of a novella or ficlet. And that’s fine because I wasn’t striving for a novel or a 100K slow-burn coffee shop AU.
But coming to edit my first draft I realised something about myself. I am an underwriter. My fic could actually be at least 10k (maybe 20k) longer. Of course it’s not all about word count, it’s about the story, but in this case a smaller word count isn’t because I’m a fantastically efficient storyteller it’s because I’ve missed out a lot of stuff. Like, Important Stuff.
So as I set out to add muscle to the skin and bones I’ve already created in draft one I thought I’d share five tips for my fellow underwriters to help you flesh out your writing too.
1) Make sure to describe the place and space in which the action happens.
There are quite a few places in my first draft where there’s no indication as to where things are taking place– or there is, but it’s the bare minimum and not really enough to build up a clear picture. This probably because as the writer I know exactly what the place looks like so I make the assumption that a bare minimum description will mean the reader knows too.
Now I’m not saying go into masses of detail about what your settings look like. In some cases it’s not useful to describe setting in a lot of detail (e.g. during really fast paced action sequences) but doing a verbal sketch of the space is essential for putting your characters in context and reader understanding.
I really is a fine balance (which is why beta readers are your friend!) But definitely go back to your setting descriptions if you’re an underwriter, they might need some work.
2) Make sure to describe your character’s appearance.
Similar to the above point – you know what your characters look like, but unless you describe them, the reader won’t.
It’s fair to say that descriptions are open to reader interpretations, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t describe them in a healthy amount of detail. So you might try to nail down some of the interesting quirks about your characters to help the reader build a picture – not only will it help the readers understanding, it’ll boost your word count too!
Note: This one functions a little differently in a fic because the readers are probably familiar with how the character looks, but there is nothing wrong with adding your interpretation (or even reminding them, especially if the characters are from a book.)
3) Include character reactions outside of what they say out loud.
Real life conversations aren’t just about the stuff that comes out of our mouths. So much of human interaction is about body language – so include it in your writing! Saying that the character covers their mouth with their hand when they talk suggests shyness. While another character crossing their arms shows they’re defensive -perhaps because they’re feeling threatened. In real life we don’t always say what we mean – but a lot of the time our actions give away what we’re really thinking. By including these actions around dialogue writers can influence how we as readers view characters and how we interpret interactions between characters. And it can boost your word count too.
The big stuff:
4) Check your pacing.
When you write it feels like your scene is taking place over hours, days, weeks because when you’re writing it takes time. Reading, on the other hand, is much quicker. A seasoned reader can fly through a 100 page novel in a few hours – a seasoned writer can spend hours writing a 100 words.
When you read back your writing, make sure to check your pacing. You might just find that the Impossible Task you set for your characters at the start of the story is suddenly resolved within the next fifty pages. To boost your word count you might want to start by adding more obstacles between the character and their goal.
For example; your character has to find an object such as a precious jewel. Sounds relatively easy, right? But what if the jewel is lost in the mines of an ancient people, amongst thousands of other treasures that look very similar? What if no one has found this jewel because it’s guarded by a fire breathing dragon? What if the ancient mines and dragon are located in a mountain which is miles and miles away across dangerous lands? What if your characters need to enlist the help of someone with a very specific skill set?
You take one simple objective (finding the jewel) and you put into play a series of obstacles that must be overcome in order to complete the objective. Your underwriting tendencies, like mine, might just mean that there aren’t enough metaphorical (or real) dragons in your story!
5) Sub-plots.
A sub-plot is a smaller scale plot - often involving the supporting characters - which runs secondary to the main plot. It can be directly linked to the main plot, i.e. the info provided in the subplot directly influences events in the main plot. Or it can simply be linked through place, time or themes of the overall story (e.g. Hermione’s elf rights campaign ‘S.P.E.W’ in Harry Potter and the OoTP is linked to the overall theme of oppression.)
Sub-plots are great because they can serve as some respite from a traumatic main plot; your character is fighting a war (main plot) but also fighting and failing (in hilarious ways) to win the affection of their love interest (sub-plot).
Plus, sub-plots can also help with characterisation, can cause your main character to have the moment of realisation which allows them to overcome the obstacles they face in the main plot and is generally a better reflection of real life! Sub-plots often centre on side-kicks and other characters – people who might not be as devoted to the end goal as the protagonist is. In fact, well written side characters seemingly live their own lives with their own goals. You might choose to showcase this in your sub-plot by letting the conflict of interest cause more problems for the protagonist to overcome.
Either way you could find your word count sky rockets as soon as you add in a few clever sub-plots.
I hope this helped!
Got any questions? Send me an ask
"But my Plot isn’t UNIQUE or BIG enough!”
One thing that I worry about is that my plot isn’t good enough. I know lots of other writers who have had this issue in the past as well, and it’s all about having confidence in yourself and your ability to tell a tale.
The plot doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, just think of how many people get fed up of Shyamalan twist-endings. They’re clever sometimes, yes, but they’re also not what everyone ever is looking for, and when they are forced into a piece of work it is painfully obvious to anyone who really values what you’ve written.
What matters is the telling of the story. Your plot can be exceptionally simple, and you might write one of the most compelling books of our era.
I found one thing that helped was to look at other works, and try and break them down into their very, very simplistic terms - the bare bones, the things the author would have decided up front perhaps. The things that… if told without the wonder of the story, might have been boring.
Like A Song of Ice and Fire, for example, which tells the stories of Political struggle against a backdrop of Ice creatures who can raise the dead and force them to attack you. It’s basically a Socio-Political zombie apocalypse, with dragons. That could have gone either way; as it was, it went amazingly. Because Martin is a master of making every character a person, and building such a rich, colourful world that we believe it.
So, what I’ve done is looked at a very popular work that spans multiple books. Harry Potter is widely known, so this should be useful to as many people as possible. It is also praised as one of the most in depth and atmospheric works for children, young people, adults, or just about anyone, having been translated, adapted and studied over and over.
HARRY POTTER BREAKDOWN
Bread and Butter
So, when I asked Google what the heck the plot of Harry Potter was, I got this;
This is what I’m going to call the BREAD AND BUTTER of the story. It’s what happens in the day-to-day of the story. It’s perhaps the introduction J. K. would have given when first sending in her manuscript. It’s also a hugely unoriginal idea.
The concept of a young Witch or Wizard attending a magical school where they can learn their abilities has been done before, a lot. It is basically the prmise of books like EarthSea and the Worst Witch.
So next time you think your premise is overdone or uninspired, remember that it doesn’t matter. It’s not the premise that counts, it’s what you do with it. What Rowling did with it was create an in-depth world, full of structures and rules, populated by characters we all loved, hated, felt sorry for or routed for. She also made sure to include a way for us to learn more about the world, so she made her protagonist just as unaware of the wonder and horror as all of us.
Tea
In this case, tea is gonna’ be the conflict of the story. The main arc. Because going to a Wizard School is freaking awesome and everything, but this story needs risk. Our characters need to be in danger, and they need something to overcome. Often writers get stuck here. They have a wonderful setting and they really want to write about their character doing this or that, but what’s the main goal? What is there to overcome?
Very simply, Rowling’s villain is a man who wishes to purify the progression of magic by weeding out those who’s blood he see’s as tainted. He is a Hitler-figure, who himself should be ‘tainted’ in his own view. That’s the villain’s GOAL. It’s clear, and simple.
If you think your villains goal is too simple, just look at Voldemort’s goal. What makes it more complex are the many twists and turns he and Harry both have to adapt too. His many failures, as well.
Voldemort fits into many tropes, including the bad guy ‘selling his soul’ to achieve a vain goal, the bad guy murdering the heroes’ parents, the ‘more like you than you think’ trope, where a Villain and a hero are quite similar. I especailly like that last one, because J. K. played with it. Yes, she included it, and yes she gave a magical reason as to why.
That just shows that unique elements can be added on to overdone ideas, to make them wonderful.
Jam and Cream
This is where Rowling turns her simple ideas into something beautiful. Whether an idea is original or not, it will not matter if the depth is not there. Jam and Cream stands for all the little things.
The fact one of the most hated antagonists was only a prime player in one book but left such an impression, the fact Hermione was disliked by the main characters at first, the fact Neville was the cowardly laughing stock of the group for years. Let’s see… The fact Sybil was right about almost all of her predictions and no one believed her, thus linking her with the Mythological figure Cassandra.
The use of diversion and tension in The Prisoner of Azkaban, the fact that Harry’s own father was rather arrogant and mean at times, yet still a good person. The moral ambiguity of characters like Dumbledore or Snape.
And…
That isn’t even naming the things the books got wrong. Because every author makes mistakes. Yes! You’re allowed too! J. K. has Dumbledore play the ‘I’m going to withhold information from you for the sake of the plot,’ card. We are also supposed to believe Harry forgave everything Snape ever did and named his son after him because he rather fancied his mother. Many issues are left unaddressed, such as the disinterest/damn right rudeness towards Hagrid in the final years, or the silly quest over the fake Sword.
But in the end, if the story is told masterfully, no one is going to care.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is, if you plot is overdone, don’t worry about it. If your world feels familiar, do more to make it your own. If your villain feels like a trope, give them more twists and turns, and maybe a reason for the trope that fits your world alone. If your characters feel stale, give them more scenes that address their personality.
You’re doing fine, and your manuscript is totally fine. If you believe in it, there’s gonna’ be at least a hundred more people who would too.
“Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.””
— Jane Smiley (via inspired-to-write)