Justanothergirlsblog - =A Weird Girl=

“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place. Like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.”

— Azar Nafisi

Writing advice from my uni teachers:

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

Before you write your novel, write a page of anything from your characters POV so you can get their voice right. Do this for every main character introduced.

Hi there! I was curious for your advise on how to get back into writing after a long absence? I haven't written for at least 3 years and I can't seem to figure fire out a way to motivate myself and get excited about something to write. I'm incredibly out of practice and stories rarely come to me nowadays. It seems to be easier to just continue with life mindlessly, not trying to write since when I think about trying to write I immediately think about what a failure it would be.

Kate’s masterlist of motivational content...

Choosing Your Writing Path

Restarting Your Writing Passion

How To Motivate Yourself To Write

Reasons To Improve Your Lifestyle

Tips & Advice for Aspiring Authors, Writers, and Poets

On Getting Started As A Writer

On Hating Your Old Stuff

Depression As An Inhibitor

Healthy Forms of Motivation

How To Have A Productive Mindset

How To Fall In Love With Writing

How To Incorporate Health Into Your Writing Routine

So You Want To Start A Blog?

Writing Through Mental Health Struggles

How To Improve Your Life In Little Ways

 Dear Writers Who Are Hesitant To Start Writing

Insecure About Writing Without Formal Training?

“All First Drafts Are Crap” -- My Thoughts

Getting Back To Writing After A Long Hiatus

Why “Burnout” Is Oay - The Creative Cycle

For Writers Who Want To Become Popular

Wanting To Finish A Story You’ve Fallen Out of Love With

You Don’t Need To Be A Professional To Practice Advanced Writing

Getting Motivated To Write

“Does What I’m Writing Matter?”

Taking Writing Seriously For The First Time

Sharing Your Writing With Others

Getting Burnt Out Near The Finish Line

The Beginning of The Writing Process

Benefits of Low-Stakes Writing

Taking Risks With WIPs

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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“Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.”

— Robert A. Heinlein 

“Believe with your eyes, not with your ears.”

— Unknown 

Writing Tip #235

If you want to get serious about increasing your writing output, you need to know what your baseline is. For a few weeks make a note of when you start writing, when you stop writing, the number of words you wrote, and where you were. Then analyze the information. You’ll quickly get a sense of if you write better in the morning or at night. If you write better at home or somewhere else (I know this isn’t as easy to do because of covid right now). Then when you can, write at the time and place that make you the most productive.

“Invest in yourself. You can afford it. Trust me.”

— Rashon Carraway 

We wait all of our life for temporary things, like it is a normal thing. We wait for the weekend, for holidays, vacations, but this is not what life is about. We should not wait (never) because our life is too short and people don't observe this.

“All your life you wait, and then it finally comes, and are you ready?”

— Anthony Doerr (via quotemadness)

Character development doesn't refer to character improvement in a moral or ethical respect. It refers to broadening the audience's understanding of that character, giving the character a deeper background, clearer motivations, a unique voice.

Developing a character is about making them seem more like a real person, and real people are flawed. Real people make mistakes. They repeat mistakes. They do things other people don't agree with. Real people are more than just 'good' or 'bad' and character development is about showing all of those other aspects of them.

Their interests and hobbies. The song that gets stuck in their head. The fact that their vacuum broke 3 months ago and they haven't gotten it fixed yet. All of those details help build out the character and develop them more.

And yes, characters change as stories progress but that doesn't mean they get 'better' in a strict moral sense. It means that their experiences change the way they interact in the world you've written for them. Just like real people do.