Master List: Motivation

Some of my writer’s block cures:

Handwrite. (If you already are, write in a different coloured pen.)

Write outside or at a different location.

Read.

Look up some writing prompts.

Take a break. Do something different. Comeback to it later.

Write something else. (A different WIP, a poem, a quick short story, etc.)

Find inspiring writing music playlists on YouTube. (Themed music, POV playlists, ambient music, etc.)

Do some character or story prompts/questions to get a better idea of who or what you’re writing.

Word sprints. Set a timer and write as much as you can. Not a lot of time to overthink things.

Set your own goals and deadlines.

Write another scene from your WIP. (You don’t have to write in order.) Write a scene you want to write, or the ending. (You can change it or scrap it if it doesn’t fit into your story later.)

Write a scene for your WIP that you will never post/add to your story. A prologue, a different P.O.V., how your characters would react in a situation that’s not in your story, a flashback, etc.

Write down a bunch of ideas. Things that could happen, thing that will never happen, good things, bad things.

Change the weather (in the story of course.)

Feel free to add your own.

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A Quick Guide to Foreshadowing!

Foreshadowing - a warning or indication of a future event. In literature, it is when an author provides readers with hints or suggestions as to what will happen later in the story. 

Foreshadowing can be used to create tension and set expectations as to how the story will play out. Can inspire reader emotions–suspense, unease, curiosity,

Types of Foreshadowing

Chekhov’s Gun The author states something that they want you to be aware of for the future - in the eponymous example, a gun hanging on the wall in an early chapter will be used later.

Prophecy  A statement to character/ reader about what will happen in the future. Although sometimes unclear at first, they normally become true by the end.

Symbolism  A more abstract way of foreshadowing, often shown through things like objects, animals, images and weather. Often foreshadows change in mood, luck or behaviour.

Flashback/Flashforward When the author needs the reader to know something that happened that doesn’t fit with the current timeline. Often there will be hints/clues for things that the writer wants you to remember/pick up on later.

Red Herring  A type of foreshadowing that deliberately misleads the reader. False clues such as a character finding another suspicious, etc., may lead you to believe one thing when, in reality, they will have done nothing wrong

Tips and Tricks for Effective Foreshadowing!

Don’t foreshadow too obviously - signpost rather than state! Arouse suspicion, but keep them guessing! 

If you make a promise, keep it!

The bigger the twist, the earlier it should be foreshadowed! Foreshadowing too soon is essentially a spoiler 

Keep foreshadowing in moderation 

Use beta-readers - sometimes our foreshadowing feels so obvious to us but it may not to other people who aren’t as close! 

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(Help) advice for people who have been writing for a long time and haven't seen improvements?

ok, so first of all have you REALLY not improved? most of the time when we are working on complex tasks, our ability to see what we are doing wrong grows more quickly than our skills, so there's this constant, growing awareness of what we aren't doing well. i suspect if you look back at your first stories, you will see that they are clumsier than your current work

BUT, it's frustrating. i get it. hoo boy do I get it.

SO... the advice you asked for.

sit down and do a really cold-blooded assessment of your work. ask a couple CPs to help if you can bear it. figure out several places you have a clear weakness.

common things people struggle with include:

mechanics (grammar, punctuation, how to format dialogue, etc.)

prose (how does it read on a line level)

engaging opening pages (do people reading the start want to keep going, does it set up promises for the rest of the book to pay off, do we know, as readers, what sort of story we're getting from the first page)

characters (do the people feel real, do they behave in the way people behave, are they well rounded with flaws and strengths, do their stupid decisions seem believable given their own set of issues)

pacing (does the story feel too slow to readers? does it seem to skip over important moments)

plotting/structure (does the middle sag, do things build up in a compelling way, do plot points come out of nowhere, are there too many moving pieces)

stakes (are there stakes? what is the main character's goal? what happens if they fail?)

theme/mood/vibe (do you have a vibe? is there an overarching theme?)

emotions (are your characters/is your plot emotionally engaging to the reader)

climax (does it stick the landing)

pick ONE (and only one) identified weakness to work on for the next 3-6 months. Google resources that talk about that thing. write or revise aiming to work on that thing. (if you ask for a specific one of these, I will put together a list of resources, but it might be a bit much on an already long post to include here)

shake up your working methods to see if that knocks skills loose from your brain in the learning process. if you usually outline, try just brain dumping onto the page, focusing on that thing. If you usually pants it, try outlining.

go back to beta readers and CPs and say "how does this story work FOR THIS ONE PARTICULAR THING." It's much easier to beta read a chapter for someone if you know the thing that they want you to focus on is "prose" or "emotions" than "just anything that jumps out at you."

good luck and have fun!

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Some tips for using a few words to describe voices:

1. Tone Words: Use tone words to convey the emotional quality of a voice. For example, you can describe a voice as "melodic," "soothing," "sharp," "gentle," or "commanding" to give readers a sense of the tone.

2. Pitch and Range: Mention the pitch and range of the voice. Is it "deep," "high-pitched," "raspy," or "full-bodied"? This can provide insight into the character's age, gender, or emotional state.

3. Accent and Diction: Describe the character's accent or diction briefly to give a sense of their background or cultural influences. For instance, "British-accented," "Southern drawl," or "formal."

4. Volume: Mention the volume of the voice, whether it's "whispering," "booming," "murmuring," or "hushed."

5. Quality: Use terms like "velvet," "silken," "gravelly," "honeyed," or "crisp" to convey the texture or quality of the voice.

6. Rate of Speech: Describe how fast or slow the character speaks, using words like "rapid," "slurred," "measured," or "rambling."

7. Mood or Emotion: Indicate the mood or emotion carried by the voice. For example, a "quivering" voice may convey fear or anxiety, while a "warm" voice may express comfort and reassurance.

8. Resonance: Describe the resonance of the voice, such as "echoing," "nasal," "booming," or "tinny."

9. Timbre: Mention the timbre of the voice, using words like "rich," "thin," "clear," or "smoky."

10. Cadence: Highlight the rhythm or cadence of speech with descriptors like "staccato," "lilting," "rhythmic," or "halting."

11. Intonation: Convey the character's intonation by saying their voice is "sarcastic," "apologetic," "confident," or "questioning."

12. Vocal Characteristics: If applicable, mention unique vocal characteristics, like a "lisp," "stutter," "drawl," or "accented 'r'."

You bored, or feeling artsy but don’t have any inspiration...? *updated!*

Do you need to distract yourself? Or are you simply bored? Here are some great websites to make the time pass.

create pixel art

Awesome photo editor and art program, all free…!

Totally free transparent textures

make a cute chibi

draw some cool generative art

be a graffiti creator

create a picassohead (you don’t need to be a picasso to do so)

paint online

another awsome site to create pixel art on

and another one

create your own mandala

or color one

create an avatar

or you can try creating your own superhero

here you can interact with organisms in different environments to see how to music changes

here’s a website that translates the time into hexidecimal colours,

Here is a website where you can travel along a 3D line into the infinite unkown

here is a website where you can listen to rain with or without music

Need a model in a certain pose for drawing? here

Want to build your own planet

here is a website where you can create your own galaxies

make your own pattern (very useful if you need a new background)

create next hit comic

make a city which looks like something from 90′s games

draw a mandala like design

jig saw puzzles

more jig saw puzzles to solve

create a stunning HTML5 animation - no coding!

make a movie

create and dress up dolls

play a piano

you can also play a guitar

create sounds

another sound creator

create a logo

design your dream home

sketch rooms

explore fashion trends and create your own sets

build a website

try this app for building a website

Or maybe start learning how to code!

design your own t-shirt or a beanie or sweatpants and order them

design your own phone case

pretend to be a graphic designer with this cool online tool

Make your own Glitch art

Here’s another glitch art maker

And another!

Holy hell, here’s a third!

make an image look like it was created by a commodore 64

freaking cool text generator!

Easy to use word processor

Make up really cool patterns or run your photos through it :)

Write an essay on anything with no hassle

Wanna see how something you write would look like if it was on JacksFilms YGS((Your Grammar Sucks videos on YouTube))?

Make pictures out of text

ASCII word generator

Need an idea for some fanart-here :D

Still haven’t found something that would float your boat? Try these:

watch a documentary

learn to code

do something yourself

workout with the help of this great youtube channels

learn things

play pokemon or zelda or other awesome old school games

waste your time on miniclip

play games at additing games

or try games at agame

calm your thoughts

the quiet place

it will be okay

vent or listen to someone

pour out your soul

explore the sky

look at art from around the world

virtually visit museum of iraq

explore world with arounder

create a music playlist

list through rare books

scroll useful science website

create sand art

brain games

try out tastekid and discover new favorite band or movie or book

interactive 3D anatomy

random street view

post a secret

create a family tree

find our what’s the difference between x and y

help scientists and become volunteer researcher

create your own font

read a classic short story

In the mood to read, but not sure exactly what book to go for?

scribble on maps

listen to letters

play with acrobots

listen to podcasts

make a bucket list

Ever want to see the most truly useless websites in creation?

Prank a friend with this blue screen of death!

Zone out watching the colors drip down

Maybe none of these peeked your interest-maybe you’ve been wanting to create an o.c, but never really knew how to start-or you just enjoy making O.C’s….

This masterlist is to help you in making your own OCs….it can also apply to developing RP characters i suppose! (´ヮ`)!

How to Write Better OCs:

basic tips on how to make your oc even better

tragic backstory? learn how to write one/make yours great

writing specific characters

a wordier, great guide on how to develop your character

kick out those vague descriptions and make them AWESOME

Character Development:

how to actually make an OC

Q&A (to develop characters)

more Q&As

giving your character a backstory

how to write an attractive character

Need an Appearance idea?

Humanoid generator? check

Here’s another one

and maybe if you didn’t like those this’ll work

Need Monsterpeople?

Well, then here ya’ go

Maybe you need Cats?

Diversity

adding more racial diversity

avoiding tokenism, AKA, how to add diversity to your cast not just because you “need” it

writing sexuality and gender expression (doesnt include non binary, if you have a good ref to that, please add on!)

masterpost on writing more diversity into your story

cultures of the world

guides to drawing different ethnicities (not just a great art reference, but also really helpful in appearance descriptions!)

Mary Sue/Gary Stu

Test to see if your character is a Sue

Explains subdivisions of Sues/Stus

Powerful Characters Don’t Have to Be Sues

Villains

villain generator

need an evil sounding name for your evil character? bam

villain archetypes

what’s your villain’s motive for being a villain?

Relationships

character perceptions (What your character thinks of themselves and what others think of them)

how to write strong relationships between two characters

8 ways to write better characters and develop their relationships with others

OCxLove Interest Handbook

develop your couple with good ol’ Q&A!

how to write realistic relationships

how to write relatives for your characters (this is more OC related to a canon character, but will help in writing family members in general)

ARCHETYPES

12 common archetypes

8 archetypes for male/female characters

female archetypes (goes pretty indepth from two main categories)

a list of archetypes

NAMES

how to name your character

random name generator

most common surnames

surnames by ethnicity

APPEARANCE

tips for better design

basic appearance generator

pinterest board for character design (includes NSFW and images of skeletons/exposed muscle (?) so tread carefully!)

clothing ref masterpost

Clothing generator

Another clothing generator

More clothing generator

Aaaand even more

Steam punk clothing

Char Style preference

Dress Generator

DETAILS

give your character better powers

a list of professions

proactive vs reactive characters

positive and negative traits

interest generator

skills generator

motivation generator

123 ideas for character flaws

list of phobias

Oh shit someone died

Backgrounds and stuff? yep

Quirks

Personality. you need that shit

Need something fandom related?

City generator hell yeah

location? got ya

World-building?

make your own god damn laws

Landscape.

Need Item names?

Fantasy/sci-fi/etc. medicine names

Stuff to make things more interesting.Weapons, clothes, treasures… whatever your characters need.

Item & Artifact Generators

Other stuffs!

Genre, Plot, & Story Prompt Generators

How did your characters meet?

Fanfic plots. you bet your ass.

write EVERY DAY. here's how.

where inspiration fails, habit will always have your back. this is why it's important to build writing into your life as a habit, if you ever want to finish a project or improve your skills.

back in 2018, i (nat) was a college student without much going for me. i was feeling creatively stifled and insecure and like i didn't have TIME to write good. and i was right. i didn't have time to write GOOD. but i did have time to write SOMETHING. so that january, i built the habit. i wrote every single day in 2018, and almost every single day since.

because once you establish the habit, it becomes safer to skip a day (or three days) here and there. you will at least THINK about writing every day, even if you go straight from work to social plans to bed, or you're on vacation, or you're too sick to write. and that thinking is part of the habit!

here are the tips i followed to make this happen.

-pick a reasonable goal. starting off, mine was 300 words. now, i don't follow a goal, because the habit is so solid i don't need to. but 300 words is easy and quick. and if you give a pig a pancake, they'll probably have days where they write 500, 1000, even 3k words.

-log your word count. this is interesting to look back on every new year's eve, and it provides accountability. do this however you like; a spreadsheet, a physical notebook, a note in your phone, each day's section in your planner, whatever works for you. i have a channel in my personal discord server where i log mine.

-do NOT edit as you go. just write write write. if you feel like something you wrote needs work, yeah, it probably does-- everything needs to be edited, but that's a problem for later. highlight sentences you can't get right or make note of them to edit LATER. but do not edit as you go!

-write self-indulgent crap. fanfiction, shitty poetry, manifestos, rants, self insert fantasy romance, whatever floats your boat. having a shitty self-indulgent backup story to work on when i didn't feel like writing for the projects i cared about really helped get me in the habit. write for an audience of one!

-journal if you can't write. this may not necessarily build your skill as much as writing regular prose would, but it does help you maintain the habit and it can be useful in lots of other ways.

-think outside the box. write trivia questions. write a list of your favorite childhood toys. write a review of the book you're reading. i'm writing this post, that's going toward my word count for the day. again, this is still writing, and it helps maintain the habit.

-get comfortable writing on your phone. this took me a long time, but making it over this hurdle has saved my habit so many times.

you'll be surprised at the cool shit you end up writing on those days when you swore you weren't inspired enough. and you'll be delighted with how much progress you will make honing your craft!

happy writing! if you have any questions about how to implement any of these tips, our ask box is always open.

do you have any advice for younger / newere writers? you write so much and you're very skilled! i'm inspired by you

Aww thanks! Maybe I write a bit too much ahaha.

Well, idrk what you’re searching advice for so I will give general tips.

Before writing:

Do your research. Not only about the subject, but if there’s people out there who have also thought about the idea and have a tag for it.

Set a goal. I suck at this myself, but having a not-rigid word count goal (with timer if it makes you feel more motivated) really get your gears going. There’s a few pages that make it more entertaining too!

Warm up Drabbles. Nothing better than writing something adjacent to what you really want to write just to warm up and get a bit more creative so you hit the zone quicker.

This is optional but if you have time, make a page for your characters and setting. Like a reference page so you don’t go write someone is 160 cm when you have already said they’re 178.

While writing:

Limit your editing. It’s tempting to correct in the moment, (more if you’re unsure about grammar) but sometimes while fixing something you lose your pace and in the worst cases, forget where you were going. Editing can come later.

If you’re gonna have CW at the top, highlight the key words so it’s easier to go through it later.

After writing:

Don’t delete your scrapped ideas. You don’t know when you might wanna use that idea, so even if it’s never used having an scrap document for them is great.

If you didn’t like the end product altogether, it’s fine to put it aside for a while and come back to it later to see if it really should be abandoned in the scrap document or tossed away. Sometimes a little bit of time makes the errors look less severe and fixable and the good things to pop out more. Let it brew!

Pass your text through a beta reader and a program that allows you to correct your grammar and spot typos.

To gain attention:

Quick note here, don’t get discouraged if you don’t receive millions of likes in your first chapter. Sometimes it takes two projects or more to get traction. Keep going regardless of numbers! They don’t dictate how good you are!

Interact with others. Slide into inboxes, participate in ask and tag games, reblog other people’s fics, make collabs. most people are cool with being tagged in games even if you’re not mutuales with them so don’t be shy! Although, Don’t just talk to people to use their following.

Take part in writing/drawing challenges. July has the @whumpmasinjuly event with a prompt list, as there is events like the month of writers, nanowrimo, whumptober, etc.

Keep writing and explore other ideas besides your comfort zone. This started as a whump writing blog, but evolved into positivity, some art and writing (even occasional thoughts and poetry) The variety lends itself to grow your range of public and to expand your creative library.

Promote yourself. Shamelessly self reblog your favorite fics, or just reblog it for the timezone difference. You’re proud of what you wrote and I’m proud of you for writing it, but sometimes tumblr sucks and I won’t see it immediately. So don’t be afraid of reblogging your own things!

Make your own events and ask games. DTIYS, requests, giveaways when you hit a follower milestone. If you have the time for it and have fun doing it, go for it!

This is my personal opinion, but having visuals for your story such as mood boards, picrews, illustrations, etc. Makes me more interested in a story. It’s also an easy way to present your characters to your readers.

Have fun. It’s noticeable when an author is having fun writing it and when it feels like a chore. I’m not telling you to absolutely love it, just to trust in yourself and what you’re doing a bit. If it doesn’t feel right, revision it. If you can’t find it, hand it to someone and ask for their opinion. Not having fun doing what you love hurts like a bitch, and it just rubs salt in the wound when it flops or you can’t stand reading through it. So, explore ideas, maybe go back to your comfort to come back to the new a bit less scared. Or maybe find new inspirations so you can go rush and add new stuff and weed out what doesn’t seem right.

Overall that’s it I think. @ashintheairlikesnow has a great tag for new writers in her blog so I advice to check that out and ask more people. @thewritershandbook is also a good resource place!

Good luck anon! I’ll be cheering on you.

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#my heart

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It starts in Paris.

“You can’t steal things just because you like them,” Sam tells Bucky, feeling innately that this is a losing battle, and Bucky cocks his head to the side, considers Sam very thoughtfully.

“Really,” he says. “I’m stealing you, aren’t I?”

hello, here is that long painfully slow-burning Sam-centric fic that’s been killing me for the last month. 33.5k words spanning from post-Winter Soldier to… well, to A Time. featuring art theft, meaningful conversation in hotel rooms, burning undercurrents of tension, Steve Rogers being Steve Rogers, moments of softness and breathless stillness. have fun. I’m dead.

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please please please please reblog if you’re a writer and have at some point felt like your writing is getting worse. I need to know if I’m the only one who’s struggling with these thoughts

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