Some writers: *meticulously plan out every plot point and the tone and meanings before they start writing*

Me:

PACING IS ABOUT LOAD BEARING WALLS.

*staples violently to my own forehead*

This is such good advice.

All I will add is: WRITE THOSE BREAKFAST SCENES if you want to, they can be absolutely critical in getting a handle on your characters. Or even on the setting. Write them all to fuck. Go hogwild.

Then cut them. They're for you, and for the characters. Not the readers.

Lo these many years ago, in an elevator at some convention or other, Larry Niven gave me some of the best writing advice ever:

"You can always burn it."

Go ahead and write that stuff. The breakfasts, the staring-into-empty-space scenes, whatever. Then pull them out of your work if they serve too little useful purpose. If you feel the need, shove such material into a separate folder to examine for possible usefulness later.

Even if you don't put it where other people can see it, no writing is ever wasted. Every sentence will teach you something. But if a passage or sequence doesn't help illuminate character, build the world, or advance the plot, get it the hell out of your narrative.

Your readers' time is precious. Do them the courtesy of not wasting it.

friends, this is what Kill Your Darlings actually means

Thank you! - Physalian

100 Followers in 4 months?? 1000 reblogs and 2500 likes on the same day?? My guys, my gals, my peeps, my pals— Thank you!

Seriously, this blog started as just for fun, trying to provide the help that I couldn’t find among the myriad of conflicting advice on the internet giving me all these specifics that just don’t apply to my writing style. Am I the writing guru? Heck no. Not everyone does or should agree with me or my arguments. We all have our tastes in how we want to consume our fiction, and I’m overjoyed that so many of you take interest in what I have to say.

With that said! I want to make this blog more interactive. I am still taking requests. I like feedback. I want to give writing advice that is useful to *you*. Whether it’s for fanfic or your own novels or anything in between, don’t be shy.

For now, upcoming topics include:

—

Some updates!

I am working on my own website to host this blog and prepare for the release of my upcoming novel.

I am in the market for an illustrator—I can draw chibis of my characters, maps, and landscapes. Sadly, I cannot draw respectable people befitting a New Adult novel. So if you or anyone you know is interested in a collaboration, feel free to reach out.

I also run beta and sensitivity reading gigs on Fiverr, you can find those here:

I sensitivity read for:

If you’re looking for a beta for a fanfic (for a fandom that I know), I know those aren’t for profit and we can work something out.

—

Arriving shortly for my new novel are:

Follow this blog for updates and stay tuned~

another one

it's me and this feeling of emptiness against the world

Dunno how to put it properly into words but lately I find myself thinking more about that particular innocence of fairy tales, for lack of better word. Where a traveller in the middle of a field comes across an old woman with a scythe who is very clearly Death, but he treats her as any other auntie from the village. Or meeting a strange green-skinned man by the lake and sharing your loaf of bread with him when he asks because even though he's clearly not human, your mother's last words before you left home were to be kind to everyone. Where the old man in the forest rewards you for your help with nothing but a dove feather, and when you accept even such a seemingly useless reward with gratitude, on your way home you learn that it's turned to solid gold. Where supernatural beings never harm a person directly and every action against humans is a test of character, and every supernatural punishment is the result of a person bringing on their own demise through their own actions they could have avoided had they changed their ways. Where the hero wins for no other reason than that they were a good person. I don't have the braincells to describe this better right now but I wish modern fairy tales did this more instead of trying to be fantasy action movies.

"In [fairy tales], power is rarely the right tool for survival anyway. Rather the powerless thrive on alliances, often in the form of reciprocated acts of kindness - from beehives that were not raided, birds that were not killed but set free or fed, old women who were saluted with respect. Kindness sown among the meek is harvested in crisis."

-Rebecca Solnit

This is no joke one of the most profoundly terrifying things I've ever watched

I physically flinched, goddamn.

he sees you when you're sleeping

HE KNOWS WHEN YOU'RE AWAKE

Touching grass is not enough; I need to travel far over the misty mountains cold.

This one I found on r/funny

THEY’RE DOING A DARK URGE RUN!!!!!!!!!!

it’s like i always say: fuck

You know what, fuck it. Figure skating is now my favorite sport. Unless there's another one that will let a competitor dress up in a silly costume and do all these silly jumps and wiggles and fall on purpose, IN THE OLYMPICS, there's no contest

As a former figure skater I feel obliged to point out how technically difficult that little Chaplin patter would be. See the kind of speed he's getting up to and then immediately moving into that "walk" - sometimes without even a brake manoeuvre. The momentum you build up when moving at speed has to get released somewhere so stopping like that is usually an easy way to topple over (not on purpose). In the true spirit of Chaplin he is making very hard and potentially dangerous things look easy.

love not knowing anything about poker when a poker scene happen in a movie. like they'll say all in and im just like "oh no thats all ur money! this is precarious" the villain shows their hand they have all the blue eyes white dragons or something but our hero he pulls out his exodia royal flush and im just like " this is the best poker player of all time for sure" then we move on and i forget the poker scene ever happened until i watch the movie again

I'm not convinced it's in the interest of effective communication to refer to US-aligned rich nations as "the Imperial Core" but I do have to concede it sounds fucking awesome

anyway perhaps we could rename the Global South to something equally bitchin' like the Outlands or the Dark Zone or (perhaps more of a stretch) the Galactic Rim

The periphery is close enough imo

okay but you gotta capitalise it, like The Periphery

This gets saved in my inspo file for my current dystopian novel

Yep, this describes most if not all organized religion and the Republican party. 

This describes Evangelical Christianity and the Republican party. Dare I say it, MOST organized religion doesn't do this.

Wow I never thought of like this

Yeah, this *specifically* describes Evangelical Christianity and other cults that proseltyze. Notably, Judaism very much *does not* do this and I've not encountered members of faiths that *aren't* Christianity who do this ( with the exception of anti-theists). This is a Christian thing, not an "all religions do this" thing. The reason it's also how the Republican party in the United States works is because the GOP is basically a front for the Evangelical Church at this point.

Writing advice from my uni teachers:

This is legit good writing advice, especially the first bullet point! In playwriting class we did a bit where every bit of dialogue had to be an accusatory question and it was glorious.

Guide to Figuring out the Age of an Undated World Map.

No but take the time to actually read it because I lost like 15 minutes.

I have a friend who is really good at this type of thing.  He once found an old globe at a garage sale and he was able to pin the date of it’s making down to like a 6 month window, because it only would’ve been correct during a specific point in WWII.  

I was mad impressed, because I have no mind for geography.  I can barely remember my own state’s capitol.