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Writer?

@nonsensicalwritings-blog1

If you're looking for indecipherable paragraphs of feelings and the occasional poem, you've come to the right place
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lhazaar

look…………….. write as much shitty fic as you want. nobody can stop you. you’re learning constantly and it’s better to write hackneyed implausible ridiculousness than it is to not write at all out of fear of fucking up. you’re good

There was an experiment a professor did. I think it was pottery students. He did an experiment of “quality” vs “quantity”. One half of the class he told; you have to make as many pots as possible. Good pots, bad pots, shitty pots, whatever. The more pots you make, the higher your grade.

The other half of the class were told, “you can make only one pot”. But that pot had to be perfect. The quality had to be high; the highest quality pot would get the best mark.

But when it came to the grading, they noticed something weird.

All the best quality pots were in the ‘quantity’ group.

The guys who were literally churning out pots, trying to make as many as possible, not concentrating on the quality. But every pot they made, made them better at making pots. By the end of the month (I think it was a month) - they had some pretty awesome pots coming out, because they enjoying finding all the ways and all the things they could do to make all their pots. Where as the ‘quality’ guys had spent their time reading up on pots, and technique, and researching and planning; which was all great but they’d had no further practice at actually making pots.

The best way to get really good at something, the only way to be really good at something, is to make lots of shitty attempts at that thing several of which will fail. If all you create are perfect things then you won’t improve, because how can you improve on perfect?

tl:dr MAKE YOUR SHITTY POTS.

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Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers is a really nice, satisfying trope, but the truth is that it only works if the reason why two people are “enemies” is for something dumb, like they took the last banana before you could at the grocery store, and not something like one of them is a racist or a raging misogynist or a mass murderer lol.

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How to get back in the flow

(from someone who just got back into the flow)

1. Find your minimum wordcount sweet spot. If you write 100 words, do you just keep going? I don’t. My minimum wordcount sweet spot is 1,000. I might stop when I hit that, but usually I won’t. 1k can easily become 3k if all goes well. Your minimum wordcount sweet spot is the lowest goal you can set that by the end of it you’re ready to write more. Find it, use it, swear by it and be ready to change it as your sweet spot changes.

2. Do some character backstories. Write about their lives in the past. Think about your story, but what’s going on in the background. It might give you plot ideas. It might get you hype to write about them again.

3. Assess your Future Plot. Do you have no future plot? That might have you stuck.  Do you have a lot of future plot but you just don’t know how to get there? Buddy it’s time to take the train off the tracks. If you’re blocked up because you don’t know what’s happening next, your outline needs editing. And on that note…

4. Get Hype About What You’re Gonna Write. Think back on your WIP and the root idea that got it started. Think about failed WIPs with concepts you adored. Do you like black markets? Characters who one-up their abusers? Do you want to wax rhapsodic about character x’s clothing choices? Are you vying for another fight scene? Guess what you’re doing next! Doesn’t fit the plot? Doesn’t matter, you can the plot. If you’re writing something from scratch then you still have room to play. Go on a tangent. Wear your self-indulgence like a badge of pride.

5. Bore yourself into it. Do what you can to remove all distractions from your immediate area. This means something different for different people. Me with my ADHD, I give myself less-favorable options. I don’t hate doing dishes, but I’d rather write. But then at some point writing will become excruciating, and I can go do the dishes. If I really want to be in the flow, I cut contact for a whole weekend. Not everybody has a whole weekend. Try for an hour, half an hour. Go for as much time as you can get away with.

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In Which Diversity Isn't a Myth

Ok. I’m tired of the typical vampire, werewolf and fairy.I’m also tired of the occidental-centrism in mythology. Hence, this list. 

I tried to included as many cultural variants as I could find and think of. (Unfortunately, I was restricted by language. Some Russian creatures looked very interesting but I don’t speak Russian…) Please, add creatures from your culture when reblogguing (if not already present). It took me a while to gather all those sites but I know it could be more expansive. I intend on periodically editing this list. 

Of note: I did not include specific legendary creatures (Merlin, Pegasus, ect), gods/goddesses/deities and heroes.

  • Dragons

The Ancient Dragon (Egypt, Babylon and Sumer)

Of the Cockatrice (creature with the body of a dragon)

  • Little creatures (without wings)

Chanaque /Alux (the equivalent of leprechauns in Aztec/Mayan folklore)

  • Creatures with wings (except dragons)

Bendith Y Mamau (Welsh fairies)

Peri (Persian fairies)

Yü Nü (Chinese fairies)

Garuda (Bird-like creature in Hindu and Buddhist myths)

Bean Nighe (a Scottish fairy; the equivalent of a banshee in Celtic mythology)

  • Spirited Creatures

Jinn (Genies in Arabic folklore)

Oni (demons in Japanese folklore)

Mahaha (a demon in Inuit mythology)

Flying Head (a demon in Iroquois mythology)

  • Ghosts

Toyol (a dead baby ghost in Malay folklore)

Yuki-onna (a ghost in Japanese folklore)

The Pontianak (a ghost in Malay mythology)

Funayurei (a ghost in Japanese folklore)

Zagaz (ghosts in Moroccan folklore)

  • Horse-like mythical creatures

The Kelpie (Could have also fitted in the sea creatures category)

Hippocamps (sea horses in Greek mythology)

Karkadann, more on the Karkadann (a persian unicorn)

Ceffyl Dwfr (fairy-like water horse creatures in Cymric mythology)

  • Undead creatures

Asanbosam and Sasabonsam (Vampires from West Africa)

  • Shape-shifters and half-human creatures (except mermaids) 

Satyrs (half-man, half-goat)

Sirens in Greek Mythology (half-woman and half-bird creatures)

The Kumiho (half fox and half woman creatures)

Scorpion Men (warriors from Babylonian mythology)

Domovoi (a shape-shifter in Russian folklore)

Aatxe (Basque mythology; red bull that can shift in a human)

Yech (Native American folklore)

Ijiraat (shapeshifters in Inuit mythology)

  • Sea creatures

The Kraken (a sea monster)

Nuckelavee (a Scottish elf who mainly lives in the sea)

Lamiak (sea nymphs in Basque mythology)

Bunyip (sea monster in Aboriginal mythology)

Apkallu/abgal (Sumerian mermen)

The Encantado (water spirits in Ancient Amazon River mythology)

Zin (water spirit in Nigerian folklore)

Qallupilluk (sea creatures in Inuit mythology)

  • Monsters That Don’t Fit in Any Other Category

Myrmidons (ant warriors)

Giants: The Mystery and the Myth (50 min long documentary)

Inupasugjuk (giants in Inuit mythology)

Fomorians (an Irish divine race of giants)

The Orthus (two-headed serpent-tailed dog)

Rakshasa (humanoids in Hindu and Buddhist mythology)

Yakshas (warriors in Hindu mythology)

Taqriaqsuit (“Shadow people” in Inuit mythology)

  • References on Folklore and Mythology Across the Globe
  • References on writing a myth or mythical creatures

(I have stumbled upon web sites that believed some of these mythical creatures exist today… Especially dragons, in fact. I just had to share the love and scepticism.)

This is perfect for my latest project ^~^

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headraline

Idk if it’s stupid or what, but felt like contributing:

the Munaciello, a little trickster spirit from my hometown, can be benevolent or malevolent. The article in English isn’t quite accurate on wikipedia, but here’s a link tomost Neapolitan legends from the city website http://www.comune.napoli.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/EN/IDPagina/5654

OP, Thank you so much for putting this reference together. I’ve been working on an original novel that involves dragons from all over the world, and I’ve been having a hell of a time finding good information on non-European dragons.

All the other information is sure to be helpful for the future, as well, I am sure!

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me: i love you but please, please do not step on my keyboard. go a foot out of your way and go around

my lovable yet ungrateful cat, a troublegirl and a fiend: you could sooner divert a river from its course than deny my nature 

fuckin raw line

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suspend

why are boys hot and cute like wtf take a break

half of the notes on this post are people going “um i think you meant girls and also i hate boys they are disgusting” and the other half is boys going “this isnt about me nobody could ever feel that way about me” like do you maybe see a connection here?? and also could you stop??

Boys are so cute!!! Small soft boys! Big buff boys! Tall skinny boys! In between boys! Boys are adorable!!!!!!!!!!!

i’m not even attracted to boys but yes??? can confirm???

Boys are amazing, especially nice ones who sympathize with you and make you feel beautiful even if you look like shit.

Soft boys! Trans boys! Boys with chubby cheeks! Skinny boys! Lanky boys! Boys with acne scars! Boys who run! Boys who draw! Boys who cuddle! Asian boys! Black boys! Brown boys! Pale boys! Short boys! Quiet boys! Funny boys! Boys with anxiety! Boys with autism! Dyslexic boys! ADHD boys! Athletic boys! Math boys! Boys who grew up watching history documentaries! Gamer boys! Fashion boys! ALL THE  BOYS!

👏👏👏 GOOD POST

BOYS!!!!!

After all the boy-dragging that goes on on this hellsite, thank you

Appreciate boys with good souls

Kind hearted boys deserve the world

Dont listen to the awful people on this site. Boys are amazing, cute and so great

Boys!!

CHUBBY BOYS WITH CUTE CHEEKS AND THE FRECKLED BOYS AND THE TALL LANKY BOYS AND THE TRANS BUFF BOYS AND THE TRANS FEMININE BOYS AND FEMININE BOYS IN GENERAL JUST ALL BOYS SOFT OR TOUGH 💕💕

listen i’m such a fucking lesbian but boys? A+ they’re awesome

Even us lesbians love you boys you can be brave and soft and strongd and hansome and shy, yall are fucking cool and being friends with boys is amazing bcctheyre smart and funny!

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spycookiez

Too many children too many boys.

Too many beautiful boys

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ATTENTION WRITERS

Google BetaBooks. Do it now. It’s the best damn thing EVER.

You just upload your manuscript, write out some questions for your beta readers to answer in each chapter, and invite readers to check out your book!

It’s SO easy!

You can even track your readers! It tells you when they last read, and what chapter they read!

Your beta readers can even highlight and react to the text!!!

There’s also this thing where you can search the website for available readers best suited for YOUR book!

Seriously guys, BetaBooks is the most useful website in the whole world when it comes to beta reading, and… IT’S FREE.

HEY! BECAUSE OF OP, THEY CREATED A SPECIAL WELCOME IF YOUR FOUND THEM THRU A TUMBLR WELCOME, ITS A YOUTUBE VIDEO.

They also sent me this; which was super cool

*slams reblog button*

@findingtallahassee holy shit! This is cool!

“Authors retain all rights to works posted on BetaBooks, and can add or remove content at their discretion. BetaBooks makes no claim to any of the work posted on the site.”

Incase anyone was wondering

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Myths, Creatures, and Folklore

Want to create a religion for your fictional world? Here are some references and resources!

General:

Africa:

The Americas:

Asia:

Europe:

Middle East:

Oceania:

Creating a Fantasy Religion:

Some superstitions:

Reblogging because wow. What a resource.

What perfection to add to my Bos

@ascoresdalua @pixel-is-writing @duskianfae just because we have all agreed we stan mythological retellings

This is what heaven looks like

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I fucking love the character that’s like. not really the villain. but definitely not a good guy I mean he’s on our side. but he’s definitely not morally upstanding.

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How to Steal: Know Your Tropes

Good writers borrow; great writers steal.” Most aspiring writers have heard this in some form or other. It’s common advice: steal from the books you love! 

But you’re pretty sure you’d get sued if you wrote a novel about a boy who goes to wizarding school, and befriends a redhead boy and girl with frizzy brown hair. 

So what exactly can you steal if you want to be a great writer?

One answer is: tropes

Tropes are story elements that reoccur through literature. They’re the motifs of all literature. This is vague because there’s a huge variety of tropes: they can be reoccurring setting types, characters, plot events, etc. 

Some examples: 

  • The hero pulls a book on the bookshelf and the bookcase swings open to reveal a hidden passage.
  • All of those myths and legends your main character has heard stories of growing up? They’re all true says the new character and/or encounter with a mythical beast.  
  • “What a coincidence!” says character A. “There are no coincidences,” says wizened character B. It wasn’t a coincidence. 
  • Two characters are headed into battle and still haven’t admitted they have feelings for each other. Then, thinking it’ll be the last chance, one pulls the other into a desperate kiss.
  • The crazy person everyone in The Town ignores predicts the future and/or pulls The Tower from the Tarot deck again and again! “It’s coming!” they warn as everyone ignores them! “The vague bad thing is coming!” 

We all have our favorite tropes. 

You’ll recognize the feeling. You reach that point in the book: so far, character A and B hate each other. Then, their hands touch. They pull back in shock. You swoon! You knew it! They’re going to fall in love! It’s everything you’ve ever wanted. 

Maybe The Hand Touch isn’t your trope (only because you’ve never experienced the gloriousness of the Kiera Knightley Pride & Prejudice), but you have one. You do. It’s that moment that appears in your favorite stories, that makes you squeal in delight every time you see it. Sometimes stories become your favorites because enough of those tropes are in there. 

And those tropes? 

Go ahead. 

Steal them

Steal them

All stories contain tropes, purposefully or not. The least you can do is make sure the ones you love appear in your stories. 

Can’t name your favorite tropes off of the top of your head? No worries. 

As you read, keep a list. As you watch movies and tv shows, keep a list. Have a notebook by your side and take note whenever you find a moment makes you say “I love it when this happens!” Pay attention to that feeling. It’s one you want readers to experience when reading your own story

(You can also do the complete opposite of this and take note of tropes you hate and want to keep far away from your own work.)

If you aren’t patient enough to do that: here’s a giant list of tropes from A Song of Ice and Fire on TVTropes for inspiration. You can browse the rest of the site to look at a truly enormous collection of tropes in fiction. 

Don’t force tropes into your story. You want them to feel organic and new, as though they aren’t just storytelling devices found in dozens and dozens of books. You have to make sure they’re in line with your characters and plot. Fit tropes to your story, don’t fit your story to tropes. Your character shouldn’t come across a Secret Bookcase Passage unless it actually leads somewhere.

You also want to be wary of including tropes that have oversaturated a genre to the point of becoming cliche. If you’re bored with it, readers are bored with it. ex. the YA love triangle

That said, if you want to show that your characters are falling in love against their better judgement and you’re not sure how to go about it: consider your favorite tropes. Write the best f%@~ing Hand Touch scene that’s ever been written. I promise you, someone will read it and think, “yes, I love it when this happens!” 

This advice was stolen in part from the PubCrawl Podcast, who put into words what I’ve been failing to articulate for the past few weeks. I’ve been calling it “including plot happenings I love.” Plot happenings. smh. 

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How to Plot a Complex Novel in One Day

Now first, I have to say, that the plot you’re able to come up with in one day is not going to be without its flaws, but coming up with it all at once, the entire story unfolds right in front of you and makes you want to keep going with it. So, where to begin?

  • What is your premise and basic plot? Pick your plot. I recommend just pulling one from this list. No plots are “original” so making yours interesting and complicated will easily distract from that fact, that and interesting characters. Characters will be something for you to work on another day, because this is plotting day. You’ll want the main plot to be fairly straight forward, because a confusing main plot will doom you if you want subplots.
  • Decide who the characters will be. They don’t have to have names at this point. You don’t even need to know who they are other than why they have to be in the story. The more characters there are the more complicated the plot will be. If you intend to have more than one subplot, then you’ll want more characters. Multiple interconnected subplots will give the illusion that the story is very complicated and will give the reader a lot of different things to look at at all times. It also gives you the chance to develop many side characters. The plot I worked out yesterday had 13 characters, all were necessary. Decide their “roles” don’t bother with much else. This seems shallow, but this is plot. Plot is shallow.
  • Now, decide what drives each character. Why specifically are they in this story? You can make this up. You don’t even know these characters yet. Just so long as everyone has their own motivations, you’re in the clear.
  • What aren’t these characters giving away right off the bat? Give them a secret! It doesn’t have to be something that they are actively lying about or trying to hide, just find something that perhaps ties them into the plot or subplot. This is a moment to dig into subplot. This does not need to be at all connected to their drive to be present in the story.  Decide who is in love with who, what did this person do in the 70’s that’s coming back to bite them today, and what continues to haunt what-his-face to this very day. This is where you start to see the characters take shape. Don’t worry much about who they are or what they look like, just focus on what they’re doing to the story.
  • What is going to change these characters? Now this will take some thinking. Everyone wants at least a few of the characters to come out changed by the end of the story, so think, how will they be different as a result of the plot/subplot? It might not be plot that changes them, but if you have a lot of characters, a few changes that are worked into the bones of the plot might help you.
  • Now list out the major events of the novel with subplot in chronological order. This will be your timeline. Especially list the historical things that you want to exist in backstory. List everything you can think of. Think about where the story is going. At this point, you likely haven’t focused too much on the main plot, yeah, it’s there, but now really focus on the rising actions, how this main plot builds its conflict, then the climactic moment. Make sure you get all of that in there. This might take a few hours.
  • Decide where to start writing. This part will take a LOT of thinking. It’s hard! But now that you’ve got the timeline, pick an interesting point to begin at. Something with action. Something relevant. Preferably not at the beginning of your timeline - you want to have huge reveals later on where these important things that happened prior are exposed. This is the point where you think about what information should come out when. This will be a revision of your last list, except instead of being chronological, it exists to build tension.
  • Once you’ve gotten the second list done, you’ve got a plot. Does it need work? Probably. But with that said, at this point you probably have no idea who half your characters are. Save that for tomorrow, that too will be a lot of work.

Disclaimer for this post.

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writing tip: don’t tell us your character’s backstory. don’t tell us what your character is thinking. don’t tell us what your character is doing. don’t tell us anything. the reader should simply look at a blank page and be suddenly overcome with emotion.

Good tip. I know a lot of writers who cry uncontrollably when they see a blank page, so I’m sure that feeling will translate directly to the reader.

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Entry #4

No better way to start writing, than to sit myself in front of a blank page and just start writing. How else does one write, but by writing? Of course, it isn’t that easy. Still I will not write anything of substance, anything of value, anything but nonsensical gibberish until I form an actual idea.

However, that’s okay. My main goal in this is first to just get myself writing. If that means talking over and over about how difficult it is to get any meaningful words out on paper, then so be it. That is what I shall write until the right words come to mind; until the poems start to flow, or finally I figure out just what it is my novel is about. One day, though, I will write my book.

One day, my works will be out there, for people to read, and enjoy, and feel. They will be sitting on the shelves of bookstores and peoples’ home. I know it, deep down in my heart, that someday my writing will be loved by someone other than me.

I can feel my destiny calling to me, I’ve known it all my life. I have always been a writer, always meant to be a writer. This poetry has ran, like a raging river, through my veins since I learnt what it meant to write it, and it will never still.

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