Tropes You can Pry from My Cold, Dead Hands:

So I had a thought about a plot I want to do.

for all you writers out there:

donjon has tons of generators. for calendars. for demographics of a country and city. for names (both fantastical and historical) of people, nations, magics, etc.

this site lets you generate/design a city, allowing you to choose size, if you want a river or coast, walls around it, a temple, a main keep, etc.

this twitter, uncharted atlas, tweets generated maps of fantasy regions every hour.

and vulgar allows you to create a language, based on linguistic and grammatical structures!!! go international phonetic alphabet!!!

a handful of (probably) unpopular opinions on writing:

these are all i can think of off the top of my head. feel free to add on if you think of any!

just because a story has “literary merit” doesn’t mean it’s actually good. there are no superior genres.

just like fantasy doesn’t need to be centered on war, it also doesn’t need to be centered on medieval england. fantasy can happen at any time in any region of the world with any level of technology.

traditionally feminine values/traits in characters of all genders doesn’t mean they’re an inferior or weak character.

a female character can want power or have a desire to rule and not be evil.

poc and lgbtq+ characters deserve to be in genre fiction, and there doesn’t need to be a “reason” to justify their existence.

Oh my God I love thisss!

i’ve been doing my homework on how to break into a writing career and honestly. there’s a Lot that i didn’t know about thats critical to a writing career in this day and age, and on the one hand, its understandable because we’re experiencing a massive cultural shift, but on the other hand, writers who do not have formal training in school or don’t have the connections to learn more via social osmosis end up extremely out of loop and working at a disadvantage. 

like, i didnt know about twitter pitch parties!! i didnt know about literary agents and publishers tweeting their manuscript wishlist, in hopes that some poor soul out there has written the book they really want to read and publish!! this isnt some shit you learn about in school! you really need to know the ins and outs of the writing community to be successful! 

for anyone interested, here’s what i’ve learned so far in my quest for more writing knowledge:

1. Writer’s Market 2019 is a great place to start– it gives you a list of magazines and journals that you can send your work to depending on the genre as well as lists a shit ton of literary agents that specify what genres they represent, how you can get in contact with them and how they accept query letters. this is a book that updates every year and tbh i only bought it this year so i dont know how critical it is to have an updated version  

2. do your research. mostly on literary agents because if you listed on your site that you like to represent fluffy YA novels and some asshole sends you a 80k manuscript about like…gritty viking culture, you will be severely pissed off. always go in finding someone who you know will actually like your work because they’re the ones who will try to advocate for you in getting published.

3. learn how to write a query letter. there are slightly varying formulas to how you can write an effective query letter. you’re also going to want to get feedback on your query letter because its the first thing the literary agent will read and based on how well you do it, it could be the difference between them rejecting you outright and giving your manuscript a quick read

4. unfortunately, you’re gonna want to get a twitter. Twitter is where a lot of literary agents are nowadays, and they host things like twitter pitch parties, where you pitch your manuscript in a few sentences and hashtag it with #Pitmad #Pitdark, some version of pit. a lot of literary agents and publishers will ALSO post their manuscript wishlists, which is just the kind of books they’d like to represent/publish, and they hashtag this with #MSWL (it is NOT for writers to use, only for agents/publishers)

5. connect with other writers, literary agents, publishers at book events. you will absolutely need the connections if you want to get ahead as a writer. thats just kind of the state of the world.

tropes i will never get tired of

This right here is a serotonin generator

this

me: i have an idea for a new plot

partner: oh cool what is it!

me:

7 Worldbuilding Tips

I. Diversity exists, everywhere

II. Multiple religions and languages can and should exist in the same area

III. No info dumps or any of the Exposition Monologues

IV. Magic and powers should have limits and rules, whether the characters know them specifically or not

V. Know how the world accommodates (or doesn’t) for people with disabilities because… they certainly exist

VI. Figure out not only the advances in technology but also its availability to different people

VII. Always a good idea to know how messages are sent and information is shared

Self Sacrifice

I’ve been thinking a lot about this trope lately. Especially when it comes to whumpees offering themselves up as the sacrificial lamb:

It’s my favoite kind of whump. 💜

A Kissing Prompt List

Places Where People Kiss:

Reasons to kiss:

I have no will power and I want to write some smooching. Hit me with a ship and a prompt from either list - or for ultimate power, one from each list!

When I get ideas for character backstories/details when I should be sleeping:

@thebibliosphere

I love a good backstory

I fucked up my meds and my sleeping cycle so I’ve been wired and writing all through the night. ETD just got up to go to work. I can hear birdsong.

Mistakes were made.

invented love

How to tell the difference between a smart character written by a dumb person vs a smart character written by a smart person

The dumb “Smart Character”: Gets conclusions almost entirely through revelation, lacks methodology, intelligence is hyped up constantly by others, lacks realistic problem solving, knowledge comes solely through a nebulous mental encyclopedia which always gives them the needed facts at the right time, seemingly disconnected from human thought process because they are guided into decision making through plot, not the merits of their work.

The smart Smart Character: Conclusions made by working out problems and following a practical methodology. Knowledge is gained and learned from experience through said methodology, not plucked from a mental encyclopedia. Act rationally and realistically to problems as if they were in the world and aware of nothing but the world and their immediate circumstances, not afraid to experiment and fail if it means eventually working out a solution.

I knew I got it from somewhere

There’s a third terrible option where the “genius” displays low to middling intelligence, but in an attempt to make them look smarter the writer made every single other character a complete imbecile.

You know what I don’t get?  When fanfic authors apologize for long chapters.  It’s like?  You gave me bonus content, for free, and you’re sorry about it?  Bruh.  I have already named my firstborn after you.  Dude.

You know what else I don’t get?  When they apologize for short updates.  It’s like: look at these new words I gave you!  Sorry I didn’t give you even more free words.  Bro, that’s at least two words that I did not have yesterday.  For free.  Dude.  Thank you.

And another thing: when people drop out of nowhere with a surprise update and then apologize for it taking a while.  Like, dude, I wasn’t expecting anything, and you gave me words.  I thought this fic was abandoned, but wait: there’s more.  You just popped in and reminded me that this is a Good Fic that I should probably reread.  You made my goshdarn day.

Basically fanfic writers are under no obligation to publish anything so when they do update it’s always a net positive because the story is longer now, and I have something to read, so thank you so much to everyone who writes fic at whatever pace or quantity they want.

This is wholesome and I need to hear this all the time. You’re sweet and kind, op, and i am happy you tell us such nice things!

Trying to find the perfect name for a character, but you only have a vague idea of what you want, like “he feels like a 2-syllable kind of guy” or “It need a hard consonant at the end.”   

May I recommend nameberry.com? I’ve sung its praises before, but you can search for specific lists of like “three syllable girls names” or “names ending in a.” You can also input names with a similar vibe to what you want and it’ll give you suggestions.

I have been looking for this site since I first started plotting out my novel, god bless you

I also like behindthename.com there you can filter too!