#fantasy

Favorite Life

Strategies

As a writer with dozens of WiPs, I have had plenty of strengths at different points in my life; dialogue, creating OCs, worldbuilding and whatnot. While I remember enough about several of these topics to write a tutorial about one or the other, I realise my expertise lies in a different area, particularly: creating the baseline for stories. And fast.

    So that’s what I will teach you today:

How To Get Writing Fast 101

Here are some of the strategies I have used over the course of my endless wips:

★ create a map, a couple of cultures depending on regions and climate, countries and some conflicts, then follow the history a few countries up to the “present”, think of what political climate this would create and make your story exploring it

make sure that your countries aren’t defined by only one culture; in real life, countries that are close together influence each other regardless of their relations or intention, so even if your 2+ countries are at war, part of their culture (foods, architecture, etc.) will be similar due to the geography in which they are situated

it’s also possible, especially if you have a bigger country, that there will be regions of it whose cultures will be more similar to that of other countries than their own - this can be because of geography, shared history, conquering, and so on

if you have multiple species, don’t shy away from giving each of them multiple races too C:

★ make a list of your favorite tropes and combine them

works best if you have no idea where to start; you can also include anything you’ve ever liked about a story (or get inspired by the things you hate)

if you know what genre you want to write in, you can use the Tv Tropes site, they include tutorials for writing within a specific genre

★ watch shows that inspire you

if you want to write in a particular genre watch or read those shows and keep a list of which inspired you most; if, during your writing, you lose your excitement for this particular story, you can come back and watch those shows

★ look at art (fanart, movie posters, album covers, songs, etc.) and try to come up with a story for it

★ sleep

as someone who has lots of crazy dreams, I’m not afraid to admit that some of my stories were greatly inspired by my dreams

however, if you’re someone who doesn’t dream often, you can always just use other people’s dreams as inspiration (there’s so many pages where people share their dreams! however, make sure the person didn’t already write a story inspired by that dream, or that they aren’t against people using their dreams for inspiration)

★ come up with a central theme

this one is a bit more basic, but helps with giving your story a strong foundation, as well as possibly making it personal (if that’s what you want)

simply look up common themes, or think about the things in your life you consider most important, the Current Events, etc.

for extra spice: you can always add a few several, smaller themes; even better if you can use them to illustrate or back up your central theme - for example, if your central theme is injustice, your smaller themes can be vigilantes, poverty, cover-ups, bribery, and so on

★ keep a list of your ideas

no matter how dumb they seem! you never know when you’re going to look back on them and get inspired

you can always mix and match, reuse, place them in a different genre, world or with different characters

With this, my tutorial ends. I hope it helped! C:

Writeblr Life Week

Day #2 - WiPs

This format was really the only one appropriate for this particular story.

About Me

    I wish I could write as well as I did at 11.

Back then, my dad printed a physics book for his class and gave it a handmade cover tied with a pretty little bow. I was so awestruck that I insisted he printed something for me too, but he said “only if you write it yourself”. So I did.

My story was only 5 pages, which looked like 20 in an A6 format, and I even did the illustrations for it myself. It got published behind my back by my grandpa, who’s lifelong dream is that someone carries on his legacy of being a “world renowned writer” (in the world of dictionaries). Suddenly, everyone in my family was talking about it.

They all played pretend for me, saying it was a good book and showed “great promise”, but I know they never took it seriously. To them, it was a sweet little fantasy story with my family as self-inserts, no plot structure, pacing or literary value whatsoever. I’m the only one that sees its true importance: it’s a door into who I was and how I saw the world around me when I was a kid. Since I remember almost nothing prior to being 12, that is a pretty big deal for me.

For example, the way I was the only one that got a perfect score in the first test we got when we arrived at Magic School That Is Not Just The Mysterious Benedict Society But With Dragons. A test I reasonably had no way of possessing the necessary knowledge for.

Or how my (fictional) parents had 6 kids, not just 2, and how all of us were treated like a nuisance. How we apparently destroyed an entire house in just an hour because we were too wild, or how our (fictional) parents were relieved to drop us off at our grandparents soon after that.

Even the secret world we had managed to find and sneak in through a fireplace (I would’ve put a closet like in Narnia, but if my book had coming out metaphors too it might’ve been too much) was nothing more than me talking about how I escape through stories. At the beginning of the book, I find the entrance by accident when passing through something dangerous (fire / strong emotions, trauma, what have you). Over the course of the story, I try to enter again after the fire is out, but it doesn’t work anymore. Only at the very end, when someone tells me the secret: the entrance is only open when the fire is on.

    In a way, this book is about my journey of becoming a writer, of being able to control this secret world filled with many wonderful things (immense candy) that sometimes turn dangerous (immense candy who rotate and threaten to run me over). Of interpreting the world in a fictitious way that, back then, only I really understood.

i also have 3 subsets:

• movement – focused on speed, teleportation, long range, and ease of, well, movement

• summoning – focused on AoE, mid range

• body/object – using your own body or things you touch in attacks, close range

i wasn't sure if i should give the elements specific uses too (for example, having earth be used mostly for defense) or if i the 4 elements should be basically the same but with slightly different abilities 🤔 wyt?

cuz technically, the subsets already have different uses (movement for "dps", summoning for utility and cc, bod/obj for tanking). my only problem is that i won't have a healer this way, and i have no idea how i could make healing work in an irl setting where there's no HP

so, uh, i made a song... ok, i made some lyrics that i’ll need to figure out a song to :’3 i was really inspired by MM and i said hey, why not try to write a song, even tho i have no experience whatsoever

here you go:

.

Monday was Tuesday

And Tuesday was Wednesday

And Wednesday was Yesterday

And Today, they're all the same day

Until they're not

.

It tastes like all the days I wasn't here

All the little lies and the little excuses

The flicker of someone's lips when you pass by

And it's alright it's alright it's alright

It's always been alright

Until now

.

When a broken glass

Or a rude comment

The glimpse of yourself when you pass a mirror

And your face twitches as you try not to care

Not to care

Please don't care

.

You take a deep breath but it's not enough

Because you're bigger than your body

And it's not enough

You grip that mirror

To make sure you're here

And it's not enough

You step on that glass

To make sure you're real

But it's still not enough

It's not enough

Anymore

.

But you promised yourself

A long time ago

That you'll do better, you'll be better

You let go of that mirror

And step out of the glass

You may not be here, still

But it's a start

.

You go outside, take a deep breath

And it's not enough, still

So you go running around the block

Once, twice

But you care so much, still

Three times, four times

You can still remember their mocking snickers

Like Monday, and Tuesday

Your body still looks the same

Like Wednesday

Your body starts aching

And like Yesterday

You're still suffocating, but it's not the same

And Today

.

Today the pavement is very gray

And the grass is wilted

You step on it

And there's a cat around the corner

It's running, just like you

There's some birds somewhere

Laughing pleasantly

And nothing is okay, still

It might never be

.

But at least you'll always have

Grass to step on

And cats to run after

And birds to listen to

And maybe that's okay

That's okay that's okay that's okay