In which I talk about writing.

This is an extensive list of resources for every problem you could come across while writing/planning/editing your novel. Use it well;)

{ *** } Indicate a Highly Reccommended Resource

Planning/outlining Your Work

How To Outline ***

Zigzag Method : Creating Plots

How to Plot a Romance Novel 

Seven Great Sources of Conflict for Romances 

Let’s talk about brainstorming

Writing Something With Meaning ***

Past Or Present Tense? : How To Decide

Writing Your Work

How To Write A Fabulous Chapter #1 ***

How to Build a Romance Thread in Your Story 

The Big Book Of Writing Sex ***

6 Ways to Get Your Readers Shipping Like Crazy 

Romance Writing Tips ***

20 Tips for Writing Lovable Romance Novel Heroes

7 Ways To Speed Up Your Writing *** 

80+ Barriers to Love: A List of Ideas to Keep Romantic Tension High 

9 Romance Writing Mistakes to Avoid 

Removing the Creeps From Romance

19 Ways to Write Better Dialogue ***

50 Things Your Characters Can Do WHILE They Talk ***

How To Write Action And Fight Scenes

10 Steps To Write Arguments

9 Ways To Write Body Language

Writing Good Kissing Scenes

Writing Murders

Create And Control Tone ***

Tips for Writing Ghost Stories

Incorporating Flashbacks

12 Tips To Avoid Overwriting ***

Characters

Behind the Name

Top Baby Names

Looking for a name that means a certain thing? ***

7 Rules of Picking Names

Most Common Surnames ***

Minor Character Development

Writing Antagonists, Antiheroes and Villains

Characters With Enhanced Senses

5 Tips to Help You Introduce Characters

How Do You Describe a Character?

How To Write Child Characters

36 Core Values For Building Character

Questions To Answer When Creating Characters ***

4 Ways to Make Readers Instantly Loathe Your Character Descriptions

5 Ways to Keep Characters Consistent

Character Archetypes

25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters

Building Platonic Relationships Between Female Characters

9 Simple and Powerful Ways to Write Body Language 

33 Ways To Write Stronger Characters

Conveying Character Emotion 

How to Make Readers Love an Unlikable Character…  

How to Create Powerful Character Combos

How To Describe A Character’s Voice ***

Describing Clothing And Appearance ***

Career Masterpost ***

Creating Your Character’s Personality ***

Character Flaws ***

Editing

DON’T EDIT>>> REWRITE THE WHOLE THING FIRST

Ultimate Guide To Editing Each Aspect Of Your Work ***

Why You Would Read Your Novel Out Loud ***

Grammar and Punctuation ***

How To Write A Captivating First Sentence

10 Things Your Opening Chapter Should Do: A Check-List for Self-Editing ***

Saving Your Story: Finding Where It Went Wrong

How To Condense Without Losing Anything

The Stages Of Editing

Dialogue/Description Balance

3 Proofreading Tips

The Short Story Form

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Anatomy Of A Novel : Chapters and Parts ***

How To Write Chapter After Chapter Until You Have A Book ***

Where Chapter #2 Should Start

Step By Step Guide To Editing Your Draft

Writing Tool: CTRL-F (How And Why You Should Use It) ***

How To Kill A Character

25 Steps To Edit The Unmerciful Suck Out Of Your Story

5 Ways To Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive ***

Setting

{Setting} How To Describe Setting In Your Stories ***

20 Questions To Enhance Setting

How To Bring Your Setting To Life

Miscellaneous Resources You Can Use In Between

How to Write from a Guy’s POV 

The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus

Text To Speech Reader

Compare Character Heights 

A Visual Dictionary of Tops

Writers Helping Writers

7 Tricks To Imrove Your Writing Overnight

Work Out/ Word Count : Exercise Between Writing ***

Most Important Writing Tips ***

Let’s talk about diversity in novels

Letting Go Of Your Story

Keeping A Healthy Writing Schedule And Avoiding Procrastination ***

How To Create A Good Book Cover

Write or Die

Tip of my Tongue

Character Traits Form

Online Thesaurus

Writing Sketchy/Medical/Law

Coma: Types, Causes, etc

Tips for writing blood loss

Gunshot Wound Care

Examples of Hospital Forms

Common Legal Questions

The Writer’s Forensics Blog

Brain Injury Legal Guide

Types of Surgical Operations

Types of Mental Health Problems

A Day in the Life of a Mental Hospital Patient

Global Black Market Information ***

Crime Scene Science

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Writers’ Block Help/ Productivity

Story Plot Generator

@aveeragemusings ‘ Cure To Writers’ Block ***

50 Romance Plot Ideas

Reading Like A Writer ***

Defeat Writers’ Block

Writing In A Bad Mood ***

Writers Block

When You’ve Lost Motivation To Write A Novel ***

What To Do When The Words Won’t Flow ***

9 Ways To Be A More Productive Writer

“I Cannot Write A Good Sentence Today” (How To Get Over It) ***

Real Writing Advice ***

Info You Need To Know & Words You Didn’t Think Of

A Writer’s Thesaurus ***

Words To Describe… ***

Words & Phrases To Use In Your Sex Scenes ***

Colors (An Extensive List Of Colors)

List Of Kinks & Fetishes ***

List Of Elemental Abilities

inkarnate.com : World Creator And Map Maker For Your Imaginary Setting

Body Language Phrases

List Of Legendary Creatures

How To Write Magic

Hairstyle References

Hemingway : Writing Checker

Body Types: Words To Describe Bodies and How They Move Around

Poisonous Herbs and Plants ***

The Psychology of Color

The Meaning behind Rose color

Types of Swords

Color Symbolism

How a handgun works

How to Write a Eulogy

Types of Crying

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes ***

Superstitions and More

The 12 Common Archetypes

Language of Flowers

12 Realistic Woman Body Shapes

Using Feedback And Reviews

Turning Negative Reviews Into Positive Ones ***

Proofreading Marks : Easy Symbols To Make Reviewing/Feedback Easier ***

Authonomy Teen Ink Figment Fiction Press ReviewFuse

Blood Lamp

Mike Thomspon created this lamp that uses blood to create light. The lamp contains luminol, a chemical that reacts with the iron in blood and creates a bright blue glow. To use the lamp you must first break the glass, then you must cut yourself on the glass, and finally you let your blood drip into the activating solution and it lights up.

His reason for creating this blood lamp was to get people to rethink how they use energy.

“It kind of triggered this thought in my mind, that if energy somehow came at a cost to us, then maybe it would make us think differently about the way we use it.”

Transition Signals:

Transitions are words and phrases that connect ideas and show how they are related.

To repeat and ideas just stated:

In other words,

That is,

To repeat,

Again,

To illustrate an idea:

For example,

For instance,

In particular,

To illustrate,

In this manner,

Thus,

To announce a contrast, a change in direction:

Yet,

However,

Still,

Nevertheless,

On the other hand,

In contrast,

Instead of,

On the contrary,

Conversely,

Notwithstanding,

In spite of this,

Time:

At once,

In the interim,

At length,

Immediately,

At last,

Meanwhile,

In the meantime,

Presently,

At the same time,

Shortly,

In the end,

Temporarily,

Thereafter,

To restate an idea more precisely:

To be exact,

To be specific,

To be precise,

More specifically,

More precisely,

To mark a new idea as an addition to what has been said:

Similarly,

Also,

Too,

Besides,

Furthermore,

Further,

Moreover,

In addition,

To show cause and effect:

As a result,

For this reason,

Thereafter,

Hence,

Consequently,

Accordingly,

Conclusion:

In short,

To conclude,

In brief,

On the whole,

In summary,

Selected works by Joel-Peter Witkin

An acquaintance of mine in Berlin recently posted a photo of one of his works from her visit to galerie hiltawsky, who had an exhibition last week of his work.  This prompted me to share some of it here.  The first two images, ‘Vienna Eye Phantom’ and ‘Harvest’ originated in Philadelphia!

Philip Jackson. 1944.

The more I explore fiction writing, the more complex and multi-layered it becomes. Through the processes of brainstorming, outlining, researching, writing, and revising, I have discovered countless details that authors have to consider as they set out to produce a viable work of fiction.

Over the years, I have collected a vast pile of notes and ideas concerning fiction writing. As I was going through these notes, I figured they could be compiled into a master list of writing tips that might help writers tackle a novel by offering different perspectives and by providing fodder for the creative process.

These fiction writing tips come from countless sources. Some were picked up back in my college days. Others came from books about writing. Many came from interviews with successful authors that I have read, watched, or listened to. And a few came from my own personal experiences as both a reader and writer.

Writing a novel is an ambitious endeavor, never mind editing, publishing, and marketing it. Hopefully, the writing tips below will help make the first part of your momentous task a little easier.

Go to YouTube.

Watch Bob Ross.

Listen to him talk about painting.

Seriously, this guy… this guy is full of advice for a writer who’s having trouble getting started.

8. the magic begins a scene you really wanted to be in the movies but wasn’t → career advice

Masterpost of Tips and Inspiration for Horror Writers

This isn’t a comprehensive list - only the ones I actually found helpful and worth the time it took to read them. None of the original posts are mine; I just collected them. Feel free to send me other links if you find any and want me to add them.

The bare bones: horror writing tips

how do I start writing horror fiction?

what makes horror horrifying?

the seeds of horror

25 things you should know about writing horror

13 tips for writing horror fiction

5 elements of a good horror story

20 tips for writing the perfect horror short story

creating an environment for a horror story

getting the best out of your bad guys

leaving your monster in the closet

plot and character in horror fiction

horror plot cliches and top 5 overused horror settings

how to write horror

classic structure of the horror novel

generic horror vs. innovative horror

8 ways to pile on the fear in your horror fiction

what makes for a great thriller?

Genre tips (only listen to these if you care more about your audience than being a literary writer)

the line between horror and dark fantasy

what today’s readers want and what today’s readers don’t want

horror subgenres

Not horror-specific, but helpful nonetheless

25 ways to fuck with your characters

25 steps to edit the unmerciful suck out of your story

5 ways to make your novel hopelessly addictive

Prompts and inspiration, in case you’re stuck on your plot or need motivation for a scene

masterlist of speculative fiction writing prompts

barton’s character meme: death-related prompts, skin and bone, bruises and blood

okayophelia’s archetype series