bee!

Just a few things I’ve picked up and learned from other authors:

Write what you want to read. Writing what you think will be popular will never be as satisfying, and it’s impossible to predict what will be popular anyway.

Writer’s block is a self-fulfilling prophecy. There are reasons that you’re “blocked” from writing, such as mental health, exhaustion, lack of time, etc., but writer’s block itself doesn’t exist. You don’t wait around for inspiration (and published authors certainly can’t, being on deadlines). You can dip into your well of motivation and inspiration by reading other books, watching movies/shows, talking about your projects, and rereading your own writing. But waiting around for your muse takes the control out of your hands. Writing is active, not passive. If you’re lacking motivation, write anyway, and the act itself may inspire you.

Burn out is a real thing. I’ve gone for months without writing because that’s what I needed to do. It didn’t make me any less of a writer, and it won’t make you less of one either.

Using the word “said” is great! It’s preferred 90% of the time! It’s one of those words that the reader skims over without noticing, which smooths the flow of your writing. When you add a different dialogue tag to every piece of dialogue (such as explained, argued, protested, agreed, etc), it slows down your writing and distracts from what’s actually being spoken. Use dialogue tags sparingly, and you’ll make a bigger impact when you use them.

Learn to stop leaning on filter words. Words like “feel” “noticed” “saw” “heard.” These words put distance between your audience and what the character is experiencing.

Example: “I felt his hand on mine.”

Can be changed to: “His hand touched mine.”

Example: “I smelled freshly brewed coffee coming from the kitchen.”

Can be changed to: “The smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted from the kitchen, filling the air with its enticing scent.”

Want to write more? Then write! If you write consistently and with regularity, whether it be every day or every weekend, you get into the habit of writing. Put on ambient sounds, grab a snack, make a cup of tea, and do that every time. Your mind starts to associate those things with writing time and puts you in the mindset before you even open that doc.

Do not edit your WIP! Get that first draft written without going back to edit. I’m serious, don’t edit a thing until you’re at a point where you’re ready to post. Only then go back and edit, otherwise your writing momentum will grind to a halt. If you need to read back a couple paragraphs to get your bearings, then go for it, but I promise you you’ll be doing yourself a huge favor by leaving editing to the very end.

First drafts aren’t supposed to be pretty or even coherent. Their only purpose is to get words on the page. Let them be a mess. That’s what the editing stage is for, to clean everything up, add new scenes, delete redundant ones, whatever makes the story better. Besides, once you start writing more, the less editing you’ll need to do as your skills improve.

And for my last bullet point, similar to the dialogue tag advice, don’t overuse your adverbs. You don’t need to describe every action with an adverb. When you use them less, they make a bigger impact. There are other ways to describe your character’s action.

Example: “He spoke quietly.”

Can be changed to: “He dipped his head, casting a glance around the room as he spoke.”

I am guilty of adverb abuse and breaking a few of these rules myself, but once you learn the rules, you can gauge when and how to break them for the sake of elevating your writing.

This advice is meant to be practical, as it’s coming from someone who works over 40 hours a week and is often distracted by exhaustion and chronic illness. My time and energy is limited, but I find writing to be very worthwhile.

• Character A takes an interest in someone other than Character B. Cue jealousy from B, and subsequent denial of their own jealousy.

• A and B end up in some kind of competition against each other. In order to stay focused, they try to keep their romantic feelings at bay.

• A and B have to collaborate on an assignment, or are otherwise forced to spend time with each other.

• A gets injured and has to spend some time recovering. B helps A out by running errands and generally supporting them. Seeing A injured makes B realize how much A means to them, although they try to push these feelings away.

• A is sick of having to explain to their family why they don’t have a partner, so they ask if B can pretend to be their partner at a wedding. B agrees, and this, of course, sparks some unexpected feelings.

• A is adopting a puppy from the animal shelter, and B, an avid animal lover, asks to go with them to see the puppy. The problem is, the way A’s eyes light up when they see their new puppy is really, really cute.

• A and B start some sort of project together, which they’re both passionate about. They’re afraid of acting on their growing feelings, since they don’t want anything to get in the way of the project.

• When someone spreads lies about A in an attempt to ruin their reputation, B is determined to correct the lies, and get justice.

• A is in a relationship with someone else. They have a medical emergency, and wake up in the hospital, disoriented. The first thing they ask is where their friend B is.

• A wants to participate in a dangerous activity, however B is opposed to the idea. They get into a heated argument, where B just barely refrains from shouting, “Because I love you!”

• A is a performer of some kind, and B is mesmerized by watching them perform on stage. But love? No, no. They couldn’t be in love…right?

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

Holding hands under blankets

Listening to old songs and letting them carry you to an another time

Owning a journal and filling it with your favourite moments of the season so you won't forget about them because they will become moments from your past one day so they are important

Picking up a random book from your dusty shelf and daring to finish it

Covering yourself with tones of clothes from head to toe

Sleepovers with friends

Having lunch dates with friends in their car while the rain is pouring outside

Hydrating and moisturizing

Drawing symbols on the windows covered with humidity

Spending your free time napping or getting cozy under your blankets while watching your favorite movie

Making handmade cards then sending them to your dearest people

Rescuing stray cats and giving them shelter

Romanticizing your life by thinking that everything you do is worth the care and admiration

Reading, reading and reading

Going to art exhibitions of artists you've never heard of

Long walks alone or with your friends and making up back stories for people you see on the street

Waking up early than usual when the world is still asleep

Listening to some playlists made by strangers on the internet

The agreeable warmth of your cocoa cup between your hands

Every writer inevitably gets to that scene that just doesn't want to work. It doesn't flow, no matter how hard you try. Well, here are some things to try to get out of that rut:

1. Change the weather

I know this doesn't sound like it'll make much of a difference, but trust me when I say it does.

Every single time I've tried this, it worked and the scene flowed magically.

2. Change the POV

If your book has multiple POV characters, it might be a good idea to switch the scene to another character's perspective.

9/10 times, this will make the scene flow better.

3. Start the scene earlier/later

Oftentimes, a scene just doesn't work because you're not starting in the right place.

Perhaps you're starting too late and giving too little context. Perhaps some description or character introspection is needed before you dive in.

Alternatively, you may be taking too long to get to the actual point of the scene. Would it help to dive straight into the action without much ado?

4. Write only the dialogue

If your scene involves dialogue, it can help immensely to write only the spoken words the first time round.

It's even better if you highlight different characters' speech in different colors.

Then, later on, you can go back and fill in the dialogue tags, description etc.

5. Fuck it and use a placeholder

If nothing works, it's time to move on.

Rather than perpetually getting stuck on that one scene, use a placeholder. Something like: [they escape somehow] or [big emotional talk].

And then continue with the draft.

This'll help you keep momentum and, maybe, make the scene easier to write later on once you have a better grasp on the plot and characters.

Trust me, I do this all the time.

It can take some practice to get past your Type A brain screaming at you, but it's worth it.

So, those are some things to try when a scene is being difficult. I hope that these tips help :)

I’ve seen a lot of fanfic writers ask for tips to write Deaf characters so I thought I would write some out to help make authentic.  Also feel free to send ask for any questions! 

Deaf characters exist on a spectrum- it’s rare to have no residual hearing.

Deaf characters can’t magically hear perfect with assistive devices. Hearing aids are in the name- an aid.  They make it easier to pick up some sounds.  They are also expensive and a lot of insurance won’t cover.  

ASL- American Sign Language.  Deaf characters raised by hearing family might not have access to ASL until later in life.  Percentage of Deaf kids educated in fluent ASL is low.

ASL has own grammar and syntax totally different from English,  But! It is okay to write ASL in spoken English grammar, especially if you don’t know ASL.  We know what you mean!

Avoid Deaf and hearing characters signing and speaking long sentences at the same time. It’s called Sim-Com and ASL users who can do it are rare because sentence structures are totally different.  It would be like trying to write a sentence in English at the exact same time (word for word) as someone speaks it in French.   Sim-com usually used with SEE and still hard for fluent ASL Deaf to follow.

Deaf characters can be dizzy!  Many many Deaf have tinnitus and vertigo.  Comes with many hearing loss conditions.  Vertigo can also be triggered by flashing lights, heavy bass sounds.  (very annoying in the car when driving and someone has loud, shake your car bass)

Deaf characters can also can have balance problems from inner ear issues.

Deaf characters can enjoy music!  Many ways to enjoy music besides hearing all of it.

Lip reading is hard.  You need to start at the beginning of the conversation, need constant context, and when you lose the thread it’s hard to get back.  Many many words look the same on lips that sound totally different.  Avoid magic lipreading in characters.

Character doesn’t need to have a Deaf accent.

Deaf character doesn’t need to talk loud.  Many Deaf talk very soft because they feel vibrations before the vibrations make audible noise.

Deaf characters can be very fluent in written English and great writers but still have very poor sentence skills when being casual in texting or conversation (like me!)  Hard to go from ASL to English brain, and makes you tired.

Deaf characters can use ASL Slang!  ASL has colloquial signs that have no direct English translation but we use all the time (peh peh, train go sorry, champ, etc etc)   Here are some examples!