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Your stories matter.

You are not inferior to other writers.

You don't have to prove your worth to anyone.

Your passion matters more than your skill.

You are allowed to openly celebrate your achievements.

Like this young person didn't even know about goddamn Gutenberg which is a SHAME. I linked to it and they went "aw yiss time to do a theft" and I was like "I mean yo ho ho and all that, sure, but. you know gutenberg is entirely legal, right?"

Project Gutenberg is a gigantic collection of books that are in the public domain.  You can read the books through the site or you can download them in various formats so you can get the format you prefer for your eReader of choice.

It is free. 

It is legal.

I was reviewing the list of the top 100 books downloaded yesterday and I saw a fair few that I had to read for college classes - so if you’re a college student and your professor assigns you to read Plato or any number of older works, check here before you buy a copy.

If you look at the first reblog from me I also recommended a few other resources, most of which were from www.archive.org, home of the Wayback Machine! They run openlibrary.org, where you can check out ebooks of some public domain titles! They even have the Bone series by Jeff Smith!

And archive.org itself has all kinds of public domain media including music and movies! For Dracula fans, here's a radio show adaptation of the book, starring Orson Welles! And here's a 1920 movie adaptation of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," starring John Barrymore, the grandfather of Drew Barrymore!

Employ the causal chain - every action must be connected to what comes before and after. Each action and beat needs to have impact. They don't all need to be shown but the author needs to know what they are. It is impossible to build suspense without this principle. Things can't happen "just because" or there's no reason for the audience to become engaged with your sequence of events or do things like make predictions. All subsequent rules follow from this principle.

When showing a new type of fictional magic or science, you must show it work before you can show it break. For example, if a character has the ability to summon objects into their hand, we need to see them do so successfully and see how it works, before we see it break at a critical moment during the climax. Otherwise, the audience can't be expected to follow why this situation is unusual because they don't know how it works during normal circumstances.

When claiming a character is good at something, you must show them succeeding at it before you show them failing at it during a moment of pressure. Otherwise, we don't believe you when you establish your character's competence or badassery. For example, when saying your character is an excellent military commander, we need to see them win a fight using those skills and tactics. We can't open with a fight they lose, or else the character and author lose credibility. By all means, show the experienced hero/military leader/ruler/assassin/mage etc break down during a moment of intense pressure, fall down sobbing in terror at a truly insurmountable foe, or otherwise fail to meet the moment, but don't do this before we've seen them succeed at least once, or the moment loses impact.

During the build-up of tension, coincidences should hurt the hero and help the antagonist. This plays into the causal chain rule. Coincidences that help the hero feel cheap. Coincidences that help the villain raise the tension.

Every beat, whenever possible, should be connected to conscious action by central characters (hero, love interest, or villain). The more events are connected to purposeful action by key characters, the more satisfying the causal chain for the reader.

A lot of readers like romance, don't they? From romance books to romantic subplots in a fantasy/sci-fi/thriller, we have some sort of romance in the books we read (though not all of them). A lot of times though, we feel the romance is forced and can be extremely unpleasant to watch. Let's discuss some tips about how to write romance properly.

Tension, tension, tension

Tension is key to any romance, whether it be enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, rivals-to-lovers etc. Some examples are longing gazes, hands brushing each other, wistful gazes, hugs that last a little too long and more! Without tension, the romance just feels will be flat and boring and the readers won't be engaged in it. Please note that for the tension part, the things I listed can be platonic as well! What I mean to say is their reactions, such as them realizing they've caught feelings and now acting differently with each other, wistful gazes at someone they know they can't romance etc. All these actions I've listed in the post can happen platonically, especially for queerplatonic friends etc.

2. Give intimacy

Intimacy is not inherently sexual. It can also be emotional, and when portrayed in books properly, it can be marvellous to watch. Intimacy means being vulnerable with another person, being able to show them baring out their souls to one another, showing that they trust one another. Because if two people can't be intimate or vulnerable with each other, then no, we can't expect them to be in a romantic relationship.

3. Make them great individually

If the characters themselves aren't compelling characters, then we can't expect them to be any better in a romance. If one (or both) of the characters is flat and boring and the very embodiment of meh, then they're also going to be very "meh" in their relationship. Make the character engaging and exciting to watch, whether they're a villain or a hero. To gain some tips on how to write characters properly, check out my post on character writing!

TIP!

by Writerthreads on Instagram

Personally, I find beginnings to be one of the hardest parts of the whole book because it's so important. The beginning is what makes or breaks your book. It's what keeps readers interested after they pick it up at a store, or when they first download it on their Kindle. Below are some tips, as well as some analyses, on how to perfect a story's beginning.

Introduce your main character and the setting: Mrs. Dalloway

By "introduce", I don't mean a giant 10-page info dump on royal family tree or the ten kingdoms the world is made up of. Rather, I'm thinking of a character in a place, or doing something. The best, and one of the most famous examples would be how Virginia Woolf started Mrs. Dalloway:

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

Already, you have the titular character, Mrs Dalloway, introduced. She's doing something, too. She's saying that she's going to buy flowers herself, setting up a scene later where she's probably going to, or back out of, buying flowers. The pronoun "herself" suggests to the reader in Woolf's era that she's of a middle-class background and that somebody (eg. a servant) would normally be running errands for Mrs. Dalloway, but the character wanted to do this simple task herself.

I could go on forever about how each word in this simple sentence has implicit meanings and my ex-A Level Eng Lit teacher will probably be very proud of me, but that's not the point. The main idea is that in just a single sentence, a lot is being revealed to the reader without the writer having to info dump anything.

Allow me to continue to the second paragraph of the book:

For Lucy had her work cut out for her. The doors would be taken off their hinges; Rumpelmayer's men were coming. And then, thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning-fresh as if issued to children on a beach.

More characters are introduced now: we have Lucy, Rumpelmayer and his men. Mrs. Dalloway's full name is revealed, and so is her personality through her thought. It's childlike, whimsical and light, and that's why her name "Clarissa Dalloway" is used here instead of the stiff "Mrs. Dalloway".

In just two paragraphs, we are introduced to the titular character and some minor characters are mentioned. We also know bits and pieces of what's going to happen. Woolf artistically starts off the book with simple prose. Everything is well thought out, yes, Virginia Woolf is a literary genius, yes, but this is something that we can all do: write a simple introduction without weighting readers down with lots of detail we don't need, and get straight into the story.

Start in media res

Fun fact: "in media res" is also the name of our Discord Server!

When you start in the middle of an action, readers are transported straight to the story, hooking them in. For example, if you were writing a rom com, you could start with the main character bumping into a long-lost friend:

Emma saw a familiar cowboy hat bobbing in and out of the crowd in front of her. Emma found herself pushing through sweaty limbs into the crowd, trying to catch a glimpse of the person who wore the hat, trying to see whether it was really her friend who had ghosted her five years ago.

Obviously this isn't the best beginning in the world, but you get the point.

Try something interesting

A strong story opening makes you want to know more. Donna Tartt does this perfectly in A Secret History:

The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.

What is up? Who is Bunny? What's so serious about their predicament? Tell us more!!! Bunny's death makes us want to know what has happened, while mentioning the characters' situation wants us to know what's going to happen. Tartt forces us to continue on to find out the full story.

Lead with a strong statement

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy:

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Tolstoy’s first line introduces the domestic strife that drives the story’s tragic events, using a bold, sweeping statement, while Dicken's catchy first sentence introduces us to the book's main themes.

There are way more examples of good beginnings that you can only learn from by reading. If you're a beginner, literally comb through a library shelf of the genre you're writing in and see how published authors have written their beginnings. Alternatively, you could go check out our post on the best story beginnings for more ideas!

give them a misbelief

no characters have a personality when the plot starts. all of them have backstories, a past, and a mindset that they grew up with!

basically, a misbelief is the wrong mindset that they grew up with, and is also a belief that will be restructured by the end of your novel.

this not only shows character growth and development as their mind is "restructured" or they learn their life lesson, but also drives the internal plot of your story, which differs from the external (or action) plot that most people seem to read.

+ this gives readers a deeper insight to your character!

give them a goal

every character has a goal, or something they want in their lives. having them strive for it would essentially drive your plot, and may also help you dig deeper into your character's motivations!

this goal doesn't always need to be achieved, or may be impossible to (for example, someone wanting to meet a loved one who turns out to be dead; they may have not reached their goal, but it took them on a journey)

this goal should also be concrete if possible! vague ones like "they want to be happy," isn't very helpful. what do they think will make them happy?

(side note: wanting everything to be the way that it is can also be a goal, cause they're striving to make things go back to the way they were!)

Opening a story can be daunting. Unless you're super inspired, it will likely always seem like a challenge to get that first sentence or paragraph down.

The good news? You can always go back and revise your intro as needed. You may better understand your story as you write it and think of a better starting point or line later.

The bad news? There are definitely some myths out there that writers often believe about their hooks. I know I have! Let's go over a few.

Common Myths About Hooking Your Readers

Never Start With Dialogue

I'm guessing that people give this advice because starting in the middle of a conversation can be a bit bewildering. Although that's true in real life, books or stories that start in a conversation can easily catch the reader up to speed.

Here's an example:

"I swear, it's like I'm cursed to forever get pink chicken nuggets."

"Dude, it's just the cafeteria food. McDonald's would never steer you wrong." My best friend shook their head and laughed as I dropped my uncooked chicken nugget back onto my school lunch tray. The room was full of people buzzing with conversation, eating their food without complaint.

"No way," I said, my nose crinkling. "And of course my curse has to attempt some health damage on the day of my first ever musical tryouts."

The dialogue sets up the protagonist's generally sour demeanor and the conversation establishes the story's first source of conflict: the musical tryouts later that day.

You can also look to George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones opening line:

"We should start back,” Gared urged, as the woods began to grow dark around them. “The wildlings are dead.”

Just with that one line, you know who's speaking, that they aren't in a good environment, and there's literally action right around the corner.

Always Start With Action

Speaking of action, do you always have to start with a scene that involves things like racing cars, a fist fight, or your protagonist sailing down the tracks of a rollercoaster?

Absolutely not. In fact, many of the most famous books start with gentle pacing so they can work their way up to bigger conflicts as the readers get to know their characters.

Think about Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice:

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife'

Or J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan:

All children, except one, grow up.

Your story may have a fantastic opening line or scene if it just makes the reader think of something new or from a new perspective. The shock and/or reframing will intrigue them to learn more about what you mean.

Readers Only Care About That First Line

When was the last time you read the first line of a book and judged it in its entirety? If I've done that, it's been rarely.

You're more than likely going to give a new book the first full page, or chapter, or the first 100 pages before deciding if you like it.

You'll know if it interests you when the hook makes itself known. Sometimes authors even make their hooks happen at the end of their first chapters. That's great too!

So try not to stress too much about having the perfect opening line. Most people will automatically read many more before making a personal judgement call.

Tips for Writing Great Hooks

Make the Reader Ask One of the W's

The W's can help you define a hook that mostly feels like going with your gut.

When you write a first line and know that it's perfect but can't describe why, ask if it will make your readers wonder any of the following questions:

Who is this?

What is happening?

Where is this character/action?

When is this taking place?

Why is this happening?

You don't necessarily need to answer every single one of these questions on your first page, but they should resolve within your first few pages or chapter. A useful hook will make your readers wonder about one or more of those questions.

Start at a Critical Plot Point

Sometimes the start of a story doesn't work because it's boring. Even if it answers the W's above, it can still take a while for people to start investing in the plot.

When that happens, you may need to press fast-foward a bit during the editing process.

Let's say your protagonist goes to the grocery store, which is where the primary conflict takes place. The story starts by describing their drive to the store, finding where they should park, and filling their cart with a few items on their grocery list.

While that information sets the scene for your readers and introduces your protagonist, it's not very interesting. They're all ordinary actions.

Instead, you could start with your character at the grocery store, spend a few lines or a paragraph on their inner monologue to develop their characteritics, then have the action happen right away.

Open on the scene where they encounter their worst enemy in the frozen food aisle or their ex at the checkout line. The conflict immediately gets the plot started and is guaranteed to interest the reader because without that initial conflict, the story wouldn't happen at all. It would just be another trip to the grocery store.

Confuse the With Something Unfounded

"I once heard that you should never trust someone who never blinks. I mean, an owl told me that, so they would know."

If you read this first line, you'd immediately wonder how the protagonist could talk to owls. Are they a human with a supernatural gift? Are they also an owl? Can the owl in question speak a human language?

Something as lighthearted and seemingly small as that kind of detail will make your reader curiously confused. They'll keep reading just to find out how the story unrolls from such a strange opening.

Although the shock-and-awe opener doesn't fit every genre or theme, it can be a fun way to make your readers do a double-take and dive into your story.

---

I am always reminding myself that the first thing I write when a new story begins isn't permanent. You can always go back, revise, and even shuffle scenes if you think the whole first scene of your story is boring.

did you know that show, not tell applies to dialogue, too? while dialogue can be used to further your narrative, it can also be used to showcase your characters. here's how:

-what is your character hiding? most people don't say things at face value. they hide what they mean within their words and tone, but in writing, you can't verbally hear the character's tone. ways to convey non-verbal tone include: contradictions between words and actions, context behind the words (ie. the scenario, character's actions and feelings), syntax (ie. fragments, repetition, awkward phrasing). also consider who the character is hiding information from: is it the reader? the characters? both?

-favorite words or phrases. does your character use a certain phrase or word a lot? do they often put their prepositions at the beginning or the end of the sentence? these are questions to ask when you're arranging the syntax of the dialogue. everyone has a specific way of talking. make sure you give each character a distinguishable voice.

-personality. this is how you can create a distinguishable voice. is your character confident? are they shy or hesitant? do they repeat the phases of others because they have nothing to add to the conversation? are they confrontational or do they beat around the bush? ask questions like these. if your character is confident, they may make bold statements and appear sure of themselves unlike shy characters who use words such as "maybe" or "should" or "think." to boil it down, think active wordage versus passive.

-observe others. don't look solely at television or other books. sit at your local coffee shop and listen in on conversations, then try and break it down. are they hiding anything? do they frequently use any words or phrases? how would you describe their personality? the better you get at breaking down conversations, the better you can create convincing ones, whether shallow, deep, or as a narrative device, because even if you use your dialogue to move your narrative along, it should still be compulsively convincing.

one way to tell if you've ticked all these boxes is if you can tell who is speaking without any tags.

There are a lot of people out there who find fanfiction to be weird. There are also a lot of people out there who are ashamed to admit they write fanfiction. Well, today I hope I can break down that wall a bit and show everyone that writing fanfiction is not only a legitimate form of writing but also a beneficial one!

I write a lot of fanfiction - I'll admit it. Maybe one day y'all will figure out what my AO3 account is, maybe not. And yes, I am a hardcore fan of AO3 it's the best fanfiction sharing website out there, no doubt. If you disagree I'm sorry for your loss. But, yeah. I write a lot of fanfiction and read a lot of fanfiction and honestly? I think I've grown a LOT as a writer since then. Here's why.

Hey all, here’s a quick tip about showing the passage of short amounts of time in a scene. I see a lot of beats like this:

She hesitated

He paused

A few seconds later

There was a long silence

He waited for her to answer

She didn’t respond

Instead of telling us there’s a brief moment of silence or pause in your scene, try showing us by creating the feeling that time has passed through action, description, or inner monologue. Here are a few examples.

Before:

“Are you coming or not?”

He waited for her to answer, but she didn’t respond.

“Clare? Did you hear me?”

“Huh?”

After:

“Are you coming or not?”

Clare scrolled through her phone, her face illuminating with a eerie blue glow.

“Clare? Did you hear me?”

“Huh?”

Before:

Jared lingered at the suspect’s front gate. If this guy didn’t answer Jared’s questions, he was screwed.

“Hey you!” a voice shouted. “Get off my property!”

Jared hesitated. Finally, he turned to face the man. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

After:

Jared lingered at the suspect’s front gate. If this guy didn’t answer Jared’s questions, he was screwed.

“Hey you!” a voice shouted. “Get off my property!”

Jared patted his holster. He had a gun, but he certainly didn’t want to use it. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face the man. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Not only does creating a pause instead of describing a pause allow your reader to feel the moment more vividly, it gives you a chance to explain what exactly that pause is about. People hesitate, pause, don’t respond, etc. for all kinds of reasons. Give us as much insight as you can into your weird quiet moment.

Of course, you don’t need to do this every single time. Sometimes it’s fine to say “he paused” or “the room was quiet for a moment”—it could be the best choice for that scene. But look back through your draft and see if you’ve used those “telling” descriptions more often than you needed to. If so, try to create the feeling of a pause—perhaps one that gives the reader a bit more information—using these techniques.

Mannerisms, in this case, are the little details that are unique to each character of your story! These are perfect ways help the reader know more about your character’s personality without needing to read through multiple sentences of description or dialogue. Mannerisms also become incredibly useful when you need to convey things like social status, upbringing, mental health status and how they interact with the world/people around them.

There are hundreds of unique ways to use mannerisms, for example linking one character to another despite their lack of interaction in the story. The dialogue and description might point to Character A having never met Character B, but they might share the same mannerisms, which would hint to some kind of past link between the pair.

How much space do they take up? Do they spread out when they sit or stay curled-up? Do they flail their arms to gesture? Do they speak loudly or quietly? Who listens when they speak up? Do they make a sound when they move?

How does your character sleep? What position? Do they sleep restlessly or soundly? Do they prefer covers, or do they sleep without?

How does your character greet people? Are they welcoming or reserved? How genuine are they being?

How much do they mirror others? Do they mirror everyone? (Mirroring is a subconscious behaviour where two+ people in a conversation will copy one another’s body language. This usually means there is a connection of some kind being made. Lack of / exaggerated mirroring might indicate towards a mental disorder or other (ex: personality disorder, neurodiversity, anxiety etc)

Which part of their body is the most expressive? Does your character use their hands a lot or do they tuck them away? Do they need movement to ground themselves (swaying, rocking, fidgetting…)?

Who would your character turn to in a group of people for comfort? Would they acknowledge that person more? Would they engage in a conversation with only them or would they just glance their way?

Do they have a re-occuring habit to indicate a mood? Do they crack their knuckles when excited? Do they bite their lip ring when angry? Do they look at their hands when sad?

How do they gesture? Do they speak with their hands? Do they point, nod or use their eyes to show something? Which movements are conscious, and which aren't?

Do they have a comfort item or person? Is there something they always think of? Is there something they hold with care? How much do they value that thing more than others?

How would they react to another person’s misfortune? Would their eyes light up? Would their heart hurt? How genuine would they feel? How genuine would they act?

Is there anything that makes them OOC (out of character)? (This is a good thing! One tiny OOC aspect can make a huge impact on that character) Perhaps they’re cruel but love cats? Perhaps they’re known for being the kindest but smile when they think of something tragic? How often do they act strangely? Do they do it in front of anyone? Do their actions indicate this or solely their thoughts?