Everything Writing

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I live in one of the rainiest cities in the world, and it’s getting to the season where it really is constantly raining. It’s basically raining every single day. Other people live in drier climates, and may not see rain often, so I hope here’s some good tips for you.

• If you’re wearing non-rainboot shoes, your shoes and socks are probably going to get wet pretty quickly. Wet socks are a sensory nightmare, and its even worse when you don’t have a change of socks and shoes. They can take 6+ hours to dry.

• If you wear glasses, the rain is even worse. Wet glasses make it impossible to see 2 feet in front of you. Pro tip: wear a baseball cap to keep the water out of your face.

• Your clothes are also going to get pretty wet unless you have waterproof clothes or an umbrella. This goes without being said.

• There are different types of rain and it varies based on the climate. Some places have a lot of drizzling, others have constant showers, while places have monsoons that flood entire cities. Often cities closer to the coast have a lot more rain because the water evaporates and drops off all the rain there. Drier places often have a flash floods, or a lot of rain at once. Tropical places have more intense bouts of rain while less tropical places have more consistent rain.

• Light rain is considered less than 0.1 in/hr, moderate is 0.1-0.3, and heavy is 0.3 or more. In light rain, you can usually walk with a hood and be fine. Moderate might start to get a little annoying without an umbrella and you can definitely feel yourself getting wet. You can hear heavy rain from the window and sometimes the droplets will hurt when they fall on you.

• Storm rains are much worse. Hail can destroy cars and plants. Rains can also be a part of a hurricane or thunderstorm, and usually will be more intense than regular rain.

• Rain often collects in puddles due to the non-porous sidewalks and roads we have. In addition, these sidewalks often lead to the rain collecting dirt as it goes into the storm drain.

• The cloud is usually long and gray when its about to rain. There’s a dark feeling that comes over the sky when it rains. It can come on suddenly in places where flash floods are common. One minute, it’ll be sunny and the next, the entire sky will be gloomy.

• There are way less people outside during rainy days, but there will always be crazy people who are running outside (like me) or people running to get to cars/houses.

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The climax is the part of the story that has the most action, usually at the end of the novel, before the resolution but after the rising action. Depending on the genre, the climax could either be a character’s worst enemy spreading their most valuable secret or a magical villain coming to terrorize a whole city.

1) Make sure the climax fits the genre and story. This is an obvious one, but magic would not belong in a realistic fiction story. If your climax fits the genre, I can’t tell you if it fits the story or not because I’m not an expert on your WIP and I don’t know. Just remember that the events should be reasonable with the prior events in your story.

2) Make sure it’s at the right spot. The climax is almost always towards the end, but whether the falling action is a few chapters or just ten pages, it’s important that it’s at a reasonable spot for your novel. Climaxes shouldn’t normally be at the beginning or else your reader will lose interest. You shouldn’t rush the falling action too much by putting the climax towards the end, but you shouldn’t rush the rising action either.

3) It should be the highest point of action. If you remember story mountain from your days in elementary school, that’s the top of the mountain. This is what a climax is, and remember that. You probably already know that, and I suppose what I’m trying to say is don’t give the prior scenes too much action or else you can’t write a proper climax.

4) Write good rising action. Good is a relative term, and this point doesn’t explain how to write good rising action. Maybe I’ll give you a post on that one day. But this is a reminder to make sure you write quality rising action that can build the climax.

5) Plan it out. For planners, you probably already plan out much more than the climax. Pantsers may not plan out anything at all. Whether a planner, pantser, or anything in between, you need to have an idea of what the climax should be. Even a few sentences is enough, but writing the climax will be way easier if you have a plan.

6) Make sure the stakes are high. In a romance novel, a breakup might be the high stake. In a sci-fi novel, people could get trapped in a cycle of time forever. The climax is the point that determines the fate of the characters (usually), and make sure you had high stakes in your novel to make the climax even more interesting.

7) Characters’ true personalities should be revealed. There’s a saying that goes something like, “it’s the tough times that show who you are.” In the climax, the reactions of the characters should show who they truly are inside. What are their true priorities in life? How do they react under pressure?

8) Time for plot twists and secrets to come out! Chances are, characters have been hiding a lot from each other and readers, and even themselves. In the climax, something should be revealed. Plot twists are also common, but don’t make them too unbelievable or it won’t flow naturally.

9) It should mark a turning point in your novel. Not everything has to be different from the way it was before, but the climax should spark change. For example, a protest that ended in violence may inspire government officials to change laws. Things after the climax should be different from the way they were before, including the characters. This is a wonderful time for character development.

10) Be descriptive. This should be the most detailed part of the novel, when you’ll describe the setting more clearly. There will be a higher page to time ratio. As one of the most memorable parts of the novel, you should get into more detail than you normally would in a regular scene.

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I really can’t believe Nanowrimo is fast approaching. 2023 has gone by so fast and we’re more than 75% of the way done with the year. October is coming to a close and November is approaching. Now is the season for pies, turkeys, and of course, NaNoWriMo. Whether this is your first time or you’ve done every one of them since they began, here is a list of tips to help you have a pleasant Nano experience.

First, what is NaNoWriMo? Whenever I post anything about Nano, I always get a bunch of questions asking what it is. It stands for National Novel Writing Month and happens every November. Writers challenge themselves and each other to write 50,000 words a month, which equates to 1667 words a day. You can go to Nanowrimo.org to participate.

Choose a story idea you’re excited about. A lot of people find themselves quitting their projects because they lose interest. While it might be hard to predict how you’ll feel about a project down the line, try to choose an idea you’re interested in, such as in your favorite genre. If you’re trying to continue an existing project, make sure you love it!

Break the monthly goal into weekly and daily goals. Thinking about writing 50K words is daunting and can make you tempted to procrastinate, so split it up into chunks of days and weeks. You can choose to write 1667 words every single day (I’ve done that), but it might benefit you to have some flexibility. One thing I find helpful is weekly goals such as 12K words a week so maybe you can write more words on weekends when you’re less busy. And remember that November is a whole month, so maybe you’re a little busier wrapping up some work deadlines at the beginning of the month, but then you go on Thanksgiving break. Or maybe you’re busier around the end of the month due to visiting family so you’ll write more in early November.

Be prepared by doing PrepTober. While you definitely don’t need to get every single detail down on paper, you should at least have an idea of your beginning, middle, and ending. This will make you more efficient since you’ll reduce the time you need to think. It can also make the process way less stressful.

Focus on getting the first draft done. Don’t edit as you go, because it’ll take more time. Instead, focus on getting the words down. You can edit later, but you can’t edit if you have nothing written. This might be hard to stomach for perfectionists, but you can absolutely edit in December.

Hold yourself accountable. Some people like having writing buddies to share progress, while others like to post their progress on social media. Whatever works for you and keeps you motivated. If you’re self-motivated, you can also keep a journal of how many words you wrote a day.

Work in places that promote productivity. This looks different for everyone. Some like to listen to music, others like writing in silence. Whether you prefer writing at a desk or on the couch, this is all up to personal preference. What normally makes you more productive?

Don’t stress too much. If writing 50K words is too much for you to handle, you can set your goal lower like 20 or 30K. November is a hectic month for some people, with work, school, and family. Unless you’re a full-time writer, you likely have some responsibilities more important than writing. It’s ok to put writing on the backburner if it’s affecting your ability to get some of them done or negatively impacting your mental health.

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Hello guys. This is a bit of a short post because I have such a busy weekend. I had homecoming, then had to submit one of my college applications, and finally had a million projects and labs and homework assignments. But I’m here making a post for you guys, so yay.

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The majority of stories out there are written with happy endings where the characters overcome their obstacle and live a happily ever after or bittersweet endings where the character mostly wins but lost something in the process. However, there are a small subset of stories that have completely tragic endings (eg Romeo and Juliet). Writing a good tragic ending is certainly hard, but not impossible.

Decide what message you want to teach. Why are you writing a sad ending? Is it just for shock value (aka because you wanted to be quirky) or is there some underlying meaning behind this tragic ending? For exa mple, you might teach your audience that even if you fight super hard, sometimes you might not win in the end. Or that doing everything alone is not always the best idea.

What bad decisions does the protagonist make? You need to make your protagonist have flaws in all stories, but it’s especially important in tragic ones. For example, maybe there’s a character that is super indecisive. Maybe their story ends in tragedy because they failed to act quickly enough to save their loved ones.

Don’t make the entire story doom and gloom. Give your character a fighting chance. Make it look like they’re about to win. Give them small victories that get them closer to achieving their goal. If you make the entire story doom and gloom and make it super obvious that the ending is going to be tragic, readers may close the book or they won’t feel any emotion upon discovering the tragic ending.

Try to foreshadow the tragic ending. Obviously, don’t make the bad ending too obvious. But you should drop some clues in the story. Your goal with surprising endings or plot twists is to make the reader smack their forehead and say, “I should’ve known that was coming!” Leave a little subtle clues that they’re going to have a tragic ending. This can be a little hard to do, so consider writing the first draft and then using the second draft to find moments that you can foreshadow.

What happens after the tragedy? If your book is inside a series, maybe the problem will be resolved in the next book. Sometimes, though, your characters are just going to live unhappily ever after. Do they manage to find a silver lining despite the tragedy? Also, if your main character dies, who’s going to tell the story?

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Often times, the hardest part of writing a story is the brainstorming. After all, how are you supposed to get any further along in the writing process if you can’t even start your story? Here are a couple of brainstorming techniques you can use!

Use writing prompts. Prompts are a terrific way to get your ideas flowing. You can find plot generators online that give you a list of prompts in the genre you want. In addition, there are plenty on social media. The prompts can give you a starting point so that you can start building upon those ideas to make a story.

Think about what you know. Are there any places that you enjoy visiting? Things you enjoy doing? favorite childhood memory? What’s the most interesting that ever happened to you? Reflect on your favorite things and what you know best, perhaps that could spark ideas on things you would like to write about.

Write down all your thoughts. What do you think about on a regular basis? Whenever you have time, write down things that you can think about. Then, create a mind map. See if you can find any patterns in the stuff you think about. Try to see if they connect into a story.

Go people watching. Go to a public place like a supermarket or coffee shop. Watch the conversations from the people around you. Think about what they say and how that can apply to your dialogue. Perhaps you’ll even find that one out of context line can be a great writing prompt.

Pick the words you want to use to describe your story’s vibe. Writing a few words on what you want the story to be like can help with thinking of ideas. This could help you think of the settings and types of characters you want to include, which could then lead to a plot that links them all together.

What lessons have you learned in life, or what is a philosophy you strongly believe in? Starting with the moral of your story can spark ideas. This method can help you brainstorm character development arcs and the events in the plot that can help your character learn a new lesson.

Don’t try too hard to think. Trying too hard can often be counterproductive and make you stress more about thinking of ideas. This can make you stressed and make it even harder to think of ideas of things to write about. Instead, let the inspiration come naturally to you and don’t force it.

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I know I’ve been slacking off on making posts lately, because I’ve been super busy with college applications starting. Now school has started, which is a whole other level of craziness. But I decided I’d make a post this weekend, hoping it would help someone.

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• Zayd Michael

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Plot twists are some of my favorite things to write because they can really do wonders to move the story forward and keep the reader on their toes. Common plot twists include surprising deaths, heartbreaking betrayals, and suddenly discovering someone is related to you. Whatever plot twists you want to write, hopefully this advice helps you.

Make sure the plot twist actually fits with your story. It’s tempting to throw in plot twists left and right, but sometimes the twist doesn’t fit in with your story. Does the plot twist actually drive your story forward? For example, if you’re writing a betrayal from a friend, it could teach the character that they can’t always rely on others. In addition, make sure you watch for plot holes while creating plot twists.

Try not to make it too obvious but don’t make it unrealistic. Plant small clues in the story that a plot twist is coming. For example, your character’s best friend could say a few odd things in their daily conversation. But you shouldn’t make it too obvious and don’t have your best friend say that they outright support the other side. Often times, you will have to work backwards in order to do the best foreshadowing techniques. You don’t have to get it right on the first draft, foreshadowing is typically done after you have a rough draft of your story.

Your character’s reaction to external plot twists is important. How will they react to having their best friend betray them? Do they give up on their mission or do they adapt and adjust to circumstances? How does this foster character development in the long term? Your character will definitely be shocked, but how they deal with later can vary person to person.

Be creative with plot twists. In the introduction of this post, I listed some common plot twists that a lot of authors use. However, you can definitely make your plot twist extremely unique. For example, maybe your readers realize that your main character is an unreliable narrator. That could emotionally wreck readers if they bonded with the main character.

Use them sparingly. Plot twists can be absolutely an amazing plot device when used well, and most books have at least one or two of them. But too much and the story will be super unrealistic and the twists will slowly lose their impact. It could also confuse the reader, so use them when necessary.

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Whether you’re an athletic person who has won multiple awards in sport or is in training for the Olympics or someone who simply just watches sports on TV, sports might be a big part of your life. However, not everyone knows what it’s like to play sports and some of us may be a little more artsy or bookish. Here’s a helpful guide to writing athletes as a high school XC and track runner and lifter.

Sports is a big commitment. This depends on the level of course. Recreational sports might just be a few hours a week but often high school and college teams have practices 5-7 days a week. I remember in cross country and track the practices would be 2 hours after school. XC meets could be 4 hours and track meets could be 6 hours. Those training at the professional level might spend all day training.

It is sometimes hard to balance and sometimes sacrifices need to be made. This is mostly for the higher level athletes. Lots of high school athletes who compete in tournaments need to travel a lot and this means missing school and finding it hard to keep up with the work. Collegiate level athletes might have to sacrifice parties and social life to balance coursework and practices.

Training regimen is sports dependent. Playing high level sports is always a high-level commitment. However, this depends on the sport. A lot of times gymnasts have to train for 6 hours a day to improve their skills. But most runners only train 2 hours a day at max with more prehab stuff in between because we would get stress fractures if we ran 6 hours a day.

Most sports training regimens require conditioning and recovery work. Football players spend a large amount of time on the field obviously, however, they also go to the weight room to do conditioning to get strong for their sports. Runners do foam rolling to prevent injuries. Almost all athletes will have to do things that are not directly practicing their sports to stay strong and healthy.

There are high volume and low volume seasons. Training at an intense level year round is not healthy and you cannot maintain peak fitness all year round (generally, I’m sure there are exceptions for some sports). Most athletes have a peak season near the championships and offseason after the championship where they train less or even take a little break from training.

Competitions are anxiety inducing. Athletes often feel pressure to perform their best, but competition anxiety can be especially intense if there are high stakes such as the World Cups finals. Thus, it is normal to feel nervous before competitions. Most athletes try to control it, because for sports like gymnastics where balance is important, anxiety might ruin a competition. For sports like running, a fight or flight response might be helpful (provided that your body chooses flight).

Training hard is hard on your body. Oftentimes, during seasons when I’m running 40+ miles a week, I’ll never be able to get enough sleep and might have (minor!!!) aches and pains. During those periods, I’ll need a lot more food and water than usual, and a less stressful life overall. An athlete might need a little more TLC during this time.

Finally, athletics is a community and teaches wonderful lessons. Participating in sports whether at the recreational or high level is a very rewarding experience. I met a lot of my friends through sports and I’ve learned to never give up on my way. It’s also a great way to relax after a busy day.

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I’m sure that we all have something that we’re worried about or scared of, but there is a subset of the population that has a specific anxiety disorder called a phobia, which is an intense, irrational fear of something. As someone who struggles with cynophobia (fear of dogs), here is some advice on writing people with phobias.

What type of phobias do they have? One of the most common is social phobia or social anxiety, where people feel that they are being judged by everyone around them and have a fear of public humiliation. Other common phobias include aquaphobia (fear of water), claustrophobia (fear of small spaces), and arachnophobia (fear of spiders). There are also less common phobias such as emetophobia (fear of vomiting) and erythrophobia (fear of blushing).

What led to the phobia? Usually, most phobias have an origin in either a traumatic experience or a preconceived notion of something. For example, a person with aquaphobia might’ve nearly drowned as a child. A person with arachnophobia may have heard about their mother’s terrifying experience with spiders and developed arachnophobia as a result.

A phobia has to be an intense fear. Just simply having an aversion to something does not make it a phobia. For example, just because you don’t enjoy throwing up doesn’t mean you have emetophobia. However, you would have emetophobia if you were afraid of eating for fear of throwing up.

What is the severity of the phobia? This will affect how much the phobia will influence their daily life. Someone who is only slightly afraid of dogs will get uncomfortable in a room with an unleashed dog running around, but someone who has severe cynophobia might avoid going outside for fear of encountering a dog.

How does the person react when in the presence of their phobia? Some people will run away (if you have an animal phobia this is probably a bad idea). Others will freeze in place when confronted with their trigger. Some common symptoms for phobias (and anxiety in general) include but are not limited to: sweating, abnormal breathing, racing heart, shaking, hot flushes, chills, chest pains, nausea.

What role does your character’s phobia play in the story? Is it a small fear used as a quirk to bring your character to life? Is it one of the obstacles they will face on their quest (eg Ron Weasley and his fear of spiders in the 2nd book)? Or is it the thing they learn to overcome over the course of the story? Decide how big of a role you want the phobia to play in the character’s life.

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Smut is one of the writing community’s favorite things to write about. If you don’t know what smut is, it is erotica or sexual scenes basically. I will try my best to give tips without getting my account shadow banned or this post taken down by Instagram. Apologies if things are a bit vague.

Make sure smut is appropriate. If you’re writing a middle grade novel (or even YA in most cases), smut is not appropriate. Any sexual scenes should fade to black (and for middle grade, probably omitted altogether). But if you’re writing an adult novel, especially romance, then smut could have a place.

Include the appropriate amount of smut. If you’re writing an erotica, then including many smutty scenes could be reasonable. However, for most books (especially non-romance ones), smut should be limited to a couple of scenes. Including too much smut for readers that aren’t reading erotica can turn them off.

Be descriptive. If you’re writing full blown smut, then you might as well be descriptive. You don’t have to describe every single movement, but the reader should be at least able to visualize what’s going on. I’m going to keep this vague because I’ve had this account for almost 4 years and I don’t want it taken down, but interpret this point however you want.

Make sure it’s realistic. When writing these types of scenes, make sure that they are physically possible. If you have never had a sexual encounter, you might not be sure what people do in the bedroom. The biggest thing to do is not write humans bending in a way that is unnatural and physically impossible.

Include characters’ thoughts and emotions. Even though a lot of people think writing smutty scenes is only about the physical movements, the emotions behind this scene are important as well. Make sure you show how your characters feel about this experience and how they feel about each other.

Ask for feedback. Well, this might be a hard one for a lot of people. I’m pretty sure most people would be mortified if anyone walked up behind them and caught them writing a smut scene. But having a beta reader for smut scenes can really help you find common mistakes, such as being repetitive or if the smut is overkill for your book.

Make sure you don’t glamorize any bad sexual dynamics. Don’t portray sexual coercion or assault as okay. Likewise, be careful if you’re going to write a smutty scene about an adult taking advantage of a much younger person and make sure you emphasize that it’s wrong.

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I would like to preface this post by sending love to all my fellow students out there. With all the subjects and extracurricular activities, it seems like there’s always something to do and hardly anytime to relax. In addition, I’m sure we’re all sleep deprived and haven’t had time to write in ages. However, people who have graduated, especially those who have graduated a while ago, might be far removed from the experience, so here’s a helpful guide for those who want to write students.

School system varies by country/state. Some schools will run from August-May while others run from September-June. Most countries have 5 day weeks, though there are some schools that go anywhere from 4-6 days per week. One thing that varies is the amount of years that one has to stay in school. Normally, excluding preschool/nursery/kindergarten, or whatever you call it in your country, there are 12 years of school, but it could vary by country. In addition, different countries will often have different divisions of primary and secondary school.

School takes up the most of your weekday. If you include commute, then school could potentially take up to 9 hours a day. Even if you had no homework or extracurricular activities, you’re still spending a lot of your time dedicated to your education. You won’t have a lot of free time unless you’re in primary school.

And the homework. This one varies on the type of school and teachers. Primary school students will have little homework, if any at all, which gives them more time to spend on activities and free time. However, once you get to the higher levels, especially Year 11 or Junior Year for those in the US, then homework really gets out of control.

And the exams. There are both small class exams on a topic and huge exams that could determine the course of your future. In the US, we have big exams such as AP, IB, SAT, and ACT exams. In the UK, GCSEs and A levels are some of the most important exams for students. These can bring on a lot of stress because a lot of preparation is required.

Oh, the stress. Usually, most secondary students have some degree of stress associated with their workload. Especially students who have a lot of extracurriculars, since those also take up a lot of time. As you get to the higher grades, balancing school and extracurriculars, such as sports, clubs, and jobs, gets really difficult. Sometimes, students might have to give up something to make it all work.

Most students still have a social life. School is usually associated with academics, but friends and socialization are important parts of schools too. If you’re writing about a school, don’t forget to show people hanging out at lunch or in the hallways. Most students somehow find a way to make it all work with socialization and academics. Try to write your student character having a life outside of school.

Make sure you develop the teachers too. If you’re writing a story that’s centered around going to school, try to create fleshed out teachers. Some teachers are going to be more or less strict than others, thus more or less popular with students. Your characters might also be closer with some teachers than others and even confide in some teachers.

Each school has their own quirks. Does your school have a bad football team? Does it have the best robotics club in the state? What is your school known for? What type of pranks do students play on the school? What is their mascot and what spirit days do they have? The little details will make your school come to life.

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This is the topic of so many writer memes. You just want to search up the name of Jupiter’s moons, then end up on a forum about special relativity (I have a physics project about that and I have not started but that is not the point)…And it’s been 3 hours. Have you managed to manifest time travel or have you just spent too long researching without intention? Keep reading to prevent losing more time to those Reddit threads.

Do major research BEFORE starting your book. If you want to write about time travel, and you don’t know much about space and time, then you absolutely do need to do research. But instead of researching as you go, do the research during your outlining stage. That way, when it’s time to draft, you can really focus on writing and have to do heavy research.

When doing research, use a variety of credible sources. Don’t just use webpages, use a variety of content such as videos and books. If you’re doing a historical fiction novel, you might also want to interview people who were around at the time of your novel. Expanding your sources will also expand the type of knowledge that you get. Make sure you’re not using random Facebook posts though!

Keep your research organized. Organize the research in a way that is easy to understand and easy to find for you. This could look like a spreadsheet (respect if you know how to use Excel), a Google Docs, or OneNote, which is like a virtual notebook that I love. If you really want, you could use paper notes and color code them. This way you can access your notes easily if you need them.

If you need to do minor research, put it in brackets and move on. Try to avoid searching up things while in the middle of writing. You can fill in all those brackets after each writing session, or during the editing process. This will help you stay focused on your draft instead of getting sucked into rabbit holes. Unless you need that piece of information to keep your plot going…

Don’t click links. A lot of times, you can find the answer in a 5 second Google search because it shows a box of information. This can help prevent you from getting sucked into something that takes your attention for hours.

Know which sites you tend to waste time on. Reddit is a big one for me, so I try to avoid clicking any Reddit links while doing research, because I know I’ll be there for hours. Similarly, avoid sites that are notorious for showing a “read next” section.

Don’t spend more than 10 minutes on research when you’re supposed to be writing. It’s one thing if you need to make a 5 second google search. If you require more than 10 minutes, that’s a sign that you should schedule a research session.

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Two people befriend each other later in life, not knowing they were friends as very young children, until an old album reveals they used to know each other

Two former lovers meet by chance several years later, only this time, they’re friends, with no hint of romance

A soldier decides to save an enemy soldier during an attack, and they become best friends

Two lifelong frenemies finally become close friends with no strings attaches

Two people with identical suitcases accidentally grab the other’s suitcase at the baggage claim, leading to a lifelong friendship

Two people riding a bus everyday always end up sitting next to each other, but they don’t talk until one day someone breaks the silence

A person finds out their outcast neighbor is not weird at all like rumors say once they get to know each other closer

A regular person bumps into an undercover celebrity on the street, a “sorry” turns into a conversation and they become friends

Two online friends unexpectedly bump into each other in real life

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Writing the first draft, rewriting, and editing are definitely difficult parts of writing a book, but sometimes the hardest part is getting started. What do you even write? What if you know you want to write something, but you don’t have a single idea of any sort of plot? Keep reading to get some tips on how to come up with a story.

What kind of story do you want to write? Even though you might not know specifically what your plot is, narrowing “a story” to “a fantasy/sci-fi/romance story” could help you come up with a plot. Also, if you have an idea of the age group you want to write for, it could help you in coming up with the plot, because there are certain themes that correspond to certain age groups.

Do you have an idea of characters and setting?, if you know your characters well and know the relationships they have with each other, you can imagine the kind of conflicts that may take place, which can lead to a plot. Also, if you know the setting, you can imagine what kind of problems would happen in your world.

Get inspiration from your life and media you consume. Have you had an interesting experiencing that you would love to base a story around? If not, you can read books and watch movies and see if that strikes up any inspiration. However, if you take inspiration from media, make sure you’re taking inspiration and not copying their ideas. Try to change your ideas up to avoid copying.

Talk to people in your life. You can talk to both writer and non-writer friends. Your writer friends can help give you some ideas to get you started. Sometimes, though, I hear conversations from my friends that I want to incorporate into my own writing, so talking with non-writers can also help too.

Use writing prompts online. Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and other writing blogs are a good site to find writing prompts. Use those prompts to help build your ideas. Often, these prompts are a resource to get your creative juices flowing. Scroll around until you find one that you would love to write, and tailor that to your own story ideas.

Use plot generators. There are numerous online if you google them. You can pick the genre and a few details and then the generator will give you a story idea. You can then supplement this with your own ideas and then, voila, you have a plot. This is exactly what I did with my first book, and it eventually became a trilogy.

If you can’t come up with ideas, just ask ChatGPT. The thing about it is that you can ask it to write a story for you in all different genres. You can be as specific and generic as you want. You can then build off of this and create a plot from that.

@everything.writing on IG

There are so many elements that go into creating a culture, such as food, clothing, customs, and traditions, just like in real cultures. However, in certain stories, creating a fictional culture is extremely important for the worldbuilding of your book. Let’s get started on the ways to create a fictional culture.

Create a belief system. A critical component is a belief system. What does the culture believe is important? Do they believe in hard work, honesty, or kindness? Do they value family first and foremost? Think about what core beliefs your culture holds, and this is the basis of the rest of the components of the culture that follows.

What are the social norms? Belief systems often lead to social norms that value from culture to culture. For example, a culture that values family and the wisdom of elders will often teach the youth to give special respect to elders. Is there a certain way people greet each other, to show respect? Etc.

Any traditions/rituals? Is your culture religious? If so, what religious traditions do they have? What holidays do they have, and how do they celebrate these holidays? What is the significance of these traditions? How do people not from that culture perceive their traditions? Are there any “bad” traditions, such as human sacrifice?

Does the culture have its own language? Many, but not all, cultures have a distinct language. This language can be a way for members of the culture to connect and communicate. If you choose to, you can include a few words of that language in your book. Though be careful with this one, you don’t want to add way too many fictional language words because that often can confuse the reader and make the story hard to read.

What is the technology like? Does that community believe that simple and traditional is best, that new technological innovations are a harm to society, and they live off the grid? Or do they enjoy innovative technologies and enjoy adapting to new ways of living? Also, how does your culture’s technology affect the way people travel, communicate, and live their daily lives?

What is their economy like? Do they disvalue money and materialism, and instead, live in a communal society? Do they not have any specific currency and trade items instead? Or they have a specific currency? If so, does the currency have specific influential people on the bills or the coins?

What is the history of that culture? Though you certainly don’t have to mention everything about the history of your culture, having a little background knowledge on how that culture was founded could make it easier to plan the other elements of the culture. Think about who founded your culture, when, where, etc.

How does your main character interact with the culture? Do they wholeheartedly embrace it and spread the traditions onto their children? Or are they ashamed of it? If so, why? Is it because of social pressures or do they disagree with the fundamental beliefs of that culture? Do they love their culture, but want to reform a few parts of it?

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Ah, the thing that all readers hate but all writers love, though not many will admit it. In many stories, especially about war or in fantasy books, a character usually ends up dying. However, sometimes writing character deaths can be tough for people.

Make sure the death has a purpose. Don’t kill characters just because you wrote a character that serves no purpose in the story. If you have a character you don’t need, delete it from your story altogether. Chances are, if you don’t value this character, your readers won’t, so they won’t feel the sadness after that character died. Also, don’t kill characters for shock value, because this probably won’t convey the grief that follows a character’s death.

Set up a character that readers will care about. If you kill some random character that was mentioned 3 times in the entire story, readers are probably not going to care that much. Make sure you really flesh out the character well, give them traits and quirks that bring them to life. That way, the reader will be much more affected by the character’s death.

Think about how the death is going to be like. Will this be a quick death that will leave the protagonist with so many unanswered questions and cause the other characters to go into denial? Or will this be a slow death that the character is giving their wishes to their character?

Avoid gory descriptions, but focus on the other characters’ reactions. Gory descriptions could end up turning your reader off and make them uncomfortable, unless you’re writing horror. It’s fine to describe the scene and talk about blood, but keep the focus on the other characters’ reactions. How are other characters reacting to this? Show their grief (or their happiness, if the villain was killed). Do characters become withdrawn and lonely? Do they become angry? How does this character’s death drive the plot forward? Will this lead to the protagonist want to kill the villain to avenge their deceased friend?

Strike a balance between foreshadowing and not making the death too predictable. You want to give a few hints that the character is going to die, but you don’t want to outright tell the reader that it’s going to happen or else it could ruin the surprise. This can be a little hard to do, but this is what later drafts are for. In a second draft, you should slip hints that the character is going to die, once you know how and if the character is going to die.

Think about the character’s legacy. Was the character who died a mentor or parent who has given the protagonist a lot of good advice? Or was the character a friend or sibling of the protagonists’ and the protagonist now wants to follow their mission. What lasting impact did the dead character make on the world? How does this affect your protagonist?