either writing or thinking about writing

Now first, I have to say, that the plot you’re able to come up with in one day is not going to be without its flaws, but coming up with it all at once, the entire story unfolds right in front of you and makes you want to keep going with it. So, where to begin? 

What is your premise and basic plot? Pick your plot. I recommend just pulling one from this list. No plots are “original” so making yours interesting and complicated will easily distract from that fact, that and interesting characters. Characters will be something for you to work on another day, because this is plotting day. You’ll want the main plot to be fairly straight forward, because a confusing main plot will doom you if you want subplots. 

Decide who the characters will be. They don’t have to have names at this point. You don’t even need to know who they are other than why they have to be in the story. The more characters there are the more complicated the plot will be. If you intend to have more than one subplot, then you’ll want more characters. Multiple interconnected subplots will give the illusion that the story is very complicated and will give the reader a lot of different things to look at at all times. It also gives you the chance to develop many side characters. The plot I worked out yesterday had 13 characters, all were necessary. Decide their “roles” don’t bother with much else. This seems shallow, but this is plot. Plot is shallow. 

Now, decide what drives each character. Why specifically are they in this story? You can make this up. You don’t even know these characters yet. Just so long as everyone has their own motivations, you’re in the clear. 

What aren’t these characters giving away right off the bat? Give them a secret! It doesn’t have to be something that they are actively lying about or trying to hide, just find something that perhaps ties them into the plot or subplot. This is a moment to dig into subplot. This does not need to be at all connected to their drive to be present in the story.  Decide who is in love with who, what did this person do in the 70’s that’s coming back to bite them today, and what continues to haunt what-his-face to this very day. This is where you start to see the characters take shape. Don’t worry much about who they are or what they look like, just focus on what they’re doing to the story. 

What is going to change these characters? Now this will take some thinking. Everyone wants at least a few of the characters to come out changed by the end of the story, so think, how will they be different as a result of the plot/subplot? It might not be plot that changes them, but if you have a lot of characters, a few changes that are worked into the bones of the plot might help you.

Now list out the major events of the novel with subplot in chronological order. This will be your timeline. Especially list the historical things that you want to exist in backstory. List everything you can think of. Think about where the story is going. At this point, you likely haven’t focused too much on the main plot, yeah, it’s there, but now really focus on the rising actions, how this main plot builds its conflict, then the climactic moment. Make sure you get all of that in there. This might take a few hours. 

Decide where to start writing. This part will take a LOT of thinking. It’s hard! But now that you’ve got the timeline, pick an interesting point to begin at. Something with action. Something relevant. Preferably not at the beginning of your timeline - you want to have huge reveals later on where these important things that happened prior are exposed. This is the point where you think about what information should come out when. This will be a revision of your last list, except instead of being chronological, it exists to build tension. 

Once you’ve gotten the second list done, you’ve got a plot. Does it need work? Probably. But with that said, at this point you probably have no idea who half your characters are. Save that for tomorrow, that too will be a lot of work. 

As much as I like to complain about my weaknesses when it comes to writing, I’m happy to say that creating characters isn’t one of them. So for anyone who wants it- my quick guide on creating characters.

This list is for anyone who has a vague idea for a character but doesn’t have a plot or a role in the story for them to fill.  It’s for people who have a plot in mind, but lack characters to place in it. It’s for people who love those long, detailed character spreadsheets, but don’t have the patience (or know all the answers) to fill them out. The points I’ve listed below will probably overlap heavily and influence one another- for instance, “societal/cultural influences“ may inform both “philosophy“ and “defining relationships“. It pulls the character together.

Keep in mind that this is not everything you want to know about your character- you should continue to flesh them out as you write them. This is just a baseline, a starting point, an I-just-want-to-write-something-with-this-character-but-I-know-absolutely-nothing-about-them list so you can jump into writing with or without a plot in mind. It describes them as they are on a typical, ordinary day. As you continue to write and develop them, they will become more nuanced and take on a life of their own.

 Base Personality

Jot down some base personality traits. Don’t worry about getting an equal number of positive and negative traits down- or even which is which. Just feel out the character’s base personality.

Significant Historical Events

What events have had the greatest impact on your character (that you know of so far)? Again, don’t worry about getting everything- you can always add more here as they come to you later. Hit the major turning points in your character’s life.

Societal/Cultural Influences

What societal and cultural backgrounds do your characters have? Are they living/working/existing in an area where these influences are the majority or the minority?

Philosophy

What is your character’s default philosophy when it comes to right and wrong, or difficult moral choices? (I usually use the D&D alignment system for its simplicity- feel free to be as detailed or not as you wish).

Defining Relationships

What are this character’s defining relationships? Enemies, friends, and family are good places to highlight. Major conflicts and points of contention are great starting points for plots.

Goals

Sure, having a king/queen is simple, but have you ever tried:

Democracy

Multiple nobles and they all have the same amount of power (lot of conflict potential)

You can become ruler by defeating the current ruler in a fight

The merchants run everything

A noble and a parliament rule

The most intelligent people rule

…

Anarchy: the social conscience maintains order, but there are no laws

Athenian Democracy: Every citizen can vote on every new law

Representative Democracy: Elected representatives form a congress or government

Clan: Pretty much whoever is older is in charge, traditions are strongly adhered to, and society as a whole is split cross many tribes that are generally similar (and usually allied) but with their own quirks and traditions

Caste: A lot like a Clan structure, but each clan has a set role in society that usually renders them co-dependent. These Castes usually follow a social heirarchy

Dictatorship: One person controls everything, and they will later pass the right to rule to someone else, whether by inheritance, election, duelling, or some other method. Not all dictatorships are bad, especially if they are formed in times of crisis or rebellion, but even those started with the best intentions may quickly corrupt.

Plutocracy: Whoever has money is in charge.

Technocracy: A group of scientists and engineers have complete control and do everything they can to run the country at maximum efficiency. The more competent they are, the more likely this is to be viewed as a good thing.

Thaumocracy: Like a technocracy, but run by a science-like form of magic (like wizards and arcanists rather than shamans and witches)

Theocracy: The Church controls everything, and their religious law is civil law. Whether this religion is real, is fake but knows it, or believes its own lies is up to you.

Corporate State: Powerful mercantile organisations have taken control of entire regions. This is a lot like a Technocracy, but with a corporate structure and a focus on maximum profitability (and no-one else is going to set them a minimum wage)

Feudal: A lot like a dictatorship, but subsidiary lords are assigned their own local power and can enforce their own law without notifying the larger state.

***VARIATIONS***

Bureaucracy: Government runs very slowly and the public has effectively no control. There is a lot of red tape and taxation is high.

Colony: Government is dependent on a mother society

Cybercracy: A computer system is the state administrator. Hopefully the programmers did a good job…

Matriarchy: Positions of authority are female-exclusive.

Meritocracy: Positions of authority require rigorous testing to qualify for.

Military Government: The Military control everything, usually but not always totalitarian

Monarchy: The person in charge may call themselves king or queen, but fundamentally this is either a dictatorship or a feudal society.

Oligarchy: A small organisation is in control, and it elects its own members.

Patriarchy: like a matriarchy, but for guys. what a novel idea

Sanctuary: A society that protects the people other societies hunt (that may be considered criminals or terrorists by other nations)

Socialist: The government directly manages the economy, education is easy to get, the government intervenes to get everyone possible a job. This is likely to collapse quickly without good technology or magic to assist it.

Subjugated: The society as a whole is completely controlled by an outside force.

“i came to the gym to work out but holy god i can’t stop watching you do one armed push ups that’s so hot” au

“this is totally awkward considering before this the only interactions we’ve ever had have been casual nods to each other in the hallway but there’s a huge fucking spider in my bath tub and you seem like the friendly neighbor type please help me” au

“you’re the only delivery person who gets to my house in any semblance of the word fast which is why i keep requesting you but you don’t believe me and tease me constantly about it” au

“okay i get it you’re a great thief and don’t want to go to jail but i’m the exhausted af detective that’s assigned to catch you i stg if you let me bring you in so i can sleep i’ll get you a good deal” au

“okay i get that there are no seats left in this cafe but like i am trying to read here no you cannot have this chair my feet are using it thank you very much please get out of my face now” au

“my parents moved me halfway across the world when we were twelve and before that we were best friends but now i’m back and moving in across the hall from you so hi?” au

“i’ve been travelling a lot and somehow you’re in every single city i go to seriously what the fuck who even are you how are you doing this” au

“we’ve been nothing but friends for our whole lives but then we played seven minutes in heaven on a dare and now i think i might actually be in love with you” au

“ngl i thought you were the weak one of this friend group but your whole life just went to complete shit around you and somehow you’re still acting the same so if you want to be weak you can be around me” au

“my guitarist quit the night before the gig that could mean the big break for a band that i have put my soul into and supposedly you’re really good but i swear to god if you screw this up for me i will hunt you down and slit your throat” au

“it seems we’re the only two people in this class that actually know what the fuck is going on want to team up for this project and ruin everybody’s lives” au

“we started arguing about which hogwarts house this one character would be in and we completely lost track of time and now you’re demanding i take you out to dinner is this a date” au

“i’m the private investigator that was hired by your ex to track you down and you totally caught me sitting outside your apartment in a rental car so hi what up” au

“i came to check out this support group but things have kind of been majorly sucking lately and you were there and i didn’t even know anything was wrong but we’ve known each other for months what gives” au

“i’m the lawyer helping you get custody of your daughter and oops you’re all kinds of adorable with her and also i think she’s growing attached to me is this good or bad” au

“i meant to text the contact one above you in my phone’s contact list for a booty call but i didn’t realize i hit your name until i sent it so now i’m just sitting here feeling those little three dots hardcore judging me” au

“we started dating after months of sexual tension between us but then you moved across the country so now we’re trying to figure out how to make this brand new relationship work long distance” au

“so not to be rude or anything but i’ve been coming to this cemetery at this time on this day every week for fucking years and i’ve always been alone up until now seriously what the hell” au

(ayyyyyyy lmao)

6th shuffle - Torches by X Ambassadors; 9th line - “carry your torches”

This went in a very unexpected direction, but here you go!

Send me two numbers and I’ll write you a drabble!

--

You have been in the dark so long it feels like it is a part of you now. Three days, Magister says. Only three days since the sun last set and did not rise again. It feels much longer, an indeterminable stretch of time, unpunctuated by the movement of the planets. You knew it would be like this when you started. You were informed, and you went willingly. But you were not as prepared as you thought. You have not lived through a Veiling before, so you could not truly have known what it would be like. That does not set you at ease.

Flame helps, of course. Though the light in the heavens has been swallowed up, fire is still fire. It is still light. You huddle with your fellows around the fire every time you make camp. You stare into the glowing depths, trying to imprint the memory of the light on the backs of your eyes, before it is put out again, before you continue on. The horses are fitted with torch harnesses that hoist them far ahead and behind each animal to provide as much light as possible. It forces you all to keep your distance from each other. You are a strung-out caravan, moving through the dark like a ship on fire cuts through a black sea. Only a matter of time before it sinks.

The fire is dangerous. The light is dangerous. By lighting your way, you are the only thing visible in this vast, blank wilderness. You keep your hand on the pommel of your sword as much as you can - you spend a great deal of time wiping the sweat from your palm on your pant leg - listening for approaching movement, waiting for something to step into the circle of illumination around the body of your horse so you can remove its head from its shoulders.

Nothing comes, and that’s almost worse.

Not long now, Magister says. It has been eight days since the sun last set and did not rise again. You must be getting close. She is the only one who has made this trip before. In the light of the campfire, her eyes are white. The darkness does not disturb her. She was the only one to return from the last voyage, at the last Veiling. You wonder if that will be true this time.

The way has been walked by many, she says. You wake from sleep now to find the smell of burned things in your nostrils, the taste of it on your tongue, the greasy smear of ash on your fingers. When you light a torch, there are footprints all across the ground, too misshapen to belong to you or anyone else in the caravan. Magister says the darkness cannot hurt you if you do not let it. You do not know how to not let it.

You try not to sleep anymore, and you hear sounds in the dark after everyone has gone to sleep. When you put your hand on your sword, another hand closes over it. Magister whispers, so close you feel her breath on your ear, that you needn’t be afraid. You do not believe her. She tells you to sleep, and without meaning to, you do.

Very soon, Magister says. It has been twelve days since the sun last set and did not rise again. You wonder how she knows this. You wonder if days exist at all now that the sun does not. You cannot hear the sounds in the dark anymore, but the footprints are more numerous than ever. The horses have begun to die. You walk on foot toward your destination, carrying a torch in one hand. Your sword went missing two days ago. You feel empty without it.

Nearly there, Magister says. Fifteen days. No sun. The torches are all gone. You hear noises in the dark, and you make the noises right back. You walk in a line with your tiny caravan, hands outstretched on shoulders, all following Magister forward. The ash is thick on the ground. You can hear it, almost silent, almost - shhh, shhh, shhh - as you wade through.

The noises are inside you now. Twenty days. Magister loves you. You have done so well. You have made it to the end.

Here are the steps: 

1. Followers send numbers to your ask (For Example, “ 6 “) 

2. You shuffle your music 6 times (The number that was sent to you) 

3. You tell your followers what song you landed on (Do this by answering the Ask) 

4. Followers send you a line from that song (First line submitted shall be used) 

5. You write a drabble using the line from that song as your prompt

6. Repeat and Enjoy!