Compiling Compositions

you are talented, and more than capable of creating something extraordinary

your way of telling a story is unique, there’s not a single story in this world that could, or would, ever be told the same way, by any writer;

meaning, you bring something remarkable to the table, a story that never would have been told, if it wasn’t for you

I actually have quite a lot of resources that I’ve created over the years surrounding plot development. I’ve linked as many as I could find for you:

Resources For Plot Development

Useful Writing Resources

Useful Writing Resources II

31 Days of Plot Development

Novel Planning 101

How To Write A Good Plot Twist

How To Foreshadow

What To Cut Out Of Your Story

Tackling Subplots

Things A Reader Needs From A Story

A Guide To Tension & Suspense In Your Writing

How To Turn A Good Idea Into A Good Story

Planning A Scene In A Story

21 Plot Shapes and the Pros and Cons Of Each

How To Outline Effectively

Tips On Writing Intense Scenes

Writing The First Chapter

Tips On Starting A Scene

Plot Structures

I love swords. Love them. Swords are to fantasy as walls to a castle. You need your swords to battle dragons, usurpers, knights and wizards. So lets go into the armory and learn about swords.

Anatomy of a typical sword

Crossguard: This is the part of the sword between the hilt and blade. This protects the hand.

Blade: The sharp end, duh

Hilt: This is the part you hold. Also called a grip.

Pommel: the end of the sword attached to the hilt. This can be decorated as you like.

Fuller: this is a hollow running up the sword.

Edge: the sharpened sides of the blade. Can be singular or double.

The point: The pointy bit at the top. Stick them into the person (jon snow logic)

Types of Swords

Claymore: This is the Scottish Gaelic version of the Great Sword. It is a heavy sword with a long reach

Longsword: Medieval and Renaissance weapon commonly used with with two hands.

Bastard sword: It is a cross between a long sword and a great sword because it is a half a foot extra. It belongs to the Longsword family of swords.

Gladius: an ancient Roman blade used by gladiators and then legionaires. There is no crossguard. It is also called a shortsword. Made for stabbing rather than slashing.

Xiphos: double-edged, single-handed sword used by ancient greeks. The blade is commonly leaf shaped made for slashing.

Sabre or Rapier: This is a slender blade used by fencers. This blade might not be able to hack a head but its light weight makes the blade an asset in speed.

Katana: The Japanese samurai sword. This is single-edged and the blade is hammered thin. Made for speed and deadly sharp.

Scimitar: a curved blade with a singled edge.

Sword Moves

Advance - to attack, going forward.

Deflect - engaging sword with your own and pushing it away

Empty Fade - jumping backwards as if to retreat then attacking.

Front Guard - the sword is held in front of your face.

Full Iron Gate Guard - the sword is halfway between your legs, angled right.

Half Iron Gate Guard - the sword is held before your left leg.

Lunge - leaping forwards while feet are in the same stance.

Pass Back - moving your front foot into the rear position.

Pass Forward - moving your rear foot into the front position.

Pivot - Rotating 180 degrees, keeping dominant foot stationary.

Retreat - a movement backwards.

Shed - to allow a sword to slide away off your sword.

Short Guard - the hilt is at your hip and the point is forward.

Step Across - Rotating 180 degrees, crossing feet and spinning.

Tail Guard - the hilt is at your hip and the sword is behind you.

Two Horn Guard - pommel is at your chest with the sword pointing out.

Window Guard - a guard where the hilt is at your ear and the sword points forwards

Things to remember about swords

1. When drawing your sword, the scabbard is on your opposite hip. You draw it over your body

2. If a sword is two-handed, use two hands. Don’t try be cool. You will cut yourself.

3. Swords are sharpened using a whetstone and polished with oil clothes. Water rusts them. Look after your swords.

4. Scabbards are always made of wood

5. Practise with a blunted sword first. Blunt swords are used in tourneys.

6. Shields are your friend in defence but can hamper your ability to attack.

I want to flag something for fellow writers with chronic illness, which is this: if you’ve been writing for long enough, you have probably gone through the same journey that I have, of realising that a lot of the time if your brain says “meh, I don’t feel inspired/don’t feel up to writing”, it’s lying. That you can write even when you feel uninspired, that you will get into it if you just push yourself to write the first sentence, that the words you crank out through gritted teeth are actually perfectly fine and can be polished up later and often unblock the whole thing. In short, you’ve learned to ignore “what your instincts are telling you” when it comes to writing, because they’re lying liars with perfectionism issues and if you sit around waiting for inspiration to strike you’ll write about 500 words a year.

And then along comes chronic, physical illness, and all of a sudden you’re supposed to “listen to your body” and “let yourself rest” and “don’t push yourself” and it is an absolute mindfuck because how are you supposed to tell the difference between “I feel too tired to write but that’s a lie and I should push past it” and “I feel too tired to write so I should go and lie down and give my body the rest it needs”??

I do not have an easy answer here. I’m still learning. This time it was relatively easy to tell, because I desperately wanted to be writing the whole time (Good Omens is still a depthless font of enthusiasm for me, apparently) so I could trust that if I didn’t feel up to it, I really wasn’t.

Places I actually posted to: my personal blog

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

the first result isn’t always the one you’re looking for but when you press enter it’ll give you a ton of words related to your query that’ll probably have what you’re wanting, or something better

here’s some examples:

I do that all the time, so I hope not! lol

seriously, though - as long as the switches are clear and don’t cause confusion you should be fine. I find it helps to use the horizonal rule in between viewpoints to show the flip in perspective. 

“Asteriskasteriskasteriskasteriskasterisk” is the literal worst. As someone who uses almost exclusively screen readers anymore when I read more than a couple paragraphs at a time, I have quit reading stories because there were too many line breaks with a dozen or two asterisks, or OoOoOo, or underscores, or any assortment of characters.  It looks pretty, but it doesn’t sound pretty!

Use hyphens or a coded line break.  On Ao3, that is done with <hr >. Those just cause brief pauses in the reading, so they are perfect for transitions and breaks between scenes!  Listening to a minute straight of “underscore” without pause is grating.  

What do writers suffer from each spring?