#creativewritingtips

(a crash course in vibes, verbal economy, and making your characters shut up already)

Okay. We need to talk about dialogue. Specifically: why everyone in your draft sounds like they’re in a high school improv group doing a dramatic reading of Riverdale fanfiction.

Before you panic, this is normal. Early dialogue is almost always too much. Too polished. Too "scripted." So if yours feels off? You’re not failing. You’re just doing Draft Zero Dialogue, and it’s time to revise it like a boss.

Here’s how to fix it.

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🎭 STEP ONE: DETOX THEATER ENERGY I say this with love: your characters are not all quippy geniuses. They do not need to deliver emotional monologues at every plot beat. They can just say things. Weird, half-finished, awkward things.

Real people:

interrupt each other

trail off mid-thought

dodge questions

contradict themselves

repeat stuff

change the subject randomly

Let your characters sound messy. Not every line needs to sparkle. In fact, the more effort you put into making dialogue ✨perfect✨, the more fake it sounds. Cut 30% of your clever lines and see what happens.

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🎤 STEP TWO: GIVE EACH CHARACTER A VERBAL FINGERPRINT The fastest way to make dialogue feel alive? Make everyone speak differently. Think rhythm, grammar, vocabulary, tone.

Some dials you can twist:

Long-winded vs. clipped

Formal vs. casual

Emojis of speech: sarcasm, filler words, expletives, slang

Sentence structure: do they talk in fragments? Run-ons? Spirals?

Emotion control: are they blunt, diplomatic, avoidant, performative?

Here’s a shortcut: imagine what your character sounds like over text. Are they the “lol okay” type or the “okie dokie artichokie 🌈✨” one? Now translate that into speech.

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🧠 STEP THREE: FUNCTION > FILLER Every line of dialogue should do something. Reveal something. Move something. Change something.

Ask:

Does this line push the plot forward?

Does it show character motivation/conflict/dynamic?

Does it create tension, add context, or raise a question?

If it’s just noise? It’s dead air. Cut it. Replace it with a glance. A gesture. A silence that says more.

TIP: look at a dialogue scene and remove every third line. Does the scene still work? Probably better.

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💥 STEP FOUR: REACTIVITY IS THE GOLD STANDARD Characters don’t talk into a void. They respond. And how they respond = the real juice.

Don’t just write back-and-forth ping pong. Write conflict, dodge, misunderstanding. If one character says something vulnerable, the other might joke. Or ignore it. Or say something cruel. That’s tension.

Dialogue is not just information exchange. It’s emotional strategy.

Try this exercise: A says something revealing. B lies. A notices, but pretends they don’t. B changes the subject. Now you’ve got a real scene.

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🔍 STEP FIVE: PAY ATTENTION TO POWER Every convo has a power dynamic, even if it’s tiny. Who’s steering? Who’s withholding? Who’s deflecting, chasing, challenging?

Power can shift line to line. That shift = tension. And tension = narrative fuel.

Write conversations like chess matches, not ping pong.

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✂️ STEP SIX: SCISSORS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND The best dialogue is often the second draft. Or third. Or fourth. First drafts are just you figuring out what everyone wants to say. Later drafts figure out what they actually would say.

Things to cut:

Greetings/closings ("Hi!" "Bye!"--skip it unless it serves tone)

Exposition disguised as chat

Obvious thoughts spoken aloud

Explaining jokes

Repeating what we already know

Readers are smart. Let them fill in blanks.

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🎧 STEP SEVEN: READ IT OUT LOUD (YES, REALLY) If you hate this step: too bad. It works. Read it. Mumbling is fine. Cringe is part of the ritual.

Ask yourself:

Would someone actually say this?

Does this sound like one person speaking, or a puppet show with one hand?

Where does the rhythm trip? Where’s the breath?

If you can’t say it out loud without wincing, the reader won’t make it either. Respect the vibe.

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🏁 TL;DR: If you want your dialogue to sound like real people, let your characters be real. Messy. Annoying. Human. Let them interrupt and lie and joke badly and say the wrong thing at the worst time.

Cut the improv class energy. Kill the urge to be ✨brilliant✨. And listen to how people talk when they’re scared, tired, pissed off, in love, or trying not to say what they mean.

That’s where the good stuff is.

—rin t. // thewriteadviceforwriters // official advocate of awkward silences and one-word replies

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

stop trying to sound poetic immediately. the best poems usually sound emotionally true before they sound impressive.

specificity matters more than drama. instead of saying: “I felt lonely.” say: “I started talking to myself in grocery stores because silence followed me home.”

let your poems breathe. not every line needs to be profound. silence matters too.

write like you are telling the truth to one person. not performing sadness for an audience.

your wounds are not your only material. write about survival too. about tenderness. about becoming. about identity. about strange small beautiful things.

read poetry outside social media. read older poets. read uncomfortable poets. read poets who make you pause.

stop fearing simplicity. simple writing can still devastate people emotionally.

honesty will always outlive aesthetics. eventually readers can tell the difference between curated sadness and lived experience.

write the sentence you are afraid to admit. that is usually where the real poem begins.

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🖋️ BLACKSITE ENTRY — “WHY I WRITE THE WAY I DO (AND WHY YOU SHOULD TOO).”

Ever get that gut-punch of judgment? That whisper that says: > “Don’t write that. Don’t say that. People will think you’re insane.”

Ever felt like you were going to get in trouble for writing about an orgasm, the heat of someone’s body, or the scent of their sex?

Ever stopped mid-sentence, mid-pulse, mid-thought — and decided to write about your pet goldfish instead?

That right there? That hesitation? That censorship?

That’s the silent death of a creative mind.

☠️ THE KILLERS OF ART

Words like:

Pervert

Weirdo

Too much

Rebel

have buried more artists than war or famine. Not physically. But spiritually.

They drain the ink before the page ever drinks it. They silence more voices than dictatorships ever could.

Because when censorship isn’t imposed from the outside — when it’s internalized — you don’t need a prison. You become your own warden.

And yet — here I am. Still writing. Still banned. Still resurrected.

🔥 MY RECORD OF SIN

I’ve written poems so raw they were flagged by machines as biological weapons.

I’ve recorded audios so potent they shattered Reddit’s engagement metrics — so hard that execs came at me under alias DMs to figure out how I did it.

I told them to kick rocks. Hours later I was ghosted — digital Hoffa, buried by the algorithm.

And then I took the same method, the same cadence, and broke Literotica’s audio section wide open — crowned king without asking permission. I walked into their poetry division and detonated it too.

Proof: the fearful remember nothing. The raw become unforgettable.

📜 HISTORY DOESN’T REMEMBER THE SAFE

You think this is new? No.

Censorship is the oldest trick in civilization. Socrates was executed for “corrupting the youth.” Ovid was exiled for writing too explicitly about desire. James Joyce was banned for making sentences orgasm. Henry Miller’s books were burned. Allen Ginsberg’s Howl was put on trial.

Every generation, the pearl-clutchers rise. Every generation, they try to smother the voices that make them clench.

And every generation, history remembers the banned. Not the censors.

Nobody quotes the critics. Nobody rewatches the safe films. Nobody rereads the clean poems.

They remember the dangerous. The forbidden. The ones who were told to shut up and instead wrote louder.

🧠 THE SCIENCE OF WHY YOU FREEZE

Here’s the part most writers never learn:

When you hesitate to write something raw, it isn’t just “doubt.” It’s your brain’s anterior cingulate cortex firing like a car alarm.

This is the same region triggered by pain and social rejection. Your body literally treats disapproval like a wound.

Which means when you stop yourself from writing the “too much” line — your nervous system is hijacking you. You’re not being “reasonable.” You’re being chemically blackmailed.

Evolution wired you to crave safety in the tribe. But art isn’t tribal safety. Art is exile. Art is risk. Art is stepping into the fire naked and daring people to watch.

If you don’t override that wiring? You’ll never write anything worth remembering.

⚔️ THE LESSON NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR

No one remembers the safe. No one remembers the compliant. No one remembers the writer who only chased applause.

They remember the dangerous. The unapologetic. The voice that dripped when it shouldn’t have, that trembled when it should’ve been silent, that made someone clench and reread in shame, and then whisper to themselves, > “Damn. I wish I could write like that.”

🩸 WHY YOU SHOULD WRITE THE SAME WAY

Because when you strip down to the nerve, you gain something no one can ever take: self-respect.

Fear won’t protect you. Politeness won’t save you. Pearl-clutchers don’t buy your art, and they won’t mourn your silence.

But when you write what you feel — as raw, as loud, as reckless as it arrives — you command respect. Even from the ones who hate you for it.

Because they can’t deny it. Because it moved them. Because it left a mark.

⚡ THE COST OF PLAYING SAFE

Let me make this plain:

Safe writing gets you likes. Dangerous writing gets you lives.

Safe writing gets archived. Dangerous writing gets whispered.

Safe writing builds résumés. Dangerous writing builds revolutions.

So ask yourself: Which legacy do you want?

⏳ THE EXPIRATION TEST

If you knew your expiration date, if you knew the clock was winding down, would you really waste another line writing safe little diary entries?

Or would you write like your fingers were on fire, like your underwear was smoke and ash, like your last word could outlive the grave?

Because here’s the truth: One day you will run out of lines. And the world won’t care about the ones you didn’t write.

🐺 REMINDER

Nobody remembers the safe. They only remember the ones who bled onto the page.

🧠 Reblog if you’ve ever stopped yourself mid-line out of fear of judgment. 💀 Reblog if you know silence kills more art than rejection ever could. 🩸 Reblog if you’re ready to write like your expiration date is already stamped.

📢 If you want doctrine-level writing that dares what polite culture won’t, step inside: 👉 https://www.patreon.com/TheMostHumble

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Hey, everyone. Today we will look at a somewhat unique approach to character development for novels. Instead of simply jotting down character notes, we will work on becoming them, even if only for a moment.

1. Improvise in Character: Have you ever taken a drama class or entered an improv session? If not, that's okay. Sketch a scenario, stand up, and react as your character would. Try anything from ordering coffee to confronting a dragon. This may take some practice but notice how you act in your character's shoes. Jot down the facial expressions you used, gestures you made, and things you said.

2. Dress Rehearsal: Try dressing like your character, moving like them, and using their tone when speaking. Physically emulate your character as much as possible and take notes about their inner world.

3. Monologue Madness: Write a monologue about a critical moment in your character's life. Dig into how they feel about it, then act it out as they would. If it doesn't sound right try, try again. Try to capture their essence and why the moment is so crucial. 

You're breathing life into your characters by incorporating acting exercises into your writing routine. Keep writing, keep performing, and keep creating. It may feel weird initially, but walking a mile in your character's shoes can help you understand them, yourself, and the writing process. Until the next time!

Everly

Hi! I’m @lighthearted.writer on Instagram!

Don’t ever be afraid to teach yourself grammar. I don’t care how old you are or what you’ve been taught before. You are entitled to teaching yourself whatever you need to in order to make yourself a better writer! If you’re just getting serious about writing, then perhaps you’ll need to give yourself a gentle reminder of a few things. This is perfectly understandable since you aren’t used to using it all the time. Maybe you write all the time but need to brush up some of your skills on what a dangling modifier is, or how to use punctuation properly...

Since grammar and sentence structure are some of the first things that agents and publishing houses look at, it’s important that writers know how to properly apply them. Don’t worry! There are plenty of grammar-helpful resources you can use:

Use NoRedInk.com. There are hundreds of topics for you to choose from on here! The site redirects you when you get something incorrect and tells you how to fix it. It even reminds you to practice certain topics over time. It’s free to create an account and use it for however long you want. 

Try GrammarBytes.com. This site has a whole bunch of good stuff. There are videos, presentations, examples, and practice sheets for you to complete.

 Read on EnglishGrammar101.com. There’s a lot of topics to read up on here. 

Get EnglishClub.com. There are a handful of topics and quizzes that go along with them!

Use the Oxford English Grammar Course. If you try going to their website, then you can choose the beginner, intermediate, or advanced course. There are actually a bunch of topics and fill-ins to teach you from. 

Install Grammarly. I know a lot of people are iffy with this extension, but I find it can be helpful to turn it on when you finish a chapter or scene so you can check for little errors. Be sure that you double-check the corrections Grammarly makes though! Sometimes it can be unreliable, which is why it’s low on this list...

Watch some Youtube! Isn’t that what we procrastinators want to do anyway?

Ask your English teachers for extra help. They really do want to help you. I promise. It’s what they’re there for. 

Handle one topic at a time. Decide what aspect of grammar you struggle the most with right now. Is it using quotation marks properly? Alright, then focus on that for now. Don’t overwhelm yourself. 

You have plenty of time before your story lands in the hands of an agent, a publishing house, or even a beta reader. 

by rin t. (resident chaos scribe of thewriteadviceforwriters)

Okay so here’s the thing. You can give me all the pretty pinterest moodboards and soft trauma playlists in the world, but if your character doesn’t change, I will send them back to the factory.

Let’s talk about character arcs. Not vibes. Not tragic backstory flavoring. Actual. Arcs. (It hurts but we’ll get through it together.)

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💡 what a character arc IS:

a transformational journey (keyword: transformation)

the internal response to external pressure (aka plot consequences)

a shift in worldview, behavior, belief, self-concept

the emotional architecture of your story

the reason we care

💥 what a character arc is NOT:

a sad monologue halfway through act 2

a single cool scene where they yell or cry

a moral they magically learn by the end

a “development” label slapped on a flatline

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✨ THE 3 BASIC FLAVORS OF ARC (and how to emotionally damage your characters accordingly):

Positive Arc They start with a flaw, false belief, or fear that limits them. Through the events of the story (and many Ls), they confront that internal lie, grow, and emerge changed. Hurt factor: Drag them through the mud. Make them fight to believe in themselves. Break their trust, make them doubt. Let them earn their ending.

Negative Arc They begin whole(ish) and devolve. They fail to overcome their flaw or false belief. This arc ends in ruin, corruption, or defeat. Hurt factor: Let them almost have a chance. Build hope. Then show how they sabotage it, or how the world takes it anyway. Twist the knife.

Flat/Static Arc They don’t change, but the world around them does. They hold onto a core truth, and it’s their constancy that drives change in others. Think: mentor, revolutionary, or truth-teller type. Hurt factor: Make the world push back. Make their values cost them something. The tension comes from holding steady in chaos.

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🎯 how to build an arc that actually HITS (no ✨soft lessons✨, just internal structure):

Lie they believe: What false thing do they think about themselves or the world? (“I’m unlovable.” “Power = safety.” “I’m only valuable if I’m useful.”)

Want vs. need: What do they think they want? What do they actually need to grow?

Wound/backstory scar: What made them like this? You don’t need a tragic past™ but you do need cause and effect.

Turning point: What moment forces them to question their worldview? What event cracks the surface?

Moment of choice: Do they change? Or not? What decision seals their arc?

🧪 Pro tip: this is not a worksheet. This is scaffolding. The arc lives in the story, not just your doc notes. The lie isn’t revealed in a monologue, it’s felt through consequences, relationships, mistakes.

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🛠️ things to actually do with this:

Write scenes where the character’s flaw messes things up. Like, they lose something. A person. A plan. Their cool. Make the flaw hurt.

Track their beliefs like a timeline. How do they start? What chips away at it? When does the shift stick?

Use relationships as arc mirrors. Who challenges them? Enables them? Forces reflection? Internal change is almost never solo.

Revisit the lie. Circle back to it at least three times in escalating intensity. Reminder > confrontation > transformation.

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🌊 bonus pain level: REVERSE THE ARC

Wanna make it really hurt? Set them up for one arc, and give them the opposite. They think they’re growing into a better person. But actually, they’re losing themselves. They think they’re spiraling. But they’re really healing. Let them be surprised. Let the reader be surprised.

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TL;DR: If your plot is a skeleton, your character arc is the nervous system.

The change is the thing. Don’t just dress it up in trauma. Don’t let your character learn nothing. Make them face themselves. And yeah. Make it hurt a little. (Or a lot. I won’t stop you.)

—rin t. // thewriteadviceforwriters // plotting pain professionally since forever

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

aka: you’re staring into the creative abyss and the abyss is not only staring back, it’s asking for a rough draft

hi writer. welcome to that fun little liminal space in your project where ✨absolutely nothing✨ makes sense. you wrote the last scene. you know you’re not at the end. but suddenly your characters are just standing there like NPCs waiting for a quest marker and your brain is doing the spinning beachball of death.

so. what now?

let’s break down some actually useful strategies for when you hit That Point™️. not vibes. not ✨manifest your way out✨ energy. not the “just keep writing” slog. here’s what to do when your story is refusing to tell you what happens next:

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zoom out: do a “scene audit” ———————————————

you don’t need a full outline to do this. take five minutes and sketch a bullet list of every scene that’s happened so far. not just what happened, but why it mattered.

like this:

MC lied to their boss (sets up stakes re: trust/power)

antagonist shows up at cafe (establishes tension + location crossover)

best friend gets suspicious (emotional complication, adds pressure)

this gives you a birds-eye view of what you’ve set in motion. often you’re stuck because you’ve lost sight of the threads you were pulling, your own story has momentum, you just need to feel it again.

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try “ghost drafting” (aka fake writing) —————————————————————

open a doc. start typing what would happen, if you were writing. super casual. something like:

“okay i think the next scene is maybe them at the train station?? or wait--maybe we need to see the fallout of the argument. i don’t really know what x character wants rn but i think y might be planning something…”

this trick works bc it removes pressure. no fancy prose, no perfect structure. it’s literally you telling yourself what might happen. and weirdly? your brain will often finish the scene for you without asking. (the number of times I’ve ghost drafted myself into 800 usable words… witchcraft.)

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pin your characters to a corkboard and interrogate them ——————————————————————————

not literally. (unless you're into that. i don’t judge.)

but seriously: when you’re stuck, it’s often because your character has no immediate goal or emotion. pause and ask:

what does this character want right now? like, in this moment?

what are they trying to avoid?

what’s keeping them from getting either?

character-driven scenes are rarely static. even if it’s just an awkward dinner or walking to the store, someone’s always trying to do or hide something. if everyone in the scene is just reacting or waiting, you’ve got fog. bring in the fire.

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don’t skip the “boring” stuff--weaponize it —————————————————

sometimes we’re stuck because we think the next scene is dull. like “ugh i guess they just… travel to the manor” or “they regroup at the safe house.” but these slow beats are GOLD if you embed purpose.

try giving the “boring” scene:

a time limit or interruption (they’re hiding but someone knocks)

a secret (someone is lying about something small but important)

a reversal (what they expected is the opposite of what happens)

even if it’s a quiet scene, layer it. conflict isn’t just yelling or action. it’s discomfort. it’s misalignment. tension between what’s said and unsaid.

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when all else fails: write the next emotional beat —————————————————————

strip it back. forget plot. forget pacing. ask yourself:

then write that. a monologue. a journal entry. an outburst. a line of whispered dialogue.

sometimes it’s not that you don’t know what happens next. it’s that your character hasn’t processed what just happened, and until they do, the story can’t move forward.

✨✨✨

the void is normal. getting stuck doesn’t mean you failed or picked the wrong idea or that the muse packed up and left for a better writer’s house. it just means your brain needs space to regroup.

writing isn’t linear. stories aren’t built in perfect lines. they loop. they stall. they circle back. and that’s okay.

if you’re in the middle of nowhere, here’s your sign to sit on the side of the metaphorical road, open your weird little notebook, and write anyway. write wrong. write messy. write ghost drafts. the path shows up when you start walking.

🕳️ you got this, writer.

tag me if you end up crawling out of your stuck scene with a little victory paragraph. i’ll bring snacks for the next one 🧃✨

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

so. here’s the thing. if your main character is just kinda floating through the story like a passive sad bean™️ with no real goal or drive, then the plot? is not plotting.

this isn’t a ✨you suck✨ thing. it’s a common first draft curse. but if you’re 30k words deep and your protagonist is still just reacting to stuff with vague concern and inner monologues about The Past™… we need to talk.

📍what even is a character “want”?

your character’s want is their external goal. the thing they’re trying to get, do, or change.

avenge someone

win a trial

run away from their cursed bloodline

steal the crown

get through one (1) normal semester without summoning a demon by accident

it’s tangible. it’s active. it’s visible. other characters should be able to argue with it, get in the way of it, or try to stop it.

💥without a want, your character is just:

wandering

reacting

monologuing about their feelings

getting dragged into scenes by external forces

waiting for the plot to happen to them

and honestly? same. but also: no.

readers need to feel like your character is making the story happen, not being passively pushed along by fate and side characters with better motivations.

⚠️ want vs need (aka: the emotional trauma part)

quick breakdown:

the want = the external goal (win the throne, survive the week, kiss the hot villain)

the need = the internal arc (heal the grief, learn to trust, accept their identity, realize kissing the hot villain is a bad idea)

your character should want something that will eventually lead them to what they need. but the want comes first. the want is the engine. the need is the crash landing.

plot starts with the want.

character arc ends with the need.

🎯 signs your character doesn’t want anything (yet):

you keep skipping scenes because “nothing is happening”

you’re relying on vibes or worldbuilding to carry the tension

side characters are doing all the heavy lifting

your protagonist spends more time reacting than deciding

your outline says “stuff happens” for 8 chapters

🛠️ how to fix it:

Make them want something that’s wrong. they don’t have to want the right thing. they just have to want something strongly. wrong goals lead to better tension. and failure. and chaos. (yay!)

Put something between them and that goal. wanting something isn’t enough. they need to pursue it, and get blocked. by enemies. allies. their own self-sabotage. this is where conflict comes from.

Tie the want to survival or obsession. if it’s not urgent, it’s background noise. raise the stakes. why now? why does this matter? why can’t they walk away?

Let them choose. at some point in Act 1, they need to make a conscious decision to pursue the goal. even if they get manipulated into it. even if it’s a bad idea. it needs to feel like a choice.

📦 examples:

✨bad✨: “she’s just trying to get by and see what happens”

✅better: “she’s trying to disappear, but someone recognizes her from the war and now she has to fake a new identity while hunting them down before they ruin her life”

see the difference? one is vibes. one is a whole plot engine.

the story doesn’t start until your character wants something badly enough to make a move, and risk breaking something.

give them a goal. a plan. a terrible idea. and then go ruin their life.

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed: