#reference for writers

Similarly as above, don’t create magical solutions to your character’s problems just because you need them to keep your story going (basically, don’t go the John Green route if you want to be taken seriously as a writer. But Alice, what’s wrong with J. Green? you say. Well, he created a totally made-up new med that supposedly stalled the effects of cancer in one of his MCs, but still killed off the other - who suffered from the same illness - for the sake of the Angst™ and the Bitter Life Lesson™. Just. Don’t be lazy. Do your research. Don’t make up convenient solutions just for the sake of keeping your story going. If your story can’t stand on its own two feet without you making stuff up, then you should probably consider revising it. Unrealistic stuff that can be fact-checked is a synonym for laziness. You don’t want to lose readers for something you could have fixed yourself, right?

Other things to keep in mind when trying to increase your story’s tension: 

[Source] –> click the link for a more in-depth explanation of those points!

Use proper dialogue punctuation. I know, I know. This one will discourage a lot of people. I used to struggle with it too (and I still do at times). English is my second language, so at first I unconsciously used the punctuation rules of my own native language. But having a proper guide on how to do it correctly helps a lot, so check out that link. I promise it’s really easy once you get the hang of it. 

Don’t use characters as plot devices. Just don’t. Every character in your story should have a purpose in the plot, yes, but their entire existence within the story shouldn’t be motivated by that plot point. Doing so is dehumanizing the character. Let them have their agency instead. Let them influence and shape the plot instead of just contributing to it. Give them a personal goal, and make that goal be in the way of another character’s own ambitions. Create tension.

be true to your character’s voice. I know, this sounds obvious. But it’s not. Lots of bad fiction stems from this really simple rule. Keeping true to your Character’s voice includes: not using -or abusing- epithets (such as the other male, the taller man, the blond, the raven, the older one. If your character has a nickname for another character, use the nickname instead of an epithet. Or literally just use the character’s name); not disregarding the character’s moral alignment, ethics or set of values for the sake of justifying your plot decision / your AU; letting your character make mistakes, misbehave, be an asshole because of how fallible they are, even when said misbehavior goes against your personal comfort / your own set of values; as a result of the previous one, not letting your character off the hook that easily just because you personally love said character. 

That’s it for the beginner writers! Now, here’s a list of useful tips that every writer should keep in mind:

Show, don’t tell. Basically, avoid using emotion words as much as you can and try to replace them with action, with body language, with dialogue. I know, it’s hard. I still struggle with this, too. Even authors who’ve already been published struggle with this, too. Don’t be discouraged. It takes a lot of practice, like anything related to writing, but you’ll eventually get there, I promise. 

To practice the tip above, here’s a really helpful guide on how to translate words that convey emotions (tell) into written body language (show). 

A list of words and phrases to cut from your writing. 

I wanted to end this masterpost with a few tips on how to deal with writer’s block. So here goes:

First, you need to realize that writer’s block is a thing, but it doesn’t work the way you think it does. 9 times out of 10, you’re calling “writer’s block” a simple lack of inspiration. But Alice, you say, isn’t lack of inspiration the very essence of writer’s block? It’s really not. Do you think that G.R.R. Martin waited for inspiration to strike before writing every single page of his books? His thicker-than-a-latin-dictionary books? He’d need a hundred lifetimes to make that possible. Not even Tolkien had the entire plot of the Fellowship of the ring figured out past Bilbo’s birthday party. But the Lord of the Rings saga would have never been brought to life if he just gave up, right? inspiration is a fickle thing. It’s not reliable. Plus, it’s kind of a myth that to write good stuff you have to be inspired first. Sometimes you get those random bursts of inspiration and you write pages and pages of your story during an all-nighter, then you reread it the next morning and it’s junk. Inspiration is just that magic moment where words flow more easily than usual. It’s not a qualifier or even a necessary tool for your writing. To write, all you need is your computer, your brain, your eyes and faith in yourself. Sometimes also paper and a pen, but nothing more than that, I promise. Inspiration doesn’t make things perfect. Practice does. 

Seriously, a bad draft is still a hundred times better than no draft at all. Once you write a rough draft, even if it’s shit, you can improve it. The second harsh truth to come to terms with is that not all your drabbles / not all your chapters will be worth five stars out of five in terms of quality. There are days in which you’ll struggle to get 3. And that’s okay, too. The sooner you’ll get past that bump in the road, the sooner you’ll get back to smoother surfaces. The only way you can get zero stars is by not writing. But once you post your bad chapter, you can get it off your chest and start writing a better one. You can go back and fix it later. Or you can accept that the bad chapter was still the best you could do, and move on. Trying to reach perfection every single step of the way will only wear you out before you can get into it. You’ll get so sick of that damned chapter you’ll stop writing altogether. Your story will remain unfinished. No one wants to get to that point, right? So acknowledge that you are human and you can have bad chapters just like you can have bad days. They don’t define your worth as a writer any more than anxiety defines someone’s worth as a person. Now it sounds silly, doesn’t it?

So, you decided to defeat your writing block, but you opened a new document and the blank page is making you lose your confidence all over again. What can you do? Here are some tips that I find useful: 

Brainstorm. During this phase, you need to remember that no idea is a silly idea. You’ll think: but this idea is ridiculous! No one will actually read it! False. For two reasons: one, if it makes you happy, you should write it anyway. Fanwork is the definition of self-indulgent. You’re self-employed, so you don’t have to please anyone else but yourself; and two, there’s always someone interested in a story. In my experience, ALL the fics I expected to be ridiculed for always got a lot more attention and love than those I thought were super interesting :’D Readers are weird. You can’t really predict what will make them go crazy for your story. So you have no excuses. 

So, don’t filter yourself when you’re brainstorming. Even when the ridiculous fic idea is not the one that you end up writing, it does help to have it written down together with all the other ideas. It makes you prioritize. Understand what’s the kind of feeling you’re going for with your story. Plus, ideas are like dominos. Sometimes your brain will make a random connection between two completely disconnected concepts. 

You have a bunch of inconsistent ideas, but no plot. What now? Try following this anon’s advice: “when I’m stuck on writing with no plot, I write down every idea that jumps into my head onto a document, even if it’s stupid. Try to elaborate off of those, change them. If you have a few ideas for a story, think of the next logical thing to happen (and do that, or do something completely different, the opposite of what should happen. Ex: the guy confesses his love to the girl? The girl reveals she’s the traitor).” 

Write an outline. This method works best after you brainstorm for ideas. Pick one of those random, inconsistent ideas and develop it. Write a rough summary of how such a scene would play out. Then add details. Divide it into scenes. Add more characters and backgrounds. Then try and make it more and more detailed until you have the skeleton of your story. An outline doesn’t have to be particularly detailed to work as a basis for your actual story, but adding random touches here and there does help to get you in the mood, or to motivate you. 

Another thing you can do is using prompts. 

Prompt tables are the best for those writers (like me) who don’t like too many restrictions. They’re basically just list of words chosen at random. You can also find specific tables that are meant to fit a particular mood. Back in the days, I used prompt tables as writing practice. I chose one, decided a genre (for example, angst, or slice of life), a fandom and I set a fixed word-count I had to follow strictly (110 words, to be precise). The challenge of writing so little while still making it interesting and worth the read kept me motivated. Also, finishing a table was another big boost to my motivation. It gave me instant validation that came from me and not an external source.

Sentence starters or one liner prompts are also good ways to start. As for the latter, there are dozens of examples here on tumblr. I just did a quick research and these are the first three results: one, two, three.

Situation prompts / AU ideas. Again, there are dozens of examples on tumblr. Here’s a few from my writing prompts tag, as an example: one, two, three. 

Picture prompts. Write the story behind a photo, a piece of art, a mural, a drawing. 

Other tips to overcome writer’s block (some of these I actually used, others are I never tried but people recommended them to me and I think they’re worth a shot):

I know this sounds like the complete opposite of what I said until now, but take breaks. Sometimes ideas just won’t come because you’re subconsciously putting too much pressure on yourself. Maybe you’ve been trying to write that damned scene in your current chapter for the past week, and it just doesn’t come out right. Maybe you’ve been staring at a blank page for an hour. Or maybe you’ve been procrastinating on writing for weeks, so when you finally open that document, you’ve managed to drive yourself into a corner so badly, you can’t write anymore. Pressuring yourself is the worst way you can go about writing. Even if you do manage to write anything down, you’ll end up hating it anyway. So take breaks. Take the afternoon off and go out with a friend. People watch. Go to the mall, take a walk, do whatever helps you relaxing. Read someone else’s writing. Do the most mundane things you can think of. The best writing ideas are those down to earth. You don’t need to rack your brain for a liteary masterpiece. Start small. Get a feel for day-to-day struggles, and you’ll find the perfect motivator for your character, or the missing piece for that background story you were having troubles with. 

Retell your day / something that happened to you today through your character’s voice. It doesn’t have to be anything perfect, or deep. You don’t even need to publish it afterwards. It just needs to get you going. 

If you’re struggling with the word flow, pick an object in your room (or a picture) and describe it. Then create a character and have them interact with it. Build a silly story around it. Again, this is just an exercise to help you get going. No one needs to read it afterwards. 

Having troubles with plotting and outlines? Try writing your story backwards. 

If your struggling with a scene, switch things up a little. Change POV. Make something go wrong. Skip to the next scene and then go back to that one when you have a clearer mind. 

I think that’s it!