It can be tricky, since you have to be as clever and sneaky as your characters are! Watch lots of spy movies and read lots of secret agent books.

Also, the entire mystery genre should be useful for you. It’ll help you pick up tricks on weaving together a complicated plot and thinking like someone who ALMOST got away with murder…

But as for more actionable advice, I don’t have much to share. I’m still figuring out a spy character of my own, and realizing that it’s hard to be as smart as your characters are.

However, my idol clevergirlhelps has a beautiful collection of posts on spies.

Clevergirlhelps’ tag page for “spies”

Hope that helps!

Network/Platform. Make friends with readers and other writers. Leave comments on other people’s writing. There’s so much free writing out there on the internet, that the chances that someone’s going to stumble upon yours and actually read it is very low. Build a platform. 

Make sure it’s aesthetically pleasing and readable. The truth is, people will judge a book by its cover. When I’m looking for a book to read online, I will judge it by its cover. If the cover is crap, I won’t even click in. Same goes for stuff posted on blogs: if the blog theme is ugly and the text is hard to read, I close the tab and move on. 

Promote it. Find ways to do it. Maybe there’s a list you can add it to, a group you can join, or maybe you have a following somewhere else or want to cultivate one. Other more social writing sites, or maybe enter it in a competition? Using the right keywords/tags also helps. 

Rebekah Discusses Her CW Degree

I had previously responded privately, but these questions are pretty widespread so I’m going to answer it publicly in case anyone else has these same questions. I have to stress that creative writing programs vary from school to school, and whether or not it’s the right decision depends on the individual, but I’m going to share my personal experience of getting my creative writing degree.

What kinds of things do you do? What kind of work will one be doing in the classes?

My first year of college mainly consisted of basic requirements - composition, math, science, history, ect. But I managed to secure a scholarship that allowed me to work one-on-one with one of my future creative writing professors my freshmen year. So I met with her weekly to discuss my writing, and work on one freshmen project, which in my case was a draft of a novel. This was incredibly beneficial because I got to know one of my professors before actually taking her classes, but it’s not something every school offers.

In later semesters, however, I started taking writing workshops. Class sizes were around 12-15 people, and we’d usually have about 4 major writing assignments per semester. Each class period we would workshop 2 of the students’ work, until we’d gone through everybody. Then, we’d start the next cycle of workshops.

Workshop structure depends on the professor, but how it traditionally worked was the writer was not allowed to speak during their workshop. The class discussed their work, while the writer took notes of the feedback. Then, at the very end, the writer was allowed to ask questions. The class would then turn in copies of the story with their margin notes for the writer to review. The professor also reviewed the work and would give different parts of the story a score of 1-5, and then she took the average to get an overall grade.

My professors were usually good about grading you against yourself. If you improved, you would get better marks.

In addition to the workshops, I took lots and lots and lots of literature classes. This is just as important as your writing classes, because you get exposed to various authors and types of books, and you learn how to analyze and discuss them from a critical perspective. For me personally, I pursued a minor in psychology so I took several psychology classes throughout my college career as well. I would advise picking a minor unrelated to writing that interests you to expand your knowledge into other subject areas.

Your school will likely offer workshops in fiction, poetry, and possibly script writing, so I encourage you to go outside your usual comfort zone at least once. I had to take a poetry workshop, but I ended up being grateful for the requirement because it taught me a lot about writing lyrical and poetic prose that enhanced my fiction. I even had a class where you specialized in either fiction or poetry, and once a week I met with my fiction counterparts to discuss fiction, and during the second session of the week, we’d meet with the poetry group to discuss both. This was one of my favorite workshops that I remember.

As you go through your semesters, your professors expect more of you, but the workshops also become more fun. My senior workshop only had 5 students, and our professor had us meet every class period at a coffeeshop on campus. These sessions were more laid-back, and our professor was pretty quiet during the workshops, letting our peers do most of the talking. We’d schedule private sessions with her during office hours to get her real opinions, and she’d always give us in-depth write-ups on our work.

The creative writing major amounts to a lot of writing, of course, but sometimes you’re not free to write the things you really want to write. Most college professors are biased against fantasy or any sort of genre because they want students to focus on characterization within simple plots, before they try to take on anything too complex. It’s a good method, but sometimes it made me less enthusiastic when it came to turning in assignments. I wrote many things I was very proud of, but I didn’t always have fun writing them.

It was an intense four years, but I wrote more during those four years than I ever have, because not only was I writing for classes, I was writing fan fiction on the side as a means of escape. I think those assignments challenged me to get better, and I had the wisdom of professors that had actually published books. They were nurturing, though sometimes frustrating to work with. But I owe them a great deal for the lessons they taught me. Lessons that I still use in my own writing, and lessons I share with all of you guys.

Is it hard? Is it time-consuming?

Yes and yes lol. But to be honest, it’s also a lot of fun. You’re a liberal arts major, so you’re taking classes in literature, history, philosophy, and other subjects you might find interesting. Those classes sometimes require a lot of essay writing and heavy reading, and it might seem like such a burden at the time, but looking back on it, each of those classes was valuable to my background as a writer.

And college should be hard. If it’s too easy, you might as well save your money for something else. 

What are some things you can do with your major?

If you’re serious about being a writer, you might go to grad school and get your MFA (master of fine arts). If you enjoy your undergrad degree, this could be a logical step. Those who get their MFA often become writing professors, and while there’s no guarantee of publication, often times those with MFAs grow into fantastic writers because they’ve spent so much time on such intensive study. Usually they’re the ones that write all those writing craft books that we see so much of (and that I personally love reading). But don’t misunderstand me - you can still be very serious about being a writer without pursuing an MFA.

If you decide early enough, you might also go into publishing. If this is something you find interesting, you can explore internships during your summer vacations, or even work on the school’s literary journal (they most likely have one if they have a creative writing major). There are also programs you can enroll in after you graduate that last about 6 months that teach you all about the industry and get you up close with professionals in the business that you can network with and get advice from.

A creative writing degree isn’t necessary to work in publishing, but I think studying the craft of writing for four years helps you in evaluating what’s actually good and perhaps what might sell, so I think it’s a good match.

As for me, my creative writing major made me into a better communicator. It strengthened my writing skills, and it took my shy, reserved personality and helped me grow into someone that’s more confident and composed in expressing herself. I’ve touted that my degree is in English more often than Creative Writing because employers love English degrees. Sure, we don’t have practical, technical experience, but it usually means we’re well spoken, analytical, and creative, and these days those things are assets.

I didn’t have a lot of success right out of school in terms of employment, but after a couple of years, I discovered how much I loved working in libraries, and five years later I’ve worked my way up from shelver to a more senior position. Because I work with books, I never lose my motivation to be a writer, and I still use all of the knowledge I gained in college to help me pursue that. Did I need a creative writing major to work in a library? No. Could I have chosen a major that would have directly resulted in employment? Perhaps, and perhaps I’d be more well off if I had, but I don’t regret the path I’ve chosen. I value that education, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Do I recommend being a creative writing major?

I can’t possibly advise anyone without knowing them personally, but I can say that you shouldn’t use a creative writing major as a stepping stone to being a successful, famous author. It isn’t as though you’ll be meeting with agents, editors, or publishers your senior year like a job fair. Creative writing degrees help you become better writers. They don’t help you get published. 

You can still go to school for something else and make time for writing. You can still educate yourself and improve your writing without a creative writing degree. You can still be a successful writer without a creative writing degree. Being a creative writing major doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to live off your writing. It doesn’t guarantee you employment.

What it does do is challenge you as a writer, and it gives you access to published authors that are interested in you, and want to see you get better, and who care about your writing health. It helps you improve your interpersonal and analytical skills, which are certainly good things to have when you do enter the job market. 

Don’t be afraid of voicing your concerns with your professors. One regret I do have is not confiding in them about my employment worries sooner. If you’re in the midst of a creative writing degree, and you’re starting to get scared how you’ll find a job, talk to your professors. There are lots of jobs in this industry you can do with your degree, and they can help you find the right connections and resources to get started on the right foot out of school. 

This was long, but I don’t want anyone to misconstrue my experience as either solely good or solely bad. My education has its advantages and disadvantages, just like all degrees. It’s ultimately up to you, and the goals that you have will determine whether or not it’s a good fit for you. 

I’m always happy to answer any questions about the creative writing major. I do request that if anyone has additional questions, please ask off-anon or use the message feature so I can answer them privately. 

Good luck to my original asker!

I started to answer this question, but it got really complicated really fast. So, I’m going to give you half the answer here and half the answer in a day or two in a more complicated post.

Because this depends. You didn’t give much detail, so I don’t know how to help you. Your character can be one of two things, and each of these will have vastly different answer:

An illiterate character in an illiterate society (oral society)

An illiterate character in a literate society

Option 1: If your character was born in an illiterate society, where no one reads and actually a written language does not exist, then your question is very complicated. This is called an oral society, and the mental processes of people who live in oral societies is vastly different than those from written societies. [read more here if you want]. Explaining this is where my answer started to get complicated, so I'll go into much more detail for this topic in a few days.

Option 2: I’m assuming your character fits in here: an illiterate person in a society where a written language exists. This might be a person in modern day USA (which might be associated with feelings of shame/embarrassment), a bandit during the middle ages (where it’s completely normal), or some other situation.

But character-wise, consider how your character feels about their inability to read. Also, it’s possible that your character will know a handful of words just from exposure, so think about what words might be most common, and thus understandable. Back to the bandit example, he might recognize “tavern” because it’s written the same in every village, so he knows what that word means.

Some great sources for you!

Hope this helps.

My inclination is to say, “no.” But, at the same time, that’s an entirely subjective, aesthetic, preference. I dislike onomatopoeia; but if it works for you, use it. It’s not my place to tell you, “you can’t do that.”

Really.

There are no rules.

Well, grammar; you should probably follow basic grammar and spelling.

But, when it comes to actually writing? No. A lot of the rules that say, “you can’t do that,“ aren’t ironclad. Your job as a writer is to convey information to the reader. There’s no absolutes regarding how you convey that information. So long as it’s being communicated clearly, everything else builds towards what you want to say.

Come to think of it, there are a lot of writers who have utterly mauled good grammar and spelling in pursuit of presenting their story. So, even that rule isn’t completely ironclad. Though, this is one to be very careful about breaking.

The question you should be asking is, “does this feed into the kind of story I want to tell?” If the answer is yes, then you’re fine. You don’t need anyone to sanction that.

Good advice will point you in the right direction. Sometimes it’ll say, “this won’t really work the way you want it to.” Sometimes, especially from us, it’ll be, “the real world doesn’t work this way.” But, a flat, “no, you can’t do that,” is probably not good advice.

In general: look for writing advice when you want to do something, but can’t figure out how to make it work. Don’t ask for permission.

Keep backups of what you’re writing. Always keep backups. Try it. See if it works. If it doesn’t, you’ve still got the backups.

Write what you want. If it doesn’t work, ask for help; not permission. You don’t need anyone’s permission to try.

-Starke

I'm trying to write a bisexual relationship between two girls. I'm not a bisexual so it's hard for me to write moments about them. Plus i don't know if I'm writing anything offensive. One of the girls is an antisocial type of girl. The next one is more a wild caring girl.

My natural instinct is just to tell you to write it first as if it were a relationship between two straight people. Heaven knows there’s a ton of that floating around so I’m sure you have a good idea of what that is like. The fundamentals of romance and attraction are the same between two interested parties, it’s just that now the genders of said interested parties are the same. 

Once you have the fundamentals of the actual relationship down, you can also consider other social implications, how comfortable with their own sexuality or relationship, how their peers, friends or family react to it, etc. 

However, I say all this as someone who is not bisexual. The best thing you can probably do is research. Do you know any bisexual girls who are in relationships? Can you find some? Ask them questions, learn about their experiences. There are also plenty of other resources on various writing blogs, try our tags page or any other writing blogs’ tags. Research and understanding is the best preventative medicine for writing something offensive. 

Hope that helps!

How do you write a story blog. I'm confused on how to start a website for just my writing. how would you draw attention to it. I've tried for a while to set it up but it stinks

I won’t lie to you, it is very hard to get people interested in your writing if you’re just posting it online to a blog or website. It is simply a medium that requires more time to consume than perhaps just an image, and especially if you’re not in a community like tumblr. 

I simply recommend that you set up your blog or website and post your writing regularly, whether or not it gets attention. And, to that point, don’t expect attention, especially not right away. It may take you weeks or months to even get even a small audience. When it comes to blogs though, consistency is key. Set yourself a schedule and post on that schedule as much as you possibly can. If you regularly update with original content people are much more likely to find and follow you. 

When it comes to promoting your website there are a couple routes you can take but none of them will guarantee an instant audience or anything like that. I think it’s important to remember that everyone is trying to do the same thing too- get their work out there and read. And if everyone’s trying to get their work read instead of reading work, of course nothing is going to happen. You can post in tags on tumblr, I know #spilledink is popular. Not only post in that tag but also go through that tag and follow other people’s writing blogs. Talk to them, see if they’re willing to also take a look at your work. Most of your audience will probably be composed of other writers! Reciprocation will go a long way! 

You can also check out other writing communities like Figment, Wattpad, etc. They often have forums where you can post your website to maybe attract some more viewers. 

Like I said, it’s really easy to get discouraged because you have little to no attention at the beginning. You have to understand that a lot of people are frankly just not interested. Get to know other writers, reciprocate interest, develop some writing buddies, post regularly, promote yourself as much as possible! Good luck!

Yes! It is definitely okay to do multiple chosen ones, and if nothing else, dual chosen ones is a twist on the trope that has also been done effectively by several authors. Don’t let how many times something has been done stop you from writing the story that you want to write. 

I honestly think the chosen one trope is a matter of preference. In the way that readers love a certain genre, many readers love to see how a character responds when a destiny is forced upon them. Do they embrace it or run away from it? It’s the type of trope that can be made quite different from story to story depending on the character and their reaction to it. Also, the chosen one trope is at the center of mostly fantasy and science fiction stories, and one “chosen one” story can be vastly different from another just based on the world it takes place in and the agenda of your antagonist. 

Also, if you’re early into the story, you might discover a more complex foundation for your chosen one explanation as you write more and more of it. Because our stories always deepen as we write them, and we learn more about our worlds than we did in the planning stages. 

I will, however, give one example of my favorite departure of the chosen one trope that I don’t think gets enough credit. The novel A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray has a character that possesses a unique ability that no one else seems to have, and while I was fully prepared for it to be explained as “she was chosen,” I was pleased to find a logical explanation for her ability towards the end of the novel. I thought it was nice, and it made me love a story I was already in love with that much more. I also liked that the protagonist was motivated by personal desire in the beginning, as opposed to a need to save the world. But the characters were compelling, the concept was intriguing, and I love the worlds that she built, so even if she had gone the “chosen one” route, I think I still would have enjoyed the novel. Her ability to do more with the trope just made me love it more. 

Ultimately though, don’t get rid of the chosen ones if it’s going to stop you from writing right now. If throwing this concept out means you have to sit in the planning stage for several more weeks, don’t get rid of it. Go with the idea that will get you writing sooner, and never completely throw out an idea just because one person tells you that you should. Because if you throw something out as soon as someone says they don’t like it, you might never discover there’s a dozen others that love it. So go with your gut and write what you most want to write.