#writersmindset

Welcome, Fellow Writers!

Are you ready to breathe life into your characters and have them leap from the page into the hearts of your readers? Good! Developing characters is one of the greatest enjoyments for writing fiction. So let's get started on this great journey of discovery!

1. Get to Know Your Characters

Before you write convincing characters, you need to really know them. Think of your characters as human beings with past histories, dreams, and flaws. Here are some ways to get to know them better:

Backstory:

What in their past has made them who they are?

Did they have a happy childhood?

Were there any traumatizing events?

This will often determine motivations and actions.

For example, if your character has been brought up in an orphanage, they may have trust issues or perhaps independence.

Personality Traits:

Are they introverted or extroverted, pessimistic or optimistic?

Knowing their core personality will help project what their actions and reactions would be like in a given set of circumstances.

Perhaps your protagonist, Emma, is an extroverted optimist who lights up a room with brightness, even in dire situations.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Nobody is perfect, and your characters shouldn't be either.

Make the characters more human by giving them something both admirable and a flaw that rounds them out.

Emma can be wonderfully brave but very impulsive, leading her sometimes to heroism and other times to disastrous folly.

2. Establish Clear Goals and Motivation:

Characters need goals for the plot to have direction and motivations to explain why they pursue those goals. Ask yourself:

What do they want?

Their wants vary from saving the world to searching for love to achieving personal redemption.

Emily, a draftsman, aches to be a famous explorer, a dream her long-dead father never attained.

Why do they want it?

This can be found in their backstory and personality.

Perhaps Emma's father was an explorer who went missing on a wild search, and now she feels a deep need to carry on his legacy and find out what happened to him.

3. Show People, Activities, and Scenery

Dynamic characters tend to rebuild and alter throughout the story. This is often based on life's complications and conflicts. Here's how to effectively outline your character growth:

Conflict:

Put your characters in situations that push them as far as possible.

These challenges force them to make uncomfortable choices and face their flaws.

For example, Emma has to decide whether to save a friend, testing her bravery and impulsiveness.

Reactions:

Show how your characters react to these challenges.

Do they rise to the occasion, or do they struggle and fail? Both outcomes can lead to growth.

Emma might fail to save her friend due to her impulsive nature, marking a turning point for her.

Introspection:

Allow these moments of introspection to your characters.

They allow readers to understand the change in them.

Emma could sit near a bonfire and reflect on her father's legacy and how to become a better leader.

4. Cultivate Relationships

People's relationships with others often define their personality. It might be a friendship bond, family attachment, or enmity; all reveal different dimensions of personality and contribute to character development. Consider:

Allies and Friends:

Allies and friends usually have your best interest at heart, but sometimes they could work in opposition to you.

How would they impact your protagonist's decisions and developments over time?

Emma's best friend, Leo, might argue with a lot of her decisions, making her more thoughtful.

Opponents and Antagonists:

An antagonist challenges the characters, putting them in situations where growth comes from unexpected places.

A realistic rival for Emma could be a highly skilled but ruthless explorer who pushes Emma to reconsider her methods.

Love Interests:

Romantic relationships show vulnerability and may drive change.

Falling in love with a local guide might teach Emma the importance of patience and planning.

5. Use Dialogue Effectively

Dialogue is a great way to develop a character. It reveals personality, conveys emotions, and shows growth. Consider:

Voice:

Each character should have a distinct voice corresponding to their background, personality, and state of mind.

Emma might use exuberant, adventurous language while Leo might be cautious and thoughtful.

Subtext:

Sometimes the unspoken part holds more meaning than what is said.

Use subtext to add depth to your dialogue.

For instance, when Emma says, "I don't need help," it could mean she's afraid of showing weakness.

Conflict and Resolution:

Show characters responding to conflict through dialogue and illustrate how interactions escalate.

Emma and Leo can argue about the best way forward, expressing their viewpoints and eventually finding a resolution.

6. Show, Don't Tell

Instead of telling readers about a character's trait, show it through actions, dialogue, and inner thoughts. For instance:

Telling: John was brave.

Showing: John entered the dark alley; his heart was pounding, but his will remained unflinching.

7. Ensure Consistency and Believability

Make sure your characters act within the line of their personalities and motivations. If they do something that feels unnatural, believe there are reasons for the change. This makes the development of the characters organic and reliable. If Emma becomes reserved, note the experiences that lead to the change.

8. Reflect Real Human Experience

Great characters reflect the complexity of real human experience. They have doubts, make mistakes, and aren't always likable. This complexity makes them richer and more engaging. Perhaps Emma makes a selfish decision that puts her team at risk, creating tension and growth.

9. Foils and Contrasts

Foils are characters set against your main character, highlighting their traits and growth. By setting a character with opposite traits next to the protagonist, you highlight their development. Zara's ruthlessness can highlight Emma's growing sense of responsibility and ethics.

10. Be Flexible

Hello guys. I was on a hiatus for a long time. Apologies. but I'm back now and with an interesting topic to discuss. Yup! It is about the POV's of the story. Many a times I switch POV while writing a story, if you're reading my stuff even for a month, you might know that I write horror, paranormal or fantasy stories, with first person POV. and when I'm outlining these stories I outline in third person, see there I make the mistake and hence keep on switching between POV. And all my dear writerly friends take a lesson from my mistake and do not outline and write your stories in two different POV. So here's what I've learnt from all the experienced authors. I'll try and put all the information that I've learnt in over a month into this post.

First Person POV:

First person POV is the voice of the character. It is where the narration is done by the main character himself. The whole story will be told according one single person: main character or multiple first person POV, these are mostly used in thriller genre. While writing these POV the writer must remember they writing in only one point of view and that it is impossible for the main character to know what the other character is thinking or feeling.

First person POV is my favourite POV to write in. I'll tell you why, first person POV as many people say are easy capture a readers attention as the pronouns I and we help to put the reader in character's shoes instantly. But, if the content in the book isn't that appealing putting the reader in main character's shoes is however not gonna be easy. Plus, it is easy to write as long as you have a good control over your own mind so that you can slip into your character's mind and write the character's story in your character's voice, not yours.

On the flip side the first person POV are mostly considered as immature as many as times this type of POV is a favourable choice for a Y/A novel where the main character is a teenager who has the teen's traits to be whiny. As easy as it sounds, writing a first person POV is difficult AF. As a writer you don't get to put what you think in the story. You have to strictly write about what the character thinks.

First person doesn't have types. So you are strictly to follow the first person pov you cannot dabble around, changing POV's.

Third person POV

This is a type where narration is done by a person who is not involved in the story. Third person POV is like the little voice everywhere that follows the character's journey and puts them on paper. Third person gives you choices. You heard me right. Third person POV are of three types.

Third person limited

Third person omniscient

Third person multiple

1. Third person limited

In this type of POV the narration is done by the voice in the air, but the voice is like the ghost of the main character who only know what the main character will do and feel. In third person limited the narrator could never know what the person other than main character is thinking. It is similar to first person POV.

2. Third person omniscient

In third person omniscient the narrator is like god. He knows each and everything of the main and other characters. This type might get difficult to write as the writer can easily lose the essence of various characters and write in his own voice. Also it might turn confusing because we call everyone by he, she or it.

3. Third person multiple.

In this type the narrator uses POV of multiple characters to develop the story. The reader gets to know every character's mindset and feelings. But it is real challenge for the writer to keep up with multiple characters and their personalities. Hence its considered a little tough POV type.

Second person pov

In this type the narrator makes use of the words like 'you' to tell the story to the reader. It's the story of one person being told to the other in you format. This type is very less seen in literature. Bright lights big city book I'd the example of second person POV.

That's all I got for you today. Say hello to me at Instagram: Weavingdreams0 or tweet me at P_Eva 05

Until then

Happy writing,

Every story has some or other kind of conflict, a conflict is a kind of hindrance between the main characters and its goals. Let us take a look at all those elements that's compose a story and not just a story but a gripping fiction book.

The main characters and his/her's sidekick.

The main character should be completely drafted, it should not only have strengths, but also flaws and weakness that makes it more realistic. The flaws or imperfections do not need to be big, like a laid back employee is actually a night time serial killer. The flaws could be small but also provide value to the plot, or the pacing or story.

For instance, Kelsey, a high school teen is a straight A student, but is introvert and keeps things to herself, she has only one friend. The last time she tried to talk with a guy, he ignored her desperately and thought she was just too nerd with glasses and hair pulled up in plaits. She is aspiring medical student, who wants to fly away from her country to be as far from her aggressive father as possible, but she will have to go to another city with a group of five unknown people to get an A in one of her Subject and she dreads the trip.

See ? In the above paragraph Kelsey is a straight a student, has a best friend and an amazing family, but with her shyness she is not able to make friends with anybody and boys think they are better away from her. Just a small flaw or things that keep the main character from achieving her goals works great.

These flaws serves as an internal conflict for the story. Now coming to the supporting people of your mc, which means the love interests and the sidekicks. I've seen this in my indie books, the side kick and love interests of mc are sometimes present just for the sake of having a friend or boyfriend. Writer, do some justice with their fellow besties, don't you think they deserve some back story and flaws and perfections just like your mc. I'm not asking you to put two whole pages for their description, but a small paragraph is enough.

Conflict

Without a conflict the story seems dragging, boring and forces you to put it back on the shelf. So putting up the hurdles in the character's way of achieving goals can turn out promising thing to do.

To add more drama, provide your mc with two goals, so that your mc has to sacrifice one to get another.

Make the flaw of your mc the main ingredient to achieve their goal and then show how they take up hardship to polish their flaw and what changes they undergo as a human in general.

Give them internal and external conflict. The internal conflict being the way that they feel about certain things, maybe they don't like cheating to get to a certain job, its against their moral. And the external conflict can be the competition for the job is between her and another man who is a Harvard graduate and as much talented as she is, but he is willing to do the illegitimate thing he company asks him to do. To make matters even worse he is the brother of her ex best friend and he hates her deeply.

Keep subplots ready, the much required element of the story, which pushes the story ahead- the subplots. Those are the teeny weeny happenings in the story that happens between the start point till the mc achieves his goal. A subplot too contains conflict but a minor one, where the small fight with neighbour over his car erupts.

But always be aware of the amount of conflict and drama you put in. A lot of action scenes (conflict) can make the story too fast and can even confuse the reader. In case of conflict In subplot, make sure those are relevant and related to stories or else, if the subplots describe some incident which are left unnoticed or unanswered I'm next chapters, till the end, you need to think about them again, as in do you really need them ?

A main point in keeping fiction reals is don't exaggerate the conflict and the love scenes. Not everyone's life are constantly bad and not everyone's lives are constantly happy. So try to balance of the story with equal or relative amounts of happy, sad, angry, and hilarious moments.

Further will be discussed tomorrow.

That's all for today. A New announcement, I've started a YouTube channel which is weavingdreams0 its about poetries and soon I'll be posting some writerly stuff. Also you can check out quotes on Instagram :Weavingdreams0 or tweet me on twitter @P_Eva05

My pinterest ID is weavingdreams0

We have various ways to outline our stories. Many of the writers focus on characters where as writers like me love the focus on the plot and play with it. For me the story idea comes as a form of scene or situation for some they might first think of a character and then weave a story around them. Outlining is essential when it comes to build a strong plot.

So, whatever the format might be we all need to at least prepare a five page outline of the same. Without the outline we would be trapped in an endless loop of conflict and relief kinda thing. So here is what I do when I outline. These steps may or may not be similar to you, but these steps might help you to build your story.

1. Writing down your plot ideas on a paper: I think of the scene that had just flashed a couple of minutes ago before I started to write this article. The scene was about fire and love, something correlated - how ? I don't know. The second step comes to weave something around the same topic fire and love. What can the possibilities be? Maybe whenever they touch there will be fire around them ? Maybe both are the fire gods' descendants. It can be pretty much anything. So jot down the ideas. PS. Please don't use this idea, I'm trusting you guys. Any how this is a published, copywrited story on wattpad.

2. Putting the ideas in chronological order. This is very important while outlining. The scenes or even rough ideas of what will happen after what.

3. Think of the character now. Who he/she is? Is she tall or short with straight black hair or curled up blonde hair. Think of her eyes, are innocent, almond shaped or wild, catlike, if they are wild, catlike, is she really wild in her nature or she pretends to be wild- I guess this trope is overused, so let's put a innocent, short, girl with large almond shaped eyes, straight nose with piercing and black curls with highlight. And now try to put her into plot. Think of what all difficulties she will have to face while leaving in a strict house where piercing are considered are doing of wayward kids. Make a basic character chart of their external appearance, and their traits. BASIC.

In short play with your characters and plot until you move towards next topic.

3. The supportives and love interest. I guess you all have thought of supportive characters when you were plotting out scenes. The supportive consists of the friends, family and love interest (only if you want to keep one) Is your main character's family with her traditions or against her. Are her friends supportive about most of her decisions or critical. Or they just don't care? Does she have any love interest ? Or will she meet in the story further.

4. Now tap into her back story, under what conditions she was born. How did she meet her friends? If she had an ex, how did they dated and what was the reason for their break up. Maybe you can use it to create more conflict.

5. Once you have all these things think about the setting. Is it an ancient or modern story? Is it taking place in small town, countryside or huge city? Is you main character studying, working or too old for both the things, then describe the character's school, office or home, respectively.

6. Now you might have enough knowledge of how your character looks and what her nature basically is like, so start interviewing them. An questions about every small and big thing you want to know from them. Their reactions on certain things etc.

That's all you need before you start writing your story, once you've finished these steps you can start writing. So everybody enjoy your writing hours and I'll enjoy mine. See you all later!

Until then,

Happy writing!

Adiós!

Some five prompts which might help you write something. These were used on our Instagram page for a writing challenge. There are word prompts, picture prompts, dialogue prompts and situation prompts. Write on whichever you want.

I would love to read the stories you've wrote. Feel free to send me a link via tumblr or Instagram. Maybe we can have a writerly chat. And if you think you know a friend who has a writer's block or is trying to start a new story, help her out by sharing this article. Enjoy!

Now you might think, what next? Next came the one month long hefty writer's block where juggled back and forth between one of my old wip and the current wip, when finally on Christmas I took break from the writing as whole. Directly, on first of January, I came out with a plan to beat this block from the root. I figured I had written pretty one dimensional characters, let me be honest, the characters were as thin as a tissue paper. They sucked. And I made the biggest mistake of my entire writing process during nanowrimo, I let the excitement get to my brain and glanced past the importance of goal of character in a story. This had left me with nothing to proceed the story further. Then I realised I was the dumbest fool of all times. I surfed through the web to find out what could be done and many blogs showed a list of questions which a writer could ask his character to determine its personality and goal. I kind of compressed the list into main five question which you could use to determine the goal and also the back story of your characters.

1. Is your character by any means depressed, frustrated or annoyed with her current situation ?

The most important thing is to figure out what is causing trouble to your character that will help you to create a goal. The thing whose emptiness kills your character will make the goal which he/she needs to achieve. Which is in turn related to the next question.

2.Does it really bother them if that particular thing is not near them? If it does make it the goal and step into another thing.

3.What steps need to be taken to achieve the goal ?

Let the characters know what necessary steps are needed to read the top of ladder. And then do something which will prohibit them from climbing the ladder, altogether. Which brings to next question.

4. What is stopping them from taking those steps?

Now here the main reason for their setbacks or hindrance will be the antagonist or even they themselves. Many a times there are no particular villains in the story, but the protagonist's feelings, emotions, morals, beliefs come in their way to get certain things.

5. What will they do to tackle the hindrance?

After realising who is stopping them from achieving their dreams they need to work against those and try to get off the barrier.

So the last thing you get out of this questionnaire is the main things that character will achieve after tackling all the barriers and taking the required measure. Jot down all the answers to this questions, you'll soon be ready with a solid character's goal, which will help you drive the plot.

If you find this content incomplete or are any doubts be sure to ping me up over here or on any social media listed below. I'll be happy to help you guy.

Twitter : P_Eva05

Instagram: weavingdreams0

Pinterest: weavingdreams0

Until then, Happy writing!

Hello all the writerly peeps. What's the most important aspect of a story ?

The plot

The characters

And the story, right ?

Because other than all these aspects the way you write matters a lot. Imagine this, if you pick up a book, which has promising characters, strong plot, unbelievably natural romance, but it is written in a non consistent format, will you read it. Will you read a book which has no specific writing style whatsoever ? Or a writing style which is monotonous ?

I probably won't.

Every person has his/her unique way for writing and that is the only thing ( other than creative thinking ) which is needed to judge whether the book will go a hit or a fail.

Enough of my rant, let's get straight to the point, for all those beginners in writing the main question they face is: how to develop a writing style which is unique for them. There are two way you guys could do them. One will be discussed now and the other my personal way will be discussed in next blog.

The most important thing in writer's life is reading.

Read :

Read a lot and varied kind of books, starting from fiction to non fiction. Reading books will help you come across the way the writer writes the story. But while reading don't read for the pleasure of reading, instead read each line with care and look out for the way the author has written any particular concept. Or the way he has described certain trait of a character. (Focus on classics. Don't get overwhelmed by the language, reading classics and contemporary novels help develop a fluid writing style, that flows perfectly in a readers imagination)

Mimick

Pick a book you enjoyed reading or the author you love and open the favourite scene from the story.

Read the paragraph or chapter you loved carefully. Go through the words he/she has written. Understand each and every concept. Later, put the book aside and write down the part of the story you just read and try to sound like the author. Try to remember what you felt as you read the story, how intricate his words sounded as you read and try to write in the same way, but don't copy. Don't use the exact sentence structure or words, add your own twist to the write. And see how this turns out. Do this regularly and record your progress. After twenty days or something, go through all your writeup / ask someone to go through your write up and ask yourself or the people if there are any noticeable changes in your writing style.

Increase your vocabulary

It takes time to learn new words and build up an amazing vocabulary, but nothing's impossible. You wanna become an author then you gotta do the hard work. I won't ask you to read story with words you don't know their meanings at all, but simply go to google and think of a situation where you are angry and then go and search the synonyms for the same word. Or search for the words that shows expressions and make some weird sentence out the answers you get from the search result.

For eg. The word quick has multiple synonyms like swift, fast, instantly, etc.

Pick the word you like and make a sentence out of it, just so you remember the word for future use. I take: swift.

Her palm landed on his face in a swift motion.

If you practice this everyday for ten to fifteen minutes and remember the words

Use the words that come naturally to your mind.

Readers can easily pin point whether the writing is natural or forced. Meaning, you don't want to sound extravagant with high class, heavy words, which don't fit the mood of your content. I said earlier to google synonyms and use them in writing, but be careful with them, make sure the words fit the context of your story perfectly. And make sure your readers understand what you are writing.

Be precise as you write.

Don't ramble. Write things in a very short and precise manner so that you readers don't get overwhelmed with the description of same feeling over and over and over and over and over again.

I hope this post helped you. I tried to mention all the things in a nutshell, because I know the struggle to stand out is hard as f*ck. In the next post I'll be discussing my personal method of developing your own writing style. Till then stay tuned.

Head over to Instagram of you'd like to see my writings, my Instagram id: @weavingdreams0

See you all tomorrow.

Till then happy writing

Eva

Adiós

Writing after a break of couple of months can make you feel lazy and your procrastinator meter will be high. In a case where you have returned from a vacation or just started writing after four weeks keep in mind to not to stress yourself.

1. Stressing yourself

If you can't think of words to put the scene on paper - do not worry. Open a blank document and put down all the words you think might fit the scene. Start a new paragraph and start arranging the words in a sensible manner. After that kick off your writing for the day and busy yourself in reading.

When you'll have your incomplete work waiting for you, you'll be drawn to it just like the protagonist is drawn to the ghosts in house. Let the ghost of your story linger in your mind, after all you need to ignite the excitement of writing your story after a long time. After that...

2. Visit the past.

As mentioned in my previous post make sure that you go through all the character charts and their back story. This will freshen up the scenes and plots and the characters mannerism. Give yourself time to go through the back stories and make changes if you feel they are necessary.

3. The next day

The next day sit down to write the actual content from where you had left the day before. Let me tell you, even on the second day you'll feel tired and lazy to write, but writer nevertheless. Think of your work like your crush, whom you can see only for few minutes, say 20 minutes. Set an alarm and start writing whatever that comes to your mind about the story. Recollect the time (yesterday) when you felt like writing more and then write. Once the alarm goes off stop writing.

4. Start reviewing

Once the alarm goes off start reviewing and correcting whatever you've written. Continue this process until you are comfortable everyday to come back the same time and write without feeling pressurised or stressed to do so. Once you've set your routine don't stop to edit.

That's all I got for you today. Any art be it writing, dancing or painting needs the burning passion. Without passion there won't be any art.

See you my dear readers. I'll make sure to get back to you same time on same page. Hang on for writerly feed. Comment below if you have any questions which you want to be answered in my next post. This page is all about writers and helping them. Lots of love to y'all. Until then, happy writing. Adiós.

I've been writing horror fiction since 2014 which sums up to 5 years and during that period I've learnt quite a few things about that genre. As a fiction writers, we need to describe the character, but in horror and fantasy the characters and even the setting might be a bit complicated to describe with then distorted faces and bloody environment.

So today I'm gonna rant about horror fiction. Till what I have learnt is, in horror fiction you need to include all of your senses. The touch, the visuals, the smell, the sounds and the taste. Taste will add an extra spice to your story which will help you emphasize the scenario deeply. For example if you just explained a room covered with blood like this: He saw the walls of room painted with scarlet . The way the thick liquid dripped from the ceiling on the floor, confirmed it as blood. This will sound boring and straightforward,which won't help to engage readers. You need your readers to be immersed in the book, so maybe this will look great: The air was sour. He stepped inside the room, his eyes fixed on the scarlet liquid that dripped from the ceiling on the floor. He could smell the fresh scent that water leaves behind on iron. The smell of rust and salt. At an eerie moment as this, he could feel nothing, but the dampness beneath his feet made by the sticky thick spot of the liquid which he now confirmed as blood. A loud screech bursted from the corner of the room. John jumped on his feet, as he hurdled into the handkerchief size room he banged his head against something hard, something smelly.

If you could involve all the senses it will have an amazing effect on the readers. Other few tricks which you could use are the, using shirt sentences and dialogues. Second, do not use the word ‘sudden’ third and the most important, create sympathy for your victim : main characters. Make your main characters as poor little things as possible. This will make your reader feel deeply about them.

That's all for today. Make sure you write everyday only then you'll be able to write amazing stories. Much love.

Happy writing everybody!

Adiós!