#writingtip

1. Your protagonist is reactive instead of proactive for the first 8 chapters 2. The stakes are “I might be sad” instead of “I might lose everything.” 3. The middle sags because you’re scared to make things worse for your characters.

I see these in almost every other manuscript I read.

Which one are you guilty of right now? Be honest. 👀

🧠💪 The Evolution of a Writer: One Draft at a Time 💪🧠

Swipe through your writing journey like it’s a training montage. Because let’s be honest: writing isn’t a one-and-done thing. It’s a process, and it builds you up every step of the way.

👶 Writer just starting out:

You’re full of ideas, pumped with optimism, and ready to take on the blank page like it’s your destiny. You’ve got the enthusiasm — now it’s time to get to work.

😤 Writer after finishing a rough draft:

Reality check. Suddenly, your brilliant idea looks a little… chaotic. Words are everywhere. Structure? Who knows her? But here’s the thing — this messy draft? It’s GOLD. Because you can’t fix a blank page, but you can shape raw material into greatness.

💥 Writer after draft #5:

Now we’re talking. Your sentences hit harder. Your story has depth. You’ve cut the fluff, clarified your message, and found your authentic voice. This is the version of you that admissions officers remember. 💯

💡 Whether you’re writing a college essay, scholarship statement, or personal narrative, each draft transforms you. You become more focused, more precise, and more YOU. So embrace the revision process — it’s where the real magic happens.

🖊️ Keep drafting. Keep sharpening. You’re stronger than you think.

The Heart of Your Tale

Nearly all stories in science fiction and fantasy deal with new systems of power—whether it be Frodo’s magic ring or Asimov’s robotics, ultimately you’re creating a new system for acquiring and maintaining power, and when you do this, as Orson Scott Card put it, you are forced at some level to consider the question, “What is the right use of power?” The understanding of power is vital to making better magic systems for your world.

Very often, the answer to this question becomes the very heart of your story. Certainly, it did for Frodo with his ring of power, for Luke Skywalker as he struggled to master the Force, or for Ender Wiggins as he fought to outwit his aliens.

Indeed, if your story is going to have an epiphany—a powerful moment of realization where the audience actually learns something of value—you as a writer have to contend with the issue of the proper use of power.

It’s for this reason that Algis Budrys, the longtime science fiction critic for the Chicago Sun Times and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction pointed out that “Science fiction and fantasy are the last bastion of moral fiction in America, the only place where you as a writer can talk about good and evil.” (In the mid-1980s when he said it, there was a backlash in popular fiction where people refused to talk about morality. Given the recent #MeToo movement, corruption in politics, and our persistent mass shootings, I suspect that maybe some folks will begin to realize that, “Hey, maybe we should have been trying to reach a consensus on what is right and what is wrong.”) We ignore moral questions at the peril of our own society.

Thus the issue of morality tends to become the very heart of your tale.

Now, there are thousands of “power systems” in the real world. If you think about it for a few moments, you’ll recognize them. In our world, money can give you power. You can use your money to do good—to cure cancer and help others—or you can become totally self-serving and build your pool until the day you abruptly expire. But other power systems exist. I’ve known men in politics who tried to gain power and then been destroyed by others in their own political party. I know writers who use their gifts primarily for self-aggrandizement until they become the Harvey Weinsteins of the publishing world. I’ve seen priests who were destroyed by public adulation, along with rock stars and actors and sports figures and so on. Heck, I’ve even seen mothers use their parental authority to become evil moms.

You’ve probably heard Acton’s quote, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He continues, “Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.”

Take that quote to heart. I think that when most of us hear it, we assume that Acton was talking about someone else. Let me assure you, he was talking about you and me. He was talking about the protagonist of your story. Whatever power system you serve and struggle to use, it can and will corrupt you. All of us need to learn how to handle power without being destroyed by it. Part of learning how to use power is understanding how and why and when to give it up.

What does that mean to your story? Whatever wanky magic system you create in your tale, it is a monster that is likely to turn on and destroy your protagonist. If you missed the prior tips on this topic, you can start here!

Happy Writing!

@writinghaven on instagram || NO REPOSTS!

NaNoWriMo: A useful app with multiple writing challenges that lets you create a project and implement goals! You can track your word count or your editing progress and can set up how many words you need a day to reach your goal in a specific timeframe :) 10/10! I personally use this one everyday

Google Docs: I'm sure most of you know of this one, but out of all the platforms I've written on, I love Docs the best for a few reasons. One, it has a lovely autosave feature and as a night time writer, I can get groggy and forget to save at times. Another is that it's very easy to use, the fonts are awesome, and it runs well even on a high word count!

Notion: Notion is honestly useful for everything. I use it for my everyday to-do’s, as a calendar, and I even have a notion page for random quotes I like! I actually recently started using it for organizing my WIP and while it’s not designed to do that, it’s super easy to turn your notion into anything you want since it’s so adaptable. Also, it can be super aesthetic :)

Writer's Companion: A free program with no ads that is custom-made to help you build your world, create characters, write outlines, set goals, and more! It basically helps you keep all the different elements of your WIP organized

ProWritingAid: Alright, so I'm sure most of you know Grammarly. ProWritingAid is basically that, but you can use it for creative writing (and in my opinion their platform is better and their prices are more reasonable :)) Unlike Grammarly, ProWritingAid very at targeting dialogue and it's super useful for grammar and style too!

Pinterest: Super useful for finding face claims and inspiration for your novel :) While it isn't directly writing related, I don't think I'd be able to write as well without it! You can also find some nice writing tips on there too

Scrivener: This platform is purposefully designed for authors so it's super useful and requires less formatting compared to if you're making your manuscript on Google Docs or Microsoft Word! It has a cool management system for documents and notes and a cool thing is that you can write your WIP in any order and easily rearrange it :)

Zepeto and Picrew: There’s a huge portion of writers that can’t draw and find it hard to find the right faceclaims for their OCs, so Zepeto and Picrew are my personal favorite apps/websites for character visualization :D

HONORABLE MENTIONS!!

Notebook.ai

Toyhou.se

Story Planner

Pure Writer

Character Planner

Novelist

Also, just some websites with micro writing communities:

CAMP NANOWRIMO. campnanowrimo.org

CRITIQUE CIRCLE. critiquecircle.com

CRITTERS WORKSHOP. critters.org

FICTIONAUT. fictionaut.com

INTERNET WRITING WORKSHOP. internetwritingworkshop.org

STORYADAY. storyaday.org

WATTPAD. wattpad.com

THE WRITERS CHAT ROOM. writerschatroom.com