study, study, study! trying my best and failing is better than cheating

get a hot coffee every morning, sit in old library’s to study, romanticize commutes to ballet

write more! note everything that could be used for future poems or essays

read 5 books per month :)

(please keep in mind that this is just for fun! rory has a habit of knocking herself out by taking on more than she can handle so make sure to learn from her mistakes too♡)

study habits

keep a planner

throughout her school life rory is extremely organised about her classwork and we're shown her and her mother attempting to schedule hangouts by referring to planners a couple of times. as long as you remember to keep it updated, having a planner is one of the best possible things you can do to stay on top of things.

folders for literally everything

while it's unnecessary to invest in the amount of folders you can probably imagine rory goes through throughout her school career, it can be helpful to make sure papers are separated, whether with post-it bookmarks or dividers!

never leave the house without a book and read in spare moments

reading constantly for fun is the best way to improve your vocabulary and be introduced to a lot of new perspectives and ways of thinking, as well as get used to what types of stories you enjoy and what not so much.

homework on saturday, extra credit sunday

this is another example of rory using a structure to keep order in her academic life. although she gets overwhelmed more than once in the show, it never hurts to at least have a loose plan.

work hard, play hard mentality

although the amount of things she manages to go out and do in the show while also juggling schoolwork is unrealistic, rory never fixates too hard on one thing or the other--she always leaves time for movie nights and hanging out with lane. it's important to make sure never to neglect having your own fun even when your main focus is on school :)

vision-boarded future

rory is super goal-oriented and has a clear future path in mind! her harvard board in her room is a constant reminder of what she is working towards.

study with coffee and snacks

in the show lorelai and rory probably drink their weight in coffee. though i'd probably advise against extreme levels of coffee consumption, it's nice to have something to refuel with when you eventually get worn out from studying.

go through with the tasks you put your mind to

one of rory's both positive and sometimes negative traits is that she is extremely stubborn, but a consequence of it is that she goes through with any task she sets her sights on.

study without music (usually)

in the scenes rory's studying she's usually not listening to music unless she's reading, although whether that actually helps always varies from person to person!

if you can't focus on one thing, switch to another

this is actually a pretty sound study technique. switching between subjects keeps you engaged in work and prevents you from giving up too early while also giving your brain a bit of a break from anything you can't manage enough willpower to do.

positive mindset towards learning even when the going gets hard

You know that moment as a writer, when you’ve been charging through the story, high on how fantastic it is, and then suddenly…it all STOPS.  The next scene doesn’t form in your head. You’ve got nothing. 

Behind your characters, a string of bright and captivating scenes mark the trail of that rocket of inspiration; ahead of your characters, a foggy expanse, stretching to who-knows-where, a few shapeless blobs that should be scenes floating in the nothingness. The rocket is dead, and not refueling any time soon.

Well, to everybody who’s suffered this, or is currently suffering it, there’s a way to navigate through that fog. A map. Directions and a destination.

Or, more specifically, events that form the underlying structure of the story. 

This post is going to focus on one facet of story structure: character arc. Structure is something people subconsciously recognize and expect, and if the story doesn’t match those expectations, they feel cheated (though usually can’t explain why). Every good story follows a structure. So if you know structure, you’ll always know where to go next, and won’t get lost in the fog. 

So here are the 8 steps of a character arc: 1) Hero: Strength, Weakness, and Need

This happens in the setup of the story, when the main character’s ordinary world is being introduced. First, the main character’s strengths must be displayed; we must be given a reason to like them, or if not exactly “like” them, empathize with them, and be fascinated by them. The reader needs to bond with the character, feel concerned about how it all turns out for them. Or in other words, feel that the main character is worth experiencing the story. There are easy traits that do this: courage, love, humor, being in danger, being unfairly treated, being highly skilled at something, having a powerful noble goal. (Courage is the one they all need. If the character doesn’t have the gumption to actively pursue what they want, they are automatically a background character.) 

After this, still in the beginning of your story, let the character exhibit what needs to change. Show their weaknesses of character and self awareness. And lastly, hint at what they NEED to learn. Sometimes this is even stated to the character, and they don’t understand it, refuse to believe it, or condemn it. Like “A Christmas Carol”, when Scrooge’s nephew says his speech about Christmas and how wonderful it is, and Scrooge replies “Bah Humbug!“ 

2) Desire: This is the moment when the character knows what they need to pursue, in order to obtain what they inwardly want. It is not the inciting incident or catalyst, the event in a story that disrupts the ordinary world and calls the hero on an adventure. This is a separate step entirely, occurring after that catalyst has shattered life as the main character knows it. They believe obtaining this goal will calm whatever inner turmoil or conflict they’re battling. And always, they’re not quite right. Think of Mr Fredricksen: His goal is to get the house – a  symbolic representation of Ellie and the life he shared with her – to Paradise Falls, which he believes will heal his grief and guilt. It won’t. Once he obtains it, the achievement feels hollow. But I’m getting ahead of myself. So on we go! 

3) Plan: Once in Act Two, the character is going to scramble for a plan of action. The inner want has solidified into a tangible goal, but they need a strategy to achieve it. This also spells out for the reader what to expect in that second act.  

4) Conflict: What’s going to try stopping them? A hero with a goal is one thing, but to make it a story we need something that stands in the way. An obstacle. A force of opposition. If we didn’t have obstacles, books would be as interesting as “Harry Potter and the Trip to the Grocery Store.” (Although honestly, I’d probably read that.) After the catalyst has changed everything, after the character crosses the threshold into Act Two, everything from here on out will be laden with conflict. This is usually when enemies, or more accurately forces of opposition, begin to appear. Everything is accumulating to complicate the main character’s pathway to achieving what they want. The forces of opposition come from not only the villains, but from the actions that have to be taken to achieve the desire. Whatever this action is, it’s exactly what the main character is not suited to do, an action that pressures their flaws, exposes them to exactly what they need to become but can’t right now. 

Like Stitch being forced to be the family dog. He’s not suited to this task.

5) Battle: The forces of opposition are amping up, growing stronger, fighting with greater intensity. The main character is taking the punches and working around them, relentlessly plowing forward. Hero and allies are usually punching back too.

6) Midpoint: This is the event where they first encounter what they need to learn, what they need to become. Something happens that forces them to behave in this new, life-saving way. But once they’ve seen it, they don’t know what to do with this knowledge. 

7) Dark Night, Revelation, Choice: This is always the darkest point in the story, where all seems lost, and death – of a literal or spiritual nature – is in the air. And in this moment, something usually happens that makes the main character wake up to what is wrong, and what they need. More often than not, this revelation will arrive from the “love story” or relationship of the plot, and will be the thing that helps them pull themselves out of despair and see the light. And once this is uncovered, once the revelation of the truth about themselves is recognized, they are faced with a choice. Of course, they’ve been faced with choices in every beat of every scene, but this is the big choice that is going to determine if their story has a happy ending or a tragic one. The choice is this: “You are being faced the truth that you need to heal. Are you going to choose what you need, let your old self die, and become someone better?” And always, always, always this is a hard choice. The revelation must be significant to them. And it’s never easy. It can’t be. We don’t write stories about heroes who make easy choices. Villains have it easy. Are you going to adopt this new way of living, adopt this truth, and let your old self die? Or are you going to stay the way you are (which feels safer and is much less challenging) but end up stuck in a sort of living death? Most of the time, of course, they choose the right thing. 

This moment is usually always the saddest scene in the thing. Like this scene with Stitch.

8) New Life: This is their changed life. After experiencing the trials of the story, after realizing what they need and choosing to be reborn, they are going to be different people – and are going to live a different life. This is what follows the statement “And every day after …” What has changed? Show the audience how things are different, how things are better, because they want to see that. This is the resolution, the wrapping up of everything we’ve been through with the main character, and having this in the story is often what gives that feeling of satisfaction after seeing a really well-told story. 

So! To show off how this works, I’ve chosen the character arc of Carl from Up. 

1) Hero: Strengths, Weakness, Need

Strengths: Reasons to like Carl are packed into that heartbreaking opening sequence. By the end of it, we love him, love Ellie, and are crying our eyes out.

Weaknesses: Now Carl is curmudgeonly, grumpy, cold, and won’t pay attention to a living soul. He’s also plagued by grief, regret, guilt, and loneliness. (Which we are all 100% okay with, because we already like him.)

Need: He needs Russel. The statement of what he needs to learn isn’t outright said (as it will be later) but Russel represents it. 

Step Two: The catalyst was when a truck knocked down Ellie’s mailbox, Carl hit a construction worker in the head with his cane, and for this a judge declares him a public menace and orders him to go to Shady Oaks Retirement Village. The DESIRE is this moment. 

Carl escapes in a flying house, thousands of balloons lifting him skyward. He even says the desire of the whole story out loud, “So long boys! I’ll send you a postcard from Paradise Falls!” The tangible goal is “live out the rest of his days in his and Ellie’s house, on the edge of Paradise Falls, South America.” (“It’s like America … but South.”)

Step Three: The plan and the conflict overlap, as they are wont to do. We have a scene where Carl is unfurling sails, setting a compass, and settling back in his chair for a smooth journey. But later on, after some conflict has arrived, we have Russel figuring out how to actually make it there. And after even more conflict has arrived, we have him telling Russel “We’re going to walk to the falls quickly and quietly, with no rap music or flash-dancing.”

Step Four: The moment he settles back into his armchair, high above the city, and here’s a knock on the front door, nothing is going to be easy for Carl. First, we have opposition in the form of Russel. Then we have a storm. Then the house lands miles away from the Falls, so they’ll have to walk it. Then we have Kevin, the giant bird. Then we have Dug. Which means they’re also being chased by a legion of talking dogs. Which brings us to Muntz, the main villain, and Carl’s shadow – the representation of Carl’s flaws, and the consequences of refusing to let go of the past. 

Step Five: This is the trek to the Falls. It’s also the battle with every complication that arises. And it’s also exactly what Carl is not suited to do. He’s a curmudgeonly old guy, bent on living out the rest of his life alone. Well, the story says “Nope, Carl, that’s not how it’s going to be” and promptly gives him a surrogate grandson to take care of, a dog who adores him, and even a giant mythical bird. And he has to lead them all, if he’s going to get to the Falls. 

Step Six: The moment when Russel invades Carl’s heart. Which is what he needs, but he doesn’t understand. (I have the scene beated out in the previous post.)

Step Seven: Finally, he gives in to the worst of himself and chooses his goal of living in his broken house on the edge of Paradise Falls. But somehow this doesn’t feel like victory. He’s still alone, next to Ellie’s empty chair, and she is still beyond his reach. 

He picks up her adventure book, and leafs through the photographs, missing her; he pauses on the page scrawled with the words “Stuff I’m Going To Do”, lets his hand rest on it, grief and regret overwhelming him. He begins to close the book, and the page shifts … revealing the edge of another picture. Surprised, he turns the page. It’s their wedding picture.

Ellie added picture after picture of their happy marriage, the whole wonderful life they shared, all the things she did. And on the bottom of the last page is her last message to him: “Thanks for the adventure! Now go have a new one! Love, Ellie.” Exactly what Carl needs. He doesn’t need to be guilty, he doesn’t need to regret the past. The past was beautiful, and she will never truly leave him. 

Choice: So, Carl can make the choice to throw everything out of the house to go save Russel. 

New Life: Sitting on a curb, eating ice cream with Russel.

In the credits, we see a whole new life – or new adventure – with Carl, Russel, Dug, and even a bunch of new puppies.

So, it’s actually pretty simple. And once again, it’s fun to develop your own stories like this, but it’s surprisingly fun to analyze movies and books with it too. It improves your storytelling ability, I’ve found. Practice makes perfect.

This is a surprisingly challenging question, so I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that you mean you want to write fiction as a career. So, here's what I have to say about that

Tips for Aspiring Authors

First and foremost, you need to remember one thing when planning to write fiction as a career, and it's something few aspiring authors like to hear -

Books are products - if you want to make a viable career out of writing, it's time to start thinking about it as a craft.

If you want to write purely what takes your fancy and only when the muse strikes you, I encourage you to do this. However, if you intend to make livable money writing fiction, this approach may hinder your success. Here are my tips:

1. Study the Craft Seriously

Writing is a craft as much as an art and you should treat it as such. Though you don't need to abide by the 'rules' of writing (I honestly believe there are few actual rules to writing) it pays to know them. Learn about tropes and cliches, learn why they work before you discard them. After all, they became common because they were effective when they were first deployed.

Just as Picasso and Dali were entirely capable of producing mainstream, classic pieces of art before they developed distinctive styles, you should learn to deploy basic standards effectively. This will help you as you build your own style, allowing you to break rules and undertake unusual techniques effectively.

2. Read as Often as You Can

Stephen King once said that those who lack the time to read lack the time to write, and while I don't believe only those who read voraciously can write good books, I do think it's supremely arrogant to assume that you can excel at any craft without considering the work of those who have come before you.

Read as often as you are able to, and read widely when you can. In a pinch, watch TV shows and movies - the medium may be different, but there is much to learn from common story structures in any medium.

3. Know Your Market

I don't believe that it's necessary to write in only one genre, but I do think it's wise to consider the conventions of every market before you move into it. Publishers are businesses - they need to be able to sell your books if they are to pay you.

I wouldn't recommend that you chase trends, of course, but simply be aware of which themes are selling well when you approach a publisher. If your story has any of these themes be sure to let agents you approach know.

4. Set a Routine

Just as is the case with any craft, productivity in writing is often dependent on the right work balance. Treat writing as your work as much as you are able to and set a routine. Even 20 minutes a day is better than a sporadic schedule.

If you cannot write every day, set aside time on days that you do have some wriggle room in and do your best to write. Yes, there will be days when the blank page torments you but that, as they say, is the way of life. Learning to cope with this possibility will be a part of your job.

5. Learn to Take Constructive Criticism

No one likes to hear that something they have worked on for months or even years is in need of improvement. Nonetheless, no book is perfect - if you secure an agent or land a book deal you will be in business with people who know the market intimately. It is their job to know it intimately.

As such, it is not a good idea to discount their advice or critique without consideration. Of course, if you feel very strongly about certain points, it is also wise to have a constructive discussion with them. Learning to take critique in a relatively calm and neutral way, without reacting defensively, is crucial - start by getting constructive critique from people you trust and respect. It's often easier to hear it from friends.

6. Learn How to Approach Agents and Market Your Books

Being able to create a synopsis, query properly, and create basic marketing strategies is a part of the authors' job, too, especially if they work with small publishers or aim to self publish. Getting ahead of the curve is a smart idea.

These tips are pretty basic, and mostly matters of opinion. Others may tell you differently, but for what it's worth this is my advice. While they don't actually concern how you can improve your technical ability to write fiction, these tips are important. In all honesty, writing well is only half of the actual job of writing. What's more, it is the half of the job that most people focus on to the detriment of the actual business of making connections, preparing a book for querying, and actually dealing with publishers.

If you want a long, successful writing career, these things are just as important as the actual writing itself.

Here are some resources which can help you to fine-tune your actual writing skills and get started (and here are some story prompts):

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Romance

6 Ways to Improve Romance Writing

6 Tips to Write Better Sex

Ways to Create Effective Horror

(1) Learn to manage your energy. Writing is not one of those jobs that you leave behind when you walk out the door at the end of a shift. In fact, once you’re doing it “full time,” it can easily expand to consume all your energy. This can be very rough on your relationships, other hobbies, and *health* if you don’t learn to manage it well. 

(2) Understand that it’s not entirely within your control. Writing is both art and science. This means that some days you’ll bang out 1,000 words easily and other days you will struggle to make a single page work. Scheduling your time is important, but don’t make the mistake of assuming that you can *force* a project to happen in your target time-frame, much less that you can do so every time. Expect that it will sometimes bleed over and make plans to manage/deal with the implications of this on your personal and professional lives. 

(3) Study the financial realities and plan ahead. The idea that getting published or getting a writing contract will make you financially comfortable IS A MYTH. Go to a Comic Con, writer’s con, anywhere where published authors talk about their experiences and you hear the same truths I faced: a very, very small percentage of extremely successful writers make bank. The rest - even popular, hard-working, Big Name types - often make just enough to get by. To further complicate things, writing income (in any field/genre) is often inconsistent and gets taxed at a higher rate (at least in the US) because you’re “self-employed.” It also leaves you responsible for your own health care, retirement plans, etc. -- and if anyone tells you that you can compensate for that by writing things off as work expenses, they’re lying. If you really want to get into writing full time and you don’t have a partner/trust fund to support you, do your homework (with an accountant/financial planner!) before you quit your day job or you might find yourself in for some nasty surprises and stressful times. 

(4) Understand that fun writing and work writing are different. Despite the high-profile stories of people like J.K. Rowling, it is *exceptionally* rare that you can write your passion projects and make a living doing so as a writer. Most of the time, if you want to sell books/articles/anything else (especially regularly enough to pay the bills), you have to write what the readers and publishers are looking for. This can make putting the stories you love on a back burner indefinitely or scratching out time/energy for them from whatever you have left over when your ‘work’ writing is done. Thus, a lot of writers are better off keeping their “day job” and working on their writing in off hours like any other ‘side hustle’ until after success has come through. 

(5) Being a writer these days comes with a lot of back-of-house work. Many publishers these days want/require authors to have some kind of name recognition and online presence ahead of time. In addition to all the standard back-of-house crap that comes with being independently employed (book/time-keeping, billing, admin work, being your own tech support, etc.) you may find that you have to start and run a successful blog, online column, or presence on some other platform to “buy” your way into a writing career. This is time and energy consuming and, aside from whatever ad revenue you can scrape together, typically unpaid. Do your research to understand what the standards and expectations are in the genre(s) or from the publishers of your choice before diving in. 

masterlist. main navigation.

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1. Being prepared

Ironically, you need to be more prepared as a pantser compared to a plotter, because you won't have a detailed outline to come back to if you didn't have enough planning done. As a plantser, you need to know the general things of your WIP - How it starts, how the conflict begins and who/what it is, who your characters are, when the climax happens, dialogue and scene ideas, ships, characters, how the book ends, etc.

2. Characters & development

Besides the general plot, you also need to have an idea about your characters and their development. You don't have to create a detailed outline with plot points about your characters' arcs, but you need to at least know the general things - what kind of person they were before the arc, what triggered their development, who motivated them to change, and so on.

I recommend still making character sheets to annotate their appearances and such, because you're bound to forget them after a while, especially for minor characters.

3. Take down notes

Being a writer comes in a package with getting amazing ideas at the most random times. Plotters will furiously type in their ideas in their outline, but what about pantsers? You won't be able to do this.

That's why you need to keep a notebook with you, so that you can jot down random ideas whenever you get them and not forget any. It doesn't have to be neat or organized, but it has to exist.

4. Unnecessary scenes

Plotters will know all their WIP scenes in detail thanks to their outline, but that's not the case with pantsers. They will write scenes on instinct, based on their present ideas, without knowing if the scenes will make it to the last draft.

This might be hard, but be prepared to delete tons of unecessary scenes from your manuscript once you're in the revising stage. But this doesn't mean you need to be scared of what you write! Go write whatever comes to mind. It's better to delete an unecessary scene rather than not writing a potentially amazing scene.

5. Overwriter or underwriter?

As a pantser, it won't be easy to predict your WIP's end word count, although you already have a goal in mind. If you don't monitor your writing with an outline, you might end up writing too little or much.

To prevent this, know if you're an underwriter or an overwriter. If you're an underwriter, try to write more by adding more subplots or editing your descriptions and dialogues into longer ones. If you're an overwriter, limit your writing by avoiding scenes that serve no purpose to the plot or using shorter descriptions.

6. Zero drafts

With loads of unplotted aspects of your WIP, such as dialogues, scenes, and plot twists, you're bound to need multiple drafts before you finish your manuscript. Your first draft will most likely just be a compilation of your initial thoughts that stull need to be organized.

My advice is to have a zero draft - a draft that blocks the major beats in each scene - where you just need to write all of your thoughts and ideas. This way, you won't be pressured to write too much.

7. Y'all are valid!

Lots of people claim that panters aren't valid - that writers can only be plotters, because you need to know everything about your story before you start it.