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Make a new paragraph everytime- someone speaks/the feeling of the story changes/the place changes.

Don't forget to fill in the background when someone speaks, or else the reader will only imagine them speaking in a blank room.

Don't cram all the description of the characters together, let it flow through the beginning of the text, blending and curling with the dialoge. Let some parts be up to the reader, they will fill in the blanks that you chose to lay bare.

have fun

write whatever is interesting to you, even if it won’t be interesting to anyone else

appreciate kudos when they come, but don’t expect them

appreciate comments when they come, but don’t expect them

if you wish you could just write that one scene you have in your head, do that. you don’t need to create a 30K backstory for it first.

embrace one shots

embrace drabbles

embrace writing your story out of order

rough drafts are meant to be rough. if you can’t think of a word, put in a placeholder for it and keep going. 

try not to get stuck on the little things

it’s okay if your readers can’t see the picture inside of your head

some people work well when they have a posting schedule. some people work well when they don’t. it’s okay if you don’t know which kind of person you are, and it’s okay if the type of person you are changes over time.

if a rule you created for yourself isn’t working for you, get rid of that rule.

make fandom friends. even if they don’t read your fic, they’ll cheer you on while you write it.

cheer on other writers you know. you’ll be cheering yourself at the same time.

no trope or genre is better or worse than another one. they all just appeal to different audiences.

quality and popularity are not the same thing, although they do sometimes overlap

numbers and statistics will never tell you whether or not you’re a good writer. they will never tell you how valuable you are as a person. 

you belong in fandom if you want to be there

you’re a writer as soon as you start writing things

writing and posting are two different things. your story is still worth writing, even if you never plan to share it

you don’t need to apologize for what you write or what you post. 

don’t worry about taking up too much space. the internet doesn’t have a maximum size. 

keep your readers in mind when you’re tagging your content. how could they search for your fic? if you use a tag, will be a reader who loves that tag be satisfied with how much it appears in your story?

if you have a relationship in your fic that plays a minor role, tag it in the Additional Tags section instead of the Relationship section so that people who love that ship don’t get their hopes up

be cautious when looking at bookmarks on your fic. they aren’t “extra comments.” that’s a space where readers make notes for themselves and each other, not for authors. 

you don’t need to know everything about canon before you start writing fic

you don’t need to read fic in the same fandoms you write for

you don’t need to read fic at all in order to write it

love your work because sometimes you’re the only one who will - and that’s okay

if your hobby starts feeling like a job, you might need to take a break before you get burnt out

if you get stuck on a story, you can always start a new one

if you fall out of love with a story, you can always stop writing it. if you’re worried about your readers, you can always give them a bullet point summary of where you were planning to go with thing. for a lot of people, that’s satisfying and provides closure

if you get hate, report it

use the tools at your disposal to block hate before it can come in (limiting or turning off comments, limiting or turning off asks, blocking users, etc)

try replying to comments sometimes. it can be a lovely way to make fandom friends

don’t be afraid to reblog your own writing posts.

if you get stuck on your summary, just write 1) who the story is about 2) what they are doing and 3) what problem gets in their way

notice when your writing makes you smile. that moment is a gift. enjoy it.

notice when your writing makes you cry. that moment is a gift, too.

even if you’re disappointed in how your story turned out, there’s something in there that’s fantastic. find that thing and focus on it and feel proud.

some ideas are ones you want to write. some are ones you want to read. if you ever have too many ideas to deal with at once, give some of the latter ones away to someone else. 

sometimes the things you write will be really personal. be careful about putting them where other people can comment. they won’t know how personal it is for you, and you need to remember that comments aren’t about you, they’re about the story.

remember that you can write series as well as stories. if the story is done but you still have passion or ideas, start a new one in the same universe.

enjoy the satisfaction of finishing a story. savour it. bask in it a little while.

don’t feel guilty about abandoning a story. not every story gets finished, and that’s okay

you can have separate accounts for different fandoms. you can have one account with a million fandoms in it. do whatever works for you.

sometimes writing is more important than sleep - but only sometimes

it doesn’t matter if that story has been written before by someone else. it doesn’t matter if it was written by you. write it again.

- share lessons and support with new creators; you remember how nervous you were?

 Write a dragon rider who really fucking hates it when a dragon is trained to bow while being reined. A space ship engineer who is pissed off when perfectly good antimatter ship has been adapted to run on neutral matter. A historian who is still not over the massive failures of a general who lost a specific battle 300 years before she was born.

 The guy currently giving us a series of lectures on the restoration of historical buildings really, really hates polymer paint. At the artisan school our stained glass teacher really hated this one specific Belgian artist - we never really figured out what did that guy even do, but he’s been dead for over 200 years and our teacher was glad that at least he’s dead.

@big-mood-energy told me to elaborate, so here we go.

Okay, so basically the tldr is a bowstring is a nearly unstoppable force and your nose is very much not an immoveable object.

The longer version is a bowstring has a couple hundreds of pounds of force behind it on average - it’s what makes the arrow go. It’s why you never dry fire a bow (all that force goes to the arms instead of the arrow and damages them), why you shoot odd color out (the bow will strip off the fletching otherwise, I’ve done that before) and why archers wear bracers. The string has a nasty habit of smacking into your arm, and at best it will leave you with a giant welt and a nasty bruise, at worst it’ll take a good strip of skin off. I’ve done both. My arms are ridiculously short just like the rest of me so the string would smack me right in the crease of the elbow where standard bracers don’t reach. Here’s the type of arm guard I wore back when I was a more active archer because of that:

The leather part goes on the inside of the arm, not the outside, I don’t care how “unfashionable” it looks!

(Btw, I primarily use recurve, but this is all true for compound as well. The whole point of compound is more force for less effort.)

Now you do want to anchor somewhere on your face in order to sight properly, but if you put anything in the way of that string - chin, nose, hair - you better be prepared to lose it. Here’s the worst offender:

Ouch.

Typically, you specifically want to anchor somewhere on your cheekbone or at the corner of your mouth. By corner of your mouth I don’t mean corner of your lips. If you run a finger across your mouth, you should feel a little bump right in the corner. That. You want to anchor right on the side of that bump. Your thumb or pointer finger should be right there. I typically anchor on my cheekbone right below my eye, but for the most part, it is a matter of preference.

Also, face the target, not the bow! Your face should be pointing straight forward, down the shaft, not - not that, look at her chin, oh my god, Katniss:

(This gif is saved to my phone as KatnissMarvoloRiddle.gif)

And while we’re on the subject, I get that movies have to make it look cool, but this is pretty much any archer’s preferred stance:

T-pose with feet shoulder width apart, front foot pointed toward target, bend your arm at the elbow, pull back with your shoulder.

Also, at least they got this part right:

And:

You don’t want to cut off the pads of your fingers because you couldn’t move them away in time, and you really don’t want to put hundreds of pounds of force directly on a joint when you have nice weight-redistributing fat right there.

And don’t squeeze the nock! The arrow will stay on the string, that’s what the nock is for. Your fingers are to keep it on the bow and guide it back.

And by the way, this? is like… the fastest way to get tendonitis:

See how his wrist is turned out? It means he has to pull with his elbow. I’ve done that before. It’s a rookie mistake, and it fucking hurts for a very long time after a very short while.

(Although it is interesting that while it wrecks your arm, it is technically faster to nock, loose, and renock that way if you haven’t had much training, like the Uruk-Hai.)

Tl;dr: Movie archers are dumbasses, and having to watch them be dumbasses is my #1 media pet peeve.

If you’re experiencing writer’s block, you’re probably frustrated with your inability to get something down on the page. Maybe you’re stuck on a plot point. Maybe you have an idea in your head and you can’t figure out the right words. You want to be writing, but you’re having a problem with some part of the process that gets the words out. 

If you’re experiencing burnout, you’re more likely feeling like writing is futile. What’s the point of writing anyway? Nobody cares. No one’s going to read it. Your writing sucks and you’re not getting any better. You’ll never be as popular as that other writer over there. You might as well just give up. 

I do have burnout, but not because of the reasons enumerated here.

We don’t write in a void. Context is key. Usually I mean that in a content-related way, but today I mean that in a “we live in the world and the world is hard” sort of way.

Burnout for me is from pushing hard from 2016 to 2019 produce two very personally significant pieces of writing, planning to work on fic in the start of this year after I started a new job, and then smashing straight into a pandemic and a period of global uncertainty the likes of which my generation and social class have not seen in our lifetimes.

Obviously, there’s no hard and fast rule for every project!

Someone on my ask blog asked about my character development process and it got me thinking about how different stories and types of media really have very different focuses and answers for development processes.

FRAMING:

One of the most important elements of character establishment is how a character is framed within the story. This can be shown best through their interactions with others, as well as their social capital.

Is your protagonist well-respected and recognised in their community? Does something about their lifestyle lead them to be treated poorly? Are they seen as experienced and knowing, or inexperienced and overzealous? Are they well-known or enigmatic? Framing a character as a top dog with a long way down to fall, or an up-and-comer clawing their way to the top against all odds, can make their place in the story and world feel richer and more complex. How others see them shapes how the reader sees them almost as much as how they see themself.

RELATIONS:

When developing characters with close relationships to others in the story, it’s important to consider how these relationships - as well as previous connections or their family history - shape their perspective and actions. Is your character used to taking care of people and making sensible decisions? Were they raised to value honesty, or to disregard it entirely? Do they consider themself a social pariah because of their relationship to the rest of their family, or do they feel comfortable in their standing?

This can also massively impact character motivation - is your character scared of hurting those around them, or desperate for revenge? Are they held back by a fear of putting their loved ones in danger, or does it spur them to take risks to keep them safe?

SYMBOLISM + MOTIF:

Giving your characters symbolism and repeated motifs can massively help to establish them thematically within the story, be they in dialogue, appearance or description. Associating a given character with a verbal motif (a repeated phrase or question) or with a physical descriptor (a colour, metaphor or symbolic comparison), especially when tied into interpersonal symbolism, can massively help to create depth in a way that is easier for a reader to grasp.

For example, if one of your secondary protagonists has struggled for most of their life with social anxiety or self-esteem issues, using a visual metaphor (e.g. a simile relating the character to an animal, or the world around them to some sort of environmental threat) can help outline and uphold development in this character, and to help their growth shine through, especially when such a metaphor is linked to the world they live in/the wider plot.

PARALLELS:

There are two significant types of character parallel that can really help make a character shine.

The first is interpersonal. Does your character have a foil in the narrative? Are they trying to follow in the footsteps of a significant figure in their life? Are they nottrying to, but it’s happening anyway? Does their story draw parallels to existing mythology, or classic narratives, and if so, does it subvert them?

The second type of parallel is more related to the narrative. If your story is about a decay - about a world or situation slowly getting worse - does your protagonist parallel this, or contrast it? Does their story end with them symbolising the dire situation they’re in, or emerging from it unscathed? If your story is about an ascent, or a plot, or a heist, does your protagonist get more and more hopeful as the story progresses, or do they dread the triumphant climax the closer it gets? How is their growth linked to this?

CONFLICT:

Every story has a conflict, but interpersonal conflicts of belief - especially between primary characters - can help establish a greater conflict in the narrative, and can also help make worldbuilding feel richer and more complex. How have your characters’ backgrounds shaped how they see the world? What are their political beliefs? Letting them argue, clash and disagree about world views and systemic problems, even if they’re fighting from the same side, can not only help characters individually feel more complex, but can flesh out the world you’re working in and provide more opportunities for conflict and development further down the line.

Does your protagonist get their beliefs from empathy or sympathy? Do they believe in doing what’s right, or doing what’s smart? Did a tough upbringing harden them to the world or make them kinder? Did an easy, happy childhood make them naive, or apathetic? No character should automatically have all the most palletable opinions. Explain where they got their views - it makes the whole story feel more broad.

Mercenary scumbag who invariably manages to contrive a hilariously self-serving justification for doing the right thing  

Seeming fatalist who in fact cares a great deal, but unconvincingly maintains they’re only getting involved because they have nothing better to do with their time  

Fussy coward who insists on facing every danger headlong because they’d rather keep the peril where they can see it  

Repellent jerk who’s actually very principled, but takes great pains to conceal it because they’re inexplicably committed to upholding their reputation as a total sleazeball  

Other places:

“Can we get a dog?”

“Oh my gosh, look free kittens can we get one PLEASE?”

“I’ve never ridden a horse before, how do you make it go?”

“I-Is that puppy for me?”

“CHICKENS ARE AFTER ME”

“Whatever you do, don’t make the goose mad”

“IS A TIGER REALLY CHASING US RIGHT NOW?”

“B-BEAR!”

“How dare that peacock try to be more beautiful than me”

“Aw. Can I Pet them?”

“HE BIT ME, HE BIT ME IN THE BUTT”

“Look, look! The birds are hatching”

“A SNAKE,  RUN”

“I got you a present hurry and open it before it breaks through the box”

“It looks like he/she might be hurt. I want to help them,  poor little thing”

“I need to stop bringing home every stray dog you meet. MOST of these ‘strays’ still have collars”  

“No way, not another pet”

“But it’s so cuteeeee c’mon look into those adorable eyes. How can you resist them?”

“Okay,  one pet and that’s it”

“LOOK OUT FOR THE ELEPHANT”  

“If I see one more ostrich I’m going to lose it”

“It just followed me home, stop giving me that look”

“Nature is both beautiful and terrifying”  

“If I see a rat I’m going to scream SO loud”

“Good dog- no wait BAD DOG. OW BAD DOG”

“WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE PIGEONS?”

“I had a mishap with a porcupine  stop LAUGHING”  

“How can something be so cute and yet so ugly at the same time?”

“Seriously I don’t know what that bull’s problem is”

“that kangaroo wants to throw down but I don’t think I can take him”

“Cats are so cruel. You just want to give them love and affection and they turn around and scratch your face”

“  when  they  catch  you  they  will  kill  you.  but  first  they  must  catch  you.  ”

“  when  the  time  is  right,  we’re  going  to  make  them  pay.  all  of  them.  ”

“  but  in  all  chaos,  there  is  calculation.  ”

“  i’m  not  in  danger,  i  am  danger.  ”

“  we  go  to  war  with  a  smile  on  our  faces.  ”

“  but  whatever  you  do,  always  be  dressed  to  kill.  ”

“  this  ain’t  no  place  for  a  hero.  ”

“  i  can  do  this.  and  even  if  i  can’t,  i  have  to.  ”

“  my  purpose  is  greater  than  my  pain.  ”

“  nothing  scares  me  anymore.  ”

“  there  is  some  good  in  this  world,  and  it  is  worth  fighting  for.  ”

“  you  should  not  be  here.  ”

“  i  don’t  think  you  understand  what  you’re  messing  with.  ”

“  take  cover !  ”

“  you  take  the  lead,  i’ll  cover  you.  ”

“  i’m  not  who  you  think  i  am.  ”

“  i  knew  you  would  come,  eventually.  ”

“  don’t  you  understand  ?  this  is  a  trap  !  ”

“  this  will  be  your  destruction.  ”

“  make  sure  they  don’t  see  you  leave.  ”

“  stop  touching  your  ear,  you’re  making  yourself  known.  ”

“  quick,  follow  me.  ”

Like, you can go into detail about how twisted and unnatural something looks or feels, or you could repeat the word “wrong” over and over and leave the specifics up to the reader.

You could go into detail on how bad something hurts or how uncomfortable the current environment makes your protagonist feel... or you could leave things shrouded in mystery be insist that something is “off” or “bad.”

Cities - go near water!  freshwater lakes and rivers (rivers especially) are the best places for cities because A) source of water and B) travel and trade is much easier cus you can put your boats like right there.  Basically ever relevant city ever was built on a lake or a river.

for rivers in general - because gravity, rivers run from mountains (forming from melting snow and ice (this is why they get fat in spring–more stuff melting)) to lakes/ocean where they can empty out (and even lakes will have rivers leading out that eventually get to the ocean), which can help when mapping out where those start and end.  rivers are also much thinner and faster in steeper elevations and very slow and wide when the land is flat

mountains - i like to think of what the tectonic plates look like because that’s what makes mountains!  mountains are also never standalone they’re always in mountain ranges (archipelagos are really just underwater mountain ranges babey).  a cool trick I like to do is occasionally separate mountain ranges across continents, because over time the tectonic plates shifted and literally split the range in half.  These mountains are really old tho so they’ve eroded and therefore it makes them smaller and rounder (like the appalachians) as opposed to relatively young mountain ranges like the rocky mountains which have taller and sharper peaks

Another mountain trick: if your mountains run along the ocean, the ocean side of the mountains will get a LOT of rain while the other side will be very dry–almost desert-like, in fact.  think of temperate rainforests in British Columbia vs the drier conditions in the canadian prairies

forests - depends on how warm the area might be.  coniferous forests are found further north (before you hit the tree line, and then it’s only tundra onwards) but as you head south you get leafier trees, and the leaves tend to get larger too

If you think about general elevation too, you’ll have places that might be swampy (wet + lower).  if your world has an ice age like we did, then glaciers may have carved the land, leaving piles of soil in the south that was left when the ice receded and places where the bedrock has been bared north of that (like the Canadian Shield in Canada–the reason we see that is because of the glaciers)

You might also have a land that’s dotted in a shitton of freshwater lakes as well because the meltwater filled the holes that the glaciers scraped out (this is why canada has so many goddamn lakes)

and if the ice age was more recent than it was in our world, then you might not even have the forest re-growth and it could be a lot of open plains

Though, for fantasy, you can make the world operate on entirely different principles:

With that done, the actual topic of city placement can be covered by videos like this:

Or

Once you have your places, if you want help naming them in realistic ways, this video can help:

This one is on architecture, which is definitely a subset of cities:

But for a more relevant practical guide on making settlements realistic:

Here’s a quick guide for making demographics:

The castle does not run itself. The castle would remain a pile of stones without servants to keep it running. The guide below focuses on the private household of the lord himself, anybody who worked inside the main keep of the castle. I will be expanding outside the walls in a future post.

The Steward/Seneschal

This person was the head of the household staff. They would have the task of running things on the Lord’s estate. They are the managers, so it is up to them to keep the staff in line. The steward would keep the castle accounts and keep the lord informed of all of the goings on of the lands and tenants. They would have to be educated needing to do accounts and write letters. Though the castle’s Lady would be expected to do all these things, the steward served as a backup and assistant in all the tasks even representing the lord and lady when they were unavailable.

The Chamberlain

The chamberlain is the servant employed to look after the Lord’s bedchamber. He would look after the Lord’s clothes as well and keep track of the other servants’ liveries, the official uniforms of the guards, pages and squires. This was not always the case, some larger households had a separate office but most medium seized manors and castles lumped them together. The chamberlain’s main task was ensuring the lord was kept happy. He would even be the last servant a lord would see at night before he went to bed at night. They would be educated.

The Marshal

A Marshal was in charge of the stables as well as the military presence in the castle. They would oversee the household’s horses, carts, wagons, and containers. He oversaw blacksmiths, horse grooms and stableboys. He also oversaw the transporting of goods. The Marshal was sometimes in charge of disciplining servants. They would likely come from a middle class background as well as having military experience and education.

The Page

A page was a young noble boy about seven years old who would be sent to serve a Lord. He would be in charge of tidying up after the lord, carrying messages to other servants and occupants of the castle and serving him at meals. Unlike others on the list, the page would not be paid. His experience was his payment as he would learn the running of a castle and manners of a lord.

The Lady’s Maid

The lady’s maid is be the female body attendant of the castle’s noble women. She would be in charge of caring for the lady’s chamber and her things. She would dress the lady and attend her wherever she would. (The lady’s maid would basically do all the work a chamberlain would but you know the wage gap…)

Maidservant

A housemaid/maidservant works to clean the castle. She would be among the first to awaken every morning. Her first task would be sweeping the floors. The thing with mediaeval floors a that they were often covered with a thin layer of rushes, a kind of grass. Weekly if not daily, a maidservant would be expected to change out the rushes and scatter new ones. If it really needed it, she would scrub the stone floors which would be done with a soap called lye, made from ashes and lard. The maidservant would also be expected to go into the bedchambers when the occupants awoke. She would empty the chamberpots if need be. She would get rid of the ashes from the fire and ready the fire for later. She would make up the bed or strip it for the laundresses. She would wash anything that needed washing including furniture and ornaments.

Laundress

The laundress was responsible for the cleaning of anything made of fabric in the household. The laundress would have to fetch their own water either from the castle well or from a nearby river. They would heat the water in large vats and add lye soap (the most popular of the cleaning agents). The constant exposure to soap and hot water was physically tough on the hands of the laundresses and their backs. When the detergents were added to the water, the laundress would dump them into the vat and stir that shit like soup. To dry it they would pin it out on lines or beat the water from it. The laundress might make money by selling secrets. Since they are handling unmentionables, they knew what happened behind closed bedchamber doors or what didn’t.

Nursemaid

The nursemaid was in charge of the castle’s children. They would ensure the child was fed, washed and generally kept alive while the parents would either be away at court or busy with the lands. The nursemaid would be a common woman from the surrounding lands who would come in to care for a noble child in the stead of the mother who would be expected to get on with other jobs. The nursemaid would be an underlying of the noble governess, a sort of hands-off nanny.

Cook

The cook was one of the most important servants in the castle. They would have the task of overseeing the running of the kitchens and keeping supplies in order. They would likely be on call at all times. Henry VIII’s cook was often woken in the night because his royal master wanted a midnight snack. The cook was a valued member of the household and would have been highly sought after if they were a very skilled cook. Cooks would have been paid a handsome wage.

Scullion

The scullion was the lowest member of staff. They would be responsible for scrubbing and cleaning the servants quarters and the kitchens. They would scrub floors with lye, scour pots with sand, sweep put the fireplace and clean up after the other servants. They were the first to rise in a castle and tasked to light all the fires in the kitchens.

Payment & Lifestyle

Within the mediaeval household, payment came from the hand of the steward. As the Lord’s manager of accounts, he was in charge of paying staff.

The grander jobs in the castle such as the marshal, the chamberlain, nursemaid and lady’s maid would pay better. They would have certain privileges including better bedchambers.

A nursemaid who was breastfeeding the Lord’s children would be a valued member of staff. She would be fed better than the other servants.

The page would sleep in a chamber off the lord’s bedchamber or sometimes at the foot of the bed. A page would wear the Lord’s livery so he would be dressed on the Lord’s coin.

The chamberlain would have rooms close to the lord and lady, just in case they were needed by the master in any kind of emergency.

The cook would sleep near the kitchens so they were close enough just in case they are needed in the night.

The other household servants would all sleep in chambers together. The women would sleep in one and the men would sleep in another. Nightly dalliances were frowned upon massively.

A chatelaine was also a piece of functional jewellery popular from the 1700s through to the turn of the 20th century: it was an ornamental belt / waistband-clasp with keys, a knife, a needle-and-thread case, scissors etc. hung from it.

The medieval version looked like this; those keys would have included the stillroom (where tinctures and liqueurs were made) and the spice-cupboard whose contents might match gold in value. Beside the lady of the manor, the most senior and trusted female servants would have worn one as well.

The drawstring purse is obvious; the dark stick-thing less so - it’s actually a personal eating-knife. There might also be an eating-pick sheathed behind it, the medieval equivalent of a fork, because table manners in the Middle Ages were a lot better and more elaborate than “grab meat with the hands, chuck bones over the shoulder.” (An image for which we must again thank Victorian pop history…) 

Here’s a set in period art, and as a reproduction.