Masterlist Help And Testing

When you use parentheses, if the parentheses are in a sentence, punctuation within the sentence comes after, not before, or in.

Parentheses can contain sentences with punctuation in them whether they’re already in a sentence or not, but the first letter should be lower-case if not being used to spell out a proper noun.

Whole sentences can actually just be in parentheses. (So like this, for example.)

Em-dashes (—) are what should be used when a bit of dialogue is interrupted. They can be used for other things too, but I do see a lot of hyphens being used here instead.

Numbers zero through ten (and in other cases, zero through one-hundred) should be spelled out instead of being written as a numerical value. This really only differs with things like addresses, phone numbers, licenses, days of the year... anything where the number is there officially.

If you are starting a sentence with a number it has to be spelled out.

Titles of things have to be italicized. So if I have a character talking about a movie they watched, it would have to be written as Movie Example.

If you are quoting something within dialogue you can enclose it like “‘this’” or put it in italics. If a quote within dialogue ends before the dialogue, then it should be ended with ‘ so it is obvious it is not an end to the dialogue itself.

If a character’s dialogue has to be broken into another paragraph, the first paragraph should not end with a quotation mark, signalling that the next paragraph is still going to be that same character speaking.

Write out phrases such as “going to,” and kind of” correctly. A character can speak by saying “gonna,” or “kinda,” but spelling it as such outside of dialogue is incorrect.

Punctuation falls inside the quotation mark, not after. This even includes if it’s for a list.

If an entire sentence is italicized, then the end punctuation has to be italicized. If only a word or a few words are italicized (this can even include the ending word), then the punctuation should not be italicized.

Yangire and Yandere

a Yangire is a character whom snaps suddenly out jealousy, irritation or similar. Unlike a Yandere, they are not motivated by the love of another, in wrapping other words, a Yandere acts only with the love of another person, while a Yangire is kind of free spirit and committed many atrocities randomly by their own will.

They do not necessarily need to be gentle and "cute" to be an Yangire, they can also be people with a sense of normal personality without much to stand out and at one point they become violent and psychotic, or simply show their true "evil" personality.

Below is a writing guide that offers a wide range of descriptive ways to write about eyes. The following categories are included in this post:

Ways to describe eye appearance 

Ways to describe eye shape and size

Ways to describe eye expressions

Ways to describe eye color

Ways to describe eye movement

make sure to set a timer every thirty minutes reminding you to stand up, so you don’t end up sitting for hours on end

if you’re asking yourself if you should stay up late and write or go to bed, the correct answer is always the latter

when you’re going to bed, block out all your thoughts of your wips. don’t think about the plot, don’t think about the characters, think about something else entirely. if you let your mind slip onto your wip, you’ll come up with new ideas, and you’ll want to grab your phone, or your notebook, to write those ideas down, and you won’t let yourself relax long enough to be able to fall asleep 

remind yourself that your first draft doesn’t have to be perfect, and don’t beat yourself up if it isn’t. you’ve got all the time in the world to rewrite your story, and you can fix everything later down the line 

if you’re stuck, experiencing writer’s block, and no matter how much you try, you can’t write a full sentence of your story without getting frustrated, take a break

find a hobby outside of writing, it doesn’t even have to be a hobby, just something you can do when you’re taking a break from writing, like, watching a movie, going for a walk, reading,,, just something that brings you joy, but you won’t feel any pressure doing 

self-doubt is normal, every writer goes through it. it’s also normal to compare your work to other people’s. but that still doesn’t make you a bad writer

drink water, even if you’re not writing, remember to stay hydrated!!!!!!

Not random at all!

Reasons For Your Characters To Hate Each Other

Bad first impression: When A and B meet, A is in a bad mood. They’re snappier than usual and make a rude remark / completely ignore B. B decides then and there that they hate A, causing A to hate B back.

Bad reputation: B has been told time and time again that A is bad news (e.g A is mean, shallow, manipulative, stuck up, etc.). When they meet A, they decide not to give A a chance and presume the worst of them.

Association: A associates B with a bad person / a bad time in their life. For example, B is friends/related to A’s worst enemy or B had something to do with a bad experience that A had. B isn’t directly responsible for anything bad in A’s life, A just associated them with bad things and therefore dislikes them.

Conflicting ideas: Even if they’re on the same side, they may both have different ideas/opinions that they’re unwilling to give up.

Misunderstanding: Very simple. A believes that B wrong them in some way or that B is

They simply don’t mesh: They feel like their personalities don’t work together. They may see the other as boring, stuck up, too loud, too quiet, stubborn or a million other things.

Let me know if you want me to expand on the list.

Hi :)

I got a bit lost and answered with how to write romance in general. But I think there was another question about romance coming up where I will talk more about specific scenes and how to show love etc. I will link it here when I wrote that answer.

How to write romance

Love at first sight: this rarely ever really happens. Think of it more like interested in or attracted to each other at first sight. You can let your characters fall in love easily, but real love between them would still take some time and a lot of good writing.

Connection: it’s all about the connection between your characters. The bond between them is what makes the romance realistic and keeps the reader interested and invested. For this connection to develop you need to know your characters very well. You need to know their flaws and their strengths and what they admire in another person and maybe what they don’t like about themselves. And then you can start their connection. They can feel attraction for each other for different reasons in the beginning.

A few things they can be attracted to:

looks

humor

wit

intelligence

charm

kindness

independence

strength

This depends on your characters and what they would admire in a partner. But as we established, a connection needs to be deeper than a spark of attraction. The characters need to bond with each other and build trust and sometimes grow into the person they need to be for this relationship.

You can show this by writing scenes in which they:

learn more about each other

have to do or face something together

see each other’s flaws and come to accept them

show each other what they really enjoy

see the other person with the person’s friends or family and how they act with them

help and support each other

be vulnerable together

see the other person let loose

Drama: Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen* (love, peace, and harmony) – it’s neither realistic nor interesting. Every couple fights about something or has their ups and downs. There is also the matter of outside influences that can create conflict. Don’t shy away from drama, but also be careful how you do it. In romance it’s important to not cross the line, where it’s just no realistic or healthy anymore for the characters to get romantically involved. You need to find the right balance. That being said...

Stay away from negative behavior: to be realistic a character needs to have flaws and it’s important to show them. But if you want your readers to fall in love with the romance in your story, you should stay away from tropes that make for an unhealthy relationship. Writing abuse as romantic can be very dangerous for your readers.

Examples of an unhealthy relationship:

unwanted advances/harassment (physical or other)

emotional manipulation

extreme possessiveness or jealousy

extreme dependence on partner (emotional or other)

verbal or physical abuse

Partnership: people do not all come from the same background and in a lot of places and situations people will be put into hierarchies. But even if they are not equal in some aspects of their lives, they should always be equal partners in their relationship with mutual respect, trust and understanding.

Sharing commonalities: while a romance needs some conflict and the characters need to see their differences and accept, love or overcome them, it wouldn’t be a lasting relationship if they don’t have a few things in common. Make sure that before they commit to each other that they are on the same page with the most important things, like opinions, habits or ideologies that the other person couldn’t accept or live with.

Happily ever after: like I said, it’s not realistic to always be happy. But when you finally write about your characters coming together and bringing well-deserved closure to their romance, leave the reader with the feeling that it will last. They witnessed how your characters got to know each other, their flaws and strengths, they overcame conflict together, they grew and learned from each other. After all this they want to leave the beautiful romance with a good feeling.

Good luck with your writing!

- Jana

Hey friends. I’ve been thinking a lot about pacing lately, as I’m in the process of editing a few of my own stories, which tend to be too slow in the beginning and too fast in the end. Fortunately I have a ton of experience speeding up or slowing down pacing when I edit my clients’ manuscripts, and I wrote up a whole section about it in my book The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

One important thing to keep in mind about pacing is that there’s no one “right” pace—each story and genre need something different. A crime thriller will usually have faster pacing than a character-driven literary novel; language-focused writers will usually create slower-paced stories than plot-focused writers. So when you’re revising your pacing, It’s about finding the right pace for your story.

At the same time, remember that stories generally build in tension, continually ramping up the conflict until it crests at the climax and falls at the resolution. While you’ll want some ebbs and flows in tension so the reader doesn’t get completely exhausted, the story shouldn’t feel resolved for too long without introducing another problem or further complicating the conflict.

A story’s pace is controlled by a number of factors but luckily, there are pretty much only two problems you can have with your pacing. A story can be too slow (which usually feels boring), too fast (which can produce a lot of anxiety), or a combination—too slow in some parts, too fast in others.

In either case, you’ll need to learn how to put the brakes on or apply the gas as needed to moderate your pacing.

Speeding Up Slow Pacing

If we feel the pacing is too slow, it’s usually either because a scene is too long, too wordy, or not enough is happening. The result is a sense that the story is dragging, and a lot of yawning on the part of the reader. When the pace feels slow, we will naturally start to skim or read ahead to find out “what happens.”

Let’s look at how to address each of the three main causes of slow pacing.

Too long. Sometimes the pace feels slow because your scene is simply too long. To remedy that, you might need to start the scene later, end it earlier, or cut slow transitions where not much is happening. Shorter sentences and more frequent paragraph or scene breaks can also help to break up a lengthy scene and make it feel like it’s moving faster.

Too wordy. The more words you use, the slower the pace. Long passages of description, excessive dialogue or inner monologue, info dumps, repetition, and filler words are often to blame. If you simply can’t bring yourself to cut excess words, you can also try breaking up long sentences or paragraphs to give the illusion of a quicker pace.

Nothing is happening. A lack of goals, conflict, or stakes can lead to the feeling that “nothing is happening” in a story. Has your character slipped into the bathtub to ruminate at length on an issue that she’s already mulled over a thousand times before? Have you used five pages to detail a long, boring traveling sequence that should’ve been summarized in a few sentences of transition? If your scene has scant conflict, and no change by the end of the scene, it may need to be rewritten or cut in order to improve your pacing.

Slowing Down Fast Pacing

On the other hand, if a story’s pace is too fast, an excess of action and dialogue are usually to blame, as well as short, choppy sentences, and a ceaseless maelstrom of conflict. In that case, you have the opposite problem: Your scenes are either too short, too shallow, or too much is happening.

Too short. Short sentences, paragraphs, scenes, and chapters pick up the pace of a story, but can leave readers exhausted when overused. Mix it up, using longer sentences or paragraphs slow the pacing where needed. You can also lengthen action- and dialogue heavy scenes by adding brief spurts of description, inner monologue, or narrative summary.

Too shallow. An action-paced scene often skims over the deeper, more nuanced aspects of the story like theme, emotional depth, and character development. If your too-fast pace is the fault of a flat character, take a moment to let readers know what’s driving her with a few sentences of interiority or narrative summary. The more readers feel like they’re inside your protagonist’s mind and heart, the deeper and slower your scene will feel. Description can also help give depth to a shallow scene—all that action and dialogue isn’t taking place in a vacuum, and writing it that way can shift your story into turbo speed in no time at all.

Too much happening. If your protagonist is fighting off a centaur in a crowded marketplace, resolving a longstanding resentment with her brother who works at the tomato stand, looking for a choice hiding place for a trunk of buried treasure, wooing the delivery boy, and realizing the true nature of love and war all in the same scene, you might need to dial it back to control your pacing. Decide which storyline is the most important to highlight, and push all the others into the background or save them for another scene.

No breathers. If the protagonist never gets a chance to catch her breath, readers won’t either. Look for places where she can pause and reflect, like right after a problem is resolved or a new one is discovered, when new information is revealed, or as your character undergoes an important internal change in her motivation or perspective.

Yes! I do!

Step one is word vomit. Write down anything and everything you know.

Step two is write all that down in a numbered list. This list will become your scene list later.

Step three, try and break the story you have into three. Thatll become your acts.

Step four is edit that! Whatever you need to do to make it yours. Add character choices. Add questions. Write it down on flash cards to move it around. If you aren’t sure about anything just leave a comment and come back to it.

Lots of authors will give a list of ‘dos and don’ts’, but I’ve always found the tips to be more helpful than the rules. These are just a few things I’ve picked up in the 17 years I’ve been writing that may help new and old writers alike: 

1. When you finish up your writing for the day, leave yourself on a sentence that you can easily continue. 

After finishing a scene or a paragraph, try writing the first sentence of the next one so that when you pick up your writing again, it’s much easier to get back into your flow. 

2. The structure of your sentences can do wonders for your pacing. 

For example, you’re character has just gotten fatally stabbed. Their world is slowing. So are their thoughts. Shock hits. They think of their loved ones. See the villain who took that away from them. All they can do is stare at the blood tricking through their fingers as their life slips by, bit by bit. Breaking up sentences and experimenting with the pacing like this hones in on the character and their experience, and helps the reader to understand them a little more. 

On the other side of things, longer sentences can also create suspense. A writer can build up the tension by leaving the shocking piece of information until the end of the sentence. Let the reader hang on to every word, dangle it temptingly, swinging it just out of reach until, much like the ending of a song, they reach the crescendo and can bask in that shocking moment. When using long sentences, make sure that the sentences aren’t too complex or you risk losing the readers attention. 

There are so many different ways you can evoke emotion and build different levels of tension simply using the right structure and pacing. Find what works best for your writing and your writing style. 

3. Listen to the way your writing sounds. 

Read your writing aloud and listen to how each sentence flows into the next. You’d be surprised how different it can sound in your head and out loud. This is where the pacing from the last tip also comes into play a little more as you can hear how each sentence flows into the next and what works for your piece. 

4. Let your writing be rough. 

Don’t worry about anything you might miss out when drafting. I tend to do a second draft which I do before an edit. In the second draft, I add the emotion of the scene and the smaller details. I’ve found that this helps keep my writing flowing since I’m not worrying about anything other than getting the story written.

5. A great writing exercise to do is to take a book that you enjoy reading, pick a scene, read through it, and rewrite it in your own style. 

Maybe in your version the background character plays more of a part, or perhaps some of the scenery looks a little different? Perhaps the heroes become the villains and the villains become the heroes? Change as much or as little as you like. It’s all up to you, but do it your way. 

6. Develop the world you’re writing about. 

Your characters belong to a world. But it’s not just your characters that tell the story. The world around them plays a big part too. It was there before them and will be there after them, and can contribute a lot to your story. Take time to think about the cultures and traditions your fictional world holds. What does the layout of the land look like? What kind of history does it have? Is there anyone from that history that your characters look up to? What beliefs do people have? What kind of people live there? I’ve asked myself these questions a lot when writing, and often found little bits of information I can add to my stories. It’s a great way to get to know not only your characters, but the world that shaped them and made them who they are. 

7. Clear over clever. 

It is important that your readers understand the story you’re trying to tell. I have been guilty in the past of trying to use clever words, thinking that this made my writing better, but in the end, the whole point of telling a story is just that: telling a story. I’ve read so many books before that were imaginative and brilliant in their own ways, but more than once I was reaching for the dictionary and it halted my experience of the book because the writer choose to be clever, not clear. By all means, keep to the terminology of the genre you’re writing in (Science Fiction and Fantasy are both good examples of genres that use different terms to add to the overall atmosphere), but nobody expects an author to write like an academic… unless, of course, they’re writing an academic book. 

8. Give yourself time to develop your voice. 

All writers have a voice, including you, and it is the most important tool we have. Some choose to write sprawling sentences full of world-building wonder, and some write short and sharp. Take some time to develop your voice and find out what works best for you. 

9. Comparing yourself to other writers can be a good idea and a bad one.

Take inspiration from other writers and experiment with techniques they use, but try not to go much further than that. Every writer at some point compares themselves with another writer and has that sinking thought: ‘this is an incredible piece of writing and everything I write it worthless’. Remember that your writing is yours, nobody else writes like you, and that is a wonderful thing.

10. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to write every day. 

I have spent a lot of time trying to write every day, and sometimes it’s just not possible. In then end, all I do is burn myself out. Write when you have time and when you want to write. Creativity can be coaxed, but it can’t be forced. 

These are just a few tips that I’ve picked up and developed over the years, so feel free to use some of them (or all of them) if you feel they may help you. 

Hi friends! Every so often I get an Ask about how to do accents. Here’s an excerpt from my book The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers that gives advice about it:

Avoid changing spelling to show an accent. This is called “eye dialect” and it’s notoriously difficult to read. What you want to go for is “ear dialect,” (disclaimer: I made that term up) which is achieved by altering word choices, syntax, and grammar.

Eye dialect:

There wos other genlmen come down Tom-all-Alone’s a-prayin, but they all mostly sed as the t'other wuns prayed wrong, and all mostly sounded as to be a-talking to theirselves, or a-passing blame on the t'others, and not a-talkin to us.

— Mark Twain, Bleak House

Ear dialect:

She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.

— Toni Morrison, Beloved

Eye dialect was popular a century ago, when writers like Mark Twain used it—often pejoratively—to draw attention to “improper” English spoken by their characters. The misspellings are supposed to make you “hear” the accent in your head: “Wos” for “was,” “genlmen” for “gentlemen.” Not only is “eye dialect” difficult to read, these days it’s considered outdated, classist, and racist.

Toni Morrison’s dialect, on the other hand, uses word choices and punctuation to convey her character’s nonstandard English: “she gather them” instead of “she gathers them;” “in all the right order” instead of “in the right order.” If your story has any accents, try to use syntactical cues instead of misspellings to get your character’s voice across.

Do as I say not as I do?

Good writing advice I don’t follow because I’m a scrambling mess (this includes my own advice, because I am, in fact, a very very scrambling mess).

Do your research before you start. Because going back and fixing details or whole plot points is, frankly, a bitch.

Just keep pushing through the writers block. Because to stop is the worst thing you could do.

Always know the function of the scene. Because filler scenes are useless and you will scrap them in the end anyways.

Never edit as you go. Because you will lose momentum and will be stuck on one scene forever.

Always know your characters before you even start writing them. Because realising their intentions too late can lead to a hell of a lot revision work.

But here is the good news: If you don’t get it right on the first try, you can work it out later. Revision and editing is a thing. Granted: The more you get right on the first try, the easier is the revision. But that’s something you pick up with practice! Keep your head up.