Latest Posts by lune-versatile - Page 5
Writer's Guide to Unreliable Narrators
Unreliable narrators are narrators who intentionally or subconsciously mislead the reader with their own bias and lies. I love nothing more than a narrator who deceives me. There is something incredibly charged about not being able to rely on your guide through a story. So how can we write them?
Determine What Kind of Unreliable Narrator your Narrator is.
There are five kinds of unreliable narrator we see in fiction, each with their own way of leading the audience astray.
The Unstable: This narrator is usually an unstable character with problems with grasping reality or having trouble accepting it so they bend it to their own tastes. Example: Arthur Fleck in Joker & Amy Elliot Dunne in Gone Girl
The Exaggerator: the one who spins fanciful lies to embellish the facts of the story around them. Usually they embellish it in such a way to make themselves look good.
The Child: Though children can be a font of truth, they often have a way of muddling facts and being confused by certain aspects of the story they are not versed in. Example. Bran in A Song of Ice and Fire & Scout Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird
The Biased: The biased Narrator is usually an outsider. They enter the world with preconceptions of the world and/or characters around them. Usually they get disabused of their biases by story's end but not always. Example Damen/Damianos of Akielos in The Captive Prince Trilogy
The Liar: The Liar is simply just a liar liar pants on fire. They twist the narrative and outwardly lie about their actions and the reactions of others. The liar is self-serving, usually narcissistic. Example Cersei Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire.
How to Write Your Unreliable Narrator
The thing you must remember is that your audience immediately trusts your narrator, they have no other choice. It is a given. However, it is your job to break that trust.
Allow the narrator to outwardly lie. Let them spout half truths or full out lies in the narrative. The audience will take what your character says as the gosphel until slapped with a conflicting account or detail. It provides a wham to the story that becomes a turning point. Perhaps the best example of this is Amy Elliott Dunne in Gone Girl (I recommend). She introduces herself as a sweet housewife who loves her husband despite her fears over his temper. However, in the section of the book she narrates she quickly flips Nick's account of the events leading up to her disappearance, turning the audience on their head so fast none of us have a chance.
Allow the character to mislead your audience with the absence of details. Your story is one big chain, omit a link and the thing is useless & subject to the questioning you want to draw out of the audience. For example, Daenerys Targaryen believes wholeheartedly that the house with the red door is in Braavos. However, she vividly remembers a lemon tree outside her window and sunsine. But lemon trees cannot grow Braavos and it is notoriously damp and cold. #lemongate
Speak to your audience through the events of the story, bypassing the narrator to get through to the audience. Sometimes the best reveal that the narrator cannot be trusted is showing the audience evidence that they are either not seeing what's happening or they are ignoring it. For example in Captive Prince, it is almost explicitly suggested that the Regent molested his nephew Laurent as a child. If one ignores Damen's narration, the signs are there to see from Laurent's reaction to his Uncle's presence and in some of Laurent's words. Damen chalks this down to Laurent being a brat and the Regent just being a villain. He has to be told despite the audience realising or at least suspecting it from the second book onward.
Play off your secondary characters. Use the characters around your narrator to disprove their account if the story and completely flip the story on its head. Usually, I trust the secondary characters when it comes to Unreliable Narrators. For example, Cersei Lannister gets her own POV in a Feast of Crows. Up until this point she has been very mercurial in her reactions in the first few books, to the point where other characters and the audience are confused about who the real Cersei is: the shrewd polictian or the wine mom with way too much faith in herself and her spawn. In truth, Cersei is incredibly paranoid about those around her and she thinks herself the cleverest player in the game. However, from others such as Tyrion, Tywin, Littlefinger and the members of the Small Council (who yes, all have a touch of misgyny to their criticisms of Cersei but really most of their points have a point since she is mad as a box of frogs) we see that Cersei tends to make enemies out of allies, assume the worst in others and make political choices to spite others or to put her faith in those who offer her little more than flattery.
Writing Tips/What Beta Readers Taught Me
Since I’ve been learning a lot from my beta readers, I’d thought I’d share what I’ve learned (and just some general writing tips) here. (Mind you, this is just off the top of my head so not everything from the beta notes is included.)
- Besides themes find the “glue” that hold your story together. For example, in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the glue was the Fire Nation War (and trying to stop it). This main goal was present throughout all four seasons, including in the side-quests. All characters had different motivations for teaching Aang, but the war kicked off all the events and was why Aang was learning the elements to begin with.
- In order to help the characters feel more like real people, have them react differently to the same event. For instance, when a character dies, Person A could be sad about it while Person B could be angry.
- Don’t be afraid to extend out scenes for tension.
- Have your character asks questions. Especially if they’re new to a place/culture.
- If you want to do a twist, drop small clues leading up to it, so it won’t come out of nowhere.
- Don’t have the characters share everything with each other.
- For research, try to find a video/source with a first-hand experience. For example, for anxiety, try and find a video with a person talking about what its like to have anxiety.
- It’s always good to have a second pair of eyes of your writing.
- When it comes to descriptions, use the five sense to help draw the reader in. Namely touch, sight, smell, hearing, and taste.
- Have the character’s choices impact the plot, not the other way around. For instance, Aang running off after learning he was the Avatar was what allowed the Fire Nation to succeed in the war.
- Find the main theme of your story (see chart) and revolve everything (character arcs, chapters, etc.;) around it. This will help cut out fluff chapters and make the writing more cohesive.
A Quick Guide to Foreshadowing!
Foreshadowing - a warning or indication of a future event. In literature, it is when an author provides readers with hints or suggestions as to what will happen later in the story.
Foreshadowing can be used to create tension and set expectations as to how the story will play out. Can inspire reader emotions–suspense, unease, curiosity,
Types of Foreshadowing
Chekhov’s Gun The author states something that they want you to be aware of for the future - in the eponymous example, a gun hanging on the wall in an early chapter will be used later.
Prophecy A statement to character/ reader about what will happen in the future. Although sometimes unclear at first, they normally become true by the end.
Symbolism A more abstract way of foreshadowing, often shown through things like objects, animals, images and weather. Often foreshadows change in mood, luck or behaviour.
Flashback/Flashforward When the author needs the reader to know something that happened that doesn’t fit with the current timeline. Often there will be hints/clues for things that the writer wants you to remember/pick up on later.
Red Herring A type of foreshadowing that deliberately misleads the reader. False clues such as a character finding another suspicious, etc., may lead you to believe one thing when, in reality, they will have done nothing wrong
Tips and Tricks for Effective Foreshadowing!
Don’t foreshadow too obviously - signpost rather than state! Arouse suspicion, but keep them guessing!
If you make a promise, keep it!
The bigger the twist, the earlier it should be foreshadowed! Foreshadowing too soon is essentially a spoiler
Keep foreshadowing in moderation
Use beta-readers - sometimes our foreshadowing feels so obvious to us but it may not to other people who aren’t as close!
dreamy, cluttered apartment 🌿📚☕
An aye-write guide to Showing vs. Telling
I’ll bet that if you’ve ever taken an English class or a creative writing class, you’ll have come across the phrase “Show, don’t tell.” It’s pretty much a creative writing staple! Anton Chekov once said “ Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass.” In other words, showing should help you to create mental pictures in a reader’s head.
Showing helps readers bond with the characters, helps them experience the emotions and action more vividly, and helps immerse them in the world you have created. So “show, not tell” is definitely not bad advice - in certain circumstances. But it has its place. More on that later.
So How do I Show?
Dialogue
Thoughts/Feelings
Actions
Visual Details
So instead, of telling me “He was angry”, show me how his face face flushes red, how his throat tightens, how he slams his fist, how he raises his voice, how his jaw clenches, how he feels hot and prickly, how his breathing gets rapid, how his thoughts turn to static, etc.
Instead of telling me “The cafeteria was in chaos”, you could show me someone covered in food and slowly turning crimson, children rampaging under the feet of helpless adults, frenzied shouting, etc.
Handy Hint! Try to avoid phrases like “I heard”, “I felt”, “I smelled”, etc. These are still “telling words” (also known as filters) and may weaken your prose, as your readers could be taken out of the experience and you may lose their attention.
Is Showing Always The Right Thing to Do?
No! Absolutely not! Showing is not always right and telling is not always wrong! It’s important to develop the skill and instinct to know when to use showing and when to use telling, as both can be appropriate in certain occasions.
So, “Show, don’t tell” becomes “Show versus tell”.
What is Showing and Telling?
Showing is “The grass caressed his feet and a smile softened his eyes. A hot puff of air brushed past his wrinkled cheek as the sky paled yellow, then crimson, and within a breath, electric indigo”
Telling is “The old man stood in the grass and relaxed as the sun went down.”
Both of these excerpts are perfectly acceptable to use in your writing! But both do different things, although their meanings are pretty much the same. The first example is immersive, sweeping, visual, engaging. The second example is much more pared back and functional. But both have their places in prose!
Telling is functional. Think about when you tell people things. You tell your children dinner is ready. The news reporter tells you there’s a drop in crime rates. Your best friend tells you she’ll be late because her car broke down on the way to yours. These are brief and mundane moments in everyday life.
So, do these deserve multiple paragraphs with sensory detail and action/feeling/thought for every little thing? Do you need to spend an entire paragraph agonising over a minor detail when there’s a sword dangling (physically or metaphorically) over your MC’s head? No. And I’ll explain why.
When To Use Telling
As before, telling is functional. It’s brief. It’s efficient. It gives a gist of a situation without getting bogged down in detail.
Showing is slow, rich, expansive, and most certainly not efficient!
Here’s an example of some telling:
“Years passed, and I thought of Emily less and less. I confined her to some dark dusty corner of my brain. I had to elbow my memories of her to the side. I was too busy with other things. Finishing school, then university a year later. Life was full and enjoyable. But then, one dark cold September night…”
You can’t show this example, unless you wanted to waste page after page of your MC waking up, going through everyday life, to get to the point your actual story started. If you do that, you will likely kill off any interest a reader would have in your novel and likely, your book itself.
Summing Up
Showing:
Should be used for anything dramatic
Uses thoughts, feelings, dialogue, action, and visual detail
Will likely be used more than telling
Telling:
Can be used for
Delivering factual information
Glossing over unnecessary details
Connecting scenes
Showing the passage of time
Adding backstory (not all at once!)
I jotted down for a friend of mine some tips and notes on how I approach drawing hair, and things I keep in mind while doing so, and thought I’d share. There are loads of other ways to do it, and the learning never stops, so I hope this helps!
people have asked me how i draw eyes so i made an extremely slap-dash eye tutorial! this is simply about how i draw a simple neutral eye, nothing to do with expressions (that’s a whole other thing).
start with the horizontal guide on the face, to help place the eyes. put circles where the eyes will go!
adjust the circles into diamond shapes– i got this idea from sinix design on youtube, it’s very helpful and easier to see where the lids should end than with a circle.
draw the top lid/lash lines, leaving a bit of space at the top of the diamond. keep each eye in time with each other– drawing one whole eye first makes it harder to match the other one.
then the bottom lids. i usually try to do all the lid shapes with a single curved stroke each. keep it simple pals!
irises & pupils. sometimes i’ll draw filled-in black circles for the irises, to help figure out where to place them naturally!
lid creases, use the leftover diamond at the top as a loose guide for where to place them. remember that the lid curves around the eyeball.
make adjustments! things don’t always come out perfect immediately. i usually have to thicken the lash line (i like mine quite thick), move the bottom lid up or down, and sometimes resize a whole eye (easier on computer than traditional, i know!). if you’re on a computer make sure to flip your canvas often so you can see these little things ❤
and to practice, just doodle a lot of small eyes! keeping them small makes them easier and faster to finish, so you can focus on your strokes and playing around with shapes, tilt, lid space, all that. don’t worry about making the irises perfect circles/ovals or any of that, just try to capture the character. have fun!
Blue’s Feathers and Wings Compendium: Atypical Wing Shapes
Part 1 [Standard ]| Part 2 [Atypical] | Feather Markings | Tail Feathers
A compendium of different feather marking types that can be used for inspiration in writing and art; especially if you want to be explicitly clear on the markings and don’t want to just have “striped” or “spotted”.
Disclaimer: I am aware that some of these markings have different names when coming from different birds, and that some of these markings are more artistic than realistic, but this for the fun and benefit of others, not for science.
A Few Tips On Writing Chapters
Give each chapter a descriptive title.
Especially if you find yourself at sea when deciding how exactly to chop your story into pieces. Even if you don’t want to use chapter titles in your final draft, they’re of enormous use when you’re still figuring out exactly what the shape of your story is. By giving your chapter a descriptive title, you’re giving your chapter a focus and a particular story for your chapter to tell.
Make sure each chapter has its own self contained narrative arc.
This is not to say that every novel must be episodic, but that each section should have its own beginning, middle, and end. It should have set up, build up, and resolution. It should ask a question an implicit question at the beginning and provide a slightly more explicit answer at the end.
Example: one chapter in my book is just 500 words. Two new characters drive into town, get out of a car, knock on a door, and they say their names. The beginning is the introduction of the mystery of these characters. It’s the question “who are these people?” As they drive, you see them and where they are going, which builds towards the answer. As a resolution, you get their names.
You wouldn’t call this a “short story” by any means, but it does have a firm beginning, middle, end. It is a contained unit.
A chapter break can–and sometimes should–come in the middle of a scene.
Twists and cliffhangers can appear at the end of novels, so it would be silly to say you couldn’t end a chapter that way, too. Cliffhangers and twists are usually both a result of other plot points, and the cause of a new problem. Narratively, they function both as the ending of one thing and the beginning of another, so they make for great chapter breaks. Separating the scene at a cliffhanger is often better/cleaner than lumping the entire scene into one chapter.
Example: Alex is warned to stay away from a dangerous cliff. Alex gets adventurous and wanders toward cliff. Alex falls off of cliff. Beginning. Middle. End.
Alex is actually hanging from cliff! Alex figures out a way to get back to solid ground, struggles. Alex makes it back to solid ground. Beginning. Middle. End.
You want your readers to “just one more chapter!” their way through your book. Stuffing moments of high tension into the middle of chapters that resolve neatly won’t keep them turning pages.
Always end your chapters on a point of intrigue.
Using points of tension to bookend chapters is important because chapter endings are usually where readers put a book down during a reading session. They’re very naturally places to close the cover and walk away.
As a writer, you don’t want this. You absolutely don’t want to give your reader great places to put the book down, because you need them to pick the book up again as soon as possible. Not the next day, or the next week, (or never), but while they have a spare minute during their commute, or during their lunch break, or under their desk in class.
You want to encourage this by taking that perfectly natural endpoint, that place they expect to be able to put the book down, and forcing them to take even a tiny peak at the next chapter.
This doesn’t mean ending every chapter on a verifiable cliffhanger, but there has to be something. A character can solve a mystery. A new character can appear. There can be a moment of irony. A new idea. Just so long as it’s something that will make the reader think “I need to know what happens next.”
things people do in real world dialogue:
• laugh at their own jokes
• don’t finish/say complete sentences
• interrupt a line of thought with a sudden new one
• say ‘uh’ between words when unsure
• accidentally blend multiple words together, and may start the sentence over again
• repeat filler words such as ‘like’ ‘literally’ ‘really’ ‘anyways’ and ‘i think’
• begin and/or end sentences with phrases such as ‘eh’ and ‘you know’, and may make those phrases into question form to get another’s input
• repeat words/phrases when in an excited state
• words fizzle out upon realizing no one is listening
• repeat themselves when others don’t understand what they’re saying, as well as to get their point across
• reply nonverbally such as hand gestures, facial expressions, random noises, movement, and even silence
Are you still stuck for ideas for National Novel Writing Month? Or are you working on a novel at a more leisurely pace? Here are 102 resources on Character, Point of View, Dialogue, Plot, Conflict, Structure, Outlining, Setting, and World Building, plus some links to generate Ideas and Inspiration.
CHARACTER, POINT OF VIEW, DIALOGUE
10 Days of Character Building
Name Generators
Name Playground
The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test
Priming the idea pump (A character checklist shamlessly lifted from acting)
How to Create a Character
Seven Common Character Types
Handling a Cast of Thousands – Part I: Getting to Know Your Characters
It’s Not What They Say . . .
Establishing the Right Point of View: How to Avoid “Stepping Out of Character”
How to Start Writing in the Third Person
Web Resources for Developing Characters
What are the Sixteen Master Archetypes?
Character: A compilation of guidance from classical and contemporary experts on creating great dramatic characters
Building Fictional Characters
Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
Character Building Workshop
Tips for Characterization
Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
Villains are People, Too, But . . .
Top 10 Tips for Writing Dialogue
Speaking of Dialogue
Dialogue Tips
Advantages, Disadvantages and Skills (character traits)
How to Write a Character Bible
Character Development Exercises
All Your Characters Sounds the Same — And They’re Not a Hivemind!
Medieval Names Archive
Sympathy Without Saintliness
Writing the Other: Bridging Cultural Difference for Successful Fiction
Family Echo (family tree website)
Interviewing Characters: Follow the Energy
100 Character Development Questions for Writers
Behind the Name
Lineage Chart Layout Generator
PLOT, CONFLICT, STRUCTURE, OUTLINE
How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method
Effectively Outlining Your Plot
Conflict and Character within Story Structure
Outlining Your Plot
Ideas, Plots & Using the Premise Sheets
How to Write a Novel
Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense
Plunge Right In . . . Into Your Story, That Is!
Fiction Writing Tips: Story Grid
Tips for Creating a Compelling Plot
Writer’s “Cheat Sheets”
The Thirty-six (plus one) Dramatic Situations
The Evil Overlord Devises a Plot: Excerpt from Stupid Plotting Tricks
Conflict Test
What is Conflict?
Monomyth
The Hero’s Journey: Summary of the Steps
Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes
Plotting Without Fears
Novel Outlining 101
Writing the Perfect Scene
Fight Scenes 101
Basic Plots in Literature
One-Page Plotting
The Great Swampy Middle
SETTING, WORLD BUILDING
Magical World Builder’s Guide
I Love the End of the World
World Building 101
The Art of Description: Eight Tips to Help You Bring Your Settings to Life
Creating the Perfect Setting – Part I
Creating a Believable World
An Impatient Writer’s Approach to Worldbuilding
Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions
Setting
Character and Setting Interactions
Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds
Creating Fantasy Worlds
Questions About Worldbuilding
Maps Workshop — Developing the Fictional World Through Mapping
World Builder Projects
IDEAS, INSPIRATION
Quick Story Idea Generator
Solve Your Problems Simply by Saying Them Out Loud
Busting Your Writing Rut
Writing Inspiration, or Sex on a Bicycle
Creative Acceleration: 11 Tips to Engineer a Productive Flow
The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes
Complete Your First Book with these 9 Simple Writing Habits
Free Association, Active Imagination, Twilight Imaging
Random Book Title Generator
Finishing Your Novel
Story Starters and Idea Generators
REVISION
How to Rewrite
One-Pass Manuscript Revision: From First Draft to Last in One Cycle
Editing Recipe
Cliche Finder
Revising Your Novel: Read What You’ve Written
Writing 101: So You Want to Write a Novel Part 3: Revising a Novel
TOOLS and SOFTWARE
My Writing Nook (online text editor; free)
Bubbl.us (online mind map application; free)
Freemind (mind map application; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable)
XMind (mind map application; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable)
Liquid Story Binder (novel organization and writing software; free trial, $45.95; Windows, portable)
Scrivener (novel organization and writing software; free trial, $39.95; Mac)
SuperNotecard (novel organization and writing software; free trial, $29; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable)
yWriter (novel organization and writing software; free; Windows, Linux, portable)
JDarkRoom (minimalist text editor; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable)
AutoRealm (map creation software; free; Windows, Linux with Wine)
Helloooo! Do you have a particular method or tips for when creating and developing a character?
Hi :)
Sorry this took me some time, but there is so much I could talk about here. So I try to go with some basics.
How to create a character
Make a character sheet
some examples for what I usually try to find out about my characters, regardless which genre I’m writing in
basics
name, age, place of birth, where they live, nationality, ethnicity, education, occupation, religious affiliation, financial status, gender identity, sexual orientation
physical appearance
eye, hair and skin colour
distinguishing features (tattoos, birthmarks, scars, visible disabilities,...)
height and weight (proportions!)
walk (slow, fast, skipping,...)
tics and mannerisms (touching their face, blinking, grinding their teeth,...)
speech patterns and communication style
talk (slow, fast, slurred etc.)
accents and dialects
using slang, sounding educated, trying to hide a dialect/accent etc.
do they talk with their whole body? (gestures?)
extra question for speech and physical appearance: can people tell where the character is coming from and what influences they have from their heritage?
past and present
how did they grow up?
happy memories
academic career
hobbies
past trauma or important turning points that still influence their life
specific lifestyle
social and political ideology
future
dreams and goals
expectations from themself and from outside
Relationship maps
for longer stories it’s even more important to understand your characters relationships to each other
two different approaches:
1. proper list of family, friends, love interests, “enemies”, everyone else
family
who is still alive and where do they live?
who did they grow up with?
what was and what is their relationship?
friends
how long do they know each other?
would they trust them with a secret?
how close are they?
love interests
what is their relationship status?
what do they like about them?
is it reciprocated?
if they are not together why not?
“enemies”
how do they know each other?
what do they not like about each other?
did they always hate each other?
can their relationship become better?
2. love, like, hate categories
make a list of people your character loves (use the different forms of love: romantic, familial, friendly,...)
make a list of acquaintances
make a list of people they dislike and people who dislike them
you could even try to draw their relationships with each other
make sure you include if the relationship changes throughout your story
Those are just some basic things I could think of that I usually like to write down about my characters. Depending on the story there are some variations of this and more information about specific topics.
Pro tip for developing your characters: write short stories or little sequences with your characters that don’t neccessarily have anything to do with your story. I think of it as fanfiction of your own work. Put your characters with their intended roles and relationships in different situations and just write and let it play out. This is a good tool to find out if and how the characters work together. And it can even give you new ideas for their relationships to each other and new skills or habits for your characters. It’s basically a test run for your cast before you go into your bigger story.
And one last important thing: don’t get too stuck on an idea. Characters can sometimes develop a life of their own. You don’t always have a conscious control over them. So don’t be afraid to change it if something is not working out or you find something else that is working even better.
This took me such a long time and I hope it makes sense and helps you with your writing. Good luck!
- Jana
Writing advice from my uni teachers:
If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.
Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.
Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.
Before you write your novel, write a page of anything from your characters POV so you can get their voice right. Do this for every main character introduced.
Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: House M.D. Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Greg House/James Wilson Additional Tags: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Friends to Lovers, Non-Graphic Violence, Whump, Hurt/Comfort Summary: