Latest Posts by rulingtheworldistoomuchwork - Page 5
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A dating service where matching is based on people’s search history exists. You’re a serial killer. You go on a date with a writer.
saw a fic the other day where Yanli was like "my husband's half-brother is creepy and horrible and I'm never letting him hold my baby" and I was just like ??????? umm ding dong you're wrong ???? like she wouldn't see this bundle of deeply familiar traits and traumas and just go "I'm going to take care of that small tired man whether he likes it or not :) :) :)"
Nie Mingjue will regret this in the morning.
the untamed as richard siken quotes
wei wuxian
lan wangji
jiang cheng
nie huaisang
lan xichen
wen ning
wen qing
jiang yanli
nie mingjue
jin guangyao
The Untamed + text post memes | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
click on image for better quality
The Untamed as text posts (63/?) the edition in which i’m not implying that jiang cheng is a peasant, but instead implying that he would rather die than participate in wei wuxian’s love affairs
mdzs art that will haunt me for the rest of my life:
to the words never spoken
"I've kept them waiting far too long"
pride
the ghost general wen ning
a brothers vow
a sisters heart
would you be proud of who I've become?
You Were Never Really Alone
growth
Lan Wangjis Bloody Back
you are a bit late, aren't you?
core transfer
And The Little Prince Feels Lonely
your brother loves you
"it's perfect, obviously"
Haunted By The Ghost Of You
well I bled blue blood from my back last night
"why didn't you tell me?"
memories
"魏婴，回来吧。"
A Swordsman Without A Sword-Hand
jiang cheng made a reach for wei wuxian
the victory is that I could not stomach it
and you can watch me give
kept apart
"when I couldn't even honor his gift"
What They Sacrificed For Each Other
The Yiling Patriarch Has Died
"jiujiu!"
jiang cheng and suibian
golden core/sandu
all I could give still wasn't enough
dream part one, dream part two
the fallen sun
Jiang Cheng with his little nephew Jin Ling.
artworks by 半场先生@weibo
*ZiYuan and XiaoYa from Record of Time with my mascot triple M crew: Maru, Mushroom alien & Mr. Bear.
*Reyn & Flora birthday ^^
* LAN napa cabbage protecting WiFi Piggy….
In a visual medium especially, a large part of a character is how they look. Like, looks can be deceiving and aren’t everything about a character, obviously, but ALSO: by making a character look a certain way (especially in the character’s daily life) the creator is (whether they know it or not) saying that that character is (usually) choosing to look a certain way.
Clothes, accessories, make-up, and hair can suggest any number of things about a person’s character. It can be a very useful tool in any story. Personal presentation can suggest things about a character’s gender, profession, religion, sexuality, personal wealth, native culture, and personality (and more).
Which is, I think, why a lot of female characters are sort of… I don’t want to say “broken”… but their execution has ruined their concept? (This isn’t exclusive to female characters, male characters can also suffer from unsupported unrealistic appearances, but female characters definitely suffer more.)
You have these female characters who are supposed to be relatable, realistic women, right? But you look at their perfectly curled-and-styled, super long hair and you see hours of hair-care. And you look at their perfectly made-up faces and you see at least a dozen different make-up products and at least a half-hour in the bathroom every morning. And you look at their figures and you see a strict diet and hours in the gym every week, and you see shaving or waxing, and you see well-maintained mani-pedis. And you look at their outfits and you see designer names and special tailoring, and an enormous closet somewhere in their apartment to store all this, and someone who has the time and energy for perfectly done, sorted, and ironed laundry (and is obviously not doing anything remotely physical or dangerous in those heels).
Which would be fine if that was an intentional visual statement about the character! There are women who put that sort of time/energy/money into their appearance! There are magical and non-human characters (male and female and neither) who can just snap their fingers to look perfect, and I buy it no problem! I get that!
But this gets done even with female characters who are supposed to be absent-minded workaholics, poor working single mothers, nerdy shut-ins, take-no-shit tomboys, post-apocalyptic survivors, and even faux-medieval warriors who shouldn’t have the time or resources for that level of personal grooming! And even with aliens and non-humans who shouldn’t know to decide to care!
So you have these “everyday” women with busy lives, but who somehow manage to keep an unrealistic level of personal grooming in absurd situations, and they… become visually unreal. Especially when (even if they are canonically said to care about maintaining a certain appearance) they’re often never shown putting in ANY of the time or effort it would take to manage their appearance (show me their skincare routine, show me them at the gym, show me them doing laundry)! They look like they stepped out of a magazine (often so “perfect” that they’re frankly bland, actually), but it’s not factored into their personality or background or their lives?
“I don’t wear make-up,” says the female character who is played by an actress very obviously done-up with eyeliner. “I don’t wear make-up,” says the female character who is drawn as though she is permanently wearing lipstick. There are no bad hair days and no laundry days and no moments of imperfection. What the character might be saying is immediately invalidated by the visuals.
These female characters don’t feel like women so much as they feel like impossible creatures the creator has pretending to be pretty women. They feel fake. They feel like their purpose by the creator is to pander to pervs and unrealistic beauty standards. Especially when they’re sent into combat situations with skintight/revealing outfits with no support and loose hair that’s a blatant liability (and the creators even make them bleed prettily sometimes which is related but different conversation). It’s a stark announcement (intentional or not, knowingly done or not) of the creator’s ignorance and apathy towards women and the choices involved in female self-presentation.
And it makes it… difficult… for me personally to relate to certain female characters sometimes, even when I care about these female characters and WANT to care about these female characters. Their character design is, by their visual appearance and lack of narrative support for that appearance, broken. They’re not grounded in any reality. The suspension of disbelief required can be… a lot.
How to Kick a Reader in the Gut
Disrupt the reader’s sense of justice.
This generally means setting a character up to deserve one thing and then giving them the exact opposite.
Kill a character off before they can achieve their goal.
Let the bad guy get an extremely important win.
Set up a coup against a tyrannical king. The coup fails miserably.
Don’t always give characters closure.
(Excluding the end of the book, obviously)
A beloved friend dies in battle and there’s no time to mourn him.
A random tryst between two main characters is not (or cannot be) brought up again.
A character suddenly loses their job or can otherwise no longer keep up their old routine
Make it the main character’s fault sometimes.
And not in an “imposter syndrome” way. Make your MC do something bad, and make the blame they shoulder for it heavy and tangible.
MC must choose the lesser of two evils.
MC kills someone they believe to be a bad guy, only to later discover the bad guy was a different person altogether.
Rejection is a powerful tool.
People generally want to be understood, and if you can make a character think they are Known, and then rip that away from them with a rejection (romantic or platonic) people will empathize with it.
MC is finally accepting the Thing They Must Do/Become, and their love interest decides that that’s not a path they want to be on and breaks up with them
MC makes a decision they believe is right, everyone around them thinks they chose wrong.
MC finds kinship with someone Like Them, at long last, but that person later discovers that there is some inherent aspect of MC that they wholly reject. (Perhaps it was MC’s fault that their family member died, they have important religious differences, or WERE THE BAD GUY ALL ALONG!)
On the flipside, make your main character keep going.
Push them beyond what they are capable of, and then push them farther. Make them want something so deeply that they are willing to do literally anything to get it. Give them passion and drive and grit and more of that than they have fear.
“But what if my MC is quiet and meek?” Even better. They want something so deeply that every single moment they push themselves toward it is a moment spent outside their comfort zone. What must that do to a person?
Obviously, don’t do all of these things, or the story can begin to feel tedious or overly dramatic, and make sure that every decision you make is informed by your plot first and foremost.
Also remember that the things that make us sad, angry, or otherwise emotional as readers are the same things that make us feel that way in our day-to-day lives. Creating an empathetic main character is the foundation for all of the above tips.
After reading a whole lot of danmeis by several different authors, I find the difference mindsets on morality by three of the most popular ones sort of funny :
MXTX: actions have consequences and when ppl have power those consequences might be terrible even if the intentions are good. Still staying true in one’s heart is important. Also, fuck mob mentality, social media and peer pressure, and celeb internet culture. Anonymous masses are vultures and they can both be terrible on their own or easily manipulated and weaponized. (this last part is really the metaphoric message of the novels, not a reference to any lead actor’s scandals…which makes the whole irl thing even more ironic…and yes I know I’m using it wrong but if Alanis Morisette can, so can I).
Meatbun: Okay, the protagonist is scum. Not just regular scum. Psychotic Genocidal Totalitarian scum (also very into BDSM). Do you think he’s bad in the first chapters? Oh he gets worse. Do you feel like stabbing him yet? Good! Only he is the biggest victim of them all and he is now horrified with his actions and bc actions matter regardless of personal excuses, he’s gonna suffer with that knowledge forever. Suffer along as the lead pines, despairs and crawls on his path of redemption and neither you nor the characters will ever truly emotionally recover. Conclusion: If you honestly repent then there is a chance at redemption no matter the crime (how very catholic).
Priest: Be Gay, Do Crimes, Have Fun Storming the Castle!, Murder Parties for all! No need to feel bad, or sorry. Just find a kindred ruthless bf, stir shit up and then retire together into a little cottage somewhere. The world is chaos, do what yo gotta do to survive, don’t sweat it. The ends justify the means. Morality is optional, a strong sense of patriotism is advised (“ For the Greater Good/ The greater good”), being utterly devoted to your loved one is mandatory tho!
vaguely academic things to do to keep yourself entertained
go down a wikipedia research hole by clicking the first term you don’t understand
binge a crashcourse series end to end (personal recs: world history, history of science, big history, philosophy)
find free books on project gutenberg
download some western classics for free
borrow books and audiobooks from the libby app or borrowbox
start a commonplace book
take a khan academy course
browse MIT’s free online course materials
teach yourself to code
go on a google scholar essay dive
try the open access button to avoid some paywalls for academic media, or install unpaywall that does a similar thing
research the history of the place you where you live
tempt the wrath of the duolingo owl and learn a language
search for online streams of the local tv in your target language’s country and use as background noise for immersion points
print and scrapbook favourite poetry and literature quotes
improve your handwriting by doing handwriting exercises
learn philosophy with the philosophize this! podcast. actually just check out all the educational spotify podcasts there are many good ones
start a weekly club with friends to share new and interesting things you’ve learnt that week
clean and reorganise your study space, physical or digital
check out online museums
fave educational youtube channels that I adore: vsauce, crashcourse, smarter every day, kurzgesagt, school of life, tom scott, r. c. waldun, vsauce3, primer, mark rober, veritasium, asapSCIENCE, scishow, TED-ed
hopefully you’ll find something to enjoy! happy learning x
Free books: 100 legal sites to download literature
The Classics
Browse works by Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad and other famous authors here.
Classic Bookshelf: This site has put classic novels online, from Charles Dickens to Charlotte Bronte.
The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database.
Project Gutenberg: This famous site has over 27,000 free books online.
Page by Page Books: Find books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells, as well as speeches from George W. Bush on this site.
Classic Book Library: Genres here include historical fiction, history, science fiction, mystery, romance and children’s literature, but they’re all classics.
Classic Reader: Here you can read Shakespeare, young adult fiction and more.
Read Print: From George Orwell to Alexandre Dumas to George Eliot to Charles Darwin, this online library is stocked with the best classics.
Planet eBook: Download free classic literature titles here, from Dostoevsky to D.H. Lawrence to Joseph Conrad.
The Spectator Project: Montclair State University’s project features full-text, online versions of The Spectator and The Tatler.
Bibliomania: This site has more than 2,000 classic texts, plus study guides and reference books.
Online Library of Literature: Find full and unabridged texts of classic literature, including the Bronte sisters, Mark Twain and more.
Bartleby: Bartleby has much more than just the classics, but its collection of anthologies and other important novels made it famous.
Fiction.us: Fiction.us has a huge selection of novels, including works by Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Flaubert, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.
Free Classic Literature: Find British authors like Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, plus other authors like Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and more.
Textbooks
If you don’t absolutely need to pay for your textbooks, save yourself a few hundred dollars by reviewing these sites.
Textbook Revolution: Find biology, business, engineering, mathematics and world history textbooks here.
Wikibooks: From cookbooks to the computing department, find instructional and educational materials here.
KnowThis Free Online Textbooks: Get directed to stats textbooks and more.
Online Medical Textbooks: Find books about plastic surgery, anatomy and more here.
Online Science and Math Textbooks: Access biochemistry, chemistry, aeronautics, medical manuals and other textbooks here.
MIT Open Courseware Supplemental Resources: Find free videos, textbooks and more on the subjects of mechanical engineering, mathematics, chemistry and more.
Flat World Knowledge: This innovative site has created an open college textbooks platform that will launch in January 2009.
Free Business Textbooks: Find free books to go along with accounting, economics and other business classes.
Light and Matter: Here you can access open source physics textbooks.
eMedicine: This project from WebMD is continuously updated and has articles and references on surgery, pediatrics and more.
Math and Science
Turn to this list to find books about math, science, engineering and technology.
FullBooks.com: This site has “thousands of full-text free books,” including a large amount of scientific essays and books.
Free online textbooks, lecture notes, tutorials and videos on mathematics: NYU links to several free resources for math students.
Online Mathematics Texts: Here you can find online textbooks likeElementary Linear Algebra and Complex Variables.
Science and Engineering Books for free download: These books range in topics from nanotechnology to compressible flow.
FreeScience.info: Find over 1800 math, engineering and science books here.
Free Tech Books: Computer programmers and computer science enthusiasts can find helpful books here.
Children’s Books
Even children’s books are now available online. Find illustrated books, chapter books and more.
byGosh: Find free illustrated children’s books and stories here.
Munseys: Munseys has nearly 2,000 children’s titles, plus books about religion, biographies and more.
International Children’s Digital Library: Find award-winning books and search by categories like age group, make believe books, true books or picture books.
Lookybook: Access children’s picture books here.
Philosophy and Religion
For books about philosophy and religion, check out these websites.
Bored.com: Bored.com has music ebooks, cooking ebooks, and over 150 philosophy titles and over 1,000 religion titles.
Ideology.us: Here you’ll find works by Rene Descartes, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, David Hume and others.
Free Books on Yoga, Religion and Philosophy: Recent uploads to this site include Practical Lessons in Yoga and Philosophy of Dreams.
The Sociology of Religion: Read this book by Max Weber, here.
Religion eBooks: Read books about the Bible, Christian books, and more.
Plays
From Shakespeare to George Bernard Shaw to more contemporary playwrights, visit these sites.
ReadBookOnline.net: Here you can read plays by Chekhov, Thomas Hardy, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and others.
Plays: Read Pygmalion, Uncle Vanya or The Playboy of the Western World here.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: MIT has made available all of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and histories.
Plays Online: This site catalogs “all the plays [they] know about that are available in full text versions online for free.”
ProPlay: This site has children’s plays, comedies, dramas and musicals.
Modern Fiction, Fantasy and Romance
These websites boast collections of graphic novels, romance novels, fantasy books and more.
Public Bookshelf: Find romance novels, mysteries and more.
The Internet Book Database of Fiction: This forum features fantasy and graphic novels, anime, J.K. Rowling and more.
Free Online Novels: Here you can find Christian novels, fantasy and graphic novels, adventure books, horror books and more.
Foxglove: This British site has free novels, satire and short stories.
Baen Free Library: Find books by Scott Gier, Keith Laumer and others.
The Road to Romance: This website has books by Patricia Cornwell and other romance novelists.
Get Free Ebooks: This site’s largest collection includes fiction books.
John T. Cullen: Read short stories from John T. Cullen here.
SF and Fantasy Books Online: Books here include Arabian Nights,Aesop’s Fables and more.
Free Novels Online and Free Online Cyber-Books: This list contains mostly fantasy books.
Foreign Language
For books in a foreign language like French, Spanish and even Romanian, look here.
Project Laurens Jz Coster: Find Dutch literature here.
ATHENA Textes Francais: Search by author’s name, French books, or books written by other authors but translated into French.
Liber Liber: Download Italian books here. Browse by author, title, or subject.
Biblioteca romaneasca: Find Romanian books on this site.
Bibliolteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes: Look up authors to find a catalog of their available works on this Spanish site.
KEIMENA: This page is entirely in Greek, but if you’re looking for modern Greek literature, this is the place to access books online.
Proyecto Cervantes: Texas A&M’s Proyecto Cervantes has cataloged Cervantes’ work online.
Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum: Access many Latin texts here.
Project Runeberg: Find Scandinavian literature online here.
Italian Women Writers: This site provides information about Italian women authors and features full-text titles too.
Biblioteca Valenciana: Register to use this database of Catalan and Valencian books.
Ketab Farsi: Access literature and publications in Farsi from this site.
Afghanistan Digital Library: Powered by NYU, the Afghanistan Digital Library has works published between 1870 and 1930.
CELT: CELT stands for “the Corpus of Electronic Texts” features important historical literature and documents.
Projekt Gutenberg-DE: This easy-to-use database of German language texts lets you search by genres and author.
History and Culture
Refresh your memory of world history, the classics and U.S. history here.
LibriVox: LibriVox has a good selection of historical fiction.
The Perseus Project: Tufts’ Perseus Digital Library features titles from Ancient Rome and Greece, published in English and original languages.
Access Genealogy: Find literature about Native American history, the Scotch-Irish immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, and more.
Free History Books: This collection features U.S. history books, including works by Paul Jennings, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Josiah Quincy and others.
Most Popular History Books: Free titles include Seven Days and Seven Nights by Alexander Szegedy and Autobiography of a Female Slave by Martha G. Browne.
Rare Books
Look for rare books online here.
Questia: Questia has 5,000 books available for free, including rare books and classics.
JR’s Rare Books and Commentary: Check this site for PDF versions of some rare books.
Arts and Entertainment
This list features books about celebrities, movies, fashion and more.
Books-On-Line: This large collection includes movie scripts, newer works, cookbooks and more.
Chest of Books: This site has a wide range of free books, including gardening and cooking books, home improvement books, craft and hobby books, art books and more.
Free e-Books: Find titles related to beauty and fashion, games, health, drama and more.
2020ok: Categories here include art, graphic design, performing arts, ethnic and national, careers, business and a lot more.
Free Art Books: Find artist books and art books in PDF format here.
Free Web design books: OnlineComputerBooks.com directs you to free web design books.
Free Music Books: Find sheet music, lyrics and books about music here.
Free Fashion Books: Costume and fashion books are linked to the Google Books page.
Mystery
Here you can find mystery books from Sherlock Holmes to more contemporary authors.
MysteryNet: Read free short mystery stories on this site.
TopMystery.com: Read books by Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton and other mystery writers here.
Mystery Books: Read books by Sue Grafton and others.
Poetry
These poetry sites have works by Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe and others.
The Literature Network: This site features forums, a copy of The King James Bible, and over 3,000 short stories and poems.
Poetry: This list includes “The Raven,” “O Captain! My Captain!” and “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.”
Poem Hunter: Find free poems, lyrics and quotations on this site.
Famous Poetry Online: Read limericks, love poetry, and poems by Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Lord Byron and others.
Google Poetry: Google Books has a large selection of poetry, fromThe Canterbury Tales to Beowulf to Walt Whitman.
QuotesandPoem.com: Read poems by Maya Angelou, William Blake, Sylvia Plath and more.
CompleteClassics.com: Rudyard Kipling, Allen Ginsberg and Alfred Lord Tennyson are all featured here.
PinkPoem.com: On this site, you can download free poetry ebooks.
Miscellaneous
For even more free book sites, check out this list.
Banned Books: Here you can follow links of banned books to their full text online.
World eBook Library: This monstrous collection includes classics, encyclopedias, children’s books and a lot more.
DailyLit: DailyLit has everything from Moby Dick to the more recent phenomenon, Skinny Bitch.
A Celebration of Women Writers: The University of Pennsylvania’s page for women writers includes Newbery winners.
Free Online Novels: These novels are fully online and range from romance to religious fiction to historical fiction.
ManyBooks.net: Download mysteries and other books for your iPhone or eBook reader here.
Authorama: Books here are pulled from Google Books and more. You’ll find history books, novels and more.
Prize-winning books online: Use this directory to connect to full-text copies of Newbery winners, Nobel Prize winners and Pulitzer winners.
Some idioms and phrases you should know about part II :
Read The Riot Act : to scold, reprimand, or reprove one severely for an error or mistake.
Be Cleaned Out : to be emptied or devoid of money, food, resources, etc.
The Stars Are Aligned : current situation or set of conditions is ideal for the prospects of some activity or endeavor.
Climb The Social Ladder : to improve one's position within the hierarchical structure or makeup of a culture, society, or social environment.
Wash One's Mouth Out With Soap : to punish one for using rude, vulgar, or obscene language by cleaning their mouth with soap, usually used merely as a threat.
Get Down To Work : to begin being serious about something, to begin attending to business or work at hand.
Have Someone Pegged : to distinctly regard one as being a certain type of person.
Breathe A Word : to share information that is supposed to be kept secret, often used in the negative to encourage silence.
Shake Like A Leaf : to tremble violently with fear or nervousness.
Boil The Ocean : to engage in futile tasks.
Feel Blue : to feel sad.
words worth knowing:
Jaleo : (n.) A lively dance of Andalusian origin, or the music or handclapping which accompanies it.
Zambra : (n.) A kind of flamenco dance.
Elysian : (adj.) Relating to or characteristic of heaven or paradise.
Macerate : (v.) (especially with reference to food) soften or become softened by soaking in a liquid.
Airhead : (n.) an area in enemy territory or in threatened friendly territory, seized by airborne troops for bringing in supplies and additional troops by airdrop or landing.
Ergometer : (n.) a device designed to measure muscle power.
Minacious : (adj.) Menacing; threatening.
Cabasset : (n.) a morion of small size.
Zealous : (adj.) someone who spends a lot of time or energy in supporting something that they believe in very strongly, especially a political or religious ideal.
Saudade : (n.) (in Portuguese folk culture) a deep emotional state of melancholic longing for a person or thing that is absent.
Gallus : (adj.) (Scottish) (Also gallous) bold; daring; reckless.
Vomitorium - 1: (n.) Each of a series of entrance or exit passages in an ancient Roman amphitheatre or theatre./ 2: A place in which, according to popular misconception, the ancient Romans are supposed to have vomited during feasts to make room for more food.
One of the best tips for writing descriptions of pain is actually a snippet I remember from a story where a character is given a host of colored pencils and asked to draw an egg.
The character says that there’s no white pencil. But you don’t need a white pencil to draw a white egg. We already know the egg is white. What we need to draw is the luminance of the yellow lamp and the reflection of the blue cloth and the shadows and the shading.
We know a broken bone hurts. We know a knife wound hurts. We know grief hurts. Show us what else it does.
You don’t need to describe the character in pain. You need to describe how the pain affects the character - how they’re unable to move, how they’re sweating, how they’re cold, how their muscles ache and their fingers tremble and their eyes prickle.
Draw around the egg. Write around the pain. And we will all be able to see the finished product.
Some idioms and phrases you should know about part I :
Salt of the earth: a very good or worthy person.
Gut-wrenching: making you feel very upset or worried.
Make a spectacle of yourself: to do something that makes you look stupid and attracts people's attention.
Pass muster: be accepted as adequate or satisfactory.
Putty in someone's hands: easily influenced by someone else, excessively willing to do what someone else wishes.
Look before you leap: carefully consider the possible consequences before taking action.
Set the wheels in motion : to do something that will cause a series of actions to start.
Off the books: without being included on official records.
A long Haul: something that takes a lot of time and energy.
An end in itself: a goal that is pursued in it's own right to the exclusion of others.
Night owl: a person who prefers to be awake late at night.
Kick the Bucket: to die.
Alter Ego: a person's secondary or alternative personality immediately or extremely quickly; at once.
Freak of Nature: something or someone that is unusual, rare, or abnormal in some way / To avoid attracting attention to yourself.
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.
Hello! I hope you're well! I was wondering, do you have some advice for the best-friends-to-lovers trope? My characters have been best friends since childhood and start living together but I have trouble getting the romance going as they're already very affectionate towards each other.
I’ve written quite a few articles surrounding the subject that I thought might be helpful, so I’ve linked them below :)
Guide to Writing Friends To Lovers
Tips On Writing Skinny Love
Resources For Romance Writers
Resources For Describing Emotions
Relationships Between Characters With No Connection
Relationships Between Polar Opposites
Skinny Love Prompts
Enemies Turned Lovers Prompts
Best Friends Turned Lovers Prompts
Tol & Smol Prompts
Guide to Writing Enemies To Lovers
“Just Friends” Playlist Listen On Spotify
Childhood Friends to Lovers
Hope these can help you!
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Character Development : A Collection of Resources
Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress
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Resources
Resources For Creating Characters
Resources For Describing Characters
Resources For Writing The Mafia
Resources For Writing Royalty
Commentary on Social Issues In Writing
General Tips
Guide to Character Development
How To Fit Character Development Into Your Story
Tips on Character Consistency
Designing A Character From Scratch
Making characters for your world
Characters First, Story Second Method
Understanding Your Character
Tips on Character Motivations
31 Days of Character Development : May 2018 Writing Challenge
How To Analyze A Character
Alternative Method of Character Creation
Connecting To Your Own Characters
Interview As Your Characters
Flipping Character Traits On Their Head
Character Driven vs. Plot Driven Stories
Traits
Tips On Writing About Mental Illness
Giving Your Protagonists Negative Traits
Giving Characters Distinct Voices in Dialogue
Giving Characters Flaws
Making Characters More Unique
Keeping Characters Realistic
Archetypes
Writing Good Villains
Creating Villains
Guide to Writing The Hero
Positive Character Development Without Romanticizing Toxic Behavior
Tips on Writing Cold & Distant Characters
Balancing Multiple Main Characters
Creating Diverse Otherworld Characters
Foreshadowing The Villain
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Masterlist | WIP Blog
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Shoutout to my $15+ patron, Douglas S.!
Resources for Writing Injuries
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Head Injuries
General Information | More
Hematoma
Hemorrhage
Concussion
Edema
Skull Fracture
Diffuse Axonal Injury
Neck
General Information
Neck sprain
Herniated Disk
Pinched Nerve
Cervical Fracture
Broken Neck
Chest (Thoracic)
General Information
Aortic disruption
Blunt cardiac injury
Cardiac tamponade
Flail chest
Hemothorax
Pneumothorax (traumatic pneumothorax, open pneumothorax, and tension pneumothorax)
Pulmonary contusion
Broken Ribs
Broken Collarbone
Abdominal
General Information
Blunt trauma
Penetrating injuries (see also, gunshot wound & stab wound sections)
Broken Spine
Lung Trauma
Heart (Blunt Cardiac Injury)
Bladder Trauma
Spleen Trauma
Intestinal Trauma
Liver Trauma
Pancreas Trauma
Kidney Trauma
Arms/Hands/Legs/Feet
General Information | More
Fractures
Dislocations
Sprains
Strains
Muscle Overuse
Muscle Bruise
Bone Bruise
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Tendon pain
Bruises
Injuries to ligaments
Injuries to tendons
Crushed Hand
Crushed Foot
Broken Hand
Broken Foot
Broken Ankle
Broken Wrist
Broken Arm
Shoulder Trauma
Broken elbow
Broken Knee
Broken Finger
Broken Toe
Face
General Information
Broken Nose
Corneal Abrasion
Chemical Eye Burns
Subconjunctival Hemorrhages (Eye Bleeding)
Facial Trauma
Broken/Dislocated jaw
Fractured Cheekbone
Skin & Bleeding
General Information (Skin Injuries) | More (Arteries)
femoral artery (inner thigh)
thoracic aorta (chest & heart)
abdominal aorta (abdomen)
brachial artery (upper arm)
radial artery (hand & forearm)
common carotid artery (neck)
aorta (heart & abdomen)
axillary artery (underarm)
popliteal artery (knee & outer thigh)
anterior tibial artery (shin & ankle)
posterior tibial artery (calf & heel)
arteria dorsalis pedis (foot)
Cuts/Lacerations
Scrapes
Abrasions (Floor burns)
Bruises
Gunshot Wounds
General Information
In the Head
In the Neck
In the Shoulders
In the Chest
In the Abdomen
In the Legs/Arms
In the Hands
In The Feet
Stab Wounds
General Information
In the Head
In the Neck
In the Chest
In the Abdomen
In the Legs/Arms
General Resources
Guide to Story Researching
A Writer’s Thesaurus
Words To Describe Body Types and How They Move
Words To Describe…
Writing Intense Scenes
–
Masterlist | WIP Blog
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hey do you have any tips on plot development? how to do come up with relevant but dramatic things to keep the plot going? i also don’t want to make it too intense?
I actually have quite a lot of resources that I’ve created over the years surrounding plot development. I’ve linked as many as I could find for you:
Resources For Plot Development
Useful Writing Resources
Useful Writing Resources II
31 Days of Plot Development
Novel Planning 101
How To Write A Good Plot Twist
How To Foreshadow
What To Cut Out Of Your Story
Tackling Subplots
Things A Reader Needs From A Story
A Guide To Tension & Suspense In Your Writing
How To Turn A Good Idea Into A Good Story
Planning A Scene In A Story
21 Plot Shapes and the Pros and Cons Of Each
How To Outline Effectively
Tips On Writing Intense Scenes
Writing The First Chapter
Tips On Starting A Scene
Plot Structures
Finding & Fixing Plot Holes
Useful Writing Resources
This is an extensive list of resources for every problem you could come across while writing/planning/editing your novel. Use it well;)
{ *** } Indicate a Highly Reccommended Resource
Planning/outlining Your Work
How To Outline ***
Zigzag Method : Creating Plots
How to Plot a Romance Novel
Seven Great Sources of Conflict for Romances
Let’s talk about brainstorming
Writing Something With Meaning ***
Past Or Present Tense? : How To Decide
Writing Your Work
How To Write A Fabulous Chapter #1 ***
How to Build a Romance Thread in Your Story
The Big Book Of Writing Sex ***
6 Ways to Get Your Readers Shipping Like Crazy
Romance Writing Tips ***
20 Tips for Writing Lovable Romance Novel Heroes
7 Ways To Speed Up Your Writing ***
80+ Barriers to Love: A List of Ideas to Keep Romantic Tension High
9 Romance Writing Mistakes to Avoid
Removing the Creeps From Romance
19 Ways to Write Better Dialogue ***
50 Things Your Characters Can Do WHILE They Talk ***
How To Write Action And Fight Scenes
10 Steps To Write Arguments
9 Ways To Write Body Language
Writing Good Kissing Scenes
Writing Murders
Create And Control Tone ***
Tips for Writing Ghost Stories
Incorporating Flashbacks
12 Tips To Avoid Overwriting ***
Characters
Behind the Name
Top Baby Names
Looking for a name that means a certain thing? ***
7 Rules of Picking Names
Most Common Surnames ***
Minor Character Development
Writing Antagonists, Antiheroes and Villains
Characters With Enhanced Senses
5 Tips to Help You Introduce Characters
How Do You Describe a Character?
How To Write Child Characters
36 Core Values For Building Character
Questions To Answer When Creating Characters ***
4 Ways to Make Readers Instantly Loathe Your Character Descriptions
5 Ways to Keep Characters Consistent
Character Archetypes
25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters
Building Platonic Relationships Between Female Characters
9 Simple and Powerful Ways to Write Body Language
33 Ways To Write Stronger Characters
Conveying Character Emotion
How to Make Readers Love an Unlikable Character…
How to Create Powerful Character Combos
How To Describe A Character’s Voice ***
Describing Clothing And Appearance ***
Career Masterpost ***
Creating Your Character’s Personality ***
Character Flaws ***
Editing
DON’T EDIT>>> REWRITE THE WHOLE THING FIRST
Ultimate Guide To Editing Each Aspect Of Your Work ***
Why You Would Read Your Novel Out Loud ***
Grammar and Punctuation ***
How To Write A Captivating First Sentence
10 Things Your Opening Chapter Should Do: A Check-List for Self-Editing ***
Saving Your Story: Finding Where It Went Wrong
How To Condense Without Losing Anything
The Stages Of Editing
Dialogue/Description Balance
3 Proofreading Tips
The Short Story Form
Chapter & Novel Lengths
Anatomy Of A Novel : Chapters and Parts ***
How To Write Chapter After Chapter Until You Have A Book ***
Where Chapter #2 Should Start
Step By Step Guide To Editing Your Draft
Writing Tool: CTRL-F (How And Why You Should Use It) ***
How To Kill A Character
25 Steps To Edit The Unmerciful Suck Out Of Your Story
5 Ways To Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive ***
Setting
{Setting} How To Describe Setting In Your Stories ***
20 Questions To Enhance Setting
How To Bring Your Setting To Life
Miscellaneous Resources You Can Use In Between
How to Write from a Guy’s POV
The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus
Text To Speech Reader
Compare Character Heights
A Visual Dictionary of Tops
Writers Helping Writers
7 Tricks To Imrove Your Writing Overnight
Work Out/ Word Count : Exercise Between Writing ***
Most Important Writing Tips ***
Let’s talk about diversity in novels
Letting Go Of Your Story
Keeping A Healthy Writing Schedule And Avoiding Procrastination ***
How To Create A Good Book Cover
Write or Die
Tip of my Tongue
Character Traits Form
Online Thesaurus
Writing Sketchy/Medical/Law
Coma: Types, Causes, etc
Tips for writing blood loss
Gunshot Wound Care
Examples of Hospital Forms
Common Legal Questions
The Writer’s Forensics Blog
Brain Injury Legal Guide
Types of Surgical Operations
Types of Mental Health Problems
A Day in the Life of a Mental Hospital Patient
Global Black Market Information ***
Crime Scene Science
Examining Mob Mentality
How Street Gangs Work
Writers’ Block Help/ Productivity
Story Plot Generator
@aveeragemusings ‘ Cure To Writers’ Block ***
50 Romance Plot Ideas
Reading Like A Writer ***
Defeat Writers’ Block
Writing In A Bad Mood ***
Writers Block
When You’ve Lost Motivation To Write A Novel ***
What To Do When The Words Won’t Flow ***
9 Ways To Be A More Productive Writer
“I Cannot Write A Good Sentence Today” (How To Get Over It) ***
Real Writing Advice ***
Info You Need To Know & Words You Didn’t Think Of
A Writer’s Thesaurus ***
Words To Describe… ***
Words & Phrases To Use In Your Sex Scenes ***
Colors (An Extensive List Of Colors)
List Of Kinks & Fetishes ***
List Of Elemental Abilities
inkarnate.com : World Creator And Map Maker For Your Imaginary Setting
Body Language Phrases
List Of Legendary Creatures
How To Write Magic
Hairstyle References
Hemingway : Writing Checker
Body Types: Words To Describe Bodies and How They Move Around
Poisonous Herbs and Plants ***
The Psychology of Color
The Meaning behind Rose color
Types of Swords
Color Symbolism
How a handgun works
How to Write a Eulogy
Types of Crying
Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes ***
Superstitions and More
The 12 Common Archetypes
Language of Flowers
12 Realistic Woman Body Shapes
Using Feedback And Reviews
Turning Negative Reviews Into Positive Ones ***
Proofreading Marks : Easy Symbols To Make Reviewing/Feedback Easier ***
Authonomy Teen Ink Figment Fiction Press ReviewFuse
These Are Trusted Critique Sites ;)
Pauline’s book recs : a MASTERPOST (II)
Shit, it’s 2020 and I’ve updated this Behemoth again. There’s both old and new in here. If you’re having problems with links overlapping, it is most likely the app/dashboard glitching—try the permalink version, and everything should work out, even on mobile. And of course, HAVE FUN.
Also: I had to split this one in two otherwise the links just poof, disappear. Part one is here.
THEMATIC LISTS By character Works featuring Persephone Works featuring Kassandra Works featuring Mary Magdalene Works featuring Narcissus (more or less) Works featuring male protagonists written by women Works featuring the House as a character Works featuring brothers Works featuring assassins Works featuring mermaids Works featuring musicians Works about scorned women and complex character development Works featuring the femme fatale archetype Works featuring female villains Works with Nature as a character Works with supernatural entities as a human double Works with introspective characters Works with narcissistic characters Works with “fatally-flawed” (hubristic) characters Romances featuring softer male protagonists Trope : Star-crossed lovers Trope : Friends to lovers Trope : Villainous love Trope : Toxic mother figure Trope : adaptating Beauty and the Beast Trope : adaptating Bluebeard By theme LGBTQ+ (a terribly old and lacking list) About love: pretty much a whole bibliography Suspense galore: books with good foreshadowing Suspense galore: a few good plot-twists Books taking place in a single building Books taking place in one House Books taking place in a high school Books with dysfunctional families Books about seeing into the Future Books by the sea (and a few pirates) Books set in Paris Books about hubris Books about loneliness and solitude Books about finding one’s life purpose Books about girlhood Books about introspection and self-discovery Books about melancholy and sadness Books about happiness and hope Books with symbolism and atmosphere Books about moral corruption and spiritual decadence Books about sex politics and philosophy Books about the female rage Books about or taking place during World War I Books featuring suicides Poems for mothers Poems about poetry Great love stories Unusual love stories Idealised, bittersweet love ; more By genres Rewriting Greek and Roman myths Rewriting Fairy Tales ; and again Writing and rewriting Arthuriana Favourites free-to-play text-based games Experimental literature Gothic and neo-gothic Southern Gothic Magical realism ; a few more Dystopias Young Adult Horror novels (but check the gothic instead) Crime novels Thrillers (thriller night); more Medieval historical fiction Sweet sweet comfort reads Just, like, sappy stuff
By context Beach reading Travel reading Halloween reading (spooky!) Winter reading Summer reading ; another Lockdown reading (you can still ask!) By book Books similar to The Secret History Books similar to Wuthering Heights ; again Books similar to Memoirs of Hadrian Books similar to Brideshead Revisited Books similar to A Grief Observed Books similar to The Brothers Karamazov Books similar to On Being Ill Books similar to Eros the Bittersweet Books similar to Dracula Books that might remind you of Avatar the Last Airbender if you squint Excerpts similar to Dido and Aeneas’ parting in the Aeneid Recommended editions of Romeo and Juliet Recommended editions of Shakespeare’s Sonnets Recommended editions of Wuthering Heights Recommended translations of Tristan and Yseult Some links to Rainer Maria Rilke’s Book of Hours Some links to a few of Mary Oliver’s works Lit criticism on Dorian Gray Lit criticism on Sonnets to Orpheus Books adapted to the screen (1) Books adapted to the screen (2) By author Favourite French writers Favourite Contemporary writers What to read? By Women French writers What to read? By Anne Carson (And some prep reading for Anne Carson) What to read? By Richard Siken What to read? By Roland Barthes What to read? By Agatha Christie What to read? By E. A. Poe What to read? By Daphné du Maurier What to read? By Sylvia Plath What to read? By Priya Sarukkai Chabria What to read? By Hélène Cixous What to read? On and by Branwell Brontë What to read & which translation? For Marguerite Yourcenar Which translation? For Hafez If you love Anne Carson If you love Angela Carter ; more If you love Louise Glück If you love Virginia Woolf If you love Sylvia Plath If you love Marguerite Duras If you love Emile Zola If you love Colette
story outlining methods, pt. 1:
take off your pants!! (“take off your pants!: outline your books for faster, better writing” by libbie hawker)
this outline starts with a character — specifically their biggest flaw — and leads to five points that will make up the core of your story. it’s best for plots and subplots that focus on overcoming the flaw!
this outline doesn’t just have to be used for coming of age novels. it is just as important in your dystopian, fantasy, or thriller novels that the main character learns something or has changed by the end.
STEP ONE: think about your character
your main character — what is their name, and what are their important features?
what are your character’s flaws? what about their FATAL flaw? ex: hubris, overconfidence, stubbornness, etc.
STEP TWO: think about the end of the story
the story (whether the main plot, a subplot, or a facet of the main plot) is the journey lead to overcome the flaw. now that you know the character’s flaw, you know what lesson they need to learn.
the end of the story = the flaw mastered, the lesson learned.
STEP THREE: think about the external goal
the external goal is the plot, the outer motivation to push the character to the end of the story where the goal is mastered. if you remember my post on quests, you know that a quest has two reasons to be there: the external factor (shrek saving fiona for his swamp), and the real reason (the lesson learned)
the external goal should provide a chance for the character to recognize their flaw and begin to change. how does your plot tie into their character development?
STEP FOUR: think about the antagonist
thinking about the external goal should reveal who the antagonist is. the antagonist should want to achieve the same goal or a goal that impedes with the protagonist’s goal. the antagonist should be the biggest obstacle to the character.
STEP FIVE: think about the ally/allies
the character(s) that is capable of forcing the protagonist down the correct path. where your protagonist most likely will resist changing and confronting their flaw, the ally will help force them to do so anyway.
STEP SIX: think about the theme
so what’s the point of your book? if you are struggling to boil it down to one sentence, you might want to think about it a little longer. this is what keeps the story feeling coherent. what are you trying to tell us?
STEP SEVEN: think about the plot
each main plot element should somehow relate to the core of the book, aka the character’s development in overcoming their flaw
OPENING SCENE - set the stage. address the flaw or the theme
INCITING EVENT - what forces the character out of their everyday life and into the story?
REALIZING EXTERNAL GOAL - what makes the character begin seeking their goal?
DISPLAY OF FLAW - if the character’s flaw hasn’t been made blatantly clear, now is the time. make it known to the reader.
DRIVE FOR GOAL - what is your character’s first attempt to reach their goal?
ANTAGONIST REVEAL - how do you first show your antagonist’s opposition to your character?
FIRST THWART - what happens to your character that keeps them from reaching their goal?
REVISIT FLAW - show the character’s flaw again, even if they themselves aren’t aware of it yet.
ANTAGONIST ATTACKS - what does the antagonist do that makes things worse?
SECOND THWART - where your character fails most likely due to the attack
CHANGED GOAL - the character finds a new goal or focuses on the external goal in a different way
ALLY ATTACKS - what does the ally do to force the character to see the flaw?
AWAKENING - the character knows what they must do to reach the external goal. how will you show that the character has also awakened to their flaw? how will you show them changing?
BATTLE - the final showdown with the antagonist!
DEATH - the character’s flaw dies here. how will you show that the character truly is different now?
OUTCOME - show whether the character won or lost the external goal, reveal the theme of the story.
naturally, you don’t have to follow that outline exactly, but it can be a good place to start ;)