“Progress Is Made By Lazy Men Looking For Easier Ways To Do Things.”

“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.”

— Ray Bradbury

WRITING WITCHES

People began talking about witchcraft and witches around the time of the Old Testament, and were more mainstream when churches began believing in it. Witches were/are commonly depicted as evil females who do the devil’s work in the west and some parts of Asia, but nowadays, some people see witches as good as well.

Your view of witches is entirely up to you. They could be any gender, (or non-gendered), good, or evil. It depends on how you want your story to go, but witches perform witchcraft, the use of magic, so magic is an important factor in here.

Witches is such a large area because different countries have different versions of them, and different authors have their own version too, so I’ll be including very general information here.

Type of witches (via Horoscope.com on Pinterest)

Cosmic witch

Astrology based

Horoscopes

Divination witch

Predicting the future

Tarot cards

Palm reading

Tasseography

Kitchen witch

Does housework

Homemade offerings

Can conjure spells

Green witch

Herbs and plants

Folk magic (faeries and elves)

Earth based

Sea witch

Water based (oceans, lakes)

Lunar magic

Weather magic

Common witchcraft activities

Potion making

Spell conjuring

Future predictions/prophecy making

Supernatural beings conjuring

Ceremonies

Candle colour meanings (for divination witch)

White: peace, purity

Brown: home protection, stability

Black: negativity, binding, protection

Pink: romantic love, basically love

Red: strength, courage, charisma

Green: natura, healing, growth

Orange: success, ambition

Yellow: intelligence, hope

Gold: wealth, luck

Silver: intuition, the moon

Purple: influence, wisdom

Blue: communication, calm, forgiveness

Ingredients for a kitchen witch

Courage: pepper, basil, chives

Fertility: cinnamon, mint, coriander

Happiness: cinnamon, feverfew, mint

Health: allspice, cinnamon, Angelica

Love: vanilla, cinnamon, coriander

Luck: allspice, cemfrey, nutmeg

Protection: Angelica, basil, cinnamon

So, about spells and ceremonies: I can’t find any certain spells because again, they’re all very specific to whatever type of witches you’re writing about, and heck, you might even come up with your own. But the spells you use can be in rhymes, latin, backward talk, or words you make up! From what I’ve read, ceremonies are very important to witches and can be done in celebration of a new witch joining a coven, (Witches can be independent or in a coven, basically a group of witches.) or performing spells to conjure something.

If you’re writing about witches in the Middle Ages, know that they were feared and hated. Women who didn’t look like other “proper” women or were doing some suspicious would often be accused of witchcraft, and be punished, aka burned in fire, because people believed that was the only way you could kill them. Anyone who worked with the “witch” would also be punished, though not necessarily by fire.

At the end of the day, you can make your own rules, play around with things! I’m not sure if there’s a general rule of things all witches can and can’t do, like the “Law of Witches” (put it in the comments if there is!) but you could make it up as well!

“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.”

— Unknown 

“I can’t think of a better way to revenge someone who tried to break you, than to live and love life more without them.”

— Innocent Mwatsikesimbe 

“Speak only when your words are more beautiful than silence.”

— Imam Ali 

“Maybe it won’t work out. But maybe seeing if it does will be the best adventure ever.”

— Unknown 

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

— Benjamin Franklin 

“Without goals and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.”

— Fitzhugh Dodson 

every writing tip article and their mother: dont ever use adverbs ever!

me, shoveling more adverbs onto the page because i do what i want: just you fucking try and stop me

“Forgive yourself for accepting less than you deserved - but don’t do it again.”

— Unknown