Latest Posts by justanothergirlsblog - Page 2

“Sometimes it’s good to be scared. It means you still have something to lose…”

— Meredith Grey

“Just be fucking honest about how you feel about people while you’re alive.”

— John Mayer

for the draft thing: when i start writing novels i always have a lot of beginning, a fair amount of backstory, a solid ending, and maybe one or two key events in between, but nothing in the middle. i'm never sure how to approach this and it usually kills a lot of my projects :/ not sure if this is a question you can answer easily but if there's any tips i'd love to hear it!

Planning the middle...

I’ve gathered a couple of resources that I believe may help you with this. 

Coming Up With Scene Ideas

How To Engage The Reader

Pacing Appropriately

Balancing Detail & Development

Writing The Middle of Your Story

Powering Through The Zero-Draft Phase

Maintaining Writing Momentum

How To Prevent Getting Stuck

Writing Your Way Through The Plot Fog

Resources For Plot Development

Guide To Plot Development

How To Foreshadow

Novel Planning 101

Tackling Subplots

Things A Reader Needs From A Story

Planning A Scene In A Story

How To Fit Character Development Into Your Story

And some prompts in case you have trouble getting the creative juices flowing while you’re brainstorming...

Romantic Prompts

Angst Prompts

Dramatic Prompts

Suspenseful Prompts

Sad Prompts

20 Sentence Story Prompt

31 Days of Character Development : May 2018 Writing Challenge

31 Days of Plot Development : January 2019 Writing Challenge

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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Writing Tip #235

If you want to get serious about increasing your writing output, you need to know what your baseline is. For a few weeks make a note of when you start writing, when you stop writing, the number of words you wrote, and where you were. Then analyze the information. You’ll quickly get a sense of if you write better in the morning or at night. If you write better at home or somewhere else (I know this isn’t as easy to do because of covid right now). Then when you can, write at the time and place that make you the most productive.

“Before you ask why someone hates you, ask yourself why you even care.”

— Tiffany Alvord 

How to Set a Creative Goal

I'm going to be blunt here: a lot of creative people tend self-sabotage by giving themselves goals that are (1) not healthy and (2) completely unrealistic. I know because that used to be me.

I like to lead by example, so I'm going to give you my easiest, quickest, most successful guide for how to set your goal; regardless of whether you want to write a novel, edit said novel, pick up drawing, or learn an instrument.

1 - A Matter of Time

Ask yourself the following question:

"What is the least amount of time I can spend on this project every day?"

You read that right. Not "the most time" or "what you can spend on average." We're talking LEAST here. What is the least amount of time you can spend every day? Two hours? One hour? Twenty minutes? That's good, and that's enough.

Take it from someone who's been doing this for a while, who's made all the mistakes, and who's had to learn and re-learn this:

Consistency is Power.

The person who consistently works on their passions, every day, will not only grow faster, and finish more things, but also just be happier.

I know our human brain hates to wait; we want things to be ready yesterday, we want to see growth in a matter of minutes, but this is just not how life works. Being impatient only leads to burn out, take it from me. I learned that the (very) hard way.

So, again, ask yourself the question above and consider the LEAST amount of time you can spend on your craft every day.

Got it? Good. This is your goal. Now comes the hard part.

2 - The Making of a Habit

You may think that working on something only 50 minutes a day is not enough to actually get better, but that's actually how I practiced drawing. And you've all seen how far I've come. That's consistency, baby—but that isn't the only benefit of doing something every day!

The more you teach your brain to do something the less friction there is whenever you want to do said thing. It's just science. Writing can seem daunting, scary even, but the only way to change that is by consistently facing the blank page.

It gets easier. It'll never be automatic, you're never going to write a book in one sitting, but it is going to get less hard. Less harrowing. Some days you'll sit down and your allotted time will fly by.

It's wonderful.

That being said, the target is to work on your project everyday—because that'll help you make it into a habit faster—but don't stress out if you miss a day. Life happens. Whatever you do, try to miss as few days as possible. Keep a calendar, post about it on social media, tell people that you're challenging yourself. They'll take you more seriously.

3 - Appreciate Life

Your creative projects shouldn't impede your life, they should be a part of your life. That is why we practice them daily, and we spend a healthy amount of time on them. If 2020 taught me anything, it is that you have to take care of yourself. We are a system, a machine with many components, and when you don't take care of one the whole suffers.

That's why it bears repeating.

The best creative goal is one that you can achieve consistently with ease, every day, so that it can function as a part of your life.

That's the trick right there. I can tell you from experience that I used to think my writing, and my art, where separate to the act of living. I did those things, and then I did the living. And I shouldn't have to tell you, but that was such a mistake.

Spending a little bit of time on your passions every day is good enough.

And if you think it's not, remember that I don't give advice I don't follow myself. So far this year I've written AND edited two novels. All without burning myself, without rushing, and while taking the time to appreciate life.

Take that for what it's worth. 🐰🌻

how to determine whether your characters are developed enough or not

There’s a fool proof way to determine whether your characters has been developed enough or not. Ask yourself:

‘’Would my story still work if I removed this character from it?’‘

If your answer is:

“No, my story wouldn’t work, because this character is intertwined into the story to such an extent that if I were to remove them, the story is feels incomplete, and certain storylines won’t work.”

You’ve got yourself a well developed character.

If you can’t remove a character without causing inconsistencies to the plot, you’ve got a character that is dimensional enough to work on their own.

Hence, by removing said character, you’re removing a fundamental piece of the puzzle, which in turn forces certain storylines to be incomplete.

But let’s say the answer to the question above is yes. 

Let’s say, that you could easily remove a certain character from your story, without the risk of screwing with any current storylines. Let’s even go as far as saying that you could replace said character with another character, and it still wouldn’t make a difference to the story. 

In a scenario like this, your character has not been developed enough to stand their own ground. If you can give your character’s storyline to another character, or simply replace them with another, without noticing a difference in your story, you need to go back to the drawing board.

Your character is not fleshed out enough. They don’t bring personality to your story, because their departure from it is not noticeable. 

For a character to be dimensional, or developed properly, their loss needs to recognized, and if they’re not part of the narrative, the story should feel incomplete, because a fundamental piece of the puzzle is missing. 

“The prettier the garden, the dirtier the hands of the gardener.”

— B. E. Barnes 

“Believe with your eyes, not with your ears.”

— Unknown 

The best advice really is to just write. Write badly - purple prose, stilted conversations, rambling descriptions. Don’t delete it, pass go, take your $200, save all your garbage in a big folder. Look at how much you’ve made - it doesn’t matter if it isn’t perfect, isn’t polished, it was practice. Every time you write you learn a little more, and find another piece of your voice.

“Forget all the reasons why it wont work and believe the one reason why it will.”

— Unknown 

“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”

— Ronald Reagan 

“Have you ever wondered which hurts the most: saying something and wishing you had not, or saying nothing, and wishing you had?”

— 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 

“You will always be too much of something for someone: too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy. If you round out your edges, you lose your edge.Apologize for mistakes. Apologize for unintentionally hurting someone — profusely. But don’t apologize for being who you are.”

— Danielle Laporte 

“Don’t listen to yourself; listen to the advice that you give others.”

— Michael Lottner 

“It’s amazing how much distance one truth can create between two people.”

— Colleen Hoover (via quotemadness)

“I do not think I’m easy to define. I have a wandering mind. And I’m not anything that you think I am.”

— Syd Barrett (via quotemadness)

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

— Louis L'Amour (via quotemadness)

Researching for WIPs : A Collection

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

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Historical Fiction

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : High Middle Ages & Renaissance

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1600s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1700s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1800s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1900-1939

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1940-1969

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1970-1999

Resources For Writing Royalty

Procedural/Scientific

Resources For Crime/Mystery/Thriller Writers

Resources For Writing Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Stories

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

Resources For Writing The Mafia

Resources For Writing Injuries

By Genre

Resources For Fantasy/Mythology Writers

Resources For Writing Science Fiction

Resources For Romance Writers

Other

Resources For Plot Development

Resources For Describing Physical Things

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Creating Characters

Resources For Worldbuilding

Resources For Describing Emotion

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee, or pledging your support on Patreon, where I offer early access and exclusive benefits for only $5/month.

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