Latest Posts by justanothergirlsblog - Page 7

“I am a day dreamer and a night thinker.”

— Unknown 

“Dacă un scriitor se îndrăgostește de tine, vei deveni nemuritor, căci veşnic vei trăi în rândurile sale.”

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Any advice on writing someone who's got a crush? I don't want to make it sound too "omg I think they're perfect" every other sentence.

Writing a character with a crush...

When you’re writing a character with a crush, tension is created through action and reaction. Every time your character acts, hesitates, speaks their mind, holds their tongue, makes a move, get’s discouraged, etc. builds the tension and encourages the reader to become invested. Crushes in storytelling should be shown through the character’s actions and the world’s reactions, not through dialogue or narration. 

Show the reader the character taking 20 minutes to build up the courage to walk up to their locker, where their crush has one right next to theirs because they’re worried they’ll blurt out the wrong thing if the other person shows up. Don’t just tell the reader that the character feels nervous around them or gets butterflies. Show the butterflies threatening to erupt as their crush sits at the only available seat left in homeroom, which happens to be next to them. 

Types of Romantic Tension

Tips On Writing Skinny Love

Guide To Writing Friends To Lovers

Guide To Writing Enemies To Lovers

Resources For Writing YA Fiction/Romance

Guide To Writing Will-They-Won’t-They

Rivalry vs. Abuse

Guide To Writing Forbidden Love

20 Mistakes To Avoid in YA/Romance

Best Friends To Lovers Resources

How to develop an Enemies-To-Lovers story

Prompts

Skinny Love Writing Prompts

Study Date Prompts

Best Friends-To-Lovers Prompts

Enemies-To-Lovers Prompts

Tol & Smol Couple Prompts

Romantic Prompts

Soulmates Alternate Universe Prompts

General Romance Tips

Resources For Romance Writers

Creating A Love Interest For An Introvert

Writing Opposites Who Attract

Describing Heartbreak

Balancing Fluff and Conflict

Writing Great Fanfiction

How To Write The Perfect Kiss

On Romantic Subplots

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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Hi there! I was curious for your advise on how to get back into writing after a long absence? I haven't written for at least 3 years and I can't seem to figure fire out a way to motivate myself and get excited about something to write. I'm incredibly out of practice and stories rarely come to me nowadays. It seems to be easier to just continue with life mindlessly, not trying to write since when I think about trying to write I immediately think about what a failure it would be.

Kate’s masterlist of motivational content...

Choosing Your Writing Path

Restarting Your Writing Passion

How To Motivate Yourself To Write

Reasons To Improve Your Lifestyle

Tips & Advice for Aspiring Authors, Writers, and Poets

On Getting Started As A Writer

On Hating Your Old Stuff

Depression As An Inhibitor

Healthy Forms of Motivation

How To Have A Productive Mindset

How To Fall In Love With Writing

How To Incorporate Health Into Your Writing Routine

So You Want To Start A Blog?

Writing Through Mental Health Struggles

How To Improve Your Life In Little Ways

 Dear Writers Who Are Hesitant To Start Writing

Insecure About Writing Without Formal Training?

“All First Drafts Are Crap” -- My Thoughts

Getting Back To Writing After A Long Hiatus

Why “Burnout” Is Oay - The Creative Cycle

For Writers Who Want To Become Popular

Wanting To Finish A Story You’ve Fallen Out of Love With

You Don’t Need To Be A Professional To Practice Advanced Writing

Getting Motivated To Write

“Does What I’m Writing Matter?”

Taking Writing Seriously For The First Time

Sharing Your Writing With Others

Getting Burnt Out Near The Finish Line

The Beginning of The Writing Process

Benefits of Low-Stakes Writing

Taking Risks With WIPs

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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hi! i hope you’re doing well do you have a list of words to describe facial expressions? also, words to describe laughter? thank you :))

Vocabulary & Description...

I’ve sort of taken this ask as an opportunity to make a “collection” of my resources for vocabulary, description, etc. Below is a list of articles that one would find helpful for writing description (of mostly anything).

The Vocabulary & Resources

All About Colors

A Writer’s Thesaurus

Words To Describe Body Types and How They Move

Words To Describe… (Face, Facial Expressions, and General Behavior)

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Describing Emotion

Describing Setting

Resources For Describing Physical Things

Describing Heartbreak

Utilizing The Vocabulary

Using Vocabulary

Expanding Your Vocabulary

Describing Where Your Characters Are

Balancing Detail & Development

When To Use “Felt”

Showing Vs Telling

How To Better Your Vocabulary & Description

Adding Description

Tips on Descriptions

Giving Characters Stage Business

Additionally:

How To Develop A Distinct Voice In Your Writing

Showing VS Telling in First Person POV

Writing In Third Person POV

Improving Flow In Writing

How To “Show Don’t Tell” More

What To Cut Out of Your Story

Editing & Proofreading Cheat Sheet

A Guide To Tension & Suspense

On Underwriting

Ultimate Guide To Symbolism

Expanding Scenes

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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Resources for Writing Injuries

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

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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

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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Shoutout to my $15+ patrons, Jade Ashley and Douglas S.!

Hey I absolutely love your blog! It's awesome & very helpful! Can you give some tips for enemies to lovers plot, it's research & story development? If you could I would really really love & appreciate that. Thank you so much for providing such amazing contents! ❣️💕💗💖🔥✨

Thank you so much! Your love is appreciated. 

Enemies-to-lovers resources...

I have a few articles you may find useful, organized by area of struggle:

Enemies to Lovers

Guide To Writing Enemies To Lovers

Enemies-To-Lovers Prompts

How to develop an Enemies-To-Lovers story

Enemies to Lovers Tips

20 Mistakes to Avoid in Enemies to Lovers

Romance Genre

20 Mistakes To Avoid in YA/Romance

Resources For Writing YA Fiction/Romance

Resources For Romance Writers

Tips On Writing Skinny Love

Skinny Love Writing Prompts

On Romantic Subplots

How To Write The Perfect Kiss

Romantic Prompts

Research

Useful Writing Resources | Part II

Guide to Story Researching

How To Make A Scene More Heartfelt

How To Perfect The Tone

A Guide To Tension & Suspense

Tips on Balancing Development

Development

Resources For Plot Development

Guide To Plot Development

How To Write A Good Plot Twist

How To Foreshadow

How To Engage The Reader

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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.

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

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.

How I Edit A First Draft

*Repost*

What is UP y'all I got like four hours of sleep which is always fantastic! This is a wicked old post I made that the majority of y’all haven’t seen! As always, any more stuff you want to ask/add specifically feel free! As a young author myself with limited experience, I just wanted to help those who don’t really know where to start or are looking for other methods! 

First, Don’t Get Discouraged!

This sounds like a basic thing, but nobody really likes editing their own stuff! It’s so easy to call it bad and just shove it in a folder to never look at again. Just remember everything you do is to make it the best it can possibly be and it’s pretty darn heccin good now! Completing drafts are fricken hard, and you’ve made it so far! Writing routines and Pinterest are my major sources of inspiration. 

Read it through!

I know, it sucks. You finished your first draft—comgratulations! And you want to get the editing over with. You think to yourself, “I wrote this and I know what to fix!” Maybe for some this is true, but for people like me, I forget so much. Do not start editing during this step. It is basically just a refresher. Take notes on what to fix later (what scene feels flat, parts that are confusing, etc). The only editing I allow myself to do here is grammar and spelling. Most times you’ll see too it’s not as bad as you think it is! 

How Do I Know What To Cut?

Not everthing that doesn’t work has to be cut. Recycling awesome lines that juts dont fit or even characters into different WIPS. That being said, soemtimes things just won’t work. Ask yourself these starting questions:

Does this supporting character have a purpose or can their role be taken over by a pre-existing character?

Is this action in character?

Does this scene contribute to the plot, character development, or offer a break in tension?

Work From Big To Small

You know those notes you took? The ones on plot and characterization? Fix those first. These big problems usually lead to the smaller issues or even fix them, like if a scene isn’t flowing naturally or something just fells off. If stuff doesn’t fall into place, look at the chapters before it.

Common Questions Ig

Q: Hey, Strange, what do you even know?

A: Nothing

Q: But I like this scene and I don’t want to cut it.

A: Cool. Keep it. If you like it and don’t have any doubts that it’s good, so will your readers and it will add to the book. Stuff like this can be for characterization and establishing relationships, and you can always add to scenes to make them seem more necessary. 

The point is that you like your book.  The point is that you are an amazing writer, even when it’s hard to believe. First drafts are usually trash, and each draft is better than the last. No draft will ever be perfect, it’s the draft that you think is the best you can do and you’re happy with that’s the final. 

Writing Character Appearance

~tstrangeauthor on Instagram~

Oh, to dramatically look in a mirror and discover an increasingly relevant truth about myself. If only I were the main character, but that role is taken by you. But yes! Character descriptions are needed to, well, imagine the character, and they can be very difficult especially in first person, so here are some ways to introduce descriptions and some ideas for what to include!

Mirrors. They’re valid, and they can be done right. However, they’re easy and as a reader, I can find it boring when a character is just staring at themselves in the mirror, admiring their features often in great detail because it’s usually not how people do it. 

Ok, it’s first person and don’t want to just start listing hair colors. Here are some other ways that are more exciting then a mirror but do the same thing!

Storefront’s windows

Puddles/Bodies of water

Glass orbs/ornaments

Polished things (floors, boots)

Makeup mirror (still a mirror, but good for focusing on more up-close facial features like if they’re important)

Other people’s eyes ( “I imagined how he must see me, just another red-scaled draconian with a fondness for gold”)

Screens (black phone/TV/computer screens)

Facetime/zoom (cue Google Meets flashbacks)

Photographs

These aren’t the only options obviously, just ideas :)

You can also bring it up just casually. Like “She struggled to tie her short-hair back” or “I could feel my skin burning from the sun through my shirt.” 

What to describe?

The most important thing as a reader (imo) is skin color/texture, size, and hair color/texture/length. These give me a very basic visual of a character, and tbh, most other stuff I just make up in my own head cuz I forget it and lets be honest, you don’t notice eye color on a first meeting.

*Remember to remind your readers throughout your book of your character’s physical traits

Some more unique/rememberable things to bring up in your characters appearance for a vibe

Nail polish/other makeup

Acne! (please give your characters acne or acne scars!)

Literally anything other than Smooth Baby Skin 0 People Have, and If They Do Then Lucky Them!

Clothing! Basic, but important! (Clothing helps with setting too! And character dev)

Piercings/Tattoos

Jewelry

Face structure

Smile/teeth

Body hair

Again, list is limited! Anything I missed/you wanna see, add it to the comments! Hope this helped some of you and catch you on the flip side

hi! this is hard to explain but i’m trying to write my first proper story and i’m suddenly overthinking whether i’m writing in past or present tense. do you have any advice for that?

Hi and thanks for the ask!

As someone who tends to overthink things on a daily basis, I can imagine how troubled you might be about this. So I’ll try to make your decision at least a little bit easier.

In my opinion, choosing the tense you use is very much dependent on your personal preference. Although present tense seems to be more popular with today’s writers, personally, I prefer past tense. Apart from the question about popularity, though, there are different advantages and disadvantages for both choices. I’ll highlight the advantages and disadvantages for present tense only, since the opposite is obvious for the past tense.

***

Advantages: Present tense has a more immediate feeling to it. Writing in present tense gives the reader the ability to experience the story in time with your characters. The moment a character changes, we experience that change in them as well. It also immerses the reader in the character’s emotions for longer than the past tense does. Moreover, handling tenses in general is a lot easier if you write in present tense rather than past tense.

Disadvantages: It’s a lot harder to manipulate the time inside a story. With present tense you usually only use past tense for the few things that actually happened in the past. That also makes it harder to create complex characters because phrases like “has always been” and the like can’t be used, since they would greatly disrupt the present tense’s main use. What’s more, the present tense author is experiencing the story at the same pace the characters do, so it is almost impossible to create a feeling of suspense. Even though you as the author, of course, know what will happen, phrases like “hadn’t known yet” and similar lines don’t fit well into a present tense story. Another possible trap the present tense sets, is misleading authors to write about mundane and trivial events that serve no plot function but would, of course, happen in a naturalistic sequence of actions.

***

I hope this somehow answers your question and makes it easier for you to decide whether to write in present tense or past tense.

Q&A: Build a Monster: Creating new Monsters for Your Fiction

I want to write a story about fantasy monsters but I’m finding it hard to make it recognizable with all the rules and such while making it original. Do you think this is possible?

I think it’s absolutely possible. You need to decide if you’re working with something, “real,” or if you’re inventing your creatures wholesale. Once you’ve made that decision, you’ll have a better path towards shaping your creatures.

If your monster is coming from some real world inspiration, you’ll have a wealth of literature to dig through. Pick any mythical creature, and you can read up on them.

There are two major warnings here:

First: Some creatures cross multiple cultures, and there are significant discrepancies between how they function between them. The excellent examples are vampires and dragons, which have many real world myths, and those myths are often contradictory.

Second: Some creatures have very specific cultural contexts which you probably want to have a concrete grasp of before you start playing around with them. The two examples that come to mind immediately are Skinwalkers and Wendigo (from First Nations myths.) These are not analogous to European Werewolves (and not analogous to one another.) So, if you’re looking for a creature, absolutely do you reading, but if you don’t understand how this creature fit into that culture, you might want to keep looking.

If you’re wanting to make your own creature, that’s where things get interesting. More than that, if you did the research suggested above, you have a head start here.

Nothing says the monsters in your world need to conform to the conventional creature lists. They don’t need to be recognizable, compared to someone else’s fiction. You do have the freedom to make your own monsters.

When you’re writing a monster, you’ll want to have an idea what kind of rules you’re working under. While you don’t need to explain these to your audience (and may not want to), you will need this for personal use.

You can break fictional monsters into roughly three categories: Mundane, Supernatural, and Mythological (or Folklore.)

Mundane creatures are simply animals (potentially very intelligent ones) that inhabit your world.

If your dragons are just massive lizards, with no magical powers, they would be mundane. If your werewolves are just normal humans who have been mutated by a virus, and can’t transform, that would be mundane.

Mundane doesn’t mean it can’t be interesting. It simply means that there’s a non-supernatural explanation for the creatures that inhabit your world.

Mundane fantasy can be interesting. There’s no mystical explanation for the elves and minotaurs inhabiting your world, they’re simply there.

When you’re looking at mundane monsters, you need to consider them as part of the local ecology. Yes, a race of massive, carnivorous lizards would be monstrous, they’d be a danger, but one that a sufficiently advanced civilization could plan around.

Limitations and weaknesses for mundane creatures should fit their status as living animals. You might see a nocturnal creature that has excellent night vision, but poor diurnal vision.

Mundane monsters are the cryptids of your world. They’re elusive, hard to find, and if you do finally identify it, it’s probably a crocodile, because those little bastards like to teleport.

Supernatural monsters break rules for conventional reality. Your werewolves aren’t mutated by a virus, they really are mystical shapeshifters. Your elves aren’t just another humanoid native to the world, they really are magical beings. Your minotaurs might be the result of a wizard’s human-hybrid research program centuries ago.

Where mundane creatures are limited by conventional reality, supernatural ones might exhibit behaviors, or powers, that are impossible to rationalize.

The rules for these creatures are open to the author to create. Now, obviously, if you’re starting with a conventional fantasy creature, some of this may already be completed for you.

Creatures that can go invisible, levitate, psychically manipulate their victims, shapeshift, conjure and control elements, and many other potential powers would be supernatural in nature.

Limitations for supernatural creatures are likely to be a function of the kinds of powers they wield. I realize that might sound obvious, but it’s worth remembering the limits of magic in your setting, and then tying similar limits into your supernatural creatures.

It’s also possible that supernatural monsters might specifically bypass certain limits which affect your world’s characters. For example, if it’s impossible for magic to heal wounds in your world, you might still see a monster with the ability to heal itself or others. Obviously, in setting, that’s a very big deal, and probably something that mages and academics would want to study.

Incidentally, if we’re talking about aliens, they’d end up on the mundane end of the spectrum. Even if they have technology that’s difficult (or impossible) to understand, they’re still a function of the universe, and not a whim of magic. (Though, if your aliens are space wizards, then everything gets a little strange.)

The last variety are mythological or folklore. I probably shouldn’t bundle these into a single header, because they do behave in slightly different ways. The important thing about a mythological monster is that’s it’s not just, “a monster.” It’s a character in the myths it comes from. It’s powers and limitations are a reflection of who it was in those myths. More than that, it has a role in the belief system that created it.

For example: when you’re talking about Jormungandr, that’s not just, “a dragon.” It’s a harbinger of the end times. More than that, it’s a harbinger of an apocalypse that already happened. This isn’t “a monster,” it’s “a monstrous character.” If your minotaur is “The Minotaur,” condemned to the Labyrinth of Crete, that’s a character with their own history and eventual fate at Theseus’s hands.

There’s a lot of room to play with mythological figures, but you’ll really want to read up on those myths, and the culture that created them.

If you want to create your own mythic background for your world, you’ll want to start by reading up on actual myths. Every major civilization has created their own myths (to one extent or another), and digging into this stuff can be very instructive for how those cultures viewed their world. Pay special attention to just how off-the-walls-bonkers everything becomes.

Folklore is similar to myth. In some cases, folklore overlaps with myth. The distinction (I’m choosing to make) is that monsters in folklore are more about enforcing cultural norms and discourages taboos.

One, classic, example of monster in folklore is the vampire. Now, I’m going to be a little reductive here because nearly every form of vampire can be boiled down to, “corpses are weird.” With that said, a lot of vampire folklore is about the proper handling and disposal of corpses, specifically with things going wrong if a corpse is mishandled.

Usually, if your monster has very explicit rules, they’re a folklore creature. If they can’t cross running water, or enter an abode uninvited, that’s folklore.

As with myth, folklore gets really wild, and so you can end up with really elaborate rules, where a creature needs to be in a certain state at a certain time of day, or something goes very wrong for them. Vampires are one of the most common folklore monsters in popular culture, that’s fully separated from myth, which is why I used them as an example above.

Slightly more problematic, but certainly a, “creature,” of folklore, are witches and hags. These are an excellent illustration of how you can blend across multiple genres with your story.

A witch could be a simple alchemist. In this case, I don’t even mean, “alchemy,” as a magical discipline, I simply mean, “alchemy,” as a precursor to chemistry. You have a character who is entirely mundane, but spends their time picking medicinal herbs, which the general population doesn’t understand.

A witch could be a magical practitioner, potentially even an inhuman one. This links into the suggestion above where magic doesn’t heal wounds, but a witch might be able to achieve that feat.

A witch could be a mythical figure. Russia’s Baba Yaga comes to mind as an example, though there are many more examples all over the world. Again, these are specific characters, so if your writing a character interacting with Hecate, you might want to read up on your Greek myths.

In myth and folklore, witches become a very complicated subject, because you’re looking at creatures (or powerful beings), which need to be treated carefully. They can offer powerful boons, but also are incredibly dangerous.

Related to myth and folklore are the concepts of geasa and curses. This is one of the reasons you want to be careful with these kinds of creatures. They may have the ability to apply either one to your characters.

Geasa (singular: gaes), are restrictions applied to someone. They may be required to perform some action, or prohibited from violating some taboo. Failure to do so could have dire consequences. Usually, the geas also comes with a boon of some sort, and violating the terms will break the spell.

A classic example of a Gaes is Cu Chulainn (from Irish myth), who had (at least) two. First he was prohibited from eating dog, and second he was obligated to accept food served to him by a woman. A crone (The Morrigan) intentionally served him dog meat, breaking his powers, and leaving him vulnerable ahead of a battle.

Curses are a little easier to keep track of. Something bad happens to the recipient. There may be a built in way to break the curse, requiring some specific feat. In many cases, those feats are designed to appear impossible.

The consequences of a curse could easily lead to supernatural monsters, separated from their mythic origins. For a pop culture example, Vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade are descended from (the Biblical) Cain. Cain is the first vampire, and a mythical figure. The vampires wandering around the 21st century are merely supernatural creatures.

Once you have an idea of the kind of creature you want, get out a notepad, and sketch out the power and rules you want to work with. For mundane creatures, it should look more like a zoological writeup.

Example: “The common minotaur lives in the lowlands, foraging for food in small tribes.”

For supernatural creatures, you’ll probably want to look at a short list of powers. Try to balance these powers against what you want from them in the context of your setting.

Example: “The Moorian Newt: amphibious, limited mind control. The newt frequently preys upon travelers who wander into the moors at night, using it’s ability to draw them into deeper waters, where it quickly drowns and consumes them.”

When you’re writing a mythic figure, that’s going to be more of a character biography. Possibly with some powers added in to keep things coherent.

With folklore, you’re looking at a writeup that will probably get a little out of hand. These can be fairly straightforward, but you can also engage in some pretty intricate whimsy.

Again, if you’ve never spent much time looking at myth and folklore, I strongly recommend you do some reading on the subject. The pure level of, “weird,” is hard to articulate.

Once you’ve written out some rules, and fleshed out your monsters, you’ve got a very important decision to make, how much do you share with the audience?

If your character is dealing with a common creature, one well understood and studied in the setting, then your character should have easy access to that information. Even if a creature is uncommon or rare, if it’s a normal part of the world, it’s probably been studied, and that information may be out there.

An excellent example of this behavior is The Witcher, where there’s in-setting scholarly research on the post-conjunction creatures wandering The Continent. The Witchers study that research, and supplement it with their own experiences. It is an excellent template for how you can handle a universe where monsters (including ones with complicated rules and behaviors) are a natural part of the setting. (Even if they are supernatural in nature.)

Except: Back near the beginning, I said you might not want to explain the rules to the audience. It’s an important choice to the kind of story you’re writing. Is this fantasy, or is it horror?

If your character is an expert in monsters, they might be able to identify the creature they’re dealing with and articulate the rules. However, if they’re not an expert, they might have no idea what the creature can do. Similarly, even if they are are a professional, they may still need to determine exactly what they’re dealing with (again, The Witcher is an excellent reference back to this point.)

In horror, there’s a real incentive to keep the full capabilities of your monster unknown. This can be through mistaking one creature for another, or mistaking a mythical creature for its supernatural counterpart (if the supernatural version is known to exist.) In the end, you’ll probably want your audience to have a grasp of the creature’s limitations, but you might never clue them in.

It’s important to have access to the rules for your own use. It is far less important that your characters (and by extension, the audience) has that information.

One final thing you may want to consider, if you’re creating a monster and it’s unrecognizable from the inspiration you started with, that’s not a problem. You’ve created a new monster. You can still use the old name (if you want), or you can call it something new.

I’ve said it before, my favorite, “vampire,” movie is Ravenous (1999). If you’ve watched it, right now you’re probably thinking, “there’s no vampires in that.” And, you would be correct; it’s about cannibals empowered by evil spirits. Except, structurally, it’s a vampire movie. The part where the monsters are distinct enough from vampires is a benefit, not a flaw. It helps keep the audience off-balance, it helps create an unfamiliar tone. It’s a fantastic film, and part of what elevates it is its willingness to eject vampirism when it doesn’t benefit the film’s themes.

So, yes, I believe it can be done. You can populate your worlds with new monsters of your own design. You can also sample myths and folklore for inspiration. You can invent your own creatures. The only secret is, “write it down,” which you should be doing anyway. Not everything you write will end up in your audience’s hands, so having a reference guide for yourself can be incredibly useful.

-Starke

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Q&A: Build a Monster: Creating new Monsters for Your Fiction was originally published on How to Fight Write.

In Romania, we have a drawer full of shopping bags, to use later, or just a bag filled with hundreds of bags.

That's our way to recicle 😂

True

Writing Masterpost

Character Help

MBTI Personality Test

MBTI Personality Descriptions

123 Character Flaws

Character Trait Cheat Sheet

List of Personality Traits

Character Virtues And Vices

Underused Personalities

7 Rules For Picking Names

Character Names

Character Name Resources

Surnames Masterpost

Write Real People Generator

Types of Voice

55 Words to Describe Someone’s Voice

Showing Character Emotion

Character Motivation

Writing Characters Of Colour

More On Writing Characters Of Colour

Describing A Character’s Skin Colour

All Characters Talk The Same

Character Description

100 Character Development Questions

Character Development Questionnaire

30 Day Character Development Meme

Character Development Check List

Character Development Through Hobbies

List Of Character Secrets - Part 1 - Part 2

Mysterious Characters

Flat Characters

European Characters

Creating Believable Characters

Writing A Character Who Has Lost Someone Important

Writing A Drunk Character

Writing Manipulative Characters

Writing Vampires

Writing Witty Characters

Writing Natural Born Leaders

Writing Rebellious Characters

Writing Hitmen

Writing Indifferent Distance Characters

Writing Bitchy Characters

Writing Popular Characters

Writing Rich Characters

Writing Child Characters

Writing Villains

Villain Archetypes

Writing Stalkers

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes

Writing Homosexuals as a Heterosexual

Writing Males as a Female

Writing Convincing Male Characters

Writing Characters Of The Opposite Sex

Revealing A Characters Gender

The Roles Of Characters

Creating Fictional Characters From Scratch

Creating A Strong, Weak Character

Writing Characters Using Conflict And Backstory

Writing A Character Based On Yourself

Switching Up A ‘Too-Perfect’ Character

Help I Have A Mary-Sue!

Dialogue

Dialogue Tips

Realistic Dialogue

Flirty Dialogue

On Dialogue

General Help

Alternatives To Said

Avoid Saying ‘Very…’

100 Ways To Say Good

Avoiding Unfortunate Implications

Begin A Novel

Finishing Your Novel

Creating Conflict

Show Not Tell

Words For Emotions Based On Severity

Getting Out Of The Comfort Zone

A Guide To Writing Sci-Fi

Naming The Story

The Right Point Of View

Essential Story Ingredients

Writing Fantasy Masterpost

Five Rules For Thrillers

Pacing Action Scenes

Writing Races

Using Gender Neutral Pronouns

Dos and Don’t of Writing

General Writing Tips

How To Avoid Tense Change

Seven Steps To A Perfect Story

Plotting

Outlining Your Novel

Creating A Compelling Plot

The Snowflake Method

Beginning and End, But No Middle!

Prompts and Ideas

Prompt Generator Lists

Creative Writing Prompts

Story Starting Sentences

Story Spinner

Story Kitchen

Writing Prompt Generator

Quick Story Generator

Dramatic Scenes

Plot Bank

Masterpost of Writing Execrises

Writers Block?

Visual and word prompts on pinerest boards 

Research

Survival Skills Masterpost

Mental Illness

Limits Of The Human Body

Stages of Decomposition

Body Language Cheat Sheet

Importance Of Body Language

Non Verbal Communication

Tips on Drug Addiction

Depression

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Anxiety

Schizophrenia

Borderline Personality Disorder

Degrees of Emotion

List Of Phobias - Part 1 (A - L) - Part 2 (M -  Z)

Psychology In Writing

Psychology Of Colour

Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Street Gang Dynamics

How To Pick A Lock

Death Scenes

Realistic Death Scenes

Fighting and Self Defence

Fighting Scenes

Problems With Fighting Scenes

Every Type of Fight Scene

How To Fight Write Blog

Fantasy Battle Scenes

Body Language Of Flirting

Flirting 101

Kissing

Sex Scenes

Friends With Benifits Relationships

Ballet Terms

Torture Guide (Trigger Warning)

Sibling Abuse (Trigger Warning)

Dream Sequences

Kleptomania

Psychiatric Hospital

Understanding issues, -isms and privilege

Guide to writing smut

Post-Apocalyptic Cliches To Avoid

Revision

General Revision Tips

Cliché Finder

Reading What You’ve Wrote So Far

Synonyms For Common Words

Urban Legends On Grammar

Common Grammar Mistakes

Revising A Novel 

Setting

Average Weather Settings

Apocalypses

World Building 101

Bringing Settings To Life

Creating A Believable World

Mapping A Fictional World

Mapping Your World

Religion in Setting

5 Editing Tips

Sounds to listen to whilst writing

Coffitivity

August Ambience

Rainy Mood

Forest Mood

SimplyNoise

Soundrown

iSerenity

Nature Sound Player

myNoise

Tools

Tip Of Your Tounge

Write Or Die

Online Brainstorm

Family Tree Maker

Stay Focused

Writeometer App

Hemingway App

Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers

As described by Selnick’s article:

Author and doctor of clinical psychology Carolyn Kaufman has released a one-page body language cheat sheet of psychological “tells” (PDF link) fiction writers can use to dress their characters.

=Tips for writers=

I used to be a really passionate writer and really enjoyed crafting language but it's been years since I've written anything that's not for school. I really want to start writing again but I don't have any story ideas that I'm excited about. What should I do to start writing again?

When you want to start writing again, but aren’t sure how to start:

1. Read a variety of books.

Various authors, various genres, the more you expand your examples the better because it means exposure to more ideas. Don’t be afraid to take up books you may not like since there’s a great deal of learning to be found in why you dislike something, and the depth it gets you thinking can help contribute to your own ideas. The “spite write” is also a thing, where you hate something, or some part of a thing, so much that you go off and do it yourself.

2. Engage with a writing community.

Every writer likes a different level of engagement, but writing communities can be extra helpful at providing idea discussion. It’s also okay if it takes a while for you to find the right one. Some writers are happy with the ones that are for pure fun and keep away from real critique whereas others want detailed critiques and a push to be better. The community you’re part of needs to align with your goals for writing. 

3. Write what you know… so know interesting things.

Blatantly stolen from my own TbaBW post, but if you think your life is too boring for inspiration or you want to write about something but don’t know how, then get yourself out there and learn. Find new experiences, ask willing people about their lives, try new things even if you aren’t sure about them, research new subjects; increase your inspiration and well of knowledge so you can write what you know. You’re limited by your own knowledge and creativity, so work hard to make sure that limit does not exist.

4. Find prompts or guided writing exercises.

A lot of writers use prompts or guided exercises to get their writer's muscles moving. Aside from providing the base idea for you, they don’t require commitment and are just a form of practice, but can be turned into more polished stories if it really works out. The best use of these isn’t just reading them and deciding if you instantly like it or not, but taking some time to really think about how they can unfold.

5. Brainstorm.

While there are times when ideas just come to you, it’s common for creative people to have to brainstorm and put real effort into coming up with decent ideas. Brainstorming activities can look like, but aren’t limited to:

Inspiration from music. Some songs tell stories, some paint a scene, some capture a mood, and some are just good background music. Listening to music can be a good source of inspiration for writing.

Talk it out. Ask your friend and family what kind of stories they like to hear and why, or ask them anything about stories that you think will get them to talk. You may not want to write those exact things, but the dialogue can get some ideas thrown out there.

Inspiration from art. Similar to music, take a look at paintings, sketches, or maybe even dances that can provide something. Especially pay attention to the details and what the artist could potentially by trying to convey.

Ways to Develop Plot Ideas (link embedded) covers more idea generation!

6. Productivity can be worked on.

Most writers naturally go through a cycle of interest and disinterest in their projects or even writing in general. I have these linked posts for general info on increasing productivity:

Tips for Improving Writing Productivity, Pt 1

Tips for Improving Writing Productivity, Pt 2

Tips for Improving Writing Productivity, Pt 3

Tips for Improving Writing Productivity, Pt 4

You may also want to check out the Motivation and Discipline tag since there’s a lot of info related to productivity and getting back into writing, especially when you aren’t feeling so great about it.

7. Don’t be afraid of not being great.

It’s been a while since you’ve written and it’s normal for skills to get rusty. Your skills before may not even have been where you wanted to be, but all you can do is compare yourself to where you once were rather than other writers. Writing is personal journey and can be a tough skill to build, so don’t beat yourself up if you have trouble. You have to be bad at something before you’re good at it.

Good luck with your writing!

————————

Thinking of asking a question? Please read the Rules and Considerations to make sure I’m the right resource, and check the Tag List to see if your question has already been asked. If you can give back, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi or via Venmo Username: JustAWritingAid

This, like other quotes by Mark Twain, makes part of the sad reality of today. It's not fair what happens in this world.

If someone wants justice, that person must pay an enormous price and that's why poor people stay silent if something unfair happens to them, even if justice represents one of the most important human rights.

“Going to law is losing a cow for the sake of a cat.”

— -Mark Twain

It drives me crazy when I think that almost all of Mark Twain's quotes are valid in the present. He was so ahead of his time!

Here we are, in 2020, in quarantine, when we're obviously wishing to be somewhere else and suddenly this post appears, which encourages us to read.

““Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.””

— Mark Twain (via teandcats)

That's the cruel reality of our times. You can't trust anything you read until you compare it with more than 3 sources.

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.”

— Mark Twain (via historical-nonfiction)

Classic Book Recommendations For Each Hogwarts House

Gryffindor

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Henry V by William Shakespeare

Beowulf

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Histories by Herodatus

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

Hufflepuff

East of Eden by John Stenbeck

Othello by William Shakespeare

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Love In the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

White Fang by Jack London

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Ravenclaw

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Odyssey by Homer

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Slytherin

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Dracula by Bram Stoker

J. Augustus Knapp, The Secret Teachings Of All Ages, 1928

I was getting pretty fed up with links and generators with very general and overused weapons and superpowers and what have you for characters so:

Here is a page for premodern weapons, broken down into a ton of subcategories, with the weapon’s region of origin. 

Here is a page of medieval weapons.

Here is a page of just about every conceived superpower.

Here is a page for legendary creatures and their regions of origin.

Here are some gemstones.

Here is a bunch of Greek legends, including monsters, gods, nymphs, heroes, and so on. 

Here is a website with a ton of (legally attained, don’t worry) information about the black market.

Here is a website with information about forensic science and cases of death. Discretion advised. 

Here is every religion in the world. 

Here is every language in the world.

Here are methods of torture. Discretion advised.

Here are descriptions of the various methods used for the death penalty. Discretion advised.

Here are poisonous plants.

Here are plants in general.

Feel free to add more to this!

Myths, Creatures, and Folklore

Want to create a religion for your fictional world? Here are some references and resources!

General:

General Folklore

Various Folktales

Heroes

Weather Folklore

Trees in Mythology

Animals in Mythology

Birds in Mythology

Flowers in Mythology

Fruit in Mythology

Plants in Mythology

Folktales from Around the World

Africa:

Egyptian Mythology

African Mythology

More African Mythology

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

The Gods of Africa

Even More African Mythology

West African Mythology

All About African Mythology

African Mythical Creatures

Gods and Goddesses

The Americas:

Aztec Mythology

Haitian Mythology

Inca Mythology

Maya Mythology

Native American Mythology

More Inca Mythology

More Native American Mythology

South American Mythical Creatures

North American Mythical Creatures

Aztec Gods and Goddesses

Asia:

Chinese Mythology

Hindu Mythology

Japanese Mythology

Korean Mythology

More Japanese Mythology

Chinese and Japanese Mythical Creatures

Indian Mythical Creatures

Chinese Gods and Goddesses

Hindu Gods and Goddesses

Korean Gods and Goddesses

Europe:

Basque Mythology

Celtic Mythology

Etruscan Mythology

Greek Mythology

Latvian Mythology

Norse Mythology

Roman Mythology

Arthurian Legends

Bestiary

Celtic Gods and Goddesses

Gods and Goddesses of the Celtic Lands

Finnish Mythology

Celtic Mythical Creatures

Gods and Goddesses

Middle East:

Islamic Mythology

Judaic Mythology

Mesopotamian Mythology

Persian Mythology

Middle Eastern Mythical Creatures

Oceania:

Aboriginal Mythology

Polynesian Mythology

More Polynesian Mythology

Mythology of the Polynesian Islands

Melanesian Mythology

Massive Polynesian Mythology Post

Maori Mythical Creatures

Hawaiian Gods and Goddesses

Hawaiian Goddesses

Gods and Goddesses

Creating a Fantasy Religion:

Creating Part 1

Creating Part 2

Creating Part 3

Creating Part 4

Fantasy Religion Design Guide

Using Religion in Fantasy

Religion in Fantasy

Creating Fantasy Worlds

Beliefs in Fantasy

Some superstitions:

Keep reading

I think its amazing that no one knows who you are but you. No one else knows the stories you create, the feelings you have at 3am, the song stuck in your head, your favourite childhood book. So stop allowing people to tell you what you should be or what you are because they don't know.