Scribbled Fiction

Put your phone far enough away that you can't reach it because being too lazy to get up > desire to reach phone = you'll be forced to write Listen to Hans Zimmer soundtracks, they're literally written to keep you engaged and they help you focus When you're line editing, put things that will take more thought [in brackets] so that later you can just search the documents for the brackets and find all those things at once. If you're stuck on one thing in the document, go to a different thing and work on that. Your mind will be clearer to deal with the problem when you come back. If you're struggling to begin something, even an outline(cuz I do a lot), title it like this: Outline 1, But This is the Sucky Version . If you give yourself permission to suck or outline it in a way where if it's the worst it doesn't matter, it makes it so much easier to begin. Don't open the word document or look at the page until you already know how you're going to be...

Something I'm learning from this current draft of Robbing Centaurs and Other Bad Ideas is that I'm really bad at descriptions. I underdescribe, I overdescribe, I put in confusing visuals, my sentences are awkward... I'm just really bad at descriptions. And now that I think about it, descriptions are something that have always been really frustrating for me to try to write. I can picture all these cool places and ideas, but I have no idea how to make the reader see and feel them the way I do. It's probably one of the most frustrating parts of writing for me. Therefore, after seeing all the notes from my sweet editor on descriptions that could be improved, I did a hearty bit of googling on how to write descriptions. This is what I found.  Give the description a flow. Your MC spots another character in the room. What do they notice first, and why? What do they notice after that? Don't just say 'their hair was black and their eyes were blue', that doesn't wo...

NaNoWriMo prep is a real task. For some of us(the ones who really want to get the plot right this time to minimize plot rewriting later on, aka me), it may even be a chore. But whether or not we like it, we can all agree on one thing: It's a big workload. The character prep. The world building. The plotting. The outlining. The rearranging of the schedule to make extra hours for writing time. It's a lot, and you have to get EVERYTHING ready before November first. It's a lot. And it's easy to overlook some things, some fine details, maybe even some spreadsheets or plans that might be helpful during the month of November. So I'm going to help you out if I can. Here are a few things you might be forgetting: a game plan It's so important to have a plan for NaNoWriMo. I don't care if you're not a planning person. You need to be ready  if you want to finish the marathon. Figure out what parts of your day can be shortened, what things can be put on hold for a mo...

  I wrote a post in July of 2019 on how to write scary stuff . And in the name of October and all things scary, here's another one. I thought of some new stuff recently and went 'hmm, why not do a part 2 to something everyone's already forgotten?' So here it is! How To Write Scary Pay attention to the pacing of the scene and the way you're pacing your prose.  Pacing is always important, but in something like horror, it's crucial. Think of how it feels when a scary part comes along in a movie. Sometimes the characters pause briefly to catch their breath, and then all of a sudden there's something in front of them! The pace goes from a trickle to a roar very fast. I feel like I'm describing what I mean badly here, but hopefully you get the point. Sensory details are your friend What's the temperature in the room? What's the texture of the furniture your character is sitting on? Is there a ringing in their ears? Butterflies in their stomach? It'...

I got here to preview this post before I published it, only to discover that I had written the list and nothing else! No intro, no elaboration, no wrapup. I shake my head in my own self-disappointment. Ah well, here I am now, a little late but here anyway! I like it when characters have skills. Even if the skills aren't super important to the plot. I don't think they have to be important, so long as the character has them. It just provides a little extra intrigue and a little extra well-roundedness to the character. Not to mention, who knows if they'll be useful in the future! So here's a list of random skills your character can have. If you have any other ideas that I didn't include here, let me know what they are in the comments! Maybe I'll do a part 2. Random cool skills for characters: Wood carving Drawing Painting Oil Pastels Knot Tying Sailing Fencing Playing Spoons Beatboxing Street Drummer Knows random trivia Customizes clothes/Tailor Memorizes stuff eas...

I'm bad at naming chapters. The worst, actually. I used to write out the whole chapter without naming it, then go back through, agonizing over what to use as the title name. All the titles I could think of were either over-the-top or just lame. It was a pain for so long before I finally started paying attention to the chapter titles in other books and realized that a traditional chapter title was not required. I really have no idea if this is a common issue with other writers, for all I know everyone else can name chapters with less effort than it takes to blink. But if it's hard for you like it's hard for me, keep reading. This one's for you. ;) Idea #1: Don't name them! Just use numbers. You don't always need a title, and frankly, readers put very little pressure on you to title them in the first place. You can skip the name and just give the chapter a number. And there are many ways to number, too! You can use just plain numbers(20,21,22) or write them out(Tw...

It's simple: effort without reward = no fun. Have you stopped to reward yourself for writing recently? Have you ever  stopped to reward yourself for writing? Have you finished a tough scene, or reached a word goal, or done something hard, and then rewarded yourself for it? You should. As a writer, you are your own boss, and you need to be a fair one. Effort merits reward. Finishing on time deserves a pat on the back. A reward can be anything. It can be a quick YouTube video after finishing your writing session for the day. It can be a Saturday off if you consistently write every day, Monday through Friday. It can be a face mask at the end of the day because you want one. Even 20 minutes of free reading time in the evening will suffice. But make sure you reward yourself. Be a fair boss. Your brain is working hard here. And I'm talking to myself here as well as you. I'm terrible at telling myself I did well. I'm terrible at making sure I get rewarded for my hard work. I...

Photo by  Kaboompics .com  from  Pexels I'm so picky about dialogue. Probably too picky. But it's people! Talking! And they gotta sound real!! I know everyone tries so hard to make dialogue sound good, but there are just some things I see over and over that pull me out of the narrative and make me go 'well yuck'. Bear in mind that these are opinions . They're subjective, you don't have to listen to me. I'm just talking about it because I want to. So let's go! 'he presented' 'she queried' 'he cautioned'  Just seriously, don't use a distracting, complicated word when 'said' will work just fine. Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with plenty of other dialogue tags, but some of them are just useless. I can tell he's cautioning because he's saying "be careful!" Honestly when I see the word 'queried' being used instead of 'said' it just sets my teeth on edge. And on another note, s...

Procrastination For me, procrastination can come from several sources: 1) I have too much to do and it makes me nervous, so I avoid the task altogether 2) I am currently uninterested in the scene I'm writing 3) I don't know where the scene is going 4) I'm afraid I won't do the scene justice A lot of the time, the real source of the problem is #2. I'll lose interest in the scene I'm writing, and therefore when I'm not writing I don't have the motivation to  write. I don't sit down to type with anticipation for the adventure ahead. And there's an easy way to fix that, which we'll get to in just a minute. But let's say that your main problem is not #2, but rather #1 or #3 or #4. So I'm going to address them all at once. The core of the problem What is making you procrastinate? What is the core of the problem? 1) You have too much to do in general and it makes you nervous, so you avoid the task altogether. The problem: You're overwhel...

I don't know about you, but I have to listen to music while I'm writing or else there will be no productivity. Period. Mainly I listen to a lot of epic music or lofi because 1) They boost my productivity, 2) I can just find mixes and don't have to look for anything specific, but I do like to listen to soundtracks too when I can think of a good one. Most of the time, I don't listen to albums when I'm trying to write, because while I can sometimes listen to music I already know and maintain my focus, it doesn't always work out, and when I'm distracted while trying to write it's no fun at all. So here's all my favorite music for writing that I've been obsessed with lately: The Untold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22MpXAD_uwU&list=PLm2rgd597ZWmiTfZDVfU1_X2K585F9eRO&index=17&t=5s Super dark and epic music that works so well for writing because the music sounds like it's meant for specific moments in a story! I love it. Audio...

I want to talk about the whole thing of cutting out toxic people. The internet and everyone on it seems to be screaming that the only way to be happy is to cut every toxic person out of your life. And who are these toxic people? Take a look around. According to the internet, everyone you love is hurting you, all of them are toxic or abusive in some way. Because if they don't give you their full attention every moment of the day, if they don't understand your every nuance perfectly, if they don't always understand exactly what you want and when you want it, do they really love you? I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately, and I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Like yeah, sometimes a relationship with a person can get to a point where it's only causing you harm, and I get that, believe me, I do. But I don't think it's very Christlike to go and cut off your loved ones the moment you start to feel unh...

Those of you who have read Gail Carson Levin's book 'Writing Magic' will remember Gail's character questionnaire, and specifically, two unconventional questions on it. 1) Describe his/her room 2) Items in his/her pockets, backpack, or purse Most questionnaires don't have questions like these, and that's what made them stand out to me as a young writer. Why would one need to know either one of these things to understand the character, you may ask? Because they help us figure out what kind of person your character is, all based on what things they keep around them. Why it's important For example, the state of your character's room says something about their personality. If their room is messy, that tells us that their state of mind might be messy, or that they're currently too busy or distracted to clean, or that they're bad with responsibilities such as cleaning. And we could take it a step further from there. The room is messy, bu...

Here's something I've noticed from years of writing and reading: One small and perfect detail can help you envision a character's whole appearance. If a character's appearance feels bland, or if you feel like you just can't 'see' them in your mind's eye, adding something as simple as a nose shape or a necklace can suddenly bring it all together. That one detail establishes the basic gist of your character's appearance to the reader, and their mind will then take over and fill in all kinds of fun little details from there. It's incredible! And it only takes one small extra step on your part. Here's an example of this technique in action. We start off with a very simple description. He was tall and blond, in jeans and a t-shirt. Not so interesting, not so memorable. He could use some help. Add a small and unique detail. He was tall and blond, in jeans and a band t-shirt, with a diamond earring in his right  ear. And there it is!...

So, I love urban fantasy. I really  love urban fantasy. *finds a rooftop to scream from* URBAN FANTASY IS SO COOL!! And thus I read all the good urban fantasy books I can get my hands on. My latest most favoritest read is A Madness of Angels, or the Resurrection of Matthew Swift . Like most of my favorite books, it was written by a British author so alas, no one I have ever met has read it. But it's incredible!! Trench coats! Spray paint! Magic creatures in the phone lines! A super cool urban sorcerer taking down evil creations of magic and kicking butts! *happy sigh* I love it all. And because of this series, I have decided to write a list of inspiration for my fellow urban fantasy writers. Here is a list of everyday, ordinary things that obviously have some kind of magical qualities and should have magic qualities in urban fantasy books. Used ticket stubs 24-hour eateries Those shoes that are tied together and slung over the telephone wires Street art Myst...

The mentor can be a complicated character to write. Finding a mentor for your protagonist can be a complicated business in the first place, and then on top of all that they have to be a fully fleshed-out character while being somehow wiser than the protagonist is. But fret not. I have just the tools to help you build a good one. Let's go! I don't know about you, but my favorite mentors are the ones that are unexpected. The little red dragon who is determined to help Mulan succeed and prove his own worth at any cost. The guy in the mountains who helped Batman reach his fullest potential before (*SPOILERS*) ultimately becoming the villain. The fallen demigod set on getting back his magic hook and redeeming his standing with the gods. Those mentors. The unexpected, imperfect, beautifully flawed mentors. Unfortunately, I have no surefire tips for helping you identify who your mentor other than this: Who helps your protagonist move forward and who does your protagoni...

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a little nervous to post this list. I've posted things about mental health and depression in the past, but I've never talked about it with this level of transparency. And it scares me. I guess a part of me maybe doesn't want to admit weakness like this, but without understanding your own weakness, you can't really get stronger. So we're going to do this. Hurting yourself (losing sleep, undergoing physical strain just because you want to feel something, self-harm) ... it's not worth it. Paint over those wrists instead. Bake something. Create rather than destroy. Having a horrible episode an hour after you were laughing and having a good time does not invalidate the fun you had earlier. Tears after a smile does not mean the smile wasn't real. You aren't faking it. If you feel like this, it's real, and you need to treat it as such. Your struggling is going to be more than one person's, and...

All right, we've done the main character and the antagonist , but what about secondary characters? It's time to outline our SCs to keep our other characters company. But first, who are our secondary characters? Secondary characters are: Best friends Other friends Family members Fellow questers Sidekicks Love interests(But only if the romance is more of a subplot than part of the main story. If the story is based around the romance, I would treat their character outline more like a main character) Other important characters that aren't the main character or the antagonist So how do we outline a secondary character? Again, we start with the basic questions: Name Age Appearance All these are mandatory knowledge. I like to know what their favorite color is too, just for fun. I feel like that's important. At this point, the About section could be helpful, but if you want a simpler format(since after all, these are SCs and not...

All right, it's time for another session of character outlining. This time around, it's the villain! What's your villain like? You don't know! So that's what we're here to work out. If you haven't already read part 1 of this series, Outlining Characters 101: How I Outline Characters (A Simple But Effective Format), click here to read it before you continue. Ultimately, writing villains is the same as writing any other character. After all, they're people too, with allergies and preferences and blood types. But to outline a villain, there are a few key things to include that you wouldn't include in most other character outlines. So let's begin! Villain questionnaires start the same as any other: Name Age Appearance Likes Dislikes And it's here that the outline starts to change. The questions above are the basics, stuff that I would consider necessary knowledge for almost any character.  So at this point one will probably...