- writing doesn’t get easier.
- sometimes you have to write for the sake of writing.
- plot should be allowed to change.
- the story in your mind will never perfectly translate into text and that’s okay.
- characters change, they’re supposed to change.
- you’re supposed to enjoy what you write.
- educate yourself about the different cultures you write about.
- your friends shouldn’t be your critics.
- the side character you love so much? sometimes they need to be cut from the story.
- write what you want to read and not what you think people want to read.
- there is no age limit in publishing, you have all the time in the world.
- not every idea will grow into a story, sometimes you need to let go.
- love your story, because it will be just the two of you for a while.
- it’s okay to not write every day, that doesn’t make you less of a writer.
Tag: writing
i know this is a difficult concept for a lot of tumblr to grasp but villains can have Reasons for becoming villains (trauma, abuse, etc) and can still be irredeemable for the things they have done because of it lol like….simply not every villain needs to be redeemed just because you like them. you are allowed to just like villains even if they are bad people. having Trauma
™ is not an excuse, it’s just a contextualization.
my exceedingly hot take is that discourse surrounding a few well-known properties (off the top of my head, Steven Universe, She-Ra and Star Wars) as well as the fanfic instinct to turn your favorite bad guy into an uwu smol bean cinnamon roll seems to have poisoned the well on how a lot of people in fandom think about villains.
like you guys know that redemption arcs are the exception and not the rule, right? Like the vast, vast, vast, VAST majority of villains are created with no intention of being redeemed. The key element in writing villains is that even if you think they’re making bad decisions, you have to understand why they’re making them, and this is the purpose that a tragic backstory usually serves. It’s supposed to give the villain a motivation that can make you go “ok, they’re clearly off the rails but I understand why they’re off the rails.”
I mean don’t get me wrong, Zuko is a great character and his arc is super compelling and amazing, and I’m not saying redemption arcs are a bad thing, but I am saying that people need to stop shouting “REDEMPTION ARC?” whenever we see a villain that was an abuse victim or has a soft spot for the hero or whatever other plot elements are supposed to make them three-dimensional and human. This is not a useful lens to view 95% of villains through and if you apply it outside that rare 5% you’re going to dig yourself into some truly stupid posts.
Applicable AO3 Ratings If You Don’t Write Porn
G- nothing objectionable
T- the fuck word
M- organs, outside
E- organs, outside, lovingly described
I can’t believe nobody has made the obvious joke yet that porn is still describing “organs” at those ratings. Except I also can because this seems to have really resonated with the “tired of the high density of smut, I only crave violence” crowd.
a character that is morally grey will not burn the world down because it makes them feel powerful, they’ll do it because they perceive something about it to be broken. moral ambiguity has nothing to do with a character’s past, and everything to do with the relationship between their actions and their intentions.
morally grey does not mean “is bad but also sad”
Great distinction!
A character who does bad things because they’re sad, betrayed, or hurt by their circumstances may be sympathetic, but they aren’t necessarily morally grey.
A character becomes morally grey when there’s a sense of truth, goodness, or justice in their purpose, but the actions they take to achieve that purpose are troubling, even amoral.
whenever you have problems with writing and worldbuilding for stories, just remember COCK
C- Does it have Creatures?
O- Does it Offend the church?
C-Is it Completely unhinged?
K- Does it Kick ass?
Not only is this good advice, it’s a mnemonic I’ll never fucking forget.
writing is simple. i put my characters into a situation that i, the author, cannot figure out how to get them out of and i close the document
the bravest writers are the ones who make granny characters in scifi and fantasy solely for the sake of having grannies i think there needs to be more old ladies who Fight and Kill
not only because i like the concept of badass oldladies and the destruction of the concept that all girl characters have to be sexually appealing to the audience bc thats fucking annoying as shit, there is literally Nothing funnier than the concept of a granny with a massive sword or death laser. she pinches ur cheek lovingly and then saws someone in half. amazing
I know some fic writers get stressed about writing tropes they think are too popular or overdone, and I need you all to know that I just spent 4 hours reading every iteration of the same exact fic plot I could find, and they all brought me an indescribable amount of joy. Listen. Listen. Sometimes you want cakes of many flavours and sometimes you want Nine Carrot Cakes
YOU Can Be a Writer
If you’ve ever considered writing a book but thought you couldn’t, let me convince you otherwise.
- Writing isn’t a talent you’re born with. It is a skill you can develop at any age.
- There is no magical moment when you become a “writer”. You are a writer as soon as you decide to be one.
- You can be a writer even as a full-time employee, mother, husband, etc. Writing 15-30 minutes a day can get you farther than you’d think.
- There is no such thing as a “failed” book. You learn from every project, especially the ones that go poorly. Don’t be afraid of failure.
- Someone will benefit from your story. Whether it’s a friend, a family member, five million fans, or just yourself, someone will benefit from the story you have to tell.
hey siri how do i explain to tumblr that ‘bury your gays’ is about more than the texual death of queer characters and that the textual death of queer characters is not, therefore, always a bad thing
Hey Siri, how do I explain to people that killing off characters for ‘drama’ is lazy and ham-fisted writing *at best*–and that doing it to characters from marginalized groups contributes to a legacy of underrepresentation, negative representation, and bigotry that actively harms communities and is, in fact, always a bad thing?
Literally the only reason things happen in fiction is “for drama”. Like… that’s what a narrative is. Drama. The problem is when it’s done for cheap drama.
“Bury your gays” means that gay characters are treated, narratively, as more expendable than others. Their lives/stories are treated as having less potential, without the possibility of a happily-ever-after.
But like… the way to fight this trope is not to decree as a community that narratives about or featuring death are inherently homophobic. Tragedies are not unethical–they just should not be the only OR the majority of stories being told about LGBTQ and other marginalized characters. You can, like, not personally want to read tragedies, and that’s fair! But a blanket ban against character death and anyone who writes it does not actually increase the number of happy stories and is a major “fuck you” to every marginalized writer who wants to write things that are meaningful to them.
LGBTQ characters should die, but in ways and rates comparable to straight characters.
ifesbob 