shout into the darkness

shercocklocked:

volari:

the-fandoms-are-cool:

a massively extended version of ruthlesscalculus’ post

General Tips

• Joss Whedon’s Top 10 Writing Tips
• Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
• 34 Writing Tips that will make you a Better Writer
• 50 Free resources that will improve your writing skills
• 5 ways to get out of the comfort zone and become a stronger writer
• 10 ways to avoid Writing Insecurity
• The Writer’s Guide to Overcoming Insecurity
• The Difference Between Good Writers and Bad Writers
• You’re Not Hemingway - Developing Your Own Style
• 7 Ways to use Brain Science to Hook Readers and Reel them In
• 8 Short Story Tips from Kurt Vonnegut
• How to Show, Not Tell
• 5 Essential Story Ingredients
• How to Write Fiction that grabs your readers from page one
• Why research is important in writing
• Make Your Reader Root for Your Main Character
• Writing Ergonomics (Staying Comfortable Whilst Writing)
• The Importance of Body Language

Character Development

• 10 days of Character Building
• Name Generators
• Name Playground
• Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test
• Seven Common Character Types
• Handling a Cast of Thousands Part 1 - Getting To Know Your Characters
• Web Resources for Developing Characters
• Building Fictional Characters
• Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
• Character Building Workshop
• Tips for Characterization
• Character Chart for Fiction Writers
• Villains are people too but…
• How to Write a Character Bible
• Character Development Exercises
• All Your Characters Talk the Same - And They’re Not A Hivemind!
• Medieval Names Archive
• Sympathy Without Saintliness
• Family Echo (Family Tree Maker)
• Behind The Name
• 100 Character Development Questions for Writers
• Aether’s Character Development Worksheet
• The 12 Common Archetypes
• Six Types of Courageous Characters
• Kazza’s List of Character Secrets - Part 1, Part 2
• Creating Believable Characters With Personality
• Body Language Cheat Sheet
• Creating Fictional Characters Series
• Three Ways to Avoid Lazy Character Description
• 7 Rules for Picking Names for Fictional Characters
• Character Development Questionnaire
• How to Create Fictional Characters
• Character Name Resources
• Character Development Template
• Character Development Through Hobbies
• Character Flaws List
• 10 Questions for Creating Believable Characters
• Ari’s Archetype Series
• How to Craft Compelling Characters
• List of 200 Character Traits
• Writing Characters of the Opposite Sex
• Making Your Characters Likable
• Do you really know your characters?
• Character Development: Virtues
• Character Development: Vices
• Character Morality Alignment
• List of Negative Personality Traits
• List of Positive Personality Traits
• List of Emotions - Positive
• List of Emotions - Negative
• Loon’s Character Development Series - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
• Phobia List A-L (Part 1), M-Z (Part 2)
• 30 Day In Depth Character Development Meme
• Words for Emotions based on Severity
• Eight Bad Characters
• High Level Description of the Sixteen Personality Types

Female Characters

• How Not to Write Female Characters
• Writing Female Characters
• How to write empowering female characters
• Why I write strong female characters
• Red Flags for Female Characters Written by Men
• Writing strong female characters
• The Female Character Flowchart
• Eight Heroine Archetypes

Male Characters

• Eight Hero Archetypes

Tips for Specific Characters

• Writing A Vampire
• Writing Pansexual Characters
• Writing Characters on the Police Force
• Writing Drunk Characters
• Writing A Manipulative Character
• Writing A Friends With Benefits Relationship
• Writing A Natural Born Leader
• Writing A Flirtatious Character
• Writing A Nice Character
• Fiction Writing Exercises for Creating Villains
• Five Traits to Contribute to an Epic Villain
• Writing Villains that Rock
• Writing British Characters
• How To Write A Character With A Baby
• On Assassin Characters

Dialogue

• It’s Not What They Say…
• Top 8 Tips for Writing Dialogue
• Speaking of Dialogue
• The Great Said Debate
• He Said, She Said, Who Said What?
• How to Write Dialogue Unique to Your Characters
• Writing Dialogue: Go for Realistic, Not Real-Life

Point of View

• Establishing The Right Point of View
• How to Start Writing in the Third Person
• The I Problem

Plot, Conflict, Structure and Outline

• Writing A Novel Using the Snowflake Method
• Effectively Outlining Your Novel
• Conflict and Character Within Story Structure
• Outlining Your Plot
• Ideas, Plots and Using the Premise Sheets
• How To Write A Novel
• Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense
• Plunge Right In…Into Your Story, That Is
• Tips for Creating a Compelling Plot
• 36 (plus one) Dramatic Situations
• The Evil Overlord Devises A Plot: Excerpt from Stupid Plot Tricks
• Conflict Test
• What is Conflict?
• Monomyth
• The Hero’s Journey: Summary of Steps
• Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes
• Plotting Without Fears
• Novel Outlining 101
• Writing The Perfect Scene
• One-Page Plotting
• The Great Swampy Middle
• How Can You Know What Belongs In Your Book?
• Create A Plot Outline in 8 Easy Steps
• How to Organize and Develop Ideas for Your Novel
• Create Structure in your novel using index cards
• Choosing the best outline method for you
• Hatch’s Plot Bank

Setting & Worldbuilding

• Magical Word Builder’s Guide
• I Love The End Of The World
• World Building 101
• The Art of Description: Eight Tips to Help Bring Your Settings to Life
• Creating the Perfect Setting - Part 1
• Creating a Believable World
• Setting
• Character and Setting Interactions
• Maps Workshop - Developing the Fictional World Through Mapping
• World Builders Project
• How To Create Fantasy Worlds
• Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds

Creativity Boosters* denotes prompts

• *Creative Writing Prompts
• *Ink Provoking
• *Story Starter
• *Story Spinner
• *Story Kitchen
• *Language is a Virus
• *The Dabbling Mum
• Quick Story Idea Generator
• Solve Your Problems By Simply Saying Them Out Loud
• Busting Your Writing Rut
• Creative Acceleration: 11 Tips To Engineer A Productive Flow
• Writing Inspiration, Or Sex on a Bicycle
• The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes
• Complete Your First Book with these 9 Simple Writing Habits
• Free Association, Active Imagination, Twilight Imaging
• Random Book Title Generator
• Finishing Your Novel
• Story Starters & Idea Generators
• Words to Use More Often

Revision & Grammar

• How To Rewrite
• Editing Recipe
• Cliche Finder
• Revising Your Novel: Read What You’ve Written
• Writing 101: Revising A Novel
• 20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes
• Synonyms for the Most Commonly Used Words of the English Language
• Grammar Urban Legends

Tools & Software

• Tip Of My Tongue - Find the word you’re looking for
• Write or Die - Stay motivated
• Stay Focused - Tool for Chrome, lock yourself out of distracting websites
• My Writing Nook - Online Text Editor, Free
• Bubbl.us - Online Mind Map Application, Free
• Family Echo - Online Family Tree Maker, Free
• Freemind - Mind Map Application; Free; Windows, Mac, Linux, Portable
• Xmind - Mind Map Application; Free; Windows, Mac, Linux, Portable
• Liquid Story Binder - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $45.95; Windows, Portable
• Scrivener - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $39.95; Mac
• SuperNotecard - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $29; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable
• yWriter - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free; Windows, Linux, portable
• JDarkRoom - Minimalist Text Editing Application; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable
• AutoRealm - Map Creation Application; free; Windows, Linux with Wine

Specific Help

• Fashion Terminology
• All About Kissing
• Genre Help: Romance
• 187 Mental Illnesses
• Types of Mental Illness
• Eye Color List
• Spectral Groupings

I made a very small noise to express a very large amount of happiness.

For my writers.

(via headfulloftraffic)

referenceforwriters:

• a young character
• a character who lost someone important
• a flirtatious character
• a villain (2) (3) (4)
• a character based on yourself 
• a hit man or mercenary
• an indifferent character
• a bitchy character
• a gay character
• a dancer
• a vampire
• a pansexual character
• a character on the police force
• a drunk character
• a manipulative character
• a friends with benefits relationship
• a natural born leader (2)
• a nice character
• a british character
• a character with a baby
• an assassin
• a character with night terrors
• a rich character
• a witty character

(via doomslock)

thepalaceofawesomestories:

Here are some of the most common openings I see, as they’re almost always a rejection:

• Waking Up: Avoid the first moments of the day, especially if your character is being snapped out of a dream.
• School Showcase: A character introducing the requisite best friend and the school bully
• Family Showcase: Introductions of parents, siblings, pets
• Room Tour: A character sitting in her room, thinking, looking over her stuff
• Emo Kid: A character sitting and thinking about all his problems
• Normal No More: A character lamenting how normal, average, and/or lame her life is, which is the writer setting us up for the big change that’s about to happen
• Moving Van: A character in the car, driving to his new house, hating every minute of it
• Mirror Catalogue: Looking at oneself and describing one’s flaws, usually with a self-deprecating voice
• Summer of Torture: A character lamenting how she has to do something that she doesn’t want to do (live in a haunted house, go visit Grandma, work at the nursery) all summer long
• New Kid: A character worrying about being the new kid on his first day of school or wizard training or the vampire academy
• RIP Parents: One or both parental units kicking the bucket suddenly and tragically
• Dystopian Selection: In the dystopian genre, it’s the day of choosing jobs, getting selected for something awful, being paired with a soul mate, etc.

These are very common beginnings and all I ask is that, if you choose to forge ahead and brave one, make it fresh.

(via theywillliveagaininfreedom)

theoldaeroplane:

(as appropriated from this page)

1. Write regularly, whether you feel like writing or not, and whether you think what you’re writing is any good or not.

2. Give yourself short assignments. Keep it manageable so you don’t get overwhelmed.

3. Write shitty first drafts. Don’t expect a piece of writing to flow perfectly out of your fingers on the first go.

4. Let the Polaroid develop; in other words, observe, watch, listen, stay in the moment, until you understand what you want to write about.

5. Know your characters.

6. Let the plot grow out of the characters.

7. “If you find that you start a number of stories or pieces that you don’t ever bother finishing…it may be that there is nothing at their center about which you care passionately. You need to put yourself at their center, you and what you believe to be true or right.”

8. Figure out ways to jam the transmissions from Radio KFKD, the interior station feeding doubts and criticism into your brain. Especially about jealousy of other writers.

9. Have pen and paper ready at all times. (Carry an index card.)

10. Call around. Ask for help.

11. Start a writing group.

12. Write in your own voice.

13. Being published brings a quiet joy, but it doesn’t transform your life, and eventually you have to write again.

14. “Devotion and commitment will be their own reward.”

(via boazpriestly)

Alright since I’ve been listening to Titanium for like 3 hours straight, that gon’ be my motto for 2013

“I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose

Fire away, fire away

Ricochet, you take your aim

Fire away, fire away

You shoot me down but I won’t fall

I am titanium”

yeah bring it on

caw caw motherfuckers

FUCKING FIREWORKS AT FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON

STOP THAT SHIT IT AIN’T MIDNIGHT YET

GET OUT OF MY LAWN YOU DAMN KIDS

Huh. Reading back my older posts, I noticed I mentioned Hugh Grant twice. And I’m not even that much a fan of his. That’s odd.

Nevertheless, since we’re talking about him let’s look at his face because he’s got a nice one:

LOOK AT THAT

And bonus Julia Roberts because she’s got a nice face too!

Hmm I think I get it about Hugh. It’s the William Thacker air, that “I’m a nice decent guy who owns a pretty travelling book shop and I’m charmy and British and have gorgeous hair and a down-to-the-knees smile” thing and I might be losing focus here ANYWAY GOOD NIGHT FOLKS