Achillean Romance with Fangs
I have various motivational tips and things in this tag, so I’ll keep this to the basics. It depends a lot on what kind of writers block you’re having. “I can’t figure out what happens next.” Take a break, breathe, and outline. Even if you’re not a big outliner, having a direction to go in can […]
This is a very simple question in that I have answered before, and yet a very hard one because the way I stay motivated isn’t going to work for everyone. How do I, Bryn, stay motivated? Flexible outlines. I have a lovely outline that tells me I have so many cool scenes coming up that will be really fun to […]
I’ve seen some posts going around on what not to write in fantasy, many of which amount to: Don’t write evil kings. Don’t write people who are evil for the sake of evil. Don’t write bullies. Don’t write villains at all actually. Don’t write mentors. Don’t let your characters learn how to do hard things on their […]
Though we don’t usually need a lot going on outside the dialogue itself, it often feels static or otherwise unnatural if you have a entire conversation with dialogue, a few tags, and nothing else. But we never want to add extra words for the sake of just having words. Everything we write should contribute to […]
These types of relationships can be some of the most interesting and enjoyable, both to read and write, because they show us many sides of the same characters and the growth from a hatred to mixed feelings and finally to genuine love and acceptance is often heartwarming to experience. But relationships like also require finesse to […]
I’m incredibly disappointed with the trend in stories (especially ‘edgy’ YA novels) to bombard the reader with traumatic situations, angry characters, and relationship drama without ever first giving them a reason to root for a better future. As a reader… I might care that the main siblings are fighting if they had first been shown […]
What is a redemption arc? “Redemption: An act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake.” An act, implying action, which is created by choices, which just happens to be the basis of character development. Some writers confuse redemption arcs with things they are not, and end up creating situations which aren’t redemption arcs at all, but […]
When you struggle to connect the main plot points. Fore word: This is how I do the thing. It’s not the only way to do the thing, nor the “right way,” just one way, which happens to work really well for me. I hope it helps you too, but if it doesn’t, there’s still a good […]
First off, I have to put a disclaimer here because I tend to rope past progressive tense into passive voice, because they both rely on “to be” verbs a lot, and because I’m lazy. I’ll talk about them both separately for once. 1. Passive voice can lead to confusing sentences. In non-grammar jargon, passive voice often […]
Most of us are quite familiar with the term, but if you’ve heard it passed around without a proper definition, a Mary Sue is a (traditionally female) character who’s known for being flawless. She’s powerful, beautiful, intelligent, more skilled than her peers, gets herself out of every bad situation with ease, (usually wowing a crowd of bystanders in the […]
