My Dad–also A Writer–came To Visit, And I Mentioned That The Best Thing To Come Out Of The Layoff

Your old friend, Mary Sue, appears perfect, but actually has the ability to manipulate time and constantly rewinds it in order to give the appearance of perfection, with zero consequences. You, however, can secretly remember every single previous iteration.

Non-writing activities that actually help your writing

To get better at writing, you have to write. Yes… But what about the times when you genuinely don’t feel like it?

First of all, it’s alright! It’s not the end of the world! You’re not a failed writer if you have a down day. But if you really feel like doing something that pushes your writing along, but isn’t actually writing, here are some things you can do! →

📚 Planning out your next chapter When in doubt, plot it out. Sometimes you might simply be stuck because you don’t have a clear path forward. A simple outline of all the major beats in your next chapter can really put things into perspective.

📚 Writing an impromptu scene Every writer goes off and fantasizes about a scene in their novel that isn’t actually part of the plan. Treat it as if it was a fanfic of your own novel and give it a shot! Writing it as fanfiction takes the pressure off, and might just get your creative juices flowing again.

📚Reading a similar book for research This is a  super helpful and fun way of doing research for your book. Dig out similar books in the genre and get reading. A great way to get book recommendations is to speak to some bookish people and tell them a little bit about the story you’re writing. Often, they can have great recommendations of a similar book vibe that could help you along.

📚 Actually research For whatever type of book you’re writing, you’re going to have to do some research. Whether it’s describing architecture in a fantasy world, or making sure your facts are correct in a historical setting, research is a crucial part of writing. Perhaps if your creative side of the brain isn’t feeling up to it right now, your logical one might be of us and help you gather some facts to make your writing more authentic.

📚 Edit or rewrite previous chapters If you have the need to work on your project, but can't bring yourself to write some more, work with what’s already there. It’s inevitable that some of the chapters you wrote, you aren’t entirely happy with. This might be the time to try something new - open that chapter side by side with a fresh document and rewrite it by changing one integral part of it.

📚 Think on it Yes, we all fantasize about our projects and our characters. But how often do you actually stop and truly think about your story as a whole? How often do you try to figure out that plothole before saying you’ll leave it for later? It might help to meditate for a bit, clear your head of distracting thoughts and focus on the problem in your writing that you need to solve.

Creating a Fictional Culture: How to Create a Fictional Culture

Happy New Year Everyone!

In case you haven’t seen my Fan Fiction Writers Needed Post please check it out and consider applying for the job!

Anyways, let’s get to it! First advice of the New Year!

What Is a Fictional Culture?

A fictional culture is an essential piece of worldbuilding in certain genres of fiction—particularly in science fiction and fantasy.

Storytellers develop fictional cultures in a variety of mediums, including film, television, short stories, novels, and video games. A fictional culture is defined by the customs, languages, values, and symbols of an imaginary world.

How to Create a Fictional Culture

Although there are nearly endless possibilities, consider some of these general writing tips for creating a fictional culture.

Pull inspiration from the real world. Pay attention to the cultural behaviors within your society. Broaden your own cultural perspective by researching the ideas and values of different cultures throughout history. Use real-life cultural examples to inform your fictional world, but be wary of repurposing existing cultures or perpetuating stereotypes.

Build off your main character. Develop the setting of your story based on how it serves the character development of your protagonist. Build a culture that highlights or contradicts your main character’s goals, needs, and fears.

Develop a belief system. Consider the core values, social norms, and taboos of your fictional culture. A central belief system can guide how you create rituals, symbols, and artifacts within your story.

Create a social structure. Develop how the family structures and social hierarchies work within your fictional culture. Decide where your main character falls within the social structure. Monetary systems can change your social structure depending on whether you use a bartering economy or something more complex.

Construct a technological system. Determine how advanced the technology is in your fictional culture. The technology of your story will impact the entertainment, communication, and modes of transportation within your fictional world.

Write a brief history. Expand your culture by writing a brief mythology of your fictional society. Avoid overwriting, and keep your history contained to important information that can impact your story.

Develop a Unique Language. Probably one of the most exciting yet difficult aspects of creating a fictional culture. Take a look at other language such as Greek or Latin or really any language you are curious about! Creating a language is not necessarily about switching up some lettering or word phrasing (it can be, but not 100%); it’s much more than that! I definitely welcome you to research and create your own language.

4 Examples of Fictional Cultures

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954): Tolkien created a wide variety of fictional cultures to inhabit Middle-earth. Each culture has its own language, value system, and history.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932): In his dystopian novel, Aldous Huxley developed a complex and technologically advanced culture with distinct social classes.

Dune by Frank Herbert (1965): Dune is an influential sci-fi novel with several detailed fictional cultures. One of them is the Fremen culture, which revolves around ancient superstitions and a rare commodity known as the Spice Melange.

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (2015): In this award-winning novel, Jemisin created a complex social structure with many "use-castes” that all have a place on an earthquake-ridden planet with one supercontinent.

Tips for Writing a Scene

Whether you’ve been writing for a long time or want to start, everyone begins in the same place—with a scene.

Not an entire chapter.

A scene.

Here’s how you can make it happen on the page.

Step 1: Have Characters In Mind

Scenes can’t happen without characters. Sometimes you might have a place in mind for a scene, but no characters. Sometimes, it’s the opposite. 

Pick at least two characters if you’ll have external conflict (more on that in step 4). One character can carry a scene with internal conflict, but things still have to happen around them to influence their thoughts/emotions.

Step 2: Give Them Goals

Short stories combine mini scenes into one plot with a beginning/middle/end. Longform manuscripts combine chapters to do the same thing, but with more detail and subplots.

You don’t need to know which form you’re writing to get started.

All you need are goals.

What should your scene do? What does your character(s) want? It will either use the moment to advance the plot or present a problem that the character solves in the same scene/short story.

Step 3: Include the Senses

If you’re recounting an experience to someone, you don’t say, “I had the worst day. My shoes got wet and I couldn’t get home for 10 hours.”

You’d probably say, “I had the worst day. I stepped in a puddle so my shoes got soaked, which made my socks and feet wet all day. Then I had to wait 10 hours to get home. It was miserable! And now my feet smell terrible.”

Okay, you might not use all of those descriptors, but you get the picture. The story is much more engaging if you’re talking about the feeling of wet socks, soaked shoes, and the smell of stinky feet. The other person in your conversation would probably go ugh, that’s horrible!

Your scene should accomplish the same thing. Use the five senses to make the moment real for the reader.

As a reminder, those senses are: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing.

You don’t need to use all of them at once, but include at least two of them to make your stories shine. You also don’t have to constantly use environmental or sensory descriptors. Once you establish the scene for your reader, they’ll place your characters and want to keep the plot moving.

Step 4: Identify the Conflict

Speaking of plot, scenes and stories can’t move forward without conflict. There are two types:

Internal conflict: happens within a single character (may or may not affect their decisions at any given time; it can also be the reasoning for their goals and dreams)

External conflict: happens outside of a character or between two characters (may or may not have to do with their internal conflict or personal goals; it always advances their character growth, relationship development, or plot development)

A scene could touch on either of these types of conflict or both! It depends on your story/plot/what you want your scene to accomplish.

Step 5: Pick a Point of View (POV)

Sometimes you’ll know you want to write a specific POV because you’ll have a character/plot in mind that requires it. Other times, you might not know.

It’s often easier to pick a POV after thinking through the previous steps. You’ll better understand how much time you want to spend in a character’s head (1st Person) or if you want to touch on multiple characters’ minds through 3rd Person.

Example of Setting a Scene

Step 1, Have Characters in Mind: Two sisters arrive back home from their first fall semester in different colleges.

Step 2, Give Them Goals: Sister A wants to ask for dating advice, but the sisters have never been that close. Sister B knows that Sister A wants a deeper conversation, but is doing anything to avoid it.

Step 3, Include the Senses: They’re in a living room with shag navy carpet and the worn leather couches have butt-shaped shadows on the cushions. The house smells of vanilla bean, the only scent their dads can agree on. Christmas lights hang on a fake tree that sheds plastic fir leaves on the floor. Their family cat purrs from within the metal branches.

Step 4, Identify the Conflict: Sister B will do anything to avoid talking about feelings. That includes trying to get the cat out of the tree (shaking the branches and reaching into them doesn’t work), checking to make sure the windows are closed against the winter air, and faking an obviously unreal phone call. This makes Sister A go from passively hoping for advice to chasing her through the house. 

Step 5, Pick a POV: 3rd Person, so internal thoughts and feelings from both sisters are obvious to the reader and emphasize the scene’s comedy.

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These are also useful ways to rethink a scene you’ve already written. If something about it doesn’t seem to be working, consider if it’s missing one or more of these points. You don’t need to include all of them all the time, but weaving more sensory details or conflict into a short story/chapter could solve your problem.

Best of luck with your writing, as always 💛

I don't 'write' my characters, I just watch them do stupid shit and write up the incident report.

General Advice for Beginner Witches

A brief masterpost of some of my advice posts for beginner witches and the episodes of my podcast dealing with the same. (There is UPG here, particularly where marked, as I base a good deal of my advice on my own experience and observations of other witches.)

Hex Positive Podcast Episodes

Hex Positive, Ep. 04 - Advice for Beginner Witches (July 2020)

Hex Positive, Eps. 6-7 - Come In For A Spell 1 & 2 (Sept 2020)

Hex Positive, Ep. 12 - Witching From The Broom Closet (Jan 2021)

Hex Positive, Ep. 24 - Warding A Witchy Home (Dec 2021)

Hex Positive, Ep. 27 - When Inspo Takes A Holiday (March 2022)

General Tips & Advice

I Feel Like I Might Be A Witch...But I Don't Know

I Have Mental Health Issues - Can I Still Be A Witch?

Can I Still Be A Witch And Use Magic If I Take Medication?

How Do I Teach Myself To Believe In Magic?

How Does Magic Work? (upg ahoy)

Will I Be Possessed Or Haunted If I Try Witchcraft?

What Are Some Things I Can Do To Get Started?

How Can I Start My Practice If I Don't Have Tools Or Books?

How Do I Organize My Study Materials?

How Do I Contact A Deity?

How Do I Worship My Deity If I Can't Have An Altar?

Tips On Working With Deities And Spirits (here be upg)

My Intuitive Spark Feels Low - How Do I Get It Back?

I'm In A Slump - How Do I Get Out Of It?

I've Reached A Stopping Point - What Do I Do Next?

My Candle Is Flickering - Does It Mean Something Bad?

How Do I Make A Magic Circle For Spellcasting?

What Happens If I Get Interrupted While Casting A Spell?

Do I Need To Maintain Positive Vibes For My Spells To Work?

What Should I Do If I REALLY Want To Hex Someone?

How Do I Know / What Do I Do If I've Been Hexed?

How Do I Become More Skilled And More Powerful?

How Do I Know When I'm Ready For The Next Step In My Practice?

Additional Tips For Developing Your Practice

Witchcraft Exercise - Quantifying Your Craft

Witchcraft Exercise - Dig Through The Ditches

Witchcraft Exercise - The Book of Lessons

Witchcraft Exercise - Home Brews

Tips on How to Visualize and Construct Basic Wards

Practicing Your Warding Technique

Cleansing Before Warding / Warding A Shared Space

Refreshing / Patching Existing Wards

Non-Appropriative Herbs for Smoke-Cleansing

Smokeless Cleansing / Other Methods

Recommended Reading & Book Suggestions

~GENTLE PROMPTS~

tickling you from the back before actually hugging you

knuckles brushing against each other and person a getting shy

hesitant glances at each other in a crowd

person a helping person b through panic/anxiety attacks

one small kiss before fully devouring the other person

THE SHY PERSON A INITIATING THE FIRST KISS ADJKSF

person a contemplating on whether to send person b a text

HOLDING HANDS UNDER THE TABLE

gentle ear rubs because person b knows person a loves them

knees touching intentionally and person a getting shy

person b complementing person a IN PUBLIC

PLAYING WITH EACH OTHERS HAIR

person a shyly playing with person b's rings while cuddling

small "shh' im here" when someone else is crying

FOREHEAD KISSES FOREHEAD KISSES FOREHEAD KISSES

pressing your foreheads together after a kiss

TRACING PERSON B'S TATTOOS kill me kill me now

holding hands while walking in a friend group

unintentionally caressing each other

SAYING I LOVE YOU BEFORE LEAVING TO WORK?? GIVE ME

acting foolish around each other

random flirty texts or hOrNy texts too

person b trying to cook person a's fav dish

DRUNK DANCING

lazy kisses that dont even count as kisses but you could live in that moment forever because LOVE

person a trying to keep person b still for a picture

MOVING PERSON A BY THEIR WAIST bye

person b winking at person a in public whILE A GETS ALL FLUSTERED

I’m noticing an increase in new fic writers on AO3 who…uh…mayy not know how to format their fics correctly..so here is a quick and VERY important tip

Using a random fic of mine as example..

The left example: ✅✅✅

The right example: ❌❌❌

Idk how many times I’ve read a good fic summary and been so excited to read before clicking on it and being met with an ugly wall of text. When I see a huge text brick with zero full line breaks my eyes blur and I just siiiigh bc either I click out immediately or I grin and bear it…it’s insufferable!

If a new character speaks, you need a line break. If you notice a paragraph is becoming too large, go ahead and make a line break and/or maybe reconfigure the paragraph to flow better. I’m not a pro writer or even a huge fic writer but…please…ty…

“Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”

— Carl Sagan

if you’re white and wanna write a poc character and feel awkward about it i implore you to ignore any twitblr stuff treating it as a massive ethical burden and instead come in more with the same mindset you’d have if you wanted to write about idk firefighters but didn’t know anything about firefighters so you do... research. Like fuck off with the weird kinda creepy calls for spiritual introspection you’re not writing about god damn space aliens you’re writing about humans and if you think you need more perspective of different life experiences just read?