“Without Goals And Plans To Reach Them, You Are Like A Ship That Has Set Sail With No Destination.”

Writing Tip #190

Your characters should always have an agenda in every scene. Their agenda can range from something simple like wanting to get to work on time to something larger like wanting to save their mother from the underworld. Make sure you know what each character’s agenda is in every scene. Set two characters agenda’s in opposition to prompt action, move the plot forward, and set up some great opportunities for dialogue.

“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.”

— Dalai Lama 

“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

Writing Masterpost

Character Help

MBTI Personality Test

MBTI Personality Descriptions

123 Character Flaws

Character Trait Cheat Sheet

List of Personality Traits

Character Virtues And Vices

Underused Personalities

7 Rules For Picking Names

Character Names

Character Name Resources

Surnames Masterpost

Write Real People Generator

Types of Voice

55 Words to Describe Someone’s Voice

Showing Character Emotion

Character Motivation

Writing Characters Of Colour

More On Writing Characters Of Colour

Describing A Character’s Skin Colour

All Characters Talk The Same

Character Description

100 Character Development Questions

Character Development Questionnaire

30 Day Character Development Meme

Character Development Check List

Character Development Through Hobbies

List Of Character Secrets - Part 1 - Part 2

Mysterious Characters

Flat Characters

European Characters

Creating Believable Characters

Writing A Character Who Has Lost Someone Important

Writing A Drunk Character

Writing Manipulative Characters

Writing Vampires

Writing Witty Characters

Writing Natural Born Leaders

Writing Rebellious Characters

Writing Hitmen

Writing Indifferent Distance Characters

Writing Bitchy Characters

Writing Popular Characters

Writing Rich Characters

Writing Child Characters

Writing Villains

Villain Archetypes

Writing Stalkers

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes

Writing Homosexuals as a Heterosexual

Writing Males as a Female

Writing Convincing Male Characters

Writing Characters Of The Opposite Sex

Revealing A Characters Gender

The Roles Of Characters

Creating Fictional Characters From Scratch

Creating A Strong, Weak Character

Writing Characters Using Conflict And Backstory

Writing A Character Based On Yourself

Switching Up A ‘Too-Perfect’ Character

Help I Have A Mary-Sue!

Dialogue

Dialogue Tips

Realistic Dialogue

Flirty Dialogue

On Dialogue

General Help

Alternatives To Said

Avoid Saying ‘Very…’

100 Ways To Say Good

Avoiding Unfortunate Implications

Begin A Novel

Finishing Your Novel

Creating Conflict

Show Not Tell

Words For Emotions Based On Severity

Getting Out Of The Comfort Zone

A Guide To Writing Sci-Fi

Naming The Story

The Right Point Of View

Essential Story Ingredients

Writing Fantasy Masterpost

Five Rules For Thrillers

Pacing Action Scenes

Writing Races

Using Gender Neutral Pronouns

Dos and Don’t of Writing

General Writing Tips

How To Avoid Tense Change

Seven Steps To A Perfect Story

Plotting

Outlining Your Novel

Creating A Compelling Plot

The Snowflake Method

Beginning and End, But No Middle!

Prompts and Ideas

Prompt Generator Lists

Creative Writing Prompts

Story Starting Sentences

Story Spinner

Story Kitchen

Writing Prompt Generator

Quick Story Generator

Dramatic Scenes

Plot Bank

Masterpost of Writing Execrises

Writers Block?

Visual and word prompts on pinerest boards 

Research

Survival Skills Masterpost

Mental Illness

Limits Of The Human Body

Stages of Decomposition

Body Language Cheat Sheet

Importance Of Body Language

Non Verbal Communication

Tips on Drug Addiction

Depression

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Anxiety

Schizophrenia

Borderline Personality Disorder

Degrees of Emotion

List Of Phobias - Part 1 (A - L) - Part 2 (M -  Z)

Psychology In Writing

Psychology Of Colour

Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Street Gang Dynamics

How To Pick A Lock

Death Scenes

Realistic Death Scenes

Fighting and Self Defence

Fighting Scenes

Problems With Fighting Scenes

Every Type of Fight Scene

How To Fight Write Blog

Fantasy Battle Scenes

Body Language Of Flirting

Flirting 101

Kissing

Sex Scenes

Friends With Benifits Relationships

Ballet Terms

Torture Guide (Trigger Warning)

Sibling Abuse (Trigger Warning)

Dream Sequences

Kleptomania

Psychiatric Hospital

Understanding issues, -isms and privilege

Guide to writing smut

Post-Apocalyptic Cliches To Avoid

Revision

General Revision Tips

Cliché Finder

Reading What You’ve Wrote So Far

Synonyms For Common Words

Urban Legends On Grammar

Common Grammar Mistakes

Revising A Novel 

Setting

Average Weather Settings

Apocalypses

World Building 101

Bringing Settings To Life

Creating A Believable World

Mapping A Fictional World

Mapping Your World

Religion in Setting

5 Editing Tips

Sounds to listen to whilst writing

Coffitivity

August Ambience

Rainy Mood

Forest Mood

SimplyNoise

Soundrown

iSerenity

Nature Sound Player

myNoise

Tools

Tip Of Your Tounge

Write Or Die

Online Brainstorm

Family Tree Maker

Stay Focused

Writeometer App

Hemingway App

Researching for WIPs : A Collection

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

–

Historical Fiction

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : High Middle Ages & Renaissance

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1600s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1700s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1800s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1900-1939

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1940-1969

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1970-1999

Resources For Writing Royalty

Procedural/Scientific

Resources For Crime/Mystery/Thriller Writers

Resources For Writing Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Stories

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

Resources For Writing The Mafia

Resources For Writing Injuries

By Genre

Resources For Fantasy/Mythology Writers

Resources For Writing Science Fiction

Resources For Romance Writers

Other

Resources For Plot Development

Resources For Describing Physical Things

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Creating Characters

Resources For Worldbuilding

Resources For Describing Emotion

–

Masterlist | WIP Blog

If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee, or pledging your support on Patreon, where I offer early access and exclusive benefits for only $5/month.

Shoutout to my $15+ patron, Douglas S.!

“Knowing yourself is life’s eternal homework.”

— Felicia Day

Writing Theory: Controlling the Pace

Pacing is basically the speed of which the action in your story unfolds. Pacing keeps the reader hooked, helps to regulate the flow of the story and sets the tone of the entire book. So how can we write it?

Genre & Tone

Really in any novel the reader has an expectation that the book will be fast paced or slow. Readers will go into an action novel, expecting it to be fast paced. Readers will pick up a romance novel and expect it to follow a steadying climb of pace as the story goes on.

Pace is a good indicator of how the story is going to feel. If you want your readers to feel as if they are in a calm environment, you don't place the events immediately one after the other. If you want your readers to feel some adrenaline, you keep the curveball coming.

How to utilise Pacing successfully

1. Give your readers time to recover

When readers are reading a fast-paced novel, they need a breather and so do you and your characters. By peppering in a few moments between peaks of fast pace, you are allowing your readers to swallow down what they've just read and allows you to explore it further. Consider this like the bottle of water after a run. You need it or you'll collapse.

2. Track Events Carefully

When planning your book's outline or at least having a vague idea of it, you have a fair idea when things are going to happen. Usually books have an arc where pace gets faster and faster until you get to the climax where it generally slows down. If you're writing a larger book, you have to space out your pacing properly or else your reader will fall into a valley of boredom or find the book a bumpy ride. The climax should have the fastest pace - even if you start off at a high pace. Your story always should peak at the climax.

3. Localising Pace

If you want to put your reader into a certain state of mind throughout a chapter or even a paragraph, pay close attention to your sentence bulk. Long flowy sentences but the reader at ease, slowing the pace for them. Short, jabby sentences speed things up. An argument or a scene with action should be quick. A stroll through a meadow on a lazy summer's noon should be slow.

4. Information is Key

When writing pace in your overall novel, the reader should be given more information as you go through the story. You begin any story estentially with the who, what, where of everything. But peppering in all the whys, you broaden the story and keep the reader feeling more able to keep up with everything. For example, in any murder mystery your reader is given the body. As the story goes on, your reader should be given more and more information such as the weapon, the where until you get to the climax.

5. Off/On Stage

All events of the story do not need to be shown on stage. When you want to slow things down, allow things to happen away from the readers view. If you show event after event at your readers, everything is at a faster pace.

“You will fall in love with your friends. Deep, passionate love. You will create a second family with them, a kind of tribe that makes you feel less vulnerable. Sometimes our families can’t love us all the time. Sometimes we’re born into families who don’t know how to love us properly. They do as much as they can but the rest is up to our friends. They can love you all the time, without judgement. At least the good ones can.”

— Ryan O'Connell