Of Elves And Of Men

✨WIN AN ANIMATED CHARACTER DRAWING!! ✨ 

Hey guys, decided to do a follower giveaway to welcome the new year! Wanted to say a HUGE thank you to all of you for sticking with me and my various fandom and OC obsessions. I wish I could draw stuff for every single one of you! 

Giveaway Rules:

Reblog this to participate. Multiple reblogs count, but try not to spam!

Must be following me (new follows welcome!)

Ends January 1st. Winner must respond within 2 days!

The animation will be relatively simple, like the above examples—no complex fight scenes or run cycles etc.

Drop me a message if you have any questions! Thanks again, and good luck!

"What, you still don't know?

That boy has rank and power second only to the queen"

See, there’s magic in a bard’s song…

nanowrimo!!

I can’t promise that I’ll finish Nano, but I’ll at least start, and that’s what matters.

Anyway, I’m doing nano!! I’m @ diwrite if you’d like to add me as a writing buddy! :D

Here’s my project is dumbasses in a sedan (working title), a new adult mystery w a mlm romance ! Below is a brief description:

Five days and 2,500 miles after his father’s disappearance, Cameron’s car breaks down. He’d been following a trail of clues and hasty assumptions that led him right to Bluehorn City, a crumbling ghost town in northwestern Arizona. But now he’s out of money, out of gas, and out of ideas, and the more he uncovers about his dad, the less sure he is of who the man was. Now, Cameron has to figure out what’s so special about Bluehorn. Maybe special isn’t quite the word for it; the town’s sitting on a secret, and at the center of it all is Andy, an auto mechanic with a chunk missing from his memory. Andy offers Cameron a deal: Cameron helps Andy solve his own mystery, and Andy fixes Cameron’s car for free. What else is there to do, with no car and no idea where to go next? Cameron accepts. Little do either of them know just what they’ll uncover.

as always, the plot/genre/everything is subject to change because I’m ~indecisive~, but I’m pretty happy with this so far !!! 

I’ve said it a bajillion times and I’ll say it a bajillion more: motive. 

It fixes 99% of writing problems. 

Scene is boring? Give the characters a motive. Character doesn’t feel real? Find their driving motives behind their worldview and actions. Tension missing? Find a motive and prevent the anyone from getting what they want. 

Dig into those passions, however big or small. Prevent characters from reaching it, make it glaringly, blindingly obvious what they, in their deepest parts of their soul, crave. 

Motive motive motive. 

Psychology for writers: first impressions matter

I was thinking about plotting, and about telling a story chronologically or not.

It reminded me of first impressions and the primacy effect. Solomon Asch studied this in the 1940s I think. The primacy effect shows us that we appoint more weight to information that we learn first than to information we learn later.

He studied this by giving two groups of people a list of personality traits. For example, group one is introduced to a woman, “This is Anna. She is beautiful, funny, spiteful and mean.” Group two, however, hears this: “This is Anna. She is mean, spiteful, funny and beautiful.”

The second list is of course the reverse of the first list. You would think that both people form the same impression of Anna, because they are given the same adjectives. But no. Group one had a more positive impression of Anna and were more prepared to forgive her for her meanness and spitefulness than group two.

This is how you can use the primacy effect for your characters:

Introduce your main character by showing her doing something good first.

If you plan to redeem a villain in the end and make your readers feel positive towards him, show him having some small positive traits first, for example petting his kitten.

If you want your readers to go, “I knew this character was bad even though everyone trusted him, I just had this feeling he’s up to no good!”, show him doing something bad first, like kicking the kitten, and then some good acts. (”I never forgave him for kicking that helpless kitten!”)

Flashbacks, flash forwards and other ways to tell your story non-chronologically can influence the impression your readers have of your characters compared to a linear, chronological story.

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing advice here. New topics to write advice about are also always welcome.

Tag list below, a few people I like and admire and of course, you can be too. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.

Keep reading

Sleepy Noe pt 2

people need to understand that some people just don’t like talking it has nothing to do with u so don’t take it personally like some people just aren’t talkers and they’ll probably never text u first or initiate a conversation and it’s not because they don’t like u it’s just that they don’t think to say anything bc they’re comfortable with not saying anything

NANI