My Villain Origin Story Is Realizing How Many Words I Have To Write Just To Get To My Favorite Scene

fuck it. be creative even if you never really *make* anything. write out plot synopses of stories and then move on. design OCs you'll never use. make mood boards and concept art and don't do anything with them. life's too short to forget everything that inspired you and creation doesn't have to be "complete" to be worth the time you put into it.

It’s 1 am and I just… stories really were made to save us, huh?

Advice on Writing Banter

1. Don’t prolong the humor

As a reader, you’ve most likely seen this happen before. It happens when an author takes it upon themselves to make absolutely sure you understand that a character said something funny. This breaks the widely accepted First Commandment of Humor: if you have to explain a joke, said joke loses some of its humor. (Unless explaining the joke would make the scene funnier, etc. in which case you should keep that in! There's always more than one exception to a rule.) When this happens, the scene often slows down--way too much--and the humor quickly fades into annoyance for the reader. Yeah, the joke was fun at first, but it’s pretty much fulfilled its maximum humor.

How can you avoid this? As a reader, remember that you never want the author to patronize you. As a writer, just trust your readers. Tell a joke and just let it stand. Trust that the reader will notice. Don’t drag it out longer than necessary: that kills all the pacing and humor of the scene.

2. Diversify the delivery

Everyone has their own way of telling jokes and reacting to jokes told by others. Some people tell jokes with a deadpan, almost serious delivery. Others can barely get through a joke without laughing to the point of tears. Whatever the case may be, no two people will be the same!

Another way to write good banter is to mix up the types of humor present.  For example, if one of your characters responds to everything with a sarcastic quip, don’t make the rest of your characters aggressively caustic towards one another. 

Also, try mixing up what forms of comedy each character uses. Have a character laugh exclusively at bad puns and nothing else. Maybe another character takes themself way too seriously and refuses to find any humor in ridiculous situations. Or maybe a character can’t tell a knock-knock joke to save their life. Plus, a bonus of diversifying the comedy you use in your banter is that it’s a great way to flesh out your characters!

3. Pacing

The best way to create natural dialogue is make sure it sounds natural, and one way to check that is to look at the pacing. If the banter sounds stilted and awkward, no one is going to laugh. As you read it, listen for awkward pauses or lulls in the dialogue that might slow it down. Sometimes, you should ask yourself: do the responses sound realistic? Because let’s be honest: when you’re bantering with someone, you usually don’t have much time to think of very clever and specific comebacks on the spot. (Actually, I usually find that I come up with said comebacks hours later, when it’s way too late to use them.) I choose to only apply this rule to awkward or forced-sounding dialogue, though. As a banter lover, I never limit myself in writing banter! If I don't like how it sounds later, I can always cut it. I encourage you to do the same. If writing banter makes you happy, then write as much as you want and don't let me tell you what to do!

4. Tone

True banter should always be lighthearted or mischievous, but it should never be malicious or one-sided. There’s a thin line between bantering and bickering, in my opinion. Banter is a teasing, fun, and lighthearted argument between people. Bickering is banter but with often malicious undertones, and it may be one-sided. 

For example, Banter would not be Character A pointing out all of Character B’s flaws. Banter would be A “criticizing” B clearly as a joke, and B defending themselves good-naturedly!

How to Use Descriptive Writing

Credit: http://www.glimmertrain.com/bulletins/essays/b113geni.php

Intro

Every story exists somewhere between the writer's imagination and the reader's imagination. So, finding the right balance of description is critical. Good description sketches a clear picture but does not fill in every single detail. It builds and deepens the reality of the story in vibrant ways, but also leaves room for the reader to imagine some of the features and qualities of the world. This work invests the reader in the story and allows them to claim and connect with the story, and even be a partner in creating it!

Know your setting well

Place is essential to any story. It defines the scope of your characters' actions—where they go, what they feel and see and hear and taste and touch, how large an effect they have on the world around them, how many people they interact with, how rich and full their lives are. Make intentional choices about your setting. Urban or rural? Beautiful or ugly? Familiar or unknown? Safe or perilous? Interesting or dull? Spacious or cramped? Bright or dark? Pleasant or off-putting? The setting defines the size and shape of the story.

Be specific

Once you've chosen a setting, be specific about its nature. Your setting should never seem vague or half-imagined. Some writers will draw landscape maps. Some will create a layout for the house in which their characters live. If your story takes place outdoors, be aware of the terrain, the season of the year, the foliage, the weather, the color and texture of the sky. If your story takes place indoors, be aware of the architecture, the kind of furniture, the feel and layout of the room, the amount and quality of light, the smell of the air. This doesn’t mean you have to describe all these elements in detail, but the more aware you are of your setting, the more you’ll be able to capture it and integrate it into the story!

Remember to use all five senses

Many writers have a "default sense" that they use reflexively when writing description. (For most of us, this is vision. A lot of writers will describe what things look like and stop there.) Pay attention to what "default sense" you may use, and try to break out of the habit whenever possible. Smell, in particular, can be incredibly evocative when written well. Think about temperature, ambient sounds, the feel of the ground, and the taste of the air as well.

Emotion and action

Description can echo and enhance the mood of a story. There's a reason so many love scenes take place in the wild crush of pouring rain. Your use of description can heighten, alter, or mirror what your characters are feeling. The same interaction will seem different if it happens in a labyrinthine mansion or a dark alley or a children's playground. If two characters are having a terrible fight, placing them in a tight, claustrophobic room will heighten the tension, while placing them in an open, breezy field will defuse it. A coming storm creates the sensation of foreboding. Heat slows the story down. A cold breeze chills the reader too. Think about how your descriptions can affect the emotion and action of the story.

Characters

It is as important to describe your characters as it is to describe the setting. Physicality makes these people real to the reader. Make sure you know what your characters look like and that your descriptions are consistent.

When describing your characters, reconsider hair and eye color, as well as height and weight--these are still significant, but they can also be repetitive. Think, instead, about more complex descriptors. Consider your characters' gestures, the shape of their facial features, their gait, their dimples, their scars, the way they laugh, the quality of their teeth, their stance, their fashion sense, their odor, their vocal tone, etc.

Think in terms of "telling details": details that let the reader see your characters while also revealing something about their minds. In this way, your descriptions can do double duty: giving the reader a physical picture while also showing an inner, mental trait.

Vary the length of your sentences

If you favor long, winding, complex sentences, remember that too much of this style can overwhelm and exhaust the reader. Take a break and include shorter sentences every so often. If, on the other hand, you prefer brief, choppy, staccato sentences, remember that too much of this sort of prose can seem breathless and frantic. Take a break and include a long, dreamy sentence every now and then to calm the reader down.

Dialogue and description

Description can be particularly useful when writing dialogue. If your characters are conversing for a long time, they can start to seem disembodied. The reader may lose track of who's talking or forget the physical space that holds the characters. It's important to include imagery and description at regular intervals to ground the characters' voices in reality. A paragraph of description can slow down a ping-pong interaction and quiet an intense and heated interaction. It can give the reader a beat to take in some new information. It can add nuance and nonverbal subtlety to the characters, shading and enhancing what they're saying.

Finding a balance

Too much description can bog down a story, but not enough can have the opposite effect, making the characters seem weightless and detached from reality. However, this is something to think about only during the process of revision: you shouldn’t worry about it while actively writing something new. When it comes to description, finding the right balance will take time, space, and the clarity of mind that comes from editing a finished piece, not creating a new one. While you're actively writing, don't worry about whether you're using too much or too little description. Feel free to try things and make mistakes! When in doubt, write more description than you think you'll need. You can always take things out afterward.

shoutout to all the people who write contemporary, romance, mystery, crime, thriller, horror, paranormal, dystopia, nonfiction, and any other genres I’m forgetting! i know you guys don't get as much attention as fantasy or sci-fi in the writing community, but you're just as valuable and talented, and i appreciate all of you!

Hi! Sorry for the spam, but I've seen your blog for like 10 minutes and I already love it. Wishing you a great day, lots of writing inspiration & claim the stars ^^

oh my gosh thank you so much, this ask honestly made my day! wishing the same to you <3

About My Side WIP

Intro

By now, most of you have probably know that that I’ve been planning a new book, and I’m happy to finally introduce it to everyone as my side WIP! It explores a lot of themes and topics that are very close to my heart. I hope to be more open about this WIP, and I’m very excited to share it!

Putting this much info about my WIP online is a huge admission and gesture of trust, but I trust you guys. I hope you’ll continue to prove that my trust is not unfounded.

Basics

Title: Pawn

Main character: Alice Lee

Age group: Middle-Grade/YA

Genre: Fairy-tale retelling of Alice In Wonderland / Alice Through the Looking Glass, fantasy

Elevator pitch: The Chronicles of Narnia meets Legendborn in this Asian Alice retelling

Synopsis:

As children, Alice Lee and her older sister Evie created Meer, an imaginary world where they would finally belong. But as the two sisters grew older, they grew apart--in both emotion and imagination.

Four years after she first abandoned the fantasy land of Meer, Alice’s life forever changes in a horrible accident that leaves her injured and Evie dead. She has no memory of what happened that night, and she fears that there’s something more to the truth. Now, one month after the incident, she still doesn't remember her past.

But her past hasn't forgotten her. When she encounters an old friend from Meer, Alice discovers that the imaginary world of her childhood is very real—and in trouble. The Red Queen and the White Queen who ruled the land all those years ago are suddenly and brutally enforcing their reign. Her old friend is part of the rebellion that fights back against them--and he suspects that Evie’s death was no accident.

Hoping to find answers about her sister’s death and her own scars, Alice soon finds herself involved in a deadly game where the Red Queen and the White Queen control the chess pieces. One wrong move will cost Alice the board and any chance at reclaiming Meer. Will she ever be more than a pawn in a game? Or will she play straight into her enemy’s hands?

Inspiration

I’ve always wanted to write a retelling, but there were so many stories to choose from. In the end, though, there was really only one I could begin with, and that was Alice in Wonderland.

Lewis Carroll's Alice consistently expresses a confusion about her own identity and a stubborn adherence to logic, despite her travels being distinctly illogical. She clings to her old self in a world where she's someone new--someone other. I often write Asian heroines, and it wasn’t too hard for me to make the connection between that and identity of the self. 

How do others define us, how do we break free of those definitions, and how do we define ourselves? Those are some of the big questions in my WIP. It’s set both in the real world and in a fantasy world, so it gives me more room to explore modern issues.

That’s not the only thing I want to do in this book, though. Alice just appeals to me as a stubborn, practical heroine who’s very set in her ways until her circumstances change completely. I found myself asking questions of the original story: What if Alice’s sister had found Wonderland first and introduced it to her? What if Alice rejected it? What if it changed, completely and irrevocably? And what if Alice was then forced to return and face her past?

This is a very personal WIP, due to the topics and questions it incorporates. Honestly, it’s a very indulgent story, but it’s one that I enjoy a lot. I hope to share more about it and my process in the future. Thank you for reading!

Douglas Adams is the best when it comes to describe characters

soft asks to get to know people

what song makes you feel better?

what’s your feel-good movie?

what’s your favorite candle scent?

what flower would you like to be given?

who do you feel most you around?

say three nice things about yourself (three physical and three non-physical).

what color brings you peace?

tag someone (or multiple people) who make you feel good. 

what calms you down?

what’s something you’re excited for?

what’s your ideal date?

how are you?

what’s your comfort food?

favorite feel-good show?

for every emoji you get, tag someone and describe them in one word.

compliment the person who sent you this number.

fairy lights or LED lights?

do you still love stuffed animals?

most important thing in your life?

what do you want most in the world right now?

if you could tell your past self one thing, what would it be?

what would you say to your future self?

favorite piece of clothing?

what’s something you do to de-stress?

what’s the best personal gift someone could give you (playlist, homemade card, etc.)

what movie would you want to live in?

which character would you want to be?

hugs or hand-holding?

morning, afternoon or night?

what reminds you of home (doesn’t have to mean house… just things that remind you of the feeling of home)?