Color-Themed Names

I aspire to write a book that makes people stare at the cover and hold it reverently for a solid ten minutes after finishing it

stories that are a matryoshka of unreliable narrators. you can't trust the person telling you the story. but then you realise that they don't even have much of a choice in the matter; the information they're operating on was told to them by an unreliable narrator. and when you interrogate their story, you realise that the lies go back even further. the tunnel goes deeper. how far are you willing to go to uncover the truth? how far will you actually get before you lose sight of what you came for in the first place?

how to write the second draft

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source: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-second-draft#why-do-you-need-a-second-draft

hello and welcome back to my page! this post was requested some time ago and i finally got around to making it. second drafts are arguably the hardest draft to write, since you are taking your jumbled mess of a first draft and rewriting it to be more cohesive and organized. although picking apart your novel is a painstaking process, it’s a necessary step that will improve your novel and make you a better writer in the process. here are five tips on how to write the second draft!

take a break, then return to your draft with fresh eyes

especially if this is your first novel, only start your second draft after you’ve had adequate time away from it. creating distance between you and personal work can give your mind time to reset and detach from particular ideas. certain story elements may feel necessary but don’t actually fit into the story, or your story may need something, but you’re not sure how to implement it. taking a break can help you view your writing from a previously unseen angle that can bring more refreshing ideas to the table and help you get through your second draft. take some distance from your writing to brainstorm new scenes.

understand your chaos

your first draft got your ideas down and, hopefully, created a loosely structured beginning, middle, and end. however, the first time you go through the whole thing, it will probably feel overwhelming—and it should. go into your first chapter knowing there will be big changes and improvements to be made. you’ll cut some things and add others, but don’t be afraid. if it starts to go off into a direction you’re not happy with, or if you have no idea how to continue forward from what you’ve rewritten, you can always reconfigure. that’s what second drafts are for.

break it up into separate goals

you don’t have to comb through your second draft beginning to end and address everything along the way. setting goals to address each element of your first draft, like working on emotional character arcs first, or solidifying the bare bones of your plot through each chapter can help you divide and conquer each necessary aspect of your story that needs to come together in a cohesive manner. once all these elements have been solidified individually, you can piece them together in a way that makes your second draft feel more manageable.

track your narrative

read through each plot point or chapter and see if the narrative tracks. make notes on anything that stands out to you or doesn’t feel as smooth. are events moving logically or sequentially into the next? are character goals clearly defined? does each new chapter feel connected to the last? it may be a rough version you’re going through, but these elements should be in place in order for you to analyze it accurately. your subplots should feel natural to the central story and characters you’ve created—they should just be added fodder to take up space. ensure there aren’t any redundant scenes or a repeat of information that doesn’t need to be explained again.

don’t proofread until the end

it’s tempting to go back and fix all your errors, but unless you’re in your third stage or fourth stage, this may end up being a waste of time. correcting typos and grammar should be saved for your final draft, as the entire writing process will entail rewriting, restructuring, and reorganizing until the moment you’re ready to publish.

WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE

Did I daydream this, or was there a website for writers with like. A ridiculous quantity of descriptive aid. Like I remember clicking on " inside a cinema " or something like that. Then, BAM. Here's a list of smell and sounds. I can't remember it for the life of me, but if someone else can, help a bitch out <3

Tips for Finishing a First Draft

Credit: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-novel-rough-draft

Set a goal

You want to get the main points of your story down quickly, without getting hung up on word choice and sentence flow. By giving yourself deadlines to complete certain exercises or sections, you become more ambitious with your time and waste less of it lingering on minor details. Commit to completing a certain number of words, or a set number of pages, or writing for a fixed amount of time. A routine will keep your writing consistent so you do not lose momentum and fall behind on your writing. 

Meeting goals can give you the motivation you need to make and complete another one. For example, I set a minimum word count goal for 35,000 words for my WIP because I hadn’t written anything of that length before. I ended up surpassing it by a lot! 

Prewriting

Prewriting is helpful for getting started, and can include performing writing prompts or exercises. For example, freewriting allows a writer to write unencumbered—jotting down ideas fast without a strict form to follow—which is also useful for stimulating creativity when you’re suffering from writer’s block. Prewriting can also be outlining your next chapter, or plot point, etc...whatever you choose to do, it prepares you to write!

Invite all ideas

Let ideas flow free. A rough draft is where your wildest ideas come out. Don’t be shy about content or switching point of views, and don’t hold yourself back from ideas that might be worth exploring. This phase of your writing is for your eyes only, so there’s no need to feel self-conscious about what you put down on paper. The first draft is all about getting it out on the page--save insecurity for later!

Outline

I can’t express how important this is. Even if you’re a pure pantser, you need to have some idea of your major plot points and ending. This is where you start to form the initial structure of your scenes. Laying all the pieces out before you assemble them will give you the clearest picture on how to put together your novel, as well as figuring out which pieces you’re missing and which ones you don’t need.

Don’t edit as you write

This is a bad habit of mine, as I’m a perfectionist, and it becomes a problem, especially when I’m writing my longest project ever. I’ve always focused on making everything right, and it’s hard for me to realize that there is no possible way to do that in a novel.

When you’re writing your story, don’t worry about punctuation, writing complete sentences, or grammar like passive voice or inconsistent tenses—leave the whole editing process behind. As long as you get your ideas down in a way that’s understandable to you, what you write in your first draft is between you and your vision. You can worry about well-written sentences in your second or third drafts.

Start where you want

You want to begin where you’re most excited. Not every story needs to start at the beginning and go step-by-step. If you’re anticipating writing the climax of the story before you have a beginning or end, then write that down first! You don’t want to bog yourself down with story details you’re not ready to establish yet. Writing a novel is a long process, and you want to keep it enjoyable for yourself as long as possible.

Take breaks

The last thing you need is to experience burnout before getting through your first draft. Sometimes walking away from your writing and coming back later with a set of fresh eyes is exactly what your writing process needs. 

Writing every day can be unhealthy or lead to an unhealthy mindset. It can also make you tire of your story. 

Finish it

I know, this seems kind of weird when the post is giving advice on how to finish a first draft. But it actually means  You shouldn’t start the next draft until you finish the one you’re on, and the sooner you get it down, the better. Sticking to your goals and putting in the time will yield workable pages that you can eventually start sculpting into another draft of your novel!

Character Mannerisms in Conversations

ends sentences with 'no?' (As far as I know, I think this is usually seen in non-native English speakers. Let me know if you'd like me to do a post about mannerisms in non-native English speakers, being one myself)

keeps clearing one's throat but doesn't say anything

begins sentences with 'so'

keeps referencing to films no one in the room has watched

quotes poetry in between conversations

speaks very fast without leaving breaks and so breaths heavily once finished

speaks so slow that no one's even listening most of the time

begings with a low volume but gradually increases one's volume. Up until it's almost like shouting.

moving hands while speaking but one's fingers are pointing to a four. Basically imagine someone pointing to a nearby building. Instead of pointing one finger/all the fingers, the person points 4 fingers. (need not be because of any ailment. Or could be)

moving hands while speaking but in a thumb's up sign. Imagine someone talking about wheels so they're moving their hands in circles. But they do the same with a thumb's up sign.

Let me know if you'd like a part 2!

Feel free to send an ask. I'm as lonely as you can imagine so I'll probably reply soon.

who is your favorite male protagonist and why is it Percy Jackson?

3 Tips that Strengthen Middles

While writing the middle of a story usually isn’t as tricky as the beginning, for many authors, the middle can start to sag if they aren’t careful. Previously we went over three problems that come up with middles. Today we are back to add three tips to keep your middle interesting.

1. Vary Your Story

Sometimes a novel feels dull in the middle because your conflicts are not varied enough. In other words, as the reader is going along, he feels like the novel on page 400 reads just like it did on page 100. Yeah, maybe your character faces death at every turn, but that’s all that he faces. We’ve all read stories like that–tales so filled with action that nothing of import seems to be going on.

Very often I find this in survival stories. You see a tale about a teenager who goes down in a plane in the Alaskan wilderness. As he struggles to walk 400 miles south, he must first battle off a wolf. Then he gets to battle a wolverine. Then he battles a bear. Next he fights off a moose. You get the idea. The whole thing becomes rather episodic pretty quickly.

Romances can be tiring in the same way. Having a heroine who agonizes about a man and nothing else for six hundred pages would just be too much. That’s why romances tend to be short.

Essentially, no matter what your genre, too much of a good thing is just too much.

So as a writer, you have to wonder, maybe your reader would like something more in this tale. Perhaps it needs a mystery to be solved, a romance, some internal angst on the part of one of your characters–maybe even a character that we haven’t seen much of yet. Or maybe instead of just having the protagonist battling the antagonists, now it’s time to add a new problem–a conflict between the protagonist and his best friend. In other words, sometimes you need to try some things that you’ve never tried before in your storytelling.

When you look at conflicts, there are several major categories that you will hear writers talk about. These categories include: Person vs Person, in which a protagonist has a conflict with another person; Person vs Society, in which a character is forced to combat a stifling political regime–or perhaps just an odd family or clique; Person vs Nature, in which your protagonist fights against the natural elements; Person vs Self, in which a character must battle his own inner passions or vices; and Person vs God, a story where a man takes on his creator.

As you look for ways to vary your story, one way to do that is to ask yourself, “What kinds of conflicts don’t I have? Should I consider using one from another category?” It doesn’t have to be a huge diversion to add this. Maybe you decide, “I’ll add a Person vs Nature” conflict, and so as your hero is galloping through the dark to meet the woman of his dreams, his horse trips on a root and throws him in a ditch, leaving him bloodied and battered, and he has to limp four miles to his rendezvous, only to find that his sweetheart has already departed.

In short, varying your conflicts can help, but there are other ways to add variation to your story. You might consider the emotional beats that you’re hitting. Do you want to add something different? Maybe a little humor, a little drama, wonder, or some other emotion?

Sometimes just describing something that you’ve never described before can bring a scene some life.

2. Avoid Closure

Another problem that I’ve noticed is that a middle may sag because you as a writer have closed a conflict too early.

It is a natural human tendency for us to want to solve problems and get along. As writers, we sometimes resolve them too quickly. For example, you want your hero and heroine to love each other, and so halfway through the book, you have them kiss and get together. Now, maybe that’s all right. Maybe the book will still work, but it’s probably literary suicide.

If you’ve got some conflicts that have resolved halfway through the book, the fact is that you probably need to go and rip out those resolutions. Leave all wounds festering, all hopes unfulfilled, all demons alive and still roaming the city.

But don’t avoid closure for too long. If your reader suspects that your characters aren’t resolving problems because you as a writer just arbitrarily decided that they wouldn’t, you’ve taken too much time.

3. Avoid Agreement

One other trick that can help perk up a sagging middle is to avoid agreement. It’s not simply that two people are refusing to negotiate a problem; it might be that they see two different problems entirely: Imagine that your character has a longstanding habit of taking his wife out to dinner on Friday night. But his business has taken a severe downturn. Now maybe he imagines that his wife will understand if he doesn’t take her to dinner. After all, she’s a sensible woman. That’s why he married her.

But the wife sees it differently. She might see this as a sign that his love is waning. He’s been growing cold and distant for months, preoccupied with business. He’s spending more time away from home. This little Friday night extravaganza is all that reminds her of her days as a new bride. She might even wonder if he is having an affair.

So as they begin to talk about dinner, the husband might say, “Let’s not go out tonight.” To which his wife replies, “Are you sleeping with your secretary?” Bam! They can legitimately have an argument where neither sees the point that the other is trying to make.

Now, I have to warn you that this is another technique to use sparingly, but as you look at your sagging middle, look at interesting ways to keep your characters out of agreement.

can you believe that the most human trait there is is art? we didn't start making art because it was needed for our survival or it helped us mate or hunt…. we make art for the sake of making it and for you and other people to enjoy it. this is why I love literature and art museums or just looking through my old sketches and stories…. making art is what it means to be human I think.