WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE

ID: A stick figure labeled “published books” kicks a stick figure labeled “my opinion of my book” down a set of stairs

Bitches rant over cliffhangers in the books they read, and then turn around and cackle with Evil Writer Glee ™ every single time they put one in their own WIP

It's me, I'm bitches

one of my very favorite obscure story tropes is when there’s an episode/plotline/tabletop campaign session where the conceit is ‘each member of the gang gets trapped in a specially tailored dream/nightmare/illusory mindscape and has to break out’

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”

-George Eliot, letter to Maria Lewis, Oct. 1, 1841

I had a writing professor who told us how he was sitting at a window seat in a coffee shop when somebody fell from the roof to the sidewalk. He was horrified, yet nobody else in the shop even looked up from their coffee. Some of us were appalled right away and others jumped to questioning the validity of the story. We never got a straight answer from him on if he was telling the truth but he had us discuss the entire class time whether it matters if people looked up or not. What story is told either way and why are we focusing on those in the coffee shop rather than the man who fell from the roof? How many stories can we tell from a singular event that may not have ever happened and what’s the goal in telling each one? Does there ever have to be a point in telling a story?

That one class reshaped how I think about reading and writing, and I’ll never forget it

{Juansen Dizon, I Am The Architect of My Own Destruction page 24/ Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 6: 1955-1966/ Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden/ Anaïs Nin, from The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 5: 1947-1955/ Haruki Murakami: Norwegian Wood, page 276/ Michael Ondaatje/ Catherynne M. Valente, The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden/ D.H. Lawrence, from The Complete Works; The Plumbed Serpent/ Jean-Paul Sartre, from No Exit/ Alice Notley, from In The Pines: Poems; "In The Pines,"}

naming your characters - writing tips

name them after someone important

give them a name from their time

choose a name with a meaning that matches their personality

a name that foreshadows their future

name a character after someone you love

give them an unremarkable first name and call them by their last name

don't name two characters the same name, even with most reason—it gets confusing

avoid names that are too similar—"Anne" and "Anna", for example

choose names the audience will remember

research the meaning beforehand

choose a plant name

choose a colour name

invent a name by putting vowels and letters together

pick either a very unconventional name or very plain name

generally don't make too many characters or it could be confusing for the reader

choose a name associated with the character's personality

name them after a celebrity (with meaning)

name them after yourself!

pick a name you would want yourself to be named

go nameless until you find the right one—or keep switching when you feel you do

^^ try out many names

think of names from that genre

Today in niche genres of joke that I can never get enough of and will probably still be secretly thinking about four years later

safe and sound stans reblog this so i know who loves feeling like a calm, ethereal forest nymph

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!