I Agree With All Of The Above. There Is Also A Fantastic App For Ao3 For Android. If You Would Like An

Acing pacing in your writing

I’ve read too many books and watched too many shows where pacing has ruined a good story. So, here are some of my tips for getting pacing right:

1. Don’t take too long to get to the inciting incident

Look, showing the ordinary life of your protagonist might be interesting if there’s something strange about their life, but readers want stuff to happen.

At least with genre fiction, you shouldn’t take too long to get to the action - the event that gets the story going.

If you can do it well and have readers invested from the start, you can start with the inciting incident. However, for most works I would recommend having it in the second chapter.

Your readers want to know what the story is about, not what the character thinks of his English teacher

2. Keep it moving, but don’t rush

Action is important. It drives the story and it’s interesting. You should make sure to put enough action in your work. Things should be happening.

BUT a novel is not a play or a movie or a comic. What makes reading a full-length novel so entertaining is the detail. The in-depth characterisation and description. The emotion and thought processes.

So, keep it moving, but don’t sacrifice the juicy details. Don’t skip from one action or dialogue scene to the next without taking your readers deeper into the intricacies of the story and characters.

It’s a delicate balance that can only truly be found by reading a lot and practicing.

3. Avoid a sagging middle

Your beginning is solid. Your end is exciting. But the middle is a chaotic mess that bores the reader. Trust me, it happens more than you might believe.

Sagging middle syndrome is a thing, and the only way to avoid it is to plan.

Look, I like pantsing, but planning the middle of your novel will help your pacing exponentially.

Make a rough outline of what needs to happen to get your characters to the climax. Add a few lighter/character-driven scenes where there are too many action scenes in the sequence. Remove events which are unnecessary. And make sure that everything makes sense!

This counts for second books in series as well. It should be good on its own, not just as a filler.

4. Don’t fast forward to the end

I’m looking at you, Game of Thrones.

If you’ve built up the story and set up everything for the final big bang, you have to deliver.

Keep the pacing somewhat similar to that of the rest of the story. Your readers have gotten used to it. And if they’re still reading at that point, they probably like that pace. Don’t write a relatively slow book and then have the climax be over in three pages.

I know you want the climax to be exciting. So, yes, make it a little more fast-paced than the middle. But not massively different.

5. Trust your characters

As with every aspect of creative writing, character is most important.

Is your character experiencing the scene quickly and choppily? Or are they slowing down and taking in everything?

If you stick with what your characters are feeling, you will get it right.

Look, exams have fried my brain. So, this isn’t the most well-formulated post I’ve made. But I hope that it can be helpful.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with your own pacing tips. Follow me for similar content.

Such an excellent post! Reposting

the suffering never ends

Wtf! Not okay!

Filling In The Gaps

When we write, sometimes a story comes with all the pieces stuck together for you. Most of the time, it comes piece by piece. Here’s to finding the pieces to go with the ones you already have.

Need a Genre:

I think this will help

List of Genres (play darts with it or something)

Need a Plot:

Adventure Generator (Fantasy)

Plot Idea Generator (can get a little wacky)

Plot Twist Generator (General)

Genre-based Plot Generators 

SO MANY PLOTS

Really random plot generator 

“Put your character in a bad situation” Generator

Need (a) Character(s):

Name Generator (Fantasy)

Name Generator (All Genres, including Surnames)

All the Character Generators (I’m not kidding.)

EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER GENERATOR (You still think I’m kidding)

Another character description generator (General)

Character Backstory/Details/Appearance Generators

Or just look through Pinterest “Character Inspiration” boards. So many good faces on there. I like this board and this one.

Need a Setting:

World Generator (Fantasy)

Fictional Location Generator (General)

City Generator

Fill out your Setting Generators

Need a Scene:

Ask These Guys for a prompt!

Prompty prompt prompts

I Just Need Something!:

First Line Generator (you will spend most of your time laughing)

Prophecy Generator (to make you feel all foreboding and such)

This link has plot and genre and character building helps. 

All the generators!

Title Generator

Just search for writing prompts! Tumblr has SO MANY, and Pinterest has just as many.

Go forth and conquer, friends.

author: sorry I’m jumping on this bandwagon and writing a fic with the same premise as all these other fics

me, has read 500 fics like this one and is prepared to read 500 more: please never apologize for giving the people (me) what they (also me) want

Clexa Pride Week

Here are our days!!

Remember!! June 23-29

Feel free to do some of the days or all of the days!! I just want to flood our feeds here and flood AO3 with Clexa Love!!

(Or Ranya if that’s your thing!)

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sunday: Enemies to Lovers (bonus if there’s Zombies)

Monday: Military AU

Tuesday: Arranged or Accidental Marriage

Wednesday: Popular/Nerd AU

Thursday: Airport AU

Friday: First Pride

Saturday: Free Day

I’ll share the posts I can find. Or you can send them to me!! I hope we all have some fun with this 😁😁

Surnames are just as important as given names. So, I compiled a list of the websites I use to find my surnames.

English Surnames

Dutch Surnames

Spanish Surnames

Scottish Surnames

German Surnames

Italian Surnames

Irish Surnames

French Surnames

Scandinavian Surnames

Welsh Surnames

Jewish Surnames

Surnames By Ethnicity

Most Common Surnames in the USA

Most Common Surnames in Great Britan

Most Common Surnames in Asia

Beautiful

A song from Lexa to Clarke!

I haven’t slept at night, I should have stayed to fight, Stayed with you. I know you’re not the enemy You seen the good that’s left in me I should have stayed with you.   You said we deserve better than this, I guess we do. But how can the leader of the ground, Love the leader of the sky crew.   May We Meet Again, When I can trust my heart and not my brain, Be safe and rescue your friends, Then maybe we can meet again.   So if you go to the Capitol, Maybe we can forget it all, And you’ll stay with me. We won’t have to be warriors, We can let down our barriors,   And you can stay with me.   You said we deserve better than this I guess we do, But how can the leader of the ground Love the leader of the sky crew.   May We Meet Again, When I can trust my heart and not my brain, Be safe and rescue your friends, And may we meet again. May we meet again.

The “hay is for horses” call back is from a cockney poem based on the alphabet but not the traditional “A is for Apple”. My dad, who was from London, England used to recite it to me whenever I said “hey” or “eh” (yes, I am Canadian).

My memory recalls the poem as follows:

Hay is for horses (A)

Beef or mutton

Seaforth Islanders (C)

Differential

Heave a brick (E)

Effervescent (F)

… I think G for a Q (Guinea for a ? )

I will do a search later to find the rest.