File this under “super obvious yet I always seem to forget it.”

I don’t write romance (I totally respect people who do, though!) but this is also great writing advice in general! What is preventing the protagonist from achieving their goal?

Why can’t these two people be together now?

Why can’t the mystery be solved now?

Why can’t they overthrow the evil overlord now?

If you don’t have a solid answer for these questions, that’s a good indicator that the plot could use some more work.

Also test your answer a little bit. If it’s as thin as they’re just refusing to sit down and have a simple conversation, you might want to re-think how things are going.

As a beta reader/editor, I tend to ask this question a lot: “Why are they doing it this way when there’s a much easier path available?” That’s not to say that they should take the easier path, because that would usually be boring. Instead, the point is that the question needs an answer–either eliminate the easier path or give them a very clear reason for not taking it. (And if I’m asking the question, that reason isn’t as clear as you think it might be.)

I find it very difficult to root for characters who have a sensible option available and just don’t take it. If the only reason is “Because there wouldn’t be a story otherwise,” you haven’t actually found the story yet.

And this is why the Big Misunderstanding as a primary plot device is almost universally disliked.

And the reason can be illogical! It can be purely subjective to the characters with a way out that’s obvious to the audience! It just has to fit the story.

I’ve seen incredible authors pull off “this could be solved right now if the characters would just have a conversation” because the characters were blatantly not ready to have that conversation. They had too many misconceptions and too much history to overcome before resolving anything; real problems based in lifetimes of experience are not solved overnight.

It’s the difference between “they won’t take the easier path” and “they can’t take the easier path even though they want to.”

Ive said this before but swear the biggest skill to learn as an adult is how to resist high-pressure sales tactics. You do NOT have to answer questions with anything other than "Sorry I'm not interested." No matter how nice they are or no matter how many follow up questions they ask or even how agitated they get when you stand your ground. Just keep saying I'm not interested. Don't answer their questions. Don't give them an opening to try to push back on your reasons. Be a fucking brick wall of I'm not interested.

When we bought our car, I told Sean to let me handle it. I walked in and said "We have X for a down payment and cannot pay more than Y in monthly payments." My Y number had some leeway, but I didn't mention that.

First thing the sales guy did after I laid down the rules was turn to Sean and go, "What's your number?" And Sean said. "Oh, no, you negotiate with Gayle."

So, strike one for the sales guy. Could not divide and conquer us by implying THE MAN would not surprised at what I laid down.

Sales guy then had to confer with his manager and left us at his desk for several minutes. I have a vague recollection (this was 16 years ago) of Sean and I amusing ourselves doing bits about the other people there to look at cars. I am sure we did not give off the stressed or nervous energy they were hoping for.

Guy comes back. His first offer is fifty dollars a month more than I told him we could pay. I looked at him and said "I gave you our upper limit."

"Well, but what's another 50 bucks a month?"

"Something I can't afford."

He didn't know what to do with my open and unashamed admittal that I had a budget because my money was finite.

He went back to talk to the manager again.

It took two more rounds of "I told you what I can afford" before he finally came back 20 bucks under what I'd stated as my max.

The trick to resisting high-stress sales tactics is doing the math at home, knowing exactly what you can afford, and then walking into the room and stating that number minus 15%. Then refusing to budge from that number. Never, ever, meet then where they want. Always meet them where you want. Because at the end of the day, you can walk away and go somewhere else and say "I told the people at Z what my terms were, and they refused to work with me. Here are my terms. Meet them, and you make a sale today."

Writing tips for long fics that helped me that no one asked for.

1.) Don't actually delete content from your WIP unless it is minor editing - instead cut it and put it in a secondary document. If you're omitting paragraphs of content, dialog, a whole scene you might find a better place for it later and having it readily available can really save time. Sometimes your idea was fantastic, but it just wasn't in the right spot.

2.) Stuck with wording the action? Just write the dialog then revisit it later.

3.) Stuck on the whole scene? Skip it and write the next one.

4.) Write on literally any other color than a white background. It just works. (I use black)

5.) If you have a beta, while they are beta-ing have them read your fic out loud. Yes, I know a lot of betas/writers do not have the luxury of face-timing or have the opportunity to do this due to time constraints etc but reading your fic out loud can catch some very awkward phrasing that otherwise might be missed. If you don't have a beta, you read it out loud to yourself. Throw some passion into your dialog, you might find a better way to word it if it sounds stuffy or weird.

6.) The moment you have an idea, write it down. If you don't have paper or a pen, EMAIL it to yourself or put it in a draft etc etc. I have sent myself dozens of ideas while laying down before sleep that I 10/10 forgot the next morning but had emailed them to myself and got to implement them.

7.) Remember - hits/likes/kudos/comments are not reflective of the quality of your fic or your ability to write. Most people just don't comment - even if they say they do, they don't, even if they preach all day about commenting, they don't, even if they are a very popular blog that passionately reminds people to comment - they don't comment (I know this personally). Even if your fic brought tears to their eyes and it haunted them for weeks and they printed it out and sent it to their friends they just don't comment. You just have to accept it. That being said - comment on the fic you're reading now, just do it, if you're 'shy' and that's why you don't comment the more you comment the better you'll get at it. Just do it.

8.) Remove unrealistic daily word count goals from your routine. I've seen people stress 1500 - 2000 words a day and if they don't reach that they feel like a failure and they get discouraged. This is ridiculous. Write when you can, but remove absurd goals. My average is 500 words a day in combination with a 40 hour a week job and I have written over 200k words from 2022-2023.

9.) There are dozens of ways to do an outline from precise analytical deconstruction that goes scene by scene to the minimalist bullet point list - it doesn't matter which one you use just have some sort of direction. A partial outline is better than no outline.

10.) Write for yourself, not for others. Write the fic you know no one is going to read. Write the fic that sounds ridiculous. You will be so happy you put it out in the world and there will be people who will be glad it exists.

Hey if you have a character and they feel kind of empty as far as motivation, personality and backstory goes, I have a very serious question for you that might help:

When you imagine their childhood, are there parents there or are they just vague people-shaped blobs?

If your character doesn't have a defined relationship with their parents (positive or negative) then that might be contributing to why you have trouble finishing their personality. How we are raised dictates a lot of our values, quirks and trauma. Was their mother overprotective, leading to them second-guessing themselves and afraid of the outside world? Were they close with their father and now their only dream is to finish the mission he started? Did their parents fight all the time and now they hate confrontation?

Even if your character’s parents are dead, that isn't just a sad thing that happened to them, it's a building block you need to actually use. Somebody raised this character in a certain way and even if nobody raised them, they're going to show that through their personality.

And if you want to take it a step further, give your character siblings and make that affect their personality. Are they the responsible oldest? The oldest with the high expectations? The bossy oldest? The forgotten middle child? The middle child who'd do anything to stand out? The twin who can't bear to be away from their sibling? The definitely oldest twin- and yes the distinction matters? The lonely only child? The mature for their age only child? The sheltered only child? The bullied youngest? The baby? The golden child? The black sheep? The only boy or girl in their family?

If you have trouble making a character’s personality it may be because you haven't defined the people around them. We don't just make personalities for ourselves in a vacuum. Our behaviors are molded by those we love.

One piece of advice I have is to have your house cleaning routine be on the same day every week and set yourself an expectation of doing the bare minimum plus one extra thing. That way the extra things get done occasionally as necessary without all piling up until you have to spend an entire day cleaning the baseboards and scrubbing the oven

This system is great because it REMOVES the sense of growing doom as all the non-essential cleaning tasks pile up for weeks on end like a mountain of time and energy waiting to collapse on you

and it ADDS an element of Chance and Mystery to the weekly clean. Which part of my house will be transformed and restored this week? Who's to say! Let's find out! Hee hee and next week we spin the wheel again!

HOW TO WRITE 20 PAGES (from one girl w/mental illness 2 the rest of u, but please keep in mind all of this is just personal Stuff That Worked for me n u might be different):

Absolutely beautiful advice, some of which I follow and some of which I need to. Thank you for all of this!

One thing I’ve learned about writing is ”give everything a face”. It’s no good to write passively that the nobility fled the city or that the toxic marshes were poisoning the animals beyond any ability to function. Make a protagonist see how a desperate woman in torn silks climbs onto a carriage and speeds off, or a two-headed deer wanders right into the camp and into the fire. Don’t just have an ambiguous flock of all-controlling oligarchy, name one or two representatives of it, and illustrate just how vile and greedy they are as people.

it’s bad to have characters who serve no purpose in the story, but giving something a face is a perfectly valid purpose.

This is the real heart of “show don’t tell”

My film teacher always says “write visually” and people are so confused what he means. I take it as “don’t explain the events/theme/emotion, write something that exemplifies the events/theme/emotion” ex) I am angry vs I throw the beautiful pot my grandmother made for me on the ground, and it works for me!

Alright, if you have two siblings or fewer and you're writing a character who comes from a large family, I have a Tip. That may or may not be necessary I do not know.

You're dealing with a large group of likely minor characters, you're probably going to shorthand them into a sibling clump.

The sibling clump is a writing trick to keep you sane. It is not how the Character would see the siblings. Every relationship is individual here.

In my experience, once you reach 5+ siblings, each kid will have close individual relationships (either positive or negative) with 2-3 siblings closest to them in age, but whenever you put all the siblings together, they move in and out of various Sibling Clumps based on circumstances.

So you can get away with writing the siblings in groups as long as you switch up the groups from one scene to the next. You might get (for example) Boys vs Girls, or Older vs Younger, or Those Who Will Surely Die If They Can't Play Game A vs Those Who Will Surely Die If They Can't Play Game B. If this initial difference of opinion doesn't devolve into warfare, you'll end up with 2-3 groups doing their separate things near one another. (Though there's a high likelihood of one group deciding to declare war on another anyway, just for fun. Keep in mind that ANY of the aforementioned groups is equally likely to attack without provocation - or to sneakily provoke a "totally unprovoked" attack in order to claim the moral high ground or gain tattling leverage.)

Then there are the inevitable gang-ups, such as Annoying Middle Sibling vs Everyone Else, Eldest Sibling with Unfair Babysitting Authority vs Everyone Else, or Youngest Sibling Who's Unfairly Pampered vs Everyone Else. And of course we mustn't forget Outsider Who Dares to Insult the Family vs. the United Front of All Siblings.

You know, I love this reply dearly. It added a ton of value of what was frankly, a difficult and confusing post to write.

I do think it stole the term Sibling Clump. How dare it be redefined into something actually nuanced and useful?

For people with anxiety about filing taxes, here’s what things that happen when you make a mistake on your tax return:

- it gets corrected

- you get a letter in the mail either asking for some additional information or a letter showing the adjustment

- you pay the amount (there’s options for payment plans too!) or get a refund

Things that do not happen

- you’re “in trouble”

- you are charged with fraud

- you go to jail

I know that most people are probably just joking/exaggerating when they say a mistake on their return means they get thrown in jail but when I worked with the public I always would encounter people who believed that would happen and they would be panicking about it. So I like to put this out there every year because if I can even prevent one person from feeling that way, it’s worth it

Annual reblog of this important information.  

The thingy above where you sign your tax form says that you’ve filled it out to the best of your ability.  “Sir, I am a dumbass” is 100% a valid defense

Not only that, but the IRS makes mistakes too, and if you catch those it can get resolved. I got a bill of "you underpaid by $4700 last year". I looked at what they said I did wrong, looked at what my tax bill was. And then I sent them a one page letter saying "hey, so here is what you said, here is what I said, and here is the documentation to support that" and then sent it and the IRS agreed.

Also, scammers use this fear of the IRS to scam people! If you get email about the IRS, DO NOT RESPOND to the mail or click on links in it. It's almost always a scam. If it worries you, you can call the IRS and ask. Their legit website is irs.gov and can connect you to help and info.

If you get physical mail from the IRS, that is more likely to be real, but again, you can always reach out to a human via their website if you're not sure.

Something to ponder

To whom it may concern.

I cannot stress this enough, write it poorly. Write the shittiest draft you possibly can, stick 'ah fuck something happens here and now they're fighting' to get over

Write the worst fucking version you possibly can and stick it in a folder and forget it for a month or two before you look at it again. You know what you have now?

A first draft. And with enough time to think some new thoughts about it, you'll soon end up with a better, second draft! And eventually, you'll end up with something you'd be perfectly okay with letting other people read!

You'll never believe this process works no matter how many times you do it, but it totally does. You just have to drag your brain kicking and screaming to that blank page and get the bones down first.

Write the shit out of that shit.

From the book Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD:

Reblog and say what project you currently have spread on your dinner table in the tags

adults of tumblr how on earth do you decide on what mattress you want to order

Go to the store.

Go to the store and lie on it for five minutes.

I know online is cheaper, but go to the store. Online delivery has a send back guarantee, but do you really know yourself capable of and willing to dismantle your bedroom because it didn't work out? No? GO TO THE STORE.

Go to the store and try it out and compare prices and nine out of ten times, they will match the online prices for you, because you're THERE and they can't afford to let you walk out empty handed.

Try it out, figure out the right hardness for you. Make sure you're comfortable.

A good mattress will last you 20-30 years depending on how often you move and how well you commit to taking care of it: vacuum it regularly and flip as per instructions, usually once every six months.

A bad mattress costs about the same as a good mattress, up front, except for the fact it will fuck you up for years and you might end up with chronic pain because of it.

Go to the store. Try it out.

I got a 46% discount and 18 interest free installment payment on mine, just cause I was physically there.

Figure out your budget. Go to the store. Ask to try it out. Make sure it feels good.

You deserve a good mattress and you deserve the money you spend to be worthwhile.

You've got this.

Also a lot of those trendy online-only delivery mattresses are not quality controlled, multiple people have discovered their mattress was stuffed with fiber glass only after it ripped and spewed sharp fibers over literally all of their belongings

Something my family says a lot: invest in a good mattress and a good pair of shoes. You're always in one or the other.

Modern fandom went awry when people stopped learning how to avoid content that upsets them and instead starting actively seeking it out.

I mean this in the kindest, most loving way possible, but babes you'll be so much happy when you stop focusing on what other people are doing and instead focus on what you like.

You'll never be able to stop people from liking what you hate, and the best way you'll find any peace of mind is properly utilizing blocking, blacklisting, and muting tools. Take it from someone who used to run a shipping discourse blog, fandom is supposed to be what you enjoy, stop focusing on things that upset you.

wisdom. block and move on. take a breath. your life is already better.

Y’all in the American SW and west Mexico better check the national hurricane center and your weather for this weekend and next week.

Hurricane Hilary is about to make landfall and that whole desert area is supposed to get a years worth of rain or more. Death Valley is supposed to get twice the annual rainfall. Severe winds, massive flooding, and landslides are all strong possibilities.

This is gonna get ugly. Please spread the word. This is a majorly anomalous event and people may be unaware of the threat headed their way.

Flash floods are definitely gonna kill people, so here’s your regularly scheduled PSA:

Desert soil does not absorb a significant amount of water. It reaches maximum saturation very very quickly, and all the rest of the water rushes downhill. Even if you can’t tell that the ground is not perfectly flat, the water can. And it will move. Quickly. No, faster than that. Nope, still faster. If you try to cross moving floodwater, you will get swept downstream and probably die.

Do not try to wade in/cross flood water that is any deeper than the thickness of the sole of an average athletic shoe, no I am not kidding, the water will get deeper literally while you’re standing in it.

This goes for cars, too. I’ve seen entire vehicles getting swept downstream in flash floods because the driver thought they could cross the “puddle” and Found Out.

Stay safe, y’all.

Tips for Reading with ADHD

(or without ADHD, if they help regardless)

Physical print:

Digital media:

Both:

Anybody else got that Evergiven sized writers block

“Where’s the next chapter?!” Well buddy you’re never gonna guess

What’s the comic sans trick?

#i feel like someone just asked me to eat dirt for my health

wingdings' true purpose as a font

Wingdings holy shit some of y'all are on a whole different level of galaxy wizard brain batshittery and I am in awe.