i'll stop wearing black when they make a darker colour

what’s the point of making an oc if they’re not gonna be a vessel that you put a piece of your soul into?

when the objectively bad person has traumatic and honestly reasonable reasons for why theyre like that but it doesnt excuse their actions and only serves to make them more tragic as a character

Writing advice from my uni teachers:

This is legit good writing advice, especially the first bullet point! In playwriting class we did a bit where every bit of dialogue had to be an accusatory question and it was glorious.

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.

This is good advice unless - I feel it's also important to mention - you are a person for whom shitty first drafts don't work. I know this is a thing because I am one of those people. Different brains are different. Usually my shitty first drafts end up being shitty second and third drafts too.

So if this isn't working for you, maybe you can do what I do. (And I'm sure there are many people this also WON'T work for, different brains etc.) I have some formal art training, and part of learning to Art is learning to emphasize some objects in a scene and downplay others. Simplistically, the center of interest (the thing the painting or drawing is about) gets comparatively more detail, while the background has less detail so that it recedes:

I tend to think of writing this way too.

So what I do is this:

DRAW the center of interest.

SKETCH the background.

In this case, the center of interest is whatever is most fun or interesting or pivotal to you in the scene - the iddy bit where they cuddle, the Feelings conversation, the moment when X saves Y's life, or maybe just a really intense image that you have of the two of them in golden sunlight under an oak tree. The part that makes you want to write this, or the part that you know has to happen, or like ... whatever feels important to you when you daydream about the story.

Go to town on that ... and completely half-ass how they get there.

It might just be a single line like "they got to the cabin somehow" and then a lavish description of taking each other's clothes off. Or a couple of quarter-assed paragraphs summarizing the events leading up to the Feelings conversation in just enough detail that you can actually write it. Or it might even be [they get to the cabin] in brackets that you will fill in with actual words later.

It doesn't always work. But it often does work for me because a lot of times what's happening when I have that "oh god I have forgotten how to Word" feeling is that I've become stuck on exactly how to write the bridge stuff or the intro stuff or the "how it all fits together" stuff when that actually doesn't matter all that much. Writing a series of money-shot scenes stuck together with halfassery can illuminate just how much of the halfassery doesn't need to be fully assed. Sometimes you really do just need a paragraph about slogging through snow before going straight to cuddling for warmth in the cabin.

(But I also know some people who immediately lose interest when they write the iddiest bit. You might be one of them! Different brains and so on.)

When I'm doing this, it's sometimes even fun to write the half-assed bit the worst I possibly can just for the hell of it. "And then she explains her master plan, which I will figure out later." And then move on to lovingly describing the details of the big rescue scene.

You also are allowed — assuming this is for fun writing, not like, your job, in which case godspeed, you can do it — to write the iddiest bit and only the iddiest bit.

"But I can't post a fanfic that's only [the whump/the makeup sex/the cathartic reunion/the epic fight scene/a loving description of this particular image in my head]!"

hobby writing is for fun. write what's fun.

Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!

Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It's me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here's the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.

Modern writing advice: Yes your protagonist should have flaws but ultimately we should root for them and like them from the beginning :)

Charles Dickens: Here is the worst ugliest rudest meanest nastiest bitch you’ve ever met in your life.

Modern writing advice: Make sure your POV character goes through a significant arc! Make sure they are changed by the narrative! Make sure they learn a lesson!

Narrators of every book of the 19th century: the lesson I learned is these people fucking suck, sayonara you freaks

Modern writing advice: It’s all about the character overcoming obstacles and learning! They learn their lesson so they can fix their mistakes and make good choices in the future! It’s a character arc! It’s called growth! Readers love it!

Everyone from ancient times through the 19th century: would you like to watch a Guy fuck up twenty times in a row

when the character who's like "i will never reveal my trauma to anyone" gets a high fever and, while weak and delirious, starts spilling every.

last.

secret.

I love "i would kill for you" ship dynamics but what about "i would stop killing" ship dynamic??

I would lay down my sword for you. I would change my nature and go against everything i've known. I would resist the easy way out of solving my problems. I would give up the adrenaline of battle to stay by your side and make tea instead. I'm not sure I know who I am without a weapon in my hand because I've had to fight for so long but for you I'm willing to try and figure this out.

It must be hard. To put down your weapon that's protected you for so long. It's allowed you to stay alive it's kept you from getting hurt--physically and mentally. Because you've never had to worry about a real relationship if you think you'll be dead at the next battle. And you feel naked without it and it feels like you're ripping off an extension of yourself. Are you even whole without it? Are you worthy of being loved if you can't prove it by risking your life? And yet they've found someone who's asking them for something much harder than dying in battle on their behalf. They've found someone who wants them to live. And that's much more terrifying.

friends to lovers never had a bad track. “scared i’ll ruin what we have” SLAPS. “friendship cuddles while secretly dying inside” BANGER. “teasing each other and holding eye contact for a little too long” KILLS ME. and don’t even get me STARTED on “screaming i love you in the middle of a heated argument.”

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.

this doesnt seem like a popular opinion on here but sometimes i like when characters die. sometimes its needed to raise the stakes and sometimes its the end best befitting of the character and sometimes its needed to move the narrative forward and sometimes its the only way a character would believably leave their story behind and sometimes it just spices things up a bit. sometimes its fun to watch characters die . sorry

"This story is a tragedy because it didn't have to end this way."

vs

"This story is a tragedy because it was always going to end this way."

"I can fix him" not in a "I can make him into a better person" way but in a "if he was my character I would've handled his story better" way

Writing is not about 'telling an epic story' or 'making something that will outlive you'. Writing is about going "You know what would be fucking awesome?" and then committing word crimes

you ever accidentally create a recurring theme in your writing. you start putting together an outline for something you’ve never written before and get partway through planning, rearrange the pieces, and go “GODDAMMIT THIS IS ABOUT GRIEF AGAIN”? because let me tell you,