writing advice: never italicize words to show emphasis! if you’re writing well then the reader will know and you don’t need them!

me: oh really??? listen up, pal, you can just try an pull italics from my cold, dead fingers

“I never said she stole my money.”

VS.

“I never said she stole my money.” 

“I never said she stole my money.” 

“I never said she stole my money.” 

“I never said she stole my money.”

“I never said she stole my money.” 

“I never said she stole my money.” 

“I never said she stole my money.”

It’s especially funny how every single one of those sentences has a completely different meaning. Besides, one shouldn’t make such generalized, idiotic statements as “never use italics,” especially not to writers. A unique style is one of the most crucial elements of writing, and use of italics is a good way to differentiate your writing from others’.

You cannot take my slanty letters away from me.

Touch my italics and I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you

Me @ writers: you just make that shit up from your brain???

*squints at the three lines in Word that have remained unchanged for weeks* In theory

write to tell yourself the story

edit to tell others the story

me writing dialogue: “what is man but a vessel through which a higher entity may see? what is his purpose? must he find a purpose? we are but stardust; the universe comprehending itself.”

me writing action: they ran real fast from the bad men aand legs hurty

me writing action: Her legs pounded against the earth, the familiar jolt grounding her like nothing else could. Magic, gods, royalty—she didn’t know anything about that. But running? That’s something she’d been doing since day one.

me writing dialogue: “I dunno man whatchu wanna do” “I dunno. What do you think?” “Hey man I don’t know”

me writing action: room go boom

me writing dialogue: noppity nope, that ain’t dope

The holy trinity of writing

i don’t “make characters”, i break myself into pieces and then give the pieces names

“why don’t you just finish one story instead of building up more and more WIPs??”

If you write a strong character, let them fail.

If you write a selfless hero, let them get mad at people.

If you write a cold-heated villain, let them cry.

If you write a brokenhearted victim, let them smile again.

If you write a bold leader, let them seek guidance.

If you write a confident genius, let them be wrong, or get stumped once in a while.

If you write a fighter or a warrior, let them lose a battle, but let them win the war.

If you write a character who loses everything, let them find something.

If you write a reluctant hero, give them a reason to join the fight.

If you write a gentle-hearted character who never stops smiling, let that smile fade and tears fall in shadows.

If you write a no one, make them a someone.

If you write a sibling, let them fight and bicker, but know that at the end of the day they’ll always have each other’s back.

If you write a character, make them more than just a character; give them depth, give them flaws and secrets, and give them life.

*sweats nervously*

me realizing that if i want to see content for my own ocs i have to make it myself:

sure, sex is great and all but have you ever tried listening to the sound your keyboard makes when you’re on a writing roll and continuously typing with only few milliseconds of break?

tag yourself

Tag yourself

SOMEONE DESCRIBED ME IN MEME FORM AND I FEEL ATTACKED!!

This is unfortunately spot on.

If you have writer’s block because of a certain idea or passage in your story, one thing I suggest is to work with a second document for discards. Every substantial story I write is written across at least 2 documents - one “main” story, and one for notes. 

The notes document contains everything not in the main document. That’s where I throw things like deleted passages, even if it’s just half a sentence because I may figure out later that I actually said it better the first time. I also put notes or even whole scenes for later plot points there, basically ideas as they come to my head that I might want to add. It takes the pressure off the main document to know nothing gets permanently thrown away. 

It’s also a place where I can free-write if I haven’t quite come up with the right wording for something, and then I can take out the best parts and put them in the main doc. It’s a document that allows me to make mistakes without wasting my effort or time, or permanently altering the pristine “real” manuscript with a random idea that ends up not really working out.

This is pretty common writing advice but I thought I’d throw it out there for anyone who feels stuck.

this shit works i do it all the time now; btds has a notes document with my outline and deleted snippets and links to picture references and then the actual fic is in another document, 10/10 would recommend

Amazing advice!!

I refer to this as my Graveyard of Cut Scenes. Pretty much everything I’ve ever written has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than one.

me writing dialogue: “what is man but a vessel through which a higher entity may see? what is his purpose? must he find a purpose? we are but stardust; the universe comprehending itself.”

me writing action: they ran real fast from the bad men aand legs hurty