Some People Think Writers Are So Eloquent And Good With Words, But The Reality Is That We Can Sit There

Writing Tip Index

So I realize most of my Tumblr followers just follow me on Tumblr, which I’m cool with, but since I’ve been working really hard on updating my website, I still wanted to share it with everyone. If you have visited it recently, you’ve probably noticed quite a few changes. You can check it out here.

One of the new features is that I’ve compiled an almost complete list of my writing tips by topic. I’ll be updating it regularly here.

Below is the list as of my posting this. There are also a couple of articles that aren’t mine (noted) that I refer other writers to.

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Beginning

Coming up with a Good First Sentence

Tips on Starting a Story

How to Start Writing When You Have No Idea Where to Start

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Brainstorming

The REAL Key to Brainstorming: Restrictions

Flipping Story Stuff

Stacking Your Brainstorming Ideas

Coming up with a Plot (from scratch)

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Breaking Writing Rules

Breaking Writing Rules Right: “Show, don’t Tell”

Breaking Writing Rules Right: “Don’t Use ‘Was’”

Breaking Writing Rules Right: “Don’t Use Adverbs, Adjectives”

Breaking Writing Rules Right: “Only Use ‘Said’”

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Characters

Complex Characters and the Power of Contradiction

Making Unlikeable People into Likeable Characters

Character Traits that Hike Up Tension

Creating Stunning Side Characters (and Why They Matter)

Relationship as a Character: Crafting Duos, Trios, Groups that Readers can’t Resist

Pairing Behaviors with Odd Demeanors for Originality

“The Emotional Range of a Teaspoon”: Your Characters’ Spectrum of Emotions

Considering the Irrationality of Your Characters

How to Pick the Right Character Names

The “Twins as Clones” Writing Epidemic

What You Need to Know Most About Character Voice

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Conflict

Coming up with a Plot (from scratch)

Are Your Conflicts Significant?

Keeping Conflicts Unresolved

The Oft Forgotten Conflict and How to Make it Work: Man Vs. God

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Context

Context vs. Subtext (Context Should Not Become Subtext)

Making Strengths into Weaknesses (and Vice Versa) through Context

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Description

Picking the RIGHT Details

Three Tweaks that Keep Details Interesting

Breaking Writing Rules Right: “Don’t Use Adverbs, Adjectives”

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Dialogue

Writing Realistic and Complex Dialogue

Kicking “Great” Dialogue up to “Killer” Dialogue

Breaking Writing Rules Right: “Only Use ‘Said’”

Generic Dialogue—Staaaahp

(Don’t) Tell Me How You Really Feel

Emotion

Writing Empathetically vs. Sympathetically and Sentimentally

Let Your Reader do the Work

Raw vs. Subdued Emotions: Getting them Right in Your Story

“The Emotional Range of a Teaspoon”: Your Characters’ Spectrum of Emotions

Gaining Incredible Emotional Power by Crossing Opposites

Choosing Relatable Descriptions to Power up Empathy

Selecting the Right Sentence Structure for the Right Emotion

Dealing with Melodrama: What it is, How it Works, and How to Get Rid of it

The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

Feedback

The Real Reason You NEED to Give Positive Feedback!

Feeding us Criticism

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Foils

Playing with Foils

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Grammar and Punctuation

Dangling Modifiers and How to Correct Them (Purdue OWL)

Punctuation in Dialogue (The Editor’s Blog)

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Humor

15+ Tactics for Writing Humor

Guardians of the Galaxy and the Art of Constructing Jokes (Film Cit Hulk Smash)

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Micro-Concepts

Writing Micro-concepts

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Mystery

The Mechanics of Rendering Mysteries and Undercurrents—How to Withhold Info Right

Keep reading

Tunnel of love | Oleg Petrenko

Location: Tunel Kokhannya, Rivne region, Ukraine

some environments based on places from the eleventh hour taz arc! feat. the davy lamp, main street of refuge, and paloma’s hut (click thru for higher quality!)

personal playlists i’ve made that might fit your niche

a country playlist for a friend who is playing rdr2 but doesn’t actually like country

soft pop bops

bad 70s/80s music that i love a lot

early 2000′s nostalgia playlist for kids that were born 1995-1999 and dont fit with millennials or gen z

classical bops that didn’t need to go that hard

hitch your heart to one small thing

Hello, I am writing a book where rather than having one main character/protagonist there is multiple characters that are sort of 'focused' on in third person. I have been looking into this for some time and many resources simply say 'your main character' and I struggle with what I am meant to do if I have more than one character. Am I searching for the wrong things here? Have I bitten off more than I can chew and do you have any resources for writing more than one MC?

Balancing multiple main characters...

The key to this balance is smooth transition and a balance of “screen time”. The story lines must be evenly balanced and prioritized in the actual text and the overall plot/conflict.

It’s definitely challenging to incorporate multiple focus characters and storylines, but it’s not impossible. It’s more time you’ll have to spend on character development, and then weaving the plots together in a way that feels balanced and purposeful. This can be as simple as utilizing format, and as complex as jumbling all of the separate conflicts and background noises together without pulling the reader in a million different directions. 

I have a few resources you may find helpful as you go along, but the overall piece of advice I have on this is to focus on an even distribution of time, energy, and care into each character and their own stories, and then make sure it all fits nicely by the end. 

How To Fit Character Development Into Your Story

Giving Characters Distinct Voices in Dialogue

Tips on Character Consistency

Resources For Plot Development

Guide To Plot Development

Tackling Subplots

Plot Structures

Pacing Appropriately

Tips on Introducing Backstory

What To Cut Out of Your Story

Tips on Balancing Development

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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From the makers of the no-effort character checklist, I bring to you… The no-effort complete character sheet for lazy writers like you and me™! 

Because the extra effort I put in staying up until 3 am to do put this together can save us all a lot of effort filling out longer character sheets ^^

You’re supposed to print it out and fold it in half to make a little booklet but you can save ink and do it on your computer :P

Link to PDF on google drive (fixed typo)

This is amaaaaazing advice

Art by Chelsea Blecha

reminder to myself about the process of drafting & revising:

first drafts are for making it exist

second drafts are for making it functional

third drafts are for making it effective