“Please, I’ve been so silent.
Please let me be cruel for once.”

-a series of feelings, P.C.

seasalticecream32:

Of all overused tropes, the most prevalent (even in “professional” writing) is the “abusive parent” trope. If your MC doesn’t have abusive parents, then it is almost a guarantee that one or more of your supporting characters have abusive parents (and it’s almost always abusive mothers.) I know that I’m not one to talk as I’ve got a story in progress that’s main plot centers on an abusive mother and an emotionally manipulative villain (Bees), but I have been reading a lot of stuff lately and man, that seems to be the main motivating factor for most MC’s traits.

So here are some traumas for your MC besides abusive parents! Add some variety, learn to write different and interesting narratives!:

1.) MC sees something traumatic as a child that alters their life in irrevocable ways. (The Nick Adams Series)

2.) MC takes part in something as a child that they now realize is morally ambiguous or even outright morally wrong. (All of Summer in a Day)

3.) MC witnesses a crime as a child.

4.) MC is a bully in school and doesn’t realize it until they are confronted, leaving them unsure of their social interactions for a long time. (This happens in people’s lives more than you might think.)
5.) MC experiences great fear at an early age due to an accident (ex.: falls from a great height or gets left behind at a superstore on accident.)

6.) MC loses grandparents or siblings at a young age.

7.) MC survives a wild animal attack of some sort.

8.) A physical marker on the MC leaves them in constant anxiety over their physical features.

9.) MC meets or talks to someone who leaves a lasting negative impression on them, either of humanity or of their family specifically. (Otherwise non-abusive parents behave in unfavorable ways towards someone else.)

10.) MC gets ahold of medication or drugs on accident and ends up in the hospital, left with a distrust of medication in general that lasts throughout their life.

And that’s just for potentially traumatizing events that shape part of your MC’s traits. There are all sorts of things that could motivate or inspire your MC to behave in questionable or curious ways. The world does not begin and end with abusive parents in fiction, and before you do use that trope I would suggest making sure you fully understand the extent of what your writing.

I am reading a book right now that uses child molestation (and an abusive mother), abandonment (by a single mother), two different characters have alcoholic mothers (both single mothers), and a sexually promiscuous mother. The narrative suffers greatly for this, bc the writer has NO IDEA how to handle such sensitive and painful subjects. Remember, it’s very difficult to write about these subjects with the sensitivity and respect they deserve. So please use these tropes sparingly, and please avoid them if you feel that you may not be able to write them respectfully.

“

As a writer, creating characters is probably the most important thing you do. Get it wrong, and the story will be wrong no matter how well plotted.

Here are 25 things to know.

Characters that have everything they need and want in life are pretty damn boring.
In the real world, strong female characters go by another name: women. Try writing about them.
Not every character needs to have some past trauma simmering beneath the surface to be interesting. Well adjusted people can be just as deep and complex if you give them the right goals.
There’s a difference between being quintessential and being a cartoon, but not a big one.
Watching a character fail but keep trying is usually more interesting than watching them succeed.
Don’t judge your characters—even the villains. If you do, they’ll lack truth. Instead, find out why they are the way they are, and accept them for it.
Often what we remember most about memorable characters is how they interact externally—think, Mulder and Scully, Romeo and Juliet, Lucy and Ethel. The interaction, the relationship, these are traits in and of themselves.
Real people sometimes like lascivious and licentious things: porn or weed or orgies, or porn, weed and orgies—you get the idea. So, why can’t your character like some of these things, too?
Sometimes they should die.
A name is a terrible thing to waste, and it can shape your character more than you might think. Choose wisely.
There are no recipes for great characters, but if there were — the chef would probably create something simple with a few, fresh and fantastic ingredients instead of a plethora of overly processed junk.
Archetypes are for people who are too afraid to be creative.
Even an evil character who’s evil for evil’s sake has redeeming qualities that allow us to empathize. Find them and play them up.
It’s okay if the character’s gender is the last thing about them you decide.
At a base level, every character wants the same things: food, shelter, sex — how the these primary instincts, the id if you will, interact with the ego (personal identity) can be an endless source of exploration.
Just because a character lives in the past doesn’t mean she has to conform to outdated stereotypes.
They all have flaws, and it’s the flaws that make them who they are.
In real life, we strive to avoid conflict. But in fiction, characters who always agree have no life—at least, not one worth reading about.
A character’s back story is the least important thing in the story.
Don’t be surprised when a character you’ve created does something you don’t expect. That’s called magic and you should just get out of its way.
The thing your character wants most might never surface in the story, but it still drives every. single. thing. they. do.
Real people are seldom interesting enough to make great characters. Create, don’t imitate.
They don’t always tell the truth.
Likewise, they don’t always say what’s on their minds.
When drawn correctly, when given goals and even just a few layers, most of the other details fall into place.

”

-Jusin Mclachlan
25 things about creating characters

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

-Louis L’Amour (via feellng)

writers

garrisonbabe:

• write that sentence, that dialogue, that scene that terrifies you
• don’t delete shit, just move it to another document
• have a “bits and pieces” document for all the odds and ends you can’t fit anywhere else
• think of the color of a person’s eyes, imagine something reflected in them, now write that scene
• fiction doesn’t have to be 100% accurate, don’t research yourself to boredom
• i’m being serious there’s a thing called suspension of disbelief and it’s magical (yes that’s me making a joke)
• write something that makes you cry
• write something that makes you laugh
• write something you can’t explain to other people
• write something you won’t remember until you read it the next day
• don’t read about the publishing industry until you really, really need to. all it will do is make you unbelievably tired
• listen to music from open world RPG video games, you’re welcome
• always take a small journal or some paper and a pen with you
• write by hand in a journal every once in a while
• put the ending of your story in the beginning and see what happens
• listen to input from other people. yes you’re the writer, but they’re the reader and they want to help you make something spectacular
• said is not dead dude like wtf
• the thesaurus is shiny and lovely and a great resource but don’t let words get in the way of your story telling, you don’t need to write prose as poetry for it to be beautiful
• just finish the draft first, worry about perfection after
• yes, you do have talent
• yes, you can do this. you already are
  

Three Things You Need in an Awesome Short Story

30secfantasy:

In an age of constant distraction and novelty from a thousand different sources fighting for your attention, getting your writing in front of people and having them read it in its entirety gets more and more difficult with every addition to Amazon. However, if you can find someone with a few seconds or minutes to spare, putting a short story in front of them can be a good way to showcase your writing chops. Also, if novel writing is more your thing, you can use short stories to try out different methods of writing that can be brought into your core work. After writing several hundred, I’ve found a pretty good method to generating a self-contained short story that you can knock out in fifteen to thirty minutes. I tend to develop my stories by determining conflict, resolution, and a beginning in that order.

1. Conflict

You absolutely need to have a conflict to have a story. Anything else is more-or-less ‘slice of life’ writing, which absolutely can be interesting in its own right, but it’s not something the majority of the reading population demands. Wikipedia has a good starting list of different types of conflict that are commonly found in literature and every grade-school english class. There are an unimaginably large amount of ways to spin these conflicts into different settings or themes.

It is important to note that the conflict should not be overly complex. For a short story, only focusing on one character’s struggles is enough to keep it interesting while keeping the word count at bay. It’s extremely tempting to go above and beyond and write out every intricacy of what is going on, who is at odds with whom/what, etc, but this oftentimes takes time away from the next most interesting and important thing to have in your short story.   

2. Resolve that conflict

If the conflict is not resolved, then the story is more of a cliffhanger than an actual tale: great to branch off of, but terrible to end with forever.

A lot of the time resolving your conflict with a twist or a big reveal tends to be more satisfying than doing what’s clearly obvious for the characters. Sometimes this ends up being a punchline, and can cheapens the story if it seems too random or there was no lead-up to it. When you’re done with your first draft, and you feel this is the case, try dropping in a few clues earlier in the story that make the ending more believable for the reader.

Regardless of what you do, make sure that your story has a conclusion before you start writing otherwise you risk writing yourself into an unbelievable ending. And finally…

3. Start your story

The last thing you should do, is actually start your story. This should be a cakewalk now that you know how your story ends and what your characters are struggling over. Here are two ways you can start yours:

Start the story with your conflict. Your reader will be dumped right in the middle of the action and can pick up the pieces of setting and characterization either through the conflict, or towards the resolution. If your readers need more background revealing your conflict, move on to the second method to start a story.

Give your reader some background. One or two sentences of some information that is necessary for the story should be enough. It is really important that the information sticks to being necessary, otherwise meandering may occur. If you do find yourself wanting to expand the story,or write an additional one, go for it! Just make sure you finish the one at hand before sending your characters off on another adventure.

Everyone has their own method, I just find that this works best for me. If you give this method a try, feel free to share. Creative feedback on shorter works can definitely be applied to longer pieces, and you get the chance to explore characters, events, and worlds!

-30SecFantasy

Real People vs. Characters

fictionwritingtips:

As a writer, one of your main jobs is to get your readers to believe in the illusion you’re creating in your story. Deep down, we know that characters aren’t real people, but we suspend our disbelief to really put ourselves inside a fictional world. While characters can also be layered and complex, there’s a big difference—they’re not real people.

Here are a few differences to consider when building your own characters:

Characters are simpler than real people

I know, I know. How can I say that your favorite character from your favorite book series isn’t as complex as your next door neighbor? You know a lot more about your favorite character because you’ve followed their ups and downs for like 5 books now.

But the truth is your next door neighbor has a very real and very complex life and they’ll always have more depth than any character in a fiction novel. Authors only tend to focus on certain traits of a character; ones that pertain to the story and help drive the novel forward. Adding a lot more detail could bog the story down and feel unnecessary. Like I said before, characters can be complex and layered, but we’re only experiencing a powerful illusion. This is actually helpful for writers because it helps manipulate your readers’ emotions depending on what story you’re trying to tell. You get to guide your characters and where they’re going.

You’re only sharing a slice of life

Most of the time when you’re writing about a character, you’re only sharing the most dramatic moments of their existence. There’s a reason you’re telling the story and it’s not just them living their normal day-to-day lives. There’s usually the stasis that moves on to the inciting incident that gets them away from what they’re used to. We all know that real life can be tedious and boring for the most part. I’m not saying nothing exciting happens to real people, but we do work and go to school and sleep every night…the boring parts are usually cut out of fiction (depending on your story)

Again, obviously this all depends on your story, but there’s usually some excitement that pops up in stories that doesn’t always happen to real people. We are reading about what’s most representative of your character’s life.

You never know exactly what real people are thinking

This is one of the biggest differences between characters and real people. In novels, if the writer chooses to do so, the innermost thoughts of characters can be revealed. In real life, it’s impossible for us to know what someone else is thinking. They might tell us, but we’ll never have that sort of deep insight we’d have in a work of fiction.

Use this to your advantage as a writer because it doesn’t happen in real life.  Share your protagonist’s thoughts if you think it will help develop your story.

-Kris Noel