I Feel Like Everyone Has A Phantom Movie In A Movie Series. Like They Know The Movie Exists And Have

Remember to sleep!

Sins have been made in a tired state that neither heaven nor hell can forgive.

practical writing advice

part 2

avoid writing in bed if you can. writing in bed is the mind-killer. writing in bed is the little death that brings obliteration. you may think "but i can write AND be cozy" you will get sleepy so fast. 98% of the time when i try to get a nighttime writing session done in bed i go to sleep. maybe 70% of the time if it's an afternoon writing session. also it fucking kills your wrists.

STRETCH before writing. stretch as many parts of your body as possible ESPECIALLY YOUR WRISTS! i have chronic tendonitis in both of my arms from not doing this and it is manageable but it is Not Fun!

plug your phone in on the other side of the room. better yet, plug it in and leave it in another room. better yet, power it off and leave it in another room. "i'll just check one quick thing" do not underestimate the power of the doomscroll.

do a warmup. look up writing prompts (i like one-word prompts or prompts that focus on a general theme as it's easier to integrate into my writing style), set a timer for fifteen minutes, or ten, or five, and go ham. make it shitty or incomprehensible, as long as you make it. create a dump document for all your warmups. i currently have two novels in the works that started as one of these fifteen minute little warmups.

pick your background noise ahead of time if you use it, and look for something long. i listen to 3-hour-long silent hill ambient mixes on youtube dot com.

take breaks. around every 45 minutes, as i'm noticing myself begin to lose focus, i get up, grab a drink, get my blood flowing, and give myself some space to breathe.

sometimes i sit down to write and i think "every atom in my body is averse to doing this right now. i would rather dance barefoot on a bed of nails than open my laptop and start typing." and you know what i do? i go do something else instead. don't force it! it will become a chore.

that being said! write as often as possible. try to write every day. try to write at the same time. don't beat yourself up if you can’t, BUT the more often you write, the more often you'll want to write.

if you're stuck on a scene or a page or a chapter, go back to the last place where you felt like you knew what you were doing and start writing from there. keep a copy of your other writing in case you want to reuse it or refer back!

i don't know if this is something that will be helpful for other people but i start mentally preparing myself for my writing session a few hours ahead of time. i will say to myself, "today, at this time, i'm gonna sit down and write that scene where mina walks out on her book club, and it's going to be awesome and i'm looking forward to it." then, by the time i actually begin, i basically have the whole thing written out in my head and can just put it down to paper. it's a good way to at least kickstart the session !

ok thanks bye

I made muffins :)

They came out pretty good.

The token straight is confused about the different sexualities

I refuse to believe I am sick, I am just updating and I froze half way through the process.

YES THANK YOU

All I'm saying is, if a fic refers to characters by their physical attributes instead of their names or pronouns ("he smiled at the older" "the blonde laughed") when we know who the character is, and ESPECIALLY if the descriptions include "ravenette" or "cyanette" or other ridiculous words--

I'm clicking out of that fic so fast my AO3 history won't even register I've been there.

Writing Tip!

Behavior is a hard thing to nail down with humans, though their are tricks for it. One I learned is that if a character is going to lie make a scale from one to ten and rate how dense other characters are. From their you’ll be able pin point who sees through the lie and who doesn’t.

It’s over, why are you still reading?

hello fellow non-Black tumblr users. welcome to my saw trap. if you'd like to leave, please name one (1) Black woman author who is not Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Octavia Butler, or N.K. Jemisin. bonus points if she's published a book in the last five years.

Writing tip.

Plan out your mysteries before you right them, please plan out the clues, twists, red herrings, and general plot. Make sure it all makes sense in the grand scheme of things so that your readers can draw the conclusion you want them too. I’m telling you that you need to plot out your mysteries. It’s REALLY NECESSARY PLEASE DONT MAKE MY MISTAKES PLE-

Writing tip over

Tip for they writing that I, some random person on tumblr, bequeath upon thee, another random person on tumblr.

Endings! Every story has its end. Now as most people know that’s when you tie up any loose ends in the story and try to make sure every thing is concluded. However, endings are also your final impression on the reader. While other scenes in your story may be more memorable, the ending is what sticks the most. If you wrote a sad ending, the story up to that point will now seem melancholy or sad as well. If you had a gritty ending, the story will seem foreboding.

The tip that some random person bequeathed upon another random person is over.