How to Write Yearning Without It Turning Into Jealousy

This is genuinely a good ask because yearning and jealousy actually share a lot of the same physical symptoms on paper. Tight chest, staring too long, going quiet when they walk in. The difference is entirely in what your character wants out of the moment, and if you don't nail that down first, the two will blur together no matter how you write it.

1. Give the Ache a Direction, Not a Target

Jealousy is aimed at someone, usually whoever has the thing your character wants. Yearning is aimed at the thing itself. If your character's inner monologue keeps circling back to another person specifically, "why does she get to," "why not me instead," that's jealousy leaking in. Yearning stays fixed on what they want, not on resenting who has it.

2. Let Them Want Good Things For the Object of Their Longing 

This one's honestly the easiest tell. A character who's yearning can still want their crush to be happy, even happy with someone else, even if it guts them. A character who's jealous can't stomach that thought. If the wanting comes with resentment attached, you've drifted into jealousy territory.

3. Use Stillness Instead of Tension 

Jealousy tends to read tight and coiled, clenched jaw, controlled voice, barely-contained. Yearning reads slower. Let your character go still instead of tense. A held breath instead of a gritted jaw. The body language should feel like restraint, not suppression.

4. Give Them Small, Private Rituals 

Someone who's yearning tends to build tiny habits around the person they want, replaying one conversation, keeping something insignificant they were given, taking the long way past somewhere just to catch a glimpse. It's softer and more internal than jealousy, which tends to be reactive and outward-facing instead.

5. Watch Your Verb Choices 

"Watched with envy" reads completely differently than "watched like she was something he wasn't allowed to have." Neither of those is subtle, but only one is jealousy. Pay attention to whether your verbs imply resentment or just longing, because readers pick up on that faster than you'd think.

6. Let the Yearning Coexist With Genuine Happiness for Them 

This is the one that trips people up most. Real longing doesn't cancel out real affection. Your character can be aching over someone and still be genuinely glad to see them smile. They will still have normal interactions and a majority of the yearning is internal. If the wanting only ever shows up as bitterness, it's stopped being yearning.

Honestly, the fastest gut check is this; ask yourself if your character wants the person because of a specific reason or if they’re genuinely in love but can’t do anything about it. If it's the first one, you're jealous. If it's the second, that's yearning. Also, a character who is yearning can still have jealous moments! That doesn’t cancel out their yearning, it just means they’re human and can get bitter sometimes. 

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10 Common Causes of Death to Use Instead of Cancer or a Car Crash

Quick content note, this one's about death and dying, nothing graphic but heads up anyway.

Cancer and car crashes are the two most overused causes of death in fiction, mostly because they're the two most familiar to us in real life. But real life also has a lot of other ways for a character to go, and some of them are a lot more interesting to write around.

1. Sepsis: An untreated infection, sometimes from something as small as a cut or a tooth abscess, spreads into the bloodstream and shuts the body down. This one's brutal for historical or fantasy settings especially, where "just go to a doctor" isn't an option.

2. Drowning: Fast, quiet, and doesn't require a major backstory. Great for accidental deaths or ones you want to feel senseless rather than dramatic.

3. Falls: Statistically one of the most common causes of accidental death, especially for older characters, and criminally underused in fiction. Stairs, ladders, roofs, cliffs, take your pick.

4. Accidental Overdose: Not always a substance abuse storyline. Wrong medication, wrong dosage, a bad mix of two things that shouldn't have been taken together. Handle this one with care and do your research, it's a sensitive topic for a lot of readers.

5. Anaphylaxis: A severe allergic reaction that can kill in minutes without the right treatment. Good for a death that feels random and unfair, which, let's be honest, a lot of deaths are.

6. Aneurysm: Sudden, often with zero warning signs, and devastating for the people left behind because there's nothing to prepare for. Useful if you want a death that hits mid-scene with no buildup at all.

7. Hypothermia / Exposure: Cold, slow, and disturbingly peaceful compared to how it sounds. Good for survival stories, war settings, or anything where your character is stranded somewhere.

8. Choking: Common, mundane, and rarely used in fiction probably because it sounds too ordinary. That's exactly what makes it effective for a death that isn't supposed to feel narratively "earned."

9. Smoke Inhalation: Kills faster than the fire itself in most real house fires. If you're writing a fire scene, this is probably the actual cause of death, not the flames.

10. Electrocution: Downed power lines, faulty wiring, water and electricity mixing where they shouldn't. Quick, and pairs well with a storm scene if you want the atmosphere to do some of the work.

I want to be clear this isn't a "pick the most dramatic option" list, some of these work precisely because they're not dramatic. A death that feels sudden and a little unfair often lands harder on the reader than one with a big speech attached to it.

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How to Write a Morally Grey Character: The Dos and Don'ts

Everyone wants to write a morally grey character right now, and I get it, they're fun. But there's a very specific way this goes wrong, and it's that "morally grey" quietly turns into "good person who did one bad thing that one time." That's not grey. That's just a good guy with a sob story.

The Don'ts

Don't give them a bad action with a get-out-of-jail-free backstory. If your character did something genuinely awful and the narrative immediately hands the reader a tragic childhood to explain it away, you haven't written moral complexity, you've written an excuse. The backstory can exist. It just can't cancel the action out.

Don't make their morality entirely reactive. A character who's only ever "bad" when provoked and otherwise a total sweetheart isn't grey, they're good with a temper. Grey characters make choices that aren't forced on them, and some of those choices should make the reader genuinely uncomfortable.

Don't let the narrative agree with them too much. If every other character eventually comes around to "well, they had a point," you've built a soapbox, not a person. Let some people in the story stay angry at them. Let the consequences actually land.

Don't confuse grey with edgy. Swearing more or being sarcastic doesn't make a character morally complicated, it makes them a good character with a mouth on them. The moral part has to come from the choices, not the vibe.

The Dos

Do give them a real want that isn't evil, but a method that is. The want should make sense. The method should still cost something. A character who wants to protect their family and starts poisoning knights to do it, that's grey. The goal is sympathetic, the method genuinely isn't.

Do let them be right sometimes and wrong other times, on the same issue. Consistency is for heroes. A grey character can make a correct call in chapter three and a horrifying one in chapter twelve for the exact same underlying reason.

Do give other characters valid reasons to distrust them, permanently. Not everyone needs to forgive your morally grey character by the end. Some relationships should just stay broken. It's more realistic, and honestly, it's more interesting.

Do let them know what they're doing. Self-awareness is what separates grey from misguided. A character who genuinely believes they're the hero the whole time is a different archetype. A grey character usually knows, on some level, that what they're doing isn't clean, and does it anyway.

Why This Matters

The whole appeal of a morally grey character is that the reader isn't sure how to feel about them, and if you resolve that tension too early, you've killed the thing that made them interesting in the first place. Let people argue about your character after reading their story. That's the goal, not a problem to fix.

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100 Words to Use Instead of "Stared"

Some words repeat across categories since they genuinely fit more than one mood, but each is only counted once, so it still adds up to 100.

1. Neutral Tags: Looked, Watched, Gazed, Eyed, Viewed, Observed, Regarded, Studied, Noted, Took in.

2. Long / Intense Tags: Stared, Fixated on, Riveted on, Locked eyes with, Bored into, Drilled into, Zeroed in on, Honed in on, Fixed (their) gaze on, Held (their) gaze.

3. Confident / Assessing Tags: Scrutinized, Sized up, Appraised, Assessed, Surveyed, Inspected, Scanned, Raked over, Swept over, Ran (their) eyes over.

4. Suspicious / Wary Tags: Eyed warily, Narrowed (their) eyes at, Squinted at, Peered at, Side-eyed, Cast a (wary) glance at, Watched closely, Kept an eye on, Studied with suspicion, Shot a look at.

5. Angry / Hostile Tags: Glared, Glowered, Scowled at, Bored holes into, Shot daggers at, Fixed a hard look on, Leveled a stare at, Burned holes into, Glared daggers at, Fumed while watching.

6. Nervous / Hesitant Tags: Peeked, Glanced, Snuck a look at, Stole a glance at, Darted (their) eyes toward, Flicked (their) eyes toward, Peered nervously at, Chanced a look at, Risked a glance at, Peeked from under (their) lashes.

7. Awed / Amazed Tags: Marveled at, Drank in, Took in every detail of, Beheld, Feasted (their) eyes on, Devoured with (their) eyes, Gawked at, Gaped at, Ogled, Goggled at.

8. Loving / Adoring Tags: Admired, Traced with (their) eyes, Lingered on, Soaked in the sight of, Basked in the sight of, Melted while watching, Softened while looking at, Drank in the sight of, Gazed adoringly at, Looked at like (they) hung the moon.

9. Sneaky / Secretive Tags: Spied on, Watched from the corner of (their) eye, Kept tabs on, Kept an eye on, Monitored, Tracked, Trailed with (their) eyes, Watched covertly, Observed in secret, Shadowed with a glance.

10. Searching Tags: Scanned for, Searched, Combed the room with (their) eyes, Swept the room with (their) gaze, Raked the crowd, Hunted with (their) eyes, Cast about, Looked around for, Surveyed the room, Scoured.

A few of these overlap on purpose. "Stared," "gazed," and "watched" all mean slightly different things depending on what your character is feeling, and picking the wrong one is honestly worse than just repeating "stared" a few times. Match the word to the emotion first, then worry about variety. 

Happy writing! :)

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Tropes You Can Use Instead Of Killing Your MC’s Parents

Dead parents aren't a bad trope. However, if you’re looking for something different, here are some suggestions: 

1. Neglect 

Not every uninvolved parent is cruel about it. Plenty genuinely love their kid and still manage to be absent in every way that matters; distracted by another family member, buried in work, or just not paying attention. The tragedy here isn't hatred, it's how invisible a kid can feel to someone who technically loves them.

2. Abuse 

This one's more direct, physical, verbal, or both, and it does real damage to a kid's sense of self-worth even when it's "just" one kind. What makes this more interesting than dead parents is the complexity it forces into a character: love and fear can exist toward the same person at once.

3. Constant Conflict 

Growing up in a house where your parents never stop fighting does something terrible and very specific to a kid. It’s something hard to explain to people who have never experienced it. It sticks with kids even when they’re adults. They learn to read a room before they even understand why, they always tense up or anticipate conflict over little things, and they often end up feeling responsible for a fight that was never theirs to fix. 

4. Career-Driven Absence 

The parent isn't dead, isn't neglectful out of spite, they’re just never actually there and a demanding career is the culprit. Technically, you can’t ‘hate them’ because their career is all for the kid, but that also means the kid ends up raising themselves by default.

5. Controlling Parents 

This one shows up more in "successful" households than people expect. A kid gets pushed toward a specific path, a business, a legacy, a reputation, whether they want it or not, and pushing back gets them held even tighter.

6. Toxic Dynamics 

Gaslighting, constant comparison, backhanded criticism dressed up as concern. The cruelest part of this one is that the kid usually doesn't clock it as toxic for years, because it's the only normal they've ever known.

7. Quiet Estrangement 

Sometimes there's no dramatic reason at all. A family was close once and just drifted, slowly, without either side really choosing it. This one hits differently because there's no villain to blame, just distance that crept in.

8. Parentification 

The kid becomes the parent in every way that matters, raising siblings, managing money, holding the household together, while the actual parent is out of commission somehow. This gives you built-in maturity and resentment in the same character without needing a single death in the backstory.

9. Addiction in the Family 

A parent struggling with addiction creates a specific kind of instability, love that's real but unreliable, promises that don't hold, a kid who learns not to count on anyone too soon. It's a different flavor of loss than death or any other type of neglect you can make excuses for.

10. Incarceration 

A parent who's physically gone but very much alive changes the shape of a kid's grief entirely. There's no closure, no funeral, just an absence with a return date attached that may or may not actually happen.

None of these need to replace dead parents completely. Sometimes death really is the right call for your story. But if you're reaching for it out of habit rather than because it's actually what your character's arc needs, one of these will probably hit harder simply because readers haven't seen it a thousand times already. Happy writing! :)

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15 Romantic Actions to Use Instead of a Kiss

1. Lacing Fingers Together 

Not just holding hands, actually interlacing them. It's a small physical detail that reads as far more deliberate and possessive than a loose hand-hold.

2. Nuzzling Into Their Neck or Hair 

Face pressed in, breathing them in for a second. Works especially well in a quiet moment after something stressful, when a character needs to physically ground themselves in the other person.

3. A Gentle Bite or Nip 

Lip, shoulder, ear, wherever fits the scene. Playful if the tone's light, charged if it's not.

4. Massaging Their Hands or Shoulders 

Practical and intimate at the same time. Great for a character who shows affection through action instead of words, since this lets them do something instead of saying it.

5. Tracing Idle Patterns on Their Skin 

Fingertips moving without any real purpose, along an arm, a palm, a shoulder. It signals comfort and closeness better than almost anything verbal could.

6. Running Fingers Through Their Hair 

This is the absent-minded kind of thing a character does without fully realizing it. Tip: this one's especially good for a scene where someone's comforting the other after a nightmare or a bad day.

7. Gripping Their Waist or Hip to Pull Them Closer 

Direct, a little urgent, and it closes distance fast in a way that reads as wanting rather than just affectionate. Could also substitute with belts, capes/cloaks, pockets, ties, collars and more.

8. Trailing Fingertips Down an Arm or Spine 

The key is to make this deliberately slow. This is a good one for tension-building specifically, since the anticipation of where the hand's going matters more than the touch itself.

9. Scratching Nails Lightly Down Their Back or Scalp 

Small, physical, and surprisingly underused given how much sensory detail it gives you to work with.

10. Pressing a Palm Flat Against Their Chest 

Feeling the heartbeat under their hand, whether from adrenaline or nerves. It's a small gesture that gives you a built-in excuse to describe how fast someone's heart is racing. Also works with the wrist or side of the neck for a more possessive scene. 

11. Brushing a Thumb Across Their Cheekbone 

Slow and deliberate, usually paired with a character just looking at the other for a beat too long.

12. Wiping Something Off Their Face

Blood, dirt, tears, doesn't matter. The act of gently cleaning someone up says care in a way dialogue rarely manages.

13. Tucking Hair Behind Their Ear

Small, almost automatic, and very cute if the character doing it doesn't even seem to notice they're doing it. Similar actions would be holding back their open hair, or tying/braiding their hair when it keeps getting in the way.

14. Holding Their Face Without Kissing Them

The almost-kiss that doesn't happen. Use this when you want the reader leaning forward in their seat, desperate for something that isn't coming yet. Pair it with their foreheads resting against each other, their eyes fluttering shut as they just breathe each other in. Works pretty well for goodbyes, or if they’re trying to steal a moment in public without too much PDA. 

15. Holding Eye Contact a Beat Too Long

The simplest one on this list and still one of the hardest to write well. It's all in the extra second that shouldn't be there but is.

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20 Tips for Writing a Character With Mental Health Issues or a Disability

I have previously written a thorough guide on how to write and research mental illnesses but if you want a quicker dos-and-don'ts list here you go:

1. Research the Illness Thoroughly: Not a five-minute skim. Actual research, symptoms, variation, how it's diagnosed, how it's treated, what myths surround it. When I had to write PTSD for a character I made a whole google docs on: the illness itself, the illness in regards to my character’s situation, the symptoms/side effects my character would likely have, ways to incorporate them in my writing, etc.

2. Talk to People Who Actually Have It: If you don't know anyone in real life, spaces like Reddit and Quora can be genuinely useful. Nothing replaces hearing it directly from someone living with the illness.

3. Find Media Praised for Depicting It Accurately: Don’t just look for movies/shows with characters who have that mental illness, specifically research media praised for their accurate depiction of it. It's usually more instructive than any single article on the condition itself.

4. Find Media Criticized for Depicting It Inaccurately, and Figure Out Why: This is just as valuable as the praised examples. Knowing exactly what to avoid, and why it landed wrong, saves you from repeating the same mistake.

5. Remember No Two People Experience It Identically: Research gives you the general shape, but your character still needs their own specific relationship with their condition.

6. Don't Make the Condition Their Entire Personality: They still need hobbies, opinions, a sense of humor, flaws unrelated to the condition entirely. A diagnosis isn't a whole character.

7. Show It in Small, Unglamorous Moments Too: Not just the dramatic crisis scenes like panic attacks or hallucinations. The mundane, everyday impact is often more honest and more overlooked in fiction. 

8. Avoid the "Cured by Love" Narrative: Unless you're specifically critiquing that trope, a romantic partner isn't a treatment plan. This one shows up constantly and it's worth actively avoiding.

9. Give Them Agency Over Their Own Condition: They shouldn't exist purely as a burden on other characters or a lesson for someone else's growth. Let them make their own decisions about their own life. Also, if this is someone who’s lived with the condition their entire life, avoid using the typical ‘they don’t know what to do when symptoms kick in and a side character has to help’ scene. 

10. Research Realistic Coping Mechanisms or Treatment: Not just the symptoms. How someone actually manages day to day medication, therapy, routines, matters just as much as how the condition presents.

11. Be Careful Using the Condition as Shorthand for "Dangerous": Unless you're deliberately examining that stigma, this is one of the more damaging tropes in fiction and it's worth actively working against. This also applies for portraying a character as “damaged” or “unstable” solely because they have a mental illness.

12. Give Them Flaws That Have Nothing to Do With the Condition: A character can be stubborn, petty, or messy in ways completely unrelated to their diagnosis. That separation matters.

13. Consider How It Intersects With the Rest of Their Identity: Culture, family, access to healthcare, and financial situation all change how a condition is experienced and treated.

14. Read Own-Voices Essays and Memoirs, Not Just Clinical Descriptions: Clinical sources tell you the facts. Personal accounts tell you what it actually feels like to live inside them.

15. Avoid Writing It as a Checklist of Symptoms: Show it through behavior, internal narration, and small decisions instead of naming every symptom like a diagnostic manual.

16. Be Mindful of Language: Terms people use to describe themselves and outdated or clinical terms aren't always the same thing. Follow the community's own language where you can.

17. Think About Their Support System: Do they have one? How do they feel about needing help, and how do they navigate asking for it, or refusing to?

18. Don't Rush an Unrealistic "Fix" by the End: Some conditions aren't cured, they're managed. A tidy resolution can undercut everything honest you built earlier in the story.

19. Get a Sensitivity Reader Before Publishing, If You Can: Someone who actually lives with the condition will catch things research alone won't.

20. Write for the People Who Actually Live It First: Not for how "relatable" or "palatable" it feels to readers who don't share the experience. Accuracy matters more than universal comfort.

21. Don’t Make Their Story Revolve Around The Mental Illness: Please remember that there are millions of people around the globe with thousands of different mental illnesses who live with those illnesses day in and day out. It doesn’t define them, it doesn’t become their entire life, and it shouldn’t be the main aspect of your character’s storyline. 

This isn't a list you follow rigidly, it's a starting point for actually caring enough to get it right. Happy writing! :)

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I genuinely think literature NEEDS more of 'spoiled but not rotten' characters! I love them so much and there's something so sweet and refreshing about seeing characters like that (because yes not everyone who is rich/popular is necessarily evil and mean)

And they don't have to always be rich! Some people are just 'spoiled' because they are pampered/sheltered in life or generally loved by everyone.

Daily reminder that there's a BIG difference between a good author and a famous author. Some authors would be just as successful as you (if not more) if they had the marketing safety net you do.

20 Small Flaws That Make Your Characters Feel More Real

No real person is cool and composed 100% of the time. Everyone's a little awkward sometimes, gets too excited about something dumb, or has a fear that makes zero logical sense.

Being a bit of a loser is basically part of the human condition, and leaning into that is what makes a character feel like a person instead of a concept. Here's 20 small flaws to work in.

1. Being Bad at Something They're "Supposed" to Be Good At: A great cook who can't bake. A doctor who faints at the sight of their own blood. The mismatch is more memorable than if they were just good at everything.

2. A Genuinely Silly, Specific Fear: Not spiders, something weirder and more specific, the texture of wet paper, a particular sound, mannequins. Specificity is what sells it.

3. Laughing at Their Own Jokes: Before anyone else does, sometimes before the joke's even finished. It's a small thing, and it makes a character feel instantly more human.

4. Being Weirdly Competitive Over Something That Doesn't Matter: Board games, trivia, who can parallel park better. The stakes being embarrassingly low is exactly what makes it funny and real.

5. Holding a Grudge Over Something Petty: Still annoyed about a comment from three years ago that nobody else remembers. It says something honest about how their brain actually works.

6. Being Terrible at Taking a Compliment: Deflecting, downplaying, immediately changing the subject. Tip: this one's a great way to show insecurity without ever having the character say they're insecure out loud.

7. A Guilty Pleasure They're Embarrassed About: A trashy show, a boy band, a food combination nobody else understands. The embarrassment matters more than the thing itself.

8. Getting Overly Attached to an Object: A specific mug, a childhood blanket, a pen that "just writes better." Irrational, a little silly, and completely believable.

9. Chronic Procrastination: Not because they're lazy, because starting feels harder than it should. They'll do genuinely anything else first, and somehow it still gets done at 2am.

10. Talking Too Much When They're Nervous: Rambling, over-explaining, filling silence that didn't need filling. It's the opposite of the composed, quippy character, and it's usually more endearing.

11. Being Chronically Late: Not out of disrespect, just a genuinely broken internal clock. Great for a character who means well and still somehow makes everyone wait every single time.

12. Interrupting People Without Meaning To: Excitement gets ahead of them before they can stop it. It's a flaw that reads as enthusiasm more than rudeness, if you write it right.

13. Overpacking or Over-Preparing for Everything: Bringing five contingency plans to a simple errand. Usually rooted in a deeper need for control that the character probably hasn't examined too closely.

14. Struggling to Apologize Properly: "I'm sorry you feel that way" instead of an actual apology. Not malicious, just genuinely bad at the specific skill of admitting fault out loud.

15. A Weirdly Specific Food Aversion: Won't eat anything that touches on the plate. Refuses a food purely because of the texture. Small, harmless, and instantly humanizing.

16. Being Nosy: Can't help asking questions that aren't really their business, and can't quite explain why they need to know either.

17. Hoarding Things They Don't Need: Receipts, old birthday cards, a drawer of cables to nothing. A small, physical way to show a character who struggles to let go of things in general.

18. Being Bad With Names: Meets someone five times and still blanks. Endearing on a stranger, mortifying when it happens to someone they're supposed to know well.

19. Overthinking Simple Decisions: Standing in front of a menu for ten minutes over what to order. The stakes are nonexistent and the anxiety is real anyway.

20. A Terrible Sense of Direction: Gets lost in buildings they've been in a hundred times. Small, low-stakes, and a nice way to let other characters tease them without it turning mean.

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10 Non-Verbal Cues for Anxiety and Nervousness

Anxious characters don't need to say "I'm nervous" for readers to feel it. The body gives it away first, usually in small, easy-to-miss ways. Here's what to actually put on the page.

1. Fidgeting With Something in Their Hands A ring, a pen, the hem of a sleeve, doesn't matter what, as long as their hands need somewhere to put the energy. The specific object can say a lot about the character too.

2. Avoiding Eye Contact Not dramatic, just consistently looking anywhere else, the floor, a door, their own hands. It reads as smaller and more honest than a character announcing they're anxious ever could.

3. A Bouncing Knee or Leg Restless, repetitive, and usually something the character isn't even aware they're doing until someone points it out or puts a hand on their knee to stop it.

4. Picking at Skin, Nails, or Cuticles A little self-destructive, very believable. Great for a character whose anxiety runs deeper than the immediate moment, since this reads as a habit, not just a reaction.

5. Shallow or Held Breathing Breath that's too quick, too controlled, or just stops for a beat too long. Tip: this one works especially well right before a character has to speak or act, since the pause itself builds tension.

6. Repetitive Small Movements Tapping a foot, drumming fingers, clicking a pen. None of it does anything, and that's the point, it's energy with nowhere else to go.

7. Making Themselves Physically Smaller Crossed arms, hunched shoulders, pulling a jacket tighter. The body trying to take up less space says more than dialogue would about how exposed a character feels.

8. Touching Their Face, Neck, or Hair Self-soothing gestures that show up without the character clocking them, rubbing the back of their neck, tucking hair behind an ear over and over.

9. Scanning the Room or Standing Near an Exit A character who keeps track of every door in a room, or who angles themselves toward one without meaning to, is telling you they don't feel safe here, even if nothing's actually wrong yet.

10. Freezing or Going Rigid Not fidgeting, the opposite. Some characters go completely still when they're anxious, like moving might make things worse. This one's underused compared to the fidgety version and hits just as hard.

The best anxiety tells are the ones the character doesn't notice themselves doing. Let other characters clock it before your character does, and it'll read as real instead of performed. Happy writing! :)

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God forbid a genre created to be scary and disturbing is actually scary and disturbing

15 Signs of Jealousy to Write Into Your Characters

Jealousy isn't just a rival-for-your-crush thing. It shows up over promotions, friendships, attention, talent, anything someone else has that a character quietly wants. Here's what it looks like across the board, no love triangle required.

1. Minimizing Someone Else's Achievement "That's not that big a deal" said about something that clearly is. The dismissal is doing a lot of work to make someone else's win feel smaller.

2. Picking Apart How They Got There "They only got it because of who they know" or "they got lucky." Explaining away someone's success is often easier than sitting with the fact that they earned it.

3. Backhanded Compliments "Good for you, I guess I just never had that kind of luck" lands the praise and the resentment in the same sentence.

4. Silent Comparison Measuring their own life, talent, or circumstances against someone else's, entirely in their own head. This one's great in internal narration, especially if the character hates that they're doing it.

5. Changing the Subject Fast The second someone brings up the other person's success, the topic shifts. Too quickly to be casual.

6. Lukewarm Congratulations Saying the right words without any of the actual warmth behind them. Readers pick up on the gap between what's said and how it's said faster than you'd think.

7. Sudden Competitiveness Over Something Small Turning an unrelated conversation into a contest nobody else realized was happening. It's rarely about the actual thing being competed over.

8. Overexplaining Their Own Worth Listing their own accomplishments unprompted, right after hearing about someone else's. It reads less like confidence and more like a character trying to convince themselves.

9. Physical Tension at the News A tight jaw, a forced smile that doesn't reach the eyes, shoulders that don't relax until the topic moves on.

10. Obsessively Tracking Someone's Progress Checking in on someone's success more than makes sense for how the character claims to feel about them, refreshing a page, asking around, keeping tabs.

11. Fishing for Reassurance Not asking directly, just steering the conversation toward "but I'm still good at this too, right?"

12. Avoiding the Person Entirely Some characters don't compete or comment, they just quietly disappear from someone's life right when that person starts succeeding.

13. A Flash of Relief at Someone Else's Failure Followed by guilt, usually. That gap between the reaction and the shame over having it says everything.

14. Bringing Them Up Unprompted, With an Edge If nobody asked and the character still finds a reason to mention someone, with a slight bite to it, that's not neutral small talk.

15. Redirecting Praise Away From Them Quickly changing the subject when someone else is being complimented in the room, or subtly steering credit back toward themselves.

Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?

Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!

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10 Ways to Show Grief Without Making Your Character Cry

Grief doesn't always look like crying. Here are some ideas for how to realistically portray it outside of the ‘screaming, crying, throwing up’ phase.

1. Burying Themselves in Work or School: Suddenly the most productive they've ever been, taking on extra shifts, extra assignments, anything that keeps their hands and mind too busy to land on the actual loss.

2. Avoiding Anywhere That Reminds Them of the Person: A restaurant, a route they used to walk together, an entire side of town. They'll go out of their way and never explain why, and probably won't even clock it as avoidance themselves.

3. Refusing to Change Anything of Theirs: The room stays exactly as it was. The voicemail doesn't get deleted. Moving even one object can feel like erasing them, so nothing moves at all.

4. Overcompensating With Normalcy: Laughing a little too readily, insisting they're fine a little too often. This one's great for a character who thinks showing grief means burdening the people around them.

5. Picking Fights With People Trying to Help: Grief makes people prickly in strange directions. Someone offering comfort can genuinely feel unbearable, and lashing out is sometimes easier than admitting they need it.

6. Taking Care of Everyone Else's Grief Instead of Their Own: Comforting siblings, managing funeral logistics, checking in on everyone but themselves. Tip: this one's especially good for an oldest-sibling or caretaker-type character, since it lets them delay their own grief almost indefinitely.

7. Sudden Reckless Behavior: Driving too fast, drinking too much, taking risks they never would have before. It's less about wanting to get hurt and more about needing to feel something other than the numbness.

8. An Obsessive Need for Control: Rigid routines, excessive cleaning, rearranging things that don't need rearranging. When one massive thing feels completely out of their control, controlling everything else becomes the coping mechanism.

9. Talking About Them in Present Tense: "She loves this song," not "loved." A small grammatical slip that says more about where their head still is than an entire monologue would.

10. Taking Up Something the Person Loved: Picking up their guitar, rewatching their favorite show, cooking their recipes. It's a way of keeping them present without having to say out loud that they're gone.

Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?

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50 Words to Use Instead of "Walked"

For the writers stuck describing every single scene transition as someone "walking" somewhere. Some words are repeated across categories since they fit more than one, but those are counted once, so it adds up to 50 new words.

1. Neutral Tags

Walked, Strolled, Paced, Wandered, Roamed, Moved, Ambled.

2. Slow / Leisurely Tags

Sauntered, Meandered, Dawdled, Loitered, Moseyed, Ambled, Wandered.

3. Fast / Urgent Tags

Hurried, Rushed, Hastened, Scurried, Dashed, Bolted, Scampered.

4. Confident / Purposeful Tags

Strode, Marched, Swaggered, Stalked, Strutted, Paced.

5. Quiet / Sneaky Tags

Crept, Tiptoed, Slunk, Slipped, Padded, Prowled, Sidled.

6. Tired / Struggling Tags

Shuffled, Staggered, Stumbled, Hobbled, Limped, Trudged, Plodded, Dragged, Wobbled.

7. Angry / Aggressive Tags

Stormed, Stomped, Barged, Charged, Thundered, Stamped, Marched.

8. Nervous / Hesitant Tags

Inched, Edged, Sidled, Tottered, Faltered, Crept.

Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks?

Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!

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We need more ugly MCs.

Stop making this a trait reserved for that rat-like sidekick or terrible villain. The class clown isn't the only one who can be fat. The nerd isn't the only one who can get acne.

Give your main characters thin hair, bad teeth, acne, body acne, extra fingers, weird facial hair, bad haircuts, bad fashion, weirdly big feet or hands or foreheads.

Make them weirdly tall or short, make them too fat or too thin. Make their face shape something except 'circular but in a cute way' or diamond/square/heart. Make them have a double chin or sickly transparent skin or short sweaty hands.

Especially if they're adolescents! Especially if they're from a poor/polluted area because no one who grew up drinking toxic water around mines and trash and rubble comes out of it with clear skin and shiny hair their whole life!

Make‼️Your‼️Main‼️Characters‼️Ugly‼️

And make your readers love them anyway

i want to finish writing this chapter no wait i want to finish crocheting that sweater no wait i want to finish this blog post no wait i want to bake those cookies no wait i want to start this weirdly niche new hobby no wait i want to watch one of the billion things in my watch list (but the kdrama, anime, movie, or tv show list?) no wait i want to read that new book no wait--

I took a nap.