So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how?  How does he know it?”  Interrogate your witnesses.  Cross-examine them.  Make them explain their reasoning.  It pays dividends.

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

This is your "show not tell" advice explained!

Editor here.

First, let me preface this with something very important: you can treat all of this advice as SECOND-DRAFT ADVICE. It is so much easier to rewrite this kind of stuff once you have words on the page. Telling yourself the first draft is totally appropriate and acceptable.

What we’re talking about here are FILTER WORDS (and to some degree verbs of being). Yes, “thought” words are included. But so are “heard, saw, looked, tasted, smelled” etc.—most words having to do with the senses.

This isn’t black and white advice; sometimes you’ll use these words and that’s okay. They’re not WRONG. They’re just weaker. And they’re weaker because they create distance between the reader and the experience of the character.*

If you want your reader to feel like they’re experiencing the story right alongside the character, you want to cut down on filter words.

*This is particularly important with first person and close third POVs. The reader always knows whose eyes they’re seeing through and thoughts they’re privy to. So you don’t need to tell them “I saw X.” Or “I heard X.” Or “I thought Y.” You can just jump into the action/observation as it’s happening.

This is also where you want to pay attention to verbs of being.

“It was rainy.” Versus: “The rain pounded against the roof.” Or “The rain howled like an injured animal.” Or “The rain tapped against the window like an anxious lover.” All of these are inviting the reader deeper into the experience of the story by using stronger verbs and similes. And, at the same time, they stir feelings (instead of TELLING feelings). And feelings keep your reader engaged. Engaged readers keep turning pages; engaged readers become FANS.

This is also where

you want to pay attention

to verbs of being.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

The most valuable advice that Author Ex gave me through the years that we wrote together was this: the problem with all these filter words is that they create distance in the POV.

That means that when you read a line like

It immediately takes you OUT of the character's perspective and instead tells you what they experience as a secondhand observation.

You don't have to get fancy or purple with how you rephrase things like this. Not everything needs a ton of breathing room.

You wanna know what's perfectly impactful while keeping a tight POV?

Simple as that.

What I always love about this every time it crosses my dash is that while it's good advice, it's not actually framed as advice. It's framed as a time-limited challenge. That's very different!

It's not saying "never use these words again." It's saying "give this a try, a really hardcore try, just for a little while (it says six months but obviously you can adjust that), and see what happens." Which is so much more useful, because it's framing it as a learning experience.

If you do this, for six months or two months or one full story or whatever, at the end of that time you'll have a better understanding of when these words are and aren't necessary and when and how to use them to get the specific effect you want - because like defilerwyrm says, they create distance, and maybe sometimes you want that!

So much writing advice falls flat because you can always think of an exception that allows you to ignore the rule. But a writing challenge gives you a chance to explore new territory and see how it works.

This doesn’t include the best bit of the whole thing - she found the Twitter thread!

This is like one of those romance novels where people bond over accidentally writing each other emails but better.

Like Pride and Prejudice but instead of the love interest getting dissed for his toxicity and then reforming, it’s just two people bonding over dissing a dead toxic asshole.

10/10 would recommend

When writing always remember… a character flaw is only a flaw until becomes useful. 

Is your protagonist manipulative? Well that’s awful… until they manipulate the antagonist into making a decision that saves the lives of their friends. 

Is your protagonist a skeptic? Well that’s not good… until someone tries to lie to them. 

Is your protagonist overprotective? That sucks… until someone they love is in danger. 

Is your protagonist remorseless? Well that makes them pretty unlikeable… until a hard decision has to be made. 

The flipside is also true!

Your protagonist is honest? That’s good… until their survival depends on them being able to lie convincingly.

Your protagonist is brave? That’s good… until they foolishly run headlong into danger without a thought for the consequences.

Your protagonist is forgiving and able to see good in everyone? That’s good… until they continually forgive someone who doesn’t deserve it, and get taken advantage of because they can’t fathom that some people just suck.

Your protagonist is funny? That’s good… until they piss off everyone around them because they don’t seem to be taking the situation seriously, and they keep avoiding dealing with their problems by hiding behind humor.

Most personality traits aren’t inherently good or bad. It’s all about context, and how far they go.

Fairy Tale Retellings with POC

@anjareedd asked:

Fairy tale retellings are my favorite thing. I love reading, rewriting and creating new fairy tale-style stories with People of Color!

As you write, keep in mind:

European does not mean white. 

The possibility of PoC in European or Western historical settings tends to throw off so many. There are plenty of European People of Color, then and today. You can have an Indian British little red riding hood and it isn’t “unrealistic.” And we wanna read about them!

Still, research the history of your settings and time period. Use multiple credible sources, as even the most well-known ones may exclude the history of People of Color or skim over it. The stories might be shoved into a corner, but we live and have lived everywhere. The specific groups (and numbers of) in a certain region may vary, though. 

No need to elaborate all too much. A sentence or more woven into the story in passing may do the trick to establish context, depending on your story and circumstance. 

Or if you want to ignore all of that, because this is fantasy-London or whatever, by all means do. POC really don’t need a explanation to exist, but I simply like to briefly establish context for those who may struggle to “get it”, personally. This is a side effect of POC being seen as the Other and white as the default.

Although, if PoC existing in a fairy tale is the reader’s biggest stumbling block in a world of magic, speculation, or fantasy, that’s none of your concern.

Can you picture any of the people below, or someone with these backgrounds, the protagonist of their own fairytale? I hope so!

The examples above just scratch the surface. Luckily, more and more historians and researchers are publishing lesser known (and at times purposefully masked) PoC history.

More Sources 

Let’s talk about oppression and slavery 

There is a hyper-focus on chattel slavery as if the times when and where it occurred is the only narrative that exists. And even when it is part of a Person of Color’s history, that is seldom all there is to say of the person or their lives. For example, Dido Elizabeth Belle.

People of Color were not all slaves, actively enslaved, or oppressed for racial reasons at all times in history! Dig deep into the research of your time period and region. Across the long, wide history of the world, People of Color are and were a norm and also NOT simply exceptions. Explore all the possibilities to discover the little known and seldom told history. Use this as inspiration for your writing.

PoC (especially Black people) were not always in chains, especially in a world of your making. 

Don’t get me wrong. These stories do have a place and not even painful histories should be erased. I personally read these stories as well, if and when written by someone who is from the background. Some might even combine fairy tale, fantasy, and oppression in history. However…

There are plenty of stories on oppressed PoC. How many fairy tales?

Many European tales have versions outside of Europe. 

Just because a tale was popularized under a western setting doesn’t mean that it originates there. Overtime, many were rewritten and altered to fit European settings, values and themes.

Read original tales. 

You might be inspired to include a story in its original setting. Even if you kept it in a western setting, why not consider a protagonist from the ethnicity of the story’s origin?

For example: the Cinderella most are familiar with was popularized by the French in 1697. However, Cinderella has Chinese and Greek versions that date back from the 9th Century CE and 6th Century BCE, respectively. 

Choosing a Setting: European or Non-European?

I do not see anything wrong with either (I write tales set in western and non-western settings, all with Heroines of Color). There is great potential in both.

Non-Western Settings (pros and cons)

European or Western Setting (pros and cons)

Outdated Color and Ethnic Symbolism 

Many fairy tales paint blackness (and darkness, and the Other) as bad, ominous and ugly, and white as good and pure. 

Don’t follow an old tale back into that same pit of dark and Other phobia. There’s many ways to change up and subvert the trope, even while still using it, if you wish. Heroines and heroes can have dark skin and large noses and still stand for good, innocence and beauty.

Non-European Fairy tales - Tips to keep in Mind: 

Some stories and creatures belong to a belief system and is not just myth to alter. Before writing or changing details, read and seek the opinions of the group. You might change the whole meaning of something by tweaking details you didn’t realize were sacred and relevant.

Combine Tales Wisely: 

Picking stories and beings from different cultural groups and placing them in one setting can come across as them belonging to the same group or place (Ex: A Japanese fairy tale with Chinese elements). This misrepresents and erases true origins. If you mix creatures or elements from tales, show how they all play together and try to include their origin, so it isn’t as if the elements were combined at random or without careful selection.

Balance is key: 

When including creatures of myths, take care to balance your Human of Color vs. creatures ratio, as well as the nature of them both (good, evil, gray moral). EX: Creatures from Native American groups but no human Native characters from that same group (or all evil, gray, or too underdeveloped to know) is poor representation.

Moral Alignment: 

Changing a good or neutral cultural creature into something evil may be considered disrespectful and misappropriation. 

Have Fun! 

No, seriously. Fairy tales, even those with the most somber of meanings, are meant to be intriguing little adventures. Don’t forget that as you write or get hung up on getting the “right message” out and so on. That’s what editing is for.

–Colette  

"but the text never explicitly stated it!!!" hey, so that's actually what they tried to teach you in those english classes you barely passed 😁

[ID: A post by silvercndleyaoi that says "'it's not canon its implied' do you think they implied it for shit and giggles" End ID]

lacey paige ramburger's website / IG

I mean this in the most respectful way possible but some people really could use a reminder that if your blorbo isn’t your own original character, you do not own them — and that means there will be people who involve your blorbo in things or ships that you hate. “but it’s incest”, “but it’s adult x minor”, “but it’s rape”, “but it’s abusive”, “but my blorbo would never do that”. well, there is nothing you can do about that.

and as long as no one in real life is being hurt, your call out posts against them and your encouraging other people to harass them will not make you morally superior, it will only make you a bully who values the nonexistent lives of fictional characters more than real living, breathing people.

thought crimes are not real. fantasies are not real. no living thing is being harmed because of someone’s dark fantasies. the fictional characters you try to protect are not real, they don’t have life or feelings. they are just fantasies that people play with.

more often than not, the people you call red flags or predators, for involving fictional characters in dark fantasies, are victims who use dark fantasies, in an environment they can control, to cope and heal from their trauma.

but even if someone was never a victim, they still have the rights to freely express their thoughts through fantasies, be it fanfics or fan art or anything else.

the bottom line is that no one in real life is harmed and no one owes anyone any explanation as to why they create and/or enjoy dark fantasies.

(if, hypothetically, someone lets fiction affect their mind so much to the point that they harm real people in real life, then the issue, the real problem is that person’s inability to separate fiction from reality, not the fiction they consume and/or create that have taboo contents in them — and chances are that they are already troubled and a danger to themself and those around them, with or without the fiction they consume.)

“things that are taboo and morally wrong have no place in fandom” actually what has no place in fandom is fandom police. the point of fandom is for people to have fun. you don’t own the fandom you’re in. you don’t own the fictional characters that you love (unless they’re your own oc). other people have as much rights within fandom space as you do, and that is “as long as you have fun, you can enjoy your favorite fictional characters however you want”.

there are things in fiction that I don’t like, things that make me extremely uncomfortable. what I do is that I ignore, scroll past, mute or block them when I see them and I mind my own business. I don’t harass real people over fiction.

it’s really important to curate your own internet/fandom experiences, protect your own peace of mind and Not Be a Bully. mute/block what you don’t want to see, instead of harassing real people for the sake of fictional characters.

There's a reason you turned off comments

yes, and that reason is because I was getting dozens of bot comments asking for money and tagging hundreds of people in my comments section — hence comments on all of my posts have been disabled for months now. if you’re implying that I turned off comments “because I didn’t want the discussion” then I would have turned off reblogs too

how gullible do you think I am

I don’t think about you at all because I don’t know who you are. I’m simply stating a fact about why comments are turned off

I think people have truly lost any ability to be patient with storytelling.

‘I don’t understand this’ They’ll explain it if you wait.

‘I don’t like how this episode left things hanging’ There’s a continuation next week.

‘This character is flat’ Wait for them to be fleshed out.

So many of the complaints I see about shows lately are people being confused by things THAT THE SHOW WANTS YOU TO BE CONFUSED BY THATS THE FUN OF MYSTERY AND FORESHADOWING YOU ABSOLUTE GOBLINS THE MAIN CHARACTER IS ALSO CONFUSED AND THEYRE GONNA DO A BIG REVEAL AND EXPLANATION LATER IF YOU WOULD JUST FUCKING WAIT

what bothers me most about Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights is the discourse that continues to be propagated (often by women themselves!) that because it was written by a woman, the novel must reflect the kind of relationship the author secretly dreamed of, that she was quirky, dark, perhaps secretly romantic in a morbid way. if it had been written by a man, everyone would say: “oh, the author is analyzing toxic relationships through these characters. he’s criticizing them.” it always bothered me that Brontë was immediately branded as a weird lovelorn woman, when in reality there is not much in her biography to attest to that. she was just a very intelligent writer who thought about a very intelligent subject like any of her male counterparts.

the canon always sees men as universal observers and geniuses who undertake social studies, but when it comes to women, they are reduced to being mere subjective chroniclers of interiority, supposedly recording their personal romantic fantasies.

many novels contain a romantic thread. among other things, Wuthering Heights opens with one. but most of the book is about revenge, cruelty, trauma, inheritance, generational damage etc. and yet, because it was written by a woman, only the love story is treated as significant.

if Wuthering Heights had been written by, say, F. Scott Fitzgerald, critics would likely praise the ruthless anatomy of obsession. I am just so sick of this. I sure would love to see the day when The Great Gatsby is marketed as the greatest love story ever told, overflowing with loose erotic scenes, rather than the highbrow social critique it’s usually presented as. the idea that women write “from emotion” while men write “from intellect” is still too deeply sedimented in how we talk about art.

I can say with certainty that I have never felt more rage towards a modern project that has appeared on the scene in recent years. it seems to me more like a clear statement of hostility against those who have a sincere passion for humanities, a declaration coming from the wealthiest and most privileged, who are effectively telling us that they can transform any narrative into their own fantasy project and thus detourn any socio-critical theme that is inconvenient for their self-indulgence. the casting really does not seem to be a mere blunder in this regard.

Some good news for the indie authors (and all authors, really) today: Draft2Digital is now enabling ebook distribution to bookshop.org, which means you can now support more authors and local indie bookstores with your ebook purchases.

It'll likely take a while for distribution to roll out, but this is a huge part of bookshop.org continuing to challenge Amazon/Kindle, and partnering with Draft2Digital just made that a lot easier on the author side.

Unfortunately not nearly as good as it seems at least for anyone wanting to consume or sell erotica.

This is something that's become increasingly problematic in publishing, both trad and indie, with more and more book print distributors and book retailers coming down harder on "erotic" content.

So while I'm disappointed, I'm not surprised.

There's been a reason Erotica has thrived as a genre primarily on Amazon for a while now — but even there, we've seen increasing censorship, and authors struggling to get eyes on their work because the algorithm is hiding their work. (We call it the 'erotica dungeon,' and it's not as fun as it sounds. It's basically algorithmic death.)

And to any of my fellow Romance authors who think this doesn't affect us: it already does.

Amazon and other publishers already discriminate and classify LGBTQ+ content as inherently more erotic than het-romance. You could write the sweetest, cutest, most tooth-rotting LGBT fluff on the planet with zero hardcore erotica in it, but because you've tagged it as LGBT, you're inherently pushed toward the Erotica genre.

And really, it's all just goal posts built on a foundation of shifting sands. Just because they're letting your work slide today doesn't mean they'll do it forever.

And if that makes you mad because you don't want to be lumped in with the icky, gross sex writers, well, I'd hold your hand when I say this, but I don't want to: you're part of the problem.

So either get good with Erotica existing and push back against this kind of thing, or watch your careers die. Your choice.

A reminder that darker fiction has a right to exist and explore themes that people are uncomfortable with. Yes, even if it's romanticized. Yes, even if you personally don't like it.

Authors have always written about things that they don't agree with morally, and I hope to god they always will, despite how shitty people treat them for doing that now.

when the story got a weapon that requires self harm to wield

>it's self harm because all acts of violence are a form of self harm: 🙄🥱

>it's self harm because the weapon is an extension of you and the reckless way you use it reflects your self hatred: ☝️‼️

>it's self harm because the weapon doesn't want to be used for that purpose and forcing it to do so means fighting to subjugate its will to your own every step of the way:

honestly yall just gotta be comfortable reading books that make you feel stupid

Uncommon Words / Phrases to be Inspired by

[Prompt Calender: January 9th, National Word Nerd Day]

One of the hardest things for me to learn and practice in my writing is that people do not say that much.

My character dialogue frequently feels contrived. They open up to partners too quickly, maintain perfect communication with friends, and hold back exactly the right info from enemies. Yet, irl, I've observed and contributed to much miscommunication, lost opportunities, and unconscious distrust of friendly motivations. Natural speech is not tailored, and appropriately expressing abstract thoughts takes skill.

We've heard film media fans deride "therapy talk" wherein characters uncharacteristically and eloquently divulge their inner struggles to others and receive perfect, textbook advice in response. This feels inauthentic because most humans don't talk like that! We skirt around our problems, we feel uncomfortable when others vent, we want to avoid conflict and rejection, and our well-meant words sometimes do more harm than good.

People also tend to talk a lot, but say little. Some writers don't want their stories stuffed with useless conversations, banter, and small-talk that don't advance the plot—we want that story grown up and moved out! But please, include those things. Include those scenes where friends hide thoughts from friends by joking around instead, where a rival remembers someone's thoughtless comment to use as ammo later, where a happy couple argues over a minor miscommunication. These aspects can add depth to a story that feels manufactured, or life to characters that sound scripted.

If this is you don't stress, natural dialogue takes a while to finesse. Currently, I write the meaning behind the dialogue first then smudge it up in redrafts. As with all writing advice, this one should not be treated as a crucial ingredient, but be measured out to fit your story's needs.

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I think a lot of writers might benefit from giving themselves permission to get weird with format.

Use second person, drop classic rising action and climax format, write backwards, just sit in a moment, tell all you want and refuse to show, make an entire book that’s just one run on sentence, reject tropes, use all tropes, cliche yourself to death, produce something that’s completely gibberish. Break all the rules of marketability. Become ungovernable.

Write a story that just takes place inside one pathetic little person’s head. Do it. It’s enrichment in your enclosure.

Do the writer’s equivalent of playing with finger paints. Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it

It’s the middle of the night and I should be sleeping but listen. Listen. Just get weird with it. Open your soul up a little bit. Like actually don’t worry about it being palatable. I’m serious. Get weirder. Get weirder right now. I’m demanding that you get weirder right now. It’s not your responsibility to make your reader feel good. It’s your job to make art, goddamnit. Make art. Make weird art. Open up your third eye and eat an entire cheesecake.