Foreshadowing Creatively

If you are trying to build up towards the 'big moment' throughout a few prior chapters,

Let's assume that we want to reveal the the fact that Character A's husband is cheating on her. The big moment here would be when she witnesses them kissing in the parking lot.

To drop subtle hints about it, we could:

Think about the big moment from two different points of view: someone who knows about it all along, and someone who doesn't. How would it look from an outsider's POV?

I find it helpful to think about howI tried to justify the bad events that has happened to me.

Drive your character's mood slowly towards the revelation. If it's an emotional one, I'd say the atmospheric/symbolic elements would be more important; if it's puzzle pieces finally clicking in place, you could provide a brief overview of how past events are finally put together by your main character at the end.

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Hi! Thanks for the question. Here are some other ways you can convey time passing in the story:

You can try description the things that indicates mornings - bird chirping, the sunlight on your eyes, alarms, clock hands, smell of breakfast toast, etc.

Alternatively, you can indicate the timing of events before, and just omit it when you actually talk about the action, for example:

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Outlining is the process of listing the general progress of your story/ laying out the plot points before your start writing. Outlining will help you be focused on the major plot line(s) to get to the ending of the story.

There are many outlining frameworks you can use. I've listed some popular ones here:

The 3 Act Structure

15 Beats from <Save the Cat!>

The Fretag Pyramid

9-Step Plot Dot

Happy writing:)

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Reacting to Death

I don't like writing reaction beats myself, I'd usually keep the inititial "reaction scene" short, but show how the character slips into thining about the dead person time to time.

Another reason why your scene may sound "cringey" might be because the overall personality of your character doesn't match the kind of reaction they would have. Not everyone has to break down sobbing the second they get the news.

The Initial Reaction

There can be so many reactions to the news that someone is dead:

You can try picking 1-2 of these and keep the scene powerful and short. If this is a POV character, you can:

Subsequent Path of Recovery (or not)

Arguably, I would say that how you choose to take your character back to the death after the initial realization is more important.

The key here would be to keep these "sorrow" beats short and sudden. You can show how the death impacts the choices your character makes, e.g. "The shopkeeper's wavy hair reminds me of my mother, so I follow her, chasing a ghost of my mother that wasn't really there."

My Plotting/Character Development Process

Honestly, I don't do much character work before I start writing a first draft. I always feel like my characters do what they want anyway, so I'd come up with a brief character profile (like age, nationality, major likes and dislikes,etc) and let myself figure them out on the way.

Here's a brief breakdown of my plotting process:

Other things I would do:

And a list of questions I use for character profiles (I won't try to answer all of them before I start, just pick and choose):

I woke up from my 2 hour nap, haunted by a dream:

Now I just need to write a story about this because I don't feel rested at all.

Latin: Words/Phrases of Love ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

Thank you all for the attention that my Latin words/phrases lists are getting! (interesting latin phrases, soft-souning latin phrases)

Here are some Latin phrases regarding love:

...and because ruined love is also love:

As always, happy writing.

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Reference: Latin for the Illiterati: a modern guide to an ancient language by Jon R. Stone, second edition 2009.

Therefore, However, Meanwhile.

An important characteristics of plot is that events must be connect to the next one seamlessly and logically. The three types of relationships between events must be either:

It should never be:

While having multiple episodes to show character and build atmosphere is great, a story must be weaved in a way that the readers are introduced to a chain of plot-driven episodes. That way, your narrative will both flow better and capture the attention of the reader.

Happy writing!

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Soft-Feeling Latin Words & Phrases

Another list of Latin phrases, this time with soft/warm meanings. It is 2:39am as I make this list.

As always, happy writing!

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Reference: Latin for the Illiterati: a modern guide to an ancient language by Jon R. Stone, second edition 2009.

Writing a Cunning Character

I think the key to writing such a character would be to show how aware he is of the subtle reactions of others, and purposefully saying/doing things knowing fully well that there is plenty of room for misinterpretation.

For example:

You can show him carefully noting such details, in situations where he wants something out of the other person, like a job or money or a one-night stand...whatever it is. Maybe he uses his charm to cheat people out of their money or to get them to obey ridiculous orders because he just likes the sensation of exerting control over someone.

If you're writing from the cunning character's 1st person POV, you can insert little mental notes that he makes to himself. Perhaps he smiles internally at how easy the other person is, or is even proud of himself for a particularly manipulative move.

If you're writing 3rd person, it would be enough to write (1) the manipulative action/diagloue and (2) the corresponding result right next to each other to imply what's going on.

example: He reached across the desk for the cup, and their knuckles brushed briefly. A pair of dimples flashed as he smiled with all of his face. She swallowed; and nodded. "Alright."

Hope this helps! As always, happy writing.

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Writing the Seeds of Conflict

I see two characters falling apart happening in two broad categories:

Some ideas for the first option:

Some ideas for the second option:

Hope this helps! As always, happy writing.

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Writing a POV Character with Memory Problems

If your character is experiencing amnesia due to a traumatic event/accident, you can allude to it as "that day", "accident" or "event" early on and let your readers pick up on the pieces of memory that may come back to her or derive what happened from snippets of information provided by other characters.

Her are some ways you could introduce the main character in the opening scene:

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Writing A Mysterious POV Character

Thanks for the question!

Here are some characteristics that I think makes a POV character "mysterious"

I think the best way to portray this is to provide examples, which I think qualify as mysterious narrators. Note that not all mysterious narrators are unreliable narrators, although they could be. Here are the selected narrators and a few extracts for illustration purposes, divided by loosely defined subcategories (there can be overlaps!):

Incomprehensive Jargon & Allusions

Given that you can do this without boring or genuinely pissing off the reader, using lots of jargon, making allusions to things your target audience will probably not know to create atmosphere can be effective.

I recommend having a strong thematic core to justify all that jargon and reference, though.

The characters talk and make references to Greek/the Classics. Arguably, it is not "incomprehensible", but the entire book is tirelessly full of them and unless you are a scholar in a related field, very unlikely to know all the Greek/ancient works being referenced all the time.

Interesting style where the characters talk and even think in Shakespeare. They literally quote lines from Shakespeare to talk to each other. Not as difficult to follow as <The Secret History>, given that these are q famous plays (Hamlet, Macbeth, etc.) but it certainly adds well to the mystery at the heart of the book's plot.

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Witholding Information

Have your narrator subtely refer to a large event in their past (a murder, a traumatic memory, etc) but never telling the reader upfront, making them only make implied guesses.

The only reservation I would have for this option is to not annoy the reader by letting them know the narrator has information, but is somehow not telling them. It would help to have a clear reason for them to not talk about it: e.g. they haven't accepted the past themselves, they're too scared to talk about it, etc.

In here, the narrator has killed someone in the past - a fact that only becomes kind of clear at the end. Even then, the murder is never referenced because this narrator has some serious mental issues, but when you look back with this knowledge at the end of the book, her behavior starts making more sense.

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Reconstructing the Narrative

Don't go in chronological order. Use time skips, or invent a new system for the narrator to arrange their memories and thus, retell the story. This gives the narrator power over the narrative because they've seen the whole thing play out, but the readers are getting bits and pieces, trying to get the puzzle pieces to fall together.

Other options:

Using screenplay-like interruptions to the narrative that limits the reader's access to the characters' minds. Also creates interesting tone.

[I don't have pictures for this because I only have the Korean version....but really worth mentioning]

Here, the narrator has dementia and cannot fully remember the murders he has committed in the past. He is also an unreliable narrator who can only remember things in bits and pieces - thus the typical chronological order is interrupted.

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"Non-Human" Perspectives

Give yourself a narrator that is not human, or is "dehumanized" in some way (lack of emotion, inability to relate to others, etc.) to view the entire world from a perspective not often experienced by the average human.

Zusak inserts these little "pronouncements" or "interruptions" to the narrative and the calm but transcending tone constantly raises questions.

---

Do note that the overall tone of the novel contributes significantly to how the narrator comes across to the readers. Many of the works above also deal with "reality vs. unreality" as a theme, which is augmented by the use of a mysterious narrator that prompts the reader to challenge

Hope this helps, Happy writing :)

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What's Your Favorite Time to Write?

Posting this after working on a story outline between 2-4:00AM.

+ Any other crazy student writer who stays up to write the night before their exam --

List of Interesting Latin Phrases

A list I made just to satisfy my vain cravings for resonating mottos for a secret society I'm working on. Enjoy!

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Reference: <Latin for the Illiterati: a modern guide to an ancient language> by Jon R. Stone, second edition, 2009

Hmmmm I've never had a pet and I've basically killed every plant that has ever set foot in my life?? Should ask a gardening blog -

Okay just joking, I can adress that question in two ways:

Summoning Animals and Plants

I don't imagine raising animals and plants being too different from summoning anything magically. It could be as simple as:

Some ideas for summoning spells/rituals:

Nurturing Fantasy Animals and Plants

There are a few ways in which raising fantasy pets can be different:

For plants, especially:

Hope this helps! :) Happy writing.

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