Today I Learned

New clip of Carmelita Spats with the Baudelaires & Quagmires from The Austere Academy 

My writing tips

Sharing advice I found the most helpful from researching and reading that worked the best for me while writing.

How to write the first chapter

When you are stuck in your writing

How to find the right title

How to build a magic system

Dystopia vs post-apocalyptic fiction

Young adult vs new adult

How to find new writing ideas

Scene, story plan and plot

Tips on writing multiple protagonists

How to add meaning to your story

How to make a plot out of theme

Friends to lovers development

Sport stories

What makes a story

Developing a story

Types of enemies to lovers

Tips on writing the first page

Internal value of writing

Character building questions

Time passing in writing

Publishing and marketing discussion

How to pick the MBTI for your character

Key to binge-worthy stories

Why coax the story out of your head

How to coax the story out of your head

How to measure your story

Successful (online) friendships

Types of intelligence for OCs

Feel free to ask me anything about writing! My askbox is always open and I love talking about anything writing related :D

I recently discovered laundry stripping and y’all, no matter how much of a crock of shit you think fast fashion is, you’re underestimating.

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

Lemony Snicket's Calendar of Unfortunate Events

Jan 12: Birthday of Jacques Snicket, as well as that of his sister.

Feb 26: Jacques Snicket “taken” and initiated into V.F.D.

Mar 18: Jacques Snicket, given his first assignment, disguises himself accordingly.

Mar 31: Alleged date the alleged Baudelaire mansion allegedly burned down.

Apr 8: Isadora Quagmire’s whereabouts unknown.

Apr 17: Jacques Snicket disguise discovered. Alternate disguise employed.

May 13: Nine cows arrested by the authorities under the suspicion of involvement with V.F.D. Jacques Snicket, disguised as the tenth cow, escapes on a stolen tractor.

Jun 26: Jacques Snicket arrives in Paltryville to continue Baudelaire investigation.

Jul 6: Jacques Snicket reports his findings to The Daily Punctilio.

Jul 7: The Daily Punctilio does not publish Jacques Snicket’s report.

Aug 9: V.F.D. declares Jacques Snicket “either missing or on vacation.”

Sep 23: Summer is dead and Jacques Snicket does not return. V.F.D. changes his status to “missing.”

Oct 10: The remaining Snicket siblings open their investigation into Jacques Snicket’s disappearance.

Nov 7: Jacques Snicket reported murdered.

Dec 2: Jacques Snicket reported ill.

Jan 4: Director and screenwriter Gustav Sebald reported missing.

Jan 10: Gustav Sebald found murdered.

Jan 27: V.F.D. declares remaining Snicket siblings “either missing or on vacation.” Very few vacations are scheduled in January.

UNCONVENTIONAL NOVELS

[last updated Jan. 21, 2022]

(a list I put together… of lists I did not put together)

For those interested in techniques and genres that are outside of the mainstream market in the West/Americas, here’s a post of resources you can refer to for inspiration, research, or quiet support.

I believe there is no One Right Way to write a novel, and no one right way to present it either. Niche genres do exist, after all, and writing is an art form. Remember that writing “rules” are not a one-size-fits-all deal.

DISCLAIMER !! : Note there will be some overlap and you don’t have to like or agree with anything here. Also, while you may come across books by diverse authors, a lot of the ones listed here are old and probably written by white people, but BIPOC can and should be allowed to experiment with these, too. If content doesn’t interest you then maybe structure will. Form your own opinions.

but first, some recommended reading

Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative  by Jane Alison - in this book, the author explores form and pattern through close readings of various (niche/unconventional) novels.

What is Postmodernism in Literature? - a brief Youtube video presented by Dr. Masood Raja (Postcolonialism channel); simple yet informative.

Wikipedia articles - antinovel | verse novel | defamiliarization | metafiction | digression (literary) | fragmentary novel | weird fiction | new weird | slipstream | experimental literature | postmodern literature | interactive novel | hypertext fiction | LitRPG | cybertext | New Sincerity |

I’ll continue to update this post over time or write up more.

anti-novels

No rules, no problems. Take all the tropes and conventions of the typical novel and bastardize them through chaos. Or throw them out and make your own.

Goodreads: list of 100+

Barnes & Noble: flex your reading muscles

Millions article: long live the anti-novel, built from scratch

a review of Subimal Misra’s work This Could Have Become Ramayan Chamar’s Tale: Two Anti-Novels

bizarre, weird fiction

If you ever wanted to read or write about cat men on Mars, or a bear who talks and plays the saxophone, or people with blue butts… Well, you can.

Book Riot: 100 strange and unusual novels

Bustle: 13 super strange books

Goodreads: Monster/Erotica books

Owlcation: 10 of the weirdest novels ever written

blog post by Z. Burns ft. 7 more weird books

experimental

Hard to define but generally more about form than content. Maybe you want half your story told in footnotes. Maybe your paragraphs are separated from the main body of text and dispersed all over the page. Maybe some of it is upside-down.

Goodreads list

Bustle: 10 experimental novels that aren’t hard to read

Standout Books: 5 experimental novels that will inspire any writer

(preview) Experimental Fiction: An Introduction for Readers and Writers Julie Armstrong

sparse plot / low conflict / books where “nothing happens”

Very basically, a plot is a sequence of events affected through cause-and-effect. In the West, audiences often expect there to be a linear series of conflicts that ultimately leads to a big “showdown”. This is not a universal narrative structure, and personally I would love to see more “cozy” fantasy novels that aren’t about saving the world or destroying an oppressive government.

Reddit recommendations - “a book where nothing happens”

Book Riot: in praise of plotless books

(blog) mundane and slice-of-life SFF recommendations

 sketch story (wikipedia) | literary sketch (britannica)

“I would like to read a novel that is composed of numerous very interesting facts, but which nonetheless fails to cohere for me as a book.”

● source: (blog): I would like to read a dull plotless novel…

List Challenges: novels with no plot whatsoever

Reddit thread on slice-of-life/mundane speculative fiction

recommended reading

the significance of plot without conflict - an excellent post on the kishotenketsu structure, which is influenced by East Asian values such as unity and harmony over conflict and resolution.

what is iyashikei and why should you care? - often found in anime and manga, the purpose of this genre is to provide healing

Keep reading

i’ve said in vfdiscord earlier about how the conclusions in Sub-file B in file under: 13 suspicious incidents that don’t have matching counter parts from Sub-file One might possibly be Jacques’ or Kit’s mission / cases / incidents encountered misfiled because of someone maybe someone confused those with Lemony’s cases because of the same last name.

so after getting home today i reread some and i have. some more thoughts. like the misfilings could be of various reasons and not just last name Snicket, though some of them still might be.

take for example:

museum authorities??? well we all knew one person who was hanging around museum during the atwq times. there’s nothing saying it’s the same museum as the one kit was plotting to steal from (implying it’s in The City), but there’s also nothing directly saying that the mine voices was from the same mine Marguerite worked at (implying it’s at SBTS)

anyway more under cut because this got long

Читать дальше

Once upon a time I worked in this little burger/coffee/ice cream shop and a lady came in one winter and asked if we had a caramel apple drink and we were like ‘well we have cider’ and she was like ‘no I don’t remember what it’s called but this place made a drink that was chai tea, apple cider, and caramel’ and Breezy offered to try and make something for her but she changed her mind and left so Breezy and I were like ‘alright let’s try this’ because we had chai tea, instant cider mix, a shit ton of caramel, instant hot water from the espresso and too much free time. 

And let me tell you it was delightful. It tastes like watching the leaves changing color and dancing in the wind. It tastes like picking out pumpkins and gourds and fresh apples at the farm up north. It tastes like witches and freedom.

I make it every year now and this year I walked in the house on the morning of October first with all the ingredients and shouted ‘FALL DRINK’ and my roommates were like ‘????’ so I made them Fall Drink and now every time they get home from work they’re like ‘Fall Drink pls?????’

Anyway I remember literally nothing else about that woman but I’m very grateful to her. 

Three abandoned chapels

Oh yes, that period piece about a gay couple with an age-gap living near the water