Writing Tips/What Beta Readers Taught Me

how to stay motivated as a writer

reread your old writing

reread the scenes you’re most proud of

write something silly. it doesn’t need to be logical, or something you in your story. write something dumb

compare your old writing to your current writing. seeing how much you’ve improved can be very motivating

create AUs for your stories! explore storylines that otherwise never would make it into the story, but you would like to play around with

choose one of your least favorite scenes and rewrite it

act out your scenes

read old comments from people praising your work

create a playlist for your wip

team up with a friend, create AUs for each other’s stories

create playlists for your characters

draw your ocs/make memes of your ocs

draw/make memes of your friend’s ocs

don’t push yourself to get back into writing the thing that made you stop in the first place, you can always write something else!

write what you want to write, no matter how cliché it might be. it's okay

take a break, focus on another hobby of yours. consume other sources of media, or take a walk to clear your head

no need to write in chronological order if it isn’t working for you!

read bad reviews of books/movies/tv-shows. you will start appreciating your own writing more

create a new storyline, or introduce a new character! anything that helps bring something fresh into your story. could even be a completely new wip!

not writing every day doesn’t make you a bad writer. take a break if you feel like you need one

remind yourself to have fun. start writing and don’t focus too much of your attention on following ''the rules.'' you can get into the nitty-gritty when you're more familiarized with writing as an art. or don’t. it’s fiction, you make your own rules

get some rest. go to sleep, take a nap!

remember why you started. know that you deserve to tell the story you want to tell regardless of the skill you possess

my favorite free tools for writers

hello, hello! hope you're doing well.

today i am bringing you another list with my top 3 favorite (free!) tools that I find helpful for each phase of writing a novel.

brainstorming phase

Fantasy Names Generator - not only for fantasy (you can also generate real names). this website is just... amazing! it helps you come up with names for characters, places and locations, descriptions, generate traits, outfits (yes, outfits!!), and probably something else you could ever think of.

The Story's Hack - this one is so cool! you can generate names for everything, create your own generator, and practice writing through writing exercises! plus, you can save your generated names to see later, and you earn coins for each idea generated (you can later buy themes - dark, snow, forest, etc)

RanGen - my last favorite generator on this list is RanGen! you can generate plots, appearances, archetypes, love interests, cities, worlds, items, and more.

developing the idea phase

Bryn Donovan - in this blog you can find master lists under the tag "master lists for writers". it is so helpful when you first start developing the characters and need to find the right words to describe them and to find some quirks and flaws!

Writers Write (350 character traits) - again, this is so helpful!

Story Planner - ah, the number of times I've talked about this website... please, PLEASE take a look at it, you won't regret it. this website has literally everything you need to fully develop your idea with outlines for you to fill in step by step.

writing phase

Colleen Houck (80+ barriers to love) - need more romace conflict? there you go!

Cheat Sheets for Writing Body Language - so, you know how your character's feeling, but don't know how he'd physically act? check out this list!

Describing Words - honestly, this is a lifesaver. don't you struggle to find the right word to describe something? well, with this website all you have to do is to type the object you're trying to describe and see which description fits better to you!

revising phase

Language Tool for Google Docs - i know we all have heard about google docs before, but the truth is, it's almost impossible to find free softwares to check grammar and spelling. so, google docs is useful, because it automatically revises it for us, and it's completely free. plus, you can add adds-on, such as "language tool".

Unfortunately, there's only one (free) tool that I actually enjoy for the revising phase. if you know some others, please let me know so that I can try them out and feature in this list.

exporting phase

Google Docs - i find google docs very easy to format and export to .epub, so i'd recommend using it as a free tool.

Reedsy - this is also a free tool available online. all you have to do is to write down each chapter (copy and paste) or import your word document. it will format the document to your liking and export it to pdf, epub and mobi.

that's everything for now! i hope this post was somehow helpful or inspiring!

if you want to see more master lists full of resources, check these:

WEBSITES FOR WRITERS {masterpost}

BEST accounts to follow as a writer

BEST SITES & SOFTWARES TO WRITE FICTION

DIALOGUE IDEAS TO GET RID OF THAT WRITING BLOCK (masterpost)

Useful Resources & Tips for Writers

also, if you are a notion lover just like me, check the free template I just released with everything you need to develop and write your novel!

thank you so much for reading! hope to see you around, and have a nice day <3

For all you worldbuilders out there, I don't know if you know, but r/worldbuilding on Reddit made this Google Doc with a ton of resources they gathered. Thought that might help some of you.

Creating Fictional Holidays

Every culture and society has holidays! They are often one of the most enjoyable parts of societies and bring people together despite all of their differences. For your story, they are a great way to take your worldbuilding to the next level and make everything feel that much more real. But, Ailey, why does my world even need holidays? Well, personally, holidays are so much fun to create. You can pretty much do whatever you want to do! And, holidays can often provide great opportunitiesfor plots and sub-plots in your story. Holidays can give your characters the opportunity to gather with family, remember the family they lost, get a great deal on a super cute maxi dress, go on a blind date, or go to an awesome costume party. We, as people, need holidays, and so do your characters! So here are some tips on creating holidays for your world. 

Basic Questions to Ask Yourself

What are the rituals/traditions of your holiday?

How long is the holiday (just a day, or a week, or a month)?

If the holiday is longer than a day, does it build up? Is there a most important day, and how does that look?

How does religion influence how your holiday is celebrated?

What food is traditionally served?

How do people decorate to symbolize the holiday?

Are there gifts exchanged?

Do people traditionally play games?

Getting Inspiration

The best place to get inspiration for the holidays in your world is by looking at the world around you. Maybe your family has a super cool and quirky tradition that you always wished was a holiday, tweak it a little to fit the circumstances of your world, and boom now it is. Those traditions are important to you for a reason, and often times, family traditions can eventually morph into a national holiday. Outside of that, I would look at the holidays of both modern and national holidays. Ancient Rome and Ancient Greek have plenty of holidays for you to get inspiration from, and there are so many cultures out there that have incredible traditions that you can most certainly turn into holidays! Almost every holiday is rooted in one of five things which we’ll get to next religion, a season, war, labor, and the government. Make sure that applies to your own world as well. 

 Types of Holidays

Religious Holidays: Your world probably has a primary religion or primary religions. Every religion has holidays that they celebrate to celebrate their god or gods and show their devotion to them. For religious holidays, sacrifice and atonement often play a huge role. Lots of religious holidays include fasting in some part of them. Maybe, there’s a holy person who founded the religion or did something super important and all the people love them. Well then they probably have a holiday or a feast of some kind in their honor. For example, in Catholicism, Saints have Feast Days! I don’t think anyone celebrates every Saint’s Feast Day because that would be like every day of the year. Some people, especially those who live in the Saint’s home town or an area which they are the patron of, have a parade or small festival in their honor on the Feast Day. On the Feast Day of my patron Saint, St. Francis de Sales, I normally will pray a novena which is a prayer you say for nine consecutive days timed so that it ends on his Feast Day, light a candle, say another prayer specific to him on the feast day and maybe bake myself a batch of cookies. 

Seasonal Holidays: Seasons are so important to our world, and lots of cultures celebrate them. Lot of important events rotate around the seasons: harvest, planting, fertility, hunting, hibernation. They mark our journey in life, year after year, and allow us to reflect on all of life’s changes. How your people celebrate seasonality is up to you. You could fashion it after holidays like the Summer and Winter Solstice or the Autumn Equinox. A holiday celebrating summer in my world takes some inspiration from May Day celebrations in England. The holiday could literally be as simple as a festival that celebrates the season’s arrival which could be really interesting if your world has different seasons than ours. Or the holidays could be more complex, tying in cultural values with the seasons. I, personally, would love to see a world with different seasons for a world that has more than four seasons because I think that could bring in some really cool holidays and festivals

War/Government Holidays:  There was most likely a war or a series of wars in the history of your world. People love freedom. It’s a core value for so many people and so many countries. Therefore, most countries like to have a holiday celebrating the day they won their freedom. Almost every country has some kind of Independence Day celebration. If your country has never had to gain their independence, they’ve probably still fought and won a war before. They may celebrate their victory and take the time to remember those who died during the war like many European countries on Victory in Europe Day to celebrate the End of World War 2.  Then you have your government holidays like Presidents Day in the US which isn’t really celebrated, but I do get a day off of school, so that’s always nice. Maybe the ruler of your country has decreed that their birthday is a national holiday in honor of them. Or going along with holiday’s celebrating independence, maybe the country celebrates the birthday of their founder every year in a national holiday! 

Labor Holidays: And lastly, we have our labor holidays, which are some of the best holidays in my opinion. Everyone needs a break at times. Labor holidays acknowledge that, and they give you the day off with absolutely zero strings attached. No church, no war to hold remembrance for, just a party with your friends, no school and no work. These holidays are not the best but also probably some of the most important. If the people in your world work five days a week (assuming weekends and a similar calendar schedule) without any long breaks, they are going to get burnt out. Burnt out people are easily irritable, and easily irritable people lead revolutions. Giving your people a holiday where they don’t have to think about anything else other than themselves is a great way to keep the people appeased! 

things people do in real world dialogue:

• laugh at their own jokes

• don’t finish/say complete sentences

• interrupt a line of thought with a sudden new one

• say ‘uh’ between words when unsure

• accidentally blend multiple words together, and may start the sentence over again

• repeat filler words such as ‘like’ ‘literally’ ‘really’ ‘anyways’ and ‘i think’

• begin and/or end sentences with phrases such as ‘eh’ and ‘you know’, and may make those phrases into question form to get another’s input

• repeat words/phrases when in an excited state

• words fizzle out upon realizing no one is listening

• repeat themselves when others don’t understand what they’re saying, as well as to get their point across

• reply nonverbally such as hand gestures, facial expressions, random noises, movement, and even silence

The secret to avoiding annoyingly perfect characters is less about what they do, and more about what they think and feel. Show that they still want to slack off even if they end up doing what they’re supposed to. The actual plot difference between “I’ll do it, because it’s the Right Thing To Do™!” and “Ugh, fine, I guess I have to do it; it’s…like…the right thing to do, or whatever…” is negligible, but the characterization difference is huge.

Master List: Motivation

Guide: Dealing with Self-Doubt & Impostor Syndrome Guide: How to Rekindle Your Motivation to Write Guide: Filling Your Creative Well 5 Reasons You Lost Interest in Your WIP, Plus Fixes! Would Rather Be Doing Other Things Feeling Unmotivated with WIP Getting Unstuck: Motivation Beyond Mood Boards & Playlists Writing and Depression Trouble Getting Started Getting Your Writing Magic Back After a Break Building Confidence in Your Writing Even When You Suck Writer’s Block Have Plot, Can’t Write Concentrate on Quantity at First, Not Quality Want to Write but Can’t Come Up with a Plot How Do You Know if Your Story is Good Getting Excited About Your Story Again It’s Never Too Late to Become a Writer Comparing Self to Others, Insecure About Writing

Writing Related Fears:

Overcoming Embarrassment Over Own Writing Getting Over Fear of Comparison Diversifying a Story That’s Similar to Existing Story Stopped by Fear of Editing Worried About Writing Style Delaying Writing Out of Fear Finding the Courage to Share for the First Time Afraid of Looking Back and Seeing Bad Writing Afraid of Ideas Being Stolen or Copied Once Shared Afraid of Openly Sharing Writing

Heres a google drive folder filled with art book pdfs, if anyone has some others that you'd like me to add to it thats missing, please let me know and send me the link

Writing Notes: Outline

Outline - a skeletal representation of the sequence of the main ideas in your essay.

The sequence of ideas/topics also serves as a guide for the reader(s) of your paper.

2 Purposes of an Outline

For You as a Writer (this is the “working outline”)

You may draft a working outline in order to organize the sections of your paper as you list the major ideas/topics you plan to discuss.

You may add minor topics and supporting details as your research continues.

In the research and drafting processes, you may need to revise the information included in your working outline as new information comes to light.

For Your Instructor (this is the “final outline”)

The most important aspect of the final outline is that it is truly representative of your actual paper.

If a topic is in your outline but not adequately discussed in your paper, revision is necessary.

To serve as a guide for the reader, the final outline must accurately reflect the content of your paper.

About the Working Outline

The working outline does not need to be written in any specific format.

It is for your own use, an informal rough draft of tentative information that you may use or discard later.

You may write a working outline in whatever form seems most helpful for you.

By the time you have finished your research and begun your paper, you should have a nearly complete outline to edit and use as your final outline.

About the Formal Outline

The standard format for a formal outline includes large Roman numerals for the main headings, capital letters for subtopics and Arabic numerals for the sub-subtopics.

To find specific information regarding correct spacing and alignment, consult your university's handbook.

Example

OUTLINE

Thesis Statement: There are benefits as well as drawbacks to purchasing a home.

I. Benefits of purchasing a home

A. Financial investment B. Personal privacy

II. Drawbacks to purchasing a home

A. Financial commitment B. Costly maintenance

Things to Consider About Outlines

Thesis Statement

Most outlines begin with the thesis statement, aligned to the left and placed directly below the heading (Title) of your outline.

Sentence Outline OR Topic Outline

Consistency is the key to writing your outline.

If your outline is in sentence form, all parts of it (major topics, minor topics, supporting details) must be in sentence form.

If your outline is written in words, and phrases, all of it must be in that form.

The main point to remember is that your outline will be one or the other, all sentences or all words and phrases, not a combination of both.

Paired Headings

If you have a I., you must have at least a II. If you have an A., you must have a B.

If you have a 1., you must have a 2.

There is never a division without at least two headings, although you may have several more than two.

Comparable Numerals or Letters

Like headings are also of equal significance to your paper.

The B or C following an A is of comparable importance to the A.

If the paired headings do not seem aligned, one being a minor point and the other a major area of discussion, you may need to move headings and subheadings around in the working outline to create smooth transition of ideas and information.

Coherence

Your outline will reflect the progression of ideas in each section of your paper, from major topics to minor topics to supporting details or further information.

In organizing your outline, you should find that you have grouped topics in a logical order, and you will be able to see at a glance if you have done so.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References

being a self-taught artist with no formal training is having done art seriously since you were a young teenager and only finding out that you’re supposed to do warm up sketches every time you’re about to work on serious art when you’re fuckin twenty-five