Lune-versatile

we always say that writing improves with practice, which is true & good to remind people of, but i think we fail to emphasize that literally every part of your writing will get better with time and effort.  sure, your prose will become clearer and more sophisticated, but it’s so much more than that.

you’ll become so much faster, for one thing.  if it takes you two weeks to complete a 3k chapter when you start out, you’ll eventually reach a point when you can crank that out in a matter of days.  maybe right now your story ideas are like a dripping faucet–slow, random, and occasional.  well, the longer you let that faucet run, the more your ideas will start to flow, until suddenly you’re finding inspiration in everything.  the length and complexity of your stories will grow too.  you might start writing stories in the 2-10k range, but you’ll eventually find that you’re writing 20-30k stories without even really intending to.

of course your style will improve.  of course your imagery will become richer.  of course your syntax will start to flow better.  but there are so many other aspects of the writing process, and literally every single one of them will start getting better too.

Outlining Resources

Nanowrimo Prep Workbook (outlining: session 3, page 19)

Choosing the Best Outlining Method for You

Outline Your Story Like a Subway Map

How to Build a Plot from an Idea

How to Build a Plot from Characters/Setting

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~Grand List of Writing Resources~

On creating a wiki for your worldbuilding

Do you have a lot of lore to keep track of? Whether you're an author, a Game Master, or simply someone who really really likes worldbuilding, this post is for you.

Here's a quick overview of what I'll be talking about:

Platforms people use to create personal wikis

Formats and organization systems you may find useful when creating your own wiki

A brief look at the actual content you might put in your wiki (I'm planning a more in-depth post on that later with more images and demos)

And because this is gonna be a long'un, I'm putting a read-more here! I'll also make downloadable epub and PDF versions of this post available for free on my Ko-Fi at some point in the future.

(I'm also planning to reblog with a list of links later on, but I want this initial post shows up in search)

Also now that you're here, I'm going to say this isn't, like, super comprehensive or anything. I'm just talking about stuff I know a little about or have experience with. Please feel free to reblog with additions and/or corrections as needed!

What is a wiki?

According to Wikipedia, "a wiki is a hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser."

In this case, you'll likely be the sole person making updates to your wiki. The web browser part is optional these days as well, as you'll soon see.

Platforms for creating wikis

Websites for creating worldbuilding wikis

WorldAnvil

This one is actually designed for people who want to create big worldbuilding wikis.

Pros: Worldbuilding prompts! Those are great. It's got a pretty comprehensive set of article types too.

Cons: Kind of expensive to upgrade for features like making your wiki private, and it does NOT work well with adblock turned on, so if you don't want to pay for a membership you'll get inundated with ads. I'm not a huge fan of the interface in general and a lot of it isn't intuitive, but I like what they're doing so I support them anyway.

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Tiddlywiki/Tiddlyhost.com.

In addition to having a cat as its icon and also a silly name, each 'article' you create with this is called a 'tiddler' which makes me think of Chuck Tingle. I haven't used it much myself yet, but I did make an account and it seems pretty neat.

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Miraheze

A community-hosted wiki platform that runs on MediaWiki (which is what Wikipedia runs off of).

Pros: It's not Fandom.com.

Cons: You have to request a wiki and can't just make it yourself, as far as I can tell. I haven't actually looked into this one as much.

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Neocities

An option for if you want to go super oldschool and create a website using only basic html and hyperlinks (without the handy shortcuts of bbcode or Markdown). Monthly cost is $5 usd if you want to have more space and your own domain.

Pros: 100% control over your content.

Cons: Doesn't support PHP databases for wiki software, and can be fairly labour-intensive to update if you break a link or something.

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Fandom.com

Unfortunately, this one is the top result you'll get when you look up how to make your own wiki. I'm only including it here to tell you to stay as far away from it as possible!!

Its staff are known to ban wiki creators from their own wikis and a bunch of other nonsense that I'm not getting into here.

Programs and apps/web apps for creating worldbuilding wikis

Obsidian.md

My personal favourite. I'm planning to make a whole post about how I use it in the near future as part of this article series.

It's a markdown-based application that you can get on just about any platform (Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android, etc) which is great. Obsidian is really easy to pick up and use and also has great themes and community plugins!

Best thing is, it's FREE and you only have to pay if you use their publishing service, which... I don't, so.

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Notion

I've heard this one is pretty good too. Idk if it costs anything. It's another "second brain" style app (might be markdown also?) and I think it might do more than Obsidian, but I haven't checked it out much myself.

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Microsoft Word/Google Docs etc.

...Or just about any word processor that lets you create internal hyperlinks. Word may work best due to the collapsible headings so it doesn't get too unwieldy, but *shrug* whatever floats your boat.

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Excel/Google Sheets etc.

Or, again, any spreadsheet creator that lets you create internal hyperlinks.

I'd recommend having some basic spreadsheet knowledge before doing this. It could get complicated. Before I started using Obsidian, I was using Sheets to keep track of my glossary, notes about characters, and plot ideas.

Types of formatting & organization systems

There are as many organization systems as there are people who want to organize their stuff. Everybody needs something a little different! I find the ones that work best for me are systems that have a lot of customization options.

Here are a couple I know of.

Johnny Decimal

This system is absurdly simple in its concept and yet so versatile. From their website (it's just johnnydecimal dot com but I'll link it in a reblog later):

Take everything you need to organise and sort it in to, at most, ten large buckets.

Make sure the buckets are unambiguously different.

Put a label on each bucket.

Their website has a better explanation than I can give in this post, but I'll sum up the appeal of this system as quoted from their site: "There's only one place anything can ever be."

Usefully, part of this method is creating a directory for the rest of the system.

So if you're like me and tend to shove things wherever only to lose track of it later, this is a great system—especially when used in conjunction with the Zettelkasten Method (see below).

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Zettelkasten Method

Originally devised as an extensive paper-based knowledge management system, Zettelkasten is meant to easily add new entries to a knowledge base while giving each one a unique ID for easy 'linking.'

The creator of this method said 'it is not important where you place the note, as long as you can link to it.'

As with the Johnny Decimal system, I can't explain it super succinctly (nor can the website, if I'm being honest), so I'll include a link in a future reblog for a video that gave me an excellent run-down of the basics.

Setting up your own system

An organization system is only useful if you can actually, y'know, use it.

It can be fun to set up a super-detailed organization system with predetermined categories for everything, but is it easy for you to use? How will you navigate it?

Making decisions

There will be a lot of decisions to make as you set up your system. The only set-in-stone rule I follow is... don't set anything in stone. It's okay if you decide something that doesn't work later on.

Figuring out your categories

My advice: go fairly broad. You can always sub-categorize. I'm going to go over my own wikis for Athenaeum and Rocket Boosters in detail in a later post, but here are the starting top-level categories I'd recommend for worldbuilders:

A meta category for notes about your database, templates, and any relevant research you've done.

Characters, including main characters, minor characters, and important figures

Worldbuilding

In the last category, which is the main reason for the existence of my wiki, I might have:

Culture

History

Locations

Organizations

Lore (if relevant)

Technology

Transportation

I'll go over the nuances of these 'main' subcategories in that future post I mentioned. In other words, the stuff that actually goes in those categories!

Determining the importance and relevance of worldbuilding elements

You'll need to figure out whether a topic is complex enough to deserve its own entry, or if it should be a sub-heading under another entry. It's okay if you decide on both! I have short subheadings under some entries that amount to "see [link to main entry on that topic]."

I've also decided to expand subheadings into their own topics, and I've removed topics as their own entry and shoved them under subheadings. I do this a lot, in fact! So it's okay if you don't know.

Templates

Will you be creating several of one type of entry?

Individual character profiles

Towns and cities

Factions

(to name a few)

It might be handy to figure out the basic types of information you'll need about each of those things and create a template for them.

A character template might have spaces for the basics, such as name, role, age, and so on.

Some characters will have a lot more information, and some might have even less than what your template dictates! And that's fine.

A word of warning about using system-creation as procrastination

Creating a wiki can be a daunting task. You might decide it's not for you, and that's okay. But you might also decide to go headlong into the process and work on every minute detail, and that is also okay, but.

But.

Beware of using your wiki as an excuse to procrastinate your actual writing/session preparation. Yes, use it to keep track of all the lore you've injected into your manuscript/campaign/whatever, just make sure it stays in its place as a companion to your main project rather than becoming your main project.

How formal should your entries be?

Honestly this one's entirely up to you. I have a mix. Some entries are written like Wikipedia entries with a thorough explanation of the topic with proper punctuation and formatting, while others are simply bullet-point lists of thoughts and ideas that I can return to at a later date.

What methods do you use to keep track of your lore and worldbuilding? Let me know in a reblog or comment!

And please make sure to check the notes. I'll be reblogging with links, and then reblogging that reblog to make sure they're, y'know, actually visible in the notes.

how i got an agent, or: my writing timeline

when i started writing, i had no idea how publishing worked and i had a lot of misconceptions about it. but i just signed my first literary agent so i thought i’d share what my experience has been getting to this point, in case it helps anyone else with their own publication goals. i’m also including financial details, like submission fees and income, because “i could never afford to pursue writing as a career” is something that kept me from taking the idea seriously.

for context, i write mostly literary fiction and i’m on the academic/scholarly writing path. this process looks a lot different for other genres. 

i didn’t write this in my pretty nonfiction narrative voice; it’s really just the bare-bones facts of how it went down, how long it took, how many words i wrote (both fanfiction and original fiction), and how much it all cost. 

Afficher davantage

How do you find a balance between “show, don’t tell” and “readers might not catch/understand this subtle concept or showing it would be too convoluted or more open to interpretation than it needs to be”? It doesn’t help that everyone encourages more showing even if it swallowing little details that are supposed to stand out. Basically, I feel like I overthink my showing as being too tell-y even when it already has several layers of meaning and is already too dense for average readers.

“Show don’t tell” resources & advice...

I think people often mistake the advice of “show don’t tell” as being in the interest of making one’s writing more literary; more “high art” than candid prose typically is. The advice is intended to help one recognize when their prose is becoming dull or unengaging to the reader. Showing is supposed to promote an organically flowing reading experience, rather than turn the writing into a flowery, pretentious, and unintelligible mess. Finding a satisfying way to deliver information in the text that isn’t “I felt” or “I thought” is important. It should never dilute the information. Clarity comes first, and then one can configure the sentence to add as much richness to the reader’s ability to immerse themselves as possible. 

If the desire is to show that the character is sad, writing that “she looked down at the floor and wrapped her arms around her own waist” is not going to be any less indicative of that information than “she felt sad”. That is the point of this advice. It is not a way for one to convert information into a code that the reader must analyze in order to comprehend the basic idea of what the scenes are about. This isn’t 1597, and nobody is asking anyone to be Shakespeare. 

Density of a piece of writing does not give it inherent worth. Ease of comprehension doesn’t always have to be the number one priority, but it should be a considerable factor when one accounts for their audience and their subject matter. If one is writing a young adult fantasy trilogy, the density of the writing should be adherent to the demographic’s ability to comprehend certain writing styles. “Show, don’t tell” applies to all writing, but different writers interpret it differently, often based on who they’re writing for. If the concept you’re trying to convey to the reader in a subtle manner is not coming across without blurting it out in the text, perhaps the problem isn’t the way you’re describing it, but the concept is weak in its current state. 

Easily misinterpreted meanings or concepts are often not the victim of descriptive style, but being underdeveloped sub textually. No important concept can be described once within a dense text and expected to translate as intended into the reader’s understanding. If it’s important enough to the bones of your story and meaning, it shouldn’t rely on the manner of description to shine through. Sometimes the density of a text is a product of too much intentional symbolism or motif. It’s okay to allow some things to be meaningful purely in interpretation. It’s okay to acknowledge that you allowed something that obviously implies meaning to be prescribed its implications by the readers. 

Here are some of my other resources on the topic that you may find helpful:

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Describing Emotion

Conveying Emotions

All About Colors

A Writer’s Thesaurus

Showing VS Telling in First Person POV

Using Vocabulary

Balancing Detail & Development

+ When To Use “Felt”

Showing Vs Telling

How To Better Your Vocabulary & Description

Describing emotion through action

Improving Flow In Writing

How To “Show Don’t Tell” More

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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how to write the second draft

@writingwithacutlass on instagram

source: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-second-draft#why-do-you-need-a-second-draft

hello and welcome back to my page! this post was requested some time ago and i finally got around to making it. second drafts are arguably the hardest draft to write, since you are taking your jumbled mess of a first draft and rewriting it to be more cohesive and organized. although picking apart your novel is a painstaking process, it’s a necessary step that will improve your novel and make you a better writer in the process. here are five tips on how to write the second draft!

take a break, then return to your draft with fresh eyes

especially if this is your first novel, only start your second draft after you’ve had adequate time away from it. creating distance between you and personal work can give your mind time to reset and detach from particular ideas. certain story elements may feel necessary but don’t actually fit into the story, or your story may need something, but you’re not sure how to implement it. taking a break can help you view your writing from a previously unseen angle that can bring more refreshing ideas to the table and help you get through your second draft. take some distance from your writing to brainstorm new scenes.

understand your chaos

your first draft got your ideas down and, hopefully, created a loosely structured beginning, middle, and end. however, the first time you go through the whole thing, it will probably feel overwhelming—and it should. go into your first chapter knowing there will be big changes and improvements to be made. you’ll cut some things and add others, but don’t be afraid. if it starts to go off into a direction you’re not happy with, or if you have no idea how to continue forward from what you’ve rewritten, you can always reconfigure. that’s what second drafts are for.

break it up into separate goals

you don’t have to comb through your second draft beginning to end and address everything along the way. setting goals to address each element of your first draft, like working on emotional character arcs first, or solidifying the bare bones of your plot through each chapter can help you divide and conquer each necessary aspect of your story that needs to come together in a cohesive manner. once all these elements have been solidified individually, you can piece them together in a way that makes your second draft feel more manageable.

track your narrative

read through each plot point or chapter and see if the narrative tracks. make notes on anything that stands out to you or doesn’t feel as smooth. are events moving logically or sequentially into the next? are character goals clearly defined? does each new chapter feel connected to the last? it may be a rough version you’re going through, but these elements should be in place in order for you to analyze it accurately. your subplots should feel natural to the central story and characters you’ve created—they should just be added fodder to take up space. ensure there aren’t any redundant scenes or a repeat of information that doesn’t need to be explained again.

don’t proofread until the end

it’s tempting to go back and fix all your errors, but unless you’re in your third stage or fourth stage, this may end up being a waste of time. correcting typos and grammar should be saved for your final draft, as the entire writing process will entail rewriting, restructuring, and reorganizing until the moment you’re ready to publish.

Helloooo! Do you have a particular method or tips for when creating and developing a character?

Hi :)

Sorry this took me some time, but there is so much I could talk about here. So I try to go with some basics.

How to create a character

Make a character sheet

some examples for what I usually try to find out about my characters, regardless which genre I’m writing in

basics

name, age, place of birth, where they live, nationality, ethnicity, education, occupation, religious affiliation, financial status, gender identity, sexual orientation

physical appearance

eye, hair and skin colour

distinguishing features (tattoos, birthmarks, scars, visible disabilities,...)

height and weight (proportions!)

walk (slow, fast, skipping,...)

tics and mannerisms (touching their face, blinking, grinding their teeth,...)

speech patterns and communication style

talk (slow, fast, slurred etc.)

accents and dialects

using slang, sounding educated, trying to hide a dialect/accent etc.

do they talk with their whole body? (gestures?)

extra question for speech and physical appearance: can people tell where the character is coming from and what influences they have from their heritage?

past and present

how did they grow up?

happy memories

academic career

hobbies

past trauma or important turning points that still influence their life

specific lifestyle

social and political ideology

future

dreams and goals

expectations from themself and from outside

Relationship maps

for longer stories it’s even more important to understand your characters relationships to each other

two different approaches:

1. proper list of family, friends, love interests, “enemies”, everyone else

family

who is still alive and where do they live?

who did they grow up with?

what was and what is their relationship?

friends

how long do they know each other?

would they trust them with a secret?

how close are they?

love interests

what is their relationship status?

what do they like about them?

is it reciprocated?

if they are not together why not?

“enemies”

how do they know each other?

what do they not like about each other?

did they always hate each other?

can their relationship become better?

2. love, like, hate categories

make a list of people your character loves (use the different forms of love: romantic, familial, friendly,...)

make a list of acquaintances

make a list of people they dislike and people who dislike them

you could even try to draw their relationships with each other

make sure you include if the relationship changes throughout your story

Those are just some basic things I could think of that I usually like to write down about my characters. Depending on the story there are some variations of this and more information about specific topics.

Pro tip for developing your characters: write short stories or little sequences with your characters that don’t neccessarily have anything to do with your story. I think of it as fanfiction of your own work. Put your characters with their intended roles and relationships in different situations and just write and let it play out. This is a good tool to find out if and how the characters work together. And it can even give you new ideas for their relationships to each other and new skills or habits for your characters. It’s basically a test run for your cast before you go into your bigger story.

And one last important thing: don’t get too stuck on an idea. Characters can sometimes develop a life of their own. You don’t always have a conscious control over them. So don’t be afraid to change it if something is not working out or you find something else that is working even better.

This took me such a long time and I hope it makes sense and helps you with your writing. Good luck!

- Jana

I jotted down for a friend of mine some tips and notes on how I approach drawing hair, and things I keep in mind while doing so, and thought I’d share. There are loads of other ways to do it, and the learning never stops, so I hope this helps!

opens box that reads "i wanna draw again". inside lies a note. the note says, "mental illness and difficult circumstances have taken years of interest, accessibility, and skill away from me. i want to forgive myself for that. i want to heal my relationship to my hobbies. i want to feel connected to something that once made me feel good, but the cyclic discouragement is difficult to overcome." i turn over the note. on the back it reads "wannta drawe sexy bodies awooga"