authorjjhanna

[authorjjhanna]

Encouragement for writers from the JJHannaAcademy Instagram page.

[authorjjhanna]

How do you get yourself out of writing slumps?

[authorjjhanna]

Relatable Writing Tweet Roundup

#writeblr #writing #writerslife #writers #writing community #just writer things

[authorjjhanna]

Some encouragement for anyone else out there wondering if they should write a second, third, forth, or fifth book.

Someone, somewhere, is your biggest fan. There’s no way to know about them unless you keep trying.

#writeblr #writing community #writing encouragement #amwriting

[authorjjhanna]

How to write kids, if you don’t remember being one or haven’t lived with any

1. Kids never feel as small as you see them. A three year old thinks a one year old is a baby and a six year old is grown up. A six year old thinks a three year old is a baby and a twelve year old is an adult. Age is about perspective. One year is a huge age difference to a little kid.

2. Little kids might not be conscious of their physical limitations, but they can still be frustrated by them. A seven year old might see an adult do something relatively simple, like draw a straight line or perfectly crack an egg, and try to do the same thing, only to be frustrated when it doesn’t work.

Imagine suddenly having an injury that makes a skill you use every day become difficult- you feel you should be able to do the thing, and you understand the thing should be easy for you, but it isn’t. It can be immensely frustrating to have a brain that grasps a concept that language or fine motor skills haven’t caught up to.

3. You know when you forget a word, and have to make something up on the fly to describe the word? That’s pretty much exactly what learning your first language is like.

You know what you intend, but you don’t have a way to express it, and it can move you to tears with frustration when everyone around you is suggesting the wrong thing, or seems completely certain they understand what you mean, and they don’t.

You don’t have a word for “Later”? You might try saying “next time”, or, “after”, or, “before tomorrow”.

This might result in saying, “Are we going to the park next time?”, “Are we going to the park before tomorrow?”, or, “Are we going to the park after?”, all of which can result in different answers.

4. Kids feel like adults are a different species. They don’t get why we do certain things, and they don’t understand why we don’t want to run around with them all the time.

If sitting still is boring, coffee tastes bitter, and long conversations only happen with weird-smelling strangers who talk to them like they’re stupid, then they truly will not understand why anyone would *want* to be left to have coffee with a friend without welcome distractions to make it bearable.

Aren’t you bored? You aren’t doing anything. How could you possibly be stimulated without any food or toys or music or anything? Why don’t you just leave? Do you *have* to be there, the way you had to go to work? Adults are weird.

5. Children have complex social relationships that are just as varied as yours.

A room full of third graders might look like indiscriminate chaos to an adult, but pick a well connected kid, and they’ll tell you that Megan is the fashion icon who can do hair really well, Thomas is the athlete, Gray gets mean when he has to share so nobody wants to play with him, Paisley can’t read and the boys make fun of her for it so don’t make her work in a group with Anthony, Dillon put a bug in their food once so they’ll never trust him again, and Matthew’s parents let him watch family guy so he says bad words and makes grown-up jokes that make other kids uncomfortable.

You don’t see this stuff because you aren’t inside the society. They are, and they do.

6. Time. Moves. So. Slow. Five minutes really does feel like half an hour. Sit still for five minutes? That’s like you sitting in a waiting room at the DMV for an hour. Wouldn’t you get annoyed and impatient? They haven’t learned to hide their irritation yet. That’s really the only difference.

7. “Reading in your head” requires understanding that you have a Voice, which people can hear, and Thoughts, which are audible only to yourself. This can be a difficult concept to grasp. If a kid is reading out loud, and you tell them to read quietly, there’s a good chance they’re going to whisper or mouth the words instead of going totally silent the way you might. Splitting the self into multiples like “Internal monologue VS public perception” or “What I look like VS how I think I look” is alien and bizarre. If a kid thinks they look like a Dragon and you laugh at them? Ouch. They might be mad for a while.

8. Repetitive chores make no sense when your awareness of time doesn’t extend beyond a week or so. Why should I wash my blankets? They don’t look dirty and I don’t smell anything bad. Blankets don’t get dirty unless you put dirt on them. If you put a blanket in a washer, you can’t use that blanket AT ALL the ENTIRE TIME it’s being cleaned. That might be an hour, but it will *feel* like a week. And you have to do that every two weeks?? That’s overkill. Why even bother?

9. Kids have opinions about adults. They will have a sense about whether an adult is “real-kind” or “fake-kind”. An adult who listens respectfully to what they have to say, asks thoughtful questions, and takes their concerns seriously? That’s a good adult. An adult that oversimplifies their struggles, ignores their complex social rules, and gives bullshit advice like “just walk away from bullies” and “turn your chores into a fun game”? That’s not a trustworthy adult. That’s an Adult™. An Adult™ doesn’t consider them to be a real human being with thoughts and emotions. An Adult™ sees them as an inferior, amusing pet. And they will actively sabotage An Adult™ like that.

10. Emotions are physical at a young age. Joy might make their body buzz until they can’t help but wiggle or jump around. Sadness might be a huge physical pain in their throat and heart. Everything they experience is still relatively.New to.them, so there is very little frame of reference to decide if this is a “big hurt that will last forever and ever and never go away”, or a “small hurt, that can be fixed easily and won’t matter in five minutes”. If someone lies to them about getting a cookie, that very well might be all the betrayal of your best friend sleeping with your husband.

Fortunately, a child probably won’t be able to burn all your clothes in the yard without your notice.

[authorjjhanna]

this fic will never be done

[authorjjhanna]

[authorjjhanna]

all I do is listen to music and think about my silly little fictional people

[authorjjhanna]

Follow your own path. It will be worth it.

#writing #writing tips #how to get published #published writer

[authorjjhanna]

I was recently talking with a friend and published author about getting into publishing, how to get your book published, and where you should even start trying to get your book published.

I made a Twitter thread about it, and I wanted to share that with you too.

If you’re a new writer or a parent of a young writer who wants to get published, maybe this post will come across your dash and be helpful.

I really, truly, seriously want to help writers succeed. My asks are always open, and I have a library of posts to help you get started or keep going.

The YouTube playlist I link to in that thread is here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxlY4d4NidUC0vUHyZaq_5J2j9CwJGQYO

#writing tips #tips for parents #tips for writers #writeblr #writing community #authorblr #bookblr #how to get published #how to write a book #how to publish a book

[authorjjhanna]

All I wanna do. Is write book after book. About this one OC.

And if we’re all lucky, the final book will just be slice of life.

[authorjjhanna]

writers before writing: "find a peaceful place, arrange the table, prepare some drinks and snacks, plays classical music, opens a notebook or laptop"

writers during writing: "stare to nothing, scrolls to social media, worrying about the work, got overwhelmed that results to sleeping"

[authorjjhanna]

This is also super helpful for summarizing your novel before pitching to agents! ❤️

me: *writes fic*

me: great! time to post to ao3-

ao3 summary box: *exists*

me: 

ao3 summary box:

me:

ao3 summary box: 

me:

#writing tips

[authorjjhanna]

I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so. I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all that it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises.

Anne Lamott (via writingdotcoffee)

[authorjjhanna]

#writeblr #writers of tumblr #keep writing #writing community

[authorjjhanna]

Chaotic Writing Tips Regarding Guns

Guns are always always written wrong because, well, they’re guns, and most people don’t actually get to shoot regularly to figure out how to write them.

So. Here’s some chaotic gun facts.

1. When a gun fires, it is SO HOT. IT WILL BURN YOU. EVERYTHING ABOUT IT will burn you. The bullet, the casing, the barrel. It’s fricking hot.

2. You don’t pull the trigger, you squeeze it.

3. You have to be relaxed or your aim will suffer. Tense + Kick = hot casing hitting you in the face and also you were afraid of the kick and adjusted before you even pulled the trigger and oops now you missed and ow that casing hit your face AND IT HURT

4. Every gun fires differently. You need years of practice with YOUR GUN to be comfortable with it, and someone else shooting with your gun will throw off their aim UNLESS they have practiced for YEARS WITH all the guns.

5. It is kind of as simple as point and shoot but it is also so much not

6. GUNS ARE SO LOUD. So loud. even with ear protection they are so so so loud.

7. It looks cool to dual wield pistols but that is NOT a beginner thing please go try it with BB Guns or something first aiming would be so so so hard

8. Most handguns only have around 15 rounds and if they jam you’re in trouble and unjamming a gun is such a problem and not that easy and it takes a heck of a lot of strength to actually even load a gun

9. Seriously, look up how to load a magazine. The grip strength and thumb strength you’ll need are crazy.

10. Ammo is expensive, and each type of gun takes a different kind of ammo/has a different kind of bullet

11. THERE ARE SO MANY KINDS OF BULLETS dang son and each one does a different thing hollow point vs buck shot they’re very different. So very very different.

12. I mentioned you’d get burned by guns because of how hot they are but like, you’ll also get burned by the bullet if you get shot??? Like that will hurt in more ways than one it’s more than just piercing damage okay?

13. Guns are heavy. Hand guns are heavy. Rifles are even heavier. I haven’t shot a shotgun but I imagine it’s as heavy at least as a rifle. Any character you have constantly carrying guns or using them should also be regularly at the gym lifting weights

Anyway.

Guns are often written incorrectly.

I’m sure there’s more and I am by no means a gun expert, so double check any and all of this please.

But in case you were wondering, here are some chaotic gun facts to help you write your crime/suspense stories.

#amwriting #writing resources #writing suspense #writing crime #writeblr #crime writing #crime fiction #writing with guns

[authorjjhanna]

Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell.

P. D. James (via writingdotcoffee)