betweengalaxies

[betweengalaxies]

Casually asks ‘who domesticated grain in your fantasy world?’ but while ripping her shirt off with a WWE stage and a roaring crowd just behind and slightly to the left. 

#world building #i might have reblogged this before #but it's important #fantasy #sci-fi

[betweengalaxies]

horse people are weird

#resource #horses #my grandfather had a ranch #but i lived too far away to visit more than occasionally #there was some stuff i didn't know #good to remember for writing fantasy

[betweengalaxies]

My only real and valid writing tip is that you google every word you make up for your fantasy stories. That's It

#important tip

[betweengalaxies]

For a major reveal, the order of the reveal can matter almost as much as the content of it.

Consider the reveal that the main character previously killed a bad person. That reveal can happen all at once in the story, but consider what happens if you stretch it out throughout the story, giving the reader one piece of information at a time. What information goes first can change the entire dynamic of the story.

Consider these options:

they are dead and I killed them - they were bad

We've started with the knowledge that the person is dead and the main character killed them, and so the tension surrounds the question of why. The reader doesn't know yet that the person was bad, only that the main character killed them, and so this will likely shape their view of the main character.

they are dead - I killed them - they were bad

Breaking up the first component into two parts changes the tension--first, all we know is that the person is dead. This can be broken out even further if you want (they are dead - they were killed - I killed them) but the central tension is the same: how did they die, and by whose hand.

they were bad - they are dead and I killed them

In this case, we start with knowing that they were bad, which removes a lot of the tension--but at the start we don't know they are dad, so they remain a threat. Maybe they're someone the main character still fears, even if they're dead.

they were bad - they are dead - I killed them

Again, breaking out the reveal that the person is dead from who killed them provides an extra level of suspense--but in this case the reveal that the character killed them is likely one that brings more positive reader feelings to the character than in the earlier instances. It may also be the answer to a secret that other characters were trying to find out during the story.

they are dead - they were bad - I killed them

The central arc of this reveal becomes more about the character (no pun intended) of the person who is dead--especially if that first part also reveals that they were killed. The question that the arc of the reveal answer is why are they dead, and also how should the reader feel about their death, a feeling that will likely change once it's revealed that they were bad.

This is just one example of how the order of the reveal matters, but this exercise can work for any major reveal in a story. What are the central components of the reveal? How does the order in which they are shown or told to the reader change the tension and central questions of the story?

#story arcs #tension #reveals

[betweengalaxies]

Five Steps to Edit Your First Draft

You’ve just done something incredible: written an entire draft of a book! Congrats!

But it’s far from being ready for queries. So, how do you self-edit your first draft?

Let it sit

Undoubtedly you’re excited to get to work, but you need time to gain perspective. Besides, you’re probably a bit burnt out from writing the book. Give yourself some time before editing.

Make a List

Make a list of what you want the reader to take away from the novel and keep it beside you as you read through.

Read Through

Do a preliminary read-through in which you don’t make edits. Instead, create a list of problems and take notes as you go. I try and make at least 5 notes per chapter, no matter how good I think it is! Also, refer to the list from the previous step and be sure you’re successfully addressing these problems.

Work Out Solutions

Referring back to your list of problems, try and craft a solution that doesn’t lead to further issues.

Implement These Solutions

Go back to your draft and work these solutions into your draft.

Are you still struggling after editing your own work?

I’m Jasmina, The Plottery’s editor, and I offer book editing services that can help you take your pet project and make it into a page-turner.

Check out the details on the link HERE or below!

#revising #editing #good advice

[betweengalaxies]

Hey writers with Scrivener, IDK if anyone has posted this yet, but Scrivener actually has a pretty helpful guide on how to import all your work from Google Docs that makes it way easier than just copying and pasting everything. I only just found this today, so I wanted to share!

#resource #scrivener #google docs

[betweengalaxies]

PACING IS ABOUT LOAD BEARING WALLS.

*staples violently to my own forehead*

#super important #writing tip #pacing #i get frustrated when an author doesn't take enough time to establish characters #also i hate when the 'sink in' part is rushed #and establishing the world building is important in speculative fiction #pacing is off if the story is too rushed too

[betweengalaxies]

how to go from daydream to draft:

begin by daydreaming as you normally do, or just after you've finished doing so. write down every thought you have. one after another. do not reread. do not stop for spelling mistakes. just dump out every thought. this is called stream of consciousness writing. you can do this for every scene you need a first draft for.

struggling to draft the scene? try to daydream about it. start thinking about how it would look, feel, what the characters would say, act it out in your head and then write out the stream of your thoughts as they arrive.

by now you have a few scene dumps. you may be tempted to go back and edit. do not do this expect for obvious spelling mistakes. do not read closely and start thinking "i need to rework this sentence." that is for later. now you're in the zone. draft more scenes. or work out what the next scene needs to be, scaffold it with a few comments. this will be the inspiration for your next deliberate thought stream that you will write out. repeat this process until you have the whole draft.

now that you have a draft or part of a draft you get to do this very fun thing called revise until you're happy. sweep through your draft with specific goals each time. one sweep to fix spelling/grammar. another for character voice. another for plot. repeat until you're happy with it.

leave it alone. just leave it for a bit. at least a few hours or days or even weeks. forget it exists. this will allow you come back with fresh eyes. then you can do your revisions with an eagle eye. now you may realize you need to add/remove scenes. you know how to get the first version down. close your eyes and daydream at your desk if that's what takes!

remember that fiction writing is persuasive writing. you are trying to persuade the reader to care about what happens next, the character's, the world, the feelings. as you're revising, consider whether you are persuaded. is the feeling/thoughts you wanted to provoke being felt by you when you read it? when working with beta readers, be sure to communicate what you're trying to convey so they can tell you if you've been successful or not.

this got a bit beyond getting the first draft done. hope you found it helpful.

bonus tip: check the spellings of names and places and other nouns that are not typically used, like the name of a magic tool!

#writing tip #drafting

[betweengalaxies]

Yay, unsolicited advice time! Or, not really advice, more like miscellaneous tips and tricks, because if there's one thing eight years of martial arts has equipped me to write, it's fight scenes.

.

Fun things to add to a fight scene (hand to hand edition)

It's not uncommon for two people to kick at the same time and smack their shins together, or for one person to block a kick with their shin. This is called a shin lock and it HURTS like a BITCH. You can be limping for the rest of the fight if you do it hard enough.

If your character is mean and short, they can block kicks with the tip of their elbow, which hurts the other guy a lot more and them a lot less

Headbutts are a quick way to give yourself a concussion

If a character has had many concussions, they will be easier to knock out. This is called glass jaw.

Bad places to get hit that aren't the groin: solar plexus, liver, back of the head, side of the thigh (a lot of leg kicks aim for this because if it connects, your opponent will be limping)

Give your character a fighting style. It helps establish their personality and physicality. Are they a grappler? Do they prefer kicks or fighting up close? How well trained are they?

Your scalp bleeds a lot and this can get in your eyes, blinding you

If you get hit in the nose, your eyes water

Adrenaline's a hell of a drug. Most of the time, you're not going to know how badly you've been hurt until after the fact

Even with good technique, it's really easy to break toes and fingers

Blocking hurts, dodging doesn't

.

Just thought these might be useful! If you want a more comprehensive guide or a weapons edition, feel free to ask. If you want, write how your characters fight in the comments!

Have a bitchin day <3

#resource #hand to hand combat #combat

[betweengalaxies]

So, there's a dirty little secret in indie publishing a lot of people won't tell you, and if you aren't aware of it, self-publishing feels even scarier than it actually is.

There's a subset of self-published indie authors who write a ludicrous number of books a year, we're talking double digit releases of full novels, and these folks make a lot of money telling you how you can do the same thing. A lot of them feature in breathless puff pieces about how "competitive" self-publishing is as an industry now.

A lot of these authors aren't being completely honest with you, though. They'll give you secrets for time management and plotting and outlining and marketing and what have you. But the way they're able to write, edit, and publish 10+ books a year, by and large, is that they're hiring ghostwriters.

They're using upwork or fiverr to find people to outline, draft, edit, and market their books. Most of them, presumably, do write some of their own stuff! But many "prolific" indie writers are absolutely using ghostwriters to speed up their process, get higher Amazon best-seller ratings, and, bluntly, make more money faster.

When you see some godawful puff piece floating around about how some indie writer is thinking about having to start using AI to "stay competitive in self-publishing", the part the journalist isn't telling you is that the 'indie writer' in question is planning to use AI instead of paying some guy on Upwork to do the drafting.

If you are writing your books the old fashioned way and are trying to build a readerbase who cares about your work, you don't need to use AI to 'stay competitive', because you're not competing with these people. You're playing an entirely different game.

#ugh #ghostwriting #ghostwriters #indie publishing #publishing #self publishing

[betweengalaxies]

List of Questions to Ask Yourself When a Story Feels Stuck

Basic Human Needs

When was the last time you took a break?

Are you mentally/emotionally/physically exhausted?

Have you recently had anything substantial to eat/drink?

Basic Writer Needs

How are you feeling? Examine any negatives. Self-doubt, jealousy, anxiety, etc. Why are you feeling this way? Did something prompt it? Reach out to others if you can.

Have you been writing in the same place for too long? Using the same playlist? Try changing it up.

When was the last time you took in creative media from someone else? Books, podcasts, movies, tv? Seek out stories other than your own. 

Are you falling into the trap of expecting perfection when there is no such thing?

Focus on the trouble spot

Do you know where you want your characters to be after the part you’re stuck on? 

Can something new be introduced? A ticking time bomb, a surprise attack, a betrayal, a murder, a confession? 

Do you like the constraints you’ve set up for yourself? That is, the setting, the characters present, the ‘props’ at their disposal? Anything you can add, change, or take away?

Reread the last couple of scenes before your trouble spot. Is there a way you could rewrite/detour the trajectory in a new, not stuck direction? 

The bigger picture

Do you know how the story ends?

Does your outline need to change? Would it help you to make an outline?

How do you want the events of this ‘stuck scene’ to affect the rest of the plot? Is there a different way to create the same results?

Are the characters acting in a way that doesn’t work with the plot? Which are you willing to change, the characters or the plot?

#writing tip #writer's block

[betweengalaxies]

I’m curious writing gives me stress even if I enjoy it, but I became an author to enjoy things for me to read. But I don’t enjoy it with the fresh eyes of a reader. I’m curious do authors enjoy reading what they write the same way a reader does?

To adopt a quote from Defunctland, "I hate literally every step in the writing process. The only thing I hate more than writing is not making writing."

Drafting is hard. Editing is hard. Having to reread your own words again and again is hard. You will convince yourself everything you've done is worthless. You will catch all of your mistakes, repeatedly, and then somehow make more trying to fix those mistakes. By the time you are ready to publish and release something to the world, you will be so sick of it that reading it again will never feel the same way as reading something someone else wrote.

But! That does not mean it's not worth it. In releasing your work to the world, you are making peace with the fact that it's as good as you can get it. Remember that no one else will see those flaws that you do. They won't see the vision you think you failed to capture. They won't see that sentence you failed to tweak into perfection. Instead they will see what you see when you read the works of others - a story they enjoy, one they may treasure for the rest of their lives.

You can do that, just by writing! You can give someone an experience they may never forget, just by keeping at it. The process is hard, and you will feel discouraged by your final results at one point or another, but it is worth it. Your words are worthy, even when you're blind to it.

#some things to remember #writing is an experience #while it won't give the same feeling as reading someone else's story #there's still a sense of fulfillment that you can't get with anything else #the older i get the more i underdtand how important it is to be kind to yourself #you may not be where you want to be as a writer yet #but that doesn't mean you won't get there #have a little faith in yourself #also: negative motivation is not sustainable long-term #stop beating yourself up #on writing

[betweengalaxies]

on worldbuilding, and what people think is going on

there is one facet of fantasy worldbuilding that is, to me, the most interesting and essential but i don't see it come up in worldbuilding guides or writing prompts or anything, and that is the question of:

what do the inhabitants of your world believe about how the world works, and how are they wrong? a lot of fantasy media will set up their cosmology, gods, magic systems, planar systems, concepts of the afterlife, &c., and proceed as though the inhabitants of the world know and understand them.

from someone whose entire academic career is focused on studying human culture in various regions and time periods, with a focus on belief systems (religion, occultism, mythology, folklore): that sort of worldbuilding is unrealistic and missing out on so much fun.

people are always seeking new understanding about how the world works, and they are mostly wrong. how many models of the solar system were proposed before we reached our current one? look at the long, turbulent history of medicine and our various bizarre models for understanding the human body and how to fix it. so many religions and occult/magical traditions arise from people disagreeing with or adapting various models of the world based on new ideas, methods, technologies. many of them are wrong, but all of them are interesting and reflect a lot about the culture, beliefs, values, and fears of the people creating/practising them.

there is so much more to the story of what people believe about the world than just what is true.

to be clear: i think it's fine and important for the author to have a coherent explanation for where magic comes from or who the gods are, so they can maintain consistency in their story. but they should also be asking what people in the world (especially different people, in different regions/nations and different times) think is happening when they do magic, or say a prayer, or practise medicine, or grieve their dead. it is a rich vein for conflict between individuals and nations alike when two models of the world disagree. it is fascinating how different magic systems might develop according to different underlying beliefs.

personally, i think it is the most fun to spawn many diverse models of the world, but give none of them the 'right' answer.

(bonus points if you also have a thriving academic system in the world with its own theory, research, and discourse between factions! as an academic, it is very fun to imagine fictional academic debate over the topics i'm worldbuilding. sometimes i will be working out details for some underlying mechanic of the world and start imagining the papers being written by scholars researching it)

#world building

[betweengalaxies]

hi I'm from your pseudo-medieval fantasy city. yeah. you forgot to put farms around us. we have very impressive walls and stuff but everyone here is starving. the hero showed up here as part of his quest and we killed and ate him

#resource #world building #medieval

[betweengalaxies]

I’ve said it a bajillion times and I’ll say it a bajillion more: motive. 

It fixes 99% of writing problems. 

Scene is boring? Give the characters a motive. Character doesn’t feel real? Find their driving motives behind their worldview and actions. Tension missing? Find a motive and prevent the anyone from getting what they want. 

Dig into those passions, however big or small. Prevent characters from reaching it, make it glaringly, blindingly obvious what they, in their deepest parts of their soul, crave. 

Motive motive motive. 

#writing tip

[betweengalaxies]

Storyediting Questions to Ask

As You Read the First Draft:

Are there place that surprised you as you read your first draft? - Why do you suppose that is? - Is there material there you'd like to expand?

What are the character really doing in this story? - Might they have issues you haven't explored fully yet?

Look to the places that drag. - These might be scenes where you have avoided dealing with something deeper. - What are the characters really thinking in these places? - What are their passions, frustrations, and desires?

Imagine alternative plotlines. - How might your plot be different if ti headed off on another tangent from various points in the story? - You don't have to follow them, but they might suggest other streams that can flow into the main plot.

Think About Structure:

Does you story play out naturally in three acts?

Is there an immediate disturbance to the Lead's world?

Does the first doorway of no return occur before the one-fifth mark?

Are the stakes being raised sufficiently?

Does the second doorway of no return put the Lead on the path to the climax?

Does the rhythm of the sotyr match your intent? If this is an action novel, does the plot move relentlessly forward? If this is a character-driven novel, do the scenes delve deeply enough?

Are there strongly motivated characters?

Have coincidence been established?

Is something happeing immediately at the beginning? Did you establish a person in a setting with a problem, onfronted with change or threat?

Is the timeline logical?

Is the story too predictable in terms of sequence? Should it be rearranged?

About Your Lead Character:

Is the character memorable? Compelling? Enough to carry a reader all the way through the plot?

A lead character has to jump off the page. Does yours?

Does this character avoid cliches? Is he capable of surprising us?

What's unique about the character?

Is the character's objective strong enough?

How does the character grow over the course of the story?

How does the character demonstrate inner strength?

About Your Opposition:

Is your oppositing character interesting?

Is he fully realized, not just a cardboard cutout?

Is he justified (at least in his own mind) in his actions?

Is he believable?

Is he strong as or stronger than the Lead?

About Your Story's Adhesive Nature:

Is the conflcit between the Lead and opposition crucial for both?

Why can't they just walk away? What holds them together?

About Your Scene:

Are the big scenes big enough? Surprising enough? Can you make them more original, unanticipated, and draw them out for all they are worth?

Is there enough conflict in the scenes?

What is the least memorable scene? Cut it!

What else can be cut in order to move the story relentlessly forward?

Does the climactic scene come too fast (through a writer fatigue)? Can you make it more, write it for all it's worth?

Does we need a new minor subplot to build up a saggin midsection?

About Your Minor Characters:

What is their purpose in the plot?

Are they unique and colorful?

Polishing Questions:

Are you hooking the reader from the beginning?

Are suspenseful scenes drawn out for the ultimate tension?

Can any information be delayed? This creates tension in the reader, always a good thing.

Are there enough surprises?

Are character-reaction scenes deep and interesting?

Read chapter ending for read-on prompts

Are there places you can replace describing how a character feels with actions?

Do I use visual, sensory-laden words?

For a Dialogue Read-Through:

Dialogue is almost always strengthened by cutting words within the lines.

In dialogue, be fair to both sides. Don't give one character all the good lines.

Greate dialogue surprises the reader and creates tension. View it like a game, where the players are trying to outfox each other.

Can you get more conflict into dialogue, even emong allies?

If you like my blog, buy me a coffee☕ and find me on instagram! 📸

#writing tip #editing #revision

[betweengalaxies]

Still mostly on hiatus but:

One of the reasons I spend a bunch of time going "mmm, except when No" at a lot of writing advice posts that go past (even when I actually, personally, agree with them and write like that) is that when I was a wee young writer, all that kind of advice basically paralyzed and stifled me.

It was more than a little like the well-meant advice about How To Practice Piano that I got from a lot of the musical adults in my life, full of many imprecations about how I had to do it That Way or I would have bad habits and etc.

The problem is when you're a little girl (or boy or neither, but I was a little girl) with a totally undiagnosed anxiety disorder and no idea what "anxiety" feels like, whose ways of expressing anxiety and stress were to shut down into expressionlessness and an inability to communicate, all that shit does is mean that no matter what happens, or how much you live the thing, part of you starts wanting nothing to do with it and will actively sabotage your attempts to do it.

And nothing but nothing but nothing matters as much to learning a skill as just doing it a lot, so that the literal process of doing it and all the embodied bits of doing it become familiar and natural. You will literally have better luck learning to draw by fucking around with a pencil or other instrument in your hand for hours and hours and hours and reinventing the wheel than you will by listening to advice that then makes you too anxious to do the thing.

I got better at playing piano when I literally started saying "fuck it fuck you I will do this however works". It took me until I was 27. It turned out that all the people who insisted that it was super important to learn it perfectly the first time, because otherwise I would have to unlearn bad habits which was way harder were fucking wrong.

It was way, way easier to unlearn bad habits that were minor compared to the sheer ability I started to have to make my fingers do the notes after six months of fucking around and playing imperfectly and haltingly and with weird stops in the middle, etc, than it was to try to do it perfect when doing it perfect made me so anxious I didn't want to sit down at the piano.

So much easier.

Additionally, especially when it comes to anything more than the most basic techniques (things like "how to make sentences and paragraphs that carry meaning in the language you want to use", or "how to do the very basic applications of watercolour to a paper" or "what the damper peddle does"), the subjective - the matter of taste, of what people like and don't like that is totally qualitative - gets into things really fast.

The op of that recent post? Yeah they're a contemporary romance author. And absolutely: contemporary romance audiences are brutal in their expectations of efficient pacing. This is a genre that already has specific bars to meet pegged out and flagged in simply writing in the genre itself. You bet every single one of your scenes better be multitasking more than a stereotypical single working mother who Has It All if you want to excel in that genre and get acclaim!

That colours their advice; that contextualizes it, and also tells you who it might not apply to. Because I literally don't like that genre, personally. I find it - you'll laugh - rushed, cramped, and prone to skipping all of the parts I like even in contemporary stuff. But that's also because I am only passingly interested in the story that for that genre is front and centre of the point of the book, and that comes down to a matter of taste, equivalent to whether or not you like white chocolate.

It doesn't mean that OP is Wrong or Bad. It just means that OP is telling you how to write books that they like, or think are correct and successful. If you agree, then it's great advice! If you don't, ignore it, don't worry, you'll be fine.

And I point these things out for every other creative out there who is like I was, who is starting, or just struggling, or otherwise quite insecure in what they're doing, and hits advice that seems to say you're doing it Wrong or what you want to do is incompatible with good writing or . . . whatever.

I hate the advice "don't waste your reader's time", for example. It is inimical to me being able to write anything. How the fuck am I supposed to know what a ~*hypothetical reader*~ considers a waste of time? Y'all can't agree on shit. How about I just do what I want to do and the readers - none of whom are being brought here by law, mandate, or a gun to their head - can decide for themselves how to spend their time? They don't like what I've got on offer they can go somewhere else and please themselves: they have agency here.

ON THE FLIPSIDE if that thread on how to do pacing illuminated something for you, made it make sense, made it seem like what you want to do with your art was more in grasp, then great!! Fantastic! Take it and run with it - it's great when structural, technical advice makes something click.

What I'm here for is to just chime in and add that any time an author says "this is how to write", you should mentally add on a "if you want to write like me/write like how I think is valuable" before you even move on to assessing whether the advice will actually do that. Because literally nobody actually knows exactly how to please all audiences because audiences want absolutely contradictory and mutually incompatible things depending on the audience, and even the day, and the mood, and sometimes the phase of the moon.

The most important way to build your skills as a writer is to write, and then write some more, and then write some more. Anything that makes you too anxious to write, or feel like writing isn't worth it, or that you can't just write until you've gotten a thing perfect, is bad advice, because nothing matters as much as the sheer practice.

Advice that makes you want to write more (or draw more, or sing more, or . . . whatever) = good advice. Advice that makes you apprehensive to start = bad advice, at least for now.

#this is the most important piece of advice there is #writing tip