kaitswriting

[kaitswriting]

[kaitswriting]

So, I don't know how to write pain like! What words do I use? how do I describe it! I really need some help here!

No problem! And sorry about not answering sooner, I was on vacation. To make it up to you, I’ve made one of my trademark Long Posts about it.

TIPS ON HOW TO WRITE PAIN (FOR BOTH ORIGINAL CONTENT WRITERS AND FANFICTION WRITERS)

When I first started writing, about eight years ago, I had the same issue as @imjustafuckinggirl.

How are you supposed to write about pain you’ve never experienced before???

The characters in my book suffer through all sorts of terrible shit, and in no way am I writing from experience, which is marginally easier to do than write about something that has never happened to you.

However, with time, I managed to gather up a few strategies on how to write pain.

1. Don’t Write Paragraphs About It

I know, it’s tempting. You want to convey to the reader just how much pain the character is in, and you think that the pain will be emphasized the more you write about it.

This, however, is a lie.

As a reader, when I’m reading a book or fanfiction where, whenever the writer uses agonizingly long paragraphs to describe when a character is hurt, I skip it.

Entirely.

It’s boring and, quite frankly, unnecessary, especially during a fight or huge battle, which are supposed to be fast-paced.

When it comes to writing about pain, it really is about quality and not quantity.

In my own writing, I stick to short, quick paragraphs, some of them which are barely a line long. This gives it a faster pace and sort of parallels with the scattered, spread out thoughts of the character as they suffer.

2. Describe it Right

Many times, usually in fanfiction, writers over-exaggerate certain injuries.

This partially has to do with the fact that they’ve never experienced that injury before and are just thinking about what it might feel like.

As a girl with two brothers and who often participated in rough play-fights, I can assure you that getting punched is not as painful as you think it is.

(However, it does depend on the area, as well as how hard the punch is, on top of the fact that you have to take into account whether or not the punch broke bones)

I’m reading a high school AU where a character gets punched by a bully (Idk where they got punched it wasn’t stated) and the author is describing it like they’d been shot.

It was to the point where I was like Did the bully have brass knuckles or something????

It was very clear that this author had never been punched before.

When describing the pain of an injury or the injury itself, you have to take into account:

- What object was used to harm the character

- Where the injury is

- How long the character has had the injury

- (For blades) How deep the cut is

- (For blunt force trauma) How hard the hit was

- Whether or not the wound triggers other things (Ex: Concussion, vomiting, dizziness, infection, internal/external bleeding).

There’s also the fact that when some authors described wounds caused by blades such as knives, daggers, and swords, they never take into account the anatomy of a person and which places cause the most blood flow.

Obviously, a cut on your cheek will have less of a blood flow than a cut on your wrist, depending on what the blade hits, and I hope that everyone consults a diagram of veins, capillaries, arteries, etc. when they’re describing blood flow from a certain place.

There’s also the fact that you have to take into account where the blood is coming from. Veins? Arteries?

The blood from arteries will be a brighter red, like vermilion, than the blood from veins, which is the dark crimson everyone likes to talk about.

Not all places gush bright red blood, people!

3. DIFFERENT INJURIES HAVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PAIN

Here, let me explain.

A punch feels different from a slap.

A broken arm feels different from getting stabbed.

A fall feels different from a dog bite.

I’ll give you a list of all the kinds of things that can be described for the three most common kinds of injuries that happen in stories:

Punch/Blunt Force Trauma

How it feels:

- Aching

- Numbness (In the later stages)

- A single spike of pain before it fades into an ache

- Throbbing

Effects:

- Vomiting (If the character is punched in the gut)

- Swelling

- Bruising

- Broken bones

- Unconsciousness (Blow to the head)

- Dizziness (Blow to the head)

- Concussion (Also a blow to the head)

- Internal bleeding

- Death (In the case of concussions and internal bleeding and broken bones- ribs can pierce lungs)

Stab Wound/Cut

How it feels:

- Stinging (only shallow wounds have just stinging)

- Burning

- With stab wounds, I feel like describing the effects of it make it more powerfully felt by the reader

Effects:

- Bleeding (Consult chart of the circulatory system beforehand for the amount of blood flow that should be described and what color the blood should be)

- Dizziness (Heavy blood loss)

- Unconsciousness

- Infection (if left unattended)

- Death

Gunshot

How it feels:

- Depends on the caliber bullet, from how far away they were shot (point-blank range is nothing like being shot from a distance), and in what place. Do careful research and then make your decision.

Effects:

- Bleeding(Consult chart of the circulatory system beforehand for the amount of blood flow that should be described and what color the blood should be. Also take into effect the above variables for blood flow as well.)

- Dizziness (Heavy blood loss)

- Infection (if left unattended)

- Death

Some things that a character may do while they’re injured:

- Heavy/Harsh/Ragged breathing

- Panting

- Making noises of pain

gasping

grunting

hissing

groaning

whimpering

yelping (when the injury is inflicted)

screaming

shrieking

wailing

- Crying/ Weeping/Sobbing/Etc.

- Clenching their teeth

- Unable to speak

- Pressing their hands against a stab wound/cut to try and stem the bleeding

- Eyesight going out of whack (vision blurring and tilting, the room spinning, black spots consuming sight)

- Eyes rolling up into their head

- Trembling/shaking

- Ears riniging (from gunshot)

HOPE THIS HELPED!

[kaitswriting]

Is anyone else having a hard time writing right now? I was excited about an idea a few days ago but now I don’t want to write it. I like the idea when I think of it but when I think of writing it I get stressed and exhausted. Also, I want to write SOMETHING but I don’t know what! Anyone else?

[kaitswriting]

INTRODUCING PLANET WRITEBLR

i just opened up a brand new server for all writeblrs. there are tons of channels and features. this server is basically just a general writing server. you don’t have to be participating in camp nano (although we have fun activities planned!) and you don’t have to write a specific genre. this server is even open to fanfic writers as well!

what is it?

tons of fun

a place to share writing excerpts, chat about your oc and wips, and make fellow writing friends!

this server is 16+

how do i join?

reblog this post PLEASE

ENTER THE SERVER

see you on planet writeblr!

[kaitswriting]

Keeping Writing Logs

A little while ago, I mentioned keeping logs of your writing sessions as a way to help you stay motivated on your projects and to avoid burnout. And then I said I’d elaborate on that, so here I am!

I myself am relatively new to keeping records of my writing sessions, but already they’ve helped me to hold myself more accountable when it comes to sitting down to write. Here’s a look at the general spreadsheet I’ve created to keep track of what I’m doing when I write, with some information drawn out to avoid spoilers.

Let’s go over why I included each one and how each column helps me track what I’ve been doing and how I can improve.

Date and Project.

As one would guess, the purpose here is to see how consistently I’ve been working on what I’ve been working on. Seeing just the date could be helpful, but then I would have trouble seeing which projects might need a little bit more love. Seeing just the projects helps me see which ones I’m making progress on, but not how consistently I’m doing it. So I record both!

Simple Goal and Simple Progress.

For me personally, I do best when I have a quota and a content goal to fulfill. The simple goal is what I want to do in terms of words on the page. This manifests for me usually as words or finishing sections, though sometimes it’s also in terms of time. To me, the simple goal is putting words on a page, no matter what direction they go in.

Project Goal and Project Progress.

This is where I give my simple goal a direction to follow, and then I compare that to the direction I actually took and what I was able to do. This is good for me because I can look at my log and see what I’ve been doing to determine my next content goal as opposed to reading over the past couple pages and possibly missing the context.

In essence: The combination of simple and project goals says, “I want to do this in this many words/by the end of this chapter or section/in this much time.”

Time.

Honestly, it’s cool to look back and see how much time you’ve spent on your writing, especially because it’s so important to so many of us. It’s a form of validation for me, seeing that actual time of mine has gone into doing something I love. Functionally, you can also check out your typing speed in WPM, or you can note any sessions where the words might have come more easily or it might’ve been tougher to write.

Feeling.

This one is important but often overlooked. How did you feel about your writing as you were writing it? This may help you in editing, especially if you’re able to note any areas that you didn’t feel great about that need more love in future drafts.

These are the things that it was most effective for me personally to document, but these aren’t the only possibilities! Here are some other ideas:

type of development (writing, read-through, outlining, character development)

new breakthroughs

changes made in the draft to be accounted for in future drafts

breaks taken

background noise/music

time of day when you started writing

anything that affects you as a writer that you think is worth noting!

Though I’ve not been doing it for very long, documenting my writing sessions has done a lot for my motivation as a writer, and I really recommend it for anyone who’s considering giving it a try. Until next time, happy writing! <3

[kaitswriting]

An innocent soul on the Internet: "Oh, you write? What's your story about?"

Me, the writer, who has been waiting for this moment all my life:

[kaitswriting]

“I can’t kiss you if you have the mask on, love.”

Image prompt

[kaitswriting]

Current mood

[kaitswriting]

My advice when folks are struggling with writing in the third-person omniscient is to Lemony Snicket it up. Give your omniscient narrator strong opinions about what’s going on. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that the third-person omniscient perspective must also use the objective voice; those are two separate things, and many of the most popular and successful writers who’ve written in the third-person omniscient do not, in fact, use the objective voice.

[kaitswriting]

How to make a pumpkin head

Since I defs didn’t want to carve a real pumpkin to put on my head and get nasts pumpkin insides all over my hair I decided to paper mache one. Unfortunately there was no good tutorials anywhere so I will share my trial and error knowledge.

First I got some supplies: 1 Punch balloon (they’re rounder and larger they regular balloons), some paper mache stuff in a bag, cardboard, a glue gun, paint, sculpey clay, tape, some news paper and some water and flour mixed together.

I then put at least three - five paper mache layers of newspaper with flour water on the balloon. I also measured my head and left an opening at the bottom. (NOTE: Don’t put tape on the balloon and try to peel it off after you’re done paper macheing, RIP)

After that’s all dry I put glue gunned some cardboard onto it to give it some pumpkin like ridges.

Then I filled the gaps between the cardboard and the newspaper with the paper mache in a bag stuff. Wait for it to dry. (Note: Don’t pop balloon until the paper mache in a bag stuff is dry cause it holds a LOT of water and your paper mache project will sink, RIP) After that I popped the balloon and lightly dampened the top with a sponge and water until it was wet enough to slowly press down into more of a pumpkin shape.

After it’s all dry I taped a stem I made out of card board on the top and put another layer or two of newspaper mache over top.

More drying wait time (you can use your oven on the lowest setting to make it dry faster) then I sanded it down and cut out a face with an exacto blade.

I added a little bit of backing behind the face on the inside with the paper mache in a bag to give it more of a 3D look which wasn’t that noticeable but oh well, it kidna worked… After all that stuffs done I painted it all white otherwise the newsprint would bleed through and make my colours not as bright, I also added some sculpey clay to the brow area to give it some more emotion in which I used an iron to dry it with cause it was too late to put it in the oven with paint all over it (Note: Put clay on before painting).

I sprayed it with a sealer before painting colours on it cause I find acrylics do weird things sometimes. After it was all dry I begin to paint.

I also painted the inside a red and added a kinda head rest thing on the inside since when I pushed the top down it made an uncomfortable point at the top when putting it on your head. Then once it was all dry I sprayed it with some more sealer, added some cool stuff like stitches with some ribbon and blood which I used nail polish for a shiny effect and put in some lights which weren’t very effective when my head was in the pumpkin but that’s okay, it still looked cool.

And that’s that!

Hope this helps some people, Enjoy!

#halloween #fashion #neat #gotta try #FOR PANDORA

[kaitswriting]

A small list of random ass sites I’ve found useful when writing:

Fragrantica: perfume enthusiast site that has a long list of scents. v helpful when you’re writing your guilty pleasure abo fics

Just One Cookbook: recipe site that centers on Japanese cuisine. Lots of different recipes to browse, plenty of inspiration so you’re not just “ramen and sushi” 

This comparing heights page: gives you a visual on height differences between characters

A page on the colors of bruises+healing stages: well just that. there you go. describe your bruises properly

McCormick Science Institute: yes this is a real thing. the site shows off research on spices and gives the history on them. be historically accurate or just indulge in mindless fascination. boost your restaurant au with it

A Glossary of Astronomy Terms: to pepper in that sweet terminology for your astrophysics major college au needs

[kaitswriting]

Oh shit I should be writing

[kaitswriting]

“Being a writer was never a choice, it was an irresistible compulsion.”

— Walter Jon Williams (via psliterary)

#aside #of course #from the fact that I NEVER GOD DAMN WRITE

[kaitswriting]

how have i never heard of archive.org until today.. it’s an internet library that functions just like a real one, as in you borrow the books for 2 weeks and then they are returned to the archive. you can dl pdfs as well, but you’ll lose access after the 2 week period. it’s all free tho, literally just like a real library. i was searching for a cheap copy of this serial murder book from the 90s for my thesis and i found it for free on here. there’s like.. no gimmick at all? i’m so amazed. i literally just signed up and now i’m reading a super hq scan of this book for free. i love libraries.

[kaitswriting]

[kaitswriting]

How to Organize a Zine 101 - Masterpost

I am writing a series of posts, all talking about things that I hope will help people organise their own zines, especially when they’re new to this. I am talking mostly from my own experience and mistakes we did with our first zine.

I will update this post as soon as I wrote the next installment, so remember to save the latest version!

Part 1: Phase 1 - The Planning

Part 2: The Job Interview

Part 3: Web Presence 

Part 4: Finding Your Printing Service

Part 5: ALL the Merch

Part 6: Phase 2 - Applications

Part 7: Application Form

Part 8: What the FAQ?!

Part 9: Call for Submission

Part 10: Finding your Contributors and Sending Rejections

Part 11: How to Apply & Contributor Etiquette

Part 12: Pase 3 - The Creative’s Work

Part 13: Communication

If you enjoyed the read, please consider tipping me a coffee on ko-fi!

[kaitswriting]

I’m trying to update this website at least once a week. Find my blog, and my previous work which I’ll be adding chapter by chapter!

#writing #writeblr friends #writblr #writeblr #writblr friends #my writing #my website