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people who use the queue function fill a necessary role in the tumblr ecosystem. they keep posts alive. if u miss a post bc ur entire mutualcule was reblogging it from each other in a 30min span and u were offline, the queue mutual provides u an opportunity to see that post again in 1-8 business days. they put posts in stasis in little cryogenic freezers for u to discover and enjoy later. everyone thank their queue mutuals right now

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I am trying to write high fantasy but I am worried I am forgetting importance bits on how (it has been so long since I wrote high fantasy), any tips?

When I was in college, one of my methods for writing papers was to only do enough research to be able to start my paper. 

I would do enough research to have a basic understanding of the subject, know what I’m arguing, know some broad topics for my outline that I’ll be addressing, and have a couple of supporting evidence for my argument. And then I would just start writing my paper at this point.

As I’m writing the paper, I’ll start noticing gaps in my research and knowledge. Like as I’m writing, I’ll realize that I need a certain statistic to strengthen my argument, or if I knew more about some subject I’ll be able to back up my argument more efficiently, or I need a citation to support my claim — one that I think is right, but need evidence for. That’s when I’ll do the research on that gap that I found so I can properly write my paper.

This worked for me because it helped me cut down on the amount of unnecessary research I would do — there are a lot of articles and studies out there, easily hundreds and thousands on the topic I was writing my paper on. It can be difficult sometimes to identify what will be useful and what won’t be. I could just keep researching, but where do I stop? At what point can I say I’m an expert? There really isn’t an endpoint for something like this

So, I chose to just start writing. And once I did, I could pinpoint exactly what information I needed to find, and it was a lot easier to find since I was looking for something specific, as opposed to broader research you do at the beginning, before you start writing the paper.

(This advice for writing papers is recommended for papers you write in class normally. For something like a senior thesis you’ll definitely want to do a lot more beginning research. Also this worked for me, as a former psych major. I can’t vouch how it’ll work for other majors.)

And I would give you the same advice. You’re never going to 100% know how to write high fantasy. It’s okay to not know how to do something, and chances are, even if you’ve written a lot of high fantasy recently, you’re still going to not know everything.

Trying to be an expert on writing high fantasy is a really lofty goal, and you’re probably going to overwhelm yourself before you even start. You might be caught up on what people say is right and wrong, you might be scared of not meeting certain expectations, or it might just be really intimidating. 

It’s okay to have forgotten something, and it’s okay to not know it before you start.

Writing advice is subjective at best, and I think you should just start writing. Start writing, and if you notice any gaps in your knowledge, or if you notice that you need a little help on a certain thing, look it up or ask for help then. It’s much easier and much more efficient to fill in the gaps as you find them, rather than try to learn everything at once.

I now have an updated FAQ and Ask Guidelines for Writing Advice, please check those out first if you have a question about writing or Writeblr!

Ask Guidelines | FAQ | Advice Masterlist

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we can do it it

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"please don't" I whisper to my OC as I write how he does something Stupid(tm)

#just writer things #q

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Women in STEM (Smut, Trauma, Enemies to lovers, Masquerade balls)

#ME #q

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like tbh i feel like my problem with the “dark and gritty!!” trend in modern stories is this

there’s this idea in our culture that cynicism is realistic? that only children believe in happy endings, that people are ultimately selfish and greedy and seeing with clear eyes means seeing the world as an awful place

that idealism is— easy, i guess. butterflies and sunshine and love are easy things to have in your head.

but i’ve known since i was fifteen that idealism— faith in humanity— optimism— is the most difficult thing in the entire world.

i constantly struggle to have faith in humanity, because it’s really, really easy to lose it. it’s easy to look at the news and go “what were you expecting? of course humans behave this way.” it’s easy to see the world and go “ugh, there’s no hope there.” and the years when i believed that were easy. miserable— but easy.

it is hard work to see the good in people. it is hard work to hope. it is hard work to keep faith and love and joy and appreciation for beauty in my daily life.

and when moviemakers and tv producers and writers go “omg!!! all characters are selfish and act poorly and don’t love each other, nothing ever happens that is happy or good, that’s so much more realistic, that’s so much more adult”

no, it’s not

it’s childish.

it’s the most childish thing i can imagine.

#dark and gritty is realism and therefore better #q #this!!! #this this this this this!! #i hate the trend of that i see online a lot #if you like it great! thats awesome #but its not better necessarily

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One of the more frustrating aspects of writeblr is how much it encourages showy writing– quotes that look great out of context, that look nice on edits with little sparkly stars. And it’s always wonderful to find quotes like that in your own work, because they do exist naturally everywhere… but your work shouldn’t be written for tumblr, and it definitely shouldn’t be written to be quotable. Remember that it’s always okay to write simple, clean prose, and there’s nothing wrong with your work looking best in its natural state.

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Hi Undine! We haven't met yet; I'm Bluebell.

I spent a happy chunk of today writing a letter to a friend, and I'm now wondering whether writing real letters would translate well to writing epistolary fiction. Do you have any tips?

Hi Bluebell, it’s nice to meet you!

Fortunately you are talking to a person who has written a ton of epistolary fiction. 

I think that having experience writing real letters is definitely useful for writing epistolary fiction in the sense that you have some real life examples of a letter. It can be useful to have as a reference just in case you need a reminder of what that looks like.

That being said, I wouldn’t say that it would translate well. 

I think that writing epistolary fiction uses a lot of different skills that aren’t used in traditional prose fiction or actual letter writing. Skills and techniques that you’ve cultivated through doing both will absolutely serve you well, but it’s important to note that it is still very different.

The most important advice I would have for writing epistolary fiction is get comfortable with showing through telling.

It sounds antithetical to the ever famous “show don’t tell” rule of writing, doesn’t it? Often times with epistolary fiction, you don’t have the luxury of prose and description. All you really have is the voices of the letter writers as they ‘tell’ each other things. Showing a story unfolding through telling is a skill that you’re going to want to develop.

For example, let’s say that there is a character who is experiencing a really hard time. It’s possible that they would just straight up write “I’m having a really hard time right now.” It’s also possible that they wouldn’t say that for whatever reason. So in epistolary writing, there are several possible ways you could go about that.

Maybe the character starts writing shorter sentences and stop responding as in-depth as they used to because they’re distracted and exhausted. Maybe they stop talking about themselves entirely and dedicate the entire letter to what is going on in the other person’s life. Maybe there is a certain word or phrase that they use a lot when they’re stressed. Maybe they start rambling and go on strange tangents. Maybe they hint at their issues in a roundabout way and say things like “wow I slept until 4PM today, isn’t that crazy?” to hint at something larger going on.

It’s really difficult to give examples because it truly does depend on each character and situation, but those are just a handful of possible ways to show through telling! Get creative, epistolary formats are full of potential.

Honing the voices of your characters are always important, but it’s especially important in epistolary writing because it’s told entirely through their voices! 

You can’t get away with weak character voices in epistolary writing. Practice writing your character voices so that you have it nailed down. Letters from different characters should read differently and the person writing the letter should be identifiable based on its contents because everyone has a different writing voice. Fortunately, this is something that can be figured out with practice and drafting! The more you write, the more you’ll figure out how they speak/write.

I absolutely adore writing epistolary stories. It is a lot more limited than a traditional novel, but there is a lot you can do with them that are simply not possible in other formats. It is really fun to experiment with, and has been one of the most enjoyable stories I’ve ever written.

Good luck, hope this helped!

If you’d like to ask me for advice on writing or running a writeblr, please check out my Ask Guidelines and FAQ first.

Ask Guidelines | FAQ | Advice Masterlist

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Either I never get to the scene that I’m desperate to write, or I actually get to that scene and can’t write it because I’ve hyped it up and perfected it so hard in my mind that I’ll never be able to capture it in words.

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💥🙌👏

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Literally all I want to do is write something that makes people insane and maybe scream silently over it like is that so much to ask

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I don’t know who needs to hear this but it’s okay for writing to be a HOBBY that you do because you enjoy, and that you don’t want to do when you’re not enjoying it. No one’s up in the business of knitters telling them they have to be willing to SUFFER and SWEAT or they’ll NEVER FINISH THAT SWEATER and they can’t expect good things to come to them. I don’t know why our current culture around writing is so intense, but I’m here to support your casual, relaxing writing habit. If people can glue pompoms together or knit a scarf or watch hours of streaming shows with their spare time there’s absolutely no reason writers can’t waste time writing just for pleasure, without any expectation that they’re going to Achieve something Amazing and Important or make a bunch of money or whatever.

#HOBBY WRITING IS SO VALID!! #q

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This comic is for you all whose English is a second language for you. <3

#writing positivity #q

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GOD I FUCKING;LOVE. CHARACTERS

#just writer things #q

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#just writer things #q