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The Top 10 Writing Posts From February 2021

Every month, we look at the posts that people read the most.

These were the new Writers Write posts you enjoyed in February 2021:

Writers Talk 4 | The Top 100 Fantasy Books

3 Takeaways For Writers From David Foster Wallace

7 Bits Of Writing Advice From The Works Of Charles Dickens

28 Writing Prompts For February 2021

The 4 Pillars Of Literary Fiction

80 Wordy Expressions & What You Could Use Instead

Sentences, Paragraphs, & Chapters Explained

When To Ignore The Writing Rules

101 Romance Tropes For Writers

10 Tips For Retelling A Classic Tale

Previous Posts

The Top 10 Writing Posts From January 2021

The Top 10 Writing Posts From December 2020

The Top 10 Writing Posts From November 2020

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One of the best tips for writing descriptions of pain is actually a snippet I remember from a story where a character is given a host of colored pencils and asked to draw an egg.

The character says that there’s no white pencil.  But you don’t need a white pencil to draw a white egg.  We already know the egg is white.  What we need to draw is the luminance of the yellow lamp and the reflection of the blue cloth and the shadows and the shading.

We know a broken bone hurts.  We know a knife wound hurts.  We know grief hurts.  Show us what else it does.

You don’t need to describe the character in pain.  You need to describe how the pain affects the character - how they’re unable to move, how they’re sweating, how they’re cold, how their muscles ache and their fingers tremble and their eyes prickle.

Draw around the egg.  Write around the pain.  And we will all be able to see the finished product.

#tips

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How to Write Fight Scenes

Almost every writer struggles with fight scenes in one way or another, even the experienced ones. There are more components to a fight scene than to any other scene, in my opinion.

A fight scene combines dialogue, action, pacing, and every single other element of writing into a deadly concoction that can be hell to write and even more hell to edit.

That’s why I’ve provided a helpful list of tips that you can use to make your fight scenes the best that they can possibly be!

1. If Your Fight Scene Doesn’t Take Place in a Hot Air Balloon, Then It Probably Should

Now, this is not in the literal sense.

Hear me out:

A fight scene in a field where the two armies/teams collide head-on? Boring. Overused. Underwhelming.

A fight scene in that same field with those same two armies but during an earthquake where the ground is opening up beneath them? New. Avant Garde. Keeps the reader on their toes.

It doesn’t literally have to take place in a hot air balloon; what I’m saying is that you should push the circumstances of the fight scene to make it new and interesting.

A personal example is when I had a fight scene that really just wasn’t working for me; it was dull, it dragged on, and it was a bitch to get past the writer’s block.

But then, instead of having the fight scene out in the open like how I’d originally intended it, I made a split-second decision to have it take place in a tunnel, and let me tell you, it was AWESOME.

The new setting made the battle a lot more visceral; it was tight and cramped, and the characters were tripping on bodies and slipping in blood as they were jostled around in a tight space.

Doesn’t that sound more interesting than fighting in an open field?

Having the surroundings inhibit or alter the fighting style is what can make a fight scene truly a masterpiece.

Even if your battle has to take place in an open field, you can add different elements like an earthquake, the enemies’ swords being on fire, or different battle strategies to make it super cool experience.

Here are some examples of well-set fight scenes where the surroundings are taken into account to make it all the more interesting:

Club Fight (John Wick, 2014)

Carnival Fight (Stranger Things, Season 3 Episode 7)

The Hound vs. Beric Dondarrion (Game of Thrones, Season 3 Episode 5)

Jason Bourne vs Desh Bouksani (The Bourne Ultimatum, 2007)

Clarice Starling vs Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991)

Church Fight (Kingsman: The Secret Service, 2014)

Staircase Fight (Atomic Blonde, 2017)

Kitchen Fight (Sleepless, 2017)

2. Brevity is the Soul of Wit (AKA, Keep Your Writing Simple)

The way you write during a fight scene is a great way to keep a good pace.

Your readers should be on the edge of their seats, dying to know if their favorite characters are going to live or die; they don’t want to read big words like “indubitably” and “scintillating.”

Feel free to reference my post about writing pain here.

Your word choice should be gritty. It should reflect the desperation of the fight.

Don’t use long, winding sentences and flowy paragraphs for fight scenes.

Short sentence fragments.

Paragraphs that barely last a line.

Scattered, grammar-breaking clauses that put the reader in the same frantic state of mind as the characters.

(You see what I did there?)

Also, fight scenes are the major scene where the “show don’t tell” rule applies. If you only had a choice to follow that rule on one specific occasion, it should be during the fight scenes. 

The readers should know how your characters are feeling just by their actions, not by you outwardly stating it.

Example:

The knife shredded the sleeve of her jacket, blood bursting forth and running down her arm. It surprised her at first and hurt like hell, but it didn’t take long for her to grow furious.

Vs.

The knife shredded the sleeve of her jacket, blood bursting forth and running down her arm. Her eyes widened as she clamped her hand over the wound, but as she watched the blood trickling through her fingers, her expression contorted into something monstrous.

See how much better the second one sounds? You can tell exactly what this character is feeling even though I didn’t explicitly tell you.

Something else that also helps fight scenes is literary devices.

Similes. Metaphors. Onomatopoeias. Hyperboles.

If you use these (sparingly, mind you!) it can really give your fight scene that kick that you’ve always wanted it to have.

Examples:

She rose to her feet as blood streamed down her body in a torrent, her eyes blazing like a thousand suns.

He turned to regard his opponent with clenched fists and a smile like razors.

She fought like a wolf trapped in the confines of a human skin.

The buildings crumbled as if made from silk and twine rather than metal and stone.

Be careful not to overuse them, though! If every other line has a literary device, it loses its punch!

3. Your Characters Shouldn’t Be Invincible

You shouldn’t be giving your characters the “invincible plot armor” treatment.

While all of the unnamed lackeys get swamped by the “unimaginable power” of the enemy, they shouldn’t be coming at your main characters any slower than they come at everyone else.

Your main characters should be having the shit kicked out of them.

There should be something about the fight that makes the readers think, “Wait a minute, they might not survive this.”

For example, let’s take Character A. Character A is strong, fast, and well-trained. The perfect soldier. He can hold his own in a fight.

However, what if his dominant hand is injured? How will he compensate for the injury?

The point of a battle is saying “On what circumstances will my characters be able to win” and then pushing it just a bit further into the grey area between “decisive victory” and “devastating defeat.”

A character who relies on speed getting their leg injured.

An expert cavalryman whose horse falls halfway through the battle.

A flying character grounded by a wing injury.

A magical character running out of potions and spells.

You want to push your character to their physical limits, take them out of their comfort zone and plop them right into the thick of it.

Only then will your fight really build tension, and tension is what every battle needs in order for the readers to not feel like their time has been wasted; if they know the characters are just going to win, then what’s the point?

Here are some fight scenes that do a good job of not knowing if the main characters are going to win:

The Battle of the Bastards (Game of Thrones, Season 6 Episode 9)

The Battle of Winterfell (Game of Thrones, Season 8 Episode 3) (Although the characters have undeniable plot armor, you don’t know if the battle itself is going to be won or not)

The Final Battle (Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2, 2012)

T’Challa vs Killmonger (Black Panther, 2018)

4.  Study Other Fight Scenes

Whether they be in books, TV shows, or movies, a bit of research never hurts! (Which is why I’ve been putting recommendations throughout this post)

Watching fight scenes helps you get an idea of what you should describe, and reading fight scenes gives you an idea of how to describe it.

Besides, it’s a pretty fun kind of research, too!

Thanks for reading, I hope this helped!

#tips

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Some amazing book dedications: 

#tips

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50 tips for (fanfic) writing

have fun

write whatever is interesting to you, even if it won’t be interesting to anyone else

appreciate kudos when they come, but don’t expect them

appreciate comments when they come, but don’t expect them

if you wish you could just write that one scene you have in your head, do that. you don’t need to create a 30K backstory for it first.

embrace one shots

embrace drabbles

embrace writing your story out of order

rough drafts are meant to be rough. if you can’t think of a word, put in a placeholder for it and keep going. 

try not to get stuck on the little things

it’s okay if your readers can’t see the picture inside of your head

some people work well when they have a posting schedule. some people work well when they don’t. it’s okay if you don’t know which kind of person you are, and it’s okay if the type of person you are changes over time.

if a rule you created for yourself isn’t working for you, get rid of that rule.

make fandom friends. even if they don’t read your fic, they’ll cheer you on while you write it.

cheer on other writers you know. you’ll be cheering yourself at the same time.

no trope or genre is better or worse than another one. they all just appeal to different audiences.

quality and popularity are not the same thing, although they do sometimes overlap

numbers and statistics will never tell you whether or not you’re a good writer. they will never tell you how valuable you are as a person. 

you belong in fandom if you want to be there

you’re a writer as soon as you start writing things

writing and posting are two different things. your story is still worth writing, even if you never plan to share it

you don’t need to apologize for what you write or what you post. 

don’t worry about taking up too much space. the internet doesn’t have a maximum size. 

keep your readers in mind when you’re tagging your content. how could they search for your fic? if you use a tag, will be a reader who loves that tag be satisfied with how much it appears in your story?

if you have a relationship in your fic that plays a minor role, tag it in the Additional Tags section instead of the Relationship section so that people who love that ship don’t get their hopes up

be cautious when looking at bookmarks on your fic. they aren’t “extra comments.” that’s a space where readers make notes for themselves and each other, not for authors. 

you don’t need to know everything about canon before you start writing fic

you don’t need to read fic in the same fandoms you write for

you don’t need to read fic at all in order to write it

love your work because sometimes you’re the only one who will - and that’s okay

if your hobby starts feeling like a job, you might need to take a break before you get burnt out

if you get stuck on a story, you can always start a new one

if you fall out of love with a story, you can always stop writing it. if you’re worried about your readers, you can always give them a bullet point summary of where you were planning to go with thing. for a lot of people, that’s satisfying and provides closure

if you get hate, report it

use the tools at your disposal to block hate before it can come in (limiting or turning off comments, limiting or turning off asks, blocking users, etc)

try replying to comments sometimes. it can be a lovely way to make fandom friends

don’t be afraid to reblog your own writing posts.

if you get stuck on your summary, just write 1) who the story is about 2) what they are doing and 3) what problem gets in their way

notice when your writing makes you smile. that moment is a gift. enjoy it.

notice when your writing makes you cry. that moment is a gift, too.

even if you’re disappointed in how your story turned out, there’s something in there that’s fantastic. find that thing and focus on it and feel proud.

some ideas are ones you want to write. some are ones you want to read. if you ever have too many ideas to deal with at once, give some of the latter ones away to someone else. 

sometimes the things you write will be really personal. be careful about putting them where other people can comment. they won’t know how personal it is for you, and you need to remember that comments aren’t about you, they’re about the story.

remember that you can write series as well as stories. if the story is done but you still have passion or ideas, start a new one in the same universe.

enjoy the satisfaction of finishing a story. savour it. bask in it a little while.

don’t feel guilty about abandoning a story. not every story gets finished, and that’s okay

you can have separate accounts for different fandoms. you can have one account with a million fandoms in it. do whatever works for you.

sometimes writing is more important than sleep - but only sometimes

it doesn’t matter if that story has been written before by someone else. it doesn’t matter if it was written by you. write it again.

only follow the advice that makes sense to you. the rest isn’t important.

#tips

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ATTENTION WRITERS

Google BetaBooks. Do it now. It’s the best damn thing EVER.

You just upload your manuscript, write out some questions for your beta readers to answer in each chapter, and invite readers to check out your book!

It’s SO easy!

You can even track your readers! It tells you when they last read, and what chapter they read!

Your beta readers can even highlight and react to the text!!!

There’s also this thing where you can search the website for available readers best suited for YOUR book!

Seriously guys, BetaBooks is the most useful website in the whole world when it comes to beta reading, and… IT’S FREE.

#tips

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Please re-blog if you’re OK with silly fan art of your characters.

#life as an artist

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#motivation

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Please take good care of them!

#motivation

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Writer’s Problems

What I mean to write: A disturbing tingling sensation rattled her nerves as the adrenaline pumped vigorously and violently through her veins.

What I actually write: She nervous.

#life as a writer

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following my meme post the other day, and talking to friends further on the subject of fat characters in art, especially in fandom, i figured some people might like a tutorial on how to draw them.

#tips

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#life as an artist

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Pssst

Hey, are you an artist or writer with WIPs?

Come here... I got a secret for you pssst come ‘ere

#life as a writer

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Do you ever wish you could just like -

#life as a writer

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July 2020 “A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” - Thomas Mann The idea came from @lastbluetardis. I’ve seen a lot of people doing this lately and I thought that it was a pretty good idea for authors.

► The Fallen - Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler ► 31 days of Whumptober. ► Chapter 16 || Chapter 17 "The street lights were spreading a soft glow on the pavements but obscurity was gaining ground. Anything could stand in the shadows. He was well aware of that fact. He also operated in the dark. So were the worst demons." ► Total of words: 2,553 + 3,004 = 5,557.

xxx

► Master of the House: Look in the mirror - Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan) ► Master of the House ► Master of the House: Look in the mirror "He had had a sick pleasure by turning her into a toy he could manipulate and use as much as he wanted until she finally broke. How many times had he broken her when she was playing this nauseating part? How many times had he abused of her body and mind? She remembered the hands around her neck, the yells on her incompetence to be the perfect wife who blindly obeyed her husband? And to think she had let herself be dominated, that she had let him have the control over her because she thought she had to act like this?" ► Total of words: 2,036.

xxx

► Broken Pieces – The Traveller/Bad Wolf ► Chapter 2 (not posted yet) The doctor had always been convinced that he was last one of his species planet disappeared during time war. carried weight this slaughter on shoulders like a burden constant reminder man was. mostly travelled alone for rest life sometimes picking some companions passing through to try and save different galaxies relieve consciousness from murderous acts. never able forget each loss witnessing only weighed more consciousness.> ► Total of words: 730.

xxx

► Goodbye FB ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► Goodbye FB. At the beginning of this week announcing the end of June and the beginning of July, I had to take an important decision about my ‘professional’ social media. As you might know, as you might have seen it before, I was posting on several channels to promote my art, whether it was drawings or writing stuff. I was on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram mostly. ► Total of words: 699.

xxx

► He was the Universe ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► He was the Universe. A fellow Jodie Whittaker fan on Instagram (jodiewhittakerfp) has created a project for Jodie based on the song Yellow that the actress sang for BBC Children in Need back in November in homage to her nephew, Harry, suffering from Down Syndrome who passed away in 2014. ► Total of words: 324.

xxx

► Summer books to read ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► Summer books to read. Summer is here – even if the weather isn’t really representative of a usual summer in the North – and for a lot of people it means holidays, trips with family and/or friends, going to the beach, enjoying a dive on your pool or walking around to clear your mind. ► Total of words: 1,582.

xxx

► Charente-Maritime �� Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► Charente-Maritime. My year 2015 wasn’t as good as 2014. The latter was quite epic. It was my freshman year in college, I saw Keen’V and Cody Simpson live, we threw a big party for all the missed events (my parents are divorced and my mother wanted to celebrate all of the family events we missed) and… I was still going on holidays (not anymore). ► Total of words: 2,001.

xxx

► Tattoos ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► Tattoos. Tattoos have become a fashion trend over the years. Almost everyone is wearing at least one nowadays. Tattoos and piercings have always fascinated me and I promised myself to cross the line of fear and get some in the future. But beware the tattoo as once you’ve gotten your first one, you become addicted and want plenty others. ► Total of words: 1,153.

xxx

► Good Omens ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► Good Omens. This was the worldwide phenomenon of last year. You can’t possibly have missed it: it was everywhere: large posters in the subway stations, posters on bus stops, on buses themselves, interviews of the main actors, premiere in Leicester Square, etc. Good Omens is obviously the TV show you had to watch last year to be with it! ► Total of words: 2,112.

xxx

► July Playlist ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► July Playlist. I am part of a generation that can’t dissociate some songs from the covers that had been done in the TV show Glee. In six years, they had payed tribute to many singers, dead or alive. We have grown attached to the characters, and to the cast. ► Total of words: 247.

xxx

► Pheline’s chair ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► Pheline’s chair. We all have that one thing related to someone that’s gone, to someone we miss, in a corner of our house, of our mind, of our heart. For some, it’s just precious memories perfectly classified in a part of your mind like a bubble of nostalgia you’re visiting when you feel like it. For others, it’s a song they keep in their music player and playlists no matter how much time had passed since they listened to it just because this very song is reminding you of someone. ► Total of words: 632.

xxx

► Total of words: 17,073.

#monthly self rec

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June 2020 The idea came from @lastbluetardis. I’ve seen a lot of people doing this lately and I thought that it was a pretty good idea for authors.

► The Fallen - Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler ► 31 days of Whumptober. ► Chapter 14 || Chapter 15 || Chapter 16 "The street lights were spreading a soft glow on the pavements but obscurity was gaining ground. Anything could stand in the shadows. He was well aware of that fact. He also operated in the dark. So were the worst demons." ► Total of words: 1,655 + 2,237 + 462 = .4,354.

xxx

► Americanah ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► Americanah. The current times brought this past article to my mind and I think it is the right time to bring it back with everything that is happening in the world. It is not related to the COVID-19 pandemic but to the frightening increasing of the nationalism and racism and violence happening everywhere and causing damages beyond repairs to the population targeted by those issues. ► Total of words: 3,771.

xxx

► Indochine ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► Indochine. This year, the French new wave/rock band Indochine has turned 40 years old and is celebrating the anniversary with the release of albums of their most famous songs. They all have been worked on to sound more recent and cleaner. ► Total of words: 1,954.

xxx

► Pride Month ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► Pride Month. The previous generations, the narrow-minded people, some believers will tell you that there’s only one form of possible sexuality, only one possible combination: you have to be a heterosexual, a family is composed of a father and a mother; blue and little cars are for boys, pink and dolls for girls; you cannot wear a dress if you’re a boy, etc… ► Total of words: 1,212.

xxx

► To the new owners ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► To the new owners. Welcome in your new property. From the first look, you might be disappointed. It’s a small house, nothing is straight; it gets dark quickly since the windows are all on the same side downstairs, because the windows are small upstairs; it gets easily cold in winter, easily hot in summer, the floors upstairs are creaking; the ground of the garage needs to be covered with concrete; the yard demands a lot of work; there’s barely any phone coverage… ► Total of words: 1,666.

xxx

► 10 shows I’ll always recommend ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► 10 shows I’ll always recommend. A seemingly calm and friendly seaside town becomes a town wrapped in secrets when the death of an eleven-year-old boy sparks an unwanted media frenzy. ► Total of words: 1,869.

xxx

► June Playlist ► Post for Bundle of random thoughts. ► June Playlist. The end of June is here with the first heatwaves, thunderstorms and showers to start summer in a good way – or almost since last week we were still wearing sweatshirts and socks… – and it is time for a new playlist to conclude this month on a good note, and to distract you from the frightening worldwide situation. Are you ready to rock? Have fun and dance in the sun? ► Total of words: 633.

xxx

► Total of words: 15,459.

#monthly self rec

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NEW! - Celeste NEW! - Mabel NEW! - Sabel NEW! - Timmy & Tommy NEW! - Tom Nook - Pixel Art NEW! - Animal Crossing - Retro Player - Pixel Art NEW! - Animal Crossing - DS Pixel Art NEW! - Animal Crossing - Switch Art NEW! - Call her Professor NEW! - CyberDoctor NEW! - He was the Universe NEW! - The Name's Dhawan

This post is about all the creations/drawings I am making and posting here under the tag #lifeasanartist. Some of these creations are also up on shadowsquillproductions, my Tumblr shop, and on Etsy.

Keep reading

#masterpost