writeworld:

Anonymous asked: Any tips on organizing thoughts? Thank You 🙂

(rebloggable by request)

You might find these posts helpful:

• This Is a Towel: Plot and Idea Generators
• Tons of Ideas, No Direction
• For the Architects: The Planning Process
• How do you plan a novel?

We also have posts related to writing software that can help organize your ideas:

• For Your Ideas
• Some Links for and about Scrivener
• Alternatives to MyNovel

Thank you for your question!

~K

fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment:

Because it’s been on my mind today, I’m going to talk a bit about inspiration, and how playing around is actually a valuable activity. 

The arts are a funny business, because a lot of time spent on work is spent finding inspiration. Now, a lot of people will tell you that ‘I’m not inspired right now’ is not an excuse to flop around and not get your work done (I’m one of those people). But the point of that is not that you don’t need inspiration to work. Rather, you need to learn to hunt, devour, and horde  inspiration so that you can work consistently, so that you can get your jobs done on time, so that you can eat (because if you want to work as a writer, or any other kind of artist, it is a job).

So, how can you get enough inspiration to work at something creative as a job?

First off, find what you like. Find what interests you, what excites you, and follow it. You like birds? Go read about them. Throw some goddamn bread in the park and try to capture them. You like airplanes? Learn every fucking thing about airplanes. I don’t care if your cousin told you that airplanes were dumb when you were little and you never recovered, if you think they’re cool, they’re your fuel and everybody else can take a boat to Antarctica. Take time to pursue the things that interest you. Setting aside an hour to watch a documentary about hyenas is worth it if it’ll help you work. (You wanna tumble? You can tumble a little. But tumble with a purpose. Go through tags that inspire you, and as soon as you’re inspired, stop and get to work. No glazefacing it).

Secondly, 

Derp. 

Derp hard. 

Let me explain. I don’t have a lot of surplus energy, and I sometimes have trouble getting pumped up enough to do things. (I don’t think inspiration is an easy mistress for anyone to manage). But having fun and doing silly things helps me, because I believe fun is equal only to heartbreak as a creative drive. It’s important to have fun, and take the time to enjoy the things that inspire you. While sitting at your screen and staring seems more responsible, if you aren’t actually typing, or you aren’t writing anything worth a pigeon’s grits, it’s no good. You need solid, structured creating time, but you also need solid inspiration time. Inspiration is input, creating output. Keep them both running steadily, and you’ll accomplish more. 

Don’t be afraid to do some dumb shit if your tanks are running low. I don’t mean ‘irresponsible’, just go try something silly. Climb out on your roof and look at clouds. Climb a tree. Invent a game. Dance in a corner like a jellyfish. Build a box fort and frolic. 

Because really, acting like an idiot is great. You can get new perspectives, and new ideas, and you’ll be more daring, because, for chrissake, you were just jellyfish dancing in public, what’s writing something personal or going out on a limb with your work?   

I think one of the best things I learned at university is that being silly or derping around a bit isn’t a bad thing for me, because it doesn’t mean that I’m not serious. Finding things that I can be excited about and having fun are how I can get inspired, and inspiration is very serious business. 

So, what I’ve been trying to say is: Don’t be afraid to have fun. Don’t feel like you need to deny yourself something because it’s silly, or act ‘seriously’. It’s okay to be serious about your work in whatever way works for you. 

-Evvy

fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment:

Exploring Homelessness Through YA Literature

Becky Blanton: The Year I was Homeless (Video)

The Thing About Being Homeless

Homeless Youth and the Foster Care System (NaNo Thread)

How Food Banks Work

Feeding America: How Our System Works

Where do Homeless People Sleep?

How does a Homeless Shelter Work?

The Top 20 Things I’ve Learned Working in a Homeless Shelter

I hope these help you with what you need!  If you need something specific about the topic, feel free to ask!

-Grammar

writeworld:

by Glen Strathy

Here’s an easy way to come up with a brief plot outline for your novel.

One of the most powerful secrets to creating plots that are emotionally compelling is to incorporate the 8 Basic Plot Elements. Starting with your story idea, you only need to make eight choices to ensure the plot of your future novel hangs together in a meaningful way.

The best part is that you can make these choices and construct a brief plot outline in less than an hour.

Sound intriguing? Then let’s get started.

Read More

thewritershelpers:

Anonymous asked you 

Eh, this is a bit of overly general question, but I was wondering if you have anything on superheroes/superhero-type characters? Maybe some cliches to avoid or just some tips or even a list of superhero powers would be wonderful. Dankeschön.

What a wonderfully unique question! 

Definition of superhero: A benevolent fictional character with superhuman powers, such as Superman.

By definition a superhero should have something quite unique about them, whether its a man made suit of armour or spider powers. Something about a superhero must set them apart from ‘normal’ people. 
What you need to think about as well is making your superhero relatable to your readers. Their negative traits will help with this whether it be confidence, anger ect. 

• How to create a superhero
• Joss Weldon on writing a superhero
• Characteristics of superhero film genre (forum)
• What makes a hero
• NaNoWriMo What makes a hero heroic (forum)
• List of Superpowers

Clichés are cliché because they have been proved again and again to work. I will list the most common clichés below.

• Orphans/ dead parents/ live with auntie and uncle
• Bad childhood
• Unpopular
• Traumatic event normally involving loss of parental figure forces them to become superhero.

I wouldn’t shy away from using some of these as backgrounds for your character, after all your character has to have a reason to become a superhero. 
 
Hope this all helps, good luck with your story!
 
-S

writingbox:

Some writers will outline their characters down to the finest details before writing a word of their novel, while other writers like to let their characters develop and reveal themselves while they write. There’s no right or wrong to this, but there are some essential things you should always know about your characters before you start.

1. What they look like.
2. Their family background. Remember that this will include both blood relatives and people they regard as family.
3. Their cultural and ethnic heritage.
4. What they want. What your characters hope to achieve during the story is the basis of your plot.
5. Who/where they are in their life at the beginning of the novel. Throughout your story your characters will evolve, change and grow.

And there is one essential thing that you should learn about your characters while writing your novel.

1. How they cope in a crisis. Your characters have what they want to achieve; when you throw an obstacle in their way you can learn just what kind of person your characters really are. And they may well surprise you.

Because writing is a journey, for both your characters and for you, and there’s always new things to learn along the way…

writrs:

Choosing a name for your character seems like a simple task, but can actually be quite complicated and difficult most of the time. It’s one of those early stumpers that can slow your writing process if you aren’t prepared for it.

Sometimes I worry that I’m doing too much research and that my names are to literal, but then I remember that JK Rowling named her werewolf character Remus Lupin: Remus after mythological Remus and Romulus (the founding brothers of Rome) who were raised by wolves… and Lupin deriving from Latin for “wolf” or Canus Lupus. Which is pretty literal, and it worked for her!

Research Tools

Two of my favorite naming tools are Wikipedia and BabyNames.com. 

Wikipedia is a great way to find mythological and historical names as well as Latin root words to help you create names for fantasy or period pieces.

Any form of baby name database or book is a great way to find modern names. I especially like BabyNames.com because they have a search function that allows you to search names by nationality and meaning.

Naming Tips

-Make sure when you say your characters name aloud you can get a feel for their personality. Make sure the name is a good fit. You may just choose a name you really like without getting much into the character development only to realize that the name just doesn’t feel right for the character anymore once you really figure them out.

-The name should tell something about the character. It doesn’t have to be very outwardly obvious, but if you can come up with a clear characteristic or description that the name follows through on it may help you stay true to that characters personality throughout the life of the story.

-Choose names that are age, period, and genre appropriate. If you are writing a modern young adult novel you’re not going to want to base all of your characters names on Norse gods, whereas if you’re writing a fantasy or sci-fi novel it wouldn’t be fitting to name everyone “Joey,” “Mike” and “Kimberly.” 

-Even if you are writing a futuristic or other-worldly piece try not to make the names so bizzarre that they are difficult to pronounce. It can quickly distract from the flow of the story if the reader has to try and decode the main characters name every other sentence.

-For minor characters you can use things like street names, names from movie credits, that name you just always thought was really cool. Since their personalities don’t have as massive an influence on your plot, minor characters can be easier to just choose a name first and then develop a personality from there.

Other Helpful Things

There are some more really great tips for writers on the babynames website as well! You will probably see some similarities to my list because like I said, it is one of my favorite resources for this task. But if you would like a few more in depth examples you can find those here: http://www.babynames.com/character-names.php

Overall I’d say the point of this post is that it is good to do a bit of research before naming characters. So if you have an idea for your story already you should try to take an hour or so either today or tomorrow to start looking into some names before you begin NaNo on the 1st!

Happy Writing and Good Luck!
-Camille