THE POST-APOCALYPTIC WESTERN SCIFI THING!!!!!

Hi! I’m trying to start a new story and I was wondering how would you build a new character from scratch? Like how would you go about creating them?

There are many different ways a character is conceived. You’ll need one of these things to start with:

name—you heard one that sounded cool to you, either the meaning, the pronunciation, or the ideas it brings to mind when you hear it. 

look—you saw or imagined a character with certain physical features or garb, someone new and interesting that you want to know more about.

profession—you’re interested in exploring a certain occupation within a fictional setting and what kind of things might happen during the work day.

lifestyle—this can include profession, but it’s more about who they are (or who they pretend to be) at all hours of the day/night.

archetype—you want to explore a character who is the sidekick, villain, mentor, or some other archetype within a story.

From there you shape them into a three-dimensional person with these aspects (which in themselves can inspire a new character):

family/friends—the people who raised, supported, and cared for them (or didn’t) at different points in their lives and thus affected their personality.

culture—the lifestyle of the community they identify with which can include shared customs, traditions, beliefs, foods, entertainment, etc.

skills—stuff they’re good at, but also stuff they’re bad at because both are important for you to know.

backstory—the combination of big experiences that shaped them permanently and that they might think about on a regular basis; a loved one dying, a successful career, a big mistake, and/or a long-term illness.

experiences—individual events that shaped who they are now, but aren’t really a big part of their life story; that time they had their first kiss, played their first sport, encountered a wild animal, and/or learned to cook their own meal.

traits—inherent aspects of their personality that can be their strengths and weaknesses depending on how they improve on or neglect them; they are very kind and compassionate, but easy to take advantage of and are sometimes overly fussy.

beliefs—their driving force, their purpose in life, the reason they get up in the morning and continue to exist.

personality—the combination of skills, beliefs, and cultural norms that make them an individual based on their experiences and upbringing, as well as inherent traits.

Now, the reader does not want to know all this stuff on the first page. In fact, the reader might not need to know much of it at all. You do, and what you include in your story should be primarily stuff the reader needs to know with just a sprinkling of other character information. Some books might give the MC’s entire biography in the first chapter, but even Charles Dickens knew to save the best details for later.

These bullet points work for all characters, not just your main protagonist(s). A writer doesn’t need to know every detail about every side character, but it helps to think of each one as a whole person. Makes the writing feel more authentic.

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7 Ways End Your Novel

Figuring out the right way to end your novel can be difficult and it can make or break your story. If you’re stuck, try to understand that your ending should match the tone of your story. Here are a few common ways to end a novel to keep in mind:

Happy

There’s nothing wrong with a happy ending. If you want your novel to end on a joyful note with everyone getting what they want, that’s perfectly fine. Just make sure it’s in line with how your characters have behaved throughout your novel.

Sad

Writing a sad ending depends on how you built up your novel. A sudden, sad ending shouldn’t come out of nowhere. It should tie in with the tone of your story. If you want to write a sad ending, make sure it makes sense in the world you’ve created.

Open

Sometimes due to the nature of your story, your ending will remain open. Maybe your audience will have to come to conclusions themselves or maybe you’re leading into your next novel. If you’re writing a sequel, writers will often end with it open or a cliffhanger.

Complete

Happy or sad, some writers tend to complete their novel. These means they’ve tied up all loose ends, plots, and subplots, and created a solid ending. Usually this leaves no room for a follow-up and the novel can stand complete on its own. 

Twist

The twist ending can be hard to pull off, but if done correctly it can really blow your readers’ minds. This is when you lead up to one conclusion and then reveal that an assumed truth was false the whole time. Study up on twist endings if that’s something you want to do in your story.

Tie-back

This is when the ending ties back around to the clues in the beginning. Stories with a tie back ending sometimes have a full loop and give the story a feeling of completeness. They make readers feel as if everything is connected in some way.

Epilogue

An epilogue often gives readers details beyond the perceived ending. Writers will sometimes use epilogues if there’s a lot to sum up. Just make sure the epilogue fits your novel and it’s not something you can explain in the main sections of your story.

-Kris Noel

This sounds so interesting! Could I be added to the tag list please?

WIP Intro: Lessons in Humanity from a Future Physicist

Genre: Adult literary fiction // Status: Drafted Several Times Over // Themes: Relationships, healing, mental health, self-image // Word Count: 101,476 // Pinterest Board // Playlist // WIP Page 

When I was 12, I thought something along the lines of “yeah, I can write a novel”, made a bunch of cringey characters, and slapped the name We’re All Dead After All on it. Oh boy, was that a ride. Now, six years later, I’m still working with these characters, but I have changed literally everything about WADAA, including the name. 

Lessons in Humanity from a Future Physicist is my oldest and most loved work. It’s grown as I have, in complexity and quality. It can be an absolute disaster, at times, but I still love it dearly.

What is this?

Lessons in Humanity from a Future Physicist is an adult novel that follows Kam Suzuki, a physics major and a NASA enthusiast, as he deals with the traumatic aftereffects of his brother Vic’s mental health issues, his repressed emotions, and other problems related to mental health, all while supporting Zach Amsel, his best friend and fellow NASA enthusiast, as they begin their first year at their prestigious university.

In short: Lessons in Humanity is a novel about relationships and healing.

It’s probably my favorite work (don’t tell any of the others because they’ll be jealous) just because I’ve had it the longest. I know these characters better than I know myself some days. I’m constantly thinking about this work in particular, because I’m so attached to it.

Who are these people?

I’ll do some proper character introductions later on, but here are some rapid-fire mini intros!

Kam Suzuki (Lawful Good, ISTJ, Hufflepuff, Libra) is the protagonist, a NASA-obsessed science nerd who loves Star Trek and loves to repress his emotions. 

Zach Amsel (Neutral Good, ISFJ, Ravenclaw, Aquarius) is Kam’s best friend, a high-achieving, neurotic young man who’s looking for love in all the wrong places. 

Nikki Espinosa-Jasso (Lawful Neutral, INFP Gryffindor, Capricorn) is the Mom Friend of the group. She’s more than done with the boys’ bullshit, but she loves them regardless.

Kevin Espinosa (Chaotic Neutral, ESFP Slytherin, Gemini) is a fun-loving guy who really only cares about living a hedonistic lifestyle in the now.

Vic Suzuki (Neutral Good, ISTJ, Ravenclaw, Libra) is Kam’s twin brother. He’s dealing with his mental health issues and learning how to take care of himself.

Gerard Shimmish (Chaotic Good, ESFP, Gryffindor, Leo) is Vic’s long-term boyfriend and one of Kam’s closest friends. Despite his childish habits, Gerard is profound and loves caring for others.

Ruth Spencer (Lawful Good, ESFJ, Ravenclaw, Virgo) is a brilliant young woman who loves to read and always gives out good advice.

Jessica McClain (Chaotic Good, ENFP, Gryffindor, Cancer) is a naive goofball who wants to be nice to everyone.

Chai Watson (Chaotic Neutral, ESFP, Slytherin, Aries) is someone who’s been through some hard times and is slowly becoming what she hates most- her mother.

What are the jams?

My playlist for Lessons in Humanity has a lot of awesome songs on it! It’s got some decent space-themed vibes. The songs I listen to the most are:

Twin Size Mattress - The Front Bottoms

Saturn - Sleeping at Last

Hurt - Oliver Tree

Venus - Sleeping at Last

3rd Planet - Modest Mouse

Meteor Showers - Andy Kong

Morning in America - Jon Bellion

Neptune - Sleeping at Last

Stressed Out - Twenty One Pilots

Excerpt

“Xenon.” Kam straightens himself, pulling his shirt and hoodie from his chest and fixing his glasses. He doesn’t say we are noble gasses. He doesn’t say we’re both lonely, but I think that’s why we get along. He doesn’t say I wish I understood people like you do. 

“Xenon,” Zach repeats, sounding like Kam. He almost reaches out to touch Kam’s face, run the backs of his fingers over Kam’s jaw. Almost. He holds himself back from the inappropriate touch that Kam won’t appreciate and clears his throat. “Did you like your ramen?” 

Kam nods wordlessly. 

“Good.” Zach nods. “Good.” He chews on the inside of his mouth and rubs the back of his neck. “Good,” he repeats, then shuts himself up. 

Kam sits, self-contained as always. He is his own universe, detached from everything and everyone else. Maybe he isn’t krypton, but helium, unable to form any bonds, floating alone in the vast nothingness of the universe. Helium is the loneliest element.

Who’s interested?

You can always ask to be added or subtracted from the tag list!

I already love him

Character Intro: Zach “Zamsel” Amsel

Neutral Good // INFP // Ravenclaw // Aquarius // Bi // Jewish-American // Playlist // Pinterest

If there’s a character who I would award with the “Most Relatable” award, it’s Zamsel. He’s been through a lot. A hopeful romantic with a competitive streak and a massive fear of failure, Zamsel puts a lot of pressure on himself. 

Backstory

Zamsel’s grown up being mostly raised by his mother, as his father has spent a lot of Zamsel’s childhood in the Air Force. Mama Amsel is a sweet, understated woman who passed a lot of her softness onto Zamsel. 

Halfway through high school, Zamsel began dating his long-term girlfriend, Chai Watson. Though their relationship was initially happy, it’s deteriorated into something really toxic and draining. Nevertheless, he graduated as co-valedictorian with Kam Suzuki.

Present

Zamsel’s entering his first year of college with Kam. They’re both sort of adjusting to the freedom that comes with living several states from their families, but Zamsel is adjusting to it far better than Kam is. He’s a fan of his new life.

Playlist

Zamsel’s playlist is huge. It’s full of jams from New Medicine and The Front Bottoms, which I use to more or less build up his aesthetic and general mood.

Twin Size Mattress - The Front Bottoms

Heart With Your Name On It - New Medicine

Boy Like Me - New Medicine

Bad At Love - Halsey

Flannel - The Cardboard Swords

Called You Twice (feat. K.Flay) - FIDLAR, K.Flay

Peaches (Text Voter XX to 40649) - grandson, K.Flay

Self Esteem - The Offspring

Excerpt

Zach closes his eyes. His face is wet from crying, raw from rubbing at it, red all over. Even then, even after what’s happened, he still looks almost beautiful. There’s something about the lighting in an art museum that makes everything look like art, even raw emotion. It rounds out the patheticness of breaking down in public into something artful. Zach doesn’t look anything like a model, but he does look like art.

Aesthetic

Lying on the ground when you’re overwhelmed with emotions, mumbling the lyrics to your favorite songs under your breath to the radio, duct taping all your things together because you don’t want to buy something new, buying new sweaters from Goodwill, when a cat lays on your chest,  wearing sweaters that are too big so you can ball your hands in the fabric, people with small voices, leaning your head on someone’s shoulder while you’re talking, the feeling of slowly falling in love.

Taglist

@aelenko​, @keen2meecha​, @magic-is-something-we-create​, @emdrabbles​, & @yourwriters​

(You can always ask to be added to or subtracted from the taglist!)

blooming blossom: lockdown

@flashfictionfridayofficial

the world is silenced by a virus it is scarily quiet in my town even the station is calm because of the lockdown on the road I see only an empty bus   my whole world is turned upside down captured between these walls I feel lifeless how do you stay all right in such a crisis? so alone and so scared of this new crown   but through my window I see the blossoms of my cherry tree even now not everything is wrong I take a picture to remember nature is still growing normally   I send it to my sister, who works in a hospital all day long I send it to my grandma, who I now cannot visit safely I send it to you, I hope you stay safe and fine and strong

I'd love to hear more about the characters! And about the city, it seems so cool!

hi i want to post stuff about hound isle as we get closer to nano but i don’t know what to post so if anyone wants to know anything pleaseeeeee let me know

(i’m tagging the people who reblogged the wip intro bc maybe one of y’all will have an idea or like. info you want idk pls help: @patiwritesstuff, @ditzysworld, @wildswrites, @bexswritingadventures, @gaybullies, @vviciously)

Writeblr (re)introduction - I’ve moved blogs!!

Hello! I’m Z, and I was previously found at @zwritesstuff. This is going to be kind of a messy blog, but I’m hoping to reblog a lot of advice posts and maybe post some of my own (I’ve already made one on characters and one on the first draft) as I find inspiration/a need for them. But you’ll also find a bunch of writing memes on here as well, because writing is hard and we all need a laugh sometimes

Some things about me:

23 years old

being bullied by several mental illnesses (so i’m distant sometimes)

can’t stop coming up with new wips (seriously i have 4 original wips rn and like 12 fanfics)

i really love world building and establishing characters but i struggle a lot with plot and actually. writing

the reason i remade my blog is because i wanted to separate this content from my main blog so that i can get on more tag lists 

i am absolutely going to be on the lookout for new wips to follow, so please feel free to let me know what wips you have going on right now and i’ll check them out!!

please reblog and say hi in the tags so that I can start following people !!

(source)

Unsplash -  photography, illustration, and art

Pixabay - same as unsplash

Pexels - stock photos and videos

Stockvault.net - stock photos

freepngimg - icons, pictures and clipart

Veceezy - vectors and clipart

Getdrawings - simplistic images and drawing tutorials

Gumroad - photoshop brushes (and more)

Canva - needs login but has lots of templates

Library of Congress - historical posters and photos

NASA - you guessed it

Creative Commons - all kinds of stuff, homie

Even Adobe has some free images

There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without infringing copyright! As artists, authors, and other creatives, we need to be especially careful not to use someone else’s work and pass it off as our own. 

Please add on if you know any more sites for free images <3

Acing pacing in your writing

I’ve read too many books and watched too many shows where pacing has ruined a good story. So, here are some of my tips for getting pacing right:

1. Don’t take too long to get to the inciting incident

Look, showing the ordinary life of your protagonist might be interesting if there’s something strange about their life, but readers want stuff to happen.

At least with genre fiction, you shouldn’t take too long to get to the action - the event that gets the story going.

If you can do it well and have readers invested from the start, you can start with the inciting incident. However, for most works I would recommend having it in the second chapter.

Your readers want to know what the story is about, not what the character thinks of his English teacher

2. Keep it moving, but don’t rush

Action is important. It drives the story and it’s interesting. You should make sure to put enough action in your work. Things should be happening.

BUT a novel is not a play or a movie or a comic. What makes reading a full-length novel so entertaining is the detail. The in-depth characterisation and description. The emotion and thought processes.

So, keep it moving, but don’t sacrifice the juicy details. Don’t skip from one action or dialogue scene to the next without taking your readers deeper into the intricacies of the story and characters.

It’s a delicate balance that can only truly be found by reading a lot and practicing.

3. Avoid a sagging middle

Your beginning is solid. Your end is exciting. But the middle is a chaotic mess that bores the reader. Trust me, it happens more than you might believe.

Sagging middle syndrome is a thing, and the only way to avoid it is to plan.

Look, I like pantsing, but planning the middle of your novel will help your pacing exponentially.

Make a rough outline of what needs to happen to get your characters to the climax. Add a few lighter/character-driven scenes where there are too many action scenes in the sequence. Remove events which are unnecessary. And make sure that everything makes sense!

This counts for second books in series as well. It should be good on its own, not just as a filler.

4. Don’t fast forward to the end

I’m looking at you, Game of Thrones.

If you’ve built up the story and set up everything for the final big bang, you have to deliver.

Keep the pacing somewhat similar to that of the rest of the story. Your readers have gotten used to it. And if they’re still reading at that point, they probably like that pace. Don’t write a relatively slow book and then have the climax be over in three pages.

I know you want the climax to be exciting. So, yes, make it a little more fast-paced than the middle. But not massively different.

5. Trust your characters

As with every aspect of creative writing, character is most important.

Is your character experiencing the scene quickly and choppily? Or are they slowing down and taking in everything?

If you stick with what your characters are feeling, you will get it right.

Look, exams have fried my brain. So, this isn’t the most well-formulated post I’ve made. But I hope that it can be helpful.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with your own pacing tips. Follow me for similar content.

[drawing of an orange bird with yellow wings saying “I’m writing a book! I got this!” in a yellow speech bubble.]