This document is not a procrastination, I promise. It is intended to be a collection of useful tips and tricks found in the process of writing. The tips and ideas included in this document must be unanimously agreed upon by each member of the Writer’s Anonymous in order for it to be included. This way, we avoid any half-truths and only hone in on what it takes to make a great story.
ON WRITING IN GENERAL: WRITING IS A WAR WITH YOURSELF!!! UTILIZE YOUR SURROUNDINGS TO WIN THIS WAR!
- Music is a great motivational tool to help you fight.
ON WRITING IN GENERAL: Remember – pain produces art
ON THE PYRAMID OF WRITING: Writing should be looked at as a triangle, or better yet, a pyramid because we’re fancy like that.
This Pyramid starts with
- (#1) Feeling [sensory or emotional] at the base.
- (#2) Showing in the middle.
- (#3) Explaining/telling at the top [and only a small section at the top].
Just as on a pyramid, the one that you notice the most is #3 when reading but it should be used the least or else it loses its pyramid shape – it can take you out of the story. The layers you need the most are feeling and showing (the reader should have visceral reactions in order for it to feel like they’re really there – that’s what reality is made up of after all.) Reality can be considered the line at the bottom that connects the Pyramid, which for the sake of the analogy is the story, with the ground (which is reality itself).
ON WRITING FEMALE CHARACTERS: A strong female character is one who is sure of themself. This also goes for characters in general.
ON PLANNING A CHAPTER: Before writing a chapter, consider writing what you want to see from the chapter. Note the effect of what you want to see for the reader.
- Sometimes this can be achieved by a “Stream of Consciousness”
ON THE PACING OF THE PLOT: Remember, the core principle – tension and relief.
- This includes the building of the world.
- Ideas require relief. Writing requires tension. If stuck on an idea, do whatever you can to relax. This is a spectrum. Some ideas and writing do not require as much toward either side.
- Think about it this way: when you dream, images fly in your head. Your brain is in a state of release. When you try to bring those ideas to life, it requires a tension to pull them from the depths of sleep – a waking up of sorts.
ON THE PROCESS OF WRITING: Remember to breathe deeply and consistently. Open a window. Focus on your breath.
ON FIRST CHAPTERS: It is said that the first chapter of a book is the most important. This is because it is the first thing that anyone will read by you – and it will determine whether they will continue reading further. It must thereby be written perfectly, with all your effort, as it is a reflection of your skill as a writer.
- Then, every chapter after that must be written like the first. You have heard it said, “live every day like it was your last”. Well, when you write, “write every chapter like it was your first”.
ON SUGGESTIONS FOR IDEAS: When in serious doubt, it may be best to go with your original idea.
ON MOTIVATION: Reread your chapters when stuck.
ON WRITER’S PARANOIA: Writer’s paranoia is when you hyper-focus on each line of your work, and you become obsessed with finding the slightest error. Writer’s paranoia is almost always better than writer’s block.
ON HUMILITY: Don’t be afraid to change a sentence or an idea that you once loved.
ON BUILDING YOUR CHAPTERS: First establish a tone. Spend your time on this. This is where a chapter starts. This is where a story starts.
- Start by finding the initial mood you want your readers to read. Then write a sentence that contains that mood. Subversion of expectations and mood should always mix.
ON TIME IT TAKES ON AVERAGE TO WRITE: This goes mostly for drafts and is intended to be a hyperbole. The first 20% of a chapter should take 80% of your time. The last 80%, should take 20% of your time.
ON MOTIVATION AND DETERMINING WHETHER THIS STORY IS YOURS TO WRITE: Ask yourself. How much do you Love this story?
- How much do you love your story? More importantly, how much do you love yourself, or better yet, your future readers to finish it?
ON WRITING A MOOD: Mood is just the feeling you want your reader to have when they read your paragraph.
ON INTERESTING CHAPTERS: The first sentence should include the unusual things of the chapter.
ON ACTION SCENES: Balance description and action.
ON WRITING IN GENERAL: Ultimately, just have fun with it. And we often forget to remember to have fun with it.
ON PLOT: Have your story promise something great to the reader in the beginning, and then deliver asap.
ON MOTIVATION: When you feel that your spirit is being pressed, something great is in the works.
- How can you make wine without pressing the grapes?
ON SUGGESTION FOR MOTIVATION: whenever you’re stuck or unenthusiastic about a chapter, slow down a little bit.
ON THE GOOD OF WRITING: Writing is where the free go to live
ON PLOT: Don’t reveal all the cards of your characters or the events that occur (or have occurred) in one shot. Spread it out. But do hint to what has happened in the past and repeat.
ON CHAPTERS IN GENERAL: If you are unsatisfied with a chapter, remember perspective. This may very well be why you don’t like it.
ON CONFLICT: Constrain your sentences and plot to where the character is trapped.
ON WORLD BUILDING: Specificity keeps things interesting
ON CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Main characters should be at peace with who they are if you want them to be likeable.
ON CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: It is always better to have active characters instead of passive ones.
ON CRAFTING BASIC SENTENCES: A sentence has a noun, a verb, and an object. The next sentence has the object, a verb, and another object.
- This note is intended to get you on the roll, but many sentences may lack specific parts for effect.
ON CRAFTING SENTENCES: Anytime you have an opportunity to make shorter sentences, take it, but don’t force it.
- By don’t force, don’t deliberately write shorter sentences all the time. Longer can be good.
- This goes the same for additional words (delete unnecessary words when editing).
ON SUGGESTIONS FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT WITHIN CONFLICT: People usually think they are right in their convictions.
ON COMPLETING A CHAPTER: The more you hate a chapter after it’s done and complete, the odds are it’s good. Because you’ve read it over so many times – it’s like watching a movie on repeat. Tolkien himself hated almost all of his work.
ON CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Placing the seed of conflict and personality is necessary to make characters likable.
ON DIALOGUE: Character backstories fuels conversation.
ON WRITING IN GENERAL: Don’t waste a line, because that wastes the reader’s time. This applies to nearly all parts of writing.
ON MOTIVATION AND PLOT IN GENERAL: Do not seek the approval of others who have no stake in your writing. This will destroy your plot and your whole story. Let the dead bury the dead. Even if it is your own parents, kill them (metaphorically), cut them out of the critiquing process.
ON CHARACTERS WITH AUTHORITY: A good “King” character does not place priority on himself, and instead on those who serve him. This applies to protagonists, not antagonists.
ON WRITING IN GENERAL: You cannot win the war of writing with yourself if you are waging another war with yourself in another area of your life.
ON CHAPTER CREATION: Writing is like a plant. But for each person the plant is of a different kind. This may be because people’s goals are different with what they want to achieve with their writing, but I digress. This note is not about why each plant is different, but about the growth involved in their maturations. And if there was a universal goal across the writing spectrum, it would be to finish what one is writing – that is to see your plant grow. In order for a plant to grow, you must first, most obviously, plant a seed. Determine what it is that is the seed of your story. The seed is what you have already (plot points, a good character, an idea of some sort). Once you plant the seed, you have to observe how it grows. Growth is what you need to work on in order to produce the finished product, a fully grown plant/chapter. What makes each plant grow is also different for everyone. For instance, if you have plot points as the seed, your growth may be figuring out the feelings that the reader experiences when reading the transitions between plot points. Another example, if you have a great character and you want to focus on his/her development, then your growth may be letting go of plot points and letting them develop with the chaotic events that may occur in your world. In both situations, when you are trying to complete a chapter, you must put the grand idea of the seed aside – let it die in your head, so as to only focus on the growth aspect. A grain of wheat must die, or else it remains but a grain of wheat.
ON WRITING: Write your first draft with your heart, and your final with your head.
ON MOTIVATION: Brevity is the soul of wit. But levity is the soul of writing. Even the dark must be made light. We writers hold our crystal balls that withhold the gravity. The gravity of levity. A stunning thing. Now fly and forget the forces that hold you down. Writing is where the free go to live.
ON STORY: Consistency and Pacing is the soul of a story.
ON EDITS AND REVISIONS: The sharp mind blunts without a critical eye.
ON PLOT: Mystery propels the plot and the reader.
ON INSPIRATION: To be a writer, you must be good at attracting butterflies. The beauty of a butterfly is likened to inspiration. A butterfly is hard to catch. And inspiration, too, is a fickle thing and can fly away with the wind.
ON THE DISCIPLINE OF WRITING: The discipline of writing is finding the spirit by which to write with.
TOOLS:
Fantasy Tool: For map-making: https://inkarnate.com/
Unique Word Dictionary: http://phrontistery.info/index.html
SUGGESTIONS FOR ABOVE ENTRIES:
ON WRITING ANYTHING: It is not believing in yourself that leads to your success because that can lead to pride, but other people believing in you that leads to success. But this can be bought by perseverance when no one believes in you. It is also believing in the story that you have to tell.
ON PACING: Harp on early conflict to better let it flow.
SUGGESTIONS FOR BOOKS:
BOOKS –
Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain
Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
PERSONAL DICTIONARY:
Please place either unique words or words that you think should be used more here under your name. The purpose is to share words that you think could help people in their writing. And if these words require a definition, feel free to place it next to the word as well. Or not, I don’t care (cough, Austin).
FROM JOHN J. CHARBEL:
Rote-mechanical/habitual
Proffering: hold out something for acceptance-ex. He proffered his hand.
Repine-feel or express discontent
Thatched – a covering of such a material, straw or hay as an example. (noun, can be used as a verb)
Windfall- a piece of unexpected good fortune
Abstemious-not self indulgent, especially while eating.
Efficacy- the ability to produce a desired or intended result
Fetter- Chain or shackle
Dom- a simple-minded child who has but one friend: Satan himself
Forebode – to foretell or predict, omen, prophecy, punishment, as in future misfortune
Sheer – thin/transparent
Rebuff-refuse, drive away
Tinker-traveler who mends things (def)
Ashen-pale gray
Shim-a washer or thin strip of material used to align parts, make them fit, or reduce wear.
Drab-as noun. fabric of a dull brownish color.
Genteel-polite
Writhe-contorting body, continual twisting
Stalwart-loyal, reliable, hardworking
Cincture-girdle or belt
Abrogate-repeal or do away with
Colophon-publisher’s emblem or seal. Statement at end of book.
Plod-to walk heavily or move laboriously, trudge.
Wry-produced by a distortion or lopsidedness of the facial features. Bitterly, disdainful.
Lout-uncouth and aggressive man
Rasping-harsh, grating
Fetid-having an offensive odor; stinking
Dank-unpleasantly moist or humid; damp and, often, chilly
Stolid-Not easily stirred or moved mentally; unemotional; impassive.
Nimbus- cloud
hostler-person who takes care of horses
Burnished-cleaned
Weal-swollen wound of flesh
Potsherd-broken piece of ceramic material
Tarry- delay
Dainty-delicately small and pretty
Entreaty-earnest and humble request
Diddle – cheat or swindle
cressets-type of torch
Dashed – emphasis
Inchoate – begin
Stubble-as in cut stalk of grain
Mire-stretch of swamp
Dromedary-Camel, on hump, racing
Ethnarch – the ruler of a people, tribe, or nation.
Trammel – deprive some of freedom/something that deprives someone of freedom
Culvert – a tunnel carrying a stream or open drain under a road
Gangrel – lanky, loose jointed person. More so british term than english
Gibbet – Gallows
Gob – a lot. Or a lump or clot of a slimy substance.
Livery – special uniform worn by a servant or official
Bosun – a ship’s officer in charge of equipment and the crew
Glean – extract from various sources
Adze – a tool similar to an axe, with an arched blade at right angles to the handle, used for cutting or shaping large pieces of wood.
Vermilion – Bright red
Throng-dense crowd of people.
Slake-quench or satisfy
*Sultry-hot
Ford-shallow place in a river.
Reticent-not revealing one’s thoughts or feelings readily.
Drivel-nonsense
Callow-(of a young person) inexperienced and immature.
Respite-a short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant/to postpone
Belfry-siege tower
Madrigal-a part-song for several voices, especially one of the Renaissance period, typically arranged in elaborate counterpoint and without instrumental accompaniment.
Paroxysm – a sudden attack or violent expression of a particular emotion or activity
Magnate-a wealthy and influential person, especially in business.
Alight-descend from the heavens/set afire
Nickering-Give a soft, low, breathy whinny.
Nag-a horse, especially one that is old or in poor health.
Whir-(especially of a machine or a bird’s wings) make a low, continuous, regular sound
Spelt-an old kind of wheat.
Millet-fast growing cereal plant
Plumage-feathers of a bird collectively
Stultifying-cause to lose initiative
Comity-an association of nations for their mutual benefit
Caulk-seal with waterproof sealant-sea-fairing term
Teraphim-small images or cult objects
Chamberlain- an officer who manages the household of a monarch or noble. Historical.
Sorrel- a horse with a light reddish-brown coat
Rube-a country bumpkin
Frock-a long gown with flowing sleeves worn by monks, priests, or clergy
Shirk-to go stealthily
Guile-sly/cunning
Foal-young horse or related animal
Arraign-call or bring (someone) before a court to answer a criminal charge
Addled-unable to think clearly
Curios-rare, unusual, intriguing object.
The carving on the front of a ship is called a figurehead.
Chandlery-place that makes candles.
Piffle-nonsense
Fete: celebration/festival
CASTLE TERMS-
Tie-beam, hewn stone, masonry work, rafters, white wash, donjon, crenelations, machicolations, portcullis, bartizan, minaret
GEOGRAPHY and FEATURES-
Salt marsh
Fjord-narrow inlet with cliffs around and water between
paraselenae-light
aureola – halo
Bunting – flags and other colorful festive decorations
Silt
JERKIN** shirt (from Daniel, shout out to my home boi)
Circlet-curly things
Rubicund- inclined to a healthy rosiness
HERALDRY-
debruised – half covered
statant- in heraldry, in a standing position with all four legs on the ground.
couped – denoting that the head or any limb of an animal is cut off smoothly from the trunk.
ARCHITECTURE and STRUCTURES
Grille – iron frame
crocketed – in architecture, furnished or ornamented with crockets. as in Pinnacle decorated with crockets
cromlech – prehistoric tomb or monument consisting of a large, flat stone laid cross upright stones; dolmen
Dado – the part of the pedestal between cap and base.
Truss- form meeting at the rafters
Boss-like an ornate knob at ceiling.
Base molding- projection in the structure at base
Cupola – small dome on a building
Culvert-passage under a road
Anthemion-a flat decoration of floral and leaf forms.
Apse – a termination, an end at the wall.
Clustered column-
Gambrel roof, or curb roof
(geometric) decorated style window, tracery window, flamboyant window
eaves- end of a roof
embrasure-slits in wall
Fan tracery
Finials-ornaments at the top of a spire
Hoodmold-window
Interlacing arches
Involute circle
Jerkinhead roof
King post of the truss was spread out every 3 yards or so
lattice window
mastabas-opening to mummy chamber
Oriel window
Pediment
pendant
Ogee-look at arch in dictionary
Trestle
Vitruvian scroll
Sedilia
SHIPS and SAILING-
dahabrah-large ship originally having one or two masts with a long yard supporting a triangular sail.
derrick crane- apparatus for hoisting and moving heavy weights
Lateen (sails), of or relating to triangular sails, extended by a long yard and slung about one quarter the distance from the lower end.
fiddlehead-carve head of boat
“Like the ama on an outrigger”
Pinnace
Reefing a sail
BOTANY-
Decanders-plants with ten stamens.
dentate – having teeth or toothlike projections; toothed or notched, specifically in botany.
dextrorse – toward the right, – in botany, upward and to the right.
diadelphous-arranged in two bundles or sets by the fusion of the filaments; said of stamens
diandria
Acuminate leaf- sharp,
Spikenard-also called nard, nardin, and muskroot, is a class of aromatic amber-colored essential oil derived from Nardostachys jatamansi, a flowering plant of the valerian family which grows in the Himalayas of Nepal, China, and India.
WAR-
Howdah- a litter carried by a camel or elephant a canopied seat on the back of an animal.
chivadl-de-frise – wood with spikes
-abatis
Tilting helmet with Mentonniere attached
Pauldron
Pavise Shield
WEAR-
chiffon – dress material
Buskins – type of shoe
Armilausa – covering everywhere
Armlets- bank like leave
flatcaps
Gore Skirt
hemstitch
Sabot-wooden shoe
ROYALTY-
Coronets- crowns
OBJECTS-
Armillary sphere- an ancient sphere for astronomy.
ANIMALS-
Glyptodon
Gnu
Ibex
FROM AUTHOR UNSIGNED:
curt – rudely brief
pantomime
rending
veritable
resplendent
ebb
remedial
corpulent
insolent
desist
lampoon
affable
apparition
affinity
endemic
lambasted
addled
festooned
cogency
irreverent
lull
Hypergamy
Scrawl
Derivative
Harrowing
Acolyte
