Hello, Writerly Friends~

Hello, writerly friends~ ♥︎

My Writing Advice Masterpost is back! Now featuring the best questions and answers from the last three years, along with all of the videos from my writing advice YouTube Channel!

This post will be updated every week with new writing advice videos, playlists, and responses! So, make sure to bookmark THIS page and follow my blog (maxkirin.tumblr.com) so you don’t miss a thing!

Writing Advice Compilations

The NaNoWriMo Survival Guide

M. Kirin’s NaNoWriMo 2014 Writing Advice Videos

WRITERS UNITE! A book of writing advice, inspiration, and tips! Written with the help of 248 Tumblr authors. FREE DOWNLOAD!

Writing Exercises & Prompts

Virtual Writing Academy (Newest Episode: Writing Exposition)

Daily Story Seed

Daily Weird Prompt

Daily Character Question

Your Writing Horoscope (Retired)

“Can I publish a story based on one of your prompts?”

Did you know that I have published a book of Story Seeds? Sounds interesting? You can learn more about it HERE! c;

Motivation & Inspiration

Daily Writer Positivity

How to Regain the Motivation to Finish Your Novel (Video)

How to Finish Your First Novel (M. Kirin’s Origin Story)

M. Kirin’s Top 3 Tips for NaNoWriMo

The 7 Cardinal Rules of Writing Life

Neil Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” Speech

Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing

Elizabeth Gilbert’s Inspirational Speech on the ‘Genius’

What Confidence Is and Is NOT

“I’m afraid writing is a waste of time”

“I’m half-way through this book and I’m stuck”

Stop Trying to Impress People

Stop Trying to Make Your Parents Proud of your Writing

Your Parents Disapprove of Your Writing?

You’re Not The Worst Writer In The World

English Not Your First Language? Neither is Mine

Are You Worried Nobody Will Take You Seriously?

Dealing with Hate and Harsh Criticism

Why You Need to Develop a Thick Skin

Feeling Down About Your Writing?

“I am not as good as other writers” (and other lies)

Be A Little Delusional

Planning, Outlining, and Getting Started

How to Plan Your Novel (Video)

The NaNoWriMo Survival Guide (Video)

How Much World-Building is Enough? (Video)

The *Right* Time to be Critical of Your Writing (Video)

Overcoming the Fear of Getting it “Wrong“ (Video)

The Story-Idea Test

M. Kirin’s Click-n-Drag Story Generator

Which outlining method is the best?

“I want to write a book but I have no idea where to start”

M. Kirin’s Secret for Starting books, and Finishing Them

M. Kirin’s Top 3 Tips to Start Writing and Never Stopping

Tips for writing Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Paranormal

M. Kirin’s #1 Tip For Improving Your Writing

Let’s Talk About: Show VS Tell

The Difference Between Character & Plot (The Marcy Rule)

Dialogue

TOP 3 TIPS for Writing Dialogue (Video)

M. Kirin talks about authentic dialogue

The grammatical side of dialogue

How do I write numbers in dialogue?

Editing & Revision

M. Kirin’s Top 5 Revision Tips

How to Love and Care for Your Beta Readers

M. Kirin’s (subjective) secret recipe for the second draft

When is the best time to edit a story?

M. Kirin Talks About Editing, and Speeding Up Your Story

M. Kirin Uses Evernote to Revise Books

“Kill Your Darlings” VS “Cut What You Love”

Writing Killer Plot-Twists and Mystery Novels

“How long is a Rough Draft compared to the Finished Draft?”

Hot-Button Issues

Let’s Talk About: Filler (Video)

Let’s Talk About: Purple Prose (Video)

Let’s Talk About: Deus Ex Machina

Let’s Talk About: Coincidence in Writing

Realism is a dirty word

Racist & homophobic language in fiction

Inaccuracy in Fiction (Video)

M. Kirin drops a few bombs on ‘creative vocabulary’

“I want to write but I don’t have the time”

Is it bad to have too many LGBTQIA or POC characters?

“My antagonist is POC/LGBTQIA, is this bad?”

“All my characters are LGBTQIA, is this bad?”

When to let go of a story

Is it rational to be afraid of what people will think of you?

Let’s Lightly Talk About: Plagiarism & Copyright

Writing About Things You Have Never Experienced

“Do you need to go to college/university to be a good writer?”

My book is similar to something already out, what do I do?

General Advice

M. Kirin’s Cure For Writer’s Block (and Life Block)

A [Strange] Tip For Writing More! (Video)

World-Building Tips: Dystopian (Video)

World-Building Tips: Fantasy & Science Fiction (Video)

World-Building Tips: Life After the Apocalypse (Video)

World-Building Tips: Government & The Human Element (Video)

World-Building Tips: Spicing Up The Real World (Video)

Using Real People as Inspiration (Video)

When Should The Book End? (Video)

Writing Better Characters: The ‘Flawed’ Myth (Video)

Writing Better Characters: Unlikable Protagonists (Video)

TOP 3 TIPS for Writing a Large Cast of Characters (Video)

Overcoming the First Sentence (Again) (and Again)

Let’s Talk About: Pen Names!

Let’s Talk About: Reactive VS Proactive Characters

Let’s Talk About: Transitioning Smoothly From Scene to Scene

Let’s Talk About: Writing The Climax (& Resolution)

Let’s Talk About: Writing The End

Let’s Talk About: Spies

Let’s Make a Title (To A Story You Haven’t Finished)

The 10-Minute Rule

Making Boring Scenes FUN to Write!

Stories are like children

Let’s Talk About Titles (And Then Talk Some More)

M. Kirin Reveals the ‘Secret’ Behind Style

How much description/scenery is too much?

How can I write faster?

I want my readers to love my characters

I think my book may be too short for my genre

I killed one of my main characters by mistake, what do I do?

M. Kirin’s Writing Advice for Fleshing out Romantic Relationships

A warning about character names and meanings

Past or present tense?

Is swearing okay? And other muthafuckin’ truths

“What emotion do you find hardest to write?”

“What writing software do you use?”

Communication, a must for collaborative works

Researching illegal things, cousin? I got just the thing for you!

Joss Whedon’s Top 10 Writing Tips

M. Kirin’s Tarot Cheat-Sheet

Writing Tips for Storytelling in Video-Games

Fair Use In Novels (by thedancingwriter​)

Publishing

Publishing Battle: Indie VS Traditional

“How do I turn my book into an eBook?”

Writing Music & Playlists

Top 10 Songs For Writers

Writing In The Dark (Unobtrusive)

Writing About Love

Writing & Fighting!

Writing About Horror

Royalty And Noble Blood (Medieval/Fantasy)

Digital Reality (Cyberpunk/Futuristic)

Lost In The Wild (Survival/Nature)

No Hero (Action/Anti-Heroes)

Mermaid Magic (Mysterious)

After The Bomb (Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian)

Sorrow (Sad/Despair)

Upon Black Wings (Adventure/Dragons)

Haunted Mansion (Horror/Supernatural)

Childhood Friends (Happy/Uplifting)

Music For Writers: Portal 2 Soundtrack (FREE)

M. Kirin’s Favorite Music to Listen to While Writing

M. Kirin’s Secret For Making Playlists

Miscellaneous

M. Kirin’s 2014 AMA, Part 1 & Part 2 (Video)

Max & Kitty Recommend: Top 10 Things You Should Read/Watch/Play Right Now! (Video)

Finally! An Ask-Meme for Writers! 

M. Kirin’s Philosophy for Running a Writing Blog

Last Updated: 02-28-15. Click HERE to see the latest update. Latest posts are in bold.

The real question is which member of your OT3 has to sit in the backseat of the car on trips.

me prepping for writing: i'll just read some fic to get me in the mood

me afterwards: i'll just go sit in the corner with my inferiority complex, thx

Super cliche fanfic tropes I will literally never get tired of

Spin the bottle

truth or dare

TWISTER

friends locking them in a closet together

lab partners

one tutoring the other

nerd and jock

rival sports teams

blind date

stuck in detention

arguing but secretly being kind of turned on by it

P R E T E N D I N G  T O  B E  D A T I N G

some more aus

“okay buddy you’ve been serenading the wrong window for about five minutes now, time to let you know my neighbor is out of town” au

“you hired me to be the surprise stripper for your friend at this bachelor/bachelorette party and they did not take it well and threw both of us out in the freezing cold this is all your fault” au

“i’m the superhero’s sidekick and you’re the superhero but i don’t know that and we both met on an online dating website and you look really familiar?” au

“you’re a stress baker and i stay up too late working and i’m writing a thank you note to the ethereal being responsible for the food magically appearing in the common room” au

“it’s autumn and we’re both picking pumpkins upstate but you picked one that’s bigger than you are and it looks like you’re struggling oh god do you need help???” au

“you were trying to make a snow angel but the snow is too deep and you can’t get back up and i’m trying to decide whether to keep laughing at you or help you” au

“i’m a figure skater who’s trying to practice and you took your baby cousins out to the rink but none of you can skate do you need help??” au

“you’re supposed to be on a blind date with someone but you sat down at the wrong table and i haven’t been able to get a word in edgewise to tell you that and it’s been thirty minutes” au 

Less love triangles more threesomes.