I Feel Like We Need To Write Powers With More Negative Consequences When Using Them, And I Don't Mean

I feel like we need to write powers with more negative consequences when using them, and I don't mean "They get super tired if they use their power to much." Power shouldn't be free with no cost. For every action there is a reaction.

Positive Powers with Negative Side Effects

Someone with the power of resurrection who can bring anyone back to like shortly after dying. However every time they do, some other random person in the world will suddenly drop dead. Can they live with the guilt?

Psychic powers often come with memory issues.

Someone with the power to breath underwater, but has to wear an oxygen mask when they aren't because they can't get enough from the atmosphere normally.

Controlling fire isnt as awesome when the wielder isnt flame resistant

Someone who can fly, but is bound to a wheelchair when they aren't flying.

Superstregth might be good for your muscles, but not so much for your joints.

Someone with the power of foresight, but they can only foresee bad events.

Shapeshifting is excruciatingly painful.

Someone with the powers of magnetism is constantly sick because of the unbalanced metals in their natural system like iron, zinc, etc.

Someone who can liquify themselves can easily change shape, but being so malleable doesn't lend itself to having strong bones and other body parts

Someone who can speak to animals, but is otherwise mute.

Hydrokenisis comes with the side effect of dehydration.

Creating a character

Creating characters is one of the most important things to do while writing. Characters can make or break a story. No matter how good the idea, if the characters are flat, people are not going to keep reading. Here are some posts to help you create interesting and memorable characters.

How to create a character - Basic Overview

Let's create a character! - Writing Game

How to make a character unique

How to write a bilingual character

How to write a character with glasses

How to use nicknames

List of names

Character Study

Fatal Character Flaws

Good traits gone bad

Physical Reactions

Giving the reader butterflies with your characters

Love Language - Showing, not telling

Love Language - Showing you care

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee or become a member! And check out my Instagram! 🥰

A (Non-Exhaustive) List of (Red-ish) Flags In Writing

Particularly when writing people with a marginalized identity that you don't hold, it can be hard to tell what is an issue if you're not familiar with it. Research should be your main reference point, but sometimes you need to go with your instincts.

Here is a very non-exhaustive list of things that should flag to you that you need to take another look at it and do some more research:

Is a person/culture/group presented as "backwards", irrational, un-modern, or uniformly aggressive?

Am I using coded language (e.g. thug, slut, slow) to describe a character?

Am I associating sexual habits or preferences with a certain race, religion, gender, or class?

Am I dismissing or making light of devestating historical events that appear or are referenced in the story?

Am I prioritizing the rehabilitation of individuals or groups who commited violence, particularly at the expense of those who experienced that violence?

Are my characters, particularly my marginalized characters, embodying stereotypes with no other characteristics?

Do my marginalized characters exist simply so I can say I have included marginalized characters?

Am I applying every marginalization to one character so that I don't have to "deal with it" in other characters?

Do marginalizations, particularly disabilities, only appear when convenient?

Do marginalized characters, particularly Characters of Color, exist only to guide or care for white characters?

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

Editing  & Proofreading Cheat Sheet

– A lot of questions I receive revolve around editing and proofreading, so I decided to make an extensive guide to editing your own writing. I collaborated with some amazing friends on this post so this is dedicated to them as well as all of you. I hope you find it useful. Enjoy!

Know The Difference: Editing vs. Proofreading

Editing is about the content, proofreading is about the technical detail and accuracy. Once you know the difference and you separate the two into different tasks, going through and actually doing it will seem less daunting. Deciding which to tacking first depends on what you’re like when you edit, but if you struggling with focusing on actually improving the content because you get distracted by grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, then proofreading first may be a good idea. 

Be Intentional With Your Vocabulary

Avoid adverbs

Be frugal with unique adjectives

Only use dialogue tags when absolutely necessary

Be mindful of overused words

Take the time to find the right words

The words you choose can make all the difference so pay special attention to them.

Just Keep Snipping

A basic rule to editing that people often forget it, if it doesn’t serve a purpose, you should cut it out. A short book that is amazing all the way through is better than a long book that is redundant. Don’t worry about leaving your readers in the dark or not having enough content. As you edit, you’ll find ways and places in which to input more information.

Flow & Rhythm

This is the part where you make sure the writing itself sounds how you want it to. It’s important to read your writing aloud during this stage. Some things to pay attention to regarding flow and rhythm:

sentence length/variation

sentence structure

syllables and how they fit together

how your writing sounds out loud

Eloquence

Say it once and say it clearly. Redundancy bores readers so quickly, so when putting information forward, be clear, concise, and don’t add fluff. You don’t need to write a whole paragraph about how a character feels in a situation. It’s important to give the reader just enough to read between the lines.

Grammar

Common Grammar Mistakes To Look For

Subject-verb agreement errors

Sentence Fragments

Missing Comma After Introductory Element

Misusing The Apostrophe With “Its”

No Comma In A Compound Sentence

Misplaced Or Dangling Modifier

Vague Pronoun Reference

Wrong Word Usage

Run-On Sentence

Superfluous Commas

Lack Of Parallel Structure

Sentence Sprawl

Comma Splice

Colon Mistakes

Split Infinitives

List from here x {Explains these further and more in depth}

Improper Use of Phrases

“could have” not “could of”

“My friends and I” not “me and my friends” {If you take away “my friends” or “I”, or one of the nouns in a sentence in general, the sentence should still make sense}

“I couldn’t care less” not “I could care less”. This should be a no-brainer.

etc.. I could go on.

Familiarize yourself with these common mistakes and avoid making them at all costs. It’s also helpful to have someone read over it and let you know when they find issues with phrases you used. Please be attentive to these mistakes because making them can destroy your credibility as a writer.

Utilize The Senses

If you’re describing something in your writing, you should be slipping in words and little details that appeal to the reader’s senses, When editing, look for opportunities to slip in how a place smells, how a food tastes, how something feels to the touch, etc. It’s unbelievable how much this enhances your story.

Punctuation & Format

Punctuation Rules In English

the period (or full stop in British English)

the comma

the exclamation mark

the question mark

the colon

the semicolon

the quotation mark

the apostrophe

the hyphen and the dash

parentheses and brackets

Source x

When proofreading and marking up your manuscript, it can save a lot of time and energy if you use marks instead of actually write out everything, so here is a little chart I found that may be useful to you:

Other Things To Look Out For

Make sure you know who is talking

Keep tense consistent

Vary the tone from scene to scene

Run-on sentences

Inconsistencies in story details

Plot holes

Causes and effects of events are explained

Facts and technical details {Make sure you’ve researched them well}

Deviations from established background (know your story really really well and make sure your reader does too)

General Tips

Go in assuming that your work is full of errors. Maybe it’s not, but it’s better to be prepared for the worst and solve the issues now rather than when it’s too late

DO NOT BE SENTIMENTAL. Yes, easier said than done, but it’s possible. 

Make the text less recognizable to yourself in order to catch details you may not otherwise.

Print out your manuscript and physically write out the changes.

Read your writing out loud. Sometimes writing looks like it makes sense, but in reality sounds wrong. 

Do it in short periods over time so that you don’t inevitably get lazy with paying attention to little details

Keep in mind that editing usually takes longer than actually writing the draft because it is less fluid and requires more thought and problem solving.

Don’t rely on spelling and/or grammar checking software; they’re not always correct and can easily misinterpret what you’re trying to get across. 

Check for a single error at a time. It may be time consuming and tedious but it’s more effective than the alternative.

Give yourself time and read slowly through it multiple times

Split up large chunks of text to make it easier to handle. Don’t go through your whole manuscript page by page as if you were just reading it as a book. Go chapter by chapter or scene by scene or even sentence by sentence.

If something seems off, investigate it. Don’t take a chance and leave it be. If you’re stumped, highlight it and have someone else look over it.

Have a strategy. Maybe not at first, especially if you don’t extensively edit your work regularly, but with time you’ll find what works for you and what doesn’t. Create your own system and use it to save yourself some time and confusion.

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Keeping a writer’s journal

Having a place to store your notes and ideas is very important because no matter how many times you tell yourself you won’t forget something, there’s a very high chance you will. Your brain has to process and recall lots of information every day, many of it won’t be related to writing, this is why it’s only natural to forget things.

A writer’s journal gives you a fun and comfortable space to look back at and add more and more detail to along your writing journey. You should make your notes in a way that suits you, there’s no specific way it has to look. Make it a place you enjoy and something you’d like to do wherever you are – on trains, buses, in café’s, at home or work.

You might use:

A traditional notebook

Lined/plain paper collected and arranged in a file

Your phone, tablet/Ipad, laptop or computer

It doesn’t matter what you use as long as it’s whatever works best for you. If you use something portable and easy to carry around, take it with you wherever you go and jot down things that strike you as interesting, unusual, useful and anything else you may want to come back to later. If what you usually use isn’t portable, write your notes in your phone and copy them into your preferred journal later.

A writer’s journal or writer’s notebook can be used to collect facts, fictions, observations from everyday life and anything else you come up with.

Your notebook can become a testing ground for trying out ideas, phrases, short-stories and scenes, bits of dialogue – all with the freedom and knowledge that if things don’t work out no one sees these trial runs but you; it does not have to be perfect. Overtime you may come to realise your journal can form a kind of personal ‘running-commentary’ to yourself, on your thoughts about your own work.  

Keeping track of useful details:

Taking notes of the details of people’s appearances who you find interesting or recognise as a source of inspiration can become a habit that will help you with describing what your characters look like or coming up with new ideas for characters. You can jot down any interesting or unusual things you see or hear. The same can be done for places – writing down things you notice while you’re at the park, on the train or bus, in a house, a café, a museum, on the beach etc, will all help you write about them in your story.

Your journal might include:

General notes and sensory observations of the world around you

Things you have seen or heard, felt, or read – perhaps a passage of other people’s writing, or phrases that you admire

Words, synonyms and word-derivations that are new or interesting to you

Facts you may want to remember

Lines or phrases that you might use in your work

Images: postcards, pictures, photographs, mood boards that are in some way significant to you, perhaps because they conjure up a scene or story you might write about

Descriptions or sketches of characters and places you might wish to write about

Notes about periods in recent or distant history that you’re interested in

Ideas and plot lines that might be useful in the future, or that you are gathering for particular pieces of work

Anything you write down, even a single line, can be the foundation for a greater story.

Happy Writing!

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