Writing Style - Tumblr Posts

I got Neil Gaiman from this site! Yet, the only fictional work he's written that I'm actually familiar with is Stardust, so I don't know whether this assessment is accurate. I have read probably the whole of his book Art Matters: Because Your Imagination Can Change the World though.

I may read the Stardust novel one day, but I've seen the the film adaptation several times, and it's probably my favorite movie of all time.

The writing sample I inputted was "Masters of None," my latest fic.

Other, More Considerate People: I like to keep my story as close to canon and ship-free as possible so everyone can enjoy it. :)

My Self-Indulgent Ass: ‘Sup, assholes, here’re all my implausible OTPs, their future children, a bunch of OCs that play prominent roles, and all my sexuality headcanons are in effect.

writing tip #930:

proofreading only wastes time and gets in the way of your inner voice. besides, if it was hard to write, it should be hard to read

writing tip #2144:

use imagery sparingly. maybe only one image per page. maybe more. maybe five? no. too much. too much

writing tip #2180:

only use present tense if your story is set the second you are writing it, or you’ll be lying to everyone

Writers trying to figure out how to describe a facial expression

me, going back through all my fics: why… why didn’t I make any dialogue quotable?? There’s nothing memorable here, what was I thinking? What the heck? Where’s my dramatic statements? My foreboding warnings?? A hilarious reoccurring oneliner? I know better than this what the- 

Writers as Marvel Characters

Steve Rogers: Diligent. Politically, scientifically, anatomically, emotionally correct. Posts on time. Sticks to the schedule and their own well-mapped-out-and-classic-plot. Actually enjoys constructive criticism because it will help them improve but has been known to reply with, “Well, actually...” Always trying to help. Annoying but has good intentions. 

Bucky Barnes: A writing machine in Winter Mission Mode when a plot idea takes over their minds. In between missions they are lost and shopping for plums in a Romanian farmer’s market. Has moments where they can’t remember how to write themselves out of writostasis. Easily triggered by words. Eternal Internal Screaming. Made a grave mistake letting Steve Rogers beta their stories. Might be a mess. Might need rehab. 

Tony Stark: Intelligent and knows it. Clearly educated, knows synonyms and metaphors without needing to look them up. Writes elaborate, scientifically correct stories. Reads up on thermonuclear physics just for fun research. Has an explanation for literally everything. Has a literary device for every plot hole. Obnoxious but when you need to read something reliably good, they deliver. Exhausted by constantly trying to prove and improve themselves. Sometimes forgets how to human. Wants to give advice that nobody asked for. Hard to like until you get to know them. Is a little lonely maybe.

Peter Parker: New kid on the scene. Wants to be liked. Writes A LOT. Posts A LOT. Wants A LOT of comments. Uses a lot of =))))))))) in the writer notes. Latches onto senior writers and wants to be in a clique. Often shoot their loads prematurely. Frequently gets some very good plot ideas but currently lacking the perfect execution. Gets stuck in their own web of plot holes. 

Loki: Professional shit-stirrer of the fandom. You’re never sure if they’re your friend or not. Spends more time being contrary than actually writing. Sometimes leaves stories with cliffhangers that never reach a conclusion. Deliberately writes NOTPs just for fun. Needs constant validation from an audience. Is actually quite talented if they bothered to focus their energy on writing and not bickering. Just wants to be liked (on the down low.) 

Wanda Maximoff: Might be a hack. Might be a genius. Has tapped into The Power of Knowledge but doesn’t actually know how to harness it into a coherent story. Flashes of brilliance followed swiftly but flashes of despair and self-loathing. Powerful but poor discipline. Likely to destroy and delete their stories on a whim because some words don’t look right or their aim was slightly off that day. Notorious for abandoning ideas and leaving a trail of incomplete stories in their wake. 

Thanos: Trigger Warning-Character Death. A total sadist. The writers you get a little worried about. 

Peter Quill: Hilarious. Jokes every two sentences. Pop culture references and always puts soundtrack links in their author notes. A gift for natural dialogue and conversations. Doesn’t get taken seriously because of the lack of drama in their stories but secretly writing humour in order to deal with underlying traumas of their past. One day will write a heartbreaking story and play it off as a joke. 

Wade Wilson: PWP Crack writers. R-rated. Anatomically graphic. Sometimes the realism is a touch too real. 50% hilarious. 50% makes-you-uncomfortable. Might have emotional range and depth but often chooses not to show it. Probably mentions pizza, beer and mexican food in their stories. A Good Bro but needs a Mute-Button and thesaurus sometimes. 

Natasha Romanoff: Better than you and you both know it. Gives off an air of superiority. Super clique-y but they also keep themselves at a distance. Good at literally every genre and writing style. Leaves no plot holes behind, ever. All stories are clean headshots with neat conclusions. Their plot twists have plot twists. Either they’ve done extensive research or they’ve actually been an assassin. The type of author you’re intimidated by and too scared to talk to. 

Thor: Never Say Die Writers. Hammers out story after story. Will write themselves to God Status, no matter what it takes. Will shed blood, sweat, tears, an eye, a sibling…to achieve their goals. Honourable and respects other writers. They’ve got hustle and you can’t help but like them. 

T’Challa: Feels heavily burdened by the Fandom Crown after writing one of the most badass Iconic stories of the century. Fucks off to Wakanda so you never hear from them again. It would take a Fandom Apocalypse to get them to come back. Constructs sentences so advanced that it makes you want to retire from your own writing. Infuriatingly cool. Is benevolent but doesn’t need hits and comments for validation. Gets them anyway, without even trying. 

Stephen Strange: A literal wizard at world building. Known for their elaborate plots and multi-tiered-multi-character-multi-chapter stories. Cradle-To-The-Grave-type writers. Doesn’t believe in One-Shots. One-Shots are for the weak. Way too indulgent with language and minute details. Probably knows Latin. Often competes with Tony Stark writers for title of “Most Obnoxiously Complex Story Ever”. Frequently exhausting. Takes writing a little too seriously. Annoying but worth it.  

Bruce Banner: Dramatic. The definition of “well that escalated quickly”. Will start off writing an endearingly small and clever story but all hell breaks loose by chapter three. Suddenly there is a lot of shouting and misunderstandings and chapters that read like glorified keyboard smashes. Everyone suffers. You don’t know what happened. Nobody knows what happened. Not even the writer. PTSD. 

Clint Barton: 90% Sarcasm. 10% Plot. The master of the One-Shot because that’s all they need. Doesn’t believe in time wasting, indulgent flowery language and poetic confessions. Writes to get it out of their system so they can go back to their actual real lives. Secretly eye-rolls at Stephen Strange writers but also awed by them. Doesn’t know what a beta is. 

Groot: The Holy Grail Of All Writers. Straight up literature. Can condense an entire paragraph into three words. Will write devastation and break your heart within the first five lines. Understands language in a way that most mere mortals can’t hope to achieve in one lifetime. The writer you bookmark and remember. Fandom famous. Universally loved. 

How the setting looks in my head:

How the description comes out on the page:

writing tip #2222:

the active voice should be used by you

Are you ever reading a super over long pretentious book and just think. Wow. This man. knows a lot of words. but concise. is not one of them.

“The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance.”

— Richard Price (via redqueenofbookland)

Are you ever reading a super over long pretentious book and just think. Wow. This man. knows a lot of words. but concise. is not one of them.

In my opinion, the best writing advice isn’t the stuff that’s tells you What To Do

The best writing advice is the stuff that’s says “Here Is A Thing And Here Is What It Does. If You Want To Do That—Maybe Use This Thing. If You Do Not Want To Do That—Maybe Remove This Thing”

Adverbs are not the devil. Passive voice is not poison. Language evolved to give us these tools for a reason — and sometimes they’re exactly the right tools for the job

Even when they’re misapplied, that’s not the tool’s fault

A screwdriver is not inherently bad for its failure to hammer a nail

Seven years after, I see you again 😚

Types of Narrators

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Writing Tip #2

Generally, writing style is like music for a movie: It should underscore what’s happening, help build emotion, and not draw attention to itself. When writing gets too artistic and shimmery, the attention becomes the words. Sometimes, that is what you want. Always know what your purpose is, and let your words serve that purpose.

Writing Tip: Don’t Be Afraid of Mixing Dialogue and Action

So I’ve been reading a lot of amateur writing lately, and I’ve noticed what seems to be a common problem: dialogue. 

Tell me if this looks familiar. You start writing a conversation, only to look down and realize it reads like: 

“I’m talking now,” he said. 

“Yes, I noticed,” she said. 

“I have nothing much to add to this conversation,” the third person said. 

And it grates on your ears. So much ‘said.’ It looks awful! It sounds repetitive. So, naturally, you try to shake it up a bit: 

“Is this any better?” He inquired. 

“I’m not sure,” she mused. 

“I definitely think so!” that other guy roared. 

This is not an improvement. This is worse. 

Now your dialogue is just as disjointed as it was before, but you have the added problem of a bunch of distracting dialogue verbs that can have an unintentionally comedic effect. 

So here’s how you avoid it: You mix up the dialogue with description. 

“Isn’t this better?” he asked, leaning forward in his seat. “Don’t you feel like we’re more grounded in reality?” 

She nodded, looking down at her freshly manicured nails. “I don’t feel like a talking head anymore.” 

“Right!” that annoying third guy added. “And now you can get some characterization crammed into the dialogue!” 

The rules of dialogue punctuation are as follows: 

Each speaker gets his/her own paragraph - when the speaker changes, you start a new paragraph. 

Within the speaker’s own paragraph, you can include action, interior thoughts, description, etc. 

You can interrupt dialogue in the middle to put in a “said” tag, and then write more dialogue from that same speaker. 

You can put the “said” tag at the beginning or end of the sentence. 

Once you’ve established which characters are talking, you don’t need a “said” tag every time they speak. 

ETA: use a comma instead of a period at the end of a sentence of dialogue, and keep the ‘said’ tag in lower caps. If you end on a ? or !, the ‘said’ tag is still in lower case. (thanks, commenters who pointed this out!) 

Some more examples: 

“If you’re writing an incomplete thought,” he said, “you put a comma, then the quote mark, then the dialogue tag.” 

“If the sentence ends, you put in a period.” She pointed at the previous sentence. “See? Complete sentences.” 

“You can also replace the dialogue tag with action.” Extra guy yawned. “When you do, you use a period instead of a comma.”

So what do you do with this newfound power? I’m glad you asked. 

You can provide description of the character and their surroundings in order to orient them in time and space while talking. 

You can reveal characterization through body language and other nonverbal cues that will add more dimension to your dialogue. 

You can add interior thoughts for your POV character between lines of dialogue - especially helpful when they’re not saying quite what they mean. 

You can control pacing. Lines of dialogue interrupted by descriptions convey a slower-paced conversation. Lines delivered with just a “said” tag, or with no dialogue tag at all, convey a more rapid-fire conversation. 

For example: 

“We’ve been talking about dialogue for a while,” he said, shifting in his seat as though uncomfortable with sitting still. 

“We sure have,” she agreed. She rose from her chair, stretching. “Shall we go, then?” 

“I think we should.” 

“Great. Let’s get out of here.” 

By controlling the pacing, you can establish mood and help guide your reader along to understanding what it is that you’re doing. 

I hope this helps you write better dialogue! If you have questions, don’t hesitate to drop me an ask :)

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a good writing tip i have if you wanna mature your writing is to consider that reading itself is an experience. you are crafting not just a story, but the very experience of reading.

a lot of writing advice intrinsically revolves around this fact, but i’ve rarely seen it directly stated. when people have complaints that a book uses too many modifiers for said (which is what we’re taught in grade school to learn more vocab), the annoyance comes from redundancy or clunkiness that takes the reader out of the moment.

“Aro started to laugh. “Ha ha ha,” he chucked” is the clearest example of this. It’s redundant. It tells the reader the same information three times, and that takes them out of it. Your readers are very smart and can pick up a lot of very subtle information. Very often, less is more. This is why Twilight is notoriously bad. Too many replacements for the word said that make the reading distracting, not immersive.

This is something I realized when I took workshop classes working on my degree. We got feedback on things like tone, word choice, pacing, and the overall experience of reading in addition to just the story. Readers want to be immersed in your story. Remember that great feeling you’ve gotten when you just totally slip away into the page and just lose yourself for hours? This is what you want to craft for your readers, and you can use that to your advantage: Maybe there are times when you want to pull the reader out of it because it works for your story. Then you do things like break the fourth wall, draw attention to the writing itself etc.

But the reverse is also true. You can consider things like pacing to help craft the experience of the story. If you want moments to last longer, write more about them. Flesh out the details for important scenes. You don’t need to spend paragraphs detailing every object in the room unless it’s relevant to the plot or you want to slow the story down. Conversely, you can spend less time on scenes you want to go fast, or that are less important. I do this a lot when I have time lapses where I want to portray a sense of what went on, but also want to get to the next scene. I’ll provide a few rich details as a bit of an aside to give readers the gist, then move on. If you only give a detail or two, your reader will fill out the rest, and that fact is rarely told to new writers, who find themselves trying to spend a lot of time making sure the reader’s vision exactly conforms to their own. It never will, and thats okay. That’s the beauty of it, actually. Let your readers use their imaginations. They really want to.

So yeah best piece of writing advice I realized is to consider how your book will be experienced, not just on the plot or details. This is one of those writing “use the rules and break them strategically” things, and when you consider reading as an experience it can help you with things like word choice to craft mood etc. this was really beneficial to me and i hope it can be to you as well