#starting a writeblr

[science-lings]

my dad saw ao3 open on my computer and asked if that was like my writing club and just so you know that's what fanfic writers are now, we're all in the same writing club where we all write about the same media and show each other our little stories and that's kind of cool actually

#we should start a writing club #like a legit group where we write whatever and give it to each other to talk about and stuff #idk i wouldn't be good at running it but I would like if someone was obligated to tell me if I wrote good or not lol #ao3 #writeblr

[ivaspinoza]

not me writing this giant synopsis of my own wip to myself so i can understand what i am actually trying to create

#and then my brain starts to give me lines #but it turns out they are for this other story that is not even a wip yet #shut up brain- oh wait thats actually such a good idea *writes it down #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writing

[inkskinned]

so one of the things that's so horrifying about birth control is that you have to, like, navigate this incredibly personal choice about your body and yet also face the epitome of misogyny. like, someone in the comments will say it wasn't that bad for me, and you'll be utterly silenced. like, everyone treats birth control like something that's super dirty. like, you have no fucking information or control over this thing because certain powerful people find it icky.

first it was the oral contraceptives. you went on those young, mostly for reasons unrelated to birth control - even your dermatologist suggested them to control your acne. the list of side effects was longer than your arm, and you just stared at it, horrified.

it made you so mentally ill, but you just heard that this was adulthood. that, yes, there are of course side effects, what did you expect. one day you looked up yasmin makes me depressed because surely this was far too intense, and you discovered that over 12,000 lawsuits had been successfully filed against the brand. it remains commonly prescribed on the open market. you switched brands a few times before oral contraceptives stopped being in any way effective. your doctor just, like, shrugged and said you could try a different brand again.

and the thing is that you're a feminist. you know from your own experience that birth control can be lifesaving, and that even when used for birth control - it is necessary healthcare. you have seen it save so many people from such bad situations, yourself included. it is critical that any person has access to birth control, and you would never suggest that we just get rid of all of it.

you were a little skeeved out by the implant (heard too many bad stories about it) and figured - okay, iud. it was some of the worst pain you've ever fucking experienced, and you did it with a small number of tylenol in your system (3), like you were getting your bikini line waxed instead of something practically sewn into your body.

and what's wild is that because sometimes it isn't a painful insertion process, it is vanishingly rare to find a doctor that will actually numb the area. while your doctor was talking to you about which brand to choose, you were thinking about the other ways you've been injured in your life. you thought about how you had a suspicious mole frozen off - something so small and easy - and how they'd numbed a huge area. you thought about when you broke your wrist and didn't actually notice, because you'd thought it was a sprain.

your understanding of pain is that how the human body responds to injury doesn't always relate to the actual pain tolerance of the person - it's more about how lucky that person is physically. maybe they broke it in a perfect way. maybe they happened to get hurt in a place without a lot of nerve endings. some people can handle a broken femur but crumble under a sore tooth. there's no true way to predict how "much" something actually hurts.

in no other situation would it be appropriate for doctors to ignore pain. just because someone can break their wrist and not feel it doesn't mean no one should receive pain meds for a broken wrist. it just means that particular person was lucky about it. it should not define treatment.

in the comments of videos about IUDs, literally thousands of people report agony. blinding, nauseating, soul-crushing agony. they say things like i had 2 kids and this was the worst thing i ever experienced or i literally have a tattoo on my ribs and it felt like a tickle. this thing almost killed me or would rather run into traffic than ever feel that again.

so it's either true that every single person who reports severe pain is exaggerating. or it's true that it's far more likely you will experience pain, rather than "just a pinch." and yet - there's nothing fucking been done about it. it kind of feels like a shrug is layered on top of everything - since technically it's elective, isn't it kind of your fault for agreeing to select it? stop being fearmongering. stop being defensive.

you fucking needed yours. you are almost weirdly protective of it. yours was so important for your physical and mental health. it helped you off hormonal birth control and even started helping some of your symptoms. it still fucking hurt for no fucking reason.

once while recovering from surgery, they offered you like 15 days of vicodin. you only took 2 of them. you've been offered oxy for tonsillitis. you turned down opioids while recovering from your wisdom tooth extraction. everything else has the option. you fucking drove yourself home after it, shocked and quietly weeping, feeling like something very bad had just happened. the nurse that held your hand during the experience looked down at you, tears in her eyes, and said - i know. this is cruelty in action.

and it's fucked up because the conversation is never just "hey, so the way we are doing this is fucking barbaric and doctors should be required to offer serious pain meds" - it's usually something around the lines of "well, it didn't kill you, did it?"

you just found out that removing that little bitch will hurt just as bad. a little pinch like how oral contraceptives have "some" serious symptoms. like your life and pain are expendable or not really important. like maybe we are all hysterical about it?

hysteria comes from the latin word for uterus, which is great!

you stand here at a crossroads. like - this thing is so important. did they really have to make it so fucking dangerous. and why is it that if you make a complaint, you're told - i didn't even want you to have this in the first place. we're told be careful what you wish for. we're told that it's our fault for wanting something so illict; we could simply choose not to need medication. that maybe if we don't like the scraps, we should get ready to starve.

we have been saying for so long - "i'm not asking you to remove the option, i'm asking you to reconsider the risk." this entire time we hear: well, this is what you wanted, isn't it?

#where's the word woman in this u might wonder if u suck #good news i am nonbinary and have a uterus so that is something that can happen #im also gender fluid tho which means im immune to certain psychic damage bc if u call me a woman i'll be like <3 okay <3 #writeblr #the tightrope of ''ppl need access to this'' #and like also #''what the fuck is going on over there'' is like. so difficult as an activist #i was <3 punctured <3 during mine #and almost bled out on the table :) they didn't have anyone standing by bc it's ''just a little insertion'' #so i started crashing and i vaguely remember apologizing for the fuss as i heard my heart rate monitor start going <3 tachycardic <3 #she wasn't even a bad doctor tbh #ps btw the reason i even HAD a heart monitor is that i have a genuine heart condition and they knew GOING IN that there was a chance #i'd crash on the table #like my heart just likes to do fun little tricks and <3 stop working <3 (i do not want to discuss the specifics ty i am okay im ontop of it #and they were like 'oh u will be fine' and then she did do a puncture thru my uterus . pop! #and im sitting there dizzy and feeling my heartrate start to drop bc it feels almost. beautiful. like. the whole ground just #woosh! out from under you. and shit is like grey's anatomy. i'm looking up at her grey eyes #she's old she wears this nice shawl she's like got Cool Lesbian vibes and people are sprinting into the room #from other parts of the clinic unrelated to me. while the monitor is like a little aria singing #and shes like hey youre okay stay awake stay with me something went wrong we have to keep trying #and i remember thinking - i was trying to think of nice things. i have so many beautiful places that now overlap #with this terrible memory #i became dimly aware that there was too much on her wrists and hands. like #that was too many liters #and then when they had finished all this. i packed up and drove myself home #i have had (bad thing) happen to me. and the same feeling happened after #that numb almost lamblike bleating. you cry without noise. like. ur body is so shocked and ur mind so empty #you just stare at the road and everything everything is happening behind glass and static and you are standing so far away from it #while you hold ur hands at 10 and 2. and something in ur brain is SCREAMING at you - IT WAS BAD AND IT SHOULDNT HAVE HAPPENED #and ur just watching the alarms in your body going off and youre thinking. a little pinch! ha. i think i just lost something important.

[leave-her-a-tome]

#now that summer is approaching i will FOR SURE start writing again #why am i like this #i think senior year sniped me #if i didn't have grave shift going to a library to focus would be so much easier hhhhhh #writing #writeblr #eris talks #writing community #writers on tumblr #writing memes #oh i know #I'll start planning for camp nano in July

[3hks]

7 Ways to Hook Your Readers

How do you start a story? Why, you start it with a hook! A hook is something that intrigues the reader and has them enthralled. Sometimes, the first sentence is the hardest one to form, so here, I'll give you some examples on how to hook your audience into your story!

>>> A question: This is a pretty well-known tactic: starting off with a question for your reader has them thinking how they'd answer; hence, pulling them further into your work. If you want, your character can answer the question too! However, the question must be relevant to your story.

>>> A idiom/quote/saying: Sayings are commonly used, though one can find them controversial at times. Regardless, the majority of people understand what the meaning behind them are; and because of that factor, along with its popular usage, proverbs quickly attract readers' attention while giving some insight to your character.

>>> One-word starter: This one is pretty simple, and if you really don't have any ideas, maybe give this one a shot! The hook is simply one word (or even a short phrase) that portrays a strong part of your character. Its out-of-context and vagueness trigger interest in your reader.

>>> Starting action: Like the one-word starter, this hook seems contextless, but it's a quick way to captivate your reader and have the suspense emerge! Example: "Blood covered the ground like a thin blanket, staining the once-clean quartz with a shade of scarlet. A pair of depthless eyes seemed to burn a hole into the last person in the room; a messy, pitiful, scrambling figure."

>>> Dialogue: By now, it should be obvious that your hook should be enthralling and evoke interest in your reader. Opening with compelling dialogue can help introduce the plot and characters of your story!

>>> Interesting Introduction: Is there something special about your character? Introductions can be difficult to sneak in, but not when it's a hook! Make a short description consisting of several defining traits of your character, and be sure to add the special thing about your character as a twist to snag your reader's attention! Additionally, you can be creative with this! An introduction doesn't have to come from your main character, it can come from another character describing the protagonist!

>>> Setting: Does the setting have a strong influence on the story? Even if it doesn't, beginning with a descriptive setting can slowly captivate your audience!

Alright! These are seven ways to hook your reader: a question, a saying, one-word, action, dialogue, an introduction, and a setting! Of course, there are many more ways, so explore around!

Happy writing~

3hks :)

#writing #writeblr #writerscommunity #writing tips #writing inspo #creative writing #writing advice #thank you #types of hooks #hook your reader #how to hook your reader #ways to hook your reader #starting a story

[rains-inky-mind]

You know those "if this gets 50k notes I'll xyz"? I don't believe in those. Because I could say something crazy like: if this gets 20k notes, I'll write my next book. And then it'll get zero notes. I do not believe.

#rain posts #writeblr #writer #rain talks #i do need to start my next book #i just dont know where to begin #if this gets notes post

[girlwithherheadinthestars]

Villain: Sidekick, who's knocking so violently on the door?

Sidekick: Um...Hero.

Villain: What? Hero? My Hero?

Sidekick: Well if it's not it's a terribly good impression

#bonus points if villain starts getting ready #fixing their hair #checking how they look in the mirror #writeblr #writing #enemies to lovers #spilled ink #hero x villain #villain x hero #villains and heroes #writing prompts #hero and villain #villain #dialogue prompts #dialogue prompt #character dialogue #writing dialogue #dialogue ideas #writing prompt #writing ideas

[ragewrites]

During the fall leading up to my fifteenth birthday, I came very, very close to committing suicide. Today I turned twenty-five. I had that fifteen year old girl I almost wasn’t sit down with me for a metaphorical conversation.

transcript under cut:

[Fifteen Speaks to Twenty-Five] Leah Saint-John

Are you alive

Yes

Does it hurt

Yes

Are you glad

[instead of an answer there is a helpless look]

Is it all still green

Especially in June

Do you still love it

Especially in June

What colour is our blood

Garnet

It’s thickened

Yes

Is it a sickness

Yes

What does the garnet make you think of

Mouths God’s mouth The inside of His eye sockets

Are you happy

Sometimes

Is it enough

Sometimes

Are you lonely

Yes Garnet Like God

Did it get better

Yes No Yes Yes

Are you living

Yes Almost

#spilled ink #poetry #poets on tumblr #poem #writeblr #2023 #there is a reason the number fifteen crops up quite often in the greater web of my writing :) #also lord can't believe starting monday i'll have to begin indexing these under 2024...time please stop going so quickly PLEASE

[daisywords]

Conlanging for cheaters

quick tips for creating fantasy language(s) that look believable if you squint

Pick a few rules about what letter/sound combinations can and cannot exist (or are common/uncommon). For example, in English, "sp" or "st" can begin a word, but in Spanish they can't. The "ng" sound (or the voiced velar nasal if you want to get technical), can't appear at the beginning of a syllable in English, but it can in at least of third of languages around the world. English allows for consonant clusters (more than one consonant together without a vowel), but some languages, such as Hawaiian, don't. Picking a few distinctive rules that are different from English or the language you are writing in, and sticking to them, will yield a lot better results than just keysmashing.

Assign meaning to a few suffixes, prefixes, or roots. A simple and useful example of this is making up a particle that means -land or -city or -town, and tacking it onto your appropriate place names. You could also have a particle with a similar meaning to the "er/or one we have in English, such as in "baker," "singer," or "operator," and then incorporate it in your fantasy titles or professions. It's like an Easter egg for careful readers to figure out, and it will make your language/world feel more cohesive.

Focus on places and names. You usually don't need to write full sentences/paragraphs in your conlang. What you might want to do with it is name things. The flavor of your language will seep in from the background, with the added benefit of giving readers some hints on background lore. For example, you could have a conlang that corresponds to a certain group of people, and a character with a corresponding name could then be coded as being from that group without having to specify. A human-inhabited city with an elven-sounding name might imply that it was previously inhabited by elves.

You don't have to know what everything means. Unless you are Linguistics Georg R. R. Tolkien, you probably don't want to (and shouldn't!) actually make up a whole language. So stick some letters together (following your linguistic rules, of course) and save fretting over grammar and definitions for the important stuff.

(Bonus) This isn't technically conlanging, but it can be fun to make up an idiom or two for your fantasy culture (just in English or whatevs) and sprinkle that in a few times. The right made-up idiom can allude to much larger cultural elements without you having to actually explain it.

Congrats! You now have a conlang you can dust over your wip like an appropriate amount of glitter. Conlangs can be intimidating, just because there's so much you can do, but that doesn't mean you have to do it all. So yeah anyway here's what I would recommend; hope y'all have fun :D

#writing advice #worldbuilding #conlanging #world building #fantasy #writeblr #writing #linguistics #I feel like sometimes it can be hard to know where to start #So I am telling you where to start

[pencap]

the coward's way out

if the fates conspire that only one of us may live, then lover, it must be you.

i will save you the grand speeches about how you are good and deserving. you are. you are. you are, but in the end, that is not the reason why.

the world may call me brave or strong or selfless but lover, you know the truth don't you?

in the end, i am only more afraid of facing a world without you than i am of facing death of facing anything.

in the end, i am only too weak to be the one left behind to pick up the pieces of a broken life a broken promise a broken heart and keep on bleeding when the blood in your heart is already dry.

i'm sorry. i'm sorry. but will you let me be selfish one last time?

can i ask you to live for me? to face what i feared most so that i might find peace in my eternal sleep with a smile upon my face?

if it is cruel of me to ask, then i beg you to forgive me. or curse my name and hate me if you must, only live.

only live, my lover so that my life and my death and all that came in between may mean something. may mean everything.

#spilled ink #poets on tumblr #poems on tumblr #writeblr #writers on tumblr #poetics #sometimes i write like some kind of possession #i had a brief thought of 'sacrifice as a selfish act?' #and then i was just like. speaking this poem to myself #out of the blue #i fixed some things from the first spoken draft obviously but #the rhythm of this feels important to me #and i'm not convinced i did the best job of linebreaking it #but it will do #The coward’s way out #why yes I did update the title a week later #this feels much cleaner #not giving away the thesis in literally the first word #Technically before the poem even starts

[powdermelonkeg]

How to make a romance story:

Braid it.

Each of your characters should have their own lives, wants, desires, etc going on that intersect often. They each have a different plotline of their own going on. THEN you have the romance plotline weaving between their two lives.

#sincerely: working on my romance plot for tmytia and things like this are smacking into me with the metal pipe sfx #is this common sense? maybe #but it wasn't to me when i first started this and having this idea in my head helps a lot #bee's rambles #writeblr

[xanindigo]

I wrote a thing about dandelions! 🌼 Here are some of the fun little factoids I dug up:

There are around 2800 microspecies of dandelion.

There are native species of dandelion across the northern hemisphere, including several species from North America, like the horned dandelion and the California dandelion.

European dandelions are considered an invasive species, but they aren't harmful. Once a damaged ecosystem has been repaired, dandelions tend to disappear.

Conservation efforts are needed for some indigenous dandelions, so they don't go extinct!

Dandelions are probably the most nutritious thing growing in your garden.

Dandelions have been used in traditional medicine for centuries, and scientific studies have confirmed some of their medicinal properties.

Dandelions are only considered "weeds" because of lawns.

Growing dandelions will help other plants in your garden. Their roots break up compacted soil and draw up nutrients too deep for other plants to reach.

Horticulturalists once bred dandelions as garden flowers.

They're just really pretty, let's be honest 💛

#writeblr #dandelions #gardening #plants #I have now written the word dandelion too many times and it's starting to look weird

[boltlightning]

with writer ask games i'm usually just trying to coyly share snippets, so allow me to introduce a new one:

send me a number and i'll share an excerpt of my writing...

that makes me smile

that makes me laugh

that encompasses my style

with dialogue i'm proud of

with description i'm proud of

that i struggled with, but triumphed over

that i nursed in a daydream before finally writing

that hurt my own feelings to write

with characters i love

with characters i struggle with

with characters i want to write more in the future

that has a particularly good bit of characterization

that helped me understand a character better

that was out of my comfort zone

from an old piece that i like

from a recent piece i want to brag about

from an unpublished WIP

from that one WIP everyone has that has no plot, just vibes

from that project that was SUPPOSED to be short but then i kept writing and now it is very long

from a scrapped project

that i liked, but had to cut

that is so blissfully self-indulgent

that was inspired by a work from another medium (music, visual art, dance, etc.)

that makes me go "huh...i wrote that?!"

that i consider a favorite

please feel free to rb <3

#writing #writeblr #is that what people call it #ask game #excerpt game #i am deeply nosy but i am also a braggart so it is probably high time i started an ask game :—)

[inkskinned]

they want to talk about mental illness and acceptance and how everyone is a little ocd it's cute and quirky and their "intrusive thoughts" are about cutting their hair off and you say yours are about taking a razorblade to your eye and they say ew can you not and everyone is a little adhd sometimes! except if you're late it's a personality flaw and it's because you are careless and cruel (and someone else with adhd mentions they can be on time, so why can't you?) and it's not an eating disorder if it's girl dinner! it's not mania if it's girl math! what do you mean you blew all of your savings on nonrefundable plane tickets for a plane you didn't even end up taking. what do you mean that you are afraid of eating. get over it. they roll their little lips up into a sneer. can you not, like, trauma dump?

they love it on them they like to wear pieces of your suffering like jewels so that it hangs off their tongue in rapiers. they are allowed to arm-chair diagnose and cherrypick their poisons but you can't ever miss too many showers because that's, like, "fuckken gross?" so anyone mean is a narcissist. so anyone with visual tics is clearly faking it and is so cringe. but they get to scream and hit customer service employees because well, i got overwhelmed.

you keep seeing these posts about how people pleasers are "inherently manipulative" and how it's totally unfair behavior. but you are a people pleaser, you have an ingrained fawn response. in the comments, you have typed and deleted the words just because it is technically true does not make it an empathetic or kind reading of the reaction about one million times. it is technically accurate, after all. you think of catholic guilt, how sometimes you feel bad when doing a good deed because the sense of pride you get from acting kind - that pride is a sin. the word "manipulation" is not without bias or stigma attached to it. many people with the fawn response are direct victims of someone who was malignantly manipulative. calling the victims manipulative too is an unfair and unkind reading of the situation. it would be better and more empathetic to say it is safety-seeking or connection-seeking behavior. yes, it can be toxic. no, in general it is not intended to be toxic. there is no reason to make mentally ill people feel worse for what we undergo.

you type why is everyone so quick to turn on someone showing clear signs of trauma but you already know the fucking answer, so what's the point of bothering. you kind of hate those this is what anxiety looks like! infographics because at this point you're so good at white-knuckling through a severe panic attack that people just think you're stoic. even people who know the situation sometimes comment you just don't seem depressed. and you're not a 9 year old white kid so there's no way you're on the spectrum, you're not obsessed with trains and you were never a good mathematician. okay then.

mental illness is trending. in 2012 tumblr said don't romanticize our symptoms but to be fair tiktok didn't exist yet. there's these series of videos where someone pretends to be "the most boring person on earth" and is just being a normal fucking person, which makes your skin crawl, because that probably means you are boring. your friend reads aloud a profile from tinder - no depressed bitches i fucking hate that mental illness crap. your father says that medication never actually works.

you still haven't told your grandmother that you're in therapy. despite everything (and the fact it's helping): you just don't want her to see you differently.

#writeblr #warm up #to be clear let me state again: i think you should id however you fucking want if it helps you seek peace #but there is a HUGE difference between being like '.... im undiagnosed but i think i might be X' #and a person who is like ''omg my intrusive thoughts made me buy a birkin!!!'' #babe mine made me throw up bc they disgusted me so much <3 #mine made me hurt myself evenly. even when i wanted to stop. i have had to put my hand on the stove MULTIPLE TIMES #and again i'd rather have 10000 people get help for something they don't need help for #than have 1 kid NOT get help #but there has GOTTTTT to be a middle ground here #bc at this point it isn't ''raising awareness'' #it's . fucking misinformation. and ''what this picture says about you!!!!!'' #& yes! im mostly talkin about ppl who are actually disgusted and offended by signs of mental illness #but use it to defend THEIR actions #like babe you hate when kids start yelling in the walmart? but you YOuRSELF can yell? #you are depressed so it's fine you were cruel to your spouse? #but if your spouse spends too much time in bed she's a lazy fuck? #your partner needs to do everything for you bc of your history in trauma? but when SHE has needs she's being clingy and gross? #HUGE difference here between whom i think most of my followers are btw. like #all it takes is fucking anyyyy empathy or kindness . like. #anyway it's hard to explain im hoping we all know the person im talking about lol

[writeouswriter]

The curse has lifted (finally wrote more than like 10 words on something)

#writing #writeblr #writer things #it's not my original fiction but i finished 1 chapter of a fanfic at 1041 words and like it's been so long #i've had lots of started projects and opening paragraphs for original stuff and junk #with like random scenes in half stages of completion over the last year #but this is a solid 1000 words for one thing in order and not like with blanks or nowhere to go #i haven't really written that much chronologically for one thing in a while #i think it'll be a 2 or 3 chapter fic hopefully i can keep this going #i have a complete chapter it's short but i'm happy it's something #i have half a chapter of another fic too and it's getting there #maybe i can write after all #just... maybe #now to bring this over to one of the projects i actually have been wanting to work on come on brain yip yip #thing is the fanfic i do is already like jumping into the middle and it's not the same for og work #where i have to establish things prior to the jumping in to the angst and all but hey #we'll figure it out #the curse may still come back but for now... you know

[aritany]

writeblr: i want to see your very best first lines. hit me with your favourites

#in honour of mbb’s atrocious start #writeblr #writing community