#writerstips

[theauthorpaula]

(via Writing About Substance Abuse in Your Fiction)

#writetip #writerstips

[quillrosetellsstories]

Watching old AJR concert is my secret to writing

#ajr #ajrbrothers #writer #writing #writersoftumblr #concert #pop #music #popmusic #writingaesthetic #writerstips #tipsforwriters #national novel writing month #writingblr

[natures-uprise]

#👨‍💻bloggingtips GraphicDesigner writerstips Did you know you can monetize & get paid for your images🌱 GraphicDesign w/ @SmartFram #IFTTT #Twitter #uprise_s

[coupleofbeesread]

Writing Tips: Editing

ere are Kayla’s current #writerstips for editing that #wip #booktube #booktuber #books #authortube #author

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#book #book blog #book blogger #book review #bookish #books #featured #Youtube

[mindonfirebooks]

The Heart Wrenching Auditory Sound Horror In Radcliffe's Fiction

Writings about apparitions inform us what various people think is important about their psyches and selves, about truth, error, mystery, and the constitution of the real world. #horror #goth #gothic #writingcommunity #writerstips

The Genre Master article was written for Mind on Fire Books To be a master in the horror genre takes work and an understanding of how writers create an atmosphere ripe for fear. Apparitions, ghosts, or mysterious sounds and settings have long been associated with tales of haunted spaces through the centuries. Through short stories, folklore and different mediums of delivering the narrative, the…

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#Book Love #Featured #Review

[samblakebooks]

I love this tweet - when the writing is working this semi-autopilot place is exactly where I am. I love nothing more than getting immersed in a scene and not noticing the time slip by.

Every first draft is literally a hot mess, riddled with typos (a bit like my social posts, ahem) In my draft I go back and fix them before I start the next day's work, but my first objective is to find the story.

If I get stuck but I know what's coming, I'll leave myself a note and keep moving forward.

That does mean in a second draft I can find notes like 'Alex chapter goes in here' (eh hello, what would that be about what exactly?!) but most importantly it keeps things flowing.

Given the description here, it all sounds a bit addictive doesn't it?!

Remember My Name is out in paperback this week, so if you haven't read it, you can pick it up in the handy handbag size and find out all about Alex's missing chapter and what happened in the end ;)

It's also shortlisted for Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards if you have a moment to vote! www.irishbookawards.ie/vote ❤🙏

#creativeflow #writing #writerstips #firstdraft #thriller #newbook #readerswanted #crimefiction #crimewriting #readerforlife #readers #booknerd #booklover

[coffeebeanwriting]

Ways to Make Your Readers Cry 😢 (With Examples) — Pt. 1

1) Make sure you’ve created a character the audience cares about. A character who has struggled and who the readers can relate to will pull more of an emotional response. We relate to Katniss because of her unwavering love/protection for her sister. We want her to win and come home to her.

2) Make the characters struggle/give them a difficult journey. Nothing is easy in life, whether it’s fiction or reality. It can be tragic to see a character we’ve grown to care about get shoved around by life, bad situations or just plain bad luck. Katniss may have saved her sister from the Games, but she had to deal with losing Rue, getting hurt, thinking she was betrayed by Peeta, etc.

3) Show, don’t tell. It all goes back to the way you write the story. It’s much more sad to read the details and description of (ex. someone dying) rather than the author just saying that they died.

4) There must be stakes. The character(s) must risk losing things as they adventure throughout the story. Cause and effects for their actions. When the bad effects outweigh the good, things can become really sad. Katniss and Rue try to slow down the Careers and a terrible effect is that Rue dies. A life just might be the highest stake you can dangle over a readers head.

5) Give the characters (and the reader) hope. Then take it away. As the characters are approaching something that seems impossible, they must feel hope that they can win, that there is a way out of this alive. You could take this in dozens of different directions (not limited to these):

     • There is a way out, but no one sees it.      • There was never a way out and they were doomed from the start.      • They find a way out but at very high stakes— death.      • Sacrifices are made in order to win/get out.      • There is a way out, but betrayal ruins it all.      • There is a way out... but only for one person.

When Katniss found Rue in a trap and got her out safely, they experienced a moment of false-hope. Everything was okay now, right? She dies seconds later.

6) Make it unfair. When an experienced solider rides into battle, he is aware that he may die. This can be sad, but it’s not necessarily unfair. Change a few things up... and it can become truly tragic: a young, frail boy is drafted into the war right after his newly wed wife fell pregnant. Or, a little girl whose name is pulled from a glass bowl to fight to the death in a game for entertainment. We don’t weep for Kato or the Career pack in the Hunger Games because it’s not unfair for them. It’s unfair for Rue.

Pt. 2 — Coming Soon! [Sources 1] | [Source 2] 

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

📖 ☕ Official Blog: www.zmwrites.com

#howtowrite #writingadvice #writing advice #how to write #authorsadvice #authortips #author tips #fantasywriting #fantasy writing #howtowritefantasy #how to make your readers cry #writingemotion #fictionwriting #writers of tumblr #writingtips #writing tips #writerstips #writertip #authoradvice #writingtipsandtricks #writingtricks #writing help #writinghelp #writing emotions #writing sad scenes #how to write a book #writingblog #writing blog #authors blog #scifi writing

[rwhague]

The Nitty-Gritties of Schizophrenia

Last week I covered what schizophrenia looks using real-world experiences. This week, I’m going to dive into the disease on a more technical level. As per usual, none of this information is to be used to diagnose or treat anyone, but as a tool for writers to create characters who are close to life as possible and not mere caricatures of mental illness.

Life with schizophrenia is hard for the person experiencing the symptoms as well as the family providing care. But consider this, there was only one treatment plan for schizophrenia 100 years ago: institutionalization. Although institutionalization is still part of treatment, it is often not the only part. Thanks to new treatments and medications, many people with schizophrenia live at home or in group homes in the community. Some even have jobs. I’ll be the first to say that mental health has a LONG way to go, but I believe it is important to keep in mind where we came from.​

A person with schizophrenia may manifest the following (Videbeck p. 252):

Ambivalence: Holding seemingly contradictory beliefs or feelings about the same person, event, or situation.

Associative Looseness: Fragmented or poorly related thoughts and ideas. Thoughts are tangential—not flowing from point to point but all of the place. For example, one sentence might be about baseball and the next about frogs in a pond without a coherent link.

Delusions: Fixed false beliefs that have no basis in reality

Echopraxia: Imitation of the movements and gestures of another person whom the client is observing.

Flight of ideas: Continuous flow of verbalizations in which the person jumps rapidly from one topic to another

False sensory perceptions or perceptual experiences that do not exist in reality. These can be auditory (voices), visual, smells, and tactile (feelings, like skitters across the arms).

Ideas of reference: False impressions that external events have special meaning for that person. (The person on the TV is talking to them specifically.)

Perseverations: Persistent adherence to a single idea or topic; verbal repetition of a sentence, word, or phrase; resisting attempts to change the topic.

The above list are considered “Positive Symptoms” as in they are added to the person. Most positive symptoms are treatable, but there are “Negative Symptoms” or symptoms that seem to be lacking in a person that generally linger after the positive symptoms abate. These are them:  

Alogia: tendency to speak very little or to convey little substance of meaning

Anhedonia: Feeling no joy or pleasure from life or any activities or relationships (characteristic of depression, but is it any wonder with everything else possibly going on? Geez.)

Apathy: Feeling of indifference toward people, activities and events.

Blunted Affect: Restricted range of emotional feeling, tone, or mood

Catatonia: Psychologically induced immobility occasionally marked by periods of agitation or excitement; the client seems motionless, as if in a trance

Flat affect: Absence of any facial expressions that would indicate emotions or mood.

Lack of volition: absence of will, ambition, or drive to take action or accomplish tasks.

Keep in mind that the person experiencing these bizarre behaviors or thinking patterns may be fully aware of them. I once entered a patient’s room to find her smashing invisible bugs on her bedside table. She told me she knew the bugs weren’t real, but smashing them made her feel better. The extent of the awareness of symptoms is difficult to know since there is a huge communication barrier in many schizophrenic patients. The number of delusions, hallucinations, and their strength are all difficult barriers to break through.

Not every person with schizophrenia will have all of the above symptoms. In fact, schizophrenia is less of a single illness and more of a syndrome. Here are the five major types according to the DSM-IV-TR:

Paranoid Type: Has persecutory (feeling victimized or spied on) or grandiose delusions, hallucinations, and occasionally, excessive religiosity (delusional religious focus) or hostile aggressive behavior

Disorganized: Has grossly inappropriate or flat affect, incoherence, loose associations, and extremely disorganized behavior.

Catatonic Type: has marked psychomotor disturbance, either motionless or excessive motor activity. The excessive movement is not influenced by external stimuli. May also have mutism, echolalia (repetitive nonsensical speech) or echopraxia (imitation of the movements and gestures of someone the person is observing.)

Undifferentiated Type: Sort of a mix of the above

Residual Type: Has a history of one previous, but not current, episode.  

Schizophrenia generally starts around age 15-25. There is a genetic component to the disease, but having a genetic predisposition to the illness is not a guarantee it will present. Studies on identical twins show a 50% chance of the previously unaffected twin getting the disease. Through various imaging techniques, we have been able to see that those suffering with schizophrenia have alterations in their overall brain structures. How these came about are still a mystery although some theorize it comes about through viruses, trauma, or immune responses. Basically, the theory is that certain people have a genetic predisposition to get schizophrenia if a certain thing occurs to turn on those genes. For example, a virus comes along and triggers those genes and the brain deteriorates. There’s a similar theory regarding the onset of juvenile diabetes.

While there can be a sudden onset of schizophrenia, most people generally develop signs and symptoms slowly over time. It starts with social withdrawal, unusual behavior, loss of interest in school or work, and neglected hygiene. Generally, the diagnosis is made when delusions, hallucinations, and disordered thinking begin to appear. The age at which schizophrenia appears often determines the overall impact of the illness. The younger the onset, the worse they tend to do. Also, a slower onset predicts a worse outcome than a sudden onset.

Two years after initial onset, two patterns typically emerge. Either the person continues to experience psychosis and never fully recover (although symptoms may shift in severity over time), or they alternate between episodes of psychosis and near complete recovery.

The intensity of the psychosis also seems to diminish with age. Some may be able to function, live independently, and succeed at jobs with stable expectations and supportive work environments. Most, however, have severe difficulty functioning in their communities.

It is important to keep in mind that a person showing initial signs and symptoms of schizophrenia might lose all symptoms within a period of six months. This is called Schizophreniform disorder. Others might experience a brief psychotic disorder where delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech may last from 1 day to 1 month. It may or may not have an identifiable stressor or follow childbirth.

There is SOOOOOO much to tell when it comes to schizophrenia and this post has already become way to long. Next week, I’ll be creating a post that brings together all of this information in a usable form.

​

As I was researching this, I came across this article I found very informative but did not use as a source: http://www.drjack.co.uk/the-future-of-schizophrenia-by-dr-jack-lewis/

Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing, by Sheila L. Videbeck, fifth ed., Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2011.

#mental #mental wellbeing #mental help #mental health #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealth in fiction #mentalhealthinwriting #mentalhealthandwriting #mental illness #mental ill health #writing #writers #writersblog #writerslife #write #author #authorblog #authortips #writerstips #writeradvice #authoradvice #authorlife #writerlife

[cmoroneybooks]

To my fellow writers, beware of all those people who shower you in nothing but praise. They may mean well, but they cannot be trusted. You will never be better than you are now if you surround yourself with nothing but that.

#writing #amwriting #writers #writers community #writers advice #writingadvice #writing advice #writersadvice #writers tips and tricks #writerstips #writers tips #writerstipsandtricks #writing tips #writingtips #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writers of wordpress #writers of ig #writing on tumblr #writing rants

[greenmach1neworks]

Writing tip no. 6

Make sure you hire multiple sensitivity readers from the same group. Minority groups are not a monolith, and the individuals within the minority group may bring in different perspectives that some members of said group may not have previously known.

#writing #writers #writerstip #writerstips #writers tip #writers tips #GreenMach1ne writing tips

[your-kore]

Wet suits are condoms that prevent your imagination from being fertilized by mountain rivers.

CHARLES FOSTER. Being a Beast. 

#charles foster #being a beast #quote #mine #quotes #literaturequote #english major #english literature #english #literaturememe #litmeme #englishmeme #writerstips #cottagecore #cottage core #literature quote #nature core #literature #english quotes #condom jokes #literature joke #literature meme #author #authors #british author

[traumarecoverygirl]

Writing craft tips

#amwriting #writerstips #writing craft #writer advice

[nkechiajogwu]

#writerstoffee #writerstips #tips #verbs #english #story #writer #help #writersblog #writerblock https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ1JulRDLFO/?utm_medium=tumblr

#writerstoffee #writerstips #tips #verbs #english #story #writer #help #writersblog #writerblock

[crackedcheckers]

Grammar Tip: Who’s vs Whose

I’ve seen this mistake made countless times, and for good reason: these are very confusing terms. Let me break it down:

Who’s: Who Is

Ex: Check to see who’s coming.

Who’s eating my lunch?

Do you know who’s coming over today?

Whose: Possessive

Ex: Whose father is that?

She didn’t know whose lunch she was eating.

Whose aunt was he meeting with?

When in doubt, plug in ‘who is’

If it sounds like it works, then the right word is who’s

If it doesn’t, it’s whose.

Thanks for reading! Hope this helped!

#writingpsa #writinginspo #writerstips #writerlife #writingprompts #grammar #grammartips #tipsforwriters #my writing needs this #reading #fiction #this is for me too #this has been a psa #hope this helps #this has been a post #im done

[mindonfirebooks]

The Heart Wrenching Auditory Sound Horror In Radcliffe's Fiction

Writings about apparitions inform us what various people think is important about their psyches and selves, about truth, error, mystery, and the constitution of the real world. #horror #goth #gothic #writingcommunity #writerstips

The Genre Master article was written for Mind on Fire Books To be a master in the horror genre takes work and an understanding of how writers create an atmosphere ripe for fear. Apparitions, ghosts, or mysterious sounds and settings have long been associated with tales of haunted spaces through the centuries. Through short stories, folklore and different mediums of delivering the narrative, the…

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#Book Love #Featured #Review

[samblakebooks]

My Readers’ Club gives you a look behind the scenes - and you get a free e-copy of my addictive thriller ‘High Pressure’ as a thank you for joining.

Sam Blake Readers’ Club is a very special group dedicated to lovers of crime fiction, a place where I can give you an exclusive look behind the scenes, previews of what’s coming and a chance to chat to me directly at special Readers’ Club events – both on and off-line. Wherever you are in the world, the Readers’ Club will have something for you.

Pop over to www.samblakebooks.com to sign up 🙏😊

#writerscommunity #writerstips #readerswanted

#crimewriters #crimereader #reader