wolfwind3writing

[wolfwind3writing]

Writing advice from my uni teachers:

If your dialog feels flat, rewrite the scene pretending the characters cannot at any cost say exactly what they mean. No one says “I’m mad” but they can say it in 100 other ways.

Wrote a chapter but you dislike it? Rewrite it again from memory. That way you’re only remembering the main parts and can fill in extra details. My teacher who was a playwright literally writes every single script twice because of this.

Don’t overuse metaphors, or they lose their potency. Limit yourself.

Before you write your novel, write a page of anything from your characters POV so you can get their voice right. Do this for every main character introduced.

#writing advice

[wolfwind3writing]

Ref Recs for Whump Writers

Violence: A Writer’s Guide:  This is not about writing technique. It is an introduction to the world of violence. To the parts that people don’t understand. The parts that books and movies get wrong. Not just the mechanics, but how people who live in a violent world think and feel about what they do and what they see done.

Hurting Your Characters: HURTING YOUR CHARACTERS discusses the immediate effect of trauma on the body, its physiologic response, including the types of nerve fibers and the sensations they convey, and how injuries feel to the character. This book also presents a simplified overview of the expected recovery times for the injuries discussed in young, otherwise healthy individuals.

Body Trauma: A writer’s guide to wounds and injuries. Body Trauma explains what happens to body organs and bones maimed by accident or intent and the small window of opportunity for emergency treatment. Research what happens in a hospital operating room and the personnel who initiate treatment. Use these facts to bring added realism to your stories and novels.

10 B.S. Medical Tropes that Need to Die TODAY…and What to Do Instead: Written by a paramedic and writer with a decade of experience, 10 BS Medical Tropes covers exactly that: clichéd and inaccurate tropes that not only ruin books, they have the potential to hurt real people in the real world. 

Maim Your Characters: How Injuries Work in Fiction: Increase Realism. Raise the Stakes. Tell Better Stories. Maim Your Characters is the definitive guide to using wounds and injuries to their greatest effect in your story. Learn not only the six critical parts of an injury plot, but more importantly, how to make sure that the injury you’re inflicting matters. 

Blood on the Page: This handy resource is a must-have guide for writers whose characters live on the edge of danger. If you like easy-to-follow tools, expert opinions from someone with firsthand knowledge, and you don’t mind a bit of fictional bodily harm, then you’ll love Samantha Keel’s invaluable handbook

[wolfwind3writing]

Audre Lorde to her students during a poetry workshop, as shown in A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (1996) dir. by Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson

[wolfwind3writing]

Hey!

This is something that's been rolling around in my head for a while, and I'm wondering if you or any of your followers have experience with getting back into writing after illness.

I've been chronically ill for a long time. My symptoms vary a lot depending on external circumstances. From about 2019-2021 or so, I was updating an AU about once a month and having an absolute blast with it...then my health hit a stumbling block. Then it hit another, and another.

I'm now at a point where the stumbling blocks don't seem to be going away anytime soon. I'm starting to feel the mental health effects of not having the spoons to work writing into my day.

I spent the past couple years trying to let myself lie fallow and be kind with my brain when my body needs so much help. I'm at a point where even when I WANT to write, it feels like it's been so long I've almost forgotten how. I'm stalled on all my WIPs from that AU, but it doesn't feel like writer's block so much as it feels like writer's atrophy. I miss it terribly, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting back on my feet.

Thank you for everything you've given our community over the years! 💜💜

*hugs* that's a rough spot to be in, and I hope that we can offer you some ways to get out of it. I'll offer some suggestions from my own experience with a change in health status, but I'm really hopeful that the rest of the blog have some tips to share as well.

Don't hold yourself up to your previous standards. Your abilities have changed, and you should take that into account. If you used to be able to write for 2 hours and now you can only manage 10 minutes, don't see that as a failure. 10 minutes is now your success point. If you used to be able to manage 100K stories with intricate plots and now you find it a challenge to write a straightforward oneshot? Then finishing that oneshot is an accomplishment to be proud of.

If the way you used to do things doesn't work, don't keep trying to do them that way. If you used to type onto a laptop but now staring at the screen makes you feel exhausted? Try dictating into your phone and using speech to text to transcribe it. Then you can go through and edit what's already there. If you used to write at a desk but now sitting up for long periods wears you out? Try tapping it out on your phone in bed. You can't focus for long periods the way that you used to? Turn on the TV and write during commercial breaks.

Don't try to pick up right where you left off. You need to get yourself back in writing shape before you can take on a story that's already halfway written. Those WIPs will still be there, even if you start off with a ficlet or a missing moment or a post-episode coda etc. Start off small. Use ideas or plots that are easier for you to write. Get back into the swing of it before you try to tackle a big project again.

As you try to write something and you find yourself unable to, take a moment and try to identify what the hard part is. Are you having trouble finding words? Are you in an uncomfortable position? Is the device you're using annoying you or difficult to work with? For each problem you can identify, see if you can find an accommodation for it - and look to see if other people have had to accommodate the same issue before you. It's very likely that they have.

I'll stop here and let the spoonies share their thoughts in the notes. I look forward to picking up some advice for myself too ❤️

You can find this question and answer over on Dreamwidth as well, if you'd like to join the conversation over there.

[wolfwind3writing]

fic planning be like:

#yeah this is me #sorry characters #it's so good though

[wolfwind3writing]

Mr. Morwood, I have enjoyed your blog for quite a while and I have a question.

I have been writing since I was a kid and it's always been the only part of my life that I never stress over. Maybe the story is good; maybe it's not-- the important thing is that I had fun writing it. Even writer's block was rarely a problem. I could either take a break and wait it out or just Write Something Anything, and the words would start to flow like always.

For almost the past year, the words won't come. I can come up with ideas, sure, but when I sit down at the keyboard the sentences are clunky and my brain feels like a cat being given a pill. That's the worst part-- I'm fine with writing badly but this just isn't fun like it used to be. I've tried all the classic tricks, tried giving it time, tried finishing old projects, starting new ones, different font. Same result.

Since you're an experienced writer I hope I'm not out of line in asking, what do you do to break writer's block? How do you call the words back?

I wish I knew, but the state of my own WIP folder is an indication that I don't, and your comment (bolded) is one I can appreciate.

That's the worst part-- I'm fine with writing badly but this just isn't fun like it used to be. I've tried all the classic tricks, tried giving it time, tried finishing old projects, starting new ones, different font. Same result.

Confronted with all The Usual Suggestions, I can add the one which isn't there: have you tried reverting to pen / pencil / notebook and writing in longhand "for spontaneity"?

I'm somewhat acquainted (heh!) with a much better, more experienced writer than me, so I'm going to tag @dduane in on this.

#oh wow #this... makes sense #and it makes the advice of 'just write' #which I've felt is the right answer #feel like it has a purpose and a goal and a finish line #which means i actually might DO it #this is wonderful #so glad i read this

[wolfwind3writing]

STOP! are you operating on an arbitrary set of terms and rules known only to you? have you created an ultimatum or specific if/then scenario for someone else without communicating it to them? have you considered making a decision and calculated all the consequences and potential reactions to those consequences and consequences for those reactions before you actually made the decision? it may be time to say some words out loud to another person!

#batfam #Tim says Oh Crap #(no he doesn't he says I'm smarter than you think and it's okay when i do it) #(he isn't and it's not)

[wolfwind3writing]

ON PURPOSE, I'M GOING TO LOVE YOU ON PURPOSE

Jenny Slate // Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue // Pleiades, Anne Carson // Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo // @oriley42 and @earth167 (and a half) on Tumblr // Jodi Picoult from The Book Of Two Ways // The Night Vale, Episode 100, The Toast // Adam Melchor, I Choose You // Kierston White, The Chaos of Stars

#Broken Ones #yes I'm still thinking about it #one of these days I'll post again i swear

[wolfwind3writing]

When they create their own safe place together.

When they rewrite their definitions of what a family is for each other

When they become the only other people, the only friends, the only support they need.

When the they start to learn that they can rely on each other, on another person, for the first time.

When the found family becomes a family.

#broken ones

[wolfwind3writing]

What’s your biggest advice for baby/puppy punks or someone who’s just now looking into it?

Easy. Such an easy answer that it usually escapes people. My answer isnt music or bands or a specific life philosophy that you need to dedicate yourself to. No this one is much more simple.

Learn how to think critically about EVERYTHING

Start small if you have to. For example, WHY did you buy *insert item here*? Was it worth the price? Was there a reason you bought it from that store? Who benefits monetarily from the purchase? Does it make you happy?

Then go bigger. What did that politician say? Whats their stance on that topic? Why is that their stance? Who does their stance hurt? Who does their stance benefits? What could be the implications of that stance going into affect? Could that be easily reversed? How do you feel about that stance? Do the pros out weight the cons? Are any choices completely good? Do you need to sacrifice one thing for something else? Is that sacrifice justifiable? Why?

My point is, you shouldnt just follow and do what others say. You shouldnt jump on a bandwagon just because something is popular. Dont vote for someone just because it seems to be the popular choice in the circles youre in. Vote for someone because you’ve taken the time to think about their stances and their opponents stances and you’ve decided thats who you align with most.

Just. Think about your decisions. Think about what impacts they could have. Think about who you are and what you support. And most importantly think about WHY you support it.

And I realize this may be easier said than done. But I honest to god believe that this is SO SO SO important for people to learn how to do

[wolfwind3writing]

listen I ended up regretting saying anything about this on my old blog because people will interpret literally any and every statement maliciously on this hellsite but I want to start like. a helpline for people who are like “hey I pretty much only read YA but I’m like 22 now and don’t relate to teenagers as much, it’s such a shame that there are no fun books written for adults :(” because boy HOWDY are there some fun books for adults 

#to read

[wolfwind3writing]

continuing in this vein:

me and all my traumatized loved ones have such a hard time finding anyone who can even begin to sit with and hold what we went through. we’re considered too fucked up to handle. we’re labeled as too damaged and too interfered with to be safe to be around. the things we’ve been through make people shut down— or worse, they go haring off in directions they think are helpful but are really just more role violence centered around fixing/saving/remaking us. we are starved for capacity. we go through the world feeling so profoundly other. meeting that one person who can sit with us without shutting down or freaking the fuck out or saying something stupid or objectifying us with their incomprehension is so incredibly rare. we cling to you for dear life when we find you.

#Broken Ones

[wolfwind3writing]

being aroace is like—

Aro rep is just so fucking flat all the time. It acts like there’s a clear delineation between romance and friendship, and Aromantics only have friendships. It never talks about those beautiful, gray soft fuzzy relationships that shoot up in the intersections. It’s why I love sk8 infinity the anime so much. It’s not aromantic representation but the 2 main characters mutually inspire each other to live. It’s not romance or friendship, it’s PEOPLE and their souls meeting each other in their unique circumstances, creating something only for them. That’s what I want.

I’m so tired of reading a book and seeing this boring aromantic rep. I want books that talk about the confusion, the specific ways someone means so much to you, how the world.

Same with asexuals. The representation takes no deeper look into our complex relationships with sex, the characters are usually 100 percent sex-repulsed. I never see people who love reading smut in these books, or how even if you don’t have sexual attraction, you experiment with your imagination about what type of sex might be okay for you.

Ironically, I find the best representations in fanfics, usually one-shots. Where the author is clearly aromantic and/or asexual themself, and they ramble about the characters inner thoughts and their relationship with being aspec. I love those one-shots and I cherish it close to my heart.

I’m so grateful for my aspec friends where we talk extensively about this. And the aromantic community here that also talks about this. It’s so enlivening and lovely, and I’d be significantly more depressed if I didn’t have this community lmao.

#Broken Ones

[wolfwind3writing]

“Until we have seen someone’s darkness, we don’t really know who they are. Until we have forgiven someone’s darkness, we don’t really know what love is.”

— Marianne Williamson

#Broken Ones

[wolfwind3writing]

Depressiv, betrübt, zerschlagen Sollten wir zusammen verzagen Deprimiert und melancholisch Pessimistisch, diabolisch Gründen auf verblühten Rosen Die Partei der Hoffnungslosen Werde Mitglied, trete ein Jeder darf es sein Herein

English~

Depressed, distressed, shattered We should despair together Gloomy and melancholy Pessimistic, diabolic Based on withered roses The party of the hopeless Become a member, join in Everybody can belong Come in

from Rammstein: Armee der Tristen

~commissions open~

#Broken Ones #This is gorgeous

[wolfwind3writing]

big fan of characters with abandonment + attachment issues so profound that they leave claw marks in everything they touch but would sooner gnaw off their own leg than admit they just want someone to stay for once. in a totally normal well adjusted and not at all projecting way of course.

#Broken Ones

[wolfwind3writing]

Feel free to elaborate about your Onion Preferences if you reblog, but please keep it about the onion cultivates in question. I know where are more, but I want to focus on the common ones.

(Red onions are a bit more expensive, but I prefer them, because they give both taste and beauty to dishes when fresh. I don't like fried/cooked onions due to texture issues, and use dried onions in my cooking instead, which are always from the yellow kind)

#red onions are infinitely superior to my taste buds #they cost about 50% more than yellow onions around here #and given the price of onions that's not a LOT #but like it was a big deal when i decided #forget it #I'm paying for the red onions every single time #rather than debating whether i could save 50¢ on the meal without being too sad that i didn't get the red onion flavor