writing-level

[writing-level]

I haven’t been posting a lot here so I thought I’d do a bit of an introduction.

My name is Justina and my nickname is Nina. I haven’t decided what name I’m going to use when I start the publishing process.

I want to focus most of my writing on social issues. My current WIP is a play on the romance genre but I wouldn’t actually call it a romance.

I’m a sophomore in college right now. I’m double majoring in Creative Writing and Gender and Women’s Studies with a concentration in queer, trans, and sexuality. I want to be an author but I’d also be okay being an editor or working in publishing.

I have an Instagram account (@/ninalitediting) if you want to check that out. I mostly just repost tips I find on tumblr, Pinterest, and other online sites. Occasionally I post stuff from my own tumblr that I think can be useful.

If you need it, I’m open to be a beta reader. I could even just provide prompts or inspiration. I’m here to help!

#writing #writing account #intro #introduction #beta #beta reader #beta readers #inspo #inspiration #writing inspo #writing inspiration #writer #writers #book #books #author #authors #writing community #writing help

[writing-level]

TW: mentions of blood, blood loss

Do not read this post if blood, blood loss, hospitals, and effects of blood loss trigger you. All of these things will be mentioned under the cut. 

Blood Loss

I wanted to share my personal experience with blood loss to help other writers out with writing about blood loss. 

So background:

When I was around 11, I lost about 2/3 (67%) of my blood. I’m not sure why I survived but it might have to do with the fact that I didn’t go into shock. Who knows? 

Anyways, I lost so much blood from having menorrhagia, which causes heavy periods. Menorraghia is a pretty common disorder, especially in young adults, but it usually doesn’t become as severe as it did for me. That’s partially because I didn’t realize what was happening (I was 11 and it was like my second or third period) and I bled heavily for several days before going to the hospital. We didn’t decide to take me to the hospital until I had thrown up which is not a good sign. I was in the hospital for a week. I received a total of six blood transfusions and one transfusion of plasma. This is what I experienced:

1. Vomiting

As mentioned, I vomited once before I went to the hospital. I also vomited when I was flown in the helicopter to Phoenix’s Children’s. 

2. Not thinking straight/Not understanding my environment

My thoughts were scattered and didn’t make sense to other people. It was probably because I wasn’t getting enough oxygen to my brain. I didn’t completely comprehend everything going on around me

3. Slurring

My words were slightly slurred but everyone could still understand me

4. Lack of oxygen

With significant blood loss, you obviously have a lack of oxygen getting into your body. As soon as the people at the hospital figured out how much blood I had lost, they put me on oxygen. Usually with this amount of blood loss and oxygen deprivation, you go into shock and organs may start to shut down. I was lucky enough not to go into shock

5. Passing Out

I passed out once. This was several days into my hospital stay when I attempted to take a shower for the first time. There were nurses assisting me, but my body couldn’t handle standing up for the time it took to shower. I passed out for a few seconds and came back to as I was being laid down in my bed again. 

6. Lightheaded/Dizziness

I couldn’t move around much without a wave of dizziness taking over me. I mostly stayed in bed not doing anything. I would get up to go to the bathroom (and in the early days before the hospital, I took showers sitting down) but that was basically it. 

7. Loss of appetite

I didn’t eat much early on in my hospital stay - they just gave me nutrients through an IV. Later in the stay, however, I started eating. Usually when I ordered food, I wouldn’t eat much. I’d be hungry but as soon as I had the plate in front of me, I couldn’t eat more than a few bites. The one exception to this was my extreme craving for pickles. I could see a Burger King from my hospital room window and asked my parents to get me a burger with extra pickles. They only gave me three :( MY mom kept going to the food court to ask for pickles. This happened often enough that I became known as the pickle girl. 

8. Tiredness

This is partially because my body was healing and partially because you cannot sleep in a hospital. Nurses were coming in every couple of hours to mark down my vitals, check my IV, etc. all through the day and night. 

9. Pale skin

10. Bad memory

This happened about 7 years ago, so that plays a role, but I can’t remember a lot of what happened in that week. This goes hand in hand in not being able to focus on my surroundings and not knowing what’s going on. People will tell me about something that happened and I won’t have any recollection of it at all. 

I think that’s the majority of what I experienced. If I think of more, then I’ll reblog and add on. 

#trigger warning #tw #trigger warning blood #tw blood #blood #blood mentions #blood loss #writing #research #writing research

[writing-level]

Drafting

The Draft Notebook 

Be More Productive with Ambient Noise 

How to Steal: Know Your Tropes 

How to Steal: Good Writers Borrow

Write What You Know (Not What You’ve Experienced)

The Best Way to End a Writing Session

How To Finish a Draft

A Few Tips on Chapters

Language, Description, & Dialog 

“To Be” Or Not “To Be”: What Exactly Is Passive Voice?

Tagging Dialog 

Narrative Voice

Writing Better Descriptions

Basic Rules for Metaphors and Similes

Character, Plot, & Setting 

Creating Characters: a 4-Step Process 

Writing Relationships Your Reader Can Get Behind

Informative Character Names

The Strength of a Symmetrical Plot 

How to Foreshadow

Crafting Homes of Paper, Ink, and Neutral PH Glue

Motivation

On Writing Flawed Books

How to Return to Your Manuscript

The Acknowledgements Page

Staring at Blank Pages

What to Do When You Can’t Write

Motivational Writing Posters

Publishing

Writing the Perfect Query Letter

How to Write a Synopsis 

How to Pitch Your Novel in Under a Minute

A Glossary of Publishing Terms: Vol 1

Writing Tools

Why You Should Give Scrivener a Try

Outlining, Brainstorming, and Researching with Scrivener

Drafting with Scrivener

Editing with Scrivener 

CTRL+F

The Forest Productivity App

Editsaurus 

NaNoWriMo

Why Try NaNoWriMo

October Prep 

Why Listen to Writing Podcasts

Pick a New Daily Word Count Goal 

How to Write 2000 Words a Day

How to Plan a Novel without a Story

Pacemaker: Custom Daily Word Count Website

NaNoWriMo Master Post

Other

How to Read an Absurd Number of Books

Writing Workshops: An Introduction

Writing Groups

Different Types of Fantasy Novels

Ambient Soundscapes Based on Famous Writers

Ko-Fi & Other Support

If you enjoy my posts and can afford it, I would greatly appreciate it if you donated to my new ko-fi page! Each of these posts represents multiple hours of unpaid labor. I love writing for this blog, but I’m also an underpaid 20-something trying to stay afloat. I’ve made this master post of every essay I’ve written for this blog as a way to show my appreciation in advance of any support. If you donate, to further show my gratitude and appreciation, I’ll take requests for essay topics in the ‘messages of support.’ 

If you can’t afford to donate via ko-fi, another great way to show your support is simply by reblogging posts that you find useful and helping my blog reach new writers. 

Thanks so much! 

[writing-level]

My Current Outline Process

Writing our characters! I don’t have names or their jobs or any descriptors of them at all but I have captured their energy!

Let’s use the MC wants/but/therefore method but only for the biggest plot points! What are subplots? What are individual scenes? What are chapters? We just have a blob of like three things that definitely need to happen to get to the end

Okay now we will outline the first chapter with like two things. Still don’t know how many characters there’ll be but who cares anyway? It’s more important that we know that the MC has an okay relationship with her family. Who cares who else will show up?

Okay actual character charts. We have names! We have basic descriptions! We know their jobs and political opinions! But do we know their likes and dislikes? What kind of character they’ll be? What role they’ll play in the story? Of course not!

Let’s just make a list of little things I might want to include in the book. It’s very important to include a debate over pineapple on pizza between my characters right?

#write #writing #writer #writers #writings #book #novel #book ideas #outline #outlining #original work #writing process #i kid but this actually makes me feel like a writer #so many ideas #it doesnt follow any outline structure

[writing-level]

Write. Just write. The only bad piece of writing is the blank page. Even if your writing is the shittiest you’ve ever done, at least you have something to work on and improve.

[writing-level]

Character Chart

Full name (First/Middle/Last/Maiden/etc)

Nicknames

Age

Race

Gender

Sexuality

Height

Weight

Eye color

Hair color

Job/School

Clothing style

Religion

Political views

Personality traits (good and bad)

Likes/hobbies

Dislikes

Family

Friends

Dating partner(s)

Other associates

Type of character (i.e supporting, main, etc.)

Childhood

Fears

Favorite thing to do with a free day

Favorite genres of music

Other notes

My own character chart for outlining. I got some from other sources but added in my own that I think say a lot about who a person is. Feel free to use!

#writing #write #writer #author #writing advice #character #characters #character chart #outline #outlining #novel #book

[writing-level]

Writing Advice Posts: A Handy Reference Guide

(Updated 5/19/18) Hey all, I’ve got quite a few writing advice posts & answered Asks on my blog at this point, so I’m making this reference guide to make it easier to find what you’re looking for. Hope it helps!

General

8 Ways to Improve Your Writing

10 Best Books About Writing Fiction

How to Spot Bad Writing Advice: 6 Red Flags to Look For

“Show Don’t Tell”? Not Always. Here’s When to Use Summary

How to start a story

More about starting stories

The first sentence

The Writing Process, Writer’s Block, & Inspiration

How to Train Yourself to Write Faster

Just a friendly reminder that creativity is difficult to quantify.

Quick Writing Tip: Make a Note to Your Future Self in Your WIP

Quick Writing Tip: Take Notes!

Just a friendly reminder that writing is not always a linear process.

Quick Cure for Writer’s Block: Lower Your Expectations

Set Realistic Goals

Your Skills May Need Time to Catch Up to Your Vision

It’s Okay to Experiment and Be Weird As Fuck

Surround Yourself With Supporters

It’s okay to take a break.

Your First Draft is Raw Material

Getting into “The Zone”

Vomit Brain

Writing from Your Imagination vs. Reality

Dealing with Criticism

Getting Bored with Your Own Writing

Getting past a block

Doing research on topics you don’t have first-hand experience with

Journalling about your writing

Character Development

Creating Character Arcs with the DCAST Method

What Does Your Main Character Want?

How to Activate Your Passive Characters, One Verb at a Time

How to Use Description to Show Character Development

How to Create a Non-Cliched First-Meeting Scene

The “It Depends” Post

Shifting internal goals

When to identify your character’s goal

Writing about normal people with normal problems

If you’re worried about your character being too similar to someone else’s character 

Describing your characters without messing up your pacing

Story, Plot, & Pacing

Quick Plotting Tip: Write Your Story Backwards

Pause at the Threshold

Slowing Down the Pace of Your Story Without Boring Your Reader

Time Transitions

Creating Conflict

When & how to cut a scene

If you’re good at creating characters but awful at creating plot

When you’ve plotted your story but can’t get started

En Media Res

Writing to Your Ideal Reader

Deus Ex Machina

Foreshadowing

Finding an Ending

What to write between moments of conflict

Starting a story with waking-up scene

Description, Setting, & Worldbuilding

How to Make Your Descriptions Less Boring

How to Spot an “Info-dump”

Adding Descriptions to Intense Scenes Without Messing Up Your Story’s Flow

How to Use Description to Show Character Development

Worldbuilding: How much is too much?

Modeling your fantasy world from stuff in the real world

Internal Consistency

Point of View

How to Choose the Right Point of View for Your Story

A Beginner’s Guide to Multiple Point of View

6 Questions to Ask About Your Point of View

How to decide if you should use first person or third person

More point of view basics

Head hopping

Dialogue

How to Improve Your Dialogue

3 Ways to Make Your Dialogue More Interesting

Starting a story with dialogue

Are You Using Too Much Stage Direction?

Publishing & Sharing Your Work

7 Tips to Build an Audience for Your Writing

Pros and Cons of Self Publishing

Quick Publishing Tip: Don’t Bury Your Gold

How to Properly Format Your Manuscript for Publication

A warning about posting writing online that you intend to publish later

Advice for writers who are worried about people stealing their work or ideas

Getting feedback on your writing

Editing

Quick Revision Tip: Read Your Writing Out Loud

How to Keep Yourself From Editing As You Write

Cut the fidgeting

Are you suffering from -ing disease?

Are you Using Too Much Stage Direction?

What “Editing” Really Means

Quick Editing Tip: “That”

Quick Revision Tip: Read Faster

Editing Tip: Dialogue

Tips for Editing a Story

Free Resource Library Downloads

All of these PDFs are available to download in my Free Resource Library.

Creating Character Arcs Workbook

Point of View Cheatsheet

Dialogue Checklist

Setting Checklist

Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Editor Printable Checklist

Proper Manuscript Format Printable Checklist

Short Story & Novel Submission Templates

…if you find any broken links please let me know and I will fix them! xo

*I recently changed the name of my blog. All of these links should work, but if you come across a “Bucket Siler has moved!” page when clicking on a link inside an old post, there’s an easy way to find what you’re looking for: In the url, delete “bucketsiler,” write “theliteraryarchitect,” then hit return. Also, let me know about it & I will fix it :)