weathered things

Wow, Olivia, violent title. I know, but I'm blunt and it catches attention so... yeah. Hello Lovelies! Welcome to today's lesson on weapons artfully titled Yayyyyy! Let's learn about the different ways to write wounds and such because if you rip an arrow out it's probably going to leave the arrow head in whatever you ripped it out of. I'm thinking this'll be a series of how to write wounds from different weapons. What do y'all think? >>-arrows-> So, your protagonist (or someone close to your protagonist or really just anyone b/c let's be honest we're a pretty cruel group) has been shot by an arrow. Do you go the normal, awesome route and have them rip it from their shoulder, only to continue and dramatically faint from blood loss or slay the enemy with their own arrow? Or do you go the realistic route, where the character is in great pain and ends up having to undergo a style of field surgery to get it out? First off, ...

I find it interesting that hearing a certain song triggers so many things: a plot in a book, a moment of life, a character or a real person. Music is honestly so cool. But how can we fit it into our writing? It's not like books have a mini speaker in the page that plays when you open it. Well, this is how I do it and why. 1. get the feel of the scene Find a song or a bunch of songs and put them on a repeating playlist. The songs make you feel a certain way, and you can put that into your writing. Personally, I write to a certain song on repeat. It has to fit the emotion I'm trying to convey, though. Like, if I'm writing fast-paced scene, I need some dubstep. If I'm writing a slow, sad, death scene... well, let's say I've got an entire playlist of songs that work for that. 2. get into a character's mindset If you're writing a story where the chapters shift points of view, I highly suggest making a playlist of songs that fit a character...

IT HAS FINALLY COME THE POST I HAVE PROMISED FOR, like, I dunno three weeks or something? IT'S REALLY HERE THIS TIME SO PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR Alright! To recap, there are basically two types of writers. Overwriters, and Underwriters. Underwriters tend to get the bare bones of their story down first, and then they have to spend the editing time beefing it up, adding the meat and spices to their feast of a book. If that is you, you can check out my post right here . Overwriters are those who have a 200,000 word novel on their first draft and need to cut out things because HOLY CRAP THOSE ARE A LOT OF WORDS. But seriously, overwriters, you're talented. I'm a severe underwriter. You guys are like unicorns to me. ANYWAYS let's continue. ALSO sorry for so much caps-lock. OKAY LETS GET GOING. 1: Delete Everything Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. But seriously, if your manuscript has the same word count as the ENTIRE LORD OF THE RINGS S...

Yes, I realize that this isn't Tips for Overwriters. I'm sorry, I haven't really gotten on that yet. It will be next week's post. It will be. I'm going to write it and schedule it ahead of time. IT WILL BE NEXT WEEK I PROMISE! And now back to your regularly scheduled post. Whether you're at this part of the writing and publishing process or you've just started writing, if you plan to get published traditionally you need to know how to write a query letter. And if you're just starting to write, you may ask yourself "well I am not at that point yet, so I don't have to worry about that." Yes you do. So, here it is! Step 1: Know The Plot First off, before you even start, you need to know what your book is about. "But I'm writing it, I know what it's about!" Yes, but that's not what I mean. You know when a friend (or an acquaintance who heard you are writing a book and wants a discount) comes up to...

Do you suffer from finishing your book, but only having 160 pages? Do you feel like your book is not as in-depth as it could be? Introducing Editing! This amazing program that will consume your life can be very, very helpful--if you know how to use it properly. So, without further-ado, I give you: Now, I myself am an underwriter. I come up with the idea for my story, write it down in paragraph form, all of it being one big long run-on sentence, and then I write it. I don't plot it out, I don't try and figure out what chapter should have what in it. I just speed right on through, starting and ending chapters where I feel they should start and end. But that can pose questions: Is my book long enough? Do I need to add more in to fill out the story? Did I write it as best as it can be? So, to answer these questions and give a few tips, here we go! Before I delve into the tips, you need to take a step back and look at your manuscript. Does it even need to be ...