write that sentence, that dialogue, that scene that terrifies you
don’t delete shit, just move it to another document
have a “bits and pieces” document for all the odds and ends you can’t fit anywhere else
think of the color of a person’s eyes, imagine something reflected in them, now write that scene
fiction doesn’t have to be 100% accurate, don’t research yourself to boredom
i’m being serious there’s a thing called suspension of disbelief and it’s magical (yes that’s me making a joke)
write something that makes you cry
write something that makes you laugh
write something you can’t explain to other people
write something you won’t remember until you read it the next day
don’t read about the publishing industry until you really, really need to. all it will do is make you unbelievably tired
listen to music from open world RPG video games, you’re welcome
always take a small journal or some paper and a pen with you
write by hand in a journal every once in a while
put the ending of your story in the beginning and see what happens
listen to input from other people. yes you’re the writer, but they’re the reader and they want to help you make something spectacular
said is not dead dude like wtf
the thesaurus is shiny and lovely and a great resource but don’t let words get in the way of your story telling, you don’t need to write prose as poetry for it to be beautiful
just finish the draft first, worry about perfection after
Don’t have them die of old age after a long, fulfilling life. Many people don’t even think of this as sad (note that this can still work if you have enough of the other factors).
Leave one of their major goals unfinished. The more enthusiastic they are about completing the goal, the sadder.
Give them strong relationships with other characters.
Make them fight against whatever is causing their death. Their ultimate loss is sadder if they struggle.
Kill them in the middle of their character arc.
Don’t describe their funeral in detail. Maybe it’s just me, but I find that long descriptions of funerals kill the sadness.
That’s enough Satan’s publisher…
>B)
7. If possible, try to kill them off in the middle of the story, so we had time to like them and we will have time to let the loss settle in.
8. Also, place surviving characters in a situation where having the deceased person there would help them get out. You can choose whether you will point this fact out or if you want the audience to make the connection themselves.
9. Make them die by sacrificing themselves to save someone they love from a danger created by the antagonist.
based on a few deaths that made me blub like a baby…
10. have their loved one, broken hearted, tell the team to stop fighting because “its over.”
11. have their pet come looking for them.
12. have their loved one perform a popular song at their funeral so it makes the fans cry whenever it’s played.
13. family witnessing the death and/or blaming themselves.
~ Mulan
so… let’s add some frustration to your dear readers’ sadness, shall we?
14. kill the character in the middle of making a joke, smiling, or expressing/experiencing joy/happiness.
15. make the character’s death slow and painful, but make them unable to call out for help even though they can literally see the other characters nearby.
16. after killing the character, have others think the character had betrayed them so they’d always hate them and remember them as traitors and never say nice things about them… Give your readers no chance to have group-therapy with other characters by making them the only ones who know the truth.
17. right before their death, show a side of them nobody has seen. (someone who is always tough and brave being genuinely scared of dying alone; someone who is always laughing being in tears before dying, etc.)
18. make them the only person who knows a big important secret that would help other characters in the story.
19. have them being lied to before dying. (thinking they’ve been betrayed; thinking they weren’t loved; thinking they’ve lost their loved ones, etc)
20. make the character very enthusiastic/passionate about a certain goal, constantly put stress on their goal, have them die unexpectedly before they can reach their goal.
and the best one…
21. have another beloved character kill them–better be a close friend to your character, one that absolutely nobody suspects, one that everyone can’t help but love, one who is always enthusiastic about things and encourages your character. THEN
reveal the truth only later when it’s too late and the a-hole character has already escaped.
have a cowardly character know the truth and never tell anyone else
have another character find out the truth and have them die before revealing it to others.
have the said character ^ not actually die, but go through something so they’d forget the friend of the deceased character is actually an asshole.
This way only your readers will know the truth, thus the frustration would be… most enjoyable for you.
Satan out.
based off of the one character death that physically pains me to think about
23. Make the character a very loving and caring family person, whether it’s with their siblings or parents, their partner, or their children. Make them talk about how much their family means to them frequently. Kill them off before they could even say goodbye.
Bonus points if they have a very young child who means the world to them.
More bonus points if their family member kills them, or they believe their family member to have killed them.
THIS MAKES ME SO INSPIRED TO FINALLY KILL THE SINNAMON ROLL IN CRITICAL SURVIVAL
24. After their death show characters who helped them and who the readers believed were their allies or friends celebrate their death and make jokes of it.
25. And another for not killing their body: Have them come close to death and lose their memory, and after have them work/with for those they were fighting against and find a family there. Their past allies/friends are completely aware of this, except for the person who cared for them most who is drowning in despair believing that they’re dead.
Have you all been playing a bit too much Darkest Dungeon?
Here’s some gruesome suggestions for your more deadly prose.
I decided to make a reference post on most of the writing topics I’ve covered so far. If you’re looking for something specific, this might make it easier. Hope this helps!
Sorry I couldn’t replace the link with the title of the post. CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THINGS ON TUMBLR NOW. Also, you can obviously follow my blog for more writing tips or suggest topics for me to cover. Thank you!
-Kris Noel
We’ve reblogged a lot of these already, but this is an awesome resource!
I made a slideshow about how to create a fictional character… I got most of the information from the ‘start writing fiction’ (free) course on the OpenUniversity website and found it incredibly useful so here’s a visual version for you 🙂
more vampires who don’t remember more vampires saying ‘i don’t fucking know man, google it’ more vampires not remembering important historical figures more vampires not recalling centuries worth of history more vampires saying ‘ that was at least 300 years ago, how the FUCK could i remember that detail?’ more vampires whose brains work like human brains
More vampires who 300 years later can’t remember what was the truth and what was the lie they told to get out of trouble.
More vampires who are like, “I don’t know, man, I spent most of that decade in an opium den.”
More vampires who weren’t paying attention because they didn’t think it would be important.
More vampires who don’t know because there was lot of conflicting gossip and they don’t want to point any fingers.
More vampires who are just bad at dates. “Back in 1620, or was it 1645, wait, what year is it now?”
More vampires who were on a totally different continent when it happened, so get off their back and stop asking them questions already.
YES to all of this but also consider: vampires who only remember the most trivial stuff.
“Oh yeah, the only thing I remember about the American Revolution was this nice candlemaker I met sometime, and she was wearing this really cute red shawl…”
“Uhhh I don’t remember much about the fall of Rome but there was this one fucking cobblestone right outside the coliseum…”
“ … is that what we’re doing in Rome?”
“After 2000 years of holding grudge against that toe-stubber, GODDAMN RIGHT we travelled here to make sure it’s gone”
“I’m sorry, man, my memory really sucks.”
“Did you just.”
More vampires who never met any historical figures More vampires who have no clue what year it even is and are just going along with it
i have a 800 year old vampire who rode with genghis khan
“oh yeah, what was he like?”
“dude do u know how big the army was, i did not hang with genghis ok, i saw him from a distance and he was on a horse and i was frankly more concerned with this itch i had on my feet”
“ok but you can tell me all about the military campaign right? like where you marched and who you fought and –”
“where i marched: where the guy in front of me went. who i fought: whoever was trying to kill me. you wanna hear about all the weird ass ways we brewed alcohol in camp, i’m your guy, and also i can talk a lot about whores and horses, but we did not have google maps or cnn.”
very disappointing to historians, this ancient uyghur vampire
also he drinks like a fish, likes to go hipster-tipping, and has no clue who’s president
Hi there! I would love to! I think I’ll start out with an example with filter words and then cut out the filter words to show you the difference.
For those of you who haven’t seen my post on Filter Words.
Now, for the example:
I felt a hand tap my shoulder as I realized I had made a huge mistake. I knew the consequences would be unsettling, but I had no other choice. I saw the light of my desk lamp bounce off of the officer’s badge before I had even turned around. It seemed like I always found my way into trouble.
It was the first thing off the top of my head, so it’s a bit rough sounding….
Now for without filter words (And a bit of revision):
A hand tapped my shoulder as it dawned on me: I had just made a huge mistake. The consequences would be unsettling if I didn’t get out of this mess, but I had no other choice. The light of my desk lamp bounced off of the officer’s badge. I always found my way into trouble.
By taking out filter words, you get right to the point.
I’d also like to add a few more notes that I didn’t have the chance to post previously.
Some Examples of Filtering:
I heard a noise in the hallway.
She felt embarrassed when she tripped.
I saw a light bouncing through the trees.
I tasted the sour tang of raspberries bursting on my tongue.
He smelled his teammate’s BO wafting through the locker room.
She remembered dancing at his wedding.
I think people should be kinder to one another.
How can you apply this?
Read your work to see how many of these filtering words you might be leaning on. Microsoft Word has a great Find and Highlight feature that I love to use when I’m editing. See how you can get rid of these filtering words and take your sentences to the next level by making stronger word choices. Take the above examples, and see how they can be reworked.
FILTERING EXAMPLE: I heard a noise in the hallway.
DESCRIBE THE SOUND: Heels tapped a staccato rhythm in the hallway.
FILTERING EXAMPLE: She felt embarrassed after she tripped.
DESCRIBE WHAT THE FEELING LOOKS LIKE: Her cheeks flushed and her shoulders hunched after she tripped.
FILTERING EXAMPLE: I saw a light bouncing through the trees.
DESCRIBE THE SIGHT: A light bounced through the trees.
FILTERING EXAMPLE: I tasted the sour tang of raspberries bursting on my tongue.
DESCRIBE THE TASTE: The sour tang of raspberries burst on my tongue.
FILTERING EXAMPLE: He smelled his teammate’s BO wafting through the locker room.
DESCRIBE THE SMELL: His teammate’s BO wafted through the locker room.
FILTERING EXAMPLE: She remembered dancing at his wedding.
DESCRIBE THE MEMORY: She had danced at his wedding.
FILTERING EXAMPLE: I think people should be kinder to one another.
DESCRIBE THE THOUGHT: People should be kinder to one another.
See what a difference it makes when you get rid of the filter? It’s simply not necessary to use them. By ditching them, you avoid “telling,” your voice is more active, and your pacing is helped along.
The above list is not comprehensive as there are many examples of filtering words. The idea is to be aware of the concept so that you can recognize instances of it happening in your work. Be aware of where you want to place the energy and power in your sentences. Let your observations flow through your characters with immediacy.
Ok, sorry for the lengthy answer, I know you just wanted an example…. sorry!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask at my ask box
THIS IS SO GREAT. I dind’t even know there was a term for this (I should have figured, right, because writers have words for everything), but it’s one of those things that being aware when you’re doing it (and editing it right the fuck out) will improve your writing SO MUCH. Removing the filtering helps to draw your readers more intimately into the action of your story, and as the text above says, adds power and immediacy to every sentence. THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT TIP I WANT TO SCREAM ABOUT IT.
Alright, I have to speak up in favor of princesses and noble ladies. Too often I’ve read books where they want to escape their lives because they’re just so bored of needlepoint and…needlepoint. And needlepoint. Because apparently no one can think of anything else a noble lady might be engaged in.
Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with the basic story of a noble lady (or lord) who wants to escape her or his life. The grass is always greener on the other side, and all that jazz. But this paint-by-numbers approach to it has to stop.
Tell me what they are, not what they aren’t. Saying that a character ‘isn’t like other nobles’ or ‘doesn’t like such and such’ is next to useless. It tells me nothing about them as a character; it only tells me what they’re not. If all I know is that Princess Muffin doesn’t like to sew…I really don’t care. Tell me what she does like. Don’t tell me she hates all things noble and ladylike, tell me she has a passion for something outside her class. Tell me what drives and motivates her, not all the things that have failed to do so. If all I know about your character is their ‘nots,’ they might as well be a black hole of character development. A character who goes to great lengths to leave a way of life based on a lack of motivation comes off as whiny, directionless, and quite immature.
Because we’ve been on a nobles kick lately, here’s a good starting point for noblewomen. My historical fiction is a little shoddy but I really, really, really recommend anything by Sharon Kay Penman as a starting primer if you want to write noblewomen, especially When Christ and His Saints Slept and Here Be Dragons for being incredibly well researched and incredibly accurate.
starry-eyed 