The Writing Process 2/2

The Writing Tips Blog of Many Colors

The new home of my Tumblr blog! Here you can find my curated tips on the writing process. Everything from worldbuilding and character design to story structure, themes, and tackling those tough tropes and archetypes, with a few top ten lists sprinkled about.

Jun 146 min read

Character Creation and Design

Tackling Characters with Mental Health Issues (or, ‘Write What you Know’)

Trigger warning for this entire post This is completely off the cuff and unplanned but here we go. I read a book that POV switches...

Jun 146 min read

What No One Tells You About Writing

What No One Tells You About Writing #4

*This list contains mentions of assault, #4 1. Zero cursing is better than censored cursing I made the mistake in the early days of...

Jun 145 min read

The Writing Process

In Defense of Fanfiction (Or the perfect starting point for your original novel)

Fanfic gets a bad rap pretty much everywhere except Tumblr. It’s misunderstood and misrepresented by its average works, seen as juvenile...

Jun 145 min read

What No One Tells You About Writing

What No One Tells you about Writing #3

1. You don’t fall in love with your characters immediately But when you do, it’s a hit of serotonin like no other. I’d been writing a...

You don’t have to pay for that fancy worldbuilding program

Jun 144 min read

The Writing Process

You don’t have to pay for that fancy worldbuilding program

If one of your reasons to keep procrastinating on starting your book is not being able to afford something like World Anvil or Campfire,...

May 236 min read

The Writing Process

Writing Tone #2: Avoiding Manufactured Sincerity

There’s a scene in season 5 of My Hero Academia where two beloved teachers have been brought to some high security prison to interrogate...

May 235 min read

What No One Tells You About Writing

What No one Tells You about Writing Fantasy, #2!

Fantasy knows no bounds, it can encompass all other genres within it. You can write a fantastical murder mystery, fantasy horror, fantasy...

May 234 min read

What No One Tells You About Writing

What No One Tells You About Writing Fantasy

Every author has their preferred genres. I love fantasy and sci-fi, but began with historical fiction. I hated all the research that...

May 236 min read

The Writing Process

How to Subvert Expectations Without Compromising The Story

Whoo boy, is this a contentious topic with the last few blockbuster franchises. To “subvert expectations” is to do the opposite of...

May 2311 min read

The Writing Process

POVS and Past vs Present Tense (Or, the Pros and Cons of Limiting your Narrator)

Today we’re looking at the pros and cons of the different points of view through which you can tell your story, but full disclosure,...

May 239 min read

The Writing Process

Writing Exposition (Or Turning a Textbook into a Story)

Exposition concerns every facet of your work from character descriptions, backstories, and relationships, to world history, geography,...

May 2311 min read

The Writing Process

Plot Holes and How to Fill Them (Or, The Hidden Potential in Your Mistakes)

“But why didn’t they just do that earlier!” “You can time travel – so time travel!” “Doesn’t X have Y spell? Why aren’t they using it to...

Mar 298 min read

The Writing Process

Writing Tone in Fiction (Or, Pacing your Story, Part 2)

Tone, and how abruptly you change it, how radically you change it, and how you break it whether on purpose or on accident says a lot...

Mar 298 min read

The Writing Process

Writing with Executive Dysfunction (or how to lower the barrier of entry)

So you want to write a book, but all you have is a cool one-liner, a niche super power you want to explore, and the blurry image of a...

Mar 296 min read

The Writing Process

Pacing your Story (Or, How to Avoid the "Suddenly...!")

Arguably the most important lesson all writers need to learn, even for those who don’t give a damn about themes and motifs and a moral...