Works of a Bibliophile

A writing blog

Top 10 Storytelling Cliches Writers Need To Stop Using

yeahwriters:

fuckyourwritinghabits:

amandaonwriting:

1. Characters describing themselves in mirrors
2. Broadcasting an upcoming plot twist
3. Blaming bad behavior on bad parenting
4. Too many inside jokes/references
5. The chosen one
6. Countdown clocks
7. Veiling your message in a dream
8. Using sex as wish fulfillment
9. Magical Negroes and Noble Savages
10. Knocking characters unconscious for plot convenience

Follow the link to find out why you shouldn’t use them.

This is a good list. Here are some ideas on what to do instead.

  1. Describe your character’s appearance by how they feel about it. People have complicated relationships with their appearance and even what they wear. Don’t let the chance to explore your character slip away by neglecting that!
  2. Don’t broadcast - foreshadow. People broadcast plot twists because they think it’ll keep the reader’s attention. Hinting at what’s to come instead, with in-story clues or even just a general sense of foreboding, is a great way to keep your readers hooked.
  3. Explore the parents, don’t blame them. Your bad guy’s parents are just as much characters as anyone else in the story, even if they’re not actually there. If the villain blames his parents, why? Are they just trying to throw blame off themselves?
  4. Make your jokes accessible. A little reference here and there isn’t going to hurt anybody, but the more readers that can understand it, the more they’ll be able to enjoy it. This runs the risk of explaining the joke, but it can be done!
  5. The wrongly chosen one. The chosen one trope is never going to go away. All the more reason to screw with it as much as possible. Maybe they’re not the chosen one after all, but the sidekick. Maybe they were wrongly chosen, intentionally or not. Mix it up!
  6. Use time to your best advantage. The last second countdown is a trope that only works in certain mediums, and even then, sparingly. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to
  7. Don’t discard the use of dreams, but do tread carefully. Probably one of my favorite uses of dreams was a very brief mention of them in a webvlog horror series. The characters had no idea how relevant the dream was, but the viewers did, and that’s what made it effective. Dreams can be used right, but you have to make it work!
  8. Use as much sex as you goddamn want, as long as it’s plot relevant. People like to write sex. People like to read sex! If your genre of choice is romance or erotic lit, there’s going to be a lot of sex. There’s gonna be sex in other genres too, because, hey, it happens. One difficulty with it is that too few writers use it to advance the plot, but sex can easily used to show something about the characters. If you are working on some sex scenes, consider the plot and character development that might come from it.
  9. Don’t be a goddamn asshole and treat all your characters as people. Sorry, I’m pretty tired of these goddamn tropes. They’re lazy and racist and yes, so-called ‘positive stereotypes’ are racist. Your characters are people. You’re a good enough writer to write them as people. Don’t let other lazy writing tell you otherwise.
  10. Find other ways to take your character out of the action. There are plenty of reasons to take a character out of the action for suspense and plot necessity, but often times it turns into Because The Plot Says So. If you have such a scene, look at it carefully. Outline out alternatives; they might even be better than the original plan. Like the original post says, a blow to the head is going to cause a medical emergency, not a quick blackout. Don’t fall into this shortcut, because it’s just more lazy writing!

-Agent Black

I agree with most of these, especially 7, 8 (we have a whole article on this topic), and 9. 

But I do have a character in a story of mine who describes what her face looks like while looking in the mirror, but it’s because she’s been punched in the face and is inspecting the bruise. Thoughts?

(via beccadrawsstuff)

2 weeks ago - 9604

Surnames Master Post.

hiddlesfiddleswithme:

phoeberpc:

Surnames are just as important as given names. So, I compiled a list of the websites I use to find my surnames.

image

(Source: hearmeroarplay, via redasatomato)

2 weeks ago - 66292

For the Writers out there: Common Injuries And How To Treat Them

jellicleoverlord:

In my experience, RPers and Writers alike enjoy one thing: Making characters suffer. This little guide is supposed to help you with keeping injuries and the First Aid - in case you want to patch your character back together - realistic. 
I am no medical professional, but I dare say I picked up a thing or two during my First Aider training ;)

Under read more for length! Also, trigger warnings for blood, I suppose?

Read More

(via phantomrose96)

3 weeks ago - 17108

except that i'm a zombie now: A weird thing I find incredibly helpful for art/writing.

rosalarian:

batlesbo:

deadcantdraw:

Eplans.com is a website that sells blueprints for houses. 

This might not seem that helpful but if you want a characters house you can make selections based on what sort of house you want them to live in. 

image

Then browse through the results and find the house you want. Then you can view the blueprints and have a room layout for that house, which can help with visualising the space they live in. 

image

It makes describing generic homes so much easier.

Oooooh, that’s awesome! I was actually thinking about that a few days ago, how it would be splendid to have a website do the work and plan houses for you. I’m no decorator and need these references.

Thanks :)

I have some basic architecture programs that I use to design houses from scratch but this might be even better (what with me not being an actual architect). But I will say having a floor plan to work from ABSOLUTELY improves art and writing when it comes to detailing the scenery.

(Source: eplans.com)

5 months ago - 22289
amandaonwriting: “Let me let you in on a little secret. When you are learning to write, you are going to suck. You are going to suck a lot. You’re just going to keep sucking for a while, and feel like you’re sucking, and actually that’s a sign that you’re completely on the right path. (…) You know, you don’t have to be afraid that the first thing you turn out is going to be a huge masterpiece, or it’s going to be that big novel that makes a billion zillion dollars. Don’t worry about that. Don’t worry that it’s not good. Nobody- that’s the great thing about writing and not publishing right away — you can write tons of stuff that sucks. This is precisely why when people write to me when you’re, you know, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen and you say, “I’ve written a book. I write stories all the time. I wanna publish them. How can I do that.” I say, “No, don’t do it, not yet, stop. Because you haven’t sucked enough yet.” And you may be thinking, “No, I do, I really really suck. You’re underestimating how much I suck, Maureen.” But I’m not. You haven’t sucked loooooong and hard enough. (Did I actually say that?)  Trust me, sucking is not just part of the learning process. It’s part of the professional process as well. First drafts, like the one I turned in at one o’clock this morning, basically exist to suck. They’re wrong. They’re the first pass. They’re my first attempt at the story. And they’re going to get changed and ripped apart. I mean, lots of writers I know, we sit and we laugh about the incredible sucktitude of our first drafts. But you have to go there and you have to try stuff out and you have to suck at it big time. Have you heard this phrase, “Writing is rewriting?” Well it’s a hundred percent true. You don’t just write something once and then you’re done. You write it and it sucks. Then you write it and write it like five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, whatever times, and *then* you’re done and it goes from ‘suck’ to ‘sort-of-kind-of-suck’ and then it kind of goes all the way to ‘awesome,’ and that’s the journey. It goes from ‘suck’ to ‘awesome.’  ~Maureen Johnson Maureen Johnson is an author of young adult fiction. She has published eight young adult novels, including the Suite Scarlett series and The Last Little Blue Envelope Source for Advice Image Source

amandaonwriting:

“Let me let you in on a little secret. When you are learning to write, you are going to suck. You are going to suck a lot. You’re just going to keep sucking for a while, and feel like you’re sucking, and actually that’s a sign that you’re completely on the right path. (…)

You know, you don’t have to be afraid that the first thing you turn out is going to be a huge masterpiece, or it’s going to be that big novel that makes a billion zillion dollars. Don’t worry about that. Don’t worry that it’s not good. Nobody- that’s the great thing about writing and not publishing right away — you can write tons of stuff that sucks.

This is precisely why when people write to me when you’re, you know, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen and you say, “I’ve written a book. I write stories all the time. I wanna publish them. How can I do that.” I say, “No, don’t do it, not yet, stop. Because you haven’t sucked enough yet.” And you may be thinking, “No, I do, I really really suck. You’re underestimating how much I suck, Maureen.” But I’m not. You haven’t sucked loooooong and hard enough. (Did I actually say that?) 

Trust me, sucking is not just part of the learning process. It’s part of the professional process as well. First drafts, like the one I turned in at one o’clock this morning, basically exist to suck. They’re wrong. They’re the first pass. They’re my first attempt at the story. And they’re going to get changed and ripped apart. I mean, lots of writers I know, we sit and we laugh about the incredible sucktitude of our first drafts. But you have to go there and you have to try stuff out and you have to suck at it big time.

Have you heard this phrase, “Writing is rewriting?” Well it’s a hundred percent true. You don’t just write something once and then you’re done. You write it and it sucks. Then you write it and write it like five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, whatever times, and *then* you’re done and it goes from ‘suck’ to ‘sort-of-kind-of-suck’ and then it kind of goes all the way to ‘awesome,’ and that’s the journey. It goes from ‘suck’ to ‘awesome.’ 

~Maureen Johnson

Maureen Johnson is an author of young adult fiction. She has published eight young adult novels, including the Suite Scarlett series and The Last Little Blue Envelope

Source for Advice

Image Source

(via writeworld)

7 months ago - 690

I read Westlake Soul by Rio Youers this morning and there were tears. so many tears. it was really really good though so i recommend it. 

7 months ago

30 Indispensable Writing Tips From Famous Authors

remembermeworld:

tinderheartsandpaperbodies:

UGH I JUST WANT TO BE LIKE YOU.

I plan to read this every day for the foreseeable future.

(Source: tat714, via writeworld)

9 months ago - 988
writemypiano: Finished this today and it’s absolutely undeniably amazing. It’s a bit scary at parts so I actually had to read something else at night, which is a bit pathetic, but if you haven’t read the book you don’t actually have a say in this. It’s written by Maureen Johnson who is also incredibly awesome and part of the team behind Leakycon and friends with people like John Green(Tfios) and Cassandra Clare(TMI). I also think one of the reasons I found this book so great is because it’s set at a boarding school and it was incredible to dive into that universe again. Anyway this is turning out to be quite a long post, but basically: Read it if you love the mystery of the mortal instruments and the humor of a good John Green novel with a dash of a protagonist who don’t need no man. I’ve read this book, and I highly recommend it. It’s well written, has a great plot, great characterization, and I also learned more about Jack the Ripper.  Go read it! :D

writemypiano:

Finished this today and it’s absolutely undeniably amazing. It’s a bit scary at parts so I actually had to read something else at night, which is a bit pathetic, but if you haven’t read the book you don’t actually have a say in this.

It’s written by Maureen Johnson who is also incredibly awesome and part of the team behind Leakycon and friends with people like John Green(Tfios) and Cassandra Clare(TMI).

I also think one of the reasons I found this book so great is because it’s set at a boarding school and it was incredible to dive into that universe again.

Anyway this is turning out to be quite a long post, but basically: Read it if you love the mystery of the mortal instruments and the humor of a good John Green novel with a dash of a protagonist who don’t need no man.

I’ve read this book, and I highly recommend it. It’s well written, has a great plot, great characterization, and I also learned more about Jack the Ripper. 

Go read it! :D

(Source: writemybiography)

9 months ago - 7

Thoughts of a Writer: Running.

silverarrows13:

Tom ran. He didn’t look back. He just ran. The empty, dilapidated buildings streamed by, eyes lurking in windows, watching, waiting. His heart pounded and his lungs screamed for oxygen. They were after him. He risked a glance back and saw nothing. But he knew it was there. He stumbled over…

Oh look what I wrote awhile ago. Just a short little thing. 

(Source: draco-maloy)

10 months ago - 5

Thoughts of a Writer: Should I Continue Writing This?

silverarrows13:

Ok, so I wrote this a while ago, and I don’t know If I should continue on it. I have other things I need to write, namely a short story that I may or may not submit to a magazine. (And a first draft of a novel, but that can wait for Camp NaNoWriMo) So yeah, here it is:

Oswald Scriven flicked…

(Source: draco-maloy)

10 months ago - 4

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