Writing Tips Master Post

5 Books to Read to Write Better Stories

The newest post on my blog discusses five books that I think are essential to helping writers grow. They break the craft apart in easy-to-read ways. You'll treat yourself to funny lessons and entertaining perspectives while strengthening your ability to write captivating stories.

Check out the post here!

About Kim Rok Soo’s abilities (spoiler alert for chapters 356+)

Have you guys ever noticed that all of Kim Rok Soo’s abilities that are revealed are related to time?

Record: Allows KRS to have perfect recollection of the past

Instant: Being able to move beyond human limitations in the present

I wonder if his other abilities are also related to time. Maybe he has one that is related to the future.

Random TCF Shower Thoughts Time:

do you think Cale would K.O. if he used Instant and Record at the same time?

How bad would Cale's records act up if he was trapped under some rubble somewhere for days during part 2, far from his family?

(longer idea inspired by us questioning Cale's third ability below)

Give me Cale with some sort of Survivor ability. Where Kim Rok Soo lives because he literally can't die. Where whenever he's on the edge of death, when his heart is about to stop, Survivor kicks in and goes above and beyond his limits to keep him from dying, be it by fighting or running away. Where during a battle Cale is fatally injured and his body stills for one second before immediately getting back up, forcing broken bones back into place and wiping blood from his face and gunning it towards the enemy like doom incarnate.

His family is screaming because "gods dammit Cale-nim/Unlucky bastard/Cale-nya/Human/Young Master/Dongsaeng you're bleeding out!!! you've done enough, stop fighting!!!" And something feels so Wrong about this and they don't like it one bit. But they can't place what's wrong until after the battle once they've forced Cale to lay down and realize he hasn't said a word and has been diligently listening to their demands that he rest and let them handle the rest.

His eyes are blank, not like when he uses Record, no it's worse somehow. There's nothing behind his eyes at all-Survivor is active and in control, not Cale. Cale's down for the count, deep deep down somewhere recovering because that attack did more damage than anybody realized and he's not waking up anytime soon.

Give me everyone losing their minds over this with worry and fear because there is Something walking around that looks like their beloved red head, Something that mechanically eats apple pie and drinks lemon tea but doesn't pet the kittens and give them a scammer smile. Give me the kids rambling about their days in his lap. Give me Alberu offering Cale golden plaque after golden plaque. Give me Choi Han quietly whispering to Cale in Korean while he guards him day after day. Give me everyone doing everything they can think of to get his attention and wake him up, only for Survivor to ignore it all.

Survivor is there to ensure Cale's physical wellbeing-to help him survive, not to help him live (because yes there is a difference)

I wonder if that’s why Ralsei says things like this…

Because he wishes someone would say those thing to him?

Sites to Help with Writing

1 - [ https://www.yourdictionary.com ] I use this site for the thesaurus, It helps to find synonyms for words so you don't repeat "said" a thousand times in your book.

2 - [ https://milanote.com ] This one is very helpful for organising your ideas with story boards, though it's partially free it has a paid version where you can get even more features. I use the free version.

3 - [ https://inkarnate.com ] This site is very popular to create maps, and for good reason. It's free version gives you all the features necessary to create maps, but the paid version gives you extra features. I use the free version.

4 - [ https://www.behindthename.com ] I use this one for names. It has a database of endless names alongside their country of origin and meaning. Very useful, though I use it to make sure the names I come up with don't end the wrong way.

5 - [ https://www.pinterest.com ] Do I even need to explain? Ideas? Here. Visualisation? Here. Everything you'll ever need? Here.

6 - [ https://quillbot.com ] Heard of it from a beloved friend. This site is useful for tone checks, grammar checks, and more. I only use it to edit.

7 - [ Google Docs ] I only use this one for writing, its free and perfectly usable.

8 - [ https://www.artbreeder.com ] This one is essential for character creation. It has many features that allows you to visualise and create portraits for your characters.

Bonus:

I use [ https://tabletopaudio.com ] for background noise while writing, because i cant focus in silence.

That's all, I hope this proves useful :)

Susie was not in a good place at the beginning of Ch 1.

I think we should try taking a closer look at where she came from to understand what her state of mind was back then.

Susie isn’t from Hometown.

Wherever she was from, she was not treated well.

And, upon coming to Hometown…things weren’t much better.

In Hometown, Susie is

Chronically underfed

Likely homeless

Hated by most of her classmates

Close to being expelled and losing her last tether to a normal life

Susie was at the very, very end of her rope at the beginning of Chapter 1.

Keep reading

Editing Part 5: The Structural Pass

Okay, by now you've nailed down how you want your plot, characters, and worldbuilding to be. If you haven't by now, it's a good time to format your document into manuscript format if you plan to move forward to publish in any form.

When it comes to structure, what you're really focusing on is readability. If the format of your book is a slog to get through, if your paragraphs are too long or your sentences are all the same. This will lose readers otherwise in love with your plot.

Dialogue

Dialogue heavy scenes are very fun to write, but pages of dialogue with no action can also be exhausting. Break up your dialogue heavy scenes with actions and descriptions. How does the character's body language reflect their feelings on the discussion? Can you give them a task (picking a lock, chopping onions) that allow you to add to the scene (fumbling when frustrated, dicing harder when angry)?

One mistake (that I've made plenty of times) is to have characters doing things for the sake of doing them. But this is an opportunity to add details that add to your plot (the normally awful cafeteria green beans are delicious, a clue to solving the murder!), character (an alien crewmember is trying to copy human expressions to seem more personable, but his many teeth just freak people out), and world-building and setting (Laura is ranting about her ex, but Tara is distracted by how soulless her rich mother's house seems).

Scene Lengths

Are your scenes running too long? Do they start in the wrong place? (Two paragraphs on making coffee instead of "She was making coffee when George burst in.") Tightening up your scenes will do a great deal to make your book better.

This is easy advice to give and harder to picture doing, I've found. Everything often feels essential to a scene. Try to tackle scenes with the following questions:

What is the point of the scene? (George tells Susan his wife left him for Keanu Reeves.)

Where does the action start? (When George burst through the door without knocking.)

What is the goal of the scene? (Susan starts to suspect George of murdering his wife.)

Where does the action end? (George leaves.)

Where should the scene end? - This answer depends entirely on what you need to happen next. Maybe you have another page and a half of Susan musing about her suspicions right there in the kitchen. But maybe this will be more impactful in the next scene, where Susan is snooping in the garden and happens to find something George's wife would never leave behind.

Varying Paragraphs and Sentences

Pull back and look at your pages. Are all the paragraphs the same length? Do you fall into using the same pattern of sentences over and over? (Guilty) Have you used the same word four times in a single paragraph to describe something? (Double guilty) Break those chunks up, what for those repeat words, and vary your sentences. This is going to help so much with issues you weren't aware of.

Chapters and Word Count

There are many ways to do chapters, but you want to keep an eye out for chapters that are going too long (giving your reader a visual break of a chapter ending can help shift the setting and tone) or too short (have you accomplished everything you need?) This is not a knock on either structure done on purpose - this is to catch something you may have overlooked.

When it comes to word count, industry standards are always a good baseline to go with. Your audience often approaches a genre with certain expectations, and while you can make a doorstopper of a romance, you will find more readers by sticking to the 80-100k range.

HOLD ON-

Is this an actual reason kids wanted to travel around the world with Cale??? Is this the culprit??

Because if that's so this is fucking adorable

When i first read the novel and in the future chapters On, Hong and Raon were telling Cale that they want to travel everywhere together i just went "Aw that's sweet, yeah sure" not questioning much of it because, well, Cale didn't either. And I'm a very trustful person, who didn't thought about our narrator being a lying little shit back then.

So rereading the novel now and seeing this gives me literal butterflies!

Just think about it.

Children, who never saw much of the world, whose thoughts before been only about survival, wanted to travel everywhere together and see everything, but not for themselves.

They thought that will make Cale happy.

On, Hong and Raon obviously love Cale a lot, he is literally their parent and the first ever person to show them warmth or care.

So it is understandable that they want to show this love to him in return and I'm like :,) MAN, i love this story so much ueue

BUILD A CHARACTER (Masterpost)

>Naming

Websites:

- NameChef - Name Generator - Reedsy Generator - Fake Name Generator - Fantasy Name Generator - Baby Names - Baby Center

Lists:

- Long Names List by @leafvy - Giant Name List by @serifsystem - Dark Academia Inspired Names by @victoriahazelnut - Dark Academia Inspired Names part II by @victoriahazelnut - Modern Names Similar to Constellations by @victoriahazelnut

>Personality

Websites:

- Personality Generator - Random Character Traits Generator by @lucalicatteart - Random Zodiac Sign Generator - Zodiac Generator

Lists:

- 638 Personality Traits - Character Traits List with Examples - 800 Character Traits: The Ultimate List (+ How to Develop a Good Character Step-by-Step) - The Signs in a Relationship by @neo-wonderland - Character Flaws by @madswritess - A List of Character Quirks by @psychidion - Victorian Detective by @iamacuteapplepie - Little Quirks for Future Reference by @elvenwinters - Things your Character Might be Afraid of by @rpmemesbyarat - Masterlist of Characters’ Deepest Fears by @bailey-writes

>Backstory

Websites:

- Kassoon Backstory Generator - Character Biography Generator - How to Write Compelling Character Backstories: Step-by-Step Guide - Childhood Memory Generator

Lists:

-  33 Life Events For Your Character’s Backstory by @creativerogues - Important Life Events - Past Traumas by @blackacre13

>Goals & Motives

Websites:

- Character Goal Generator - Character Motivation Generator - Motive Generator

>Secrets

Websites:

- Secret Generator

Lists:

- 300 Secrets for your Character by @crissverahelps - What Secret does your Character Keep? - 150 secrets/plots by @sunshineandtearph

>Appearence

Websites:

- Appearence Generator - Portrait and Figure Drawing References

Lists:

- Appearence Adjectives - Adjectives to Describe People 

Got to love that the first thing Alberu decided to do after he realised that Cale wasn't joking about being a Slacker is to threaten him into doing things for him by using government positions and titles.

This man is the only one aside from Ron and the children that are actually able to get Cale to do things that he would normally protest against. Doesn't mean that he's going to make it enjoyable for his Hyung-nim, but still, he's figured out the secret to Cale's obedience very quickly.