Writing Prompts Masterlist

This is an ultimate masterlist of many resources that could be helpful for writers. I apologize in advance for any not working links. Check out the ultimate writing resource masterlist here (x) and my “novel” tag here (x).

✑ PLANNING

Outlining & Organizing

For the Architects: The Planning Process

Rough Drafts

How do you plan a novel?

Plot Development: Climax, Resolution, and Your Main Character

Plotting and Planing

I Have An Idea for a Novel! Now What?

Choosing the Best Outline Method

How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method

Effectively Outlining Your Plot

Conflict and Character within Story Structure

Outlining Your Plot

Ideas, Plots & Using the Premise Sheets

✑ INSPIRATION

Finding story ideas

Choosing ideas and endings

When a plot isn’t strong enough to make a whole story

Writing a story that’s doomed to suck

How to Finish What You Start: A Five-Step Plan for Writers

Finishing Your Novel

Finish Your Novel

How to Finish Your Novel when You Want to Quit

How To Push Past The Bullshit And Write That Goddamn Novel: A Very Simple No-Fuckery Writing Plan

✑ PLOT

In General

25 Turns, Pivots and Twists to Complicate Your Story

The ABCs (and Ds and Es) of Plot Development

Originality Is Overrated

How to Create a Plot Outline in Eight Easy Steps

Finding Plot: Idea Nets

The Story Goal: Your Key to Creating a Solid Plot Structure

Make your reader root for your main character

Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense

Tips for Creating a Compelling Plot

The Thirty-six (plus one) Dramatic Situations

Adding Subplots to a Novel

Weaving Subplots into a Novel

7 Ways to Add Subplots to Your Novel

Crafting a Successful Romance Subplot

How to Improve your Writing: Subplots and Subtext

Understanding the Role of Subplots

How to Use Subtext in your Writing

The Secret Life of Subtext

How to Use Subtext

Beginning

Creating a Process: Getting Your Ideas onto Paper (And into a Story)

Why First Chapters?

Starting with a Bang

In the Beginning

The Beginning of your Novel that isn’t the Beginning of your Novel

A Beginning from the Middle

Starting with a Bang

First Chapters: What To Include @ The Beginning Writer

23 Clichés to Avoid When Beginning Your Story

Start Writing Now

Done Planning. What Now?

Continuing Your Long-Format Story

How to Start a Novel 

100 best first lines from novels

The First Sentence of a Book Report

How To Write A Killer First Sentence To Open Your Book

How to Write the First Sentence of a Book

The Most Important Sentence: How to Write a Killer Opening

Hook Your Reader from the First Sentence: How to Write Great Beginnings

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing and the Red Hering

Narrative Elements: Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing and Suspense

Foreshadowing Key Details

Writing Fiction: Foreshadowing

The Literary Device of Foreshadowing

All About Foreshadowing in Fiction

Foreshadowing

Flashbacks and Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing — How and Why to Use It In Your Writing

Setting

Four Ways to Bring Settings to Life

Write a Setting for a Book

Writing Dynamic Settings

How To Make Your Setting a Character

Guide for Setting

5 Tips for Writing Better Settings

Building a Novel’s Setting

Ending

A Novel Ending

How to End Your Novel

How to End Your Novel 2

How to End a Novel With a Punch

How to End a Novel

How to Finish a Novel

How to Write The Ending of Your Novel

Keys to Great Endings

3 Things That End A Story Well

Ending a Novel: Five Things to Avoid

Endings that Ruin Your Novel

Closing Time: The Ending

✑ CHARACTER

Names

Behind the Name

Surname Meanings and Origins

Surname Meanings and Origins - A Free Dictionary of Surnames

Common US Surnames & Their Meanings

Last Name Meanings & Origins

Name Generators

Name Playground

Different Types of Characters

Ways To Describe a Personality

Character Traits Meme

Types of Characters

Types of Characters in Fiction

Seven Common Character Types

Six Types of Courageous Characters

Creating Fictional Characters (Masterlist)

Building Fictional Characters

Fiction Writer’s Character Chart

Character Building Workshop

Tips for Characterization

Fiction Writer’s Character Chart

Advantages, Disadvantages and Skills 

Males

Strong Male Characters

The History and Nature of Man Friendships

Friendship for Guys (No Tears!)

‘I Love You, Man’ and the rules of male friendship

Male Friendship

Understanding Male Friendship

Straight male friendship, now with more cuddling

Character Development

P.O.V. And Background

Writing a Character: Questionnaire

10 Days of Character Building

Getting to Know Your Characters

Character Development Exercises

✑ STYLE

Chapters

How Many Chapters is the Right Amount of Chapters?

The Arbitrary Nature of the Chapter

How Long is a Chapter?

How Long Should Novel Chapters Be?

Chapter & Novel Lengths 

Section vs. Scene Breaks

Dialogue 

The Passion of Dialogue

25 Things You Should Know About Dialogue

Dialogue Writing Tips

Punctuation Dialogue

How to Write Believable Dialogue

Writing Dialogue: The Music of Speech

Writing Scenes with Many Characters

It’s Not What They Say …

Top 10 Tips for Writing Dialogue

Speaking of Dialogue

Dialogue Tips

Interrupted Dialogue

Two Tips for Interrupted Dialogue

Show, Don’t Tell (Description)

“Tell” Makes a Great Placeholder

The Literary Merit of the Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Bad Creative Writing Advice

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do

DailyWritingTips: Show, Don’t Tell

GrammarGirl: Show, Don’t Tell

Writing Style: What Is It?

Detail Enhances Your Fiction

Using Sensory Details

Description in Fiction

Using Concrete Detail

Depth Through Perception

Showing Emotions & Feelings

Character Description

Describing Your Characters (by inkfish7 on DeviantArt)

Help with Character Development

Creating Characters that Jump Off the Page

Omitting Character Description

Introducing Your Character(s): DON’T

Character Crafting

Writer’s Relief Blog: “Character Development In Stories And Novels”

Article: How Do You Think Up Your Characters?

5 Character Points You May Be Ignoring

List of colors, hair types and hairstyles

List of words to use in a character’s description 

200 words to describe hair

How to describe hair

Words used to describe the state of people’s hair

How to describe your haircut

Hair color sharts

Four Ways to Reveal Backstory

Words Used to Describe Clothes

Flashbacks

Using Flashbacks in Writing

Flashbacks by All Write

Using Flashback in Fiction

Fatal Backstory

Flashbacks as opening gambit

Don’t Begin at the Beginning

Flashbacks in Books

TVTropes: Flashback

Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: Flashback Techniques in Fiction

3 Tips for Writing Successful Flashbacks

The 5 Rules of Writing Effective Flashbacks

How to Handle Flashbacks In Writing

Flashbacks and Foreshadowing

Reddit Forum: Is a flashback in the first chapter a good idea?

Forum Discussing Flackbacks

P.O.V

You, Me, and XE - Points of View

What’s Your Point of View?

Establishing the Right Point of View: How to Avoid “Stepping Out of Character”

How to Start Writing in the Third Person

The Opposite Gender P.O.V.

LANGUAGE

 How To Say Said

200 Words Instead of Said

Words to Use Instead of Said

A List of Words to Use Instead of Said

Alternatives to “Walk”

60 Synonyms for “Walk”

✑ USEFUL WEBSITES/LINKS

Grammar Monster

Google Scholar

GodChecker

Tip Of My Tounge

Speech Tags

Pixar Story Rules

Written? Kitten!

TED Talks

DarkCopy

Family Echo

Some Words About Word Count

How Long Should My Novel Be?

The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test

Writer’s “Cheat Sheets”

Last but not least, the most helpful tool for any writer out there is Google!

i am about to bestow upon you the secret butter technique. i am sorry, but it is french. i am sorry again, this only works with cow butter. i am certain plant based butters wouldn’t work, and alternative animal butters may or may not work

has this ever been you: you have a nicely steamed vegetable, or maybe you want to make the best butter noodles, but you know that if you put butter on those it’ll just melt and you end with kind of greasy noodles or vegetables? don’t you wish it was instead a luscious buttery glaze?

introducing: beurre monté

you will take a small sauce pan, and begin heating it with 1-2 tablespoons of water (use very little water) and bring it to a hard simmer or boil

turn the heat down slightly, and add Butter. how much? however much you dare. (start with 3-4 tablespoons and go from there)

you are going to either whisk Aggressively or you can pick up the saucepan, still holding it over the heat, and swirl aggressively so the butter is skating around the sides of the pan

done correctly, you will have liquid butter that is still emulsified. you have made Butter Sauce. season it with a little salt, and toss whatever you want in it.

if you’re butter splits, i’m sorry. you didn’t agitate it enough to maintain the emulsion, and now you have melted butter.

you can use this knowledge to make other sauces by swapping out the water for another liquid. white wine becomes beurre blanc. red wine is beurre rogue.

you want to CUM? sweat minced shallot in a tiny bit of butter, add white wine and cook it out until it’s reduced by about half. then whisk butter in hard. a few flecks of minced thyme or fennel frond stirred thru, and you eat that with a nice seared fish? or scallop? or even shrimp? wow. you will Nut

your boxed mac and cheese game can also be elevated by cooking your pasta and making a beurre monté first, tossing your pasta in that and adding the cheese packet. wow. hey; you’ll cum

go forth now with this butter secret

some fucking resources for all ur writing fuckin needs

* body language masterlist

* a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does

* a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes

* 550 words to say instead of fuckin said

* 638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again

* some more body language help

(hope this helps some ppl)

I’ve seen a lot of posts on my dash tonight about users who are threatening suicide, with other Tumblr members posting in effort to try to get ahold of them. I think you all should see this:

IF THERE IS EVER A TUMBLR USER WHO HAS POSTED A GOOD-BYE MESSAGE, SUICIDE NOTE, VIDEO, OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT, PLEASE FOLLOW THIS POST.

1. Scroll to the top of your dashboard.

2. See the circular question mark icon at the top? It’s the third one over from your home symbol. Click on that, and a screen similar to the one in the picture will come up.

3. Where you can type in questions, the box with the magnifying glass at the top, type in the word “suicide.”

4. Click on the first link that shows up. It should say, “Pass the URL of the blog on to us.”

5. Type in the user’s URL and tell Tumblr admin that the user is contemplating suicide and has posted a message indicating that they are going through with it or will be attempting. Hit send! Tumblr administration will perform a number of actions to contact the user and take the necessary steps to prevent the suicide.

TUMBLR: THIS COULD SAVE A USER’S LIFE. PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE SUICIDE THREATS.

Reblog this to keep other users aware. Suicide isn’t a joke, and neither is someone’s life. If you didn’t know this, someone else may not, either. Pass it on.

I’m keeping this for reference. this post is a godsend

Hey guys! As a writer myself, it’s hard to have a lot of resources for writing in one place. That’s why I decided to create this masterpost, and maybe make more if I find future resources. I hope you like it, and expect to see more masterposts like this in the future!

Generators

Character

Appearance Generator

Archetypes Generator

Character Generator

Character Traits Generator

Family Generator

Job/Occupation Generator, (II)

Love Interest Generator

Motive Generator

Name Generator

Personality Generator, (II)

Quick Character Generator

Super Powers Generator

Names

Brand Name Generator

Medicine Title Generator

Name Generator

Quick Name Generator

Vehicle Generator

Town Name Generator

Plot

First Encounter Generator

First Line Generator, (II)

Plot Generator, (II), (III)

Plot Device Generator

Plot Twist Generator

Quick Plot Generator

Setting/World-Building

City Generator

Fantasy Race Generator

Laws Generator

Pet Generator

Setting Generator

Species Generator

Terrain Generator

Prompts

Subject Generator

”Take Three Nouns” Generator

Word Prompt Generator

Misc

Color Generator

Decision Generator

Dialogue Generator

Journey Generator

Title Generator, (II), (III)

Some Tips

Just a few I found from the writing tips tag!

Writing action / @berrybird

How to create a strong voice in your writing / @collegerefs

How to plot a complex novel in one day! / @lizard-is-writing

8 ways to get past writer’s block / @kiramartinauthor

psa for writers / @dasakuryo

”Write Using Your 5 Senses” / @ambientwriting

How People Watching Improves Your Writing / @wherethetransthingsare

Writing Science Fiction: Tips for Beginners / @fictionwritingtips

Creating Likeable Characters / @authors-haven

Vocabulary

Descriptive words / @somekindofstudent

Words to replace “Said” / @msocasey

Obscure color words / @mintsteelpeachlilac

Words to spice up your stories / @busyibee

Words to describe someone’s voice

Words to Use Instead of Very / @gaybybirth

Touchy Feely Words / @gaybybirth

Some Advice

Stephen King’s Top 20 Rules for Writers

”But my plot isn’t UNIQUE or BIG enough!” / @youreallwrite

8 Things Every Creative Should Know / @adamjk

(How To) Get Over Comparing Yourself to Other Creatives / @adamjk

How to Get Over Common Creative Fears (Maybe) / @adamjk

14 Tips From Stephen King On Writing / @i-can-give-you-prompts

Playlists

Electronic Thoughts / @eruditekid

“Mix About Writing” An Instrumental Mix / @shadowofemirates

Shut Up, I’m Writing! / @ninadropdead

Chill / @endlessreveries

Breathtaking Film Scores / @tweedskirts

Music to Write to Vol. 1: Starlight / @crestadeen

Music for Written Words / @ghoulpatch

Dead Men Tell No Tales / @scamandersnewt

Fatale / @dolcegf

All These Things that I’ve Done / @referenceforwriters

Feeling Soaking into Your Bones / @verylondon

I Can Feel Your Pulse in the Pages / @rphelper

Morally Ambiguous / @scamandersnewt

Wonderwall / @wheelerwrites

Pythia / @mazikeene

Ballet: To Dance / @tanaquil

Websites and Apps

For Writing

ZenPen: A minimalist writing website to keep you free of distractions and in the flow.

The Most Dangerous Writing App: A website where you have to keep typing or all of your writing will be lost. It helps you keep writing…kind of. You can choose between a time or word count limit!

Evernote: An online website where you can take notes and save the product to your laptop and/or smartphone!

Writer, the Internet Typewriter: It’s just you and your writing, and you can save your product on the website if you create an account.

Wordcounter: A website to help check your word and character count, and shows words you’re using frequently.

Monospace: An Android app for writing on the go when you feel the inspiration, but you don’t have your laptop on you!

For Productivity

Tide: An app that combines a pomodoro-esque timer with nature sounds and other noises! (Google Play / Apple Store)

ClearFocus: An Android app with a pomodoro-type time counter to let you concentrate easier and stay productive.

Forest: An app with a time counter to keep you focused and off your phone, and when you complete the time limit, a tree grows in your garden! (Google Play / Apple Store)

SelfControl: A Mac downloadable app that blocks you from distracting mail servers, websites, and other things!

Prompt Blogs

@writeworld

@dialouge-prompts

@oopsprompts

@prompts-for-the-otp

@creativepromptsforwriting

@the-modern-typewriter

@theprofessionalpromptmaker

@writers-are-writers

@otp-imagines-cult

@witterprompts

@havetobememes

@auideas

@putthepromptsonpaper

@promptsonpaper

@fyotpprompts

@otpisms

@soprompt

@otpprompts

@ablockforwritersblock

@awritersnook

Writing Tips Blogs

@writeworld

@anomalously-written

@awritersnook

@clevergirlhelps

@referenceforwriters

@whataboutwriting

@thewritershelpers

@nimblesnotebook

@slitheringink

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

Medicine

A Study In Physical Injury

Comas

Medical Facts And Tips For Your Writing Needs

Broken Bones

Burns

Unconsciousness & Head Trauma

Blood Loss

Stab Wounds

Pain & Shock

All About Mechanical Injuries (Injuries Caused By Violence)

Writing Specific Characters

Portraying a kleptomaniac.

Playing a character with cancer.

How to portray a power driven character.

Playing the manipulative character.

Portraying a character with borderline personality disorder.

Playing a character with Orthorexia Nervosa.

Writing a character who lost someone important.

Playing the bullies.

Portraying the drug dealer.

Playing a rebellious character.

How to portray a sociopath.

How to write characters with PTSD.

Playing characters with memory loss.

Playing a pyromaniac.

How to write a mute character.

How to write a character with an OCD.

How to play a stoner.

Playing a character with an eating disorder.

Portraying a character who is anti-social.

Portraying a character who is depressed.

How to portray someone with dyslexia.

How to portray a character with bipolar disorder.

Portraying a character with severe depression.

How to play a serial killer.

Writing insane characters.

Playing a character under the influence of marijuana.

Tips on writing a drug addict.

How to write a character with HPD.

Writing a character with Nymphomania.

Writing a character with schizophrenia.

Writing a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Writing a character with depression.

Writing a character who suffers from night terrors.

Writing a character with paranoid personality disorder.

How to play a victim of rape.

How to play a mentally ill/insane character.

Writing a character who self-harms.

Writing a character who is high on amphetamines.

How to play the stalker.

How to portray a character high on cocaine.

Playing a character with ADHD.

How to play a sexual assault victim.

Writing a compulsive gambler.

Playing a character who is faking a disorder.

Playing a prisoner.

Portraying an emotionally detached character.

How to play a character with social anxiety.

Portraying a character who is high.

Portraying characters who have secrets.

Portraying a recovering alcoholic.

Portraying a sex addict.

How to play someone creepy.

Portraying sexually/emotionally abused characters.

Playing a character under the influence of drugs.

Playing a character who struggles with Bulimia.

Illegal Activity

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Domestic Abuse

Torture

Assault

Murder

Terrorism

Internet Fraud

Cyberwarfare

Computer Viruses

Corporate Crime

Political Corruption

Drug Trafficking

Human Trafficking

Sex Trafficking

Illegal Immigration

Contemporary Slavery 

Black Market Prices & Profits

AK-47 prices on the black market

Bribes

Computer Hackers and Online Fraud

Contract Killing

Exotic Animals

Fake Diplomas

Fake ID Cards, Passports and Other Identity Documents

Human Smuggling Fees

Human Traffickers Prices

Kidney and Organ Trafficking Prices

Prostitution Prices

Cocaine Prices

Ecstasy Pills Prices

Heroin Prices

Marijuana Prices

Meth Prices

Earnings From Illegal Jobs

Countries In Order Of Largest To Smallest Risk

Forensics

arson

Asphyxia

Blood Analysis

Book Review

Cause & Manner of Death

Chemistry/Physics

Computers/Cell Phones/Electronics

Cool & Odd-Mostly Odd

Corpse Identification

Corpse Location

Crime and Science Radio

crime lab

Crime Scene

Cults and Religions

DNA

Document Examination

Fingerprints/Patterned Evidence

Firearms Analysis

Forensic Anthropology

Forensic Art

Forensic Dentistry

Forensic History

Forensic Psychiatry

General Forensics

Guest Blogger

High Tech Forensics

Interesting Cases

Interesting Places

Interviews

Medical History

Medical Issues

Misc

Multiple Murderers

On This Day

Poisons & Drugs

Police Procedure

Q&A

serial killers

Space Program

Stupid Criminals

Theft

Time of Death

Toxicology

Trauma

i’m sorry what

---

i write, or, more accurately, try to write, and i’ve been trying to post more of my writing, but i lack the courage to, so yeah.

​reblog if you’re a writing blog, i want to follow and make friends with other writers!

i call you prompt giver

What do you call me in your head?

I’m curious.

How to write your dragon in an accurate way: a rage fueled essay by an environmental science major

first off @camille-the-space-ghost​ thanks for encouraging me

now, this is going to be two major parts (For now i might change it later on). 1. the environment, and 2. the dragon itself. also a lot of these tips can apply to fictional creatures in general, but they’re focused around dragons.

Part 1: environment

Now one of the main things you need to know about the world is that evolution works in niches. An evolutionary niche(Nee-sh) is what your creature specializes in/what makes it distinct. There aren’t any specific terms i’ve learned for them, but for example a rabbit would be a small burrowing ground-based herbivore that specializes in numbers over long lifespans. That sets it apart from say, squirrels, which are tree-dwelling.

There are two types of niches. Fundamental Niches is all the roles a creature COULD fill. in our case, a dragon could conceivably hunt most creatures in a standard irl forest. However, its Realized Niche would probably be large animals like wolves, deer, moose, etc, because while it COULD hunt smaller creatures, it would be less efficient at hunting them, so predators like foxes and wolves would take that up. The difference is a bit more nuanced than that, but it’s not too important. What is important to know is that two species cannot have stable populations while having the exact same niche. Their niches can overlap, but if they have the same niche, eventually one will overtake and outcompete the other. This is one of the reasons why invasive species suck so bad

So if your dragon is a purely water dragon, depending on it’s size, you may want to remove some species from it’s environment. if it’s whale sized, maybe orcas and toothed whales aren’t in that environment, because the dragon eats it’s food (baleen whales are chill though because they eat another food source). Food isn’t the only component of a niche, the available space can impact it too. for instance, if your dragon eats seeds and lives in tree trunks, it might be competing with trunk-dwelling birds for space, even though it eats seeds and those birds might eat insects. in this case, the birds might be chased out if the dragon population gets too big, but if they both stay stable, they could reasonably live in the same space since their food niche is separate.

1.5: environmental storytelling.

Most animals leave impacts in their environment. some are common, like poop or footprints or bite marks. Some are rarer like woodpecker holes or beaver dams. If you want your dragon to fit in, have it make an impact on the world around it. If your dragon is big, maybe it knocked down a tree or to when it was learning to fly. If your dragon is small, maybe it likes to collect a certain color of flower, so all those flowers are picked from its area. If you’re writing your dragon to be sapient (aka thinking like a human), you can have a lot of creativity with this. I reccomend looking up bowerbirds. they have hordes too, and you can get some ideas from them.

2. the dragon

the other half of this equation is the dragon itself. This will mostly focus on behavior and looks. This is important for artists and writers alike.

Behavior: we’re getting this out of the way now.If your dragons are not sapient, take your cues from nature. large herbivores are constantly wary and are some of the most dangerous beasts, since anything is a threat. Think hippo vs lion. Both are terrifying but at least you’re kinda safe around a full lion. A full hippo still thinks you’re a threat. If it’s a smaller animal, then they might be skittish and flee quickly. Think flight vs fight priorities. If a healthy adult could reasonably take it’s main predator, it’ll fight you too. If a healthy adult could NOT take it’s main predator, it’ll flee. (think about how in monster hunter, one of the most dangerous creatures is a herbivore. aka diablos) Obviously this isn’t a constant rule but it’s good enough for most situations. If your dragon is not sapient, note that animals usually eat until they are full. they have no concept of rationing. The reason that they dont exhaust their food source is that eventually their prey gets hard enough to find, and then their populations drop, and prey populations spike again. it’s a constant back and forth, it’s rarely perfectly stable, but usually species can stay extant in the same area without problems, because it’s also rare that animals kill after they’re full.

Now if your dragon IS sapient, then you get to have fun! take your cues from human behavior (with some twists obviously). Have individuals that have eaten all the food in their area foolishly and are known to try and steal from other dragon’s hunting grounds. Have dragons that have made alliances with humans in exchange for gold. Have dragons that have pets because they think it’s cute, and the pets have learned to tolerate them (this doesn’t have to be like how we bred dogs to be tame. look at snakes, individual-wise their behavior is dictated by how much handling they get at a young age. its about tolerance and a lack of fear, not necessarily love). Have dragons that have favorite fishing spots that they SWEAR just has better tasting fish.

also, just a general thing, learn what features are defensive vs offensive. For instance. poison is generally defensive, while venom is generally offensive. think about the situations where an animal would use these features. This is one of the things that pisses me off about MH. Rathalos is a hunter and doesn’t reasonably need venom spikes, fire and talons and teeth work just fine. Rathian, on the other hand, has a completely practical use for them, which is defending the nest. you don’t want to blast the area around your nest with fire, and venom requires less movement to use (using claws could crush an egg on accident)

part 2.5: looks

this is the fun part.TAKE YOUR CUES FROM NATURE. there are animals in every kind of environment, Take inspiration from them. MH does this pretty well, with animals like cephalos, a desert creature, having large fins to cool off, and a relatively aerodynamic body to move through sand.

So, here are some ideas to make your dragon look like it’s made to live in the environment. These are not set in stone, you can use a couple, or none at all.

Flying-specific: White/blue belly scales to make it hard to spot in the sky. Feathers for warmth,. Tails that can spread out for braking and control. (Toothless did this right). look at hawks

Burrowers: animals that move and hunt through burrowing usually either use their claws to dig, or dig with noses (like hognoses!), look at burrowing snakes and lizards for this. They might also have better smell because they can’t see underground.

Forests: Stripes/spots for camouflage. If it perches on trees, give it bird feet. If it tends to walk on the ground, give it thicker feet for stability. If it uses calls to communicate over long distances, make them simple and LOUD. It’s hard to have detail in sound across distance in forest, the leaves absorb a lot of it. Give it sharp claws if it’s going up trees, as well as a thinner body so the tree can handle it. If it’s a nighttime hunter, give it better smell than sight.

Ocean: Movement is key, you want as aerodynamic a shape as possible. Horns are kinda eh here, fins are better because they can fold flat. Take inspiration from fish, eels, and sharks for movement types. You can also look at species like squids and octopi if you want something new. if you’re looking for camouflage in open ocean, many fish have light bellies and dark tops, so they blend in if looked at from the top or bottom. If you’re camouflaging in a reef, go fucking hog wild. If you want funky colors and shapes, you can look at cuttlefish, and octopi, masters of dynamic camouflage, color changing, and mimicry! If you want to make a species of dragon that swims in schools, give it a very thin stripe down the center! schools of fish actually use those to sense the movement of those around them. Communication in water is deep for long distances but high pitched for close distances. Think dolphins and whales.

                Deep Underwater: many species are blind, and those that have vision can only see specific kinds of light that they use for communication. Bio luminescence is used to communicate. It’s hard to get really big in the depths, there’s massive amounts of pressure, low oxygen, and food is hard to come by. you can do it, but most large deep dwelling creatures are just super long. Now you can have MASSIVE carcasses down there, because that’s where everything falls when it dies! If they live down deep, they’ll probably die when brought to the surface, because everything kinda fails.

Caves: If your dragon just uses caves as a home at night, you might not need many adaptations to the environment. But if your dragon lives deep in dark caves, then you’re gonna have to adapt to a whole new kind of animal. Many cave-dwelling animals are pale and blind, because you don’t get light down there. most eat tiny creatures, and it’s hard to get big down there. similar adaptations to living deep underwater. Limited food and nutrients, no sunlight, etc.

Sandy deserts: cooling down is the biggest focus here. Big fins and ears are what many species use to cool down, circulating blood through them. You also have snakes and lizards that walk weird and “dance” to keep the sand off of most of their body at any time. If your dragon doesn’t have internal heating, they’ll likely burrow at night to conserve heat (sand stays warm for a while). Light colors are common here not just to camouflage, but also to reflect more sunlight. staying under cover is also very important, because of how open it is. Watering holes are peaceful areas, usually, though if your creature dwells in water that’s not gonna be the case (crocodiles)

The Poles: varies depending on if you’re in a tundra or a cold desert (like Antarctica), but some things stay constant. Many species build fat, for insulation. If your species doesn’t have fur, they better be thicc as hell, or I’ll be sad. Most species also have thick fur on their paws to stay warm, as well as claws so they can have traction in icy areas. You want extremities like ears and fins to be small, and shouldn’t exist without a use (Like fins could be used for communication and sensing motion in water, and ears are for hearing). limbs tend to be small and tight to the body to conserve heat. Think about how jackrabbits, a desert species, have long limbs and ears, while arctic bunnies are small and compact. Same with foxes. Tails are also included here, though again if it has a use it can stay (locomotion, and foxes use the tail to cover their face when they sleep). Snouts should also be small. Burrowing is also common here, because snow is a FANTASTIC insulator. if your species has a predator, it’s likely to have light colors because camoflauge is important here.

Alright, that’s all I can think of for now, thanks for reading! feel free to ask me for specifics if you need them, I’m always willing to help