Still Thinking About This Youtube Comment I Screenshotted Ages Ago

Apparently you’re a person to ask about writing, so here I am with my writing question.

I recently started on my manuscript, and I’m finding the start kinda hard to write. I’ve heard the advice that you’re supposed to set up the protagonist’s “normal world” before introducing the conflict. However, I’m finding it a bit difficult, since everything I’ve (vaguely) outlined is after the conflict starts.

So the question is, how long do I set up the normal world before introducing the conflict? A few scenes? A couple chapters? And how do I do it without it feeling stagnant? Do I need to introduce some sort of sub-conflict to keep the plot going? Or what?

Thanks in advance!

- anon

Hi! So sorry for the delay. Life has been hectic, and I'm currently working my way through a huge backlog of Asks. So thanks for your patience.

Starting a manuscript can be such a tricky balance, especially when it comes to introducing the “normal world” before diving into the main conflict. You’re definitely not alone in finding this part hard to write—it has vexed me personally many a time.

The truth is, there’s no set rule for how much time you should spend on the normal world. Some stories linger for a few chapters; others launch right into the conflict and sprinkle bits of the normal world in as they go. It really depends on the type of story you’re telling and what feels right for your protagonist.

That said, here are a few tips that might help:

1. Introduce Change Early: You don’t have to write the entire “normal world” before the conflict starts—just give us enough to understand what the protagonist’s life was like before. A few key details or scenes can go a long way in helping readers understand what’s being disrupted.

2. Use Smaller Conflicts: If the big conflict comes later, introducing a sub-conflict early on can help keep things interesting. It doesn’t have to be huge—just something to show us what your protagonist cares about and how they handle challenges.

3. Focus on Character: The normal world is as much about setting up your protagonist as it is about the plot. Show us what they want, what frustrates them, or what’s missing from their life. That way, when the conflict arrives, readers are already invested in their journey.

4. Play with Structure: If starting with the normal world feels too slow, consider opening with a taste of the conflict (or its aftermath), then flashing back briefly to show how the protagonist got there. It’s a classic move, but it works for a reason!

The key is to keep the story moving—whether through character tension, worldbuilding, or smaller conflicts—so the normal world feels alive and connected to what’s coming.

I hope this helps, and good luck with your manuscript! Starting is always tough, but once you hit your stride, it’ll all start to click.

Hope this helps!

Bucket

/ / / / / / / / / / /

@theliteraryarchitect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler, a writer and developmental editor. For more writing help, download my Free Resource Library for Fiction Writers, join my email list, or check out my book The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

editor note: "add more character descriptions throughout, I forget what these characters look like and it's disorientating"

me: "bold of you to assume I know what they look like"

writing tip: searching "[place of origin]ish names" will get you a lot of stuff and nonsense made up by baby bloggers.

searching "[place] census [year]" will get you lists of real names of real people who lived in that place.

fifty ways to get to know your characters (and how to write them)

what is their name? and how does this fit their character?

last name?

do they have a middle name?

name a song that describes them

what are their pronouns?

gender and sexuality?

do they like someone romantically?

list five words to describe them

what about five dialogue tags to use consistently on this character?

what is their motivation?

do they consider themselves a good person?

colour that describes their personality

MBTI type

enneagram type

character they're based on

person they would bring down whilst dying

person they would kill if they had the chance

character they would get along with if they were in the same universe

character they would hate if they were in the same universe

artist they would listen to

artist they would hate

give them a theme song

make them a playlist! (see my other post for songs to put on that playlist, here)

make them a mood board

assign them an aesthetic

what are their strengths?

what about fatal weaknesses?

the one person who can convince them to do something they're stubbornly against

who would they kill for?

what tropes do they fall into?

fatal weakness (food edition)

book they would definitely read

language besides their mother tongue they would (have) learned

murder accomplice

thing that makes them go weak at the knees

most obscure thing they HATE

while we're there, biggest phobia

are they (would they be) a book or movie person?

are they a romantic

childhood experience that defines an aspect of their life

what is their age?

birth sign? / zodiac?

what constellation would they be

name a famous myth could they would have been the main character

old or new soul

assign them a smell

assign them a smell they like

can they swim?

street smarts or brain smarts?

what is this character's purpose to the plot?

How to write: ethnicity & skin colour

requested by: anonymous request: How exactly can I describe a characters ethnicity/skin color casually, without it sounding like a specific scene that just exists to describe the skin color? I hope this makes sense lmao… I just want to write a scene where I casually mention someone’s ethnicity or skin color

description of appearance: No matter if skin colour or hairstyle or clothes, a text is more dynamic if you don't dedicate an entire scene/paragraph to it but rather sprinkle the necessary information in here and there. However, there can be instances where it's conducive to the plot to put that entire paragraph (e.g. introducing a new important character with backstory). Otherwise, I'd say try to keep it short and put it where it serves the plot.

ways to incorporate...

... a description of appearance:

when a character makes their first entrance (describe everyone's colouring - POCs' and white characters')

the impression their complexion makes together with their clothes: "the bright yellow of their shirt complemented their dark skin"

the way their colouring interacts with lighting: "the grey weather took away the rosy hue of their fair skin"

when appearances create a contrast: "I immediately noticed them because they were the only other black person"

... ethnicity:

let the characters mention it where it makes sense

regarding the narrator you've chosen for your story, it can also be blended into an inner monologue

include parts of their culture: traditions, terms, family, etc. (this also allows to bring up their ethnicity repeatedly over the story and not only at the beginning)

show their struggles: are they affected by social struggles? then show it!

words to use to describe skin colour:

... basic colour descriptions:

brown

black

beige

white

pink

... more specific colours (try sticking to familiar/common words that can be easily visualised):

amber

bronze

copper

gold

ochre

terracotta

sepia

sienna

porcelain

tan

... prefixes or modifiers (can be easily combined with basic colours):

dark

rich

warm

deep

fair

faint

light

cool

pale

... undertones (pre-dominant colours underneath the skin - often warm or cool, sometimes also neutral and olive):

yellow

orange

coral

golden

silver

rose

pink

red

blue

... avoid food analogies as it's often received as offending, fetishising, and/or objectifying.

That's all I can provide as of now but I'm sure you guys have aspects to contribute. I'm very interested to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to add to this post whatever you like to/can share <3

And for more information, maybe also check out @writingwithcolor for more specialised posts on the topic <3

Writing Blog Recs

A list of blogs that I've seen here on Tumblr that are out there creating prompts, helping out with advice and overall encouraging and inspiring everyone who wants to write. If you'd like to be added or to be taken off, please send me a message!

Writing Prompts

@a-u-prompts

@creativepromptsforwriting

@deepwaterwritingprompts

@dialogue4urocs

@gingerly-writing

@givethispromptatry

@just-plenty-of-prompts

@livi-the-writer

@love-me-a-good-prompt

@lyralit

@mangocherri

@myeekyoban

@notyouraveragepromptpage

@pianowritesstuff

@pettyprompts

@promptsforthestrugglingauthor

@prompts-in-a-barrel

@screnwriter

@seaside-writings

@theworldofprompts

@wordsforyourwip

@writer-aspirantus

@writing-challenges-and-prompts

@writing-prompt-s

@writing-prompts-re

@writingprompts

@writingprompts365

@writingraven

@writintheprompts

@writingpromptsandjunk

Writing Advice and Resources

@asparklerwhowrites

@bluebxlle-writer

@coffeebeanwriting

@coffeewritesfiction

@creativepromptsforwriting

@deardragonbook

@heywriters

@howtofightwrite

@inky-duchess

@just-plenty-of-prompts

@livi-the-writer

@lyralit

@myeekyoban

@pianowritesstuff

@skylerchase29

@wordsnstuff

@writer-aspirantus

@writingraven

@writerthreads

@writingquestionsanswered

@writingwithcolor

The Script Family in general

Writing Encouragement

@coffeewritesfiction

@creativepromptsforwriting

@dailywritingpositivity

@screnwriter

@sourpatch-encouragement

OC Prompts

@characterbabble

@develop-your-oc

@ocmagazine

@ocresourcecenter

@some-ocs

@some-oc-ask-blog

@some-oc-questions

Give all of these blogs your love and get inspired!

25 Labyrinths Designs

Your English teachers lied to you.

Thought I'd post my old writing advice guides onto this blog since I deleted my old one. I hope it's helpful!

::

Listen. I respect the hell out of teachers. The vast majority of them work crazy hard and most of the time, including the times they give you well-meaning ‘writing rules,’ only want to instill good and helpful habits into you.

That doesn’t change the fact that many of these rules are stupid.

Here are my top five ‘writing rule’ pet peeves, and five rules that should be followed.

✗ Don’t write ‘said.’

Okay, I know this is common knowledge by now, but it’s so important. The concept that you can never write ‘ so-and-so said’ is hurting novice writers’ narratives. Said is invisible. Said is powerful. Said is transformable. If every quote ends in a strong synonym, it is distracting. Sometimes, in an established repartee, quotes don’t need to be tagged at all. Or an adverb following ‘said’ might be better for the narrative than any single verb.

Eg. // “I hate the rain,” grumbled David.

“I love it,” Claire announced.

“You love everything,” he muttered.

“Including you!” she giggled.

versus.

“I hate the rain,” grumbled David.

“I love it,” said Claire.

“You love everything,” he said impatiently.

“Including you!”

✓ Don’t write ‘something.’

Cold hard truth, baby. ‘Something’ is a draft word. It’s what you write when you want to think of a replacement. I cringe when I see it in a sentence that would have been improved tenfold by a specific noun or descriptive phrase in its place. There are times when ‘something’ works or is the only option, but experiment by replacing that word with more description before deciding it’s necessary to keep.

Eg. // He pulled something shiny from his pocket. She craned her neck to see what it was. A metal flask. versus. A flash of light caught the metal he pulled from his pocket. She craned her neck to see what it was. A drinking flask.

-

✗ Avoid adverbs.

This is true and false, but I’ll address the false part first. The concept that you can’t use adverbs at all is ridiculous. Don’t blindly (!) replace every adverb in your prose with a single verb because someone said you should. You want whatever you are writing to flow well and to deliver the best impact or imagery. Sometimes that means adverbs. Or you might want the verb to be discreet (such as when using ‘said’) but still want to invoke emotion. That also means adverbs.

Eg. // "Don't do that!" she spluttered, panicked by the urgency of the situation. versus. "Don't do that!" she said frantically, panicked by the urgency of the situation.

✓ Use strong verbs. At least consider them.

Verbs make the world go ‘round, people. Most of the time, a strong verb will make your writing flow well and deliver the best impact or imagery. Weigh a strong verb against an adverb + weaker verb and decide the one you want to keep in a scene. Don’t just stick with whichever you wrote first because you grew attached to the sentence.

Eg. // She held up her blood-slicked sword proudly, her other fist raised triumphantly. versus. She thrust her blood-slicked sword into the air, her other fist clenched high in triumph.

-

✗ Don’t use a thesaurus.

I. HATE. This rule. I had an English teacher in middle school who marked any words she thought you had looked up as wrong. As a young reader with a large vocabulary, I was always needing to prove that I hadn’t just picked a random synonym from a thesaurus, that I knew and deliberately chose those words. (That sentence has a great example of a necessary adverb! Get BENT Mrs E. (She also hated adverbs.)) This is the same idiotic concept as telling artists not to use reference images. Use a thesaurus if a certain word is failing you or you hate every word you’ve come up with yourself. There’s nothing bad or shameful about it.

Eg. // There are no examples for this. I’m not sure how I would even do that. Insert stock photo of someone perusing a thesaurus here?

✓ Don’t use words you aren’t comfortable with.

Now, when you search the great wide web for a synonym to a word and then choose whichever one sounds nice because hey, the internet said it was interchangeable, so it must be! … Yeah. Don’t do that.

I use a thesaurus to find words that I can’t think of in the moment but they are always ones I still know. Every word has a subtle (or not so subtle) connotation that you need familiarity with before deciding it is the perfect replacement. Know your words before you start playing Mix n Match.

Eg. // Amusement in the profession puts transcendence in the performance. (Utter nonsense, written by me and thesaurus.com) versus. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. (Inspiring quote, written by Aristotle)

-

✗ Don’t end sentences with a preposition.

Whoever made up this rule is an elitist hack. (I just googled it, and supposedly it began with a bunch of 17th century scholars who thought English should have Latin’s grammar, so. Yeah. Elitist hacks.) Ending sentences in prepositions sounds wayyyyy more natural than the alternative. If you don’t want to sound stilted, beat this rule into the dirt.

Eg. // They didn’t know of what she was capable. versus. They didn’t know what she was capable of.

✓ Be conscientious of your sentence construction.

A lot of grammar rules are bogus. Not ending a sentence with a preposition, not starting a sentence with a conjunction, not laying face down on the floor and screeching… Oh, right, that latter one isn’t a rule, it’s just what you want to do when you have to think about grammar.

But, regardless of bogus grammar rules, you need to put thought into your sentence construction. Editing (not writing) is the best time to do this. That’s when you can make sure the words flow together naturally as an individual sentence, as part of a paragraph, and within the chapter as a whole.

Another common construction faux pas that I see is disregarding the sequence of events because you believe it will have greater impact. In reality, if you avoid putting your narration out of order, it usually results in stronger sentences.

Eg. // "Tell me it's not true!" He stood in the doorway after bursting into Kyle's room, panting from his sprint up the stairs. versus. He sprinted up the stairs two at a time and burst into Kyle's room without knocking. "Tell me it's not true!" he demanded breathlessly.

-

✗ If you break writing rules you’re a bad writer.

If anyone tries to convince you of this, kick them in the neck. (You heard it here folks, kick your DANG TEACHERS IN THE NECK.) (Not really, please don’t.) (If you do, though, don’t say that I encouraged it.) (I’m not encouraging it, I just want to make that clear. Please be nice to your teachers, they have hard jobs.)

Rules were made to be broken. You just need to know the rules in the first place in order to decide to break them, so it’s never a bad thing to educate yourself on general writing advice. Still, there is a fine line between creative liberty and bad writing, and sometimes a famous book or author turns the latter into the former. Know your stuff, but don’t be afraid to throw your stuff into the fire and watch it burn. (Figuratively. Don’t literally throw your possessions into fire, that’s irresponsible on so many levels.) (A lot of parentheses in this rule rant.) (Now that’s just bad writing.)

✓ Take writing rules and advice with a grain of salt, but don’t ignore them.

As a novice writer, or even an experienced one, it is hard to differentiate between which rules work best in your own prose. You may only realize it in hindsight. That doesn’t mean you should ignore every piece of writing advice or dismiss criticism of your work. Think critically about your own style, read books you enjoy and think about their styles, and deliberate– don’t dismiss. Maybe your writing style requires no dangling prepositions or never using an adverb. That’s your decision to make. Just… don’t make it because you’re too stubborn to see how you can improve.

-

That’s all I’ve got! Do you have any pet peeves about common writing advice? Feel free to reblog and add your own!

Don’t forget to write a sentence of your story today! Thanks for reading~

me: *writes fic*

me: great! time to post to ao3-

ao3 summary box: *exists*

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ao3 summary box:

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