Writing is all fun and games until you have to describe a room.
*struggles while writing* i suck and writing is hard
*remembers some ppl use ai* i am a creative force. i am uncorrupted by theft and indolence. i am on a journey to excellence. it is my duty to keep taking joy in creating.
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"
1. Lean: Having a slender and toned body with minimal body fat.
2. Muscular: Having well-developed muscles and a defined physique.
3. Slender: Having a thin and graceful body shape.
4. Curvy: Having an hourglass figure with well-defined curves, particularly in the hips and bust.
5. Athletic: Having a fit and muscular body, often associated with participation in sports or physical activities.
6. Petite: Being small and slender in stature, usually referring to height and overall body size.
7. Voluptuous: Having full and shapely curves, often emphasizing a larger bust, hips, and thighs.
8. Stocky: Having a compact and solid build with a sturdy appearance.
9. Thin: Having a slim and slender body shape with little body fat or muscle definition.
10. Well-proportioned: Having balanced and harmonious body proportions, with each body part in good proportion to the whole.
11. Toned: Having firm muscles and a defined physique resulting from regular exercise and strength training.
12. Chubby: Having a plump or rounded body shape, often with excess body fat.
13. Pear-shaped: Having a body shape where the hips and thighs are wider than the shoulders and bust.
14. Hourglass figure: Having a curvy body shape characterized by a well-defined waist and proportionate bust and hips.
15. Apple-shaped: Having a body shape where weight is primarily carried around the midsection, resulting in a broader waistline.
16. Broad-shouldered: Having wide and well-developed shoulders in comparison to the rest of the body.
17. Long-limbed: Having long and slender limbs in proportion to the body.
18. Stout: Having a sturdy and robust build, often characterized by a solid and thick physique.
19. Plump: Having a pleasantly full and rounded body shape, often indicating a higher percentage of body fat.
20. Tall and slender: Being tall in height and having a slim and elongated body shape.
tips for writing good romance tension
inside jokes— brings the reader into the relationship. create something at the beginning of the story and then bring it up in the middle or at the end. reader catches it at the exact moment the couple does, making the moment more rewarding for the characters and reader all at once
specific attention paid to the same detail scene over scene— pick one or two details that the pov character notices (a physical detail on their partner, something about their hair or their body, the way a piece of clothing looks on them, the way sunlight/moonlight/candlelight falls on their face) and bring the detail up several times, characters in love will notice specific things and keep coming back to them, this repetition will get the reader to think, “yes, i get it too”
focus on visible signs of emotion from both parties— a racing pulse, a flush creeping up someone’s neck, a smile, a bouncing knee, a shiver, either from the pov character or the partner, love makes you crazy and visible emotion noticed by one or both parties builds the crazy and crazy tension
at least one sensory detail that comes up during a critical moment— a smell, a feeling, warmth, light, pick something sensory and bring it up again just before a kiss or a moment of closeness, calling back to an earlier scene, bring the reader into the relationship by making them also remember how this started and how they got here, involve them in the chase and the reward
super simple low-effort ao3 summary methods that are 1000% better and 1000% less annoying than just saying you suck at summaries:
copypaste the first few lines of the fic. u already wrote 'em. let 'em be their own damn hook
if ur feeling fancy & don't mind showing ur hand a bit, copypaste the first few lines of the fic that u feel are esp. Important or Interesting - the ones where u first start getting into the real meat of things
state the main tropes! theyre probably already in ur tags - just say them again - maybe as a full sentence if ur feelin fancy. or with a joke if ur feelin Extra fancy
ask a question. pose a hypothetical. eg what happens if u take [character] and put them in [situation]?
make an equation. [character] + [thing] = [outcome]
just write like a one-sentence summary of what the fuck is going down. just one (1) sentence. doesnt matter if it doesn't cover every important aspect. or if it sounds bland. any summary sentence is gonna be miles better than "idk i suck at summaries"
just...explain the fic like u would to a friend? it doesnt have to be a polished back of the book blurb. it can just be "[pairing] coffee shop au, but like, still with murder, and also i made everyone trans. enjoy"
just stick a meme in there
honestly who cares
just put literally anything but a self deprecating comment in there & ur golden
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❤️ Romance Writing Prompts
Meet-Cute Ideas
Reponses to: "How Could You?"
Responses to: "Break my heart." 💔
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List of Relationship Tropes <3
Library Romance Prompts
Arranged Marriage Prompts
Responses to: "I love you"
Soulmates AU Prompts
"I love you but I don't" Prompts
Romance Novel Tropes & Subgenres: a comprehensive list
The Romantic Academic
Forbidden Love Dialogue Prompts
Angry Love Confessions
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Scenes: The Basics🏕️
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Character Names with Unfortunate Meanings
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MASTERPOST PART 2>>
anyway the actual point of fandom is to inspire each other. reading each other's fics and admiring each other's art and saying wow i love this and i feel something and i want to invoke this in other people, i want to write a sentence that feels like a meteor shower, i want to paint a kiss with such tenderness it makes you ache, i want to create something that someone else somewhere will see it and think oh, i need to do that too, right now. i am embracing being a corny cunt on main to say inspiring each other is one of the things humanity is best at and one of the things fandom is built for and i think that's beautiful
- Journal from their perspective. It can be hard to write compelling, realistic motivation for characters if you don’t understand them yourself. By journalling from their perspective, even if the content of the journal isn’t included in your story, you’ll essentially be thinking as the character. This should help you understand who they are and how they make choices and react to things, like a real person would.
- Answer “character questions”, but be careful when using lists found online. The internet is full of lists of questions for writers to answer when building characters, but not all of them are actually that important or useful. The fact is, it really doesn’t matter what a character’s favourite colour, animal or day of the week is (unless it’s relevant to your story… but it usually isn’t). When looking for question lists online, or making your own, focus on questions that have to do with your character’s personality, such as how they’d react to a situation or which values matter more to them.
- Make character charts! I can’t stress this enough — character charts are incredibly useful tools for writers and I don’t know what I’d do without them. They’re a great way to keep track of important information about your characters in an organized way that’s easy to access when you need to quickly check a detail. I’d also strongly recommend making your own charts, not using templates online (I find it a lot easier to stay organized when I’m using my own organizational system). If you need a place to start, though, I normally create charts with 4 categories: role (protagonist, antagonist, etc.), name, identities (gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.), and description (just a brief few sentences about them). You can also make personality charts with things like their greatest flaw, greatest strength, story goals, etc.
- Come up with a few detailed memories/anecdotes from their past. Think of them as mini-stories you can drop into your main story to build a more realistic life around the character. These don’t have to be crucial to the plot, and should be brought up in a natural way, such as in conversation with another character or in the main character’s thoughts. For example, your MC’s best friend might compliment her necklace, and she tells them how her sister gave it to her as a birthday present before moving away. You can also use these anecdotes to drop in important information in a non-obvious way. Continuing the example above, the MC could mention that her sister has the same design necklace, but in green. Later, this becomes a clue, when she finds the green necklace outside the villain’s lair.
- Keep a record of their backstory. This one doesn’t really need much explaining… Just keep notes of your character’s backstory as you come up with it so you don’t risk inconsistencies, which tend to break down realism.
- Remember that the reader can’t see what’s in your head. Your characters may be fully developed, realistic people in your head, but that makes it easy to forget that your readers don’t automatically understand them the way you do — they only know what’s on the page. Asking other people to read your work can help you understand how your characters come through to an audience, but if you don’t want to do that, just re-reading it yourself is also helpful. If you do the latter, though, go through an entire chapter at a time, the way a reader would, not small sections.