If You're A Writer You're Supposed To Write A Lot Of Bullshit. It's Part Of The Gig. You Have To Write

4 Tips for Autistic Writers

Autistic writers can face unique challenges when it comes to writing. NaNo Participant Auden Halligan has tips to handle some of those challenges!

So, you’ve just sat down at your desk, all ready to work on your next chapter, but you just can’t seem to start. Something is itching at your brain, and no matter how hard you think, you can’t figure it out. For autistic writers, that itch might be even harder to get around when compounded with autistic inertia, introspection issues, and sensory processing disorder — even if we were super excited to get started, sometimes the stumbling blocks are enough to keep us from going anywhere at all.

Here are four tips to identify your struggles and work around them rather than against them as an autistic writer!

Keep reading

Reign's Writing Tips

Pt 1 - General advice

I just want to say first, as a disclaimer, that I don't regard myself as the authority on 'good' writing, I've just gotten quite a few people asking for help and people expressing curiosity for my creative process.

Please don't consider this as a checklist and feel like you're doing things wrong, this is just a way for you to get a sense of where to begin and conceptualise where you'd like to be. We're all on different paths and those paths are not more or less valid than others.

This guide will include examples from my own works and hypothetical ones, using only written fics (smaus have their own guide, please find it in my navigation). This also doesn't tackle how to write fanfiction specifically, just general fictional writing.

These are formatted based on the questions I received in my messages and inbox.

Content:

༯ How to show and not tell ༯ How to write dialogue ༯ How to increase word count and why you might want to ༯ Other advice ༯ Paragraph structuring ༯ Punctuations ༯ How to fix up typos ༯ How to get better generally ༯ Final disclaimers

How to show and not tell!

༯ Beginner writers, and indeed, established ones too, often forget the very important rule of showing and not telling. This rule, of course, refers to the idea of building up descriptions or hinting to a certain thought so that the readers may reach that conclusions themselves.

༯ It's important you trust your readers to be able to follow along on their own. Sometimes if you tell them what to think it can cause a disconnect between your writing and them.

༯ This is also a good way of varying your sentences and not coming off as repetitive.

Emotions

༯ Let's go through some examples via the art of expressing emotions.

Example: Pathetic piner!Gojo

Pathetic piner!Gojo asks, voice rough and distorted, “Did you sleep with him? Do you love him?”

༯ Here, we can see that there is no definitive emotion asserted. I didn't write 'Gojo asks, upset' or 'Angry, Gojo asks'

༯ Instead, I am describing his voice. Using the adjectives 'rough' and distorted' allows the readers to figure out for themselves how he's feeling without being too simplistic.

༯ Often, expressing emotion in this way is better than simply saying he's sad or confused because those words can't capture the complexity of his feelings.

༯ Now, let it be known that it can be just as good to be direct about a character's feelings. It is simply all about intention. What are you trying to convey here?

༯ Another important thing to note is that if your work is written in a certain narrative voice, i.e. first person, you should limit information to what that character could only know realistically.

༯ In the context of the above example, it is 'y/n' who is perceiving Gojo, thus it would only make sense that they'd have a limited understanding of how exactly Gojo is feeling. So, instead of them catching on immediately that he's upset, they instead can only note down these things that are out of the ordinary.

༯ Use body language to describe their emotional state.

More examples:

The corner of his mouth curved up = smiling, finding humour in something

His brows furrowed = confusion, concentration, tension

Her lips pursed = dissatisfaction, barely restrained anger

Hand flexed, jaw ticked, teeth bared = anger, thoughts of violence

Sniffled, bottom lip trembled = about to cry, sad, trying not to be

How to write dialogue!

༯ Vary your sentence structures

Example: Homecoming

“Sorry, Si.” He swings his arm around the back of your thighs, encouraging you to straddle him. “You just look so good.” He hums, letting you get settled in his lap whilst he rubs his thumb over the skin of your hip almost as if he can’t help himself. “Can look as much as y’ want, lovie. ‘m all y’rs.” 

༯ You can have speech at the beginning and at the end of a paragraph. Not in the middle though — it's messy and confusing if written in the middle because the dialogue gets lost in the paragraph (but note that you can do as you please. It's just one of those 'rules' that aren't really 'rules')

༯ You also don't need to use say/said and other variations of that. It's enough to simply have the speech enclosed.

༯ A good rule of thumb when using say/said/other variations is if there's something significant about the way in which it was said.

Example: A Cursed Forest

His amber eyes cut through yours, and with disdain, he orders, “Finish your food, and do not question me anymore.”

༯ Here, I introduce the speech with 'orders' to show that Sukuna (the character referred to as 'he') is not speaking kindly or like they are equals. It reasserts the power imbalance between the two characters. I also say that it is being said 'with disdain' to emphasise the tension between them, to give some kind of understanding as to his feelings towards the other character.

༯ It is also a way for me, as the writer, to add depth to the other character: she is able to recognise disdain because she has faced it her entire life.

༯ Another thing to be aware of when making dialogue is restrict one paragraph to one character's speech. Please don't do multiple people speaking in one section. It's very messy, confusing and not 'proper.' Again, if that is how you like things, perfectly fine! It's your style, but if you care about doing things 'right' then yeah, one person's speech per paragraph please.

How to increase the word count!

༯ I didn't actually know to phrase this so I'll just yap about what I mean

༯ There are going to be instances where you'd like to space out dialogue so it's not coming off like a script.

Example:

He said, "You need to do your homework." "I don't want to." "You must, young lady." "Says who?" "Go to your room!"

༯ Try to avoid, as much as possible, having lots of clusters of these one sentence conversations.

༯ Once in a while is fine and can be effective in expressing something like the speed at which these words are being exchanged, exploring their tense dynamic.

༯ But if snappiness isn't what you're going for and you find that you're having lots of these clusters then fill the spaces between dialogue with details and descriptions.

Example:

Tired yet insistent, he said, "You need to do your homework." "I don't want to." "You must, young lady." Clare's father was always nagging at her. She thought it unfair, considering she had just turned sixteen and ought to be treated like the young lady that she was. Capable and intelligent, she could decide for herself how she was to spend her evenings. "Says who?" "Go to your room!" He roared. Her legs took her upstairs faster than she could process the fright he had given her. Never in all of her life had her father ever raised his voice like that; she knew not what to do. He was a mild-mannered man, not timid or passive, but rather, calm and rational. To see him in a fit of rage so volatile, shook Clare's constitution to no end that night.

༯ Use body language descriptors, describe the weather, the room they're in etc.

༯ What are the characters seeing and experiencing?

༯ Don't write it as if you're a fly on the wall if you've taken on a specific pov. Embody the character. See what they see, hear what they hear, feel for them. They aren't 2D characters, bring them to life with anecdotes, with thought processes, anxieties and fears.

༯ Another instance where you'd like to fill up the word count might be if you're trying to give the sense of time passing.

Example: In Sheep's Clothing

“Well, you should still afford me the decency of leaving my home when asked.” “Your home? Didn’t know the old lady gave it away.” You gulp, clutching the thick blanket even tighter. “You knew my grandmother?” He grunts.  Well aware you really ought to kick him out, you’re ashamed at the realisation that you can’t bring yourself to. It’s awfully terrible outside and there’s no doubt the elements would claim him if he he’s left out with no shelter. And if he wanted to kill you, he could have done that before. And at any rate, it’s too late to do anything about it now. He knows you’re alone and there’s nowhere you can run to before the snow freezes your limbs.  “Is it good?” You ponder. Settling back down onto the sofa, you just watch him eat. He’s grabbed a second helping.

༯ This example is actually not the final product. It was my first draft where wolf hybrid!toji is eating and conversing with a woman/y/n he has found himself stuck with during a snow storm.

༯ I thought it awkward in showing that he's eating. Sure, it could seem like he's eating really fast but it felt unrealistically fast, even given the context so I knew I wanted to fill in the space.

༯ Instead of talking on and on about how he's eating, I chose to dedicate this section with y/n's thoughts.

༯ One, descriptions of someone eating gets boring very fast

༯ Two, it would be extremely unrealistic for reader to just accept that this man will be staying with her with just one paragraph of thinking.

༯ Three, the concept of being hybrid needed to consistently matter in the story. So I chose to fill the details with exposition on that aspect of the story

Here is the final product:

“Well, you should still afford me the decency of leaving my home when asked.” “Your home? Didn’t know the old lady gave it away.” You gulp, clutching the thick blanket even tighter. “You knew my grandmother?” He grunts.  Well aware you really ought to kick him out, you’re ashamed at the realisation that you can’t bring yourself to. It’s awfully terrible outside and there’s no doubt the elements would claim him if he he’s left out with no shelter. Though, that really shouldn’t be your responsibility and there is still, of course, the glaring concern of his ability to kill you. One sweep of his figure and you know this towering man, tall and muscular, could snap your neck with one hand.  Or worse. Not to mention, he’s a hybrid. You can tell by the twitching of his ears and his nose, like he’s hearing and smelling things inscrutable by the human senses. You wonder what he is. He has no triangular ears or fluffy tail like a dog, he doesn’t have eyes like a cat, no scales that you can see, but his teeth, when he scrapes them along the spoon, you know they’re much sharper than you’d like to ever find out.  If he wanted to kill you, he could have done that before. And at any rate, it’s too late to do anything about it now. He knows you’re alone and there’s nowhere you can run to before the snow freezes your limbs.  Settling back down onto the sofa, you just watch him eat. He’s grabbed a second helping, enjoying the meat more than the potatoes and carrots in there but that’s expected of a man. It does mean, though, that he’s not a herbivore hybrid. You wonder if he likes the taste of a woman’s flesh.  “Is it good?” You ponder. 

༯ Hopefully, in this example you can get a sense of how 'rambling' can be useful in delivering specific effects.

༯ Note: too much dialogue can be bad. We need description and details to fill up the mind. Don't be afraid to give the details you'd like to give if you think it's important.

༯ Alternatively, not enough dialogue can also be bad. Too many thick paragraphs can disengage a reader and many people look forward to dialogue because it's much easier to process than chunks of information.

Other advice!

Paragraph structure

༯ Vary your paragraphs with one sentences and longer sections. Having too many thick paragraphs can be quite boring. Apart from aesthetics, these different length sections can provide a function.

Example: Lying To Himself

The guys at work know better than to open their fat mouths around him when he turns up with an extra wrinkle and a ticking in his jaw. Toji is somehow even more sadistic and violent and eager for blood. Even finally accepts their invitation to go out for drinks and drowns himself in the extra strong shit. Assuming he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, they don’t question his sour mood.  But what they don’t know is that you texted, just a day before you’re set to come back, to let him know you’re staying another week.  Fucking texted.  Didn’t even get to hear it from your own voice. 

༯ Longer paragraphs can cluster all these actions, detailing the things Toji has gotten up to and summarising how an unspecified time has passed. By condensing his days into one decently sized paragraph, a reader can gain the sense that his days have been monotonous and repetitive without even needing to read every part of it.

༯ The short, two word line is impactful and has been separated from the paragraph before it to deliver the punchiness. Here, Toji is angry. You can get this a) from the swear word but also from b) the fact that it's a two word sentence.

༯ It mimics the way one would grit out as they repeat information they dislike. Readers can very easily picture his face and his mental/emotional state just from two words.

༯ Another thing is to vary your paragraph openings.

A bad example:

He walked up to me, upset and clearly with choice words to deliver. No one else in the diner spared him a second glance. But I have no choice. I'm shaking with fear. He looks ready to punch me. The way his hand is balled into a fist is damn near pushing me to piss my pants. Surely, he wouldn't hit me here, right? There are witnesses. It would be stupid.

A better variation of this:

Walking up to me, upset and clearly with choice words to deliver, no one else in the diner spares him a second glance. But I have no choice. Fear shakes me from within. He looks ready to punch me. Hand balled into a fist, I'm damn near pushed to the edge of pissing my pants. Surely, he wouldn't hit me here, right? Witnesses are around us. Stupid. It would be stupid. Right?

༯ Words like he/she/they/the/it/then are overused sentence openers. They are perfectly fine to use, of course. I am not saying avoid them altogether.

༯ What I am saying, however, is change it up to make it interesting.

༯ Begin a sentence with an action verb like walking rather than simply 'he walked.'

Punctuations

༯ Try to use semi-colons, colons and dashes but read up on how to use them correctly. It's easily Googled. It's not a major issue, it's just a way of varying your writing and making it more interesting.

༯ When using quotation marks, commas and full-stops go before the quotation.

Like so:

"Pick me. Choose me. Love me."

"I love you," she confessed.

Quivering, he asks, "Do you hate me?"

༯ Again, not major issues, but just for cleanliness.

How to fix up these typos and messiness

༯ I write in my Notes app first and then I paste my work in Word just to see the blue and red underlines. It allows me to visualise where there are mistakes so that I don't have to read every word with great focus, I can just skim as I proofread

༯ You can also use things like Grammarly, though I generally wouldn't want to encourage you to use AI to edit your work for you. It's just an option if you need it.

༯ The best trick is to just learn how to follow these rules to do with syntax and language. Watch tutorials online and when reading works online or books, think critically about how things are formatted.

༯ This leads me to my next and final advice in this part

How get better generally

༯ Read more!

༯ But don't just absentmindedly consume media, engage critically.

༯ Ask yourself these questions:

What is it about this piece of work that you like?

What's the style of writing the author has chosen? Is that their general style or have they chosen something specific for this work?

Why is this work more popular than another?

How do their sentences begin?

Is the writing full of prose?

Is it too much prose for my liking?

Oh, there's a particular bit that made me feel scared and uncomfortable, how did they do that? Is it their sentence structure? The adjectives they chose? Is it the build up of tension? If it's the tension, how did they achieve that in the previous paragraphs?

That made me giggle, how did they manage to be so funny?

Is that how I would have written it? If I had done it my way, would the impact still have been the same?

What if I try writing in their style?

Final disclaimers!

༯ You don't have to follow all of this or even any of this. Just having read this and reflected on your writing is a great place to start. If you know who you are as a writer, then you'll be much better placed to express your ideas

༯ Writing is a journey. Most people will look back on their beginning and think damn I was so bad at writing. But that's just a great way of knowing you've come far.

༯ There is no wrong or right way to write, no matter what people say. Even if you write unconventionally and make lots of typos and errors, there might still be many people who enjoy your works.

༯ Don't try to be someone else. It sounds cheesy to say be yourself, but it's true. We need more diversity in writing. My favourite works, the ones who left a mark on me, who shaped me, are all so different from each other.

༯ Don't be afraid to experiment and try something new. Find yourself however it takes.

༯ If you're writing on here or a similar platform, you'll be opening yourself to being perceived. Establish your boundaries from the start. Are you open to feedback? It's completely fine if you are not. Some people aren't here to 'get better,' they're just here to have fun.

༯ And if you are open to feedback, it's absolutely okay to feel upset by what you hear/read. Just remember that a lot of these critiques are founded on preferences and some critics might have just misunderstood your works. There is no supreme authority on right and wrong here. No one knows everything. No one is perfect.

If you have any questions, things you'd like covered in a next part, please share them. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this by asking questions and being candid about their struggles.

I hope this helped and I wish everyone the very best in their writing journey

Happy writing!

I kind of suck at tagging, so I made this infographic to help make it easier.

Tips for writing dream sequences (from someone who has really vivid, weird dreams on a frequent basis)

My biggest pet peeve with fictional dream sequences is that they make too much sense!! They're too relevant! There's not enough random crazy stuff! That's not always unrealistic per se, but you are missing out on some of the fun ways you can reveal information about your character's mindset, fears, struggles, and future.

Most of my dreams have a goal or objective driving the plot, and it's usually urgent. Ex. "escape the huge storm on the horizon", "find a place to sleep for the night in an unfamiliar town", "find a bathroom". This is especially true of stress dreams.

Everything going on in the dream makes perfect sense to you during the dream. It doesn't feel like reality per se, but you think it is. You're living in a house full of vampires that could eat you at any moment? Seems legit.

Emotions and situations from the dreamer's life can/will find their way into dreams, with varying levels of subtlety. The dream could be about the stressful event itself, or it could be some sort of exaggerated metaphor. Ex. I was worried about whether I was a competent CS major while I was still trying to find a summer job/internship, and I was worried about what my professors must think of me. Such a good student on paper, still without summer plans. I dreamed that I ran into my professors all having lunch together at a restaurant (during a dream with a completely different storyline), and I was wearing my pajamas. They judged me.

Certain things are very hard to do in dreams. This could vary from person to person. For me, it's always driving (the brakes never work right), flying (I can't stay off the ground for very long), and running (it's like trying to run through waist-deep water).

People with PTSD may dream about the traumatic event happening differently than it actually happened. (Take this one with a grain of salt - I don't suffer from PTSD, I just research it sometimes so my blorbos can suffer accurately).

You can have a string of loosely connected or disconnected dream sequences back to back, each with an entirely different plot, setting, etc.

People can have reoccurring themes or plotlines in their dreams, which are often connected to their lives/psyche somehow. I frequently dream about running away from tornadoes and being in situations where there's some catastrophe coming but I'm the only one who understands that there's a problem and nobody will listen to me.

It's common for me to have a dream setting that I KNOW is someplace I'm familiar with, but it doesn't actually look like that place at all. Ex. "I dreamed that we were at my house, but it didn't look like my house..."

Dreams can end in cliffhangers. Sometimes I wake up right before I'm about to eat something delicious.

Sometimes people have dreams about doing things that they would never, ever do in real life, and they wake up feeling disgusted. This is Not a manifestation of their secret desires (*glares at Freud*).

Images are the most memorable parts of dreams. I forget the specific plot points, but I can still picture dozens of liminal spaces my brain has created, even years after I dreamed about it.

Dreams will fade from memory very quickly unless the dream had a strong impression on you, you write details about it down or you tell someone about it before you forget.

If you realize you're dreaming during your dream, sometimes you can control the dream going forward. This is called lucid dreaming. I've done it accidentally a couple times, and it's really hard to "hold on" to the dream and control it. I usually wake up soon after starting. With practice, you can get better at it.

Sometimes a normal/good dream can turn into a nightmare, and vice versa. Most of my dreams aren't really good or bad, they're something in between.

Your subconscious brain is CRAZY intuitive. We can argue over the existence of prophetic dreams (I've heard so many crazy stories), but at the end of the day, your subconscious brain knows things that you don't consciously know. If your character is in love with someone, their subconscious brain will know even if the character doesn't. Relationship problems? Deepest darkest fears and insecurities? Your brain knows. A dream predicted the downfall of my first relationship eight months before it happened, down to the reason why we failed. You can absolutely foreshadow this way. A character might subconsciously know what the consequences of their or other people's actions will be, understand things about the situation they're in, know things about the people they're interacting with, and more, despite their conscious realizations.

There are plenty of ways to make a dream sequence relevant to your story, but don't forget to add in some fun, random details. Character A is secretly in love with Character B? Have Character A dream about Character B confessing feelings to them while in a Vine Nostalgia themed restaurant over a plate of mac-n-cheese. The details are the fun part, and you can get as weird as you want. I once ran into my aunt in a dream, and she was wearing a backpack with a bunch of (fake?) hands sticking out of it, making a fan that rose above her back behind her head like some sort of peacock feather costume piece. I was so freaked out that I woke up. I dare you to get weirder than that.

Not everyone's brain works the same way. I have vivid, random, detailed, memorable dreams on a frequent basis. When I describe them to people they often ask "what were you on?". My roommate only remembers her dreams when they're nightmares. I have some friends who say they don't dream. Other friends have really boring, mundane dreams about their normal lives. Some people have weird dreams but only once in a blue moon. It's a good idea to decide off the bat what kinds of dreams your character has, and how often they remember them.

That's it for now, but I might make a part two if I think of more things to add. Feel free to reblog with your own personal dream expertise!

Hi I was wondering if you knew any fics about where Luffy successfully rescues ace from Impel Down.

Of course! I did my best to find fics where it was Luffy who saved Ace, but I've also included some where someone else helped!

Ace Rescued From Impel Down Fic Recs

This list will include all ratings and tags, so read at your own discretion! :) Enjoy!

A Fair Trade by Rijus_Hope - Not Rated

Luffy and his crew hear about Ace's execution before it reaches the papers, before they're split up at Sabaody Archipelago. His crew is ready for Luffy to boldly declare that they were going to break his brother out of prison, but Luffy is as unpredictable as ever, and presents an entirely different plan: To offer himself, the son of the Revolutionary Dragon, as a prisoner in Ace's place.

It was cold without you by my side by Dezace - Rated T

Sabo just got back from a mission. He overhears news concerning the Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard pirates and the supernova Strawhat Luffy. Strawhat was reported to be in Impel Down, trying to break out Fire Fist Ace. What the World Government didn't know was that this caused a domino effect of epic proportions. Sabo would rather kill himself than not do anything. His brothers were counting on him.

The will to live is harder to keep than a will to die by Dezace - Rated T

Ace was chained down in Impel Down, waiting for his execution and death, knowing that nothing can change that. When Ace hears the news that Luffy was here and there for him, Ace couldn't sit still. Not anymore. Or: Ace decided that being the damsel in distress sucks and that if you wanted something done right, do it yourself.

Of Seas and Freedom by OCEANSHELLS - Rated T

Law and Luffy break Ace out of Impel Down during a date and make out in the elevator, not exactly in that order.

Fair Enough by WolfyTheWolfz - Rated T

Luffy finds out about Ace's execution, and instead of rushing straight towards Impel Down, he enlists the help of Boa Hancock, to help trade himself for his brother but to also get a message out to his crew.

see you again by yeonjunenby - Rated T

While awaiting his execution, Ace silently wishes that he could have seen his brothers Luffy and Sabo one more time. His wish comes true, except for some reason this Sabo and Luffy appear to be from three years in the future, and they seem hellbent on breaking him out of prison.

Of course I'd come for you by Lerya - Rated T

Making a beeline to the end of the hallway, Luffy didn't care about anything else but getting to his big brother.

Garp taught Luffy how to be a marine and uses that knowledge to break into a government facility by Dezace - Rated T

Garp wanted Luffy and Ace to be Marines, so he taught them what a good marine should know and how to do it. While Ace and Luffy obviously didn't become marines, that knowledge was, literally, pounded into their heads. With Ace captured and set for execution, Luffy uses that knowledge to bust his brother out of prison. Or: Why Garp shouldn't have taught an upcoming rookie what Marine codes meant because all it led to was the chaos a pirate could use it for.

Not Once, But Twice In A Lifetime by BonneyJewelry - Rated G

On the way to Wano, Luffy is forced to rest by his frantic reindeer doctor. When he snaps his eyes open again, he is not where he expects to be. Is that Aces Vivre Card?

Never Let Go by Applepie - Rated G

Sabo never managed to escape from his father after he gave himself up for Ace and Luffy’s sake. But ten years pretending to be the Noble his father expects him to be is nothing when it lets him save his brother in the end. (In which Ace gets a visitor in Impel Down, and it’s the last person he expects.)

The Rescue Party by UntoldDepths - Rated M

In which the Straw Hat pirate crew finds out about Ace's execution earlier than canon and immediately launches a rescue mission.

Writing Notes: Based on a True Story

Using your life as a source for a fictional novel is a great way to turn your own stories into something new and resonant.

Retelling and adapting true stories is a time-tested method that many great fiction writers use to produce iconic fictional stories.

If you’re working on your first novel, fictionalizing your own experiences is a great way to craft an original narrative that you connect with on a deep emotional level.

How to Write Fiction Based on a True Story

If you’re in the process of adapting a true story into a fictional novel or short story, there are a few things to keep in mind. Turning true events into fictional stories can be a rewarding process, but it also presents unique challenges. Here are some tips:

Be clear about your premise. Before you start writing a work of fiction based on a real story from your own life, it’s important to know the central premise of your story. Having a clear idea of what your story hinges on can give you some objectivity as you decide which factual elements to keep and which elements of your real-life story distract from your main plot. Remember that no matter what true life story you’re basing your new book or short story on, you’re writing a story about fictional characters and can change any elements that don’t serve your narrative.

Remove yourself from the story. One way to stay objective about a story based on personal experiences is to try as best you can to remove yourself from your original story. You have an intensely personal point of view and connection to your own life story, but remember that you are creating a fictional story. The more you can look at your story in a dispassionate and objective way, the better your story will translate to a reader. This is not to say that elements of your first-person feelings won’t affect your narrative, it’s just to say that you aren’t the main character in your story. Even if your protagonist is based on yourself, the more you can start to view them as a separate, original entity, the better able you will be to craft an original narrative.

Do your research. If you’re writing a fiction story based on your life experiences or another real-life situation, do as much research as you can on the facts of the story and setting in which it occurred. You are not required to include or honor any of the factual elements you uncover during your research process, but you never know what useful information you will find that might inform your final narrative. Looking at newspaper articles that are relevant to your story can help you write about your topic from a different point of view.

Be flexible with facts. Never let actual events get in the way of a good narrative. It’s important to enter into your writing process with flexibility and willingness to change any part of the true story you’re basing your narrative around. Remember that your readers will usually have no knowledge or bias when it comes to your source material. Some genres like historical fiction require you to honor certain facts, but for the most part, the truth should never cause you to compromise your fictional narrative.

Decide if you need permission. If you are writing a fictional narrative based on a true story, you need to decide how closely your fictional characters resemble the real people they’re based on; if they’re recognizably similar, you may need to ask permission. It’s good practice to fictionalize character names instead of using the real names of real people, but you still might want to ask family members and friends for permission before you include elements of their lives in your stories. Family history is great fodder for fiction writers, but consider changing the names of real people to avoid a sticky situation and potentially a lawsuit.

Combine stories. Combining real-life experiences from different parts of your life can be a great way to create a new and successful fictional narrative. Real events have emotional resonance for writers, and combining separate stories into one is a great way of recontextualizing details and crafting a compelling narrative.

Shift the setting. A great technique for adaptation is to take true events from your real life, but shift the setting for your personal story. Shifting the setting or context can help you see what parts of your story resonate.

Edit extensively. As with any writing process, editing the first draft is often when a good story becomes a great story. Rewriting a novel based on real-life events is also a good time to see which factual elements are working and what needs to be changed. Remember that the emotional truth of your experiences is often much more important to your story than the superficial details. Edit your story with an objective eye for which factual elements are working and which ones are only getting in the way.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

If there’s a piece of writing you love, that makes you wish you had the ability to do what it does, the tools you're looking for are inside the story itself. Fiction is rarely mysterious in how it works. All you have to do is pay attention with the right mindset.

What you’re looking for is cause and effect, set-up and pay off. What does that piece of dialogue set up a) within the scene and b) later in the narrative? What purpose does this moment serve for the story as a whole? Can you identify the turning points within the scene and the turning points in the larger narrative? How do they fit together? You’ll find these things tend to fall into general patterns. Don’t get distracted by focusing on character details, analysis, or speculation! Fandom tends to overemphasize character to the exclusion of everything else. You probably already know how to analyze characters, but how much time do you spend thinking about the mechanics of the narrative? If you can figure out what makes the stories you love work, you can teach yourself to do any kind of storytelling you want to.

YOU!! YES, YOU!! GO WRITE THAT FANFIC YOU THINK NOBODY BUT YOU WILL READ!!

How Do I Make My Fictional Gypsies Not Racist?

(Or, "You can't, sorry, but…")

You want to include some Gypsies in your fantasy setting. Or, you need someone for your main characters to meet, who is an outsider in the eyes of the locals, but who already lives here. Or you need a culture in conflict with your settled people, or who have just arrived out of nowhere. Or, you just like the idea of campfires in the forest and voices raised in song. And you’re about to step straight into a muckpile of cliches and, accidentally, write something racist.

(In this, I am mostly using Gypsy as an endonym of Romany people, who are a subset of the Romani people, alongside Roma, Sinti, Gitano, Romanisael, Kale, etc, but also in the theory of "Gypsying" as proposed by Lex and Percy H, where Romani people are treated with a particular mix of orientalism, criminalisation, racialisation, and othering, that creates "The Gypsy" out of both nomadic peoples as a whole and people with Romani heritage and racialised physical features, languages, and cultural markers)

Enough of my friends play TTRPGs or write fantasy stories that this question comes up a lot - They mention Dungeons and Dragons’ Curse Of Strahd, World Of Darkness’s Gypsies, World Of Darkness’s Ravnos, World of Darkness’s Silent Striders… And they roll their eyes and say “These are all terrible! But how can I do it, you know, without it being racist?”

And their eyes are big and sad and ever so hopeful that I will tell them the secret of how to take the Roma of the real world and place them in a fictional one, whilst both appealing to gorjer stereotypes of Gypsies and not adding to the weight of stereotyping that already crushes us. So, disappointingly, there is no secret.

Gypsies, like every other real-world culture, exist as we do today because of interactions with cultures and geography around us: The living waggon, probably the archetypal thing which gorjer writers want to include in their portrayals of nomads, is a relatively modern invention - Most likely French, and adopted from French Showmen by Romanies, who brought it to Britain. So already, that’s a tradition that only spans a small amount of the time that Gypsies have existed, and only a small number of the full breadth of Romani ways of living. But the reasons that the waggon is what it is are based on the real world - The wheels are tall and iron-rimmed, because although you expect to travel on cobbled, tarmac, or packed-earth roads and for comparatively short distances, it wasn’t rare to have to ford a river in Britain in the late nineteenth century, on country roads. They were drawn by a single horse, and the shape of that horse was determined by a mixture of local breeds - Welsh cobs, fell ponies, various draft breeds - as well as by the aesthetic tastes of the breeders. The stove inside is on the left, so that as you move down a British road, the chimney sticks up into the part where there will be the least overhanging branches, to reduce the chance of hitting it.

So taking a fictional setting that looks like (for example) thirteenth century China (with dragons), and placing a nineteenth century Romanichal family in it will inevitably result in some racist assumptions being made, as the answer to “Why does this culture do this?” becomes “They just do it because I want them to” rather than having a consistent internal logic.

Some stereotypes will always follow nomads - They appear in different forms in different cultures, but they always arise from the settled people's same fears: That the nomads don't share their values, and are fundamentally strangers. Common ones are that we have a secret language to fool outsiders with, that we steal children and disguise them as our own, that our sexual morals are shocking (This one has flipped in the last half century - From the Gypsy Lore Society's talk of the lascivious Romni seductress who will lie with a strange man for a night after a 'gypsy wedding', to today's frenzied talk of 'grabbing' and sexually-conservative early marriages to ensure virginity), that we are supernatural in some way, and that we are more like animals than humans. These are tropes where if you want to address them, you will have to address them as libels - there is no way to casually write a baby-stealing, magical succubus nomad without it backfiring onto real life Roma. (The kind of person who has the skills to write these tropes well, is not the kind of person who is reading this guide.)

It’s too easy to say a list of prescriptive “Do nots”, which might stop you from making the most common pitfalls, but which can end up with your nomads being slightly flat as you dance around the topics that you’re trying to avoid, rather than being a rich culture that feels real in your world.

So, here are some questions to ask, to create your nomadic people, so that they will have a distinctive culture of their own that may (or may not) look anything like real-world Romani people: These aren't the only questions, but they're good starting points to think about before you make anything concrete, and they will hopefully inspire you to ask MORE questions.

First - Why are they nomadic? Nobody moves just to feel the wind in their hair and see a new horizon every morning, no matter what the inspirational poster says. Are they transhumant herders who pay a small rent to graze their flock on the local lord’s land? Are they following migratory herds across common land, being moved on by the cycle of the seasons and the movement of their animals? Are they seasonal workers who follow man-made cycles of labour: Harvests, fairs, religious festivals? Are they refugees fleeing a recent conflict, who will pass through this area and never return? Are they on a regular pilgrimage? Do they travel within the same area predictably, or is their movement governed by something that is hard to predict? How do they see their own movements - Do they think of themselves as being pushed along by some external force, or as choosing to travel? Will they work for and with outsiders, either as employees or as partners, or do they aim to be fully self-sufficient? What other jobs do they do - Their whole society won’t all be involved in one industry, what do their children, elderly, disabled people do with their time, and is it “work”?

If they are totally isolationist - How do they produce the things which need a complex supply chain or large facilities to make? How do they view artefacts from outsiders which come into their possession - Things which have been made with technology that they can’t produce for themselves? (This doesn’t need to be anything about quality of goods, only about complexity - A violin can be made by one artisan working with hand tools, wood, gut and shellac, but an accordion needs presses to make reeds, metal lathes to make screws, complex organic chemistry to make celluloid lacquer, vulcanised rubber, and a thousand other components)

How do they feel about outsiders? How do they buy and sell to outsiders? If it’s seen as taboo, do they do it anyway? Do they speak the same language as the nearby settled people (With what kind of fluency, or bilingualism, or dialect)? Do they intermarry, and how is that viewed when it happens? What stories does this culture tell about why they are a separate people to the nearby settled people? Are those stories true? Do they have a notional “homeland” and do they intend to go there? If so, is it a real place?

What gorjers think of as classic "Gipsy music" is a product of our real-world situation. Guitar from Spain, accordions from the Soviet Union (Which needed modern machining and factories to produce and make accessible to people who weren't rich- and which were in turn encouraged by Soviet authorities preferring the standardised and modern accordion to the folk traditions of the indigenous peoples within the bloc), brass from Western classical traditions, via Balkan folk music, influences from klezmer and jazz and bhangra and polka and our own music traditions (And we influence them too). What are your people's musical influences? Do they make their own instruments or buy them from settled people? How many musical traditions do they have, and what are they all for (Weddings, funerals, storytelling, campfire songs, entertainment...)? Do they have professional musicians, and if so, how do those musicians earn money? Are instrument makers professionals, or do they use improvised and easy-to-make instruments like willow whistles, spoons, washtubs, etc? (Of course the answer can be "A bit of both")

If you're thinking about jobs - How do they work? Are they employed by settled people (How do they feel about them?) Are they self employed but providing services/goods to the settled people? Are they mostly avoidant of settled people other than to buy things that they can't produce themselves? Are they totally isolationist? Is their work mostly subsistence, or do they create a surplus to sell to outsiders? How do they interact with other workers nearby? Who works, and how- Are there 'family businesses', apprentices, children with part time work? Is it considered 'a job' or just part of their way of life? How do they educate their children, and is that considered 'work'? How old are children when they are considered adult, and what markers confer adulthood? What is considered a rite of passage?

When they travel, how do they do it? Do they share ownership of beasts of burden, or each individually have "their horse"? Do families stick together or try to spread out? How does a child begin to live apart from their family, or start their own family? Are their dwellings something that they take with them, or do they find places to stay or build temporary shelter with disposable material? Who shares a dwelling and why? What do they do for privacy, and what do they think privacy is for?

If you're thinking about food - Do they hunt? Herd? Forage? Buy or trade from settled people? Do they travel between places where they've sown crops or managed wildstock in previous years, so that when they arrive there is food already seeded in the landscape? How do they feel about buying food from settled people, and is that common? If it's frowned upon - How much do people do it anyway? How do they preserve food for winter? How much food do they carry with them, compared to how much they plan to buy or forage at their destinations? How is food shared- Communal stores, personal ownership?

Why are they a "separate people" to the settled people? What is their creation myth? Why do they believe that they are nomadic and the other people are settled, and is it correct? Do they look different? Are there legal restrictions on them settling? Are there legal restrictions on them intermixing? Are there cultural reasons why they are a separate people? Where did those reasons come from? How long have they been travelling? How long do they think they've been travelling? Where did they come from? Do they travel mostly within one area and return to the same sites predictably, or are they going to move on again soon and never come back?

And then within that - What about the members of their society who are "unusual" in some way: How does their society treat disabled people? (are they considered disabled, do they have that distinction and how is it applied?) How does their society treat LGBT+ people? What happens to someone who doesn't get married and has no children? What happens to someone who 'leaves'? What happens to young widows and widowers? What happens if someone just 'can't fit in'? What happens to someone who is adopted or married in? What happens to people who are mixed race, and in a fantasy setting to people who are mixed species? What is taboo to them and what will they find shocking if they leave? What is society's attitude to 'difference' of various kinds?

Basically, if you build your nomads from the ground-up, rather than starting from the idea of "I want Gypsies/Buryats/Berbers/Minceiri but with the numbers filed off and not offensive" you can end up with a rich, unique nomadic culture who make sense in your world and don't end up making a rod for the back of real-world cultures.

Let writing empower you

Writing is a form of empowerment. The act of creating a world in which you have ultimate control can be an incredibly cathartic and joyful experience.

If you get overwhelmed or blocked, just remember that you have the power. You get to mould the world and its characters into whatever shape brings you the greatest satisfaction.