Reign's Writing Tips

I wanted to write today… but my brain said, “Nope.” Not sure if it’s a motivation issue or just good old-fashioned writer’s block, but either way—progress needed to happen.

So, I cheated (but like, in a totally productive way). I followed my plot outline and wrote just the dialogue. No fancy descriptions, no deep internal monologues—just vibes and conversation. And you know what? It worked.

I once said that the only job of the first draft is to exist. A skeletal scene with dialogue and the barest hint of description? Totally fine. That’s what the second draft is for. Future Me can deal with the details—Current Me just needs to keep the story moving.

For the last goddamn time...

"Kill your darlings" means "if something is holding you back, get rid of it, even if it sounds pretty."

That's it! That's all it means! It means if you're stuck and stalled out on your story and you could fix the whole block by removing something but you're avoiding removing that thing because it's good, you remove that thing. That's the darling.

It does NOT mean

That you have to get rid of your self-indulgent writing

That you should delete something just because you like it (?wtf?)

That you need to kill off characters (??? what)

That you have to pare your story down to the absolute bare bones

That you have to delete anything whatsoever if you don't want to

The POINT is that you STOP FEELING GUILTY for throwing out good writing that isn't SERVING THE STORY.

The POINT is that you don't get so HUNG UP on the details that you lose sight of the BIG PICTURE.

Good grief....

Some advice as a discovery writer is to outline.

I update my outline after every scene because I make everything up as I go and change everything, but I need to know where I'm going in order to know how to start a scene.

Only do the major plot beats if you really can't outline, but try it. Some benefits may include:

Strong pacing

Confidence in scenes

Knowing your subplots

Foreshadowing

Less editing

Less writer's block/easier to overcome

It can also take a bit of practice and finding what works best for you, writing doesn't have rules.

Request~ short comic in which luffy cooks for his brothers but it looks horrible and ace and sabo stomachs the food because they love lu too much

who let this boy into the kitchen

the WORLD needs your writing

have *you* ever seen writing "advice" that mistakes harshness for honesty and punches in the gut for powerful points, and then tells you if you are not constantly, every day, scorching the earth on which you walk with your fiery passion for words - then you are not a writer?

I have! And it really gets to me when I see someone tear other people down rather than build them up, extinguish their lights for being more candles in the dark than nuclear bombs dropped from the sky, who would risk there being more misery rather than cultivate the joy of creating and sharing emotions, ideas, worlds...

So I wrote a post on why YOUR (whoever is reading this right now) writing is needed by the world, as long as it is in that spirit of deep connection and creativity that stretches beyond time and space and can outlive you by several orders of magnitude

I actually strongly take issue with "No one needs your writing". It's not just extremely discouraging and depressing, and turning away a lot of people for not burning with passion at temperatures of the sun, but very likely also just wrong.

Someone out there is missing out on a smile in a torrent of misery, a feeling of connection in a sea of loneliness, a moment of peace in what feels like an eternity of hurt. They won't have that moment of bliss, maybe their day saved, or even entire life changed for the better.

People sometimes think this is reserved to some small group of particularly good writers, that everyone else is foolish to think that anyone can have a big influence on anyone. And it's impossible to predict.

It can be in the most unexpected ways: a random fanfic touching someone's heart because they happen to address a very particular grief or longing that is unlikely to ever be published with characters that feel like family, a small poem providing strength at the hardest moments because it used language that resonated with a reader on a niche subject, an autobiographical story inspiring someone to a new, ethical life... there are so many possibilities.

And I know this *because I am talking from experience*. So many fanfics have let me imagine other lives that could be my own, made me see from new perspectives, awakened hidden feelings or mollified pain, formed the basis of years of friendships and self-discovery, or just opened me up to so many new genres of writing. So many random stories of people, imagined or of this Earth, that bring a light to the darkness of apathy, aloneness, and angst that threaten to engulf so many in the world.

And vice versa, I have been told that my writing (not published, not even getting 10 likes on Tumblr or Ao3!) has inspired some people, been "exactly the right amount of humorous" or even that one line I wrote was the best one they had ever read.

PLEASE, WRITE YOUR THING! FOR everyone whose life might be saved by it, even if just a bit.

Basic Writing Terms: Types of Characters

There are a lot of different words to describe the roles that characters play within the narrative, some characters can occupy multiple roles at once, but these terms are not always synonymous. Confusion can occur when one assumes that one term encompasses another with which it is often paired.

These are some terms and a brief overview of how they will be used on this blog.

Protagonist: The leading character. Not necessarily of any particular moral persuasion, can be a goodie, a baddie, or an in-betweenie, depending on the story being told. Can be a group of people either working together, or who inhabit the same narrative.

Antagonist: A person or the person who opposes the protagonist, there can be multiple antagonists for any given protagonist. Does not indicate any particular moral code except that they are in conflict with the protagonist.

Main Character: The leading character. Often in an ensemble cast there is one character who is more central to the story. (Most generic term)

Focalising Character: Characters through which we see the story, their perceptions and knowledge will colour the narrative and influence the reader’s opinions. A story can have one or many focalising characters, but only one can be used at a time (a ‘switching POV’ is a shift from one focalising character to another).

Hero/ heroine: Often a protagonist. Is a character who is explicitly siding with the moral good.

Anti-hero: Often a protagonist. Is a character who is the centre of a heroic narrative while not having ‘conventional’ heroic traits.

Villain: Often an antagonist. Is a character who is explicitly siding with the moral evil.

Anti-villain: Often an antagonist. Is a character who may be explicitly siding with moral evil, but likely has non-villainous motivations or attributes.

Foil: A particular type of antagonist or villain who’s personal qualities compliment or contrast in such a way that they illuminate thematic elements of the protagonist or hero’s character.

Secondary Character: A character who is not in the central protagonist/ focalising character role. Can have significant role/ impact on the narrative, but is not the focus of the narrative.

Minor Character: A smaller role than the secondary characters, may appear only for a few lines, attention to detail on minor characters can help make world building feel more ‘real’.

Narrator: The character who is ‘voicing’ the story. May or may not be a character that is personally a part of the story. (Not all stories have explicit narrators, but all stories have narrative voice!)

Difficulty with plotting and staying consistent.

I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I've struggled with it since starting to plot out my stories.

It doesn't matter if i have a prompt, or an idea, i always go off track. I have a hard time sticking to that prompt, plot point, or idea, and it drives me absolutely bonkers.

Recently, though. I have found a cool little trick that has helped me stay on track, and meet my word goals;

Whether you're writing a short story, a blurb, or a whole novel. Try to split it up into three parts; Beginning, Middle, and End.

Instead of the convoluted, and sometimes overstimulating plot line;

Splitting your plot into its three most important parts; Exposition, Climax, and Resolution. Is supposed to help you plan out your story easier, or in my case, lazier.

Beginning = Exposition | Middle = Climax | End = Resolution

Point of View

Next, think about what point of view you're going to write your story in. If you've already decided on what your pov, conflict, and genre are going to be, you can skip down to Plot Points, where i pick back up as splitting your plot.

1st person = from a characters perspective.

In first person, you're going to be using a lot of sensory words from the characters perspective; "I feel" - "I see" - "I hear" - "I taste" - "I smell" This point of view also means restricting a lot of information to your character.

For instance, if you're writing from the pov of a child. This child wouldn't know the cookie jar is on top of the fridge, because they're not tall enough to see what's up there. So, they would have to get this information in a different way. You could make them accidentally see the cookie jar, but then you have to consider; Do they know it's a cookie jar? Does it stand out enough for it to grab their attention? If no, you could introduce a secondary character, like a parent, who gets a cookie for the child. Now the child knows it's a cookie jar.

2nd person = Telling a story to the reader, and directly involving them in it.

In the second person, you're writing from the narrator's perspective, but you're also addressing the reader, or talking directly to them. In this pov, you're telling the reader how they should be experiencing the story, by using sensory words like; "You feel" - "You see" - "You hear" - "You taste" - "You smell"

Pov's from the second person perspective goes great with unreliable narrators. You get to choose what information you tell the reader, and what information the reader has to find for themselves.

3rd person = Telling a story about someone or thing.

In the 3rd person, you have a lot more creative control. You get to pick which character's you're observing, and sort of play with them like dolls in a doll house. I think this is the most popular point of view and is incredibly versatile, using sensory language like; "She feels" - "He saw" - "They hear" - "It tasted" - "She's smelling"

Genre and Subgenre

Now. Deciding your pov is as simple as deciding what you're going to be writing, and for this, i like to decide what my conflict and genre are going to be. Sometimes it's as simple as picking horror, then deciding you like the slasher trope, because you want to write about a killer on the loose. Now you already have your conflict; There's a killer on the loose, and so and so need to escape.

I like to do this by drawing inspiration from other creators; From that book i read yesterday, or that movie i saw, or i just really like this genre.

Once you have your genre, look into its subgenre's. In horror, you have; Slasher, Supernatural, Monster, or Zombie. The conflicts in those are pretty easy to discern, Slasher = Killer on the loose - Supernatural = There's a spooky ghost in here - Monster = There's a spooky monster trying to kill me - Zombie = It's an apocalypse and i need to survive.

Draw Inspiration from other Creators

But it's always okay to draw inspiration from other creators; Junji Ito, for example, has a book called Gyo. Its a horror story about fish growing legs and crawling on land. You can take that concept and create your own horror story about fish growing legs.

Once you have your conflict; There's fish growing legs, coming on land, and eating people. Try to ask yourself; What do i want to tell the reader? What do i want to say in my story?

For example, if i wanted to write a short horror story about fish growing legs, and coming on land, and i decided i wanted to make the reader be more conscious about throwing away plastic. I would probably have a better time writing in the 2nd perspective, because my short story is meant to address the reader, and make them uncomfortable about throwing plastic in the ocean.

Plot Points

Finally, after we've figured out our genre, conflict, and pov. It's time to go back to our plot columns.

I know that when it comes time for me to decide plot points, I'm always at my wits end. I HATE figuring out what i want my plot points to be. I'm awful at figuring out the big changes in my plot, and sadly, i don't really have a solution for that yet. But, all this stuff I'm telling you has made it a lot easier for me to work on this.

First, how do you want to start your story? No, not what scene you want to start on, HOW are you going to start your story? Are you going to start with a monologue? Are you going to start with a description? How about some dialogue? Or a flashback? A departure? A character description?

This can be one of the first things you can write in your beginning section.

For example;

Then, think about what you want to happen next. Write as many plot points in each section as you want, use prompts, or random scenes you've discarded in the past. Fill it up with as many prompts as you're happy with;

When you start writing, start from your first plot point, make a word goal for that specific scene, and write it. When you're finished with that scene, move onto the next plot point, until you've written all of them.

Once you're done writing your major scenes, go back and edit everything so they puzzle together. If you want to add more stuff in between scenes, now you have guidelines on where and how your new scenes should start and end, so you're technically just filling in the blanks.

Ways to un-stick a stuck story

Do an outline, whatever way works best. Get yourself out of the word soup and know where the story is headed.

Conflicts and obstacles. Hurt the protagonist, put things in their way, this keeps the story interesting. An easy journey makes the story boring and boring is hard to write.

Change the POV. Sometimes all it takes to untangle a knotted story is to look at it through different eyes, be it through the sidekick, the antagonist, a minor character, whatever.

Know the characters. You can’t write a story if the characters are strangers to you. Know their likes, dislikes, fears, and most importantly, their motivation. This makes the path clearer.

Fill in holes. Writing doesn’t have to be linear; you can always go back and fill in plotholes, and add content and context.

Have flashbacks, hallucinations, dream sequences or foreshadowing events. These stir the story up, deviations from the expected course add a feeling of urgency and uncertainty to the narrative.

Introduce a new mystery. If there’s something that just doesn’t add up, a big question mark, the story becomes more compelling. Beware: this can also cause you to sink further into the mire.

Take something from your protagonist. A weapon, asset, ally or loved one. Force him to operate without it, it can reinvigorate a stale story.

Twists and betrayal. Maybe someone isn’t who they say they are or the protagonist is betrayed by someone he thought he could trust. This can shake the story up and get it rolling again.

Secrets. If someone has a deep, dark secret that they’re forced to lie about, it’s a good way to stir up some fresh conflict. New lies to cover up the old ones, the secret being revealed, and all the resulting chaos.

Kill someone. Make a character death that is productive to the plot, but not “just because”. If done well, it affects all the characters, stirs up the story and gets it moving.

Ill-advised character actions. Tension is created when a character we love does something we hate. Identify the thing the readers don’t want to happen, then engineer it so it happens worse than they imagined.

Create cliff-hangers. Keep the readers’ attention by putting the characters into new problems and make them wait for you to write your way out of it. This challenge can really bring out your creativity.

Raise the stakes. Make the consequences of failure worse, make the journey harder. Suddenly the protagonist’s goal is more than he expected, or he has to make an important choice.

Make the hero active. You can’t always wait for external influences on the characters, sometimes you have to make the hero take actions himself. Not necessarily to be successful, but active and complicit in the narrative.

Different threat levels. Make the conflicts on a physical level (“I’m about to be killed by a demon”), an emotional level (“But that demon was my true love”) and a philosophical level (“If I’m forced to kill my true love before they kill me, how can love ever succeed in the face of evil?”).

Figure out an ending. If you know where the story is going to end, it helps get the ball rolling towards that end, even if it’s not the same ending that you actually end up writing.

What if? What if the hero kills the antagonist now, gets captured, or goes insane? When you write down different questions like these, the answer to how to continue the story will present itself.

Start fresh or skip ahead. Delete the last five thousand words and try again. It’s terrifying at first, but frees you up for a fresh start to find a proper path. Or you can skip the part that’s putting you on edge – forget about that fidgety crap, you can do it later – and write the next scene. Whatever was in-between will come with time.

Being creative isn’t always fun

I think this is one of the most difficult things to realize. Be it writing or drawing or making music or crafting – it’s not fun. Not always.

I think we all expect it to be, I mean, why do it if it isn’t fun? It looks so easy when others do it. And then we get discouraged when things inevitably turn out to be more difficult than we thought. And then we blame ourselves!

It should be easy! This should be fun! I’m such a hack, I’m doing this wrong, I will never be good at this because it isn’t fun and it’s supposed to be fun, else it’s just a stupid waste of time. 

We all feel this way sometimes. 

Allow yourself to accept this. It isn’t always fun, sometimes it’s really difficult and you have to push through to get to the other part that is more fun.

It’s not easy, it’s not always fun but that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to do it. You’re not wrong, you’re not stupid, you’re not a hack. Keep doing your thing.

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