Temples Are Built For Gods. Knowing This A Farmer Builds A Small Temple To See What Kind Of God Turns

How to Write Non-binary Characters: a three part guide.

Disclaimer: While this guide is written by a non-binary person in collaboration with many other non-binary writers and readers, it does not necessarily cover the views of all people within the non-binary community.

PART ONE: the basics.

First off, what is this thing you call non-binary?

Non-binary genders are any gender identity that isn’t covered in the Western idea of woman (girl) and man (boy). This identity has nothing to do with which chromosomes or sexual organs a person has. Some non-binary people also identify as being trans (which is technically an umbrella term containing non-binary), while others only identify as being non-binary. Some commonly use the slang term enbie (which comes from the pronunciation of the initials for non-binary, aka N.B.) while others don’t. Some break down their gender further than simply non-binary, while others choose not to.

Some terms for common non-binary genders:

Agender: having no gender.

Bigender: having both binary genders, or aspects of two different genders, usually simultaneously. (Much like the bi in bisexual, non-binary people may also claim this term if they have any number of genders, especially if they can’t quite tell where one ends and the other begins, or they may claim the term pangender instead.)

Demi-(boy/girl/man/woman): being partially (but not wholly) binary.

Gender-fluid: transitioning between genders, which may include both binary and non-binary genders.

Gender-queer (or just queer): not of a binary gender. May be used when someone does not feel that any other terms fit them quite right, when they’re still trying to determine their gender and don’t yet wish to choose a term, or simply because the person finds it to fit them best.

There are also genders similar to what Western cultures call non-binary in many non-Western cultures, which are wonderfully diverse and all incerdibly valid, but as someone from an exclusively Western cultural heratage, I don’t feel I have the right or the knoweldge to talk about them.

So then, who are these non-binary people in real life?

The only thing that differentiates a non-binary person from a binary person is that they don’t identify as having a binary gender.

Their non-binary-ness could influence their lives in an infinite number of ways:

It could be subtle or life changing.

They could use fashion and vocal training and actions to present themselves in ways outside their society’s binary gender norms, or they could never even mention they’re non-binary to another living soul. 

They could change their pronouns, or their name, or keep one or both the same.

They could spend years re-figuring out who they are and what it means to be non-binary or they could realize it once and never feel the need to dwell on it again.

They could identity as one of the numerous non-binary labels, or they could decide they’re just not binary and don’t care to dig further than that. 

They could accept all gendered terms, or certain gendered terms, or no gendered terms at all.

People assuming they’re binary could frustrate them or sadden them or anger them, or they could not care in the slightest. 

They may feel they exhibit (or wish to exhibit) many of the traits their society designates to a certain binary gender, or they many not.

They could feel the same way about their identity all the time, or differently every day.

Each non-binary person (and character) is unique, and their non-binary-ness is just one tiny part of who they are.

The basic do’s and don’ts for writing non-binary characters respectfully if you’re a binary person…

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tried writing, ran out of ideas, please have this snippet until I conjure up motivation to finish it

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So You Want To Write A Book..

Where Do Writers Find Their Ideas?

On Inspiration

How To Write A Novel

Getting Started With A Book

Hints About Writing A Story

Novel Outlining 101

From Notes To Novel

Plotting A Novel

Why Don’t I Have A Plot, And Where Do I Get One?

How To Create A Character

Creating Characters

Character Creation

Name That Character! (2)

You And Your Characters

How To Write Backstory Without Putting Your Reader To Sleep

How To Use Foreshadowing

How To Write Dialogue (2)

How To Make Your Writing More Interesting 

Writing Block

How To Get Unstuck

Advice For Young Writers (2)

On Word Counts And Novel Length

Top 4 Ways to Know Your Idea is Novel-Worthy

How A Book Gets Published

How Do You Go About Getting Published

And remember: Google is your best friend.

how to make a story file

As I am preparing for Camp NaNo*, I have been working on my story file. It occurred to me this might not be common or popular practice. “Story File” is a name I gave it and maybe some of y’all have a different name with the same contents. 

*There’s still time to apply to join my Camp NaNo cabin!

My Story File contains everything about my story that doesn’t go in the outline.

It’s broken up into major categories and specific templates. So without further ado, here is how I structure my Story File. 

Intro

Title

Logline

Synopsis

Genre

Estimated Total Length (word count)

Draft Length Goal (word count)

Character Bank

Main characters and brief, one-sentence descriptions with ages

Themes and Character Development

Central Question

The Yes/No question that is being asked through the whole story

Should have objective qualities, rather than subjective

i.e. “Will they fall in love?” (subjective) vs. “Will they leave their partners and become a couple?” (objective)

Thematic Questions

These are the internal conflict questions that reside in your character(s) and your story

ex. “Can there really be a successful government?”

ex. “Does grief excuse bad actions?”

Themes at a Glance

Words or phrases that relate to the themes of the story

ex. person vs. nature

ex. isolation

ex. grief

ex. first love

Motivation / Stasis State / Final State

for each main character, you should write a sentence or two pertaining to these three things

Motivation: What is the drive behind this character and their past, present, and future actions? What part of their background makes them the way that they are? What are they looking for? What do they want out of this/a situation?

Stasis State: What are they like before the inciting incident? What problems and questions do they have?

Final State: What has changed about them and their outlook? What questions have they resolved? What has happened to their internal conflict?

Relationships

I usually make a little web of the MCs and their relationship to one another. One for the stasis and one for final.

Stasis: How do these characters see each other? How do they act toward the other? (All before the inciting incident)

Final: How do these characters see each other now? How has their idea of one another shifted? 

Even if a character dies before the end, include the most recent relationship status in the Final web.

ex. this is how I organize it, using the Draw feature of Google Docs

Character Bank

This is just a very preliminary character bank. If you prefer a more in-depth one, check out my 6 Box Method.

Per (relevant/important) character:

Name

Nickname/preferred name

Age

Field/Occupation

Personality

Personal History

Education/Occupation History

Extra Notes:

Worldbuilding Bank

(Check out my worldbuilding posts on Categories Pt. 1 and 2 for better context)

Seasons and Climate

Languages

Other Cultural Pockets

Folklore and Legends

Fine Arts

Dress and Modesty

Classes

Jobs

Currency and Economics

Shopping

Agriculture and Livestock

Imports and Exports

Literature, Pop Culture, and Entertainment

Food and Water

Holidays and Festivals

Family and Parenting

Relationships

Housing

Religion and Beliefs

Government

Health and Medicine

Technology and Communication

Death

Transportation

Plants, Animals, and Human-environment Interaction

Education

Beauty Standards

Gender and Sexuality

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I hope this helps y’all and supplements what you’re probably already doing. I know it’s helped me tons to have everything in a central place.

Best of luck!

how can i make a plot feel more like a plot rather than just things happening to characters ? i have a general idea for the plot but 1) i dont feel its strong enough 2) i dont know where to end my story (character travels to an unfamiliar place, learns about the place and then what ?)

Fleshing Out Plot Ideas

If you’re writing a short story, original or fan-fiction, you really just need a point or story goal to tie it all together. What are you trying to accomplish with this story? What are you trying to illustrate about the world or the character to the reader? When you figure out what that is, it’s easier to hammer a plot into something that accomplishes that goal.

If you’re writing longer fiction, such as a novella or novel, there are a few things that need to happen in order to take your idea from a “plot idea” to an actual plot:

1. Character Arc/Internal Goal - Your protagonist or their world (or both) needs to transform throughout the story. Most stories follow a positive change character arc, meaning that something negative about the protagonist transforms into something positive by the end of the story. For example: a character who is timid and afraid of the world learns to be bold and courageous.  This thing that needs to change for the better represents their internal goal. Sometimes, with darker stories, the protagonist will go through a negative change arc, meaning that they start out with positive traits (ie: they’re confident and successful) which, through the course of the story, turn negative (ie: they become insecure and unsuccessful). In this case, they may have a lofty or undesirable internal goal which precipitates their downfall. Once in a while, you’ll see stories with static character arcs, meaning that the protagonist themselves doesn’t change, but they create change in their world or another character. In this case, their internal goal is represented by their need to help/change the other character or the world.

2. Inciting Incident/External Goal - Longer stories can’t just be a bunch of random events that happen to your character. These events need to help bring about whatever change you decided upon in #1. The best way to kick off this life changing chain of events is to turn your character’s world upside down. This is the inciting incident… the moment when something happens that changes your protagonist’s normal life forever. In The Hunger Games, it was Prim’s name being chosen at the Reaping, which caused Katniss to volunteer in her place. In Harry Potter, it was Harry getting his letter to Hogwarts. In Twilight, the inciting incident was multi-part, beginning with Bella’s move to Forks, meeting the Cullens, and ultimately figuring out Edward was a vampire. In response to this life disrupting incident, your protagonist needs to form a goal… willingly or because they have no other choice… and this goal is what’s going to carry the rest of the plot. This is called the “external goal” because this isn’t anything to do with what’s inside themselves, this is a real, tangible goal they want to accomplish. In Twilight, Bella’s external goal was to stay alive despite the nomads being after her. In The Hunger Games, Katniss, too, wanted to survive so she could go home and take care of her mom and sister. In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo needs to take the ring to Mount Doom so it can be destroyed.

3. Antagonist/Obstacles - Your story also needs to have an antagonist or antagonistic force. This can be a literal “bad guy” with “henchmen,” it could be a creature like a rampaging dragon or escaped dinosaurs, a natural disaster like a flood or asteroid, or it could even be your character themselves, wherein they’re their own worst enemy. Whoever or whatever your antagonist is, they or it will create obstacles that make it harder for your character to reach their goal. If the inciting incident was an alien invasion, and your protagonist’s external goal is to escape the occupied city to reach a huge safe zone the where the Earth military is amassing, the aliens (and any agents acting on behalf of the aliens) will be the source of problems or obstacles that your protagonist has to overcome on their way to achieving their goal. Sometimes they will be successful in overcoming these obstacles, sometimes they’ll fail and have to try again or find a workaround. But this struggle to overcome obstacles on the way to achieving the external goal is what creates the action of the story.

4. The Final Showdown - Somewhere in the last quarter of your story, your protagonist is going to have to confront the antagonist/antagonistic force in a big final showdown. If your antagonist is an evil wizard, this will be the big magic battle. If your antagonist is a fire-breathing dragon tormenting your protagonist’s village, this is the moment when your protagonist is going to unleash everything they’ve got to try and kill the dragon once and for all. If the antagonist is a bunch of zombies in a zombie apocalypse, this is the moment when your character leads all the zombies into a field and sets it ablaze. Whatever happens, this is also the moment for your character to demonstrate how they’ve changed. For example, if they were timid and afraid of the world at the beginning, this is the moment where they prove they’re bold and courageous.

5. The Denouement and Ending - In most stories, the protagonist is going to be successful in vanquishing or surviving the antagonist/antagonistic force, though in some stories the protagonist will fail. Either way, the denouement is where all the dust settles following the final showdown. Injuries are tended to, losses are mourned, a promise to rebuild is made. Then, the very last thing we should see is what your character’s life is like afterward. In the beginning of the story, before the inciting incident, we see the character in their normal world, before everything turns upside down. This is the opposite of that. Now you show what our character’s life is like after their world was turned upside down and they tried to right it again. In many stories, this will be a happy ending. I some stories, this will simply be a hopeful ending. In fewer stories, it may be an all out sad or tragic ending. If you take all of these things into account, they should guide you not only through the action of the story, but lead you to a natural ending as well. Good luck!

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Brief summary of my wips

(inspired by @titaniaen) 

Bloodlines: what if you meet your soulmate during a war between your people and have to deal with the unexplainable emotional consequences while also realizing that your family has been lying to you about your heritage for the past twenty years

Solene’s verse: local gang of queer orphan street kids feat. a narcissistic wizard and a cowardly wallflower work together to rescue their friend from the authorities before everything goes to hell

Star White: ageless dark cosmic entity abducts a man’s boyfriend, so he gets a dog and finds a ship that turns him into Nicholas Flamel to search for him across the entire universe the longway round

The Wasteland / the waste wip: area man goes on the world’s worst walking roadtrip with a light necromancer after his girlfriend blows up their entire village and herself with it. the world is horrible and on fire and all we know but somewhere else there might be green things and mud and a pseudo-goblin king

Revenant wip: a war machine woman who can come back from the dead and her snarky crossbow-slinging longtime best friend turned boyfriend are your token straight couple, leading the equivalent of a medieval biker gang to tear the castle down

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Huevember -green

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WHY DO CHARACTERS MATTER? 

I’m a big fan of characters, obviously. (That’s not even all of my characters. I have two BINDERS worth of character sheets.) But why? Surely other elements of story are just as important, like the plot, setting, tone, etc. And they are! But I think characters are the most important aspect of the story, for a few reasons: 

They are the lens through which we view everything else. Characters color the world we create. Sure, you might write a world guide, but largely, we see the world through the eyes of the characters, so they have to be good eyes to see through. (Even if they’re blind.)

They can save a bad story. Not to say any of you have bad stories, but they can add something to a lackluster story that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Think about Bioshock Infinite. It’s one of my favorite games, even though the gameplay is okay and the story is convoluted at best. I praise it almost entirely for the relationship between Booker and Elizabeth. They make that game, and if the characters (especially Elizabeth) weren’t as memorable as they are, I doubt anyone would really care much about Bioshock’s failed prequel. 

The more complicated and intricate a character, the more you can do with your plot. If you have a flat character, you can’t make them act. They can’t do much except react to the plot happening around them. But a complex character with a good backstory and interesting motivation will interact with the world and change things in it, which is the basis of plot. 

HOW I MAKE MY CHARACTERS

I’m going to walk you through my process, and hopefully do my best to make it easy for you to understand.

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Looking for a random cause of death for a character? Click here.

Looking for a random city? Click here.

Looking for a random city that people have actually heard of? Click here.

Need a random surname for a character? Click here. (They also give prevalence by race, which is very helpful.)

Helpful writing tips for my friends.

WriterofthePrompts Ultimate Ask Masterlist

I’ve decided to make a masterlist of asks I’ve done to make them easier to find for you guys (and for myself). I split them into categories as best as I could by genre and topic. Also, some asks have some helpful tips in the notes as well to check out (some are marked but not all) and if you have anything to add that you think would help, feel free to reply or reblog with your addition. I’ll try to keep it updated with future asks.

Now without further ado, the strangest and most wonderful list I’ve ever made.

World Building

Urban fantasy prompts/creating urban fantasy world (also linked under fantasy)

Links to help with world building

Creating a pantheon of gods

Things to research when writing a historical novel (also linked under Historical)

Using metaphors in descriptions

Too much world building?

Asking questions to develop a magic system

Wizard school ideas

Why magic would drain from a world

Tips for descriptions

Reasons for civil war

Character Development

Writing confusion in your character

Obstacles to character goals: traveling abroad

Reactions to sadness

Reactions to a devastating event

Showing a character’s anxiety towards something

Showing a character’s secret without revealing it

Reasons a character would die for another

Secrets in a character’s past

Culture shock with loss of rules

Growth of a trainee witch

Characters provoking other characters

Dealing with moving to a completely new place

Why a 19yo would allow a strange boy to live with her

Why a character would want a do-over in life

Showing a character going from good to bad

Possible good messages when the villains aren’t reformed

Kid growing up surrounded only by adults

Quirks for characters

Showing friendship with reserved characters

Introducing an antagonist

Introducing side characters

When you don’t think your character’s backstory fits

Writing Different Types of Characters

Writing antiheroes

The reluctant hero

Writing a violent character afraid of their mind

Making an immoral character likeable

Not a normal girl

Sympathetic villain

Making sure your character isn’t just a flirt

Writing intelligent characters

When your hero isn’t very heroic

Confident characters

Writing an antisocial character

Character Family

Visiting family for the first time

Showing closeness in siblings (opposite twins)

How a joker and a quiet character can become friends

Daughter of a party organizer prompts

Parent jobs where the kid needs to keep up appearances

The mom that left comes back…a vampire

Including character’s parents

Why a character would leave another

Sibling relationships

character with an abusive father (and how to show fear)

Romance

Writing a slow paced love story

love interest vs the ex revamped

Platonic male x female relationships

Random places to get married

Suspense and romance with a “different” male lead

sad relationship prompts

Asexuality and romance

Mutual pining

Romance with large age differences

Childhood friends falling in love

Fluffy unique first kiss

Ways of showing commitment in characters (vampire edition)

Friendship to romance

Small situations for a couple story

fantasy creature and human fluff

characters meeting and falling in love during war

Why best friends might fall in love

Unlikely soulmates prompts

Sci Fi

Using dreams as energy

Time travel prompts (asked for male x female protags)

Time travel: how saving someone can go wrong

Reliving memories

Android characters

Writing humanoids in post apocalypse

Consequences of growing a baby in an artificial womb (theoretical)

The evil AI that characters can’t (shouldn’t) destroy

Girl and guy get trapped in the same body

Rich people in post apocalypse

Discovering you have a doppelgânger

Superheroes

Teenagers, hormones and their superpowers

Weird superpowers

Superhero kids reluctant to be superheroes

Aliens

beings traveling to Earth

Why an alien wouldn’t be able to leave Earth

Reasons an alien would be sent to live on Earth

Human/alien team surviving on hostile planet together

Fantasy/Paranormal

Urban fantasy prompts/creating urban fantasy world (also linked under world building)

gods losing their powers

creations turning on their creators

How elemental powers might work

Why NOT to destroy the world when it’s your goal

Mistreated genies

Tropes of a fantasy (also linked under Writing Motivation/Tips)

Male character ideas in a fantasy

Immortal woman prompts

Beauty and the Beast revamp

How Death and a teenage girl become adventure teammates

Powers for magical beings writing down history

Girl meets demon from forest behind her house

Reverse fairytale prompts

Revamped fairytale prompts 2

Manatees being confused by mermaids

a princess befriends a baby dragon

Making a character believe in a cure for a curse

Egyptian gods living among us

A love between the sun and the moon

What fantasy creatures do on Halloween

Human and fantasy creature become pen pals

Creatures

Monsters and urban legends

Fantastic creatures

A little bit on dragons

Kind dragons

Magic and Witches

witch x wizard romance

witch prompts

Witch being protective over a human-turned-doll

magical boarding school

Ideas for curses

A young witch exploring the boundaries of her powers

Traps a wizard could set for a thief

Angels and Demons

Angels and demons

Angel as a human on earth

Jobs for angels and demons who fall in love

Physical impacts on a demon who keeps dying and coming back

Demons hunter prompts

Vampires

Human meets vampire 1

Human meets vampire 2

How to hide your vampirism from your family

Royal vampires

Vampire hunter gets bitten by a vampire

Reasons a locked up vampire would go after your character

Why a vampire and vampire hunter would work together

Vampire x werewolf forbidden love

Ghosts

Helpful ghost prankster prompts 1

Helpful ghost prankster prompts 2

Human and ghost solving mysteries together

1776 woman with supernatural abilities prompts

A medium whose friend is in a coma

Medium question Pt. 2: their fatal flaws

Battle Scenes

Writing Battle Scenes Tips

How to lead up to an action scene

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