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Deviations33.3K
7 Tips for Adjusting Your Story's Pace by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
7 Tips for Adjusting Your Story's Pace
7 Tips for Adjusting Your Story's Pace Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 7 “From Story to Art” – Section 11 “Pacing” With Links to Supplementary Material Have you ever received or given criticism for a story being too rapid and confusing or too slow and boring? Perhaps you had a specific scene that you just couldn't get to fit right with the epic scene that followed. When writers find these issues, it is very often a problem of incorrect pacing in the text. The speed at which the reader perceived the story was simply not working to make the timing work to create a dynamic experience. Today, I'm going to talk about the fine-tuning proces...
7 Steps to Creating a Great Protagonist by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
7 Steps to Creating a Great Protagonist
PLEASE NOTE THAT WHILE THIS PAGE WILL REMAIN ACTIVE FOR PURPOSES OF EDUCATION AND RECORDS, IT IS OUTDATED. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE NEWEST VERSION.7 Steps to Creating a Great Protagonist Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 3 “Characters” – Section 3 “The Protagonist” With Links to Supplementary Material So I've talked about a couple types of protagonists, and how to create them: Heroes and Antiheroes . As well as what types of Character to Use or to Avoid . But not every Protagonist will be a hero or antihero. Today, I'm going to discuss what universal attributes make a great protagonist, that will drive your story forward. Remem...
Writer's Tip: Writing Effective Sentences by DarlingMionette, literature
Literature
Writer's Tip: Writing Effective Sentences
Sentences—if the plot is the backbone of a story, then sentences are the muscles and tendons keeping it glued together. Unfortunately, writing solid sentences isn’t easy for everyone. As Human beings, we don’t speak the same way we write. Unless you do a lot of writing, you may have trouble putting together even the simplest of sentences. The last time you took a good look at a sentence and broke it down into its individual parts was probably around 3rd grade. Don’t worry—I’m here to help. There’s More Than One Type of Sentence There are (roughly) four different types of sentences, and we’re going to get into each of the different types (w...
Tips to Remember for selling your Art by jadecillustrations, literature
Literature
Tips to Remember for selling your Art
Introduction First things first, a quick introduction coming from myself. My name is Jade Choung, but I am better known as mzzazn / mzzy on the world wide web. I am an artist that primarily focuses on digital media. My art work produced for income is of the anime/manga genre. A majority of my publicity is derived from deviantART.com . I have held the position of Community Volunteer (CV) on this popular art website in the past. A community volunteer is pretty much a moderator. This means, there's a handful of tasks given to a CV on this website, but one that last a huge impact on me was selecting Daily Deviations ('spotlights' for ar...
27 YouTube Channels to Help Improve Your Writing by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
27 YouTube Channels to Help Improve Your Writing
27 YouTube Channels to Help Improve Your Writing Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 11 “Resources” – Section 1 “Youtube Channels” One of the things that inspired me to begin writing these writing tutorials was that, about a year and a half ago, I came to a frustrating point in my writing where I knew enough about the craft to no longer be a novice but not enough to make my novel publishable. In particular, I wanted to find a Youtube channel that I could listen to while I was cooking or working, so that my skills as a writer could increase. Since then I have found (through research, friends, and even you awesome peeps) a list of vi...
8 Tips for Composing Each Chapter of Your Novel by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Composing Each Chapter of Your Novel
8 Tips for Composing Each Chapter of Your Novel Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 7 “Editing” – Section 1 “The Chapter” “Many first-time novelists end up rewriting their first two or three chapters, trying to get them 'just right.' But the point of the first draft is not to get it right; it's to get it written - so that you'll have something to work with.”
-Matt Hughes Recently, we've been working on all of the plot-points contained within a story and what function they serve to the overall plot. And if you've been following along with the “Write-A-Novel” exercises, and written a chapter for every plot-point, you now have a co...
8 Tips for Writing Dialogue for your Characters by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Writing Dialogue for your Characters
8 Tips for Writing Dialogue for your Characters Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 5 “Choosing and Designing Characters” – Section 4 “Dialogue” With Links to Supplementary Material Dialogue is a tricky topic, and for two key reasons. The first is that creating realistic dialogue is a difficult skill to master—even in day-to-day life—without speech coming out plastic, pointless, or otherwise unconvincing. The second problem is that the proper dialogue for your story is deeply rooted within the other elements—the characters, the setting, the genre, etc... Because of this, writing dialogue that is custom fitted to your story, requires adjus...
Huge 600+ Question Character Template by Squirrelette, literature
Literature
Huge 600+ Question Character Template
Brief introduction to your character: "(A quote from your character)" Name First name:
-Meaning:
- Pronunciation:
- Origin:
Middle name:
-Meaning:
- Pronunciation:
- Origin:
Surname:
-Meaning:
- Pronunciation:
- Origin:
Alias:
-Why this alias?:
Nickname(s):
-Why this nickname?:
Title(s): Characteristics Canon/Story:
Role:
Age:
How old do they appear?
Mental Age:
Gender:
Race:
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Blood Type:
Birth Date:
Birth Weight:
Birth Length:
Manner of Birth:
First Words:
Symbol:
Sexuality:
Religion:
Native Language:
Spoken Languages:
Relationship Status:
Chinese Zodiac Sign:
Astrological Sign:
Tarot Card:
Social Security Number:
I...
7 Tips For Writing Action Scenes by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
7 Tips For Writing Action Scenes
7 Tips For Writing Action Scenes Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 7 “From Story to Art” – Section 7 “Action Scenes” With Links to Supplementary Material Action scenes in a novel are a difficult tool to master, but well worth the time and effort to create dramatic an memorable scenes that will engage and entertain your readers. To pull them off effectively, you must be able to keep a quick yet varied pace, keep a tight focus, reflect your story, and make it all quick and crisp. Today, I'm going to give you a starting-point for honing your skills in this method of storytelling. Tip 1: Create a visible plane of space to work within. Blak...
6 Tips for Writing Your Story's Disaster by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Tips for Writing Your Story's Disaster
6 Tips for Writing Your Story's Disaster Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 6 “Plot Points” – Section 7 “Disaster” “There's a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.”
-Plato After your protagonist is defeated in the Midpoint, comes the point at which they will have an emotional spiral into turmoil and dire consequences for everyone who had stakes in your protagonist's victory. Your protagonist will be impacted by this failure more here than anywhere else in the story—feeling like they have just been thrown to...
Writer's Tip: Show, don't tell. by DarlingMionette, literature
Literature
Writer's Tip: Show, don't tell.
Show, don’t tell (SDT). It’s one of the few consistent pieces of advice that all writers have heard at one time or another. Even the most amateur of writers parrot it back, but knowing the phrase doesn’t necessarily mean that we understand it, or how to implement it. So what does “Show, don’t tell.” really mean? SDT is the idea that instead of telling your readers what’s happening in a story, you show them. This seems like an abstract concept to most of us, but what it boils down to is this: using words to give your readers an idea without having to directly state it. There are many ways good writers do this. It can be as simple as addin...
6 Difficult Truths of being a Writer / Artist by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Difficult Truths of being a Writer / Artist
6 Difficult Truths of being a Writer / Artist Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 10 “Publishing and the Writing Life” – Section 1“Difficult Truths” With Links to Supplementary Material Choosing to be a writer has been one of the best decisions of my life; the craft fills me with a sense of purpose, and is honestly the most fun vocation that I could ever hope to do. I am tremendously fortunate to be at a place and time where doing something like this is even possible, and I would never pretend otherwise. However, every path is filled with its share of difficulties, challenges, and hard truths, and I hope that with today's article I can pr...
Finding Motivation by MissLunaRose, literature
Literature
Finding Motivation
This article focuses on novels, but its advice can be applied to any long-term project. Do you tell yourself that you're going to write and never do it? Do you keep talking about your book but leave it sitting at chapter 2 for five months straight? Is it difficult for you to sit down and actually write something?Most people don't write because there are so many easier ways to spend their time. Their favorite show is on at eight. Oh, look, their friend just posted a bunch of photos online. Then they feel like baking cookies. And suddenly, a day that was supposed to be productive has been spent on TV, the internet, and food.When I tell adult...
5 Tips for Word Use in Your Novel by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
5 Tips for Word Use in Your Novel
5 Tips for Word Use in Your Novel Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 7 “Editing” – Section 4 “Words” “Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.” -Friedrich Nietzsche Now that we've talked about how words function as part of a sentence, we're going to look at them as methods of communication, in terms of what they mean and how they function. This means that we're going to be taking a short break from all the technical grammar until next article [pauses for cheers and applause and perhaps booing from the Grammar Nazis (you know who you are, and that I love e...
7 Steps for Creating Your Story's Narrator by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
7 Steps for Creating Your Story's Narrator
7 Steps for Creating Your Story's Narrator Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 5 “Characters” – Section 7 “Narrators” ( Previous Tutorial ) ( Next Tutorial )
“Now if there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that nothing is more powerful than a young boy's wish. Except an Apache helicopter. An Apache helicopter has machine guns AND missiles. It is an unbelievably impressive complement of weaponry, an absolute death machine.”-The Narrator of the 2012 film, “Ted” When writing a novel, a short story, or even a poem, readers often wonder why the author uses certain words, phrases, sentence structures, or why the author ...
How Did I Become A Dominatrix? part 1 by MadamD1, literature
Literature
How Did I Become A Dominatrix? part 1
This is NOT an autobiography. I do keep my private life very private. However, I thought it a worthwhile idea to begin writing a series of short articles relating to the world of fetish, BDSM and how I eventually became a Dominatrix.. There are basically two types of Dominatrix: First there are those women who do it as a means of earning a living and there is absolutely nothing whatsoever wring with that. Also there are 'lifestyle Dommes'. I consider myself to be in the later category.
So, how did I get here? Do young girls ever consider a career in the 'Personal Services' industry? How did I get to where I am at Chez Dee? It's a long, uneven journey with, I must add, plenty of contradictions, life does not run smoothly for anyone.
I am going to begin by trying to share and analyse my earliest memories of being dominant. Something of a Freudian analysis I guess: I enjoyed a comparatively privileged childhood. I grew up in a leafy area of southern England in the 1980's and early
