Tag: advice

On By nightmares06In UncategorizedLeave a comment

@randompasserbyer This means the world to me to hear!

I definitely recommend following some writing blogs on tumblr. There’s a lot that have good grammar suggestions, word replacement guides, useful tools to use for when you’re writing. I use stuff as simple-sounding as the title capitalization website here, simply because a lot of the time I completely forget the rules! (Bad memory is one of my main features currently)

Another thing is, even when you start writing, don’t get discouraged. Trust me, no matter how far into writing, we always look back at stuff we wrote years ago and cringe. I can barely read some of my older works without wanting to attack them with corrections. You can see a line of improvement that runs through my stories, all the way back from the first g/t fic I posted (which is no longer online for reasons), through my first Supernatural g/t fic Reversal of Fate, going through An Ounce of Courage, and then the BA series. In my opinion, I hit my stride right around when I was writing Taken, and getting someone to help out and edit and beta, and someone to write with, was one of the best decisions I made for my writing.

If you do get help with your writing! Don’t forget there’s a difference between criticism and constructive criticism! Don’t get down because someone tells you your chapters are too long. Your chapters are too short. Stuff like that is purely subjective! Did you have a reason for those things? If you did, then remember certain types of ‘help’ aren’t the help you need! I did have to learn this one a few times.

Write, and write, and keep writing. Don’t push yourself if you’re having a hard time. Listen to songs that get you emotional. Write what makes you cry. Express yourself and don’t be afraid. It’s all in there just waiting to come out. ❤

On By nightmares06In UncategorizedLeave a comment

nightmares06:

5. Wish

Oh the fate of a sprite who can be summoned. Nixie rues this word some days.

The summons was clear, and Nixie paused in her morning ablutions to cock her head to the side.

Aretha glanced over at her sister, her wings glistening in the morning air. “You will answer?” she asked, her tone as patronizing as it ever was. She gave her wings a flick to get the precipitation from the morning rain in the rainforest off, ready for flight.

Nixie ignored the tone of voice, as she always did. Alone of her sisters, she would never miss a summons. “It is who we are,” she reminded Aretha gently. “We must stop ignoring the calls.”

Before Aretha could respond, Nixie twisted the air and water around herself, vanishing and following the summons as only a sprite of aeternum could. It was the only time they could travel to the human world without using the portal itself to travel, and it brought her right to her destination.

The human world was always a shock, more because of how it changed each time she was summoned than anything. The size she was prepared for; no sprite stood over four inches in height, the fire sprites were the closest to that. Nixie’s wings vibrated once, and she alighted on the edge of the book used for the summons, the glow of the summoning magic fading away from her.

Brown eyes full of tears stared back at her, wide at the sight of the small sprite the summons had brought forth. Nixie waited patiently as the young girl, no more than twenty in her estimation, recovered from the realization that the summoning had worked.

“I am Nixie,” she introduced herself, as she always did. “Why have you summoned me?”

Hundreds of summonings in the past left her prepared for anything that might happen. Many times, she was brought forth to heal the dying or restore the poisoned waters of war. It was her reason for creation, along with guarding the flower of gold.

The girl’s face was framed by dark hair, and it bobbed as she shook her head in surprise. “B-but you… you’re real? Really real?”

Nixie did not deign to answer, merely watching the area around her with a curious eye and taking in the objects used to summon her. The circle could use some work, but the symbol in the center was well-drawn.

“Okay,” the girl pulled herself together and straightened. “I want you to make me the prettiest girl in school. That way they stop making fun of me! I’m not a geek!”

Nixie sighed at that. “Child, do you not know who you have summoned?” she asked gently. “I am a sprite. Wishes I do not grant. What you want is beyond my power.”

“B-but…”

“You should ignore what others say,” Nixie said firmly, thinking of Aretha and her constant dislike of what Nixie persisted in doing. “All that matters is who we are to ourselves. Letting their words bother you gives them power over you.”

She let her wings vibrate again, and lifted off from the book, whipping the pages and the girl’s hair into a mess. The girl opened her mouth. “No, wait!”

With a twinkling, Nixie severed the summoning and vanished back into aethernum.

image

Nixie by aibyou 

On By nightmares06In UncategorizedLeave a comment

@nightmares06

This can be a tough one! For myself, a lot of my best parts depend on inspiration. I listen to music at work during the day, and there will be moments where I just see an entire scene in my head. I keep a notebook to the side and scribble down every bit I remember. A lot of times these drabbles turn into 2k word story parts, and that’s a lot of how I write. Completely unorganized, too. I’ll have an entire story out of order in bits and pieces at first.

The collabs I do with neon, we build off of each other’s ideas. What starts out simple will end much more complicated with fun storylines we never would have come up with on our own.

@neonthewrite

It’s true. With collaborations, stories come together a lot faster just because, when you might be having a block, your partner is there to help bring you out of it. Nightmares and I have hardly slowed down with the writing since we started working together, and it’s great!

For solo writing, I tend to do things a little differently. While I also keep a journal nearby all the time for shorter stories and scene inspirations, I usually end up writing my stories in order. I develop an outline of major points I’d like to see happen in my story, so that I don’t get into a corner that I can’t write myself out of. From there, it’s a matter of making sure everything the story needs is there. Some scenes that seem like they’ll be bigger end up shorter than 2k words (on the flipside, some small things end up at 10k words).

Word count, in my opinion, isn’t as important as content. For example, the conclusion to Hershey Kisses and Salt Lines is around 1.7k words, and yet it got the most explosive response out of any chapter in the whole story. It accomplished exactly the goal in less than two thousand words.

That said, here’s how you can expand word count: give the scene more details. And I don’t mean details that add nothing to the scene itself or take away from the flow of things. Details that put the reader right there can help with the experience while also fleshing out the scene in general. I personally specialize in sensory details and painting the picture of the world that the characters perceive. Nightmares is the queen of getting their thoughts and feelings on point. Both are valid and helpful for telling the story, and it’s ultimately up to you to decide which you’d like to focus on (or put both in there!). Once you start noticing the places where you could add to one or the other, it becomes easier and easier and before you know it you’re considering splitting one chapter into two. 😉