Ah, writers block. Any writer’s worst enemy. Honestly, for myself I always try to avoid getting stuck in this difficult cycle by taking breaks. Though I know some people aren't actually always good at giving themselves that.
I would advise that you shut the laptop or book or whatever your writing in, go and do something. Eat something, drink some water. Dont think about your writing. Not yet. Just wind down away from it because if you think about it while trying to take a break you’re not actually giving yourself a break. And I guess thats actually with alot if not most things.
Once you’re ready, I wouldnt go straight into writing. Read what you’ve gotten so far. You dont need to have pages full of beautiful words. Just create a skeleton. Piece by piece. A bulleted list outlining what takes place next. So you have something to work from. And when you go back to it, things will emerge that you hadnt even originally expected or planned in the first place. And I’d say thats a good indication that your creative juices are flowing once again.
Also I’d say to read. For enjoyement. Try to get yourself emerged into a good story so you can remember why you fell in love with writing in the first place.
Just dont be so tough on yourself having to constantly write, though. Its pefectly acceptable to take breaks between the fog!
that’s so nice of you to sayyy 🥹🥹🥹i’ve actually answered a question pretty similar to this before, so i’m gonna repeat some of that advice!!
watch movies!! watch films, skits, shows, literally anything that inspires you. becoming more observant of things like body language, facial expressions, dialogue, pacing, cinematography, and the way a story unfolds can help your writing SO much. i’m a huge film nerd, so a lot of what i’ve learned about storytelling has honestly come from just watching things and paying attention to why certain scenes work.
be honest and true to yourself!! i know it’s really easy to get caught up comparing yourself to other creators and wanting to write exactly like them. and there’s nothing wrong with being inspired by other writers!! you can absolutely learn from their writing, read books, study different styles, etc. but make sure you take what inspires you and eventually turn it into something that feels like you. if you spend too much time trying to replicate somebody else’s voice, it can delay you from discovering your own.
honestly, i would recommend trying to write completely on your own at first. don’t worry about whether it’s “good.” just get your ideas down. you’ll learn what you like, what you don’t like, what comes naturally to you, and what you want to improve.
you also don’t have to write every single day to get better. just be present. be willing to fail, learn, try again, and experiment with things you’ve never done before. YES, it takes time. YES, it takes practice. but time is going to pass anyway, and you get to decide what you want to do with that time.
so really ask yourself do you want to spend that time wishing you could write like your favorite bloggers, or do you want to actually take the initiative and start working toward becoming the writer you want to be?
and PLEASE don’t be scared of being bad at first 😭 you’re supposed to be. you’re learning!! nobody develops a voice overnight. just start writing. even if you hate what you wrote later, you can look back and see how far you’ve come.
i think it’s important to remember that the “two cakes!” logic applies to your own work as well. if you want to write two fics exploring the same concept or theme, or do art of the same character or two different characters in the same colors or using the same motifs then you should do it! two cakes applies to you, too! make whatever you want, no one cares! inevitably someone will just be excited to see another thing you made and enjoy it!
Every writing manual repeats the same phrase ad nauseam: “Show, don’t tell.” It took me a while to figure out how to apply this convincingly without being obvious or dragging things out.
Telling is simply providing information. Showing is creating a scene so the reader experiences that information for themselves.
Look at the difference:
Telling: Tom was extremely anxious about the job interview. (Okay, I get it. But it’s dull.)
Showing: Tom gnawed at his thumbnail while staring at the reception clock. Every three minutes, he wiped the sweat from his palms onto his jeans. (Here, I didn’t need to use the word “anxious”; the reader already felt the tension of the moment.)
But the big lesson today was: you don’t need to show everything, all the time.
If you try to turn every tiny action into a highly descriptive scene, your story’s pacing dies and the reading becomes a slog.
SHOW:During crucial moments in the story. Fights, revelations, heartbreak, emotions, the climax. Use it here to add emotional weight.
TELL: During time transitions and irrelevant actions. “They took a taxi to the hospital” works perfectly well. No one needs to see the driver shifting gears.
Reminder: Fewer adjectives and adverbs, more action verbs.
Get excited! The prompt list for Pine Tree Prompts 2026 is here! We’re also including the list as text below the cut! We look forward to seeing all your wonderful creations in just one month!
It’s such an amazing feeling when someone picks up on something in your writing that you 100% intended but didn’t think people would notice. Like, YES!! My writing properly conveyed the thing it was supposed to!!! You are so awesome for noticing that!!! I am so awesome for writing that!!! I feel so good about my story now!!!!
Hello again fellow wip-havers and happy Spooky Month! Due to The Great Ao3 Blackout we decided to drop this a little earlier to make our wife going away to war just a bit easier. (We miss you ao3!) We once again join up for the month where we take a step back (lie), relax (also a lie), and work on our wips! (True.)
Last year we had a cool seafoam and sunflowers vibe but this year we’re reaching for the stars!
I bring you: Stars and Sunsets!
If you’re a super sleuth you may notice the squares are all the same as last year, but shuffled. For that I must ask your forgiveness, life got in the way (smh). Still, I suspect that all squares will still apply to your respective wips! A listed version of the squares will be available below the cut!
As always, there’s only one rule:
Finsh Your Wips!
The goal of this bingo board is to get those dusty works finished off so feel free to adjust or interpret the squares as you see fit if it helps you achieve your goal! And, for my lovely server members exclusively, you all will have some added incentive! (Gift fic prize for blackouts perhaps?)
Anywho, thank you for being here for NWN2! Please feel free to tag the tumblr, use the hashtags, or join the server to let us know how you’re fairing! We also have a collection on ao3 (no_wip_november_2026) and would love to see your works there! Can’t wait to see what you guys finish! (Fingers crossed!)
The #1 thing that makes your story predictable are your characters. If readers can guess each of your character’s thoughts or decisions, they’re likely to be thrown off.
I’m not saying your characters need to add a twist each time. There must be some situations where your characters need to waver between two choices so that your readers don’t know which one they’ll pick.
Here’s how you do it:
1. Make a rough character sketch.
Step 1 of story writing. There needs to be a basic blueprint of what your character is like. You assign them a role, physical traits, emotional traits, shape, size, qualities, body type, background, name, age, gender, etc. This gives you enough to work with, and a lot of room for modifications.
2. Create a background story + present environment.
Give them purpose. Let’s take the hero for example.
Why are they the hero?
What drives them?
What is their goal in the story?
Do they have to go through an extensive journey or can they take a more relaxed approach?
What are their most noticeable features/qualities? How should these help them in the story?
How do they take the plot forward?
What is their contribution to the conflict of the story? How do they initiate/resolve it?
Which obstacles will they encounter?
Do they have any useful talents?
What are their flaws?
Where do they come from?
What is their family like?
What kind of friends do they have?
Many more such questions that can help you understand your character better so that you can make your story more eventful.
3. Insert opposing qualities.
Basically duality. Give your character a good quality, and make their flaws the exact opposite of it.
Examples:
Confident — Egoistic
Curious — Nosy
Persuasive — Manipulative
Rich — Money-minded
Fun-loving — Blithe
Adventurous — Reckless
Good-looking — Shallow
Intelligent — Evil
Strong — Aggressive
You can implement unique ones depending on your character.
4. Give them secrets.
Your characters must have something they need to protect or defend. It could be a person, an object, a feeling, land, vehicle, anything.
When you give your characters a secret, you give them a reason to lie/twist a circumstance or act out of their usual character. This helps modify the story itself.
5. Values don’t always align with actions.
Your characters will hold a set of values. Usually, those values decide their actions. Mix it up. In some cases, make them they do something that does not align with their values.
But, to make it more human, do this with moral ambiguity. Their actions are unusual. Make it look fair to them. Let’s take Walter White (Breaking Bad) for example. He goes from a family man to a ruthless criminal. Why? Because he wants to protect his family. To him, it’s justified. To the world, he’s still a criminal.
Characters are a lot more human when they’re layered.
Happy writing :)) if you’d like more such advice, do follow!
Stories stall when everyone behaves. Real tension appears when someone:
• asks the wrong question • says something they shouldn’t • notices something uncomfortable • refuses to drop the topic • misunderstands something important • interrupts at the worst moment
Conflict doesn’t always look like shouting.
Couple more options for tension:
They want something REALLY REALLY REALLY bad, but for some reason they can’t ask for it – or can’t have it even if they did ask.
They don’t notice something that the audience HAS noticed (like in a horror movie when the monster is sneaking up behind the protagonist, or if someone drinks a glass of unboiled water during a cholera outbreak because they don’t know about germ theory)
Takes a risk (or otherwise does something they “shouldn’t” do) which the audience has to sit through for a prolongued period of time (e.g. slips away from the party to go into the host’s private office and rifle through their papers before the guards catch them)
i can pretty much guarantee that ↑that↑ is not a heading you see everyday.
now i will not be giving advice on writing cyclopses, (though it may be sort of the same thing) i still hope this will be helpful for some people out there that are looking to provide a more diverse cast to their wip!
i have never ever ever read a book, watch a show movie etc etc that involves a character with one eye. (aside from those badass characters who wear eye patches bc they lost sight in one eye in some badass way)
for context: i am one of many people who was born with microphtalmia, an eye disease that results in one or both eyes develope smaller than normal at birth. i myself was born with a smaller left eye, which resulted in my left eye being removed exactly twenty days after birth.
microphthalmia (along with many other eye diseases) typically leads to being half or fully blind. i lucked out and only lost my left eye which i am so so thankful for.
i would really really love to see more representation for my community in literature, especially so people would come to see that being half blind isn’t as unusual and weird as people make it out to be.
without further ado, i present to you, a list of information, facts, and first hand experiences from yours truly!
i’ve had prosthetic eyes made to fit my eye socket for about fifteen years (i’m 16 lol) (the first 6ish months after the surgery i never had a prosthetic)
in my life i’ve had four different prosthetic eyes made because just like other people, my eye socket grew alongside the rest of me, meaning the prosthetic needed to be made bigger
i’ve had my current prosthetic for four years now, the past ones lasted about 2-3 years at a time. this one will probably last me through the rest of my life unless i need/want a new one
as opposed to most media/assumptions, my prosthetic (along with most prosthetics) is PLASTIC (people always think it’s glass) and only half a circle!!
i’ve had three surgeries related to my eye
i do not have depth perception which makes doing certain things very difficult (estimating distance, how close/far i am from something etc)
driving is not affected too much, i just have to turn my head more than other people. i believe being blind in the right eye might be more difficult, but i couldn’t say
doing my make up is kinda easy, except for eyeliner is a pain in the ASS since most people close their eye to do it on their upper lid, but clearly i can’t close my right eye whilst doing it lol
my family as well as my friends and even myself often forget i have a prosthetic, which sometimes results in awkward/funny situations
i hate walking with people on my right bc i can’t tell where they are unless i’m constantly looking down at my/their feet
i sucked at basketball bc i had such a disadvantage (no depth perception, i could only see half the court, i was constantly turning my head) but professional swimming is much easier for me since it’s not a contact sport and doesn’t really require for me to be paying attention to a million things at once
i rarely have to take my prosthetic out, and if i do, it’s either to clean it, (we do get eye crusties on our prosthetics just like other people do when they have pink eye or sever allergies) it’s bothering me/really dry, or i want to take it out to show/scare people lol
a lot of people don’t realize when i first meet them that it’s fake bc my recent prosthetic is amazing accurate to my real eye. others notice and assume i have a lazy eye since it doesn’t move
for some reason people think i can’t cry out of my left (prosthetic) eye??? i still have a tear duct??? i actually think more tears come out of my left tear duct than my right lol
i am extremely self conscious about it, but i know there are other one-eyed beauties out there who aren’t which is amazing!! i try to live vicariously through them lol
i make sooo many jokes about my eye lol, and i’m usually ok w other people making jokes as long as they aren’t like overly rude/offensive, then i’ll feel a lil bad about my self
people never really made fun of it, but kids in middle school likes to wave things in front of my left eye/on my left side that i couldn’t see which got really annoying after a while
getting custom designed prosthetics are available, but they’re really expensive (so are normal lol) they costs thousands of dollars, just like other prosthetics do
i run into things that are on my left side ALL THE TIME it’s actually kinda funny lolol
i try to hide my left eye/turn more to my left side in photos bc my eyes aren’t always looking in the same direction, which really gets to me
i wear glasses for both protection and bc my right eye is -1.75 lmao but i did used to wear non-prescription glasses purely for safety
i do have contacts to wear during the summer, swim meets etc, for when i don’t want/can’t wear my glasses but need to see. bc of this, i have a second pair of glasses that have no prescription
if doctors/scientists managed to figure out a way to fix microphthalmia (a birth defect), or do a sort of eye transplant, i would not be able to have that done to me because all parts of my left eye have been removed from my body
microphthalmia is NOT the only disease that results in the haver losing sight in one or both eyes!! there are many others, but it is not my place to share any experiences for something i have not experienced!!!
for once i just want to see a clumsy character who has one eye that WASNT a result of some tragic event.
so please please please consider including a character with one working eye in your wip. it would mean the world to myself and all the other members of the community (there’s a lot of us, trust me) plus, i wouldn’t mind starting an acting debut playing a half-blind female protagonist, that would be so dope.
that’s about all i can think of for now! please send an ask or reply to this post if you have any questions, i’m willing to answer any!!! and if you happen to be a member of the one eye club, please add to this post!! that would mean the world to me:)
Such a polite ask, I'm so happy you fell in love with what I do. I hope I can help you with your question.
First, you should set the scene:
Describe the environment they are in, where is the tired partner working, where is the concerned partner and what are they doing?
Describe the atmosphere. How is the lighting, is it quiet? What sounds can be heard?
The caring partner:
You could start by them casually asking if there is anything they can do, or when the partner thinks they are finished with work. Backing off when their partner still seems adamant to work.
The caring partner is busy as well, but you could write them keeping themself busy and awake - first, by quietly reading a book, playing on their phone, then going over to tidying up, doing the dishes, etc. Still careful not to disturb their working partner, but with enough noise that it's heard.
Then, standing in the doorway, looking at their hardworking partner, wondering how to approach best.
Taking action:
Gently interrupting their partners work, the caring partner approaches quietly, not wanting to startle or disrupt too much. Placing a hand on their partner’s shoulder or gently call their name.
Offering small, comforting gestures: offering a tea, a blanket, a snack, a quick cuddle.
Trying not to be overbearing, but showing their love and also concern.
Being gentle, but firm in emphasizing that they need some rest.
An initial resistance turns into a sweet moment of shared comfort between both tired partners.
Dialogue Prompts:
"Even you need a little a rest from time to time."
"Come on, let's take a short break together and then you can successfully finish this."
"Do you want some company to get you through this?"
"Here, I made you some tea. Would you like a snack as well?"
"You're under a lot of pressure. Just know that I am here for you."
"Let's finish this up, so we can cuddle in bed soon."
allow yourself to be bored: keeping your mind occupied at all times with music, podcasts, books, shows, tv, social media feeds, or whatever won’t allow it to process the input and develop new ideas. next time you’re on the bus and bored, just let your mind wander
consume media: read articles, books, wikipedia pages, folklore… draw inspiration from anything and everything
curate playlists and pinterest boards
every time you have an idea about a plot, a story idea or even just one line of dialogue, put it in a long list that you can come back to any time
create a rich world with a lot of fleshed out characters and details. it is easier to create a story when you actually know what you are working with rather than having to come up with everything alongside your plot
[Prompt Calender: April 21st, World Creativity and Innovation Day]
I also like the idea of showing something as a problem before it’s shown as a strength. Almost every character trait has two sides, and by showing the “bad” side first, it sets things up to not only make sense, but to also be very satisfying.
If you haven’t been around Dreamwidth recently, you may have missed a great post at GYWO! All links are member-locked, so if you’re not signed up for the challenge, you won’t be able to access them.
Developing Your Style: Let’s consider how a writer creates and maintains their style of writing
Harnessing ADHD to Write: Learn how to trick your ADHD into working for you, not against you, with this simple acronym
Creating Atmosphere through Description: How to describe the world through the POV character, revise to focus on the right details, and find a killer detail that illuminates the scene
When describing embarrassment, blushing is typically used as an indicator. I’m white, but I recognize that darker skin tones shouldn’t show blush the same way as lighter tones. My friend, with medium skin, told me it only shows in her nose and ears, felt more as intense heat radiating from her cheeks than a visible color change. What is your insight on handling blushing? I feel this is especially important for proper portrayal of PoCs in romantic situations.
Anonymous said: You’ve written some great advice for describing black characters, but I was wondering whether you have any advice for describing a black character blushing? I have face blindness, so I’m having a lot of trouble with this. (otherwise I could just look up pictures and describe those) So sorry to bother you!
I’m glad you’ve asked. It bothers me how often I’ve heard “Black people don’t blush” which only seems to be another way to dehumanize Black people (and defeminize Black women) for not possessing this base human reaction, even if it’s not always notably visible.
Everyone can blush, even if you do not see it
Everybody blushes. Or rather, can blush or grow flushed. It’s the physical act of blood rushing to the face, ears, chest, and other areas of the body; how visible the output does not dictate whether it happens or not.
But can you see it on dark brown skin?
Maybe, maybe not. In either case, likely not in the same way as a white or lighter person. And just how dark or rich their skin makes a difference.
Black people and other BIPOC are not all one shade, and one’s skin does not react in all one way. There is so much variance.
A Black or brown person with lighter brown skin may very well blush from embarrassment visibly.
A Black or brown person with darker brown skin may not blush from embarrassment visibly, although their skin can still grow flushed from other or related factors.
While skin fairness has its part, blushing and how visible it is has a lot to do with the individual (Some folks also have better blood flow). The undertones within their skin makes a difference too.
I’m going to steal my undertones chart from the Skin Tone Guide here:
As shown above cool skin colors have undertones that mostly fall under red/pink shades.
Centralized rosiness in dark, cool skin tones
I’ve seen dark, cool-skinned people with naturally rosy cheeks that catch the light, reflecting in a rosy-brown color.
I can only imagine when they blush, those reddish undertones are emphasized or brightened, even if slightly, in the areas the light shines on their cheeks.
They may also visibly flush from outside factors; seeing it may vary depending on person.
See these beautiful dark-skinned woman. Do you see how the light reflects white and rosy off of their cheeks?
Overall face flush / hue change in warm skin tones, and possibly centralized to certain spots (nose, throat, etc.)
On the other hand, warm skin is usually in the golden, orange spectrum. Not so much / as red. Still, that doesn’t mean red and pinker coloring doesn’t appear on dark warm skin tones.
But an outside factor would usually need to influence the skin color, not an embarrassed flush alone.
Note: This is in my personal experience. More details below.
Other areas may flush more
Flushed skin can show up in other places besides the cheeks, possibly more visible than the traditional cheek blush. For example, the nose, chest, throat, ears, etc.
I’ll use myself as an example:
I have warm medium skin with golden orange undertones, and I definitely get flushed from extrinsic factors, such as:
Exercise: If I exercise hard. I can turn a berry-red coloring. Of course, the skin remains brown, but it has an overall rosy hue to it.
Cold weather. The cold pinkens my nose like Rudolph. My cheeks can also look more flushed red, but this only happens during rugged winds or really cold conditions. (And again, I have deep brown skin and am not light). The tips of my uncovered ears may pinken as well.
Crying: Being a blubbering, crying mess tends to bring out the rosiness in my skin, especially the nose! Again, no one is turning beet red here. It may be splotchy or centralized to one spot.
So it may NOT be so much like “I’m embarrassed! Now the heat has rushed to my cheeks in a visible blush!” No. More like:
I’ve gone on a long jog. Now my face is flushed.
I’m embarrassed or nervous, and now I’m moving around, gotten my face hot from being flustered, and you can see a visible color.
I’ve cried. Now my face has reddish splotches that will eventually fade.
Focus on the sensation
All that said, a blush doesn’t need to be visible to be written about. You can focus on the sensation, the heat under the skin and the associated feelings.
For example:
“I felt the burn of a blush under my skin”
“Her skin felt hot and flushed.”
“I turn my head away, flustered. My throat and cheeks grow hot under his gaze.”
“My dark skin burns with a hidden blush that i'm relieved no one sees.”
My face felt warm despite the cold wind blowing around us.”
“My cheeks burned invisibly under my brown skin.”
“I know an embarrassed blush had to be burning red-hot under her mahogany cheeks.”
Character with supernaturally heightened senses
A supernatural character with heightened senses may have vision that could pick up on the color rushing to the cheeks on a dark-skinned person who is not prone to showing a visible blush to the naked eye.
Or rather than vision, there may be other senses, such as:
Hearing the physical flow of blood to their face and body.
Feeling the warmth their body gives off as they burn with embarrassment
Visible blush or no, it’s fine either way
Honestly? Even if you describe a BIPOC [with dark skin] as blushing visibly, even when it’s likely not going to be all to visible? Who cares! And I don’t mean that dismissively.
It is not going to impede on your story. It will not have a great and terrible impact.
Not everything in a story has to stick strictly to scientistic rules and scrutiny. This rigidness only seems to come into play when Characters of Color as involved. (In the same way when historical settings are brought up, and now BIPOC need an excuse to exist).
You do not need to overly explain, excuse, or analyze if, how and why the brown-skinned character is visibly blushing. They can flush, blush (invisibly or not) and we move on.
Ways to show embarrassment
In general, it can be redundant to constantly refer to blushing to show shyness or embarrassment with characters of any skin tone. It seems blushing is one of those things that happen more often in stories than daily life. Kind of like green eyes.
For variety, also consider these indicators from this great resource:
DEFINITION: a lack of composure due to self-conscious discomfort
PHYSICAL SIGNALS:
A flush that creeps across the cheeks
Visible sweating
The body freezing in place
Grimacing or swallowing
Ears that turn red
The chin dipping down
The chest caving
A bent spine
Hands curling around one’s middle
Feet shuffling
Clearing the throat
Coughing
Covering oneself (crossing the arms, closing a jacket)
Pulling at the collar
Rubbing the back of the neck
Wincing
Covering the face with hands
Cringing or shaking
Fidgeting, squirming
Stuttering, stammering
Flinching away from touches
A weakened voice
Speechlessness
Toes curling up
Knees pulling together
Arms tucking in at the sides
Sliding down in a chair
Looking down, unable to meet someone’s eyes
Shoulders slumping or curling forward
Responding with anger (shoving, punching)
Gritting one’s teeth, pressing the lips tight
Shielding (having a death grip on a purse)
A walk that accelerates into a sprint
Using hair to hide one’s face
Glancing about for help, an exit, or escape
Tugging a hat down low or pulling a hood over the head
A trembling chin
INTERNAL SENSATIONS:
Excessive swallowing
Lightheadedness
A tingling that sweeps up the back of the neck and across the face
A tightening chest
Stomach hardening or dropping with a manifestation of dread
The face, neck, and ears feeling impossibly hot
Rushed breathing
A rapid heartbeat
MENTAL RESPONSES:
A compulsion to flee (fight-or-flight)
Muddied or panicked thoughts
A disconnect where the mind struggles with belief: This can’t be happening!
Thoughts searching for a solution
CUES OF ACUTE OR LONG-TERM EMBARRASSMENT:
Crying
Running from the room or situation
Plummeting self-esteem
Fear of public speaking or being on display
Withdrawing from groups, activities, and social interaction
Loss of appetite
Obsessing about the embarrassing event, reliving it
Poor sleep
Weight loss
MAY ESCALATE TO: HUMILIATION, DEPRESSION, REGRET, SHAME
CUES OF SUPPRESSED EMBARRASSMENT:
Pretending to not have heard or seen
Intensely concentrating on something else, actively ignoring others
A fake smile
Pretending to laugh it off
Changing the topic in any way possible
Lying
Deflecting attention and assigning blame to another
WRITER’S TIP: Be wary of showing emotion too readily through the act of crying. In real life, it takes a lot to reach a tearful state and so it should be the same for our characters.
Blushing is a physical response, even if you cannot see it.
Depending on skin tones and individual, a dark-skinned person’s blush may be more or less visible.
A flush may show up in other areas of the skin, and not necessarily due to embarrassment (i.e., cold weather, running, exercise, crying)
Really rich, dark skin may not turn red from embarrassment in a traditional manner.
A supernatural character may be able to see, feel, hear, smell the blood of a blush, even where others cannot.
You can focus on the heat and sensation. The blush may be hidden, but it still burn or be felt under the skin.
Whatever you choose to do, it’s fine. There won’t be a big or negative impact to your story to say a dark-skinned character is visibly blushing.
~Mod Colette
Update: This post has been updated October 2026. It was also formerly known as Black characters and blushing. Black characters are still the focus and within the examples, but it applies to other races with darker skin.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
getyourwordsout_feed
