Wordsnstuff Masterlist
Masterlist
Link to Google Sheets version
Masterlist
Hi everyone!
I’ve uploaded the article/Q&A schedule for the first two weeks of August on Patreon, which I will continue to do going forward.
Along with early access to the schedule, you gain access to all articles/QnA a week before they go live here on Wordsnstuff.
Additionally, patron requests and questions are prioritized. They have direct access to message me via the patron-only discord server for workshopping stories with me and other writers in the community. I will soon start hosting live write-ins and write-a-thon livestreams on Patreon as the community over there grows.
Hope to see you over there!
x Kate
Do you seek out/enjoy book reviews and recommendations?
Yes it’s regularly apart of my reading routine
Occasionally I check the reviews on a book I’m interested in
Sometimes I consume reviews as entertainment
I like to see the opinions of certain people
I don’t seek them out often
I’m not interested in the opinions of other people
I never read reviews
Anonymous asked
Sorry if this question has already been asked, but I haven’t seen anything similar anywhere. So I really love world building and characters, and I can spend hours figuring out their intricate details and visualizing them in my head. I would love to start turning them into stories, but that’s where I simply blank and have difficulty coming up with even a basic plot line. How would you recommend coming up with basic plots when you already have worlds and characters thought out?
Making a plot for your world and characters…
I often consider the outline of a story to surround the three pillars of events, environment, and characters. When you are struggling to develop any one of these elements, I find it helpful to examine how the other two are interacting. If you begin (in this instance) with a fairly developed environment and set of characters moving within it, you can analyze the interactions between the two and discern where there might be opportunities for conflict. Approaching plot development this way will primarily put your story in the character-driven category.
A more detailed example might look something like this:
You have an ensemble cast of characters who live in a dystopian society where death has been eradicated during their lifetime. They are all old enough to remember a world before immortality, and society has witnessed cultural conflict in response to this advancement in technology. This could be approached from many angles, such as dissent or advocacy from religious groups, cultural groups with practices related to death, social classes who have lesser access to the technology, political groups who manipulate the issue to their benefit, etc. Each character in your ensemble will have their own personal views and be affected individually by this factor of the environment you’ve put them in, so find the conflict in each of them. Perhaps one of the characters is inheriting a leadership position in a cultural group that advocates against the use of the technology to prolong life as it goes against their beliefs. Maybe another character is of a social class that has limited access to the technology and is going to great lengths to cure a sick family member.
That is the thought process of development that will make it easier to create a central conflict and plot for your story.
- Identify unique factors of the environment
- Consider your characters’ established place within the environment
- Anticipate conflicts between the two
- Exploit those conflicts to create tension
- Outline the development of all conflicts to find the through line plot of the story
I hope this helps, and as always you can feel free to reach out if you have further questions.
x Kate
–
If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee, or pledging your support on Patreon, where I offer early access and exclusive benefits for only $5/month.
rosegrl18 asked
Hello! I see you’ve answered questions on outlining chapters for stories/novels, how to begin chapters, and chapter length, but my question is, when should your fan fiction be a one shot or a multi-chapter work and if you make it a multi-chapter work, how do you decide where to split everything up into the chapters? If you’d like, I can PM you a sample of my current WIP so you can see what I mean. Thank you!
Selecting the placement of chapter breaks…
There are several factors you should consider when strategizing the chapter structure of your story, and the ending is by far one of the most critical. The way you manipulate the breaks in the narrative is imperative to holding your reader’s attention and maintaining the addictive quality of the story. This concept is easily extended to fanfiction, and fanfiction is one of the best places to examine how people organically utilize this device, as it is episodic in nature and often updated over lengths of time, mimicking the experience of media like television.
For the purposes of this discussion, I’m going to focus on how one would approach this in a traditional novel format but please remember that these principles can be applied to multiple formats including fanfiction and even television scripts.
When approaching the end of a chapter, your goal is to build tension and anticipation in the reader. Essentially, you need to make whatever might happen next seem too intriguing to walk away from. You want to leave a question (old or new) unanswered but make it clear that their curiosity will be satisfying if only they stick around a few more pages.
You can also elicit this feeling by resolving something within the narrative that creates a moment of satisfaction, and this feeling will leave them in search for more. Like giving them a taste and promising that on the other side of the next chapter header, there is more of that feeling to indulge in. It is simply good practice to consistently weave these satisfying chapter endings throughout the story, otherwise the reader may become frustrated with a lack of perceived payoff to the build-up.
Overall, a chapter should serve as somewhat of a container. Identify what your chapters are designed contain, and then correspond the chapter breaks to that design. For example, if the chapter is primarily about progress in a character’s arc or a major new event in the conflict, centralize the chapter on that factor. As you approach the ending, create some kind of resolution to the central factor while leaving a loose string that the reader will definitely notice and desire to pull on in the next chapter.
I hope this helps, and of course if you have any further questions my ask box is always open.
x Kate
–
If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee, or pledging your support on Patreon, where I offer early access and exclusive benefits for only $5/month.
Writing Prompt
A child’s imaginary friend reads bedtime stories every night. One day, the child realizes the story contains an instruction manual.
Tag your responses with #wordsnstuff // Ko-Fi
Which resource masterpost would you like to see next?
Resources for Writing Machines & Technology
Resources for Writing Neurodivergence
Resources for Writing Relationship Dynamics
Resources for Writing Occupations
See ResultsThis is the last of 3 polls that will be available this week, inviting you to participate in determining which topics are most relevant to you!
All of these are pieces of ongoing series that I’m working on developing, so they will be made eventually, so don’t worry if your choice doesn’t come up first.
If you have requests for which articles you’d like to see next, any request included with a donation on Ko-Fi is bumped to the top of my list, and of course Patron requests are always considered first when I’m making the schedule!
If you’re unaware of the format, some examples of posts In this series are “Resources for Describing Physical Things” and “Resources for Writing Injuries”
30 Days of Action/Adventure - June Monthly Writing Challenge
– This month’s theme is action/adventure! Instead of doing a full story for every prompt (unless you’re up for it), the challenge is to brainstorm and write at least 500 words pertaining to each day’s prompt, and then on the 20th choose the writing prompt you were most inspired by and submit a short story around the initial blurb. Submit your draft by the 30th and every story submitted under the hashtag will be in a wrap-up post on the 3rd of July! I encourage you to post your daily responses to the prompts, but it’s not required in order to be featured in the wrap-up.
I look forward to seeing all of your guys’ responses here using the hashtag #WNSAdventure and over on Instagram, where you can tag me @ writingandsuch.
This challenge begins on June 1st, but I always post a day early to give you some time to plan stuff out, because you may need to switch some days around to accommodate your schedule. You’re free to do one day’s challenge on another day if your schedule doesn’t allow enough time to complete that day’s challenge. Best of luck to you!
Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist
–
☼ Prompt List ☼
- A choose your own adventure story with characters that can talk to the narrator. x
- A medieval fantasy party are on their adventure when they encounter an abandoned modern day city, the lights seem to be on, but nobody’s home. x
- You are able to manipulate and manifest your tattoos, moving them around your body and turning them into real-world objects. Wings, a dagger, or even something as mundane as glasses. Always at your disposal. x
- You set out on an adventure to save someone, but slowly realize that you like the adventure more than you like them. x
- You Are a being that has been gifted with immense power by a cosmic entity at least two hundred million years ago. Or something. You don’t really care much anymore, and you now work as a librarian suffering from depression. x
- You are a hero, but you have no tragic backstory. Nobody believes you when you say that your village is fine and that your mentor is eagerly awaiting your first letter home. x
- “As a CIA assassin, I was assigned to eliminate a reporter who was digging too deep. I tried everything from shooting and stabbing to poisoning and bombing, but all my attempts failed. My frustration grew as I couldn’t figure out why.” x
- You have superpowers, but unlike the other heroes you do not fight criminals. Instead you found numerous other ways of improving the lives of the general population with your powers. Unfortunately the other heroes have misgivings about your reluctance to fight and have sent you an ultimatum. x
- You were the chosen one, that is, you would have been. You have avoided the original call to action and every subsequent call to action since. Now you’re 30, you have a family, and you think you have successfully avoided adventure. Suddenly, the phone rings. x
- A fortune teller foretold that twins would be born where one was evil and the other was good. A year later, a woman gave birth to a boy with horns and bat wings, and a girl with angel wings and a halo. The boy was sent away, while she and her husband raised the girl. They kept the wrong one. x
- You find an intriguing choose your own adventure game. Little do you know that the actions in your game happen to people in real life. x
- Write a story narrated by each member of a superhero/adventure team. Each tries to portray themselves as the main protagonist and the other(s) as a humble sidekick. x
- A psychologist sits down for his usual biweekly appointment with his patient, who is suffering from severe PTSD as a result of being the protagonist in a well known action/adventure film. x
- Your mission is to write the worst opening to a YA dystopian novel ever. x
- When people turn 18, they gain the ability to summon one random thing in the world to their hand, as Thor does Mjolnir. As you summon yours it takes some time but people are horrified as it finally arrives… x
- Your superpower isn’t anything special. You can make stuff disappear behind your back then pull it back out again. When a friend at a party asks you to do it to them it sounds like a great laugh. But when you pull them back out they look older, disheveled, and are frantic to be sent back. x
- Your wife has just been put on trial for witchcraft. You know your wife isn’t a witch, but you are. x
- The rest of your party is always making sure that you, the healer, stay in the back. Not because they don’t want you to get hurt, but because they all still remember the last time you took the front line and nobody wants a repeat of that. x
- Your significantly older, more rundown self steps out of a portal and instantly dies. They were carrying a notebook filled with the exact actions that lead to their fate. The first record is dated tomorrow. x
- Begin the draft of the short story you will write using your answer to one of these prompts as a jumping-off-point.
☼ Possibly Helpful Resources ☼
- General Tips on Chase Scenes
- Tips on Writing Fight Scenes
- Tips on Writing Chase Scenes
- How To Make The Journey Interesting
- 10 Mistakes to Avoid in Action
All prompts are from the reddit /r/writingprompts page, and credit to the original posts are linked on the (x) next to each prompt.
–
If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee, or pledging your support on Patreon, where I offer early access and exclusive benefits for only $5/month.
Which prompt list would you like to see next?
Dystopian Prompts
Roommate AU (fanfiction) Prompts
Poetry Prompts
There’s Only One Bed (fanfiction) Prompts
See ResultsThis is one of 3 polls that will be available this week, inviting you to participate in determining which topics are most relevant to you!
All of these are pieces of ongoing series that I’m working on developing, so they will be made eventually, so don’t worry if your choice doesn’t come up first.
If you have requests for which articles you’d like to see next, any request included with a donation on Ko-Fi is bumped to the top of my list, and of course Patron requests are always considered first when I’m making the schedule!
I will be posting a Monthly Writing Challenge for the month of June later today as well!
Which guide would you like to see next?
Guide to Writing Redemption Arcs
Guide to Writing Short Stories
Guide to Writing Science Fiction
Guide to Writing First Person Perspective
See ResultsThis is one of 3 polls that will be available this week, inviting you to participate in determining which topics are most relevant to you!
All of these are pieces of ongoing series that I’m working on developing, so they will be made eventually, so don’t worry if your choice doesn’t come up first.
If you have requests for which articles you’d like to see next, any request included with a donation on Ko-Fi is bumped to the top of my list, and of course Patron requests are always considered first when I’m making the schedule!
Part of this particular “Guides to Writing” series is a segment where I answer questions directly from my inbox or the comments of this post so please submit any you have regardless of the results and I will include them in the article.
Did I daydream this, or was there a website for writers with like. A ridiculous quantity of descriptive aid. Like I remember clicking on “ inside a cinema ” or something like that. Then, BAM. Here’s a list of smell and sounds. I can’t remember it for the life of me, but if someone else can, help a bitch out <3
This is going to save me so much trouble in the future.
Okay this website belongs to @wordsnstuff do us both a favor and go to THEIR blog sksks
