“I think we should break up.” Simons words were like a ton of bricks, nearly taking the wind out of you. He stated it so plainly, without any hesitation that it had your entire world spinning.
“Wait, what?” You asked, struggling to blink away the hot tears that were threatening to fall. “Simon, you don’t mean that.”
“I do.” His eyes landed anywhere but you, a trick you knew he had in order to keep his composure. There was something more he wasn’t telling you.
“But why? What’s changed?” Your voice was quivering now, praying the man you loved so dearly would just look at you. “Simon, what’s going on?”
Intriguing Openings: Start with a bang! Drop your readers into the middle of action or create a mystery that begs to be solved. Make them curious from the first sentence.
Character Backstories: Dive deep into your characters’ pasts. Share their quirks, secrets, and defining moments. Readers love discovering what makes characters tick.
Sensory Descriptions: Paint a vivid picture using all five senses. Describe the smell of freshly baked cookies, the feel of a soft summer breeze, or the taste of a sour lemon.
Plot Twists: Keep your readers on their toes with unexpected plot twists. Surprise them by turning a seemingly predictable story into something extraordinary.
Cliffhangers: Leave your audience hanging at the end of a chapter or post. A well-placed cliffhanger will have them eagerly awaiting the next installment.
Metaphors and Similes: Add color to your writing with creative comparisons. For example, “Her smile was as bright as a thousand suns,” adds a vivid and poetic touch.
Character Relationships: Explore complex dynamics between characters. Highlight their conflicts, alliances, and the evolution of their relationships throughout the story.
Symbolism: Incorporate symbols or motifs that carry deeper meaning. They can enhance the overall theme and give readers something to ponder.
Narrative Voice: Experiment with different narrative voices, such as first-person, third-person limited, or even second-person, to find the one that suits your story best.
Foreshadowing Mysteries: Drop subtle hints and clues early in the story that will become crucial later on. Readers love piecing together mysteries.
Unreliable Narrators: Consider using an unreliable narrator to keep readers guessing. They might misinterpret events or hide critical information.
Flashbacks as Puzzle Pieces: Use flashbacks strategically to reveal key aspects of the story or characters. Make them fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Dialect and Dialogue: Give characters distinct voices through their speech patterns and accents. Engaging dialogue can showcase personality and culture.
Emotional Rollercoasters: Take readers on an emotional journey. Make them laugh, cry, and experience every emotion alongside your characters.
Settings with Personality: Make the setting almost like another character. Show how it impacts the characters and the story’s mood.
Evoke Empathy: Share characters’ vulnerabilities, fears, and desires. Readers relate to flawed, authentic characters with whom they can empathize. Let them fail.
Experiment with Structure: Play with non-linear timelines, multiple perspectives, or fragmented narratives. Challenge traditional storytelling conventions.
Clever Wordplay: Incorporate puns, wordplay, or clever language usage to add humor and depth to your writing.
Cinematic Scenes: Write scenes that readers can visualize as if they were watching a movie. Use dynamic action and vivid descriptions.
Leave Room for Imagination: Don’t spell everything out. Allow readers to use their imaginations to fill in some blanks.
Remember that storytelling is an art, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. You can use these techniques to improve your unique style and the story you want to tell. Most importantly, have fun writing.
And remember to drink enough water!
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Summary:You have seen him in your dreams. The seer has divined his coming. But nothing has prepared you for witnessing him in the flesh. (Historical AU where König fights for the Roman Empire in an auxiliary unit, finds a cute barbarian woman and decides to keep her as his own.) Part 1Part 2 Word count: 9.4 k Tags/warnings: 18+ ONLY. Spoils of war/enemies to lovers trope, graphic depictions of violence, historical gruesomeness, pining, odd banter, mixed feelings, romantic fluff, dubcon cuddling, eventual smut. Captor/captive dynamic. König is a brutal warrior… and a gentle giant. A/N: König takes liberties with his mouth. Dubcon is at its most dubcon in this chapter so please tread carefully <3 The actual smut happens in the next (and last) part. Long chapter because these two just can’t behave!!
In the same way that artists collect reference photos, fashion designers collect fabrics and textures, and interior designers collect paint chips, writers must collect sources. A source could be:
Evocative, funny, or interesting dialogue
A description you’ve never heard before
Interesting and rare words
A cool dream you had
A paragraph from a book you love
A specific feeling or experience
Something you saw out in the real world
A snippet of conversation you passed by on the street
A smell that gives you a particular memory
Any other piece of art, writing, music, design, a sense, story, etc. etc.
Essentially, anything that sparks your imagination, that’s evocative of the human experience—of that humanity and closeness we’re always trying to capture. My creative writing prof said to us, “why are you waiting for a ‘muse’? Go to your sources. Don’t just wait for inspiration to strike.”
She cautioned us not to try to make sense when we put together our sources, but rather make meaning. The nice, easy part is that anything you put together will create meaning. So here’s what we gathered to get started, but I also challenge you to carry a journal or a place on your phone to start collecting things you find out in the world.
Choose a one-word or sentence theme that describes your project. For this theme, collect:
A photo, taken by anyone at any time
A poem, written by anyone
A paragraph from a newspaper or magazine article, then scramble it using the “cut up machine”
A screenshot of something posted on social media
A series of text messages, emails, or other communication between parties
A screenshot of the abstract of a scholarly article
Good luck, and if you’re comfortable, I’d love to see your collections!
I think my favorite translation-related detail in the Witcher saga that separates the original Polish version from English lies in Geralt’s horse(s), Roach
He names all of his horses “Roach,” which in English, is a very grim-sounding name. It immediately stirs the thought of a cockroach, and it sort of fits the grimy dark fantasy aesthetic that the series has going for it, as well as Geralt’s personality as someone who likes to keep things simple and uncomplicated. He gives the name to every horse he owns, further adding to that.
Meanwhile, in the original Polish version, his horse’s name is Płotka, which to my understanding is a diminutive form of płoć, which is a type of fish, known as a common roach in English, which is actually a pretty small and common fish. It being a diminutive form, it’s also basically saying “Roachie” instead of “Roach,” so all things considered, it’s meant to be a tiny, adorable, cutesy name, but that gets completely lost in the translation. It’s like naming your horse “Guppy” or something.
