Harry/Draco Writing Support

hello my fellow writers,
to another dose of writing info you might not need, desperately want, or never even expected to be there!

• Proofreading 101 - The ultimate List of Things to Edit For is a nice short article, giving you an overview for sort of stuff to look out. i don't see it as a have to but more like guidelines that may actually help- i at least hope they may help you.



• Master List: Medieval Names from England because i needed that for a fic and so i though maybe you can need it too, and so here I am sharing it. check it out, i find some of the names wicked and yes we all agree mrs donovan's smile in that picture is rather frightening
  
  
• 25 things about creating characters
  this is also a quick list, but with the new year around the coiner i think there might also be quite some new characters, and maybe this list will help you assemble them and find a good story that befits them too!

A MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all!
i hope you will have a great time and a fantastic day!
i wish you all the best and a happy 2017 to come!
see you in the next year! i still have quite some sites left to share with you ;)
best of luck and all the writing mojo to us all!

may the muses be with you!
and remember all words are good words (even the words that are gone due to edition!)





do you want more tips on one certain topic that i so far completely ignored? (i am posting here what catches my fancy in hope to motivate you to get words down- so if you have something you need to know or read or be motivated on, let me know and i shall dig around the net trying to find something for you)
do you have a tip you want to share, but are thinking: "meh"- just pm me or write me a mail smirkingcat[at] yandex. com and i shall check it out and include it in a future post [with your name or without it]

greetings my fellow writers
and are you ready for the christmas frenzy to begin?
this year as a reward i will do slythindor100 25 days of christmas so i might not be able to keep my commenting with mini_fest, hd_owlpost up as much as i did in the last year, and well over at hd_erised, i still have fics from 14 to read *headdesks*
but NONETHELESS lets enjoy christmas time to the fullest!

• first on todays post here you go with 7 tips for wrting great first person narrators. which not only has great tips with nice examples but also gets your brain thinking about the difference of narrators, in other POVs too.



• next i have 10 Signs of Underdeveloped Characters in Your Novel for you. and boy that one is like a hit to my face, when i think about my owl, because some of the struggles i had and some of the very bad parts of my fic can be explained with this list *hides beneath the blanket*



• and finally for this week i have for you How to Write Arguments with Maximum Punch. this is not only a quick read, but a real life saviour, as some conversations do come across as too styled, and with these 2 simply tricks you can check it very quickly. give it a try!

may the muses be with you!
and remember all words are good words (even the words that are gone due to edition!



do you want more tips on one certain topic that i so far completely ignored? (i am posting here what catches my fancy in hope to motivate you to get words down- so if you have something you need to know or read or be motivated on, let me know and i shall dig around the net trying to find something for you)
do you have a tip you want to share, but are thinking: "meh"- just pm me or write me a mail smirkingcat[at]yandex. com and i shall check it out and include it in a future post [with your name or without it]

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for all those who have left me some very kind comments over at the fandom-love meme let me tell you again: THANK YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

hello my fellow writers, creators and story-tellers!

• for today first entry i go with what i can only imagine must worry us all sometimes How filler words make writing boring. we all _know_ that we should keep the reader close to the action but sometimes it's still hard to archive, or we simply forget, so here a reminder, with good examples, and good links at the bottom for further reading



• next i have Master the Outline - 12 Methods for Plotters and Pantsers Part I and Part 2. now before you lynch me: there are really only 11 methods and one huge advertisement, but as i myself struggle with plot and plotting i do read and reread a fair amount on that topic, and as far as the 11 methods are concerned, i found the way the blogger presents them easy to understand and useful. and i shall take this moment to go on a small rant: i'm still not plotting really, i'm more of the attaching comments and notes in either my ywriter or my bibisco which are both free software- and no i dont receive any money for telling you about them, but as i used them both now for nearly a year, and still cant decide which i like better, i take the liberty to tell you about both of them, and how i use them for different things:
  
  
  
  1. i use ywriter for when the story is clearly in my head and i fight to contain it all- its simply to use, allows you to shift everything around and to note everything down for when you really need it, for me its the: stay on track programm
  
  
  
  2. bibisco is the opposite: i have 3 stories where i have the idea and the general "what should happen" down but the rest is just not there. bibisco has this awesome feature where you have to answer questions about character, development, places, general story- with this questions my ideas get more form so that helps me focus on the story and i quite like that!
     
  
  to go for full disclosure here i make extensive use of pen and paper and digital i also use word, one note (on my mobile mostly), and focuswriter too. currently focuswriter is where i put down my owl, i can set timers there, and its rather difficult to switch the window, and i find the spacey background inspiring- especially with good music, and when you are not in the music focuswriter has a setting that mimics typewriter noises- it's so much fun hammering away on them, those are the times i manage like 600 words in 30 min because the noises are fun!. i say that because i dont have the one solution for how i write, i have different needs based on my mood and on the story, and so i have different programs- and most of the time its easy to switch from one to the other.
  so yeah plotting, pantsing and everything in between.



• and lastly i have this nice but on the spot blog entry for you on how to balance a big cast. i found it inspiring and also quite interesting and comforting, while i know that hd story can thrive with harry and draco alone, but some stories just get that much better for their amazing side cast and all the characters that too got to have their say.

this concludes this weeks and this months monday resources! i hope there was something here for you!
lastly but not least before i shall shut up- let me invite you to:



smirkingcat dares you to challenge yourself and get rid of the long avoided tasks on your to do list in one month!
Click the Image to get to the Introduction Post.
Join anytime and get your stuff done!



may the muses be with you!
and remember all words are good words (even the words that are gone due to edition!


do you want more tips on one certain topic that i so far completely ignored? (i am posting here what catches my fancy in hope to motivate you to get words down- so if you have something you need to know or read or be motivated on, let me know and i shall dig around the net trying to find something for you)
do you have a tip you want to share, but are thinking: "meh"- just pm me or write me a mail smirkingcat[at] yandex. com and i shall check it out and include it in a future post [with your name or without it]

so halloween is really close now- i hope you all are having a nice time and lots of fun with rectober, and preparing for nanowrimo so here i have some hopefully useful and nice things for you again!
best wishes and good luck!

• first as i see nanowrimo on the horizon: this little pdf about novel in a month might be useful: this is a worksheet compilation where you can keep up with your progress, tbh i just print what i need and i print 2 pages on one (a5, but then i do all my writing in a5)



• next lets talk about stereotypes and why the might not always destroy your story: 3 Ways to Make Character Stereotypes Work in Your Story weiland explains that yes stereotypes might be already familiar but that they still might be useful and sometimes exactly what we want to read. and when you think about all the cliches we put in fanfiction (glasses!draco, powerful auror!harry etc) you totally can understand where she comes from. but i believe it is always useful to read it and think about it a fresh- this blog entry, while rather short may help you with that



• and last but not least i have this info- sheet about Traumatic Brain Injury for you. its interesting just to think about it- but i want to especially point out the Resources on this sheet- if you ever have to work with anything brain- damage related go there! (i researched that for a friend who is writing in german, and it was useful to her, so i thought it might be useful to you as well)

and today i have a little bonus for you: Brainstorm Spark- Deepest Fears

may the muses be with you!
and remember all words are good words (even the words that are gone due to edition!


do you want more tips on one certain topic that i so far completely ignored? (i am posting here what catches my fancy in hope to motivate you to get words down- so if you have something you need to know or read or be motivated on, let me know and i shall dig around the net trying to find something for you)
do you have a tip you want to share, but are thinking: "meh"- just pm me or write me a mail smirkingcat[at] yandex. com and i shall check it out and include it in a future post [with your name or without it]

hello my fellow writers!
i hope the mojo is high and the muses are busy with drowning you in awesome words?
*fingers crossed words come easily*
i have some new resources for you- lets hope i have something you might need:

• Story Structure Basics- 13 Major Beats is a very interesting read that shows how you can make emotional rollercoasters starting with an outline and what to think about- this might be handy for plotters but it is also useful for ppl like me- who are not plotters but note-takers on the way - as it shows us where we might be in the story and what we have to include. i personally found it a very interesting read, and i do endorse you to check out some of the stuff he names but also the site itself, it is a good read IF you are interested in the methodical site of writing.



• 7 Tools For Pacing A Novel & Keeping Your Story Moving At The Right Pace might be what we all need to read (if we feel insecure about pacing). so thanks to ravenclawsquill for pointing that out to me. Pacing your Story is a tl;dr version if you just want a quick overview. what both fail to mention in my opinion is that some stories need to be slow- when not much is happening but the character is laid bare for the reader to analyse there is no need to do it fast - umberto eco comes to mind here and he did a fantastic job with slow pacing stories



• Pucker Up: Writing the Kiss That Makes Readers Melt is a very fascinating read, and i think just the right kind of inspiration that we might need for all the christmas stories we are writing at the moment - and for those already writing awesome kissing-schemes: any more comments that might help us struggling with it?

good luck with words and progress!!!
and remember: all words are good words!



do you want more tips on one certain topic that i so far completely ignored? (i am posting here what catches my fancy in hope to motivate you to get words down- so if you have something you need to know or read or be motivated on, let me know and i shall dig around the net trying to find something for you)
do you have a tip you want to share, but are thinking: "meh"- just pm me or write me a mail smirkingcat[at] yandex. com and i shall check it out and include it in a future post [with your name or without it]

so this weeks post is actually written last week by me, as i am away on a nice awesome weekend-trip right now, so from my past me to the future you i have some nice treats that i hope will help you keep on writing, without further ado let's start:

• our first entry focuses on villain development and what should be remembered when it comes to villains, the thing about villains is that while they are incredibly important to the story, they are also incredible hard to write or to get right and this blog entry might be able to help you to flesh out the villain of your story some more; what is not said but what is said in many other of the resources i posted so far: it is not important that everything you know is in the story, but it is important that you as the author are knowing all the details, because while not telling them they will shine through your writing! so time to spent some time with our villains!



• i'm not too sure- is september to early to think about halloween? well, regardless here i have a nice post about writing horror, gore and scary stuff (be advised there is a lot of advertisement going on on this page) i found it interesting- especially as i am myself at the moment are working on fleshing out a gore scene, but also the point about "making the danger real" really was enlightening, and as a whole the article was just interesting to read and inspirational with great tips for how to keep the horror alive and going on



• and this weeks last entry, because i found it incredible useful and interesting too is about writing realistic fight-scenes and yes i know with magic we dont really have to bother with realistic fight scenes, but still sometimes our characters get into fisticuffs and ultimately a wand equals a weapon and so the after effects of the fight will be there, maybe even more so as the wizard has to use his own magic
  and then truly knowing how to write a fight scene is never something bad, am i right?

with this i shall conclude this weeks resource post!
i'm about to finish my great weekend trip and might put words down in the evening too so i shall wish you a lot of mojo and energy to get into writing too
and remember: all words are good words!


do you want more tips on one certain topic that i so far completely ignored? (i am posting here what catches my fancy in hope to motivate you to get words down- so if you have something you need to know or read or be motivated on, let me know and i shall dig around the net trying to find something for you)
do you have a tip you want to share, but are thinking: "meh"- just pm me or write me a mail smirkingcat[at] yandex. com and i shall check it out and include it in a future post [with your name or without it]

welcome back for another post of monday ressources
and sorry to the hd_fan_fair pet-fair writers who are agonizing fun at writing, i totally forgot because i was overwhelmed with all the amazing christmasy things that will come and contemplating if i might actually do 25 days of christmas myself this year - no decision made yet, it's not completely off the table, but anyway good luck to you folks too! and all the words.

as i was asked by the sweet carpemermaid for some mystery resources it is once again special feature time!
as for the last time i will warn now here: some of the posts say the same things but add information that was not there before, i try to have a lot of variety but cutting all of the redundancy is impossible so maybe it's best not go over it in one day because it will bore you and nothing will be learned
dear carpemermaid i hope this is as useful to you as you hoped it would be *fingers crossed i havent let you down*


special edition: mystery

• first i have this info-graph of a skeleton that might help with plotting a mystery novel:
  
  
  
• so after that nice picture: in a nutshell- you have 30 sec.- what is the difference between mystery and thriller?
  do you know it? are you sure?
  well, i for one had no clue as i started out researching today's post so here we go with wikihow which not only explains the distinction but also how to make a mystery work, i would say nice introduction to our special feature. a tl;dr version of this page (but without the distinction between thriller and mystery would be this 5 steps to your story page.



• here is an amazing page that explains in easy words how to keep the reader glued to your story, i especially liked the note that the reader of a mystery wants more then of a normal story- that there must be a puzzle that as a reader i have to be able to solve. i have read many stories in which the person whodunit was never mentioned until the reveal and yes i felt betrayed because how could i know that, when i did not have that piece to the puzzle? - anyone want to bug in share their experience? am i too sensitive here, does it not really matter when the culprit is introduced and relieved? don't get me wrong i understand that the master in the dark does not have to be known from the start, but the person who did the crime that person i want to know, to agonize if that person did it or didn't do it.



• this page is a nice overview of what you have to do and think about before you go into your story and during the process- i like it because it's short and to the point, which makes it very useful. you can extend those advises by checking out this post. the focus is on publishing, but the tips are helpful



• the next entry is from chuck wending's blog. i personally quite like him because i think he has a way to motivate me to get stuff done and in this post he has 25 things about creating mystery.



• short but spicy is what i would say for this page, with it's title "Understanding The Essentials Of Writing A Murder Mystery" telling you everything you can expect from the page: it will tell you the do's for mystery and also where to focus first and what not to let slip out of sight, which as a writer is always good to know



• now i have two collections for you: first this site, which is a small collection about how to research and write mystery. i have just skimmed over some 8 random pages from this site, but they were rather interesting and also helpful. and next this page that has lots of help for how to handle your characters well- especially the bad guy (i also only skimmed over it- if you know it well is it any good? do you have any opinion on it?



• at the end of the writing comes the summery, and this how to write a mystery-novel-synopsis might help with that, even if a synopsis is way to long for a summery, it might give you some ideas. also please go check out the links below- especially the one on: pacing in mystery novel and the one on the difference between conflict and crisis as i found them both very interesting and can only encourage you to check them out too.



• here is a nice discussion between two mystery writers that i found very engaging and interesting
  
  
• at this point the redundancy will be showing, but maybe that will really help to let the info sink in, why i want you to check out this page is because of the point:"help the killer cover their tracks" as this was not mentioned before in great detail BUT is a very important part to mystery



• this page is littered with self advertisement BUT it gives you short tips (which at this point you have read on one entry or another before too) in one place and put it in a way for you to stay organized




• the last entry on mystery will in it's conclusion tell you that you might survive a mystery novel by 3 keypoints and that all the other stuff is nice by-work but might not be necessary- , the author gives good examples, and also i find has a very motivating attitude in his words, and some helpful advice


and finally here are some quick look ups for thriller just to have it covered and so that the difference we read about in the first post really sinks in:


• here is a mind map with what all could be linked to thriller- its huge, massive and messy but also interesting just to look at
  
  
• here are 5 writing tips when you want to go on and write a thriller. i found them interesting in the
  openness but at the same time inspiring and helpful- so up on the list they got

last but not least i want to add one more blog-page: nine tricks to write suspense in fiction because it does not matter which genre suspense is always a great way to keep the reader reading on!


with this i shall conclude this weeks resource post!
i hope it was helpful- despite it being so long, i tried to always include pages that at least at one point not mentioned before and disregarded a lot of other pages out there so good luck with writing all the mysteries, best luck with words! and have fun creating whatever you want to create!
and remember: all words are good words!


do you want more tips on one certain topic that i so far completely ignored? (i am posting here what catches my fancy in hope to motivate you to get words down- so if you have something you need to know or read or be motivated on, let me know and i shall dig around the net trying to find something for you)
do you have a tip you want to share, but are thinking: "meh"- just pm me or write me a mail smirkingcat[at] yandex. com and i shall check it out and include it in a future post [with your name or without it]

so it is august!
hd_hurtfest writers are on their way hd_erised participants got their asingment yesterday - and did you folks see the excitement about that? and the hd_owlpost creaters and those who want to be have still a chance to sign-up till 21.8. and slythindor100 25 days of harry and draco on the horizon (the far far horizon but as we are talking about dezember it has to be named!)
and -never to forget which i did and i apologize for- the amazing contestants at the H/D LDWS also at slythindor100 are striving to dish out a next amazing round, which makes it impossible to vote for!
with so many things going on in the hd-coiner of fandom alone (not even mentioning hp_drizzle, interhouse_fest, hp_nextgen_fest, hp_creatures, hp_shoreofangst)
i bring you some resources again! may the be of use to you!

• so for the first entry, i though it might be helpful to remind us how many words we can get down in one day- if we really want to; so here is an article about How to write 10k words in a day. i found it really motivating and while the tips sound familiar it helped to reread them and bring them to the front of my mind again, as to not forget them
  as a bonus here is a longer version that has some more tips and revoles more about time management in the long run, i find some of them encouraging others where just meh, so this is really rather an option not a you absolutely have to check it out



• next i want to introduce you to the writing department from 'tales of wonderland' if you did not know it before. i have not yet read it all, but what i checked out and saw when i skimmed through seemed pretty useful- if you know the page any thoughts on it?



• and last but not least i have some food for thought for you and how your opening shall foreshadow your ending - its a true short read but also give the comments a try some of them are really good! and yes i agree with one of them pointing out that this trick works especially well with mystery novels
  

*drags a mountain of mojo in the room*
i also wish you all the inspiration you need to get started or get stuff done!
and remember: all words are good words!


do you want more tips on one certain topic that i so far completely ignored? (i am posting here what catches my fancy in hope to motivate you to get words down- so if you have something you need to know or read or be motivated on, let me know and i shall dig around the net trying to find something for you)
do you have a tip you want to share, but are thinking: "meh"- just pm me or write me a mail smirkingcat[at] yandex. com and i shall check it out and include it in a future post [with your name or without it]