“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.
“Unless you are following the dialogue with an action and not a dialogue tag.” He took a deep breath and sat back down after making the clarifying statement.
“However,” she added, shifting in her seat, “it’s appropriate to use a comma if there’s action in the middle of a sentence.”
“True.” She glanced at the others. “You can also end with a period if you include an action between two separate statements.”
Things I didn’t know
“And–” she waved a pen as though to underline her statement–“if you’re interrupting a sentence with an action, you need to type two hyphens to make an en-dash.”
You guys have no idea how many students in my advanced fiction workshop didn’t know any of this when writing their stories.
more dnd campaigns with overtly fantastic plots. full on fairy tale bullshit. like something out of mythology or a fable.
the party is tasked to retrieve the moon, which has been stolen from the sky. 87% chance the moon is also sentient.
a color that was locked away by the gods for being too beautiful/terrible/powerful is released again and a dragon of that color now threatens the land. also because it’s new it’s in fashion and everyone who can get their hands on it is wearing this color and it’s starting to give you a headache.
relieve the land of their drought by finding what happened to the rain and bringing it back.
This masterlist is a masterlist of words that you may use alongside the word very, very being one of the most common words that are used when writing. I hope this helps you as much as it helps me in our writing seem more sophisticated and unique.
A:
Very accurate – exact Very afraid – fearful Very angry – furious Very annoying – exasperating
B:
Very bad – atrocious Very beautiful – exquisite Very big – immense Very boring – dull Very bright – luminous Very busy – swamped
C:
Very calm – serene Very careful – cautious Very cheap – stingy Very clean – spotless Very clear – obvious Very clever – intelligent Very cold – freezing Very colourful – vibrant Very competitive – cutthroat Very complete – comprehensive Very confused – perplexed Very conventional – conservative Very creative – innovative Very crowded – bustling Very cute – adorable
D:
Very dangerous – perilous Very dear – cherished Very deep – profound Very depressed – despondent Very detailed – meticulous Very different – disparate Very difficult – arduous Very dirty – filthy Very dry – arid Very dull – tedious
E:
Very eager – keen Very easy – effortless Very empty – desolate Very excited – thrilled Very exciting – exhilarating Very expensive – costly
F:
Very fancy – lavish Very fast – swift Very fat – obese Very friendly – amiable Very frightened – alarmed Very frightening – terrifying Very funny – hilarious
G:
Very glad – overjoyed Very good – excellent Very great – terrific
H:
Very happy – ecstatic Very hard – difficult Very hard-to-find – rare Very heavy – leaden Very high – soaring Very hot – sweltering Very huge – colossal Very hungry – ravenous Very hurt – battered
I:
Very important – crucial Very intelligent – brilliant Very interesting – captivating
J:
K:
L:
Very large – huge Very lazy – indolent Very little – tiny Very lively – vivacious Very long – extensive Very long-term – enduring Very loose – slack Very loud – thunderous Very loved – adored
M:
Very mean – cruel Very messy – slovenly
N:
Very neat – immaculate Very necessary – essential Very nervous – apprehensive Very nice – kind Very noisy – deafening
O:
Very often – frequently Very old – ancient Very old-fashioned – archaic Very open – transparent
P:
Very painful – excruciating Very pale – ashen Very perfect – flawless Very poor – destitute Very powerful – compelling Very pretty – beautiful
Q:
Very quick – rapid Very quiet – hushed
R:
Very rainy – pouring Very rich – wealthy
S:
Very sad – sorrowful Very scared – petrified Very scary – chilling Very serious – grave Very sharp – keen Very shiny – gleaming Very short – brief Very shy – timid Very simple – basic Very skinny – skeletal Very slow – sluggish Very small – petite Very smart – intelligent Very smelly – pungent Very smooth – sleek Very soft – downy Very sorry – apologetic Very special – exceptional Very strong – forceful Very stupid – idiotic Very sure – certain Very sweet – thoughtful
T:
Very talented – gifted Very tall – towering Very tasty – delicious Very thirsty – parched Very tight – constricting Very tiny –minuscule Very tired – exhausted
U:
Very ugly – hideous Very unhappy – miserable Very upset – distraught
V:
W:
Very warm – hot Very weak – frail Very well-to-do – wealthy Very wet – soaked Very wide – expansive Very willing – eager Very windy – blustery Very wise – sage Very worried – distressed
X:
Y:
Z:
A/N: If you know of anymore words I can add please message me.
Here’s a roundup of publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts. Most of them are smaller houses, but a few are pretty big names. I’m including publishing houses that have open calls now and again, even if they’re not open to unagented submissions at the moment.
In Twilight, Bella has absolutely no qualities that make her interesting as a character. She’s shown to have very little personality, in the books or onscreen, and is only made “interesting” (a relative term here) via the inclusion of her sparkly, abusive boyfriend. It feeds into the harmful mentality of adolescent girls that you need a significant other in order to find fulfillment, particularly if he’s significantly older and likes to watch you sleep. Yikes.
Examples:
Bella is welcomed to school by a friendly, extroverted girl and given a place to sit amongst her and her friends. Despite this girl’s kindness, Bella shrugs her off as a stereotypical shallow cheerleader, and spends her time staring wistfully at the guy across the cafeteria from them. Once Edward becomes her official boyfriend, she immediately loses interest in her new friends as her life shifts its orbit to revolve completely around him.
How to avoid her:
Female characters are allowed to have lives outside of their significant others. They’re allowed to have friends, quirks, hobbies, and interests. Give them some.
The best fictional relationships are based off of characters who compliment each other, not one character who revolves around the other. Make sure your female character’s life does not centralize around her significant other.
Strong female characters don’t look down on other girls, even if they are outgoing cheerleaders. Being pasty and introverted doesn’t make you a better person, y’all – if it did, I’d be a decorated hero by now.
Give them aspirations besides getting an obsessive, much-older boyfriend. In fact, don’t give them an obsessive, much-older boyfriend at all – if you do want them to have a significant other, give them one who cares about their interests and accepts that they have lives and goals outside of them.
2. The Molly Hooper (i.e. the starry-eyed punching bag)
Who she is:
Like most things about BBC’s Sherlock, Molly was an amazing concept that went progressively downhill. I used to love her quiet tenacity and emotional intelligence, and was sure that with her strong basis as a character, she would overcome her infatuation with the titular Sherlock and find self-fulfillment. Nope!
Examples:
She remained stubbornly infatuated over the course of five years with an ambiguously gay man who, en large, treated her badly, leading to her public humiliation with zero pertinence to the plot or resolution. Moreover, her infatuation with Sherlock quickly usurped almost all of her other characteristics, leading her to an increasingly immature characterization that was difficult to relate to.
How to avoid her:
By all means, please write female characters who are quiet, kind, and unassuming (a female character does not, contrary to popular belief, need to be rambunctious, callous, or violent to be “strong”) but remember than none of these traits need to make the character a pushover. Let them stand their ground.
Similarly, attraction to men (or anyone, for that matter) does not invalidate a female character’s strength. Just be sure she values herself more than their attention.
As I said earlier, don’t be afraid to make characters who are gentle and soft-spoken, but be wary of making them “childlike,” or giving them an infantile, emotionally characterization.
My best advice for writing gentle, soft-spoken, unassuming women would actually to look to male characters in the media fitting this description; since male characters are rarely infantilized as much as women are by popular media, you’ll get a much better idea of what a well-rounded character looks like.
3. The Irene Adler (i.e. the defanged badass)
Who she is:
Yup, another one of the BBC Sherlock women, among whom only Mrs. Hudson seemed to come through with her dignity and characterization intact. In the books, Irene and Sherlock have absolutely zero romantic connotations, only bonded via Sherlock’s irritation and respect with her substantial intelligence. In the show, it’s a different story entirely.
Examples:
Irene is a badass character who’s turned into a teary-eyed Damsel in Distress via her uncontrollable love for the show’s male lead. It doesn’t help matters that she’s a self-proclaimed lesbian who falls in love with a man, which, unless you’re a woman who loves women yourself and writing about a character realizing she’s bi/pansexual, I would recommend against doing under any circumstances. She ends up being defeated and subsequently rescued by Sherlock – a far cry from her defeat of him in the books.
How to avoid her:
If you’re writing a badass female character, allowher to actually be badass, and allow her to actually show it throughout your work as opposed to just hearing other characters say it. And one punch or kick isn’t enough, either: I want to see this chick jump out of planes.
That said, “badass” does not equal emotionally callous. It doesn’t bother me that Moffat showed Irene having feelings for someone else, what bothers me is how he went about it.
When writing a character who’s shown to be attracted to more than one gender, just say she’s bisexual. Pansexual. Whatever, just don’t call her straight/gay depending on the situation she’s in. Jesus.
4. The Becky (i.e. the comedic rapist)
Who she is:
Most people who know me can vouch for my adoration of Supernatural, but it definitely has its problems: it’s not as diverse as it could be, its treatment of women is subpar, and yes, there is some thinly veiled sexual violence: all three of its leading characters have dealt with it at one point of another (Dean is routinely groped by female demons, a virginal Castiel was sexually taken advantage of by a disguised reaper, and the whole concept of sex under demonic possession is iffy to say the least.) It’s rarely ever addressed afterwards, and is commonly used for comedic fodder. Possibly the most quintessential example of this is Becky.
Examples:
Becky abducts Sam, ties him to the bed, and kisses him against his will. She then drugs him, albeit with a love potion, and is implied to have had sex with him under its influence.
How to avoid her:
Male rape isn’t funny, y’all. Media still takes rape against women a lot more seriously than rape against men, particularly female-on-male rape, and I can assure you its not.
Educate yourself on statistics for male sexual assault: approximately thirty-eight percent of sexual violence survivors are male, for example, and approximately one in sixteen male college students has reported to have experienced sexual assault.
Moreover, be aware that forty-six percent of all instances of male rape have a female perpetrator.
In other words, treat themes of sexual assault against men as seriously as you would treat themes of sexual assault against women.
5. The Movie Hermione (i.e. the flawless superhuman)
Who she is:
Okay, in and of herself, Movie Hermione is amazing: she’s beautiful, intelligent, and heroic, as well as possibly the most useful character of the franchise. She only bothers me in context of the fact that she takes away everything I loved most about Book Hermoine, and everything I loved about Book Ron, too.
Examples:
Book Hermione was beautiful, but not conventionally: she had big, poofy curls, big teeth, and didn’t put a lot of effort into maintaining her appearance. Movie Hermione looks effortlessly flawless, all the time. Book Hermione was intelligent, but also loud, abrasive, and unintentionally annoying when talking about her interests (which meant a lot to me, because as a kid on the Asperger’s spectrum, I frequently was/am that way myself – it was nice to see a character struggling with the same traits). She was also allowed to have flaws, such as struggling to keep up with academia, and being terrified of failure.
Movie Hermione also took all of Ron’s redeeming qualities, and everything that made him compliment her as a couple: his street smarts used to compliment her academic intelligence, for example, staying calm while she panicked in the Philosopher’s Stone when they were being overcome with vines. He also stood up for her in the books against Snape, as opposed to the jerkish “he’s right, you know.”
How to avoid her:
Allow your female characters to have flaws, as much so as any well-rounded male character. Just be sure to counterbalance them with a suitable amount of redeeming qualities. This will make your female character well-rounded, dynamic, and easy to get invested in.
There’s no reason for your female characters to always look perfect. Sure, they can be stunningly gorgeous (particularly if their appearance is important to them), but it’s physical imperfections that make characters fun to imagine: Harry’s scar and wild hair, for example. Female characters are no different.
If you’re writing a female character to have an eventual love interest, allow their personalities to compliment one another. Allow the love interest to have qualities that the female character is lacking, so that they can compliment one another and have better chemistry.
Basically, write your female characters as people.
God willing, I will be publishing essays like this approximately every Friday, so be sure to follow my blog and stay tuned for future writing advice and observations!
Uhmmmm, or make your characters however the f*** you want to make them. Writing isn’t supposed to have limits. You write to express yourself, thoughts, feelings, and a world you dream of. Unless you’re writing nonfiction, of course. None of those characters were supposed to be your “everyday basic bitch”.
Ma’am, please calm down. They’re just tips, and you don’t have to adhere to them if you don’t want to.
However, since you brought it up, I’m inclined to retort all of these characters perpetuate harmful ideologies that harm real people:
Bella is a poster child for romanticized relationship abuse, and I’d be hard pressed to point to anyone who did any of the things Edward did (breaking and entering, watching her sleep, possessive behavior, threatening to kill himself because she left him, DATING A MINOR AS A GROWN-ASS MAN) without pointing to someone who probably belongs in jail. This is harmful, as millions of young girls read that book and thought that that’s how romantic partners are supposed to behave.
Both Molly and Irene represent the two sides of the Moffat coin, where women are either represented as juvenile bimbos who are incapable of finding fulfillment without a man or hypersexualized badasses who are systematically defanged and exist only for male gratification, as well as perpetuating the harmful belief that lesbians can be “turned” straight by the right man and bi people don’t exist.
Becky is LITERALLY A RAPIST and should not have been treated as comic relief, nor should rape themes have been treated as comedic foil because, haha, a woman’s doing it to a man and obviously that never happens.
Movie Hermoine isn’t harmful in any way except for the fact that she was systematically removed of flaws, and arguably, the things that made her a three dimensional and progressive character to begin with.
All of these things effect real life people, and if you’re writer, you have to realize that.
I’m not saying you have to agree with what I say, and I’m not saying you’re not allowed to write/watch/read what you want. I wholeheartedly enjoy most of these movies and shows myself. But in order for media to continue to progress and improve, we need to view it with a critical eye, and we need to be open to criticism ourselves.
Pass Through Fire 