“It’s Amazing How Much Distance One Truth Can Create Between Two People.”

“It takes two to make an accident.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Have you ever wondered which hurts the most: saying something and wishing you had not, or saying nothing, and wishing you had?”

— Unknown 

for the draft thing: when i start writing novels i always have a lot of beginning, a fair amount of backstory, a solid ending, and maybe one or two key events in between, but nothing in the middle. i'm never sure how to approach this and it usually kills a lot of my projects :/ not sure if this is a question you can answer easily but if there's any tips i'd love to hear it!

Planning the middle...

I’ve gathered a couple of resources that I believe may help you with this. 

Coming Up With Scene Ideas

How To Engage The Reader

Pacing Appropriately

Balancing Detail & Development

Writing The Middle of Your Story

Powering Through The Zero-Draft Phase

Maintaining Writing Momentum

How To Prevent Getting Stuck

Writing Your Way Through The Plot Fog

Resources For Plot Development

Guide To Plot Development

How To Foreshadow

Novel Planning 101

Tackling Subplots

Things A Reader Needs From A Story

Planning A Scene In A Story

How To Fit Character Development Into Your Story

And some prompts in case you have trouble getting the creative juices flowing while you’re brainstorming...

Romantic Prompts

Angst Prompts

Dramatic Prompts

Suspenseful Prompts

Sad Prompts

20 Sentence Story Prompt

31 Days of Character Development : May 2018 Writing Challenge

31 Days of Plot Development : January 2019 Writing Challenge

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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“Isn’t it strange that we talk least about the things we think about most?”

— Charles Lindbergh

“Fantasy is about making a metaphor concrete.”

— Neil Gaiman, MasterClass

Heard that from a lecturer in my university, and I think it’s such a good advice, and I’ve never seen anybody talk about it so:

It is called a reverse outline.

Basically, you write your entire 1st draft, take a good moment reading all of it, and then start summarizing each chapter one by one in single paragraphs.

It helps you to identify which scenes are not actually necessary, analyze if a scene is well placed in that moment of the story - and if not, it can help placing the chapter earlier or later in the story -, helps identifying plot holes etc.

I thought of that as really helpful, specially if you, like me, is a gardener writer but still needs organization!

How to come up with a story title

By Writerthreads on Instagram

I’ve identified a few types of story titles, and I’ll briefly describe them below:

Common saying/phrase

Eg. When the Cows Come Home, Cruising for a Bruising

Usually, the saying might describe the events of the book or men’s something

Something with a character’s name

Eg. The Redemption of Fletcher Cheung (my old title), Harry Potter and the _______

Or literally the character’s name

Eg. Oliver Twist, Doctor Strange, Hansel and Gretel

A location

Eg. Schitt’s Creek, The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Secret Garden

Choose an location where a part of the plot takes place. It would help if that location has a unique name (eg. Earhart High School would be boring).

A memorable line

Eg. The Stars are Burning (my WIP lol), To Kill a Mockingbird

Use a memorable or important line, or a version of it. Bonus points if it’s in the first or last sentence of the book!

Use an allusion

Eg. These Violent Delights, The Grapes of Wrath

An allusion is a reference to or a phrase taken from an external source. The title usually alludes to something in the plot or a main theme.

If all else fails...

Use an unusual word

Warning: this makes the title less memorable, imo

Use a song title or lyric

Warning: copyright?? Also it might be cliche.

Now that we’ve covered the main types of titles, let me give you some advice on book titles;

Long titles

They’re hard to remember and hard to type/say, which reduced visibility. Try to shorten the title if you can :)

Make it interesting

Eg. Gone With the Wind

Titles that use poetic language, vivid imagery, or a bit of mystery tend to be alluring to potential readers.

Use alliteration

Eg. The Count of Monte Cristo

Alliteration is especially popular because it’s punchy and sounds good lol.

Anyways, this is all I can think of! Comment below your book title(s) and anything I’ve missed.

Writing Tip #212

Tighten your sentences. Adjectives and Adverbs should be used only when necessary. Overusing descriptions is a red flag to agents and publishers of a novice writer. Go through your writing and circle all adjectives and adverbs and read it without them. If it works without them, then cut them.

“The deeper the wound, the more private the pain.”

— Isabel Allende