This Is It. This Is Writing

love when authors get so into the story they’re writing that they end up just being like yeah this is twice what i originally planned, gonna add a whole new story arc, gonna add a whole new book to the series

Tips For Designing a Book Cover

Credit: https://dribbble.com/stories/2021/01/26/book-cover-design-101-how-to-design-a-cover-that-sells

1. Gather book cover design inspiration

Before you start designing, you should always gather visual inspiration first to help guide your cover’s overall look and feel. Gathering different book cover ideas will help you to understand what you’re drawn to, what works, and what doesn’t, so you can narrow down what you want to accomplish with your cover design. As a good rule of thumb, aim to collect between 10 - 20 pieces of visual inspiration.

Once you’ve gathered enough ideas, you should start to notice certain patterns of visuals, themes, imagery, and layouts that you’re drawn to. Keep this in mind throughout the next steps.

2.  Outline the book’s main themes

A book cover needs to support the themes the book explores. It also needs to support the mood of the book. What is the book about? Is it a serious exploration of modern society? Is it a fun, adventurous memoir all about finding yourself? A serious book should have a relatively serious cover, while a fun beach read needs an entirely different kind of aesthetic.

Outline your book’s main themes and keep these at the front of your mind when deciding on the kind of imagery you’ll want to use on the cover.

3. Consider the genre

Different genres have different conventions when it comes to covers. Most fantasy books show protagonists with weapons or fantasy creatures. Romance books typically have the romantically involved characters on the cover. Contemporary books frequently feature cute, modern art. True crime books usually feature dark covers that hint at the crime.

To get a sense of what the genre expects, look to competing books. If they all follow a certain convention, you’ll likely want your cover to also fit that convention so that readers of that genre can immediately recognize it!

4. Use visual hierarchy

Visual hierarchy on a book cover is key. You need to make sure that the reader browsing the shelves sees the most important part of the cover first. For most books, this will be the title. But for certain bestselling authors, you might want to consider emphasizing their name so that it’s even more prominent than the title. That’s because fans of that author can immediately recognize that it’s one of their books.

In general, your hierarchy should place the title and cover graphics most prominently, followed by a subtitle (e.g. “a novel”), followed by the author’s name. There may also be endorsements or prizes to include on the cover, but those are usually placed less prominently than other elements.

5. Get rid of the clutter

Cluttered covers don’t work well when viewed at small sizes. Since a lot of book browsing happens online, covers are usually shrunk down to thumbnail size. If your book cover looks cluttered at thumbnail size, you will risk turning away potential readers.

Choose one focal element for your cover. This could be part of the image used on the cover, or it could be the title of the book. Once you know your focal point, you can design the rest of the cover to emphasize that point. Also make sure you leave plenty of white or blank space around that focal point.

6. Think in terms of thumbnails

When people are browsing Amazon or other online publishers such as Bookshop.org, they’re presented with a series of cover thumbnails. These are often pretty small—less than 200px high. That means that if your title isn’t prominent enough on the cover, it won’t be legible. It also means that if your cover has a ton of fine details that are important to its meaning, that will be lost in thumbnail size.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t include those details on a cover, though. What it means is that you need to make sure that your cover still has a powerful impact at thumbnail size. Make your title legible at small sizes and ensure that the most prominent part of your graphics are recognizable (i.e., a mountain should be recognizable as a mountain, a person should be recognizable as a person, etc.).

7. Choose an appropriate font and color palette

Choosing a typeface for your book cover can be tricky. It needs to look great when viewed on the full-size cover, but it also needs to remain legible at small sizes on thumbnails.

For the most part, try to avoid any super detailed display or complex script typefaces. When searching for the perfect typeface, try it out both at large display sizes and at smaller body sizes to see if it’s still readable when displayed at 12px or 14px sizes.

Color palettes can be a book cover’s biggest asset—or biggest downfall. The right color palette draws the reader’s eye and gives them an idea of the tone and mood of the book, while the wrong colors risk confusing your audience. For example, neon colors typically indicate that a book will be fun to read and not too serious. Dark colors? This book could be serious or scary (depending on genre).

However, remember that color palettes are only one part of establishing a mood. You can, for example, create a scary mood with a pastel cover with the right visual elements (for instance, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White has a pastel pink cover).

8. Don’t overlook the spine or back cover

While a book’s front cover gets all the glory, the spine and back cover are also important design elements. Spines, especially, are important when a reader is browsing bookstore shelves, where most books are arranged on shelves with only the spine showing. 

You also need to take into account that due to the way offset printers work, your front cover, back cover, and spine may not always align perfectly. By continuing the basic background design around the entire cover, you avoid the spine or back cover looking bad due to printing errors. This ensures that your entire book cover looks professional and consistent.

Writing Cliffhangers

Intro

Credit: https://getproofed.com/writing-tips/5-tips-on-writing-a-cliffhanger-ending-for-your-novel/

Ah, cliffhangers. Writers love them, readers have a love-hate relationship with them. I don’t have any statistics for this, but I would say that generally, all book series have at least one cliffhanger ending. Cliffhangers convince readers to continue a series, often leaving off at a critical point where the characters and world are in peril. However, cliffhanger endings can also come off as gimmicky, or as a cheap marketing ploy to get you to buy the next installment in a series. So how can you write a cliffhanger ending correctly, have it make sense, and have it belong? Here are some tips!

1. To cliffhanger or not to cliffhanger

Not every tale has to end on a moment of tension, so a cliffhanger ending isn’t always right for your story. Ask yourself:

What do other books in your genre do? Are cliffhanger endings common?

How else could I end the story? Would it feel more natural to do so?

What would a cliffhanger ending leave unresolved?

If you’re using a cliffhanger as a gimmick, you risk annoying your readers. And you should never end on a cliffhanger just because you don’t know how else to end your story! Only do it if it fits with the story you’re telling.

2. Type of cliffhanger

A cliffhanger ending can take many forms. Common types include:

Leaving the story in a perilous situation

Creating ambiguity about what happens next

A character revelation that contradicts something we thought we knew

A thought-to-be resolved situation turns out to be unresolved still

All these will create a situation where the reader wants to know more, but make sure to pick an ending that will work with the rest of your story!

3. Your story must be complete

Even if you end on a cliffhanger, your story still needs to feel finished. Simply stopping before the grand finale where the hero confronts the villain won’t work: it will feel incomplete, like you’re just teasing the reader.

Instead, focus on resolving the main conflict (i.e., the thing that has driven the narrative forward) in your story first. After that, you can introduce the cliffhanger ending to set up the next story or create a sense of ambiguity.

4. Set up your cliffhanger ending

While a cliffhanger ending may involve a twist, it shouldn’t come completely out of the blue. Rather, you should plant the seeds throughout your story. For instance, if your story ends on the protagonist discovering a shocking piece of information, you’ll want to leave clues for the reader earlier on.

This might be a passing comment made by a minor character, or a warning that the protagonist ignored to continue their quest. But it should be something seemingly innocuous that takes on a new meaning when its significance is finally revealed, leading to your cliffhanger ending.

5. Hint at the future

Finally, if you’re planning a sequel to your novel, give some hints about where the story might go next. For example, your story might end with the protagonist victorious, only to discover the antagonist was just an agent of an international spy ring. You could end there, with your lead character shocked at their discovery, leaving the rest ambiguous.

But you could also hint at what might come next. Maybe the protagonist swears revenge. Maybe they realize they need to go on the run. Or maybe they discover a conspiracy and set out to reveal it to the world.

You won’t want to overdo this--nobody likes a massive, suspense-destroying infodump at the end of a story. But hinting at the future is a great way to engage the reader’s imagination and set up the next installment of your story!

My writing advice for new writers

masterlist. main navigation.

@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram

1. Write for yourself

This is the #1 tip I will always give to writers, so you've probably heard me say this a few times. Don't write for others, but write for yourself.

People have different tastes. There will always be some who dislike your book, and some who consider it their favorite. Lots of people hate famous books like Percy Jackson or Six Of Crows, and I'm sure you've disliked a popular book before. So instead of writing a book that others would read, start writing a book that you would read. If you end up liking your book, I can assure you that many others will too.

2. Flesh out characters

When you're excited to write a new WIP, you might delay your character building process and decide to start writing while trying to figure out the characterization on the way. I've done this a couple of times, thinking that it would speed up my writing process, but trust me, it did not. It actually slowed down my writing instead.

If you start writing your wip without at least finishing 80% of your character building process, you'll find yourself getting stuck in scenes, not knowing what your character would say or do, which is very inconvenient.

If you ever get bored of character building and really want to start writing instead, I suggest writing one-shots unrelated to your WIP. By doing this, you don't have to worry about writing your characters out of character, and its actually useful to their characterization process.

3. Experiment!

If you feel like there's something off with your writing, or you're beginning to feel that writing is a chore for you, experiment with different writing techniques. Switch up your genre, time period, plotting method, etc.

For reference, I used to be a pantser who writes plot-driven mystery stories. But now, I'm more comfortable with being a plantser who writes character-driven low fantasy stories! Basically, don't be afraid of change, because it might help you later.

4. Know your ending

In my opinion, the most important thing to consider while writing a story is your ending - not your beginning or middle. You can rewrite your beginning chapters anytime, and you can always figure out your middle chapters later, noone knows how to write the middle of a story anyway.

But if you don't know the ending of your story, you're screwed, buddy. Without knowing how your story ends, you can't write the events that build up to that ending.

You're unsure about your novel's ending at first and decided to throw in a last minute plot twist? That means you've been foreshadowing the wrong ending the whole book, and you gotta rewrite. You don't know how your characters will develop throughout the book? You won't be able to write the journey of their arc throughout the story. Hassling, right? That's why, try not to start writing your WIP without having a possible ending in mind.

5. If you write, you're valid.

Nowadays, the standards of being a writer is that you have to write a full-length novel and be traditionally published. This isn't true, not even the slightest.

You write poetry? You're a writer and valid. You're a screenwriter? Bro, look at the word. ScreenWRITER. valid. You write fanfictions? Valid, and you're not cringey. You have NO idea how much I worship fanfiction writers for writing what canon won't give us. You're writing but don't want to be published? You're still valid. As long as you write, you're valid, because that's the whole point of being a writer.

6. Don't follow every single tip

There's a reason why they're called writing tips, not rules. You're not meant to follow every single one of them, they're only meant to guide you on the way. Some will be useful, some won't, depending on yourself. So please, don't be pressured to follow every writing tip you see.

checking in with my wips to see if they’ve written themselves

character i’m writing: is smart

me: *sighs* *opens wikipedia page*

How to Write Rivals to Lovers

Credit: https://allwritealright.com/writing-from-enemies-to-lovers-creating-dynamic-relationships/

Intro

I would argue that rivals to lovers is superior over enemies to lovers because it’s less toxic and more satisfying. Typically, it results in a healthier relationship than most enemies-to-lovers relationships because it presents a less dark or drastic reason for them to dislike each other (like killing the other’s loved ones, etc). With rivals to lovers, you get jealousy, pining, banter, tension, and of course, a great payoff!

Establish the characters

First and foremost, you’re going to need to make sure that the rivals have the potential to get along. You need to be very strategic about how you design these characters, since this will determine whether or not the dynamic will work authentically. The characters should be unique individuals, obviously, but you need to build them in such a way that your readers will be able to identify their chemistry.

The two characters should have some similar or complementary traits. They should also have traits that make up for the other’s shortcomings, and they should have struggles and flaws that the other character could help them with--if they could only cooperate. These subtle parallels should give readers the sense that the characters would get along, if not for whatever obstacle warped their opinions of each other in the beginning.

Decide why they dislike each other

There are a number of different reasons that characters could have for disliking each other, but you need to be careful about how you approach this. The characters’ hatred should never be based on things that are unforgivable, and they shouldn’t be allowed to evolve as a result of abuse or trauma. Never romanticize bullying, abuse, or manipulation. With that said, here are plausible backstories for their rivalry:

Competition, also known as the main pillar of this trope. Competition can bring out the worst in people, so if your two characters are both vying for the same goal, they might clash as a result. The great thing about this type of hatred is that it might be accompanied by great respect for their rival, and it also gives you a good similarity between the characters that you can rely on to draw them closer together.

Desires. If these characters want the same thing, then the next thing they want is not to let the other get it. This is closely connected to competition. This sets up an interesting plotline as readers wonder who will achieve their prize first...or who might lose it. More on this later!

Conflict. Being on opposing sides of a conflict, such as a debate or dispute, positions characters to dislike each other regardless of their personalities. Their dislike for each other is based on their moral dedication to their country, faction, or clan, and not on their inherent qualities as people.

Society. They might dislike each other because of their parents, education, or class differences. If characters believe they dislike each other because they were taught to dislike each other, then they will have to work out their own internal struggles individually before they can get along together.

Actually falling in love

The biggest mistake that writers make with this trope is moving through the arc too quickly. Overcoming intense feelings for another person takes time, and it happens in distinct phases. First, the characters need to forgive each other and reconcile with their rivalry. Then, they will likely be friends before they can come anywhere close to falling in love. Rivals to lovers must be slowburn to be effective. Some methods of showing it are below:

Forced proximity/conversation

Reluctant partnership (a personal favorite!)

Physical, emotional, or sexual attraction

Banter or teasing

Staring

Flirting

Remembering small things about the other character

Coming to the thought that maybe the other person isn’t so bad / things might be different if they weren’t rivals

Letting the other person beat them in something

Let the characters evolve

If the characters are going to make things work between them, they cannot simply continue the way things have always been. They must acknowledge where they were wrong, and change themselves for the better. They must confront their beliefs and change their perspective, and above all else, they need to forgive themselves and each other for the time they spent disliking the other.

In many cases, characters will need to redeem themselves before their relationship will work. This is a great opportunity to write a redemption arc for one (or both) of the characters, which can make readers feel even more emotionally attached to the characters.

Climax and conflict

At the heart of every rivals-to-lovers story, there’s something that both characters want--otherwise they wouldn’t be rivals! It sets up a very interesting conflict, due to their changing feelings for each other. Who needs the prize more? Who wants it more? Will one of them yield for the other, or will they forge ahead with selfishness and guilt? Or will they both realize that what they need is something completely different from what they thought they wanted?

This is an excellent time to incorporate a betrayal or forgiveness trope. Rivals to lovers implies high stakes, because there is something that they are fighting for. Show those stakes, and you’ll have both an excellent story and an excellent romance!

Love confessions

Once the characters have overcome the obstacles in the way of their love and come to terms with how they feel, the next step is for them to admit those feelings to each other. How your character decides to approach this decision is going to depend on their personality and their existing relationship with the other person. Make sure the scene carries some emotional weight to it: you want readers to feel like the stakes are high.

Your characters aren’t likely to confess their love without feeling some shred of reciprocity. If they haven’t noticed any indication that the other person likes them back, then they’re probably going to sit on those feelings for a while. Both of the characters can even be doing this at the same time, without realizing that the other person feels the same way (which is both really frustrating and really gratifying for the reader!).

is there any flowers/plants that symbolize or relate to discomfort and dissatisfaction? im trying to draw something for an art project and i wanted to draw plants/flowers in it that hold symbolism to them

Hey kookoojellyfish! Most of these mean either directly, but allow potential association because neither discomfort nor dissastifaction exist as single meanings here.

agnus castus – coldness, indifference

aloe – bitterness and pain, bitterness, grief, religious superstition

balsam (red) – impatient resolved, touch me not

bee ophrys – error

belvedere – I declare against you

bindweed (great) – insinuation, importunity

burdock – importunity, touch me not

convolvulus (major) – extinguished hopes

corchorus – impatient of absence

eglantine – I wound to heal, poetry

geranium (fish) – disappointed expectations

henbane – imperfection, fault, for males to attract love from females

hogbean – defect

hortensia – you are cold, carelessness

humble plant – despondency

ice plant – your looks freeze me, rejected addresses

lint – I feel my obligations

love-lies-bleeding – hopeless not heartless, deserted love, desertion

meadow sweet – uselessness

mimosa – sensitiveness, sensitivity

ranunculus (wild) – ingratitude

sorrel (wild) – wit ill-timed

straw (a single, broken) – dissension, rupture of a contract

sweetbrier (european) – I wound to heal, poetry, imagination

tiger-flower – for once may pride befriend me, cruelty

Discomfort could be represented by poisonous plants in art. They don’t mean it, but they most certainly cause it.

– Mod Jana

Disclaimer

This blog is intended as writing advice only. This blog and its mods are not responsible for accidents, injuries or other consequences of using this advice for real world situations or in any way that said advice was not intended.

Reblog, click the picture, and prepare for battle.

writers will really have a doc titled ‘fic planning’ and then it’s just blank