The Strength Of A Symmetrical Plot

Advice and a Pep-Talk from one Autistic Writer to Another

I’ve seen enough “how to write autistic characters” directed at allistics but I’m not sure I’ve really seen any posts directed at autistics written by other autistics that’s just general writing advice. So here’s some tips and tricks and a pep talk.

1.   Write as many autistic characters as you want. It’s totally ok for every single one of your characters to be autistic. If other people can write stories without any autistic characters, you can write ones without any allistic characters. (After all, how can you write an autistic allistic character if you’re not autistic allistic. /s)

2.   Let your characters stim! It’s a great way to include body language in a way that feels natural for us.

On the topic of stimming, try and vary the stims your characters use. This is something I generally take care of in editing. Everyone would run their hands through their hair, but when they did that, it just became a filler description, so I cut the action from most of the characters and left it for a few. At that point, the stim became theirs. (I also then got to have lines like “Den ran his hand through his hair to calm his thoughts, a motion more like his brother than him.” which is like Look, characterization!)

3.  Body language and facial expressions are hard. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve described the body language or facial expression without actually saying what the character was feeling while writing, and then in editing have no idea what they were feeling.

It’s totally OK to write something like “their eyebrows jumped up in surprise as their jaw dropped towards the floor.” It’s descriptive enough to follow the “show, don’t tell” rule, but still names the emotion the character is feeling. It also lets you use non-standard body language (aka autistic body language and stimming) in a way that allistic readers can pick up on.

Reference sheets are a great way to have some standard allistic ways of expressing emotions via body language. This is a great way to make sure that if a character is expressing an emotion but it’s not something you can state in the story (or that your character is unaware of), that it’ll still be something your audience can pick up on.

4.   It can take a while to really get a feel for your characters. I tend to only really have their characterization solid enough to keep them consistent after I’ve written the initial rough draft. This is one of the reasons my first step after completing my initial draft is to rewrite everything. It’s just the easiest way I’ve found to make sure all the characters are in character - because if I tried to go through every single line and figure out what wasn’t in character, I’d be lost.

If you’re confused about why a character is doing something because you forgot what you were thinking and are having trouble figuring it out from context, it’s ok to take that bit out and rewrite it. Sometimes it might be because a character is acting out of character, and in that case it’s a good thing you’re fixing it.

5.      The details you include in your writing because you’re so detail oriented really makes the story come alive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten told it feels like my world exists beyond the story and that my characters have lives beyond what’s mentioned on the page because I think about every little detail and make mentions of them.

Our attention to detail also tends to let us do unintentional symbolism and foreshadowing really well. We try and make every little thing relevant and tied into everything else, which is something that comes naturally to us and I’ve seen so many writers struggle with.

6.     Infodump in the rough draft as much as you want. If it keeps you writing, go for it.

You can remove (or better integrate) infodumps (because they tend to not be all that interesting to readers since they stop the story in their tracks) and any inconsistent details when you edit.

If you want to avoid just infodumping in the story itself, write down EVERYTHING about your characters, your world, your plot, everything you want to explain and anything that is relevant to know for the story in a separate document(s). For me, it gets the urge to explain EVERYTHING out of my system and helps me include only what’s needed when I’m writing. (Plus it makes a GREAT reference material for when you’re writing.)

7.      If you don’t explain something well enough, that can also be fixed in editing. This is where beta readers are useful since they can let you know where they’re confused and where more information is useful. This is also where taking a break between writing and editing can help, since if you’re confused it’s likely a spot where you need to include more information

(Again, this is advice for autistic writers from an autistic writer. Allistics and Writing blogs are encouraged to reblog this since this is writing advice, but unless you are autistic, please do not comment.)

OKAY LISTEN UP YOU BEAUTIFUL OC-DEVELOPING FIENDS

After my long and lengthy years of developing characters (not really) I have a nugget of wisdom for y’all.

Do this:

Look. You don’t need any artistic talent. Hell, this could be a vaguely brain-shaped oval with some words in it.

But the point of this is that you draw your character’s brains and fill it with the things they think of most, the things that matter to them most, the things that are so essential to them that they are nothing without it.

I find that doing this helps so much when shaping a character’s voice, and it visually maps out their personality in a way that character sheets can’t.

For example, my character Isha is logical and she compartmentalizes things, so I drew a more angular design, while Aster’s mind more resembles her anxiety and wandering thoughts.

Yeah that’s all.

Knock yourself out friends.

2 Tips for Adding Emotional Weight to Your Story

As writers, we want our work to hold weight — for our characters’ actions, emotions, and desires to resonate with and impact our readers. But how do we make that happen?

The most helpful advice, in my experience, has been to:

Make the internal become external, and

Make the external become internal.

Let’s talk about what that means and how these tips can help you add emotional weight to your story.

1. Make the internal become external

To “make the internal become external” is to take the interior aspects of your character (their fears, desires, pains, and epiphanies) and find ways to express them with external actions. For example:

If Marcos realizes his girlfriend doesn’t truly love him, don’t just make him mope; have him throw the engagement ring he purchased into the river.

If Amelia feels overworked and stressed at her new job, don’t just show her exhausted in bed; show her bailing on plans with the people she cares about or giving up her favorite pastimes.

If Kara is afraid to get onstage and perform as Lady Macbeth, don’t just have her wait in fear; make her run out on the show on opening night.

By expressing your character’s emotions and realizations through clear external actions, you add weight to what they’re going through.

2. Make the external become internal

The goal here is similar, but reversed. Where before you were taking an internal emotion and accentuating it with action, now you’re taking the external elements of your story (plot, character actions, external conflicts, etc.) and making them have internal ramifications for your characters. For example:

If Thomas gets slapped by his older sister during a disagreement, don’t just move on like it never happened; make it change the dynamic of their relationship for the rest of the story.

If Davy’s new boyfriend excessively dotes upon him, don’t just have him awkwardly brush him off; make Davy tentative and uncertain because he’s never been in a healthy relationship before.

If Anna loses the championship match of a tennis tournament, don’t just have her grudgingly accept defeat; make her feel crushed because of her impossibly high expectations for herself.

By taking external actions or events and tying them to your character’s deepfelt emotions and, when possible, their core struggle, you add weight to what happens in your story. Everything starts to matter, and that makes for captivating storytelling.

A Final Word

I want to clarify that I’m not telling you to make your characters act and react in ways that don’t make sense for them. Always stay true to your characters. 

But I do encourage you to always look for opportunities to merge the internal and external aspects of your story — because that’s the key to telling stories with true emotional weight.

Good luck, and good writing, everybody. :)

— — —

Everyone has stories worth telling, including you. For helpful writing tips and advice, check out the rest of my blog.

OH, GLORY - a wip introduction by @whorizcn​​​​.

fame is a languid and fragile thing. calypso quintero knew that all too well.

GENRE: contemporary na psychological thriller STATUS: plotting && outlining THEMES/TROPES: blackmail, deadly ambition, deception, found family except everyone lowkey hates each other, manipulation, the morality of fame, power struggle, privilege WARNINGS: alcholism, drug use, eating disorders, mental illness, sexual assult, suicide LINKS: wip page, wip tag, pinterest, playlist

SYNOPSIS:

  21-year-old calypso quintero had it all: fame, awards, designer clothes, affluent parents who never knew the word no, millions of fans worshiping the very ground she walked, beauty and talent at her fingertips.

  adored by many and envied by thousands, she had the life that teenage girls dreamed of. she had a heartthrob of a boyfriend that starred in countless blockbusters, and an elite girl squad that dominated all social media outlets and graced the front covers of every relevant magazine: her name whispered like a hymn amongst her fans.

  well, that was until she was found floating in the waters of her malibu mansion’s pool, with a gun clutched in her right hand and a bullet buried in her left temple.

  calypso quintero had it all, so why did she kill herself?

TAGLIST (tagging a few people whom i think may be interested!) ask to be added/removed!

@emdrabbles​​​, @omgbrekkerkaz​​​ , @vandorens​​​, @southerngothiques​​​, @jugularss​​​, @apollchiles​​​, @holotones​​

first of all: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 500 FOLLOWERS !! this is a milestone i dont think i have ever hit on any other platform with anything else i’ve ever done? so i just want to say thank you that you all are here and have been involved with me and my work, completed or not. with my thank yous out of the way ( even though there’s not enough thank yous to give ), let’s get to the celebration !!

so i wanna do something a bit different from my 200 follower celebration by making this a raffle ( is that the word? ) ! basically, follow the rules before and you could win a couple prizes !!

how to enter …

reblog this post by march 28th ( about a week from when this is posted ) ! this way i can keep up with who will be in the randomization to be chosen as winners. ( likes will be counted as bookmarks )

every person gets one entry to make it fair! meaning multiple reblogs won’t count

be following me ( new followers are always welcome ! ) — and if you’re a sideblog and you aren’t sure i know what your main blog is, please dm me so i can keep track ! ( if you don’t tell me and i don’t know it’s you, you might not win :( )

what to win …

FIRST (1ST) PLACE : a character edit of a character from one of your wips; a film edit from a scene in your wip; and a poem based on a word ( or emotion ) of your choice

SECOND (2ND) PLACE : a character edit of a character from one of your wips and a poem based on a word ( or emotion ) of your choice

THIRD (3RD) PLACE : a film edit from a scene in your wip and 5 writeblr recommendations

i’ll try to post character edits between the time this is posted, but i already have some film edits on my blog under #film edit ! when it comes time that i announce the winners, i will provide more information on how to give me me the information i need for the edits !!

again, thank you all SO much for being so supportive and i hope you all are having the best time you can and are staying safe and healthy !! if you have any questions about this celebration, please come send me an ask or a dm and i’ll answer when i can !! ♡

How to Add Dimension to Your Story's Theme

A lot of writers believe you cannot intentional write to a theme. I completely disagree. And I’m suspicious that those who say that, just don’t understand how to write to theme intentionally. They claim that if you do, you’ll just become preachy. Sure, that can absolutely happen, but it only happens when you don’t understand how theme actually works in a story.

You see, for a theme statement to be powerful, it needs to have opposition. Who cares if the tortoise in “The Tortoise and the Hare” wins, if he isn’t racing the hare to begin with? No one. The thematic statement (“It’s better to move forward at a steady pace than go so fast we burn ourselves out”) is only powerful because we see it paired up with its opposite (the hare).

Often it’s helpful to breakdown how theme functions, like I did in this article. But here is a quick recap.

Every story has a thematic statement.

A thematic statement is essentially the teaching of a story. So for the Good Samaritan, the thematic statement is, “We should love, be kind to, and serve everyone.”

The Little Red Hen: If you don’t contribute or work, you don’t get the rewards of those efforts.

The Ant and the Grasshopper: If all we do is have fun and entertain ourselves, we won’t be prepared for difficult times.

Harry Potter: Love is the most powerful force in the world

On a broader scope, we have a theme topic. The subject or topic about which something is taught. It’s the concept, without the teaching attached. It’s what the theme or story is “about,” in an abstract sense.

Here are the theme topics of those stories:

The Little Red Hen: Contribution and work

The Ant and the Grasshopper: Preparation

Harry Potter: Love

In a strong story, the theme topic will be explored during the narrative, through plot or character or both. The story will ask (directly or indirectly) questions about the theme topic. This can happen through main characters and main plots, or side characters and subplots, or all of the above.

Often, in most stories, the protagonist’s character arc starts an a false or inaccurate idea about the theme topic and ends on the true thematic statement. Example: Harry starts unloved and powerless, living in a cupboard. By the end, he’s surrounded by supporters, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself (the ultimate manifestation of love) to pave the way for Voldemort’s defeat.  

Between the false thematic statement and the true thematic statement is the struggle that leads to transformation, or at least, demonstrates a point.

Sounds great, right? But what do we put there? After all, that transition part of the story will take up most of the story, and so far, we only have black and white: false thematic statement vs. true thematic statement. I mentioned that the theme topic needs to be questioned and explored. And by the climax, it needs to be proven. Do we just reiterate the same false statement and true statement over and over?

Life is rarely so black and white. It’s more complex.

To get ideas, it’s helpful to give your theme topic more dimension.

Luckily, Robert McKee (who I’ve been re-studying, as you may have noticed) has a method that will help you do just that. He doesn’t technically relate this to the term “theme,” but he relates it to what he calls a story’s “value,” but I consider that concept nearly the same thing as “theme topic.” (He’s just coming at it from a different angle.) So, I’m going to show how it applies to theme.

I’ll be honest, this was hard for me to wrap my head around, at first. But over time, the idea has become clearer to me.

So here is how this goes, from my perspective, in relation to theme (I’ve altered it slightly).

First, identify the theme topic of your story.

Then identify its opposite. Its contradiction. 

From there, you have what he calls the “contrary.” It’s not really the theme topic’s exact opposite, but it’s not the theme topic either. It’s contrary to the theme topic. It’s not the thing, but it’s not the direct contradiction of the thing. It’s different, in some way. 

Then we take it a step further. We look for something more negative than the negative. What is worse than the opposite? What is a step more extreme? McKee calls this the “negation of the negation." 

Let’s fill this in with the theme topic of love, so you can see how this works.

The opposite of love is hate. Simple. But then it gets more complex. What is contrary to love? It’s not the same, but it is not a direct opposite either. Indifference isn’t love, but it’s not really hate either. It’s in between.

What is worse than hate? What is a step more negative? Or more extreme? What is the negation of the negation?

As McKee explains, it’s one thing to be hated and to know it. But to actually be hated by those who you think love you? People who want to pretend they care about you, but actually wish and do you ill? Now that gives me shivers.

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Science Fiction Subgenres from A to N

So, to start this blog off with something fun, I thought I’d do a series of big ol’ masterlists covering sci-fi and fantasy subgenres!  There is a heckin’ large amount of them, so I’ve split it up into four sections with about five or six posts- this one right here is for, you guessed it, science fiction, from A to N.  *cue distant cheering*

First up, a little recap:

Science Fiction: This can be considered a difficult genre to define, simply because it can encompass nearly anything- but the best definition I’ve heard is that it’s “the literature of change”, particularly in areas of scientific advancement and technological growth.  According to Wikipedia, this is a genre of speculative fiction “typically dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.” (x)  Science fiction generally encompasses imaginary worlds and universes bound to laws of physics (although not necessarily the laws we know of or follow) that are advanced in some way by science and technology, and experiencing some form of change because of that.  To put it very simply, science fiction can be viewed as fiction based upon science.  Science fiction tends to evoke thoughts of aliens, spaceships, robots, AI, new planets, futuristic cities, flying cars, high-tech things made of shiny metals, lightsabers and phasers, environmental sustainability, and far-future social themes.  Examples include Dune (Dune series) by Frank Herbert, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor, The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley, 1984 by George Orwell, Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse series) by James A. Corey, Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, and Parable of the Sower (Parable series) by Octavia E. Butler.

With that refresher in mind, let’s begin!  (I’d apologize for the word count, but we’re all nerdy writers here.)

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WHAT THEY CALL GOD.

Cain sighs heavily, the cigarette held loosely between his fingers as he rests his forehead against my bare chest. “God, Dima,” he murmurs, his voice thick with self-loathing. “I fucking hate myself.” 

“Good,” I mumble, fumbling with the bottle of vodka. The bed is soft under me as I lift it up to my lips and take a long draught. My other arm goes around his shoulders and presses him to me. “You should. You’re a fucking asshole, Cain. You’re unlovable. No one loves you, and no one ever will. You’re lucky that I let you love me.” 

“I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me,” Cain quotes, almost dreamily, as he presses a kiss to my chest.

“Christ, I fucking hate you.”

taglist: @just-george-here​ @whorizcn​ @semblanche​ @emdrabbles​ @aepreall​ @sol-writes​ @agnodice-writes​ @farrradays​ @nallthatjazz​ @birdquils​ @latrantem​ @sunlight-and-starskies​ @vandorens​ @asherscribbles​ @romanticsrn​

Hi! So I have never written anything but I have this idea for a book and don’t know how to start. What tips do you have for beginners?

Where to Go from Initial Book Idea

First, congratulations! It’s pretty exciting when you come up with your first book idea. :) <3Here are some things you can do to get started…

1. Write an in-depth summary of your idea to the extent that it’s fleshed out in your mind. Sometimes, while you’re writing this summary, you’ll be able to flesh out other things as you go. I will often put things in parenthesis if I’m not sure, like: And then the princess steals the guard’s sword and escapes into the corridor. (Maybe it’s not a sword but a dagger?) Which helps me keep track of things I’ll need to figure out in more detail later on.

2. Once you have your in-depth summary, you can start thinking about your protagonist, antagonist (or antagonistic force), and any other main characters. It can be helpful to get this sorted out at the beginning, because quite often your characters (and who they are) will inform the finer details of the story.

3. If you’re not familiar with story structure, now is a good time to take a look at it. Well developed stories follow a similar structure, though that structure can vary from story to story, and how people distill that structure into a template can vary as well. But understanding what that general structure is and seeing how different people lay it out can help you flesh out your own story. I talk about that more in this post. 

4. Next, it’s a good idea to outline your story. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but it’s handy to have a step-by-step guide to your story. You may also want to do a timeline, and if you have enough fleshed out, a scene list would be great, too.

5. By this point, you may also want to set up a physical story binder and/or a folder on your desktop where you can organize all of your story-related files.

6. Before you start writing your first draft, you might want to spend a little time doing research and looking for inspiration. This is a great time to put together inspiration boards (digital or physical), cast your characters, and start gathering notes about other important story elements (like setting, for example.) You might also want to do a map of your story world and/or setting, layouts of important buildings/structures, etc.

7. Now it’s time to write! Whether you call it your “zero draft,” “rough draft,” or your “first draft,” this draft is really just about getting the bare bones of your story on paper. You are not writing the final version of your story in one go, so this isn’t the time to worry about quality and perfection. This is where you dip your toes into your story’s world, get to know your characters, and hey–if you feel the urge to poke around in unexpected places or foray off the path to explore organic ideas, do it! In the very first draft of your story, you can do whatever you want!

8. Once you get your first draft completed, if you feel like you have a really strong first draft and there aren’t any structural edits you know you need to make, you can assemble a team of beta readers to get feedback. Or, if you did any of that poking around or foraying I mentioned, and if you know there are structural changes you want to make, do that in your second draft, and then you can send that to betas for feedback. At this point, you just keep editing, tightening up, revising, and polishing until you have your finished draft.

9. Sometime during this editing and revision phase, you’ll want to think about which publishing path you want to pursue: traditional or indie? Traditional publishing is where you find an agent (which doesn’t cost anything upfront, they get paid if and when they sell your manuscript) and they find a publisher for your story. Querying agents can take months or even years and there’s a lot of competition, but there are success stories every single day. Indie publishing, aka “self-publishing,” is a great path for those who want more control over their novel and publishing process. Hopefully by the time you get to the point of deciding between both routes, I’ll have a “traditional vs indie publishing” guide up for you. :)

Best of luck with your story! <3