So you did that thing, where you wrote a line, and then deleted it? And you don’t feel like you’ve made progress? Well, you are - you’re finding what doesn’t work.

And! You’re still working on it, even if you’re not happy with what you’re putting on the page. You’ve made it farther than a lot of people do.

Keep going! I believe in you!

I was feeling angsty tonight, and I haven’t done a prompt list in a while, so I thought I’d do some enemies-to-lovers type prompts. Feel free to use any you want, in any way you like! Just a warning — a couple of them are a little suggestive!

| Fifteen Enemies-to-Lovers Prompts|

1. “You might just be the only real friend I’ve ever had.” // “We’re enemies.” // “Eh. Semantics.”

2. “I know we hate each other. And that’s more than fine. But just for tonight, can we pretend that we…don’t?”

3. “You’re absolutely fucking insane if you think I’m going to that ball with you.” // “Oh, you so want to. I can see it in your eyes.”

4. “Last night was a mistake.” // “Huh. That’s funny. I don’t recall you ever saying no. Said yes a lot. And god, yes. Oh, fuck, yes—” // “So you’re a great lay. It was still a mistake, and it’s never happening again.” // “Until next time, then.”

5. “You look like shit.” -pause- “what, no comeback?” // “I almost died tonight. And the last person I thought about was you.”

6. “Sometimes the way you look at me makes me think that perhaps you don’t hate me that much.”

7. “What happened to your hand? Let me see.” // “I’m fine.” // “You’re hurt.” // “Why do you care?” // “…I don’t know.”

8. “Nobody gets to hate you but me.”

9. “We could have been friends, once upon a time.” // “No, we couldn’t have.” // “Why?” // “Because when I look at you…I know it’s either hate or love. And I choose the former. It hurts less.”

10. “Having sex crossed a line that we can’t uncross. Do you even realise that?” // “You have no idea how much I realise it. I’m fucked. Now that I’ve had you, I can’t bear the thought of anyone else having you.”

11. “You don’t get to pull the possessive, territorial bullshit when you can’t decide for five fucking minutes whether you hate me or want me.” // “I want you. And that’s why I hate you. I’ve never wanted somebody so much and you drive me insane.”

12. “One of us is going to kill the other one day.” // “Kind of hope it’s you killing me. That’d be pretty hot. // “There’s something incredibly wrong with you.”

13. “Here for another fight?” // “I’m here because I need to be in the company of somebody that treats me like an actual person.”

14. “Tell me. Be honest. What did I even do to make you hate me so much?” // “You smiled. And I knew that god damn smile would ruin me if I didn’t ruin it first.”

15. “Don’t you dare fucking die on me.” // “Got anything you want to say before I go?” // “Yes. I love you. Now live and punch me for saying it.”

I need suggestion! Stories about kids who went to magic schools. Yes, I know, Harry Potter, I have the whole collection from before Rowling proved herself a transphobe and cancelled herself.

It's a novel writing project, and I need several examples of the story type to study. Books are better, but I'll also take tv, movie and anime suggestions. I can easily study those too.

Blue Exorcist and Soul Eater could count, but I'd prefer examples with more ordinary protagonists.

Ps. Suggestions don't have to be only modern stories. Anything goes.

Huge congratulations to @msridcully also known as Myf Wren, on the release of her second novel in the Tewsbury Daddies series, Forever Ink.

If you like mm romance with daddies and littles, check out Forever Ink and the first book in the series, Viking Ink.

Wrote a 94k novel in about 3 months in 2020, with another ~70k short story collection in 2021. Got COVID in 2022 and ever since then... it's like pulling teeth. A permanent brain fog just when I try to write, and tired every night, right when I would be hitting my stride. When I do get writing I never seem to enter the flow I was capable of before COVID.

Not debilitating and I can do most everything else. But the one thing I loved most has been gone for almost two years now.

Am I alone?

Show Don't Tell : Intimate Scene

Body Language and Descriptive Actions :

Instead of explicitly stating the characters emotions, show their feelings through body language and descriptive actions. Explore how their bodies respond to each other's touch, their facial expressions, the way they move, and their gestures.

Use these physical cues to show desire, longing, or vulnerability.

Example: "Her breath hitched as he grazed his fingertips along her jawline, his touch sending shivers down her spine. She leaned into him, her body arching instinctively, seeking closer contact. Their eyes locked, speaking volumes of the raw passion that pulsed between them."

Sensory Details :

Use sensory details to evoke desire, create intimacy, and heighten the emotional connection.

Example: "The air crackled with electricity as their lips met, a soft and tender union. His kiss tasted of warmth and longing, like a bittersweet promise. She could feel the heat radiating from his body, the intoxicating scent of his cologne enveloping her senses."

Dialogue :

Use dialogue to show emotions and desires indirectly, allow your characters to express how they feel, it will make the scene much more intimate.

Example: "He whispered her name against her ear, his voice filled with longing. 'You have no idea how much you mean to me,' he breathed, his words dripping with a mix of desire and vulnerability."

Internal Thoughts and Sensations :

Provide glimpses into the characters internal thoughts and sensations to reveal their emotions. Show their racing thoughts, the flutter of their hearts, or the battle between desire and hesitation.

Example: "Her mind raced with a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts. Should she surrender to this intoxicating desire or hold back? But her heart thundered in her chest, and the way his gaze consumed her made it impossible to deny the profound connection they shared."

Remember, you need to create an atmosphere of intimacy and allow the reader to experience the scene through sensory details, body language, dialogue, and thoughts.

By focusing on showing the characters physical and emotional responses, you can enhance the intimacy of the moment and create a more impactful scene.

Writing Advice

I have a blog where I talk about different topics, my WIPs, projects, previous drafts, OCs, and also writing advice!

Here are the links to my current blog posts about writing advice:

Character voice

Fight scenes

https://kaylinrosealexande.wixsite.com/kaylinalexanderbooks/post/fight-scenes-in-tsp

Deleting scenes

Magic systems

https://kaylinrosealexande.wixsite.com/kaylinalexanderbooks/post/writing-magic-systems

Writing for children

Prologues

Most of these, I use my current WIPs The Secret Portal and School of the Legends as examples to what I have done, and I include videos that helped me with these problems.

I update my blog daily, so I will be back with more advice later down the road!

Writing Lesson X:

Organizing Miscellaneous Ideas & Large-scale Editing

So, I've gotton to the point in my writing where my planning sheet is a mess and the ever-growing list of scene I need to heavily edit/ rewrite has exceeded what I need to have done to move forward in my story.

Here is what I'm doing to fix both of my problems:

I started a new google doc for both planning, which includes an encyclopedia-like categorization of my worldbuilding, and writing.

I copy over one chapter it a time to my new writing doc and edit one section completely before I move on to the next.

As I edit, I log a bit of worldbuilding that I come across. For example, if I mention a place that I feel like defining, I neatly write everything I know about that place under the "places" section in my planning. I also refer back to my previous worldbuilding doc and keep an eye out for stray ideas that are relevent.

Things I am still trying to figure out how to keep track of:

Character relationships- beyond "X's father" and more like how characters feel about each other.

Character morality- somehow I always forget which of my characters are okay with what.

Where my characters are at in their arcs- at this point, I might just need to have a doc JUST for characters

Things I might try:

Separating my planning into character, worldbuilding, and plot just to not overwhelm my brain.

Explaining the arcs for my characters to myself and then ACTUALLY WRITING IT DOWN.

Simplifying my scene by focusing on less ideas at once.

This is definitely a weirder format than normal, but today's topic was a bit ... experimental. If y'all find this format easier to read, let me know, and good luck organizing your ideas!

Writing Resources

My main thesaurus website which is up while I write:

My favorite Random Name Generator: There are so many ways to tweak the settings and generate names to choose from:

If you have spare credits/moolah/kruge, these are awesome:

Translations: Nothing beats having a native or fluent speaker's help, but DeepL tends to do better than Google Translate:

I don't heed even a third of its suggestions, but the Hemingway Editor is good for finding stupidly long run-on sentences that I otherwise skim over. It encourages me to rework some things, make them more succinct:

Series Update:

I have an upcoming chapter in the works. But it will be a LONG one, and I want to make sure I do what I have planned/thought justice.

Please do bare with me and also I am looking for help with my title of the next chapter (In regards to Shakespearean english) , if anyone is able to help please do DM me! :D

Call to Share Your Expertise

As discussed in today's meeting and at least once at a past meeting, we would like a list of experts to go to with questions.

This is a mutual exchange of information to help other writers do a better job of portraying whatever it is they are writing.

If you are willing to share insight into your particular culture, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc please let us know.

If you know a lot about anything (and are willing to share that knowledge)....ancient Roman history, beekeeping, salsa dancing, bowling, whatever it is, please let us know.

Likewise, if you would like to nominate one of your fellow word warriors (oh, so and so knows a lot about growing flowers) let us know that too, and I can reach out and see if they are okay with being added to the list for that topic.

As always, please feel free to share your thoughts or suggestions if you have other ideas about how this should work. We want this group to work for you!

You can let us know via comment here or in Discord. You can also send a DM here, on Discord, or to @angelasscribbles

Don't be shy. We know we have a lot of collective knowledge here, that is clear from the live discussions.

@karahalloway @aussiegurl1234 @harleybeaumont @alj4890 @peonierose @petiteboheme @twinkleallnight @lizzybeth1986 @noesapphic  @thedistantshoresproject @welcometotheweirdplqce

The thing I keep telling myself lately in regards to my writing is this:

if I'm not having fun, then what's the fucking point?

Stop worrying about publishing. Stop worrying about what people might think. Stop thinking about if your story will be a bestseller, if it will be hated, if anyone will read it at all.

Stop getting ahead of yourself. You're overthinking.

It's okay to have fun. You are supposed to have fun, you are supposed to enjoy the process, the effort, the work. Are there times that are less pleasant, less fun? Absolutely. But your favorite authors and heroes did not become the writers they are because they were grinding their teeth in agony with every word they wrote.

Let go of all the questions. It doesn't matter what people might think about your story. It doesn't matter if this story gets you an agent. It doesn't matter if this is the best story ever, or the worst, or most forgettable or whatever else you hope or fear it will be.

Let them go. Turn your mental focus away from them as best you can. Tell yourself, "my future self will deal with that when my present self is done".

Because none of those are relevant unless you finish the story. And you can't finish the story if you're worrying about the future.

Don't give up. You've got this. And if you haven't heard this today, I'm proud of you.

What living outside of your natural sleep-wake cycle feels like: a (long) DSPD symptom list for writers

Note: This list is based on my experiences as someone who’s been living (almost) constantly outside of my natural sleep hours. For reference, my sleep-wake cycle is from 7.00-8.00 to 16.00-17.00 and I’ve been sleeping from 00.00-01.00 to 05.00-06.00 for the past two years. This isn’t intended to be a diagnosis checklist, just my personal experience as someone with DSPD. This is for authors who want to write characters with this disorder or people who want to know more about this topic. Full detailed list below the cut.

Dry eyes. When I wake up, I feel as if I’ve been staring at a computer screen with the brightness to the max in a dim room for 14 hours. This feeling usually goes away within 2 to 3 hours of waking up. Eye drops help with this.

Alternating bursts of energy and sudden sleepiness. I’ll elaborate more on the sleepiness, but the excessive daytime sleepiness isn’t linear nor consistent. I can be nodding off one hour and being perfectly awake the next.

Sudden sleepiness. I wake up groggy every day, but there are some where I get energy quite soon. However, that doesn’t mean I’m going to be energetic all day long. I usually nod off when I’m doing something passive like writing something down from a board or listening to someone talk for a very long time without being able to make it into a conversation (for example, being in a lecture).  I know when I’m going to fall asleep. I’ll start feeling heavier and notice my focus getting worse and worse until I nod off for what feels like a few seconds, wake up for a minute or two and then fall asleep again. It’s a very light sleep, so if I get called my name I usually wake up, and some people can fall asleep sitting up (like me), so the situation goes like this: I’m paying attention in class, and within some minutes of noticing the tiredness get worse I’ll be dozing intermittently, sitting upright. Getting up and walking around can help with preventing the sleep, but as soon as I sit down it happens again. Now, this is a pretty extreme case. It started happening when I was 16 (symptoms worsen during adolescence), but before that it was a tolerable tiredness. The fact that I could lay my head down in class and sleep probably helped too.

Melatonin pills will make everything worse. I’ve had melatonin and natural sleep-inducing herb-based pills prescribed. Neither work. They make you fall asleep fast, yes, but the sleep quality is even worse than usual and I fall asleep during daytime more easily than without them

Shit sleep quality. For as long as I can remember, I have never woken up refreshed and fully rested. Sure, there are days when I wake up fine even if I don’t sleep in my natural hours, but they’re extremely rare. I usually wake up more tired than when I went to sleep the previous night.

You get more awake as the day goes on. In my case, the sudden sleepiness stops abruptly after 18.00, and the closer I get to my bedtime, the more awake I am.

Sometimes you want to take a nap and you can’t. When I wake up later in the day (12.00 and after), sometimes I want to take a nap because I’m still tired at 15.00, but because I don’t have that extreme tiredness of waking up at five/six it can be hard to actually fall asleep, no matter how tired I am.

Less patience and more sensitivity to light and noise. The worse you sleep, the less patience you have. It’s only natural. Now, I’m not sure if the second part is because of my sensory issues, but if you’re going to write a character with DSPD who isn’t autistic/ADHD/doesn’t have sensory issues, you may want to be careful including this, but I have noticed that I’m more sensitive to light and noise when I’ve slept worse than usual, sometimes to the point of headaches and a strong urge to bawl my eyes out.

The amount of time you sleep means absolutely nothing. The reason why I sleep five to six hours is because it’s as good as my sleep will get. If I sleep, say, three hours, my memory and focus would be seriously affected, but I could sleep eight or ten hours and, as long as I wake up when I’m not meant to, I will have the same symptoms. As I’ve said before, it’s also hard to fall asleep early, no matter how tired I am.

Waking up is a nightmare and you have a lot of pent-up frustration. The first part is pretty self-explanatory, but the second one is due to a myriad of reasons: I want to sleep well, why can’t I? Why have I been dealt such a shitty luck? You also want others to understand you, but, besides the dismissive and ableist people, no one truly realizes how exhausting it is to live like this.

You realize how many parts of life are dictated by sleep-wake cycles. People who are/have diurnal lifestyles have things way easier than people with nocturnal lives. Not only is everything closed at the wee hours of the night, besides emergency services, bars and clubs, but socialization is near impossible. All your friends in your time zone are asleep for most of your waking hours, and even people in other time zones go to sleep before you. There are some advantages to this, such as being paid more for doing the same thing as your coworkers during the night shift, but this is not the case always. Some industries do not have night shifts (obviously).

You get a lot of time for yourself. The good part of being awake while everyone else is asleep is that you can do anything (within reason) and the chances of being walked on/being seen are pretty low.

And finally...

You switch to your natural sleep cycle incredibly fast. I can go from waking up at six to going to sleep at eight in two days. It almost feels like getting out of an uncomfortable, stuffy suit and changing into your favorite pyjamas. It’s more comfortable and you feel better all-around.

There’s not a lot of research on DSPD, it’s not diagnosed often and people with this disorder often have other comorbid disorders, such as ADHD. There’s a high number of people with DSPD who have depression as well, but the causal relationship between them isn’t known yet.

I hope this post is of help with your characters and it was informative. My DMs and asks are open, please be nice and don’t even think about giving me “tips” to “improve my sleep” (istg I have heard the term sleep hygiene so many times im sick of it) unless it comes from someone with DSPD.

Rain’s questions #1

Wanted to ask the community - how do you make sure you write two distinct voices in your novels? What are the small things that may change between each POV and narrative?

What editing apps do you mostly use for your images/titles? I use canva but I'm curious how you made your stuff into a gif or video??? I'm referring to this!!!

I think it's so cool!!! It gives real life to fanfics and it 100% is a eye catcher to stand out from other fanfics as I scroll past.

Hi darling! I am also a big fan of Canva and use the program to create all of my story graphics, including the image/title headers.

I agree that it gives life to fanfics by catching the eye of potential readers as they're scrolling through their feeds. At this point, making them is just a part of my own personal creative process.

When it comes to adding animation, there should be an option in your Canva toolbar that allows you to add different styles of animation to either the text or a page. You can also select the length of duration as well. I typically set mine at 20 seconds.

Of course you will have even more control of things if you choose to pay for the premium service. I work with the free option, but I do recommend checking out the free trial if you're interested in that. I really enjoyed it.

Once you've selected your animation and added whatever other effects you like to the graphic, then just save it as a GIF. It's really just that easy.

Hope that helps!

The importance of writing exercises.

Practice and skill development :

Writing exercises provide an opportunity to improve your abilities, it allows you to focus on specific aspects of writing, such as character development, dialogue, descriptive language, or plot structure.

Overcoming Writer's Block :

Writing exercises can be an effective tool for overcoming writer's block or periods of creative stagnation. When you're stuck on a particular project or lacking inspiration, engaging in a different writing exercise can help break through the mental block. It allows you to shift your focus, explore new ideas, and spark your creativity.

Building Writing Discipline :

Consistently doing writing exercises helps you develop discipline and consistency in your writing practice. It cultivates the habit of sitting down to write regularly, even when you may not feel particularly motivated or inspired. This discipline is crucial for sustaining long-term writing projects and achieving your writing goals.

Here are a few writing exercises for you :

Describe a vivid and atmospheric setting, such as a bustling city street during a thunderstorm, a serene beach at sunrise, or an abandoned mansion shrouded in mist.

Write a dialogue between two characters who have opposing viewpoints on a controversial topic. Explore their arguments, emotions, and the potential for understanding or conflict.

Create a character who possesses an unusual and magical talent. Write a scene where they first discover or struggle to control their power.

Write a scene in which a character faces their greatest fear. Explore their internal thoughts, the physical sensations they experience, and the choices they make in overcoming or succumbing to their fear.

Post it, or don't.

Happy writing!