LIZORAE

Hey authors! Welcome back to my 5th Week Update series! This is only the third post so far, but I've been enjoying writing these so much. I'm definitely going to be continuing this in the foreseeable future! Without further ado, let's get straight into it! Milestones  If you don't already know, I'm Aussie, so it's Winter over here as I type. Why am I bringing this up, you ask? Well, this post is the last one for Winter 2020. *applauds self for surviving another three months*  I'm actually typing this in advance, but when this goes up on my blog, I'll be celebrating with chocolates and watching a movie. We've got to take any chance to celebrate, amirite? This post is also the 37th post I've written. It's not a lot compared to other bloggers, but I'm still going to celebrate. I'm improving! Extra chocolate for moi!  For the last few posts I've written, I've made slight changes to how I do the title. I've caps locked importa...

Love triangles are pretty much a staple in YA fiction. And romance. And almost every other genre. It's become so popular that it stinks. To find a bearable love triangle is rare. To find an exciting love triangle is a gem.  I heard Jane Austen's love triangles were brilliant. Skeptical, I decided to give it a try. So far, I've read  Pride and Prejudice , Emma and Sense and Sensibility . Boy was I impressed. (Okay, yes. This was also the first time I've read Jane Austen . It's embarrassing to join the fandom so late, but at least I've joined, right? :p)  1. Give your characters personalities.   Source: Tenor Typically in a Jane Austen love triangle, there's our female protagonist and two male love interests. The most notable aspect is that they all have personality. Even the girl!   Their personalities vary book to book, but there's two general ideas Austen uses in the male interests. One seems to be a Prince Charming while the other...not so much. W...

One of my favourite parts of writing a book is discovering the characters. Maybe it has something to do with my INFJ tendency to find people fascinating. Maybe it's because I love psychology. Whatever the reason, it's da bomb. I've multiple WIPs at the moment (none of them close to having the planning finished, haha)  and as much as I love characters, it's taking a lot of time to fully discover and develop them. I've experimented with questionnaires, interviews and archetype plots, but none of them clicked with me.  It's only recently that I have found these methods, but I'm 100% won over. Let's get to my three favourite methods for uncovering characters.  Disclaimer: I'm not really sure how necessary this warning is, but these methods all require a basic understanding of your character's journey and personality. It doesn't have to be much, just a bit is enough. 1. Music Playlists  Source: Tenor I love musicals. I love music. Why not use m...

"Show don't tell" is a piece of writing advice you'll heart everywhere. Naturally, I've thought about it many times, trying to discover the core of almost every writing advisor's favourite tip. The reason for its existence. The heart of its... Nah, just kidding. I spent most of my time trying to argue against it. Tell, don't show. It's not because I think it's bad advice. I wanted to see why it's so popular. You know, what's the big deal with showing? Flash forward a few years, I've finally decided to write a blog post about it. Let's get to! What exactly is "show don't tell"?  Source: Giphy Show don't tell can be explained exactly how it is. Show what is happening, show what the characters are feeling, show what their senses are picking up. Don't tell.  For example, it's a hot day and your character is really feeling it. Here's the same series of events, one told with telling and the other with showin...

It takes a skilled and practiced person to stop being them  and become someone else. Even on paper. Especially on paper. If eyes are the window to a person's soul, stories are the books to their heart.  That's why we, as authors, must be mindful of what goes on in our, well, minds. Our interests tend to be what we write about, you know? It'd be pretty strange if you wrote a book featuring a protagonist spider when you hate spiders.  That's why I went on a hunt for quotes that stood out as ones we should remember. Let's get straight to it! 1. "As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand." -Ernest Hemingway Source: Tenor If this was not a quote, I would delete the "as a writer" part. Life would be so much better if everyone  understood before judging. Or maybe not judge at all. I know that's idealistic and I probably don't do that as much as I'd like to, but why don't we all try? Rant aside, understanding why people wo...