"I aspire to write and publish a book one day. People may come and go, but the printed word lasts forever. That's how I'll make my mark on the world." -Unknown

"You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won't be able to take a break from being a writer" -Stephen Leigh

"You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader" -Nancy Kress

"You don't really understand an antagonist until you understand why he's a protagonist in his own version of the world" -John Rogers

"For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I'm still awake. I can continue's yesterday dream today, something you can't normally do in everyday life" -Haruki Murakami

"A writer is simply a photographer of thoughts" -Brandon A. Trean

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." -Cyril Connolly

Most common writing problems (For me)

You know you're writer when...

"I'm a writer" is always a great excuse

"Why are researching Aztec culture?" I'm a writer

"Why are you searching poisonous flowers?" I'm a writer

"Why is there a dead body in your attic?" I'm a writer.

I'm a writer. Don't ask questions.

Writing/Reading tips:

How to make a character's death sadder:

1. Don't have them die of old age after a long, fulfilling life. Many people don't think of this as sad.
2. Leave one of their major goals unfinished. The more enthusiastic about they are about completing the goal, the sadder
3. Give them strong relationships with other characters
4. Make them fight against whatever is causing their death. Their ultimate loss is sadder if they struggle.
5. Kill them in the middle of their character arc
6. Don't describe their funeral in detail. Maybe it's just me, but I find that long descriptions of funerals kill the sadness.

Check list for killing a character:

Good reasons to kill a character

Bad reasons to kill a character:

Write the Fic you want to read:

Got Writer's Block? Here are some of my top tips for beating writer's block:

1. Listen to Music. Music can be inspirational and many people find that a little background music assists them to keep the ideas and the light bulb blinking.
2. Skip a section/scene. Don't insist on writing something so adamantly that nothing else gets done. If you're stuck on a section of your novel, fic, blog, or essay, or something just doesn't seem to be working-leave it for a while and come back later.
3. Take a caffeine nap. I love coffee and we all know that it can momentarily boost our alertness, but did you know that drinking coffee and then immediately taking a short nap can rocket your creativity and banish writer's block.
4. Change the scenery. If your current work location isn't cutting it, get up and go somewhere else. The library, the living room, a coffee shop, the park...anywhere else but where you are now. The change of scenery may just reignite your passion and banish your writers block and if it doesn't, you can at least get yourself a drink.
5. Ask yourself: "who cares?" If you write for fanfic, chances are you have an audience and these people are waiting to read something from you. Ask yourself what it is they want to know. This should assist you to focus on different angles and approach the topic from a different point of view.
6. Write about something else. Don't go writing a new fic (unless you want to) but maybe a one shot or six shot. Write about your frustration or your thoughts. It will help you to get things off your chest and refocus your mind. I created Let's start a Revolution as an outlet to talk about certain subjects whenever I didn't have any motivation to write. It allowed me to still write but not hate doing it. Does that make sense? I'm one of those writers who either writes and does so continuously or if I stop writing, I won't write for maybe months or years at a time. There is no in between.
7. Read the books/fanfics you love. Moments of humor or insights might spark many ideas and associations. In fact, read in general-find something you might want to incorporate into a specific scene or chapter.
8. Randomly change the font, size, and color of your story/chapter. Somehow, it tricks my brain into thinking it's a whole new document. I've always heard that tinting the background of your document to a light (mint) green prompts creativity. It gives your eyes a rest from the stark white background.

Some advice for when you're writing and find yourself stuck in the middle of a scene:

Reminder to Self (Especially if you pre write multiple chapters like me or are in the process of writing a novel/short story)

Your writing seems boring and predictable because:

A person who has never read it before does not have this problem.

Dumb writing jokes that I find funny:

A note about reviewing:

-If you have the time, review! Take the time to tell the author how you feel about their story-especially if they're a beginner and they need a few pointers. You don't need to be a fanfic writer to steer them in the right direction, just say hey you misspelled a character's name alot or you tend to switch tenses often. It's critical for a beginner to receive feedback so if you can offer some assistance, then do so.

-Maybe you have trouble writing a review and you end up not doing so. I get alot of 'Great chapter' or 'Update soon' I like those because if everyone's happy and looking forward to the next chapter, that means I've done something right. So stick to those if you want show support. Maybe you like a specific scene or line-tell the author that. If I'm not leaving cc then I'll leave those types of reviews because it lets the author know you paid attention or caught onto their reference.

-'I don't have the time to review.' But you had the time to read a 1,000 -6,000 word chapter? Riiight. Also maybe you didn't review because you didn't feel like signing in. I understand that, 60% of my reviews aren't signed. On the rare occasion that I read fanfic (Listen, when you write fics and have an updating schedule, you rarely have reading time. It's crazy.) I read it on my phone and I don't sign in because let's be real, I don't know my password. It's autosaved on my laptop so I don't know it. Also, I've had to request a new password a lot and ff gives you those random letters and numbers as a temporary password but I never change them afterwards. So every time I forget, the cycle repeats. Long tangent aside, I still review. I mention that I didn't sign in and leave my username just in case they want to look me up. See? Not hard at all :)

-If you don't write fics, you won't ever really know how much reviews mean to writers. It's much more personal than favorites and follows. For example, almost 90% of people who favorite one of my fics (and don't review) have like 1,000 other stories on their favorite list. Same thing with followers. That doesn't make my story unique at all. To me, it seems that every story this person has ever read, they favorited/followed and I am no different. This does not mean don't favorite or follow, just know that's the thought that run through some writers minds.

-Personally, I write fics for myself because I enjoy doing it and all the reviews, favs, and followers are very much appreciated but they're a bonus. Some writers, however, are starting or they actively want to know how they're doing and if you have the time, please review.