forum Writing Rules

Started April 13, 2018 by @ThatBackgroundSlytherin

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Hey, Pals! You can post your top writing rules and beliefs here and we can also debate them. (Pls no negativity.)

Learn how to research before you ask any questions so you'll have something specific to ask when you do need an individual's expertise

Also, for the love of god, proofread everything before putting it out into the world

Good one! While it is good to make your races unique, there are rules when it comes to certain ones, e.g Dwarves, Fairies, Zombies, etc.

Also, for the love of god, proofread everything before putting it out into the world

I think that's common sense.

If all your characters are white, thin, able-bodied, and attractive, you're doing something wrong.

Yep. I read this really great blog by Hannah Heath. One of her main things is make them characters first then decide gender, race, etc.

It's supposed to be common sense, but you'd be surprised. But I'm not just talking about finished work, I'm talking about drafts as well. Of course a draft is a rough cut, but when it's just written off the cuff and then not edited at all, it can be very painful for those who have to read it to help you refine it, and I cannot tell you how many times I've seen people be super lazy with their drafts

True. First drafts are not supposed to be perfect, simply exist, which is why I don't let anybody read it. It's supposed to suck!

Honestly, I don't believe that first drafts are supposed to suck, necessarily. It's just the first version of your ideas. I think that you're supposed to put your best foot foward with the first draft, and then refine the idea in subsequent drafts, not just throw everything at the board haphazardly just to see what sticks. When I write a first draft, I say to myself, let's knock it outta the park with this one. And then I go from there.

And that is why all my first drafts are gold, and everything after that is diamonds lol

I disagree. first drafts are supposed to be a rough sketch of where you want to go. if you pressure yourself to make it your best, you'll procrastinate or won't feel inspired or miss a big idea. I guess different things work for different people

Yes, I agree! What I meant is that it's mostly an experiment to see which elements fit in the story and which do not. While you should try to do your best, sometimes you just need to step back and let your dialog be choppy or your descriptions be dull. What do you think?

I suppose what I really wanted to say before is that it's best to start off with a clear plan first before even starting the first draft. I find that laying everything out first, and I do mean everything, has been the most helpful to me as a writer. It does take a long time and seems like a roundabout way of doing things, but the differences between my first drafts before having a solid foundation, and after I started doing it that way have been exponentially different.

Cool, fren! Lovely debate, well done!
Next subject, Rules for Races. This is something that a few people have a problem with. Like some think dwarves don't have to be short. But that is part of their origin and the name meaning. Thoughts?

that sounds so organized. i'm awful at prewriting, so the first draft is really my prewriting phase. makes it easier to get into the action and figure out a tone/theme imo

that sounds so organized. i'm awful at prewriting, so the first draft is really my prewriting phase. makes it easier to get into the action and figure out a tone/theme imo

Same.

It gets easier the more you do, and becomes especially easy when you have someone who's willing to talk about all of that stuff with you. I'm lucky enough to have my fiance who's willing to do nothing but talk about my stories lol.

As far as rules for races:

I do believe that fundamental, established rules should not be broken unless you're a damned talented writer and have done as much research about the subject as possible, becuse otherwise, you're being subversive for the sake of convenience and/or aesthetic rather than for the love of the craft. After all, if a dwarf is not short, than is it really a dwarf? The Hobbit movie was already pushing it by making the main leads we were supposed to care about hot in the modern sense, and we all know why they did that.

Yep. And while Elves can be bent to an extent, they are originally pale and tall, though they don't have to have pointy ears as it is not really mentioned.

Well with elves, that's a different story. There's no real reason why they have to be pale. You can easily have dark-skinned elves with the other characteristics of elves such as being tall, stoic, forest-dwellers, magic users, etc. The pale skin is such a bottom tier characteristic that there's no reason to keep it. Especially since the history behind them is problematic, i.e. the juxtaposition of light vs. dark, where light is inherently good and dark (or black) is inherently evil.

True, but if you want to go back to their roots, the name elf is derived from the Latin words Alba which means pale or white.

And only, the elven archtype has been subverted so many times that as long as they have pointed ears and are magical, that's an elf. With dwarves, the whole point is that they have to at least be short.

And just as I said before, if we go with the quintessitential elven archtype, the Tolkien elves, the whole point of that was to show that they were inherently good because they were white. I don't wanna make things too heavy, but it was a racist archetype back then and it will be now if it is followed.

Okay, yeah. Question; do you think Zombies should have hobbies and/or normal lives?

It's just like with vampires. They were typically protrayed with pale skin because they are the living dead, but what if a darker-skinned person becomes a vampire? Darker-skinned people do not become bleach-white when they die, they go ashen. Stephenie Meyer already tried it with the bleach eveveryone's skin until they're perfectly pale thing, and it was terrible then. It always was.