Vorpal Blade + Lucid Blade

be wary of the houses in the foothills.

find me on instagram!

WWC’s A Beginner’s Guide to Academic Research

We are pleased to present  WWC’s A Beginner’s Guide to Academic Research!

This pandemic project has been over 2 years in the making and we hope it will greatly assist any of our readers who are eager to conduct in-depth research but may be at a loss where to start. 

Go to the Guide Here

The guide is split into 6 parts:

Each portion of the guide has links to connect to the previous and next sections. While it is possible to view tumblr pages on phones and tablets through the app, we highly recommend viewing this guide via browser on desktop whenever possible. Tumblr page formatting is better suited for browsers and each section is very dense with information, which will make scrolling in the app or on your dashboard difficult. 

Future FAQ/ Discussion: 

As noted in part 5 of the guide, for the next two weeks, we will be keeping an eye on the notes for this post. If you have further questions or comments about academic research, drop them here and we will select the most pertinent to respond to in a later post. 

If you find this guide helpful, we request that you consider tipping the moderators below for the work and time required from conception, to drafting, formatting and debugging. Their ko-fis are listed below: 

Rina: https://ko-fi.com/arcanabean

Marika: https://ko-fi.com/5h1njuu

For anyone without easy access to a local library,

I am not an ebook reader myself, but LibGen and the Gutenberg Project are sites I've heard good things about. The others look enticing.

Some of the sites mentioned here are nonprofits that predate z-library, so they actually benefit from notoriety and attention. If you want to enjoy free literature and support authors, these are actually BETTER alternatives to z-library.

Sketchbook update ! 🖊️ 

Originals series ✨ 2/3

Originals series ✨ 3/3

Eadaz and her queen

Sabran and the White Wyrm - from The Priory of the Orange Tree.

requested by tea-with-cinnamontoast 

The 5 Most Essential Turning Points in a Character’s Arc

You spend so much time creating a character because you want them to feel real. You want to connect with them and use them to create an experience for your readers. Their character arc is how that happens.

Don’t miss out on these essential turning points that make an arc feel not only whole, but complete.

1. The Inciting Incident

Your inciting incident gets your plot moving. It isn’t going to be the first sentence of your story (also called your hook), although it could be if you crafted your first sentence for that purpose.

An inciting incident is a plot event that guides your character in a new direction. It’s the successful prison break, the meeting of instant rivals, or the moment your protagonist wins the lottery in your first chapter.

Without the inciting incident, your protagonist’s life would carry on as usual. They wouldn’t start the arc that makes them an interesting person for the reader to stick with throughout your story.

2. Introducing the Protagonist’s Main Flaw

Every protagonist needs a primary flaw. Ideally, they’ll have more than one. People aren’t perfect and they rarely get close enough to only have one negative characteristic. Protagonists need that same level of humanity for readers to connect with them.

There are many potential flaws you could consider, but the primarily flaw must be the foundation for your character’s arc. It might even be the catalyst for the story’s peak.

Imagine a hero archetype. They’re great and well-intended, but they have a problem with boasting. Their arc features scenes where they learn to overcome their need to brag about themselves, but they get drunk and boast in a bar right before the story’s peak. The antagonist’s best friend hears this because they’re at the same bar, so they report the hero’s comment to the main villain. It thwarts the hero’s efforts and makes the climax more dramatic.

Other potential flaws to consider:

3. Their First Failure

Everyone will fail at a goal eventually. Your protagonist should too. Their first failure could be big or small, but it helps define them. They either choose to continue pursuing that goal, they change their goal, or their worldview shatters.

Readers like watching a protagonist reshape their identity when they lose sight of what they wnat. They also like watching characters double down and pursue something harder. Failure is a necessary catalyst for making this happen during a character’s arc.

4. Their Rock Bottom

Most stories have a protagonist that hits their rock bottom. It could be when their antagonist defeats them or lose what matters most. There are numerous ways to write a rock-bottom moment. Yours will depend on what your character wants and what your story’s theme is.

If you forget to include a rock-bottom moment, the reader might feel like the protagonist never faced any real stakes. They had nothing to lose so their arc feels less realistic.

Rock bottoms don’t always mean earth-shattering consequences either. It might be the moment when your protagonist feels hopeless while taking an exam or recognizes that they just don’t know what to do. Either way, they’ll come to grips with losing something (hope, direction, or otherwise) and the reader will connect with that.

5. What the Protagonist Accepts

Protagonists have to accept the end of their arc. They return home from their hero’s journey to live in a life they accept as better than before. They find peace with their new fate due to their new community they found or skills they aquired.

Your protagonist may also accept a call to action. They return home from their journey only to find out that their antagonist inspired a new villain and the protagonist has to find the strength to overcome a new adversary. This typically leads into a second installment or sequel.

Accepting the end of their arc helps close the story for the reader. A protagonist who decides their arc wasn’t worth it makes the reader disgruntled with the story overall. There has to be a resolution, which means accepting whatever the protagonist’s life ended up as—or the next goal/challenge they’ll chase.

-----

Hopefully these points make character arcs feel more manageable for you. Defining each point might feel like naming your instincts, but it makes character creation and plotting easier.

Want more creative writing tips and tricks? I have plenty of other fun stuff on my website, including posts like Traits Every Protagonist Needs and Tips for Writing Subplots.

I feel like when I say ‘relatable’ what I really mean is ‘resonant.’ I don’t want characters who I feel are like me, I want characters who have emotions so strong I can feel them through the page.

I think this is important because a lot of us forget the power of stories to make us feel things about characters who are not like us, who have experienced things that we never will. The purpose of listening to someone else's story should not necessarily be identification, but understanding.

You gotta write for funsies sometimes. Everything doesn’t have to be groundbreaking. Like. Who cares if it’s a little silly it is made out of love

i am not a butterfly. I am not a creature of beauty, to be loved and treasured, to be put on a frame and displayed in the family room.

i am a cicada. Loud, unending, perpetual.

I alone have survived all other iterations of myself, buried and hidden away, lost to the times.

I have crawled from the depths below like the undead, like a beast that should not be.

My transformation is not beautiful. I do not emerge with brilliant wings and shimmering colours. I harden myself against the horrors of this world, breaking through my flesh, snapping my spine, contorting into a creature from the depths of a child's nightmares.

I am that child. Those are my nightmares. I wish when i was young, i had liked bugs. Not just the beautiful ones, not just the butterflies and the ladybugs and the roly-polys that lived beneath our back porch. I wish i had learned to love the ugly. The cicadas, the hornets, the spiders.

Perhaps then i may have been able to tolerate myself. Finding all the husks of who i was before, stuck to bathroom sinks and kitchen floors and closets. Perhaps then i would not be so frightened of the underground, the grave i must dig myself into and out of. Perhaps then I would be able to hear my own song and not wonder when it will end, and not worry for the time that it stops. My skin begins to grow tight against my body, endlessly, perpetually. I shed myself time and time again, fearing the moment i must look back upon myself. I am a cicada.

Types of Opening Scenes for Your Novel

Here are a handful of ways to open the very first scene in your book! There are plenty more to explore, but these are a set of very tried and true methods.

Autobiographic - your protagonist starts the book reflecting or talking about a past event. They’re looking back in time and sharing an important piece of information with the reader.

In trouble/conflict - a problem has arisen for the protagonist and a sense of urgency is established. This can be an intense conflict like a chase scene or a puzzling problem.

Mysterious opening - the reader is introduced to something peculiar (a fantasy location, unique magic, a cloaked figure, etc.) that raises questions in their mind. Their curiosity will keep them reading.

Scene-setting - the most common opening where you focus on introducing the setting and the characters in it before anything else.

The questioner - the protagonist is questioning something: “Who invited the guy in the trench coat covered in red?”

Beginning with a thought - the novel is started with a philosophical quote or meaningful thought from the protagonist. “What is living worth if she’s not doing it with me?”

Intriguing dialogue - the book starts with interesting dialogue that captures the attention of the reader.

Mood establisher - the novel opens with a deliberate mood that signifies to the reader what they should expect from the story. Ex. a spooky story may open with eerie words and a dark atmosphere.

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting

Writers of Tumblr, I have an ask game for you all!

Please reblog and answer these questions, maybe tag others too! My asks are also open for them.