Hello humansssss,

So every now and then, I get messages from people who are interested in writing but have no clue where to start. I've been promising a chapter like this for so long and I'm so sorry to those who may have been waiting for a very long time, time passes very quickly for me and I don't even realise.

Well anyway, this is going to be all my tips for writing, little things that help me and hopefully help you

For those new to writing, the one thing I always suggest is just to dive in. Whether that's by writing several drafts, sharing your works or just starting on a plot - it is always better to try than to think about how you can mess up.

The imagination works best when it's set free, so don't let your fears hold it back.

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Okay, so when I'm starting a new book, the first thing I tend to do is find

There's lots of ideas and concepts in my mind, so when I find an image to link them to, it can help centre my thoughts and build my ideas before I've even written a single word. I usually start by scanning Google for an image to use as my book cover and then the people I want to use as my cast.

Its a simple thing but when I've made a cover I'm obsessed with and found faces to put to my characters, it makes writing so much easier for me. I can't just open a doc on my laptop and start writing a story, I need a little digital idea board to bounce off of.

If you're a visual type of personal, I definitely recommend trying that.

When it comes to characters, I start with a very basic idea of their character, a surface level understanding of them that grows as I write. I know its not the same for everyone, especially those who prefer a firm plot, but I'd firmly suggest not limiting your character to your original concept if it no longer suits the story when you're writing it.

Trying to stick to a set of guidelines can build easy frustration when/if things fall out of place and that is easily avoidable by keeping the plans you create as loose and open for adjustments.

So that brings me to probably the most important part of writing a book, the plot.

As those of you who've been with me for some time would know, I'm not one of those writers who sit down and set out a plot and follow it as I develop the book. I'm one of those free writers who just dive in and let it develop on its own. For some books I've written, I did start off with a general idea of what the main conflict would be and that's about it.

For those writers who are like me and don't need a plot, I'd honestly suggest just diving in, it's how I got started in writing when I was 15. I made a book cover and just started typing, characters and plot came together as I perfected the description and I just sort of moved on for there.

For those writers who are nothing like me and need a plan to follow, I would suggest taking the time to sit down and think about what you actually want to happen in the story.

I've done this a few times for former books like Rogue, but always when I'm in the middle of it and not exactly sure of where I should go.

I open my notes app and write out the plot currently in my head in the form of a story description, I never make it too detailed because that can be constraining and I make sure to include my beginning, climax and end in it.

I rarely ever flow with the original plan, choosing to go with whatever path my brain creates when I'm writing the chapters, but it's nice to have when you're trying to find your way back.

Rogue went nothing according to the plot I wrote and that was okay, because I was happy with the outcome that did come out of it. The original plot had Aiden hurting Julian physically while trying to get to Jayson, their relationship was supposed to be FUCKED by the time I got to Delicate and Levi would've left the pack with Jayson - a whole emotional mess.

If you're one to prefer a more concise plan, try to split it up in 7 broad sections;

stands for development and by that I mean after you start your story (through your introduction) you should start to move towards developing the plot. There are different speeds to doing this and to me, the first one should not be a drag or overwhelming for readers.

One thing I tend to forget sometimes when writing is that even though there's a clear image in my head of the world I'm building on 'paper', nobody reading my books has access to that image. The only way I can provide that is through words and by slowly introducing details as you develop your storyline, it can help ground readers.

For me the Development process can stretch on for any amount of time, just look at Delicate, when comparing the length of the book to the plot, the relationship developed quickly whereas some major parts of conflict have been very slowly paced. I used a layering technique here, of developing the relationship (Will's trust in Damon and Damon's opening to Will) and Damon's side of the story's climax to engage the reader while I 'set the stage' for William's climatic moment.

^ This is all writing techniques I've learned in school and from reading. It's not something that came to me immediately and isn't something I consciously think about while writing, my brain kind of picks that part up for me.

is the metaphorical bomb of your book. When everything that's been hinted at, slowly developed and hidden comes to a collision and just explodes.

It doesn't have to be anything drastic or physical, it really depends on the type of book your reading, but it should be the part of your book that peaks emotionally.

E.G Beta Mates, end of Phase 1 😭

By, I'm referring to general cooling down of the book as the plot nears its end. With the main conflict sorted, this should really be a tying of loose ends mixed with some lighter content in my eyes, it really shouldn't match the level of intensity as the major conflict in the book.

For Rogue, I fucked this part up majorly because I think I rushed the ending and tied up loose ends rather sloppily. I'm still happy with the path I chose for those that were after the Crescent Mates, though I think it deserved an extra 3 or 4 chapters of developing the cause and history of that instead of going by word of mouth.

But you live and you learn.

is quite self explanatory I think, I don't think there's anyway to end a book other than the way you want to so I can't give you any advice on that.

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Once you know what you want to do with your story and even just a vague idea of the direction you want to head to, the next step is writing it.

When it comes to writing a book, I'm not sure I'm the best person to consult since I really write chapter by chapter, which is why I'm always so shocked when something happens at the end of the chapter.

So I'm just going to give a few quick tips that I can develop if requested:

- - there is no reason to try and fit every thing you can imagine into one story. It makes for a messy, hard-to-follow story that can be overwhelming and hard to follow.

I've read one too many stories that do some ridiculous shit where the main character starts off chill with something interesting about them and then it turns out that they're a dragon and a unicorn with a touch of lepricon, their father is Satan and they're mated to six and a half men.

^ This is clearly meant to be an exaggeration but I'm sure you all knew exactly the type of books I'm talking about.

- - I know building a following can be hard, especially for new writers so I understand if you don't get much responses but it is important to try and take in all the information available to you.

A simple way to mark how readers are responding to your material is comparing the chapters' views, votes and comments. If there's a dip in votes, chances are your audience was less engaged with the material in one chapter than a former - little things like that can work for anyone and is valuable information.

There is a steady fall in readers though from the first chapter, this happens in every book - I don't think any other chapter (besides highly favoured ones) ever find the same response in terms of readers, votes and comments like the very first chapter. Please don't feel discouraged by it.

- - by this I simply mean, if you have an idea - write it down. If you have a scene in your head but you have no idea when or if you'll use it, open a new chapter and write it down. It can act as a base for the future and its never a bad thing to have plenty of material when your struggling to carry a story on.

The point is, if something comes to mind, don't stop yourself from developing it ever.

- - I know for some people, they want to do it for views or money, and even if that is your end goal, make sure your priorities do not waver.

I think it's easy to forget why you started writing in the first place when going against the response you get from others. It's easy to get discouraged when you don't a lot of readers immediately or when you get negative comments, those kind of things you just have to take in stride.

For me, I started writing because I was bored and found it as something that made me happy. When writing turns unenjoyable for me, I force myself to take a step back in some form, whether that's slowing down updates or taking a break, I give myself a breather.

If I push myself, I won't produce my best and nobody wins.

- - not everyone is going to like your work, not everyone is going to be nice about not liking it and odds are, you will get someone telling you how shit your work is.

Now that person is probably just being a piece of shit, but when it comes to writing, I force myself to always think of what I can take away from the comments people leave on my books - whether good or bad. Sometimes people may say how much they hate the plot because of ..., but the reason gets lost because we tend to focus on the negative immediately.

Try to find what you can use in any and all feedback to improve the next time around, if there's none - ignore them, it saves everyone a whole lot of trouble.

And lastly,

Nobody has perfect grammar, nobody, and its very easy for writers to skim over grammatical errors when editing no matter how many times they review it. It's normal and it happens to everyone, so if someone corrects you, be grateful and make a note of it so it doesn't happen to everyone.

Because of all the people who've corrected me over the years, I'm no longer making constant mistakes between quiet/quite, peak/peek, breathe/breath and so many more. Yeah it still happens, a lot, but its getting better and it will continue to get better the more I see my errors and 'Grammar Nazis' point out those errors.

So even if your entire comment section is just one person correcting you every paragraph, every chapter, try and think of it this way - they wouldn't be making the effort if they didn't enjoy your book to some extent and want to see it do better.

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Once you get into the flow of things, they're are certain things you can do to keep the momentum going and keep writer's block as far away from you as possible.

For me, my number 1 thing to do is to 'set the mood' for me to write.

Now, my 'writing ritual' kind of changes depending where I am in life. When I was writing Rogue I was in boarding school preparing for exams, I kept myself steady by allocating a time every Sunday to writing a new chapter when the house was quiet and I was in bed with my laptop on my stomach.

With corona and being home for so long, I don't really have much too do but I still have to get myself into the right mindset to write a chapter, which is much harder than it seems - so hard.

Either that or I'm incredibly lazy.

So for me write now, I kind of wait for it to roll around to 5/7pm, when its no longer so hot and I'm feeling inspired enough to bang out a chapter by 12/1am, but there's some things I always do first.

- A hot cup of tea/ hot water - don't judge me.

- A scented candle

Those are two things I always get before I start writing and it helps even more when I have a specific candle for a book.

So for Delicate, I always light my Wild Honeysuckle candle since I've been doing that since the beginning and that's what I have listed as Will's scent.

Another thing to help 'set the mood' - MUSIC!!!

When I tell you guys, some of my best chapters have come out from a song playing on repeat while I wrote - that shit helps!!!!! I've set up a writing playlist that I can go to and find a song that matches the mood of the chapter, and then other times I hunt for a specific song to match a scene, which I include in the books.

Music can help open up your ideas soooo much, I'm telling you, it really does help even just to have it playing softly in the backgroud.

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Alright so I think I'm going to stop there for now I feel like I covered a lot for now and since this is my first time doing this, I don't want to dump out too much.

I really hope this is helpful for those of you who wish to write and I'll try my best to answer any questions you have. If there's much more I think of, I'll try to do another one of these in the future.

Until next time,

Byeeeeeeeeeee Humansssssss