hiii, i’ve answered a similar ask on my other blog about writing smut, but i shall also add some more tips for angst below:

try not to sugarcoat

raw emotions are beautiful. it is indeed hard to convey them into words, but maybe that’s the way to go 🙂‍↕️ try to imagine yourself in the situation you’re portraying or use your life experience to find an equivalent situation and just… feel it.

it may be hard to do descriptions/narrations, so maybe start with dialogue/inner thoughts. don’t rationalise what’s happening, don’t filter it!

make everything seem as natural as possible by letting the words flow out ✨

bad ending is good too

ik we love for our characters to have a happy ending, but sometimes that’s not good haha 😆 don’t try to stretch out a beautifully constructed angst just to obtain a happy ending!

readers might complain about it, but, believe me, it’s better to go with the flow of the fic and do a fitting ending (bad/neutral/etc.) than to drag it and twist it around to fit a more hopeful ending

no boring ‘villain’

i would suggest you don’t always have the same clear-cut 'bad guy’ in your angst. people are more complex than one defining trait — oh they’re bad so they’re the villain.

have misunderstandings, on reader’s part or the partner’s part, have human flaws interfering, included insecurities, or even other external forces (e.g., ever, mc, anything really).

i think it makes it more heartbreaking (and believable) if the motives of the 'villain’ that affects the main couple are more in depth 😉

feel free to add more tips below! 👇

Tbh the way that I write is probably so dumb but it works for me, I think of dialogue and the actions that follow first and write around it. It works for me maybe it’ll help you write too

I’m gonna share some writing advice which is the same advice as everyone gives which is “write how it works best for you” except I’m going to tell you what works for me:

It turns out how I like to write is “editing as I write” that doesn’t mean making a perfect first draft, I mean just doing general editing as I write the story. I write a chapter or two then I start at the very top again and go through and find mistakes, fix continuity errors and add detail. I find that if I write too much without going back and editing I become disinterested in what I’m writing, sometimes, not all the time. So what works for me is to write and then start at the top edit until I catch up to myself and start writing again. This also helps me with keeping up with details of the story to incorporate later.

If you have other niche tips, please share them, I do want to know what odd things y’all like to do to write

Oh my love. 🖤✨

I completley understand. I barely have time myself being a full time student but STILL. Don’t give up! You can always write paragraphs (or sentences) at a time that will add up overtime and then publish/post when complete. There is always time to create and dream.

Oneshot? Hehe….. what oneshot? 👀 I’m kidding.

I’ve been doing side quest projects for a friend. Beta reading, an embroidery attempt, and a special project, that is proving to be impossible for me to grasp. In between my studies—essays, research papers, and analysis…. not much writing that I like is being done.

I woke up from sleep and started typing on a request from July 2025 about Y/n being hit with Scarecrow hallucinations. 😏 I’m working on that in between studies.

I’ll have that oneshot and the next His Lighthouse chapter out when life allows me. It is what it is.

Why is being creative so damn hard?

I try to write a story or a scene, but i just cant. There is too much to consider and it makes me not do anything at all. I can only write when it’s in my journal and my own thoughts and expert. What flaw is this? What psychological phenomenon?

Maybe the solution is to immerse myself in the story, in the characters, so that it feels as if it’s my own, considering I can only transcribe my own thoughts but not create them? But even that is so hard I cant even create a storyline and characters to begin with.

Writing Tips: Writing The “Lovable Jerk”

A rude protagonist imposes a cost on the audience.
To remain likable, the story must offset that cost with three pillars:

1. Humor: entertainment that compensates for abrasiveness
2. Value: exceptional usefulness (skill or status)
3. Misery: visible suffering that balances arrogance

Failure in any pillar converts a compelling antihero into an unpleasant character.

😂 Pillar 1: Humor

Mechanism

• Humor functions as audience goodwill currency.
• Abrasive protagonists start in narrative debt and must constantly repay it.

Successful Case: Gregory House

• Uses cutting wit to expose lies and stupidity.
• Jokes deliver three simultaneous payoffs:
• humor
• narrative insight
• reinforcement of his worldview (“everybody lies”).
• Other characters can challenge him intellectually, creating dynamic banter.

Failed Case: Velma

• Humor punches down (e.g., mocking a murdered classmate).
• Jokes contain no cleverness or narrative insight.
• Other characters are written as incompetent, removing comedic friction.

Result: instead of wit, the audience sees bullying without entertainment.

🧩 Pillar 2: Value

Arrogance must be justified through high utility.

Two forms exist.

👑 Social Value (Status)

Characters tolerated because their status benefits others.

Examples:

• BoJack Horseman: celebrity access
• Pierce Hawthorne: wealth
• Mr. Satan: public legitimacy

Status acts like a social currency.

🛠 Functional Value (Skill)

Characters tolerated because they are irreplaceably competent.

Examples:

• Rick Sanchez: scientific genius
• Jaime Lannister: elite swordsman
• Eric Cartman: extreme manipulative competence
• Gregory House: world-class diagnostic doctor

House’s arrogance is tolerated because he saves lives others cannot.

Velma’s Failure

• No established detective reputation.
• Frequently makes incorrect accusations.
• Prioritizes popularity lists while a serial killer is active.

Result: arrogance without competence or status.

🩸 Pillar 3: Misery

Audiences expect moral equilibrium: jerks must pay a psychological tax.

Two forms.

🌪 External Misery

The world humiliates or punishes the character.

Examples:

• Zapp Brannigan
• slapstick comedic jerks

🧠 Internal Misery

The character is deeply self-destructive.

Examples:

• Rick Sanchez
• BoJack Horseman

Gregory House

Key misery sources:

• chronic leg pain
• Vicodin addiction
• emotional isolation
• repeated self-sabotage

His cruelty appears as symptom of suffering rather than pure malice.

Velma

• Trauma exists but is shallow and episodic.
• Misery rarely shapes her behavior.

Result: the character inflicts pain without paying narrative cost.

🧑‍Why Audiences Love These Characters

The explanation aligns with Carl Jung’s “shadow self” concept.

Humans repress impulses such as:

• anger
• cruelty
• brutal honesty
• selfishness

Lovable jerks externalize these impulses safely.

Characters like House:

• say the harsh truths we suppress
• prioritize truth over politeness
• enact destructive impulses we only imagine.

They function as psychological proxies for the audience’s darker instincts.

—

The above is a summary of Merb’s video:

first off, thank you for reading & enjoying my stuff !! that means the world!!

& second - ooooh tips on writing - good question.

so I’m going to give you a list of random stuff that helps/inspires me to write - but know that it’s a very personal craft. every person is unique & that’s part of the beauty of writing !!)

• I get a lot of my inspiration from song lyrics - pay attention to what sorts of things inspire you. make playlists, & have a list of particular ones that speak to you.

• if I really wanna write but I’ve hit a rut, I love going on Pinterest (try to avoid ai slop obvi) - there’s hundreds of dialogue/very loose plot prompts, aesthetic images that match a vibe I really want to go for, etc. & it can def help as a jumping-off point.

• comparison is the thief of joy - I loooove reading fanfics but when I’m right in the middle of writing (esp for specific characters) I try not to read a ton of that character’s fics. because I’m def prone to comparing, & being like “well my writing will NEVER be that good”. sometimes it’s best to just stay in your own lane for a little bit.

• I draw from a lot of my own life experiences with my fics - some of the ones I’ve written (such as ‘hurt you to heal you’, ‘some dumb ideal’, & ‘like a prayer’) have been based on real experiences/emotions/conversations/etc that I’ve had, & I use writing as kind of a therapeutic outlet (semi-per my therapist lol). that may not work for everyone, but I’ve found that kinda word vomiting onto a google doc about certain topics & anonymously putting it out into the world is very freeing.

• don’t take yourself too seriously - esp with fanfics. this is all meant to be fun & because you love a certain character(s).

• “just write” feels like such a cliche thing to say, but practice makes a better writer. even if you have a dozen stories in your notes app or google drive that you never fully finish, that’s okay because guess what - you were writing. you were trying. and that’s half the battle right there.

🩵🩵🩵

Writing female characters is not hard, you are just a bad writer.

Writing black characters is not hard, you are just a bad writer.

Writing lesbian characters is not hard, you are just a bad writer.

Writing ace characters is not hard, you are just a bad writer.

Writing gay characters is not hard, you are just a bad writer.

Writing nonbinary characters is not hard, you are just a bad writer.

If you insist that any minority is “from another planet” and that they are SO HARD TO WRITE because the only think you can relate to is writing male characters, then you are a bad writer. Because you don’t care about becoming better.

You have to select the text and then a field pops up where you can select it

Then after you selected it and chose the option, it should look like this.

It’s the same process and symbol on mobile too 👀

Suggested reading: 5 Lifelines For Writers With Deadlines

A lot of times, you’re told to never judge your characters, but that’s not what I do. I do judge my characters. Why do they see the world in this way? But the key thing is to remain neutral and understand everyone’s point of view.

It creates an interesting internal conversation that forces you to do research and understand different cultures that you’re not familiar with. People have different cultures, religions, and politics that you won’t agree with. A lot of writers make the mistake of being cynical and jaded in the way they discuss those sensitive topics.

But you should never be close-minded as a writer. You’ll never write great characters if you can’t understand and even sometimes agree with a point of view that’s different from yours.

That’s why judgment is a good thing because it forces you to critically think and explore other ideas that you’re unfamiliar with. Judging your characters is only bad when you have a surface-level understanding of who they are and refuse to dive deeper into the subject.

Need more information about how to properly flesh out your characters? Check out my E-book, The F**k It, Not So Perfect, Amateur’s Guide To Writing Flawed And F’d Up Characters

hiya my love!💓

i will try my best to give you my tips, like you i have been writing fanfiction since i was like 12 or something 😂 (started with 1d fics lol)

will put the tips below the cut so i don’t clog up everyone’s feeds 🤍

first tip: read!! honestly i think this one is one everyone gives as a tip because reading a lot (fics, published books, nonfiction etc) will always, always help your writing. you learn what you like, don’t like etc

second tip: don’t force yourself to write if you’re not feeling it—the second i think “i don’t actually feel like writing today” i tend to stop and do something else instead. sometimes i listen to music or read another fic. sometimes the urge to write comes back. sometimes it doesn’t. forcing yourself to write leads to losing passion/burn out so i avoid it whenever i can

third tip: when i write, i will read what i write out loud (as best i can) to see if it makes sense. i find this helps a lot with dialogue because i work out what sounds natural and what doesn’t. also helps when i’m struggling to construct a sentence because sometimes i write stuff that i’m like wtf

fourth tip: loving what you write—this is SUPER important imo. it’s important to have faith and confidence in your ideas. i find most of my ideas happen when listening to music (famously, i CANNOT listen to taylor swift without thinking of ideas for fics) like one or two lines will stand out to me and i’ll get an idea and i’ll write it down straight away which brings me to:

fifth tip: writing down your ideas / words etc when the idea hits. the way that so many of my fics ideas have come to me in the shower is so funny to me but i find it’s always best to write your ideas down while they’re fresh

sixth tip: adapting while you write. sometimes you start a fic and have a full plan on what’s going to happen and then you start writing and want to take it in another direction. in my experience, this is where i’ve had the best ideas. so i think it’s important to adapt as you write!

seventh tip: just try, try and try again!! the most important i feel—sometimes you’ll write something and go “ew” and delete it—literally did it earlier when i was trying to write a keys blurb—and i started again and wrote something i’m really happy with so be sure to just keep trying!!

hope these all helped and i’m sorry for the ramble 🤍🤍🤍

Where do I find beta readers?

Von clearly didn’t have one for her writing and I want to make sure my work isn’t offensive

im thinking about writing fanfic, specifically x reader, so any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Concise writing

Get to the point.
Cut out verbose and redundant words.

If only I had more time I’d write shorter posts.

everyone create a whole file about every line from the character trust me writing their dialogue becomes so much easier

NEW BLOG:

@thecatwriteblr · Cat Writes

Anything writing (advice or other) will go here from now on.

Visit me! 💋

why is my computer always conveniently dead when i want to write? 🤔🤔🤔

What Is Impostor Syndrome & How Do Writers Get Over It? 

Ever felt like you’re not a ‘real writer’? That’s called impostor syndrome. Make no mistake: all writers have it at some time or another. This post tells you how writers can overcome it.

What Is Impostor Syndrome & How Do Writers Get Over It?

Just finished rewatching beaking bad nd literally the only difference between James Robson from Oz and Jesse Pinkman is POV access, aesthetic design, and pacing.

Jesse has the choice until hes in the pit cge to fuck off nd never interact with his groomer again, unlike Robson who has the length of a prison cell to escape Vern and as we see in season 6 is completely dependent on him for safety,

we know jesse has high school education where Robson was raised like Eliabeth Fritzel and is never confirmed to even be literate,

Pinkman is mentally sound from wealthy stable home where Robson is autistic coded has brain damage impiring his aggression and impulse control and is a CPTSD case whose trauma resulted in both BPD and ASPD with ad enough ADhD to pick losin fights for dopamine when understimulated

we see from Jesse’s POV him beating himself up crashing out every time his groomer convinces him to act immorally (with the option always open to refuse and fuck off to another location) where we have to wait until the Sister Pete monologues for Robson to confess how much remorse he feels for the things we see him do throughout the series (at the instruction of a violent monster who he cannot safely refuse nor escape nd is again dependant on for protection) in a cluster of wholesale crashouts during the final season after watching 4 seasons of him act unbothered and enthusiastic sadistic when carrying out violence on his groomers behalf, joining him in SA which he clearly uses as a substitute for physical intimacy with Vern having aged out of his preference

Jessie gets involved with his groomer thinking HES the one taking advantage of a terminally ill former school teacher as opposed to Robson who because we meet him 4 years into his sentence its not impossible that like Keller and Winthrop he was promoted out of prag status after proving himself useful for more than being SA’d and is over-eager and performative when procuring victims that Vern finds desirable to avoid becoming one himself which happens within hours of Vern withdrawing his protection but potentially also because Vern has either SAd him in the pst or made threats to do so if he doesn’t offer his groomer a more desirable victim than himself

The difference in pacing between both displaying genuine remorse and aesthetic designs of the characters is what makes Jessie who is arguably more immoral dubbed a sympathy-deserving victim of Walter where a lot of people finish Oz still having no sympathy for Robson and even making light of cutler abusing him in the most sadistic ways imaginable. Like having prison gang tattoos in a series set in a high security prison vs looking like your older brother’s weedman and showing his reactions to his own offences in mst cases directly afterward to finding out seconds before the buzzer that Robson feels just as bad bout his offences nd has the whole time been off camera and unable to express distress to Vern out of fear which causes him to over compensate by over-performing enthusiasm (we see him replicate this when he preforms not just consent but enthusiasm in regards to his sexual abuse by Cutler when suggesting BCP) to keep his groomer from detecting his guilt and risking his safety motivated by what is proven to have been a totally rational fear of becoming prag himself while Jessie’s motivation is primarily financial.

jesse has options literally until uncle jack puts him in the tattling pit, Robson’s option are to hurt or be hurt from the second we meet him. Its crazy how pacing, POV access, and aesthetic design impact an audience’s reception to a character