Writing References

The paper digging deeper than the grave since June 6th, 2025.

Started as a way of finally sorting and keeping track of all the writing references I have collected over time, turned into a learning experience where I read up on several different topics in hopes of honing my skills, and now it became a page in my very own website so others can make use of the fruits of my chronically online labor.

All outside links listed on this page are set to open in a new tab. I am not affiliated with any of the websites linked here, nor do I promote any goods or services they might charge money for (whether via ads or some other page on their site). Also, I browse the web with an adblocker and an anti-tracker on at all times, so if any of these sites is full of annoying pop-ups or something, I’m sorry, I didn’t even know.

The creative process is deeply personal, so don’t hesitate to discard or modify any advice that isn’t working for you.

A blanket content warning: some sections address how to research and portray mature topics in fiction such as sex, crime, trauma, abuse, addiction, among others. Viewer discretion is advised.

Rule number one is that you gotta have fun.

Please note that this page assumes that you (like me) are writing for fun instead of for profit, so there will be no sections on plot structure or how to make characters “likeable” or other boilerplate consumer-psychology advice that professionals seek out because they need to make their works as marketable as possible in order to sell enough to make a living. The bulk of the page is focused on formatting and research instead, with some general advice sprinkled in here and there. There’s a section on fandom and fanfic specifically, because I that’s what I write.

Writing is fun. The characters are like dolls to play with, the plots like puzzles to figure out. It’s a way to create something instead of only consuming. If you want, you can share it with the whole world wide web and potentially make someone experience emotions. There are hard parts to the writing process, of course. Some of it might be boring or annoying or frustrating, as much as getting the shading just right on a painting or learning a new music piece or any other creative endeavor could be. Maybe you decide you want to avoid those parts as much as possible, maybe you enjoy the challenge, or maybe your stance on it varies depending on your mood that day. It’s all good.

On the use of AI

Short answer: do not do it. The output will suck, and the eviromental impact is immense. Longer answers by many other people who have said it more eloquently than me:

My “hot take” is that making AI to do your fun hobby in your stead sounds fucking miserable.

If you’re just not confident in your own writing: everything but breathing and blinking is a learned skill, and even prize-winning authors started out not knowing how to write well. Besides, what does it matter if your writing isn’t all that polished as long as it made you happy?

If what you actually want is to read something very specific: look up book recommendations. I promise you that what you’re looking for is out there somewhere. On that note…

Read, read, read!

If a hobbyist painter turned away and purposely refused to look at paintings made by formally trained artists, we would find that weird—Right?

You should read stories other than fanfic and other self-published works by non-professional writers.

This doesn’t mean you should quit fanfiction and only read a pre-approved list of literary classics, it means that you can (and should) read both fanfic and original fiction by more experienced writers that has gone through a somewhat strict editing process. Expanding your horizons and trying new things can be fun and exciting.

Now, does a book being traditionally published instantly mean it’s good? No, not by a long shot. A ton of stuff only got published because of its author’s connections in the publishing industry or because the publisher was chasing marketing trends. But that is true of all media: Hollywood movies can suck, TV shows can be a forgettable mess, comics from big publishers can be senseless, anime can be a mistake. I emphasize tradpub only because it tends to polish its product more rigorously (plus, there’s been a rise in AI selfpub slop lately, and that’s a pain to wade through).

“But I don’t want to read something by a straight white man” I’ve seen a few people (mostly teens fed up with their school’s required reading) argue on social media when the subject of reading anything other than fanfic is brought up, to which I reply: then don’t.

There are novels written by women. And by authors of every sexuality. By Native American and Indigenous authors, black authors, Asian authors, latina and latino authors. There are books written and set all over the world. Books by disabled authors andneurodivergent authors. By authors of any and every intersection of marginalized identities. (And it would be kind of hypocritical not to acknowledge that straight white men were in the writing room for a lot media with big fandoms, anyway.)

“But how will I find something to read without tags to let me know what kind of tropes and triggers it has?” this hypothetical strawman I made up might ask next. To which I respond: check out (spoiler free or spoilery, whichever you prefer) reviews for whatever you’re interested in reading before you pick it up.

“But what if I don’t have the energy/attention span to read a novel?”

You could try an anthology in your preferred genre and theme so you can sample several different styles and if one isn’t working for you, just flip to the next one.

If you’re just not feeling up to trying to connect with new characters right now, there’s also a lot of nonfiction that isn’t judgmental new age self-help or terrible financial advice. I read a delightful book on clowning history and techniques once. (“Overly passionate researcher with a niche interest” is my favorite genre.)

Or try just reading one page per day. Even one sentence. Contrary to what social media would have you believe, reading 10+ books per month isn’t normal. But even if it was, so what? You’re reading for your own pleasure, not to win an imaginary “I read more books than some random stranger on the internet” competition.

Honestly, you are reading right now. This is the 5th page in 30+ pages-long word document. I don’t read books as much as I did when I was a kid because I’m constantly reading webpages so my eyes and brain get tired of reading by the time I consider logging off and picking up a book. Would reading a book before going on the internet for the day make things easier? I don’t know, but it’s worth experimenting and mixing up your routine to see what happens.

Media Literacy

Wordcraft

Skill with words and their use.

From: Several short sentences about writing, by Verlyn Klinkenborg.

If you don’t know the language of grammar and syntax, try this.
Begin with the parts of speech.
Copy or print out a couple of pages by an author whose work you like.
(For example, the opening of John McPhee’s Coming into the Country.)
Gather some colored pens or pencils.
Choose one color and circle all the nouns.
Pause to consider them.
Then choose a different color and circle all the verbs.
Pause again.
Ditto the articles, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
Anything left over?
There shouldn’t be.
This will clarify the parts of speech, and it will help you see how the author uses them.
If a word puzzles you, look it up.
A good dictionary will tell you what part of speech it is.
Don’t just imagine doing this someday.
Do it. It’s interesting.
Now try a slightly harder version of this experiment on a separate copy.
Circle the direct objects.
The indirect objects.
The participles.
The relative pronouns.
The metaphors and similes and analogies.
Any word that seems to be used in a way that distorts its meaning.
Any particularly rhythmic phrases or sentences.
Any spot where you sense a change in direction or time or voice.
Any phrase that interests you.
Any word that stops you.
Anything you notice, whether you think it matters or not.
It matters because you noticed it.
Do any of the words surprise you or call attention to themselves?
I’m not asking whether you know what they mean.
You’ve already looked up every word you don’t know.
Haven’t you?
It’s easier to answer a comparative question than a question that depends on an implicit standard of judgment.
“Is this sentence longer than that one?” is easier to answer than “Is that word poetic?”
You don’t need much experience to tell whether one sentence is longer than another.
But you do to say whether a word is poetic in usage.
That experience is easy to come by.
It’s called “reading poetry.”
Turn to the poets.
Learn from them.

General grammar, spelling and punctuation:

Extra tip: A particular word or punctuation mark or other quirk of the language always tripping you up? Look up a few sample sentences that use it correctly and write those down. Seeing and using it in context will help cement the correct spelling/punctuation/etc. in your memory.

What’s this squiggly line (~) and what does it do?

It’s a typographical symbol called Tilde. It is used as an accent mark in Spanish (ñ) and Portuguese (ã, õ). (Finding out that some keyboards force people to make the ñ from scratch weirded me out, to be honest).

In texting and social media, the tilde may be used at the end of a sentence to indicate playful or flirty behaviors and emotions. Specially when followed by a heart emoji (maybe because it looks like blowing a kiss). It may also be used as shorthand to mean to mean “approximately”.

For example:

The wave dash 〜 resembles a lengthened tilde, and has several uses in Japanese, but the most relevant for fans of Japanese media who don’t speak Japanese is that it indicates a long or drawn-out vowel. Something like あ〜〜〜 usually gets translated as Ah〜〜〜! instead of directly conveying the effect of Aaaah! or Ahhh!

Formatting and punctuating dialogue.

Double quotes (“ ”) are used to enclose text in American and Canadian style, with single quotes used around words in text already within quotes. In contrast, single quotes (‘ ’) are preferred in British and Australian style, with double quotes used around words in text already within quotes.

“Dude, can you believe she just said ‘This is what American English dialogue looks like’?”

‘Mate, can you believe she added “And this is what British and Australian English dialogue looks like”?’

I highly encourage you to click on those links, but in case they ever get broken or disappear here’s a quick overview:

Dialogue tag (also called dialog tag or speech tag):

Refers to the part of the sentence that identifies the speaker and how they said the dialogue. They are punctuated with commas, and treated as an extension of the dialogue sentence.

Basically anything along the lines of [Insert Character Name]/he/she/they/we/etc. said/whispered/yelled/hissed/growled/etc.

Here are some examples:

Action beat (sometimes just called a beat):

Refers to pretty much anything that isn’t a dialogue tag. Usually an action by the speaking character, but could also be description, inner monologues, etc. They are their own sentence, so they are preceded and ended by a period.

Interrupted speech:

Em Dashes (—) or two dashes (--) mark an interruption, either by someone else cutting the character off or by circumstance. A single dash with spaces before and after ( - ) is used instead in some versions of UK style.

Here’s an example using an em dash, without any dialogue tags or action beats:

Here’s an example of an action beat interrupting dialogue, followed by a new sentence of dialogue:

Here’s an example of a break in the sentence for giving extra context to the readers, without interrupting the dialogue itself:

An ellipsis (…) can also mark an interruption like an em dash would. However, it more often signifies the character trailing off, such as hesitating or getting distracted.

Similar guidelines apply for capitalizing the word after the ellipsis as there are for capitalization after an em dash. Does it seem to be starting a new sentence? Capitalize it. If it is just a continuation of the same sentence after a pause, don’t capitalize it.

From The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction, by Amy J. Schneider:

VERBS OF UTTERANCE.

A verb of utterance describes the act of speaking. Said is the classic verb of utterance.

There are shades of appropriateness, however. Shouted, sure. Sputtered, agreed, begged, okay. Chuckled, maybe (if it’s short). And then there are ground out, gritted out, and bit out, usually attributed to angry male characters; these verbs obviously aren’t literal when applied to speaking, but they’re established as idiom and are prevalent in fiction, so they generally can be left in, unless they’re overused.

When you are determining whether a verb of utterance that follows dialogue works, try putting it before the dialogue:

Putting the verb next to the dialogue often helps show why it doesn’t work. In this case, the tag could be changed to she said or she said defiantly, or (with an accompanying query to the author) turned into an action beat:

Also, consider the context and the length of what is being said:

It’s pretty hard to sigh or grunt or hiss a whole paragraph! Ask yourself: Is it physically possible? Is the sense of the verb conveyed by the speech itself?

WHEN “DIALOGUE” ISN’T DIALOGUE.

Sometimes what looks like dialogue is not actually dialogue but simply the object of a verb:

In this example, “Fire!” isn’t actually being shouted; it’s simply being discussed, and it’s the object of the verb shouting. So no dialogue tag exists here, and thus no comma.

None of these are dialogue; they are not things that are being spoken, but things that are being spoken of, described, or reported.

This construction also holds for signs, quoted speech, and other reported words:

UNSPOKEN DIALOGUE

Dialogue is not always spoken aloud. It can be thought (directly or indirectly), imagined, mouthed, remembered, sent telepathically, and so on. See Beth Hill’s The Magic of Fiction and Louise Harnby’s Editing Fiction at Sentence Level for excellent discussions about formats for unspoken dialogue in different narrative tenses and points of view. Here’s a review of the most common types:

When copyediting direct thought, watch for the sometimes unnecessary tag he thought—or worse, he thought to himself. (Unless it’s telepathy, who else would he be thinking to?) Context should make it clear that his thoughts are inside his own head. These can usually be safely deleted, with a query to the author to explain the reason.

Also pay close attention in first-person past-tense narration when the narrator slips into present-tense direct thought. If the style for direct thought is italic, make sure that such internal thoughts are italic as well:

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. What am I doing here?

If the style for direct thought is roman, make sure that context makes the switch from narration to internal thought clear. If not, a query may be in order.

TRANSLATIONS OF NON-ENGLISH DIALOGUE

Occasionally non-English dialogue is followed by a translation into English:

Since the translation is essentially an explanatory aside for the benefit of the reader, it goes outside the quotation marks. The original language and the English translation can be styled in a variety of ways. If the author has used a consistent, sensible style, follow it; if not, establish one.

Here are some suggested options:

Bold, italics, all caps, and emphasis.

Verb Tense Consistency

Narrative Distance, POV, and Filtering.

Narrative distance describes the extent to which the reader is invited into the narrator’s head and into the story. Narrative distance is closer when the narrator directly addresses the reader (Do you know what I mean?) and further away when they do not. It’s closer when the narrator uses terms like this and here and tomorrow to describe time and place, and further away when they use terms like that and there and the next day. Similar pairs denoting closer vs. further narrative distance include these/those, this afternoon/that afternoon, tonight/that night, yesterday/the day before, and a year ago/a year earlier.

It can vary between scenes or character points of view. However, watch for passages where narrative distance has inadvertently slipped from one form to another, perhaps as part of the revision process. Let the overall tone of the manuscript be your guide.

—The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction, by Amy J. Schneider.

Scenes, breaks and transitions.

Descriptions

Characters:

Wanna know why I think people make fun of describing eyes as “orbs” so much? It is technically true that eyeballs are shaped like orbs, but this is not the visible shape of the eyes most of the time. The back of the eye is nestled inside the eye sockets, and the eyelids prevent us from seeing the full roundness of the front part of the eye. The word “orb” calls to some minds a picture of a plucked out eyeball or eyes so protruding that they’re about to pop out of their sockets. (It’s probably also because calling eyes “orbs” is heavily associated with beginners trying to sound fancy and kind of missing the mark.)

See also: Diversity.

Settings

Writing exercises:

Writing exercises are practice prompts for writers designed to get them unstuck or to improve their skills in a particular area. They’re meant to be short bursts of improvisational writing, where you don’t plan anything in advance and finish them in a single writing session. Could be 5 minutes, could be an hour. It’s up to you. They don’t have to be tied to your current WIP/Fandom/OCs; you don’t even have to publish them (unless you want to).

Writing Advice and Exercises by Yours Truly (so take them with a grain of salt).

1. Regardless of whether you outline or write by the seat of your pants, it’s probably good to have a general idea of what you want the climax/ending of your story to be. Say you want to write a romance long fic. Does it end after the pairing commits to each other, with an epilogue showing readers how happy they are in their new shared life, like most romance novels do? Or does the pairing commit to each other early on, with the climax instead being about them sorting out a problem/argument that was plaguing their relationship? (You can always have a sequel or another arc, if you want! This is just to make your plot and pacing more focused).

2. A quick way to get the hang of a character’s dialogue is to replay/reread your favorite scenes and write or type the dialogue. Pick one character at a time, even if it’s a whole conversation among many, and don’t copy-paste it, writing it down yourself will make you really notice and think about each word. Does one character use words the other characters would never and viceversa? Does one character use contractions while another avoids them and yet another only shortens specific words? Etcetera.

Don’t stress too much about only using the particular words the character has canonically said when you’re writing dialogue for a story, though. Focus more on the bigger picture of the speech patterns, such as the general tone (baseline amount of emotion conveyed) and diction (word choice and ways to phrase things) and level of verbosity (one word vs a whole paragraph of dialogue) as a guide for the sake of consistency.

3. Quick-Fix for when you have “She/he wouldn’t fucking say that” type dialogue.

Step one: “Why would she/he say that, like, at all?”

Write down plainly what you want/need the character to communicate. For example: You’re very important to me, and I love you. / I feel like you’re putting a lot of pressure on me. / I want a raise. / You get the idea. Buzzword-laden therapy speak should probably go in this step rather than the final version, unless spoken by a licensed mental health professional or the like.

Step two: “Okay, but she/he wouldn’t fucking say that because…”

Write a bullet-point list of what would keep the character from just plainly stating that and the reasons why. Some characters would cut themselves off because they’re shy, others clam up because they have trust issues, yet others make a joke as a coping mechanism because they’re nervous, another kind of character would snap in annoyance to cover discomfort, while some may feel it would be too impolite to say what they really want to say, some may distract from it by bringing up something else, even characters who wear their hearts on their sleeves may get too busy with plot stuff to have a heart to heart right now, and characters will naturally speak differently if they are not equals or peers to the character they’re speaking to, etcetera. Whatever fits the character’s personality and circumstances.

Pick your favorite(s) and see how they modify the dialogue from step one (e.g. lines gets cut off or added).

Step three: “So how would she/he actually say that?”

Rewrite the plain words in the dialogue from step one (that haven’t been cut during step two) to actually fit the character’s personality and speech patterns.

4. Exercise to help your sentences flow better.

Sometimes I like to take song lyrics and add grammar to them, either to see how close I can get to replicating the singer’s inflection or just to compare how tiny changes can alter the flow of a sentence.

Here’s an example using a lyric from Nearly Witches by Panic! At the Disco:

5. Advice to avoid ending up like that meme of SpongeBob writing that essay where he only managed to jot down “The”: Think of a complete sentence before you open a blank document (or grab a blank sheet of paper), while you’re going about your life doing other stuff. It doesn’t have to be the best sentence ever, or anything. You’re free to edit it or cut it out later. But it’s a starting point, and now you don’t have a blank page staring you down. Related to this: try leaving your last sentence or paragraph incomplete, so you can finish it on your next writing session.

6. Said is undead.

Ever hear about people who had English teachers basically forbid them from using any synonym for said as a Dialogue Tag? Ever see those “said is dead” lists floating around on Pinterest and the like? They’re two sides of the same writing exercise. The point is to get better at judging when the dialogue itself already conveys what you need it to, and when said actually should be replaced by something more specific, as is often the case for words that:

A) Convey volume, such as whispered and shouted.

B) Contrast wildly with what was said.

“Hooray,” snarled Character A.

C) Add to the overall effect of the sentence by virtue of their meaning/connotations:

“She has a concussion,” the nurse confirmed. (Here it sounds like the nurse is agreeing with either the narration or another character about the concussion.)

“She has a concussion,” the nurse asserted. (Here the nurse is stating facts, or perhaps arguing against someone claiming a different opinion.)

“She has a concussion,” the nurse snapped. (Here it sounds like maybe someone is not being mindful of the patient and the nurse is annoyed.)

“She has a concussion,” the nurse demurred. (Here it sounds like the nurse is stalling on answering about something else about the patient.)

7. Try to ask yourself What’s the point of mentioning that right now? whenever you’re about to describe something. Especially if it’s just a color. Doubly so if it’s hair color or eye color.

8. If you already showed something, trust your readers and your own skills and don’t tell directly after. Example: He scowled in anger. (We can figure it out from scowl alone that he’s displeased, thanks).

Show the important stuff, tell the not-so-important stuff. You’ll have to figure out what that is for your story on a case by case basis. Stuff relevant to plot, themes, or character development tends to be important.

Don’t tell the reader how to feel. You can show them something you think is sad/cute/funny/scary/etc., but directly stating that it is sad/cute/funny/scary/etc. is unlikely to work on its own.

9. Turn on the blue light filter on your devices, if they have it. This is only anecdotal but my myopia began to (very) slightly decrease yearly since I started doing that.

Fanfiction:

Canon: the official material that makes up the story and universe of the media property. Some big franchises have different continuities or multiverses with canons that directly contradict or clash with one another.

“Word of God”: Statements the canon’s creators have made outside of the source material (such as during interviews). Not “real” canon, but can be fun tidbits to use for inspiration.

Headcanon: is something that a fan imagines to be true even though no information directly supporting that belief is spelled out in canon. It’s often used to fill in plot holes, sort continuity issues, explain character behavior, and make sense of other gaps found within the canon. Can range from “resonably inferred from the source” to “directly contradicts canon, but sparks joy”. A bit of canon that exists only in your head.

Fanon: a headcanon held by a large part of the fandom. You do not have to pay any mind to fanon unless you want to.

What does “Don’t Like, Don’t Read” mean?

Definition of Don’t Like, Don’t Read on Fanlore.

Don’t like Reader Insert fanfics? Block the Reader Insert tag. Find coffeehouses to be a boring setting when written for one fandom but fun when it’s for a different fandom? Filter out the Coffee Shop AU tag when looking at the fandom you don’t like it on. One author happens to write about a fandom, character, trope, etc. you like in a way you don’t like? Mute that author (which will filter out all of that author’s fanworks from your search results) or manually filter out the specific fanworks you dislike on a case by case basis. This means that platforms with more granular tagging and filtering systems make for a smoother fandom experience, compared to those without.

You do not have to like or morally condemn what others write in their fics, but understand that purposefully seeking out stuff you know you find boring, annoying, objectionable, or disgusting and leaving comments explaining to the authors why you find it bad is akin to door-to-door evangelism, where the only result is virtue signaling to create some small sense of social inclusion and belonging within your social circles where people already agree with you. People are stubborn and biased, so your comment will not convert that author to your way of thinking: that OC/Canon Character shipper will not stop liking shipping their Original Character with Canon characters just because you left a comment calling the OC a Mary Sue, that A/B/O writer will not stop writing A/B/O just because you deigned to show up to the comment section to say that it sucks, that writer who mischaracterized the hell out of your favorite character is very unlikely to “see the light” and edit their whole story just because you wrote a comment thread with an essay about what the character is really like, and, unfortunately, the author of that pedophilic incest gorey smut fic about a cartoon for preschoolers will only call you a prude and block you if you leave them a comment about their fic being morally less than great. If the content is allowed by the platform’s Terms of Service, then there isn’t much you can do to stop them, either, but you can choose not to engage.

Writers do their part by writing summaries, tagging, and adding relevant warnings to correctly signal what their story will be like so that readers can decide if it’s for them or not.

But what if a fic looked like something you might enjoy, so you clicked on it and read it, only to end up not enjoying it?

One option is to just hit the back button and leave, at any point. It’s not that serious.

However, it’s one thing to say “People can write whatever they want” and it’s another thing entirely to say “No one is ever allowed to express any amount of criticism about whatever people wrote just because it’s posted for free online.”

Some fanfic authors use “Don’t Like, Don’t Read” as a way of essentially saying that if you dislike anything about what they wrote at all, then you shouldn’t have read their fic in the first place. Some don’t. Some fanfic authors will call anything as small as an effusively praising comment that happens to mention the story had a typo a “negative comment.” Some don’t. I believe a huge reason for the drop in fandom “comment culture” has been that there’s no way to tell who will be which. Every single person online cannot 100% agree on what constitutes as “rude” because of cultural and personal differences. So when someone says “Just be polite in your comments” everyone agrees with that sentiment, but not with what exactly it entails.

One line pretty much everyone agrees on, though, is that hate speech and cyberbullying (harassment, doxxing, etc.) are bad. So the bar starts out on the floor.

If you ever feel the urge to tell someone on the internet to commit suicide because she/he wrote a fanfic you did not enjoy: take your hand off the keyboard, turn off your device, drink a glass of water, and open a window to let fresh air in if you’re indoors or go outside if the weather allows it. Do not log back online until after you’ve had a full night’s sleep and a full stomach. (Repeat the process if the urge was to cuss the person out or threaten violence.)

If you receive a comment of this nature, report it to the platform’s moderators and block the sender.

To writers: obviously, we post online because we want people to see what we wrote, and comments let us know what people think about our fics and foster a sense of community with other fans. Like, yay, someone else also likes this thing I like and how I portrayed it, wonderful, I get to talk about this with another person who shares my tastes. But we have to realize that if we share something publicly, we will receive feedback from the public and will not be able to control the manner or tone in which the public will provide that feedback.

You don’t have to agree with the feedback you receive. All literary criticism is based on opinion, and you are free to ignore or accept it on a case by case basis at your discretion. Besides, not every criticism by a commenter is meant for the author to improve, it’s just the commenter expressing how they felt while reading. But you do have to accept that you will receive feedback, including comments that you may perceive as negative. If you can’t accept that, then: disable or moderate your comment section, write an author note at the end of your fic explaining what kind of comments you like best instead of expecting everyone to magically know your personal preferences, or share your stories privately within your online friend group instead of posting to public websites. If you find a comment rude or annoying, you are well within your rights to ignore it, delete it, reply in good faith to tell this person what bothered you about their comment, or just offer a quick “thank you for reading” and move on. It all depends on what your priorities and preferences are.

To commenters: Remember that there is a human being on the other side of your screen, too, so don’t write something wouldn’t like said to you. You can’t control how a writer might react to your comment, but you can hold yourself to your own personal standard of engaging in good faith.

Formatting Fics on AO3

One can use HTML to format AO3 fics and and comments without the need to apply a siteskin or workskin. However, skins are needed in order to apply CSS to fics, and CSS cannot be applied to comments. (I cannot speak for how up-to-date or reliable these guides are, only offer them up as reference.)

Research resources and references

Search Engines & Tools

Diversity

Children

An alarming amount of children and animals and small magical sidekicks in fiction end up as little more than moe-blobs (pardon my anime terms), too weighted down by generic cuteness to ever develop agency or much personality.

Animals

When in doubt, please remember: the only “easy” pet is a pet rock. (If you’re banking on memories of a childhood pet, keep in mind that your parents probably did most of the heavy-lifting of caring for it without you really giving it much thought.)

Dogs

Cats

Fish

Birds

Horses

The Arts

The Sciences

History

Crime

Also, lawyers love to run blogs explaining the law to the average person. Search "[Country (or State, if US)] [civil or criminal] lawyer blog" and check what comes up.

Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity

Fighting, Injury, and Medicine

Trauma and Traumatic Things.

Abuse

Sexual Assault

Stalking and Harassment

Kidnapping

Human Trafficking

Cults

Addiction and Substance Abuse

Suicide, Self-Harm and Maladaptative Coping

War

Sex

Writing it

Sex Education Crash Course

Smut doesn’t have to be a sex education class, but it’s always a plus when readers can tell that the author has a basic grasp of sex ed. Regardless of how “realistic” versus “entertaining” you want your sex scenes to be, at the very least it’s worth it to learn what the body parts and bodily functions are actually called (even if you’re always going to refer to them with slang terms in your writing) and the mechanics of how they work. Anatomy diagrams ahead:

Differences of sex development

Biological sex is a neutral, objective fact as much as any other physical trait, and has no more bearing on an individual’s personality than, say, eye color or height.

At its core, biological sex is defined by gamete production and the presence or absence of the Y chromosome.

Humans produce two distinct types of gametes: sperm (small gametes) and ova (large gametes).The union of those two different gametes is how humans reproduce (a sperm cell fertilizes an ovum—the singular word for ova, also called an “egg”—and together they become an embryo). There's no third sex, no ova-ova union or sperm-sperm union. This isn’t to say that same-sex couples are somehow lesser, just that human biological reproduction requires the combination of these two distinct gametes. Lack of gamete production doesn’t count as a third category, either: pre-pubescent children, menopausal women, and other infertile people aren’t some secret, third sex.

Males are defined as the sex that has organs which could be capable of producing sperm for fertilizing ova, regardless of if they currently produce sperm or not. This doesn’t automatically mean that all males want to get females pregnant, just that they are of the sex meant to be biologically capable of doing so. Males are not capable of producing ova or being impregnated.

Females are defined as the sex that has organs which could be capable of producing ova, and gestating and giving birth to young, regardless of if they currently produce ova or not. This doesn’t automatically mean that all females want to get pregnant and have babies, just that they are of the sex meant to be biologically capable of doing so. Females are not capable of producing sperm or impregnating partners.

Genetically, the two sexes are defined as having a Y chromosome (male) or lacking a Y chromosome (female). Adult humans are diploid (have two sets of chromosomes) and are sexually either XX (female) or XY (male). No YY combination is observed. On rare occasions, aneuploidy increases the number of sex chromosomes (for example, XXX or XXYY), but sex is still determined by the presence or absence of the Y chromosome. Aneuploid individuals that possess a Y chromosome present physically as males and those that do not present as females.

There are some genetic mutations that can thwart the anatomical expression of the Y chromosome in XY males (for example, CAIS) or inappropriately trigger male development in XX individuals (for example, XX Male Syndrome), however these individuals appear anatomically as male if the trigger is activated (like in XX Male Syndrome) and female if it is not (like in CAIS).

Differences of Sex Development (DSD, also called Disorders of Sex Development or Intersex conditions) present with a variety of phenotypes “intermediate” between typical male and female features, but the individuals afflicted are almost invariably sterile. On the few occasions where fertility is possible, the phenotypes are very mild. However, even if they can’t ever produce gametes, that doesn't mean they're not valuable members of humanity.

True hermaphrodites possessing both sets of functional gonads and genitalia have never been observed in human beings.

Erogenous zones
Anatomy of the vulva and vagina
Anatomy of the penis and testicles
Anatomy of the rectum, sphincter and anus
Anal sex
Safer Sex

Safer sex was previously referred to as practicing “safe sex”, but in recent years the phrase was updated to more accurately reflect that all types of sex carry a certain level of risk.

Same-Sex Attraction
Fantasy versus Reality

A bit long, I know, but time enjoyed is never wasted. Good luck, stranger, and have fun writing!