Writing Advice: Start With a Moral, Keep Your Stories Short, and Focus on Finishing

If you have ADHD or autism and struggle with procrastination, writer's block, or finishing your stories, one approach worth trying is to start with a moral or message you want your story to communicate.

This is especially helpful if you want to write but don't have a specific story in mind yet.

1. Start With a Moral or an Idea You Want to Explore

Instead of writing just to write, think about something you've watched, read, or experienced. Perhaps there's a trope you dislike, a fictional character whose actions you disagree with, or a criticism of a character that you don't think is fair.

Writing Tip: How to Write a Good Twist Villain

A good twist villain needs more than a surprising reveal. The character should be interesting to watch, believable within the story, and given enough screen time for the audience to understand their role. Here are several things to consider when writing one.

1. Give Your Villain a Meaningful Connection to the Protagonist

One effective approach is to make the villain a narrative foil to the protagonist. The villain reflects the protagonist's flaws, ambitions, temptations, or potential future.

The popular “You and I aren't so different” trope works best when the characters have enough in common for the audience to understand the comparison. However, the villain doesn't always need to resemble the protagonist. Mirroring is a storytelling tool, not a requirement.

Writing Tip: Don't Force Every Villain to Mirror the Hero

One problem with mirror villains is that making every antagonist a reflection of the protagonist can limit originality. This doesn't mean the trope is bad. It means writers should understand when it works and when it doesn't.

For a mirror villain to work, the characters usually need some meaningful similarities, whether in their circumstances, ambitions, personalities, or moral struggles. For example, a villain who has already achieved the success the protagonist desires can serve as a warning of what might happen if the protagonist takes the wrong path. The villain's choices and consequences can reveal the dangers of pursuing success at any cost.

However, this approach becomes limiting when writers feel obligated to make every villain resemble the hero. A story with multiple antagonists benefits from variety. One villain might be motivated by selfish ambition, another by the abuse they…

While I don't mind "it's all a dream" endings. There are cases where they don't make sense. There was this one game which was like a catch the imposter game turned out to take place in a dream and in one ending if you choose to be the monster, it ends with you just being a monster and no wake up scene and it's so confusing because if it's a dream, why aren't we waking up?

If you are writing an it's a dream ending.

Now, if you are writing your own story, and it was based on your own dream, just say, "Oh, this was based on an actual dream I had." That makes it a little interesting because people do want to see what's inside your head, you know?

Some People don't mind dream endings as much when the story is based on an actual dream. You're telling…

Screenwriting & Writing Advice — Part 3

Let Characters Make Stupid Decisions

One thing I want to emphasize is that characters don't always have to make the logical decision.

People do stupid things when they're scared.

Panic can make an intelligent person do something completely irrational. You can have a character who is normally extremely intelligent suddenly make an awful decision because they're frightened, desperate, angry, or overwhelmed.

That's realistic.

Screenwriting & Writing Advice — Part 2

Give Your Characters Actual Reasons to Break Up

If a character is going to break up with someone, give them a reason.

Don't have the relationship end simply because the plot needs it to.

For example, imagine Samantha is dating Carter. Carter is obsessive and eventually becomes controlling and dangerous. He cheats on her, becomes increasingly jealous, and starts behaving like a stalker.

That's much more interesting than simply having Samantha announce:

Screenwriting & Writing Advice — Part 1

This advice comes from the perspective of a casual film viewer, not a critic or professional reviewer. I grew up watching movies simply because I enjoyed them. I wasn't sitting there thinking about whether a character was relatable enough or whether the story followed the correct filmmaking rules. If something looked cool, was fun to watch, and kept my attention, that was enough.

A lot of these observations came from watching Lifetime movies with my mom. Those were some of the only movies I felt comfortable watching with her. Over time, I noticed a few patterns that stood out to me.

Don't Follow the Same Formula Every Time

One of the biggest problems is predictability.