Wonderful Word Wednesday: Saurian

It's Wonderful Word Wednesday again! Do you as a writer ever struggle finding that perfect word to describe something or you want to shake your writing up with some new words? Each Wednesday I post hand-picked descriptive words for writers and other vocabulary nerds out there. ;) 

Saurian

adjective

1.) belonging or pertaining to the Sauria, a group of reptiles originally including the lizards, crocodiles, and several extinct forms but now technically restricted to the lizards.

2.) resembling a lizard.

noun

3.) a saurian animal, as a dinosaur or lizard.

Example Sentence: Ashlyn has a saurian tail. 

Ashlyn from Subsapien

Have you seen or used this word before? What do you think of it?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's word!

Tea Tuesday: Momiji the Rabbit

I'm not really a coffee person. I prefer tea, and I know a lot of fellow writers love tea, too. But have you ever wanted to break out of the Early Grey or English Breakfast norm and try something new? Well, let me help you find some cool new teas! If you need a little hot and flavorful boost to help you reach your writing goal or you're just a lover of tea or you'd like to try some tea but aren't fond of the stereotypical types, these Tea Tuesday posts are for you.

This weeks tea is ... 

*drum roll*

Momiji the Rabbit

How I found it: I'm back with another fandom set from Adagio Teas. I've had my eyes on this one for a while. I've loved the anime for years and this summer my friend bought the complete Fruits Basket set and I tried two. I determined that this would be the next fandom set I get, so I watched the anime for the second time while building up points (Yes, that's why my twitter feed has Adagio Teas mentions) and now I finally have five out of the fourteen teas. When I first got them I couldn't stop sniffing them. They smell. So. Good.

This is the same site I bought the Avengers set, Sherlock set, Tolkien set, Avatar: the Last Airbender set,  Doctor Who set, Attack on Titan set, RWBY set, Divergent set, and Firefly set from!

The Tea: Out of the character teas, I've reviewed, Momiji is my favorite character. His sweet, adorable demeanor yet with wisdom beyond his years is so touching to me. His scene where he tells Tohru his back story makes me cry every time. Other than Tohru herself he's the most inspirational character in Fruits Basket to me and this tea is a great representation of him. The yellow fruits such as pineapple and lemon in the tea remind me of his golden hair. The white pear, calypso green, green rooibos citron, and pineapple compose an amazing tea with a white pear and citrus beginning and a pineapple, green tea, coconut finish. It's very flavorful and cheery and deep just like Momiji.

Serving Recommendations: I steeped this tea at 190 degrees F for three minutes and added sugar.

How much is it and where can you get it? You can find this tea at the Adagio website. I bought this tea in a sample set which was about $22 including shipping and you get a goodly amount of tea since you only need about a teaspoon per cup. Some of these teas you can buy individually for about $10 a pouch or $4 for a sample tin.

So how good is it? This tea is delightful, unusual, and fits Momiji perfectly. Four stars!

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you seen Fruits Basket? Who's your favorite character?

Bonus! If you are a first-time Adagio customer I can send you a $5 giftcard! Ask in the comments for details! (This is no joke and no catch I seriously can. It's part of the amazingness of Adagio Teas)

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's tea!

Soundtrack Sundays: Memories (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials)

It's Soundtrack Sunday again! The day where I post awesome music to write to or just listen to for pleasure if you're a fellow soundtrack junkie. I just saw Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials this past Thursday. I'm still a little torn about it. It was an interesting film, but so different from the book. Check out my full review on Geeks Under Grace. If you'd like to check out the book before seeing the film, take a look at my review.

Regardless of the movie's radical plot transplant, the score is excellent. So good that I'm doing yet another piece from this soundtrack for SS. John Paesano does it again with an amazing score. He did fantastic with the Maze Runner. I've posted my two favorite pieces from the score here on the blog called "Finale" and "Goodbye." This piece is very apprehensive and uneasy at the beginning with a Spanish touch with the guitar and slowly builds into an epic finish with horns. I love the imitation heartbeat sounds and the horror element strings. This is perfect for listening to while writing a building tense moment for a sci-fi or fantasy. You can listen to more epic music in my Soundtrack Sundays YouTube playlist.

Have you heard this piece before? What do you think of it? Have you seen or read the Scorch Trials?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's Soundtrack Sunday!

Monthly Summary: September 2015

This month has been the most relaxing month I've had in a long time. It was really nice to have a reprieve after the extreme business of this year. What with the cool weather coming and a lot of deadlines met, I could finally have some time to be stress-free.


What I did:

1.) I took a two week break from writing to relax and now I'm back into it in the planning stage for extending Red Hood and for NaNoWriMo. I start extending Red Hood next month! I have to make 20,000 words longer.

2.) I decided to try going to an SCA (Society of Creative Anachronism, basically a group that still preserves medieval traditions such as rapier, heavy fighting, and others) fighter practice. I did some rapier fighting and it was really fun! I used to fence and I realized how much I missed fighting with a sword. I'm strongly considering becoming a member. ^ ^

3.) I finished reading Viral Execution by Amanda L. Davis. ^ ^

4.) I've finished Judah's expressions from Subsapien for my Expressions Challenge and my Harlowe expressions are right behind him! I'll update when I finish that one. I need to introduce you all to Harlowe. He's from Starbloods.

5.) I did a bunch of reviews on Geeks Under Grace that I've been wanting to do for months now. I did a the Hunger Games: Catching Fire review, King's Quest: Chapter 1 A Knight to Remember review, Divergent review, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials review, Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller Episode 1: The Hangman review, and I'd Punch a Lion in His Eye for You review.

The Geeky Department:

1.) I rewatched Wolf's Rain and rekindled my love for the show. The ending is still really weird though ...

Cheza and Kiba are so cute.

2.) I'm all caught up on Sword Art Online and Naruto Shippuden dubbed. Feels, man. Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels. I also caught up up on Falling Skies. Ben looks exactly like my character Matt so seeing on him on screen is like seeing my baby character walking and talking.

My baby!

3.) All of my favorite fall shows are starting so I'm beginning to watch the new eps! I've missed you so much, Doctor Who, Castle, Arrow, the Flash, and Once Upon a Time. ^ ^

I've missed this face.

4.) I replayed one of my favorite video games to review on GUG King's Quest: The Silver Lining. When are they going to release the last ep? Ughhhhh. I must know how it ends!

5.) I saw Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. I'm really conflicted about it ... I like parts of it, but not others ... Check out my review mentioned above for details.

Stare out epically. 

What I Learned:

1.) Breaks are really refreshing. I need a long one. This is the longest one I've taken since winter. I feel more rejuvenated and less burned out. I recommend taking a break between drafts.

2.) While at SCA I learned a lot about old Italian fighting, like about how they would wear gloves so they could grab the opponent's blade to knock aside. I also learned about fighting with a rapier and a dagger, cloak, or buckler. So fascinating!

3.) So I got rejected by one of the publishers that I submitted to. It's part of the writer life and I tried to handle it strongly, but I ended up crying and moping for a day. At least it only took a day to get back on my feet this time, so I am learning how to handle this.

4.) When one gets a rejection, get Starbucks. It will make you feel better. Pecan tarts solve problems.

5.) I'm working on extending Red Hood for a publisher so I've listed all of my scenes and now I've started picking ones to extend. I've made a list of possible scenes to add and write down any ideas I get as I go. I write each scene in the following format to keep organized:

Scene:
Pages:
Words:
POV:
What’s happening:
Status:

The process is a bit difficult, but I'm excited about adding more in another characters point of view. :)

What I'm Going to Do:

1.) I'm going to finish planning for extending Red Hood and for Subsapien Hybrid (though that may overlap with next month). Next month I begin extending Red Hood by 20K!

2.) I'm going to finish reading the Revised Life of Ellie Sweet by Stephanie Morrill and Blur by Steven James.

3.) I'm going to work on more expressions challenges next month. I believe I'm going to work on Ashlyn next. I want to get better at drawing children. Then perhaps Ingrid or Caleb.

4.) Enjoy the wonderfulness of fall that is cool weather, hot beverages, pumpkin everything, and pecan everything. I'm also looking forward to going to the Georgia National Fair next month and for Halloween! Yay for cosplay!

5.) I want to do even more reviews for Geeks Under Grace if I get the time. One a week preferably.

Last Month on Stori Tori's Blog ...

The top five most popular post on the blog for September 2015 were ...

1.) Writing Lessons from Movies: the Lord of the Rings - I talked about the awesome things you can learn about writing in this post. I had a feeling it would make the top. ^ ^

2.) Beautiful People #13: Caleb - This month's beautiful people with one of the secondary characters from my Subsapien series.

3.) How Sentence & Paragraph Structure Can Boost Your Book -

4.) Questions for Nzelt! -

5.) Interview with Nzelt (Red Hood) -


Coming Soon to Stori Tori's Blog ...

Another fandom set of teas will be coming not sure yet which one so it will be a surprise. ^ ^

October 2 - Questions for Sting - A call for questions for one of the villains of my Subsapien series and of my upcoming novel in the series I'm writing for NaNoWriMo Subsapien Hybrid. Sting is a crazy, bipolar sociopath and he'd love to get some Qs. His interview will be posted two weeks later on October 16.

This is what Sting looks like.

October 3 - How Participating in Other Blogs' Activities Can Drastically Improve Your Blog - A post about how I've discovered interacting with other blogs can help your blog and make blogging so much funner.

October 9 - Beautiful People - My favorite monthly link-up. It may be Beautiful Books this month so I'll be able to tell you guys about Subsapien Hybrid. ^ ^

October 10 - A Book Review Failstate: Legends by John W. Otte - So excited to review this awesome superhero book!

October 17 - Writing Lessons from (Not Sure Yet) - I'm going to do another writing lessons post. I still haven't decided what yet.

October 24 - So Your Character is Homeschooled ... - A post about how to accurately portray your homeschooled character in your book.

I'm so grateful for the respite I've had this month. I really needed it. It did a little rocky near the end because of the rejection, but I'm still going strong. I have four more submissions out there. Thank you everyone for reading and for all of the wonderful comments. I've gotten more comments this month than I ever have in the history of this blog! It's so much funner to blog when I have great people to discuss the posts with in the comments. Thanks again! Have a happy October!

How was your month? What did you do? Are you looking forward to any of the upcoming posts? Have you watched any of the shows or movies I have? 

You may also like:

Monthly Summary: August 2015

Monthly Summary: July 2015

Monthly Summary: June 2015

Monthly Summary: May 2015
Monthly Summary: April 2015

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

The Bookshelf Tag

Though I didn't get tagged for this one Hayden over at Every Story Girl made this tag available to anyone so I'm doing it!

Wonderful Word Wednesday: Noctambulous

It's Wonderful Word Wednesday again! Do you as a writer ever struggle finding that perfect word to describe something or you want to shake your writing up with some new words? Each Wednesday I post hand-picked descriptive words for writers and other vocabulary nerds out there. ;) 

Noctambulous

adjective

1.) of, relating to, or given to sleepwalking.

Example Sentence: Brian is noctambulous some nights. 

Brian from Subsapien

Have you seen or used this word before? What do you think of it?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's word!

Tea Tuesday: Kagura the Boar

I'm not really a coffee person. I prefer tea, and I know a lot of fellow writers love tea, too. But have you ever wanted to break out of the Early Grey or English Breakfast norm and try something new? Well, let me help you find some cool new teas! If you need a little hot and flavorful boost to help you reach your writing goal or you're just a lover of tea or you'd like to try some tea but aren't fond of the stereotypical types, these Tea Tuesday posts are for you.

This weeks tea is ... 

*drum roll*

Kagura the Boar

How I found it: I'm back with another fandom set from Adagio Teas. I've had my eyes on this one for a while. I've loved the anime for years and this summer my friend bought the complete Fruits Basket set and I tried two. I determined that this would be the next fandom set I get, so I watched the anime for the second time while building up points (Yes, that's why my twitter feed has Adagio Teas mentions) and now I finally have five out of the fourteen teas. When I first got them I couldn't stop sniffing them. They smell. So. Good.

This is the same site I bought the Avengers set, Sherlock set, Tolkien set, Avatar: the Last Airbender set,  Doctor Who set, Attack on Titan set, RWBY set, Divergent set, and Firefly set from!

The Tea: This tea is very different than any I've had and it totally suits Kagura. It's very tart and bold like her with the grapefruit oolong and white tangerine with the sweetness of passionfruit and hibiscus like Kagura's more vulnerable side and her feelings for Kyo. The tea is overall very fruity though it smells more like grapefruit than it actually tastes. The passion fruit taste actually comes out more when this tea is brewed with a tropical citrus tang at the end. This definitely balances between Kagura's sides. While trying these teas, I've noticed that these flavors reflect on both sides of the characters: who they are on the outside and who they are on the inside. It's pretty cool. 

Serving Recommendations: I steeped this tea for four minutes at 200 degrees F and added sugar. 

How much is it and where can you get it? You can find this tea at the Adagio website. I bought this tea in a sample set which was about $22 including shipping and you get a goodly amount of tea since you only need about a teaspoon per cup. Some of these teas you can buy individually for about $10 a pouch or $4 for a sample tin.

So how good is it? This tea is tasty, unique, and suits the character. Four stars!

Have you tried this tea? What did you think of it? Have you seen Fruits Basket? Who's your favorite character?

Bonus! If you are a first-time Adagio customer I can send you a $5 giftcard! Ask in the comments for details! (This is no joke and no catch I seriously can. It's part of the amazingness of Adagio Teas)

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's tea!

Soundtrack Sundays: What's Next? (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials)

It's Soundtrack Sunday again! The day where I post awesome music to write to or just listen to for pleasure if you're a fellow soundtrack junkie. I just saw Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials this past Thursday. I'm still a little torn about it. It was an interesting film, but so different from the book. Check out my full review on Geeks Under Grace. If you'd like to check out the book before seeing the film, take a look at my review.

Regardless of the movie's radical plot transplant, the score is excellent. John Paesano does it again with an amazing score. He did fantastic with the Maze Runner. I've posted my two favorite pieces from the score here on the blog called "Finale" and "Goodbye." This piece is a great epic finish piece with gorgeous orchestra touched with delicate piano and violin with a few techy sounds. It perfectly suits the sci-fi feel of the movie. This would be great to listen to while writing a sci-fi or a fantasy at a moment of triumph or happienss or calm before the storm. You can listen to more epic music in my Soundtrack Sundays YouTube playlist.

Have you heard this piece before? What do you think of it? Have you seen or read the Scorch Trials?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Click here for last week's Soundtrack Sunday!

Writing Lessons from Movies: the Lord of the Rings

Tolkien's works have been close to my heart since childhood. They're one of the reason I've become a writer and one of the reasons I'm the woman I am today. I'd give a synopsis for this trilogy but every self-respecting geek knows about LOTR. If you need one, just Google it or ask me in the comments. Middle Earth and its characters have inspired me deeply and there is much to glean about writing from this magnum opus of Mr. Tolkien's. As always this writing lessons post shall be filled with gifs!

Warning: This post contains spoilers.

1.) Cultures With Races -  One of the biggest standouts of Middle Earth is the vast varieties of races: Men, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Orcs, Uruk-hai, Ents, and wizards, to name the basics. One thing Tolkien and Peter Jackson (Director of the Lord of the Rings) took into account was that there are cultures within each race. Humans aren't all the same in culture neither should any other race be.

Friendly Rivendell elves.

Rivendell elves live in an environment with a lot of water, their hair is commonly brown, they're generally hospitable, and they speak Common Eldarin elvish. On the other hand Lothlorien elves live in giant trees, commonly have blonde or white hair, are inhospitable, and speak Quenya elvish or High elvish. Mirkwood elves live in a dark forest, their hair is either blonde or red, their speak both languages, and can almost be considered an evil kingdom of elves with Thranduil as their ruler. They are the same race yet their cultures are vastly different in environment, looks, and attitude.

How this can be applied to writing: When creating a world in your story, think of how cultures within races can vary, not just by look and where they live but how they act and how their language varies as well. Doing this adds more realism to your story and can create some interesting conflicts and elements for your plot.

Snarky Lothlorien elves.

2.) Languages - If anyone knows anything about Tolkien and his works, they know about the multiple languages he created. Elvish, Black Speech, Dwarvish, and Ancient Rohan are but a few. He took care to make each one appropriate for each race. Elvish is smooth, Dwarvish is rough, Black Speech is dark and evil sounding, and Ancient Rohan has Celtic bases, though Elvish is also taken partially from Finnish. Each language reflects the character of each race. He even made written languages for them as well!

Elvish Calligraphy

How this can be applied to writing: Though no one expects you to come up with multiple languages for your books, it's a good thing to keep in mind the languages of your storyworld especially when naming characters. David would be an odd name for alien who comes from the planet Venus where they speak Venusian. You may even want to make up a few words or use a base language for your world to give it a different feel. Play around with it. 

I love the sound of Elvish. I've learned to speak some.

3.) Each Point of View Had a Part to Play in the Grand Scheme - The Lord of the Rings has many storylines, beginning with only a few in the Fellowship of the Ring and branching to many in Two Towers (my favorite) and the Return of the King. Each point of view eventually weaves into the main plot which is to destroy the One Ring. The main point of view is of course Frodo, but there is also Sam, Saruman, Gandalf, Merry & Pippin, Aragorn, Arwen, Elrond, and Faramir. This is quite a large cast and having so many POVs can be disastrous, but they were pulled off quite well as they all tied together in the end.

Aragorn is my dreamboat. Okay? Okay.

How this can be applied to writing: Often in stories we can see point of views put in solely to have an interesting subplot, but it has nothing to do with the main point of the story. Though this can be interesting, it can often divert too much from the plot or be too confusing for the reader. Keep this in mind when using many point of views. They can be a great tool, but a tricky one to handle. 

Saruman's baddie POV.

4.) Internal Struggles - The Ring brings out the worst in anyone who wields it and often anyone who is around it. This presented so many internal struggles: Boromir's desperation to protect his country, Faramir's desire to win his father's favor, Galadriel's lust for power ... Everyone has darkness inside them and it's up to the characters to choose to let it take hold. Even without the Ring there is Gandalf's dread that he's killed Frodo by sending him to find the Ring or Frodo's fear that he can't complete the quest.

Boromir after he let the Ring take hold.

How this can be applied to writing: You don't need a ring to bring out the inner struggles of your character. What do they battle with? Doubt? Fear? Cowardice? Greed? Hate? What are the dark parts in your characters' hearts? Will they let it consume them or will they conquer it? This is what makes character arcs which are how your character will change during their journey.

Frodo doubting himself.

5.) Great Death Scenes - I don't know about you guys but I cry nearly every time at the big death scenes in the Lord of the Rings films (Hush, people who are against Haldir's death). Even some of the minor deaths like Theodred and some of the peasant soldiers in Helm's Deep can make my eyes glass up. Every good character's death is done in such a way that you really empathize with the characters. Sometimes you even go into the POV of the character before he dies. When Theodin is killed by the Witch King he watches as the dragon swipes its head to grab him and knows in that moment his time has come.

Punch in the feels.

When a character dies, the living characters grieve. Even the men cry which is what I think brings out the waterworks the most for me. They weren't melodramatic, but they felt deep pain. The characters are often killed in places where there lives are about to get better. Theoden was repairing his relationship with his niece and nephew, and Boromir was trying to redeem himself after betraying Frodo. Sometimes we didn't feel the brunt of a death until we saw someone else mourning for the character like when Theoden began to mourn for his son with the heartstabbing line, "The young perish and the old linger ... No parent should have to bury their child." (My eyes just watered even thinking about that line.)

How this can be applied to writing: When you kill off a character, their death should hit the readers. They should feel the characters' grief. Maybe it won't be until they see the characters grieve that it hurts them. Kill characters in such a way that it impacts the readers. Perhaps like Theoden and Boromir have them at a point where they are about to be redeemed. Perhaps have a character die suddenly and you didn't expect it. There are many ways to make a character's death resonate. 

Gah my heart hurts.

I don't recommend killing sprees though or those can just get irritating and be very careful which character you kill or that can put off readers well. When considering a character death, put a lot of thought into it. Will it progress the story? If Boromir hadn't died then the necessary plot with Lord Denethor and Faramir wouldn't have happened. 

6.) The Black Moment - The Black Moment is the part of your story where all hope seems lost, where everything is going wrong before the ending comes. The Lord of the Rings had some really great black moments that really made you doubt if the characters were ever going to succeed.

Uruk-Hai at Helm's Deep

In the Two Towers during the Battle of Helm's Deep when the Uruk-hai were streaming into the fortress to wipe out Rohan, and Sam and Frodo were trapped in Osgiliath during the dragon raid, it seemed like nothing could be done to stop the enemy. In the Return of the King when the armies of men were fighting at the Black Gates and were sorely outnumbered and when Frodo refused to cast the Ring into the fire, it felt like everything would fail. All that the characters fought to achieve seemed lost. In the words of Sam, "How could the end be happy after so much bad happened?"

How this can be applied to writing: When you write your stories you want to make your readers believe the goal your character is trying to achieve is very difficult. It shouldn't be a cakewalk. At the Black Moment is where you make your readers doubt that achieving that goal is possible. Raise the stakes in any way you can to make this effect work.

The Battle at the Black Gates

7.) Skillfully Woven-In Themes - J.R.R. Tolkien was a Christian man and he wove many Christian themes into his stories. Some of the themes he chose for Lord of the Rings were death, perseverance, and brotherly devotion. He did this in such a way that they didn't seem preachy, but they were clearly there. In the end, the themes of the Lord of the Rings are what has captivated audiences to this epic fantasy series. Themes that touched their hearts and made this fantasy world real for them.

This speech makes me cry every time.

How this can be applied to writing: Every good story needs a theme. It is what makes a story last with the readers. When you put a theme into your story, you don't want to shove it down their throats nor make it so vague that nobody can pick up on it. This is probably one of the most difficult parts of writing, but it can be done and maybe that message will help someone who reads your work. 

Yes, this post got long, but I'm covering a trilogy of movies with this one. I honestly almost cried a few times during writing this post because this series means so much to me. The Lord of the Rings are beautiful stories. Dare I say that anyone who finds them boring needs their head checked. (Diehard Tolkienite here. *coughs, coughs* I will defend this fandom to the bitter end above all others.) It has inspired thousands maybe even millions of people, including many writers. There is a reason why this film has become so timeless.

Have you seen these movies? Have you noticed these writing aspects? What movies have you noticed have good writing? Let's geek out together!

You may also like:

Writing Lessons from Videogames: Assassins Creed II
Writing Lessons from TV Shows: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Writing Lessons from Anime: My Neighbor Totoro

Writing Lessons from Anime: RWBY

Writing Lessons from Movies: Jumanji