Quill & Ink

I’ve often struggled with writing out my character’s personalities, especially my main characters. These things can be terribly complex and as someone with Autism, I often fret if my characters are believable enough or how I perceive the world is incorrect. Perhaps you’ve also written out lists of good and bad traits or built personalities off their likes and dislikes (the good ol’ “Likes helping people, hates conflict” kind of building). Over the past year and a half of working on my first novel, I’d like to sit down and show you my method for creating brief descriptions of a character’s personality that allows you to make them as complex or as simple as what suits your book genre and needs. Instead of viewing my character’s personality as a list of traits split into strengths and weaknesses, good emotions and bad emotions, instead, I’ve built a triangle system built on 3 core traits. These traits are designed to feed into each other and create a list of secondary traits that can fuel...

With the new Dungeons and Dragons movie out, plus the hassle of the OGL and One D&D (Or 6e or 5.5e or whatever they’re calling it), the tabletop RPG has been in the public eye a lot as of late. Many people had considered jumping ship and moving to other TTRPGs, most popularly Pathfinder, before seemingly falling back into place with the OGL revisions and the movie release. Now all that could potentially shake their devotion now is the fact that One D&D is replacing 5e. Still, with most already possessing the material and homebrew safe from tampering, it seems highly unlikely most will venture beyond the mainstream safe zone. It’s a shame because, for those willing, they’ll find there are many more TTRPGS other than D&D, some just as old and still going strong, and not just Pathfinder. While the initial scare of the OGL worried me a bit, I never truly felt heartbroken about Dungeons and Dragons. I owned some material and had played for a few years, but without my groups, the...

Did you know that over 80% of adults want to write a book but only 3% ever get to 'The End' of a draft? That means that 97% of people who want to write a book never finish. That was the opening line of Savannah Gilbo’s 2021 article on the main reasons why aspiring authors don’t finish their drafts. Those reasons are attributed to perfectionism, lack of motivation and overall sheer commitment, self-discipline and routine a novel draft takes. This is especially true if you can’t dedicate all your available time to it. As someone who can proudly say I stand in that 3% who went in and came out the other side with a finished first draft of my book idea (plus half a month of revising said draft), I thought I’d reminisce over the past year I’ve dedicated to chipping this project away bit by bit. I’ll discuss some common challenges I encountered and the challenges I faced upon completing this draft. This will not discuss the specifics or details of my story, merely the outside factors ...

Hello there, it's great to have you here. I wanted to introduce myself and give you a little preview of what you can expect from my blog. My name is Reyes Raine, I’m an amateur writer passionate about sharing my thoughts, experiences, and ideas on writing, story-telling and graphic design with others. I believe by sharing my experiences as a new author writing his first book, I can help those who might be feeling a bit intimidated embarking on their own journeys, hence creating this blog.