#flexible plotting

[ahb-writes]

Writing Problem: The Narrative Falls Into a Repetitive Pattern

Problem: The Narrative Falls Into a Repetitive Pattern

Solution: Does the story begin at the right point? Are the characters introduced in scenes where they exert the right influence? Are the novel's emotional beats consistent (or meaningful)? What's the tempo like? Is the pacing balanced and purposeful at the sentence level, scene level, and act level? Is the story's use of description unique and dynamic? What's the difference between the author voice, the narrator voice, and the character voice? Be as flexible or inflexible as needed, but above all, be willing to learn.

Writing Resources:

Never Lie Beyond What You're Capable of Selling (How to Fight Write)

How to Craft Your Protagonist's Inner and Outer Journeys (The Novel Smithy)

5 Ways to Keep Reader's Interest When They Know Something the Character Doesn't (Writing Questions Answered)

Variations on Story Structure: A List (September C. Fawkes)

8 Common Pacing Problems (September C. Fawkes)

How Structure Affects Pacing (September C. Fawkes)

Quick Plotting Tip: Write Your Story Backwards (bucketsiler; ahbwrites)

What Is Pacing in Writing? Mastering Pace (Now Novel)

❯ ❯ Adapted from the writing masterpost series: 19 Things That Are Wrong With Your Novel (and How to Fix Them)

[suntails]

let me out

[yinyuedijun]

spoilers for spoil of war, seeking advice on an insane (and potentially hilarious) plot development

context: after Mydei ascends to godhood and Oronyx dies, the reader is initiated into the Cult of Nikador to establish a temple for him Okhema (something that has never happened before due to discrimination but she manipulates mansplains her way into it)

however I don't think Okhemans would ever accept a temple worshipping purely Nikador so they need to make some marketing decisions around the name and practices of the cult

WHAT should be the exact focus of worship for this new cult:

Option 1: Worship of Nikador as a protector of the Aurelian people (reasonable looking at Greek history)

Option 2: Worship of Nikador and Nyx (the least realistic but also funniest option since this is actually just based on fanfiction of you and Mydei that was written by diasporic Kremnoans and Aurelians in the very long span of time since the decline of Castrum Kremnos LOL)

Option 3: Hero cult of Mydeimos as the Demigod of Strife (probably the most realistic option just looking at Greek history, but also think it genuinely freaks Mydei out lol..... he'd be averse to it)

[gatheringrust]

DEMETER DOING REPLIES PLEEEEASE CLAP

[waitineedaname]

the experience of writing fic for svsss has been absolutely insane so far. I posted a fic less than 24 hours ago and it already has twenty comments. I have been in so many fandoms where you have to BEG to get comments, where you'd be lucky to get more than ten comments and the ratio between hits and kudos/comments/bookmarks was vast, but so far the scum villain fandom has been super responsive! The hits/kudos/comments/bookmarks ratios have been super tight, even on my fics which have all been oneshots under 10k!

And it's not just me! I regularly see fanart for svsss fics, which was a rare sight in a lot of other fandoms I've been in. People reblog minifics that get posts to tumblr and leave tags and replies on them. I've written for a lot of fandoms in my time, and this a shocking amount of fic engagement compared to many other fandoms I've been in!!

I can't help but wonder if it's because of the nature of scum villain itself? Other people have talked about how the story uniquely appeals to writers, and it ultimately is about the relationship between a writer and reader, especially in a fan space. I can't help but wonder if the combination of this being a fandom with a high density of writers and it being a story about engaging with writing encourages a fandom culture that is super engaged with fanfiction!

[bravevolunteer-a]

this message from last night perfectly sums up not only this au but nearly all of the ones i have i think

[arsprince]

i outlined brief character tidbits here, ages ago... but let me ramble a bit more about the evil bird prince and, specifically, how i approach the show canon. 🦉

with regard to the narrative. i portray stolas as an antagonist, as was intended originally in the pilot episode. i draw inspiration from the gothic genre, with stolas as the morally grey-but-mostly-wicked antagonist that looms as a constant threat / nuisance for blitzø and IMP, tackling themes of classism and the political structure of hell — given that their business only exists because stolas permits it.

with regard to his origins. i will eventually make a detailed lore post on the ars goetia. as detailed in the lesser key of solomon, or the lemegeton, there are seventy-two demons comprising the dynasty of the ars goetia. stolas himself is the thirty-sixth demon and he is ancient. abiding by demonology, the ars goetia, the most ancient of them, are the fallen angels that once served lucifer in his rebellion against heaven, aiding him in his quest against the Lord. (whether this rebellion was a war, as in paradise lost, or rather the mere act of tempting lilith & eve, as in the show.) for their loyalty, they were granted command over lucifer's legions and his magic & grimoires. stolas himself was young during the time of the rebellion / the fall, os his memories are only vague. of the ars goetia & their respective powers, stolas' domain is astronomy. he embodies the pursuit of knowledge, a scholar among demons if you wish to summon him, offerings he might appreciate are herbs, precious stones

with regard to his ambitions. stolas' ambitions have lain dormant for centuries; he had entertained himself by tormenting mortals before but gradually, hell's influence on earth has dwindled and the days of medieval wars and demon summoning are mostly over. with lucifer absent in the politics of hell, and the power struggles occurring, primarily within the pride ring with all the overlords and their turf wars, stolas thinks it's time hell went back to its former glory. he's mostly just bored of lounging around and gossiping with the aristocrats when once he used to command armies. he would like to amass more power, surely. strike a few strategic alliances.

with regard to IMP and the grimoire situation. as mentioned, stolas grants them the grimoire for their business. he does this on the premise that they do his dirty work for him and take out whatever mortals he needs them to. of course, this is kept hush-hush as it is entirely illegal. whatever this means for his & blitz's dynamic, i leave on a per-interaction basis. i'm down to adjust this, especially in light of the new episodes, and plot something out!

with regard to my headcanons. i think it'd be neat to explore some political intrigue with the ars goetia, to have stolas actively engaged in a political chess game with andrealphus. i'd also like to explore more of his & stella's arranged marriage, and their dynamic, for which i'm open to all sorts of interpretations. basically, i'd love to plot out all the canon dynamics and see how we can make it work. also stolas making deals with sinners / overlords for mutually beneficial reasons.

[spitedriven]

as far as lucanis' default worldstate, i do prefer the saved treviso path. for me, it's not a matter of morality or whatever, it's just that i prefer rping from a point where spite and lucanis have a healthy relationship. where, while lucanis still wants spite out--he will always want spite out--they've reached an understanding about it and have tools to use going forward that allow them to negotiate that relationship.

in the save minrathous path, lucanis loses too much. he's too angry. he doesn't want to compromise with spite. and since he does his best to remain on cordial terms with rook, a lot of his anger gets redirected towards spite, and vice versa. their relationship by the end of the game is not in a good place, and i'm not entirely sure if it could ever be.

in general, unless we're writing specifically about treviso being destroyed, i'm going to default to spite and lucanis working together to figure out a new life, even if your preferred is to save minrathous. mostly this is because a positive spite/lucanis dynamic is what i'm interested in writing and what comes to me most naturally.

likewise, for the end of his personal quest, i generally default to the forgiveness path and headcanon illario being under guard at the dellamorte estate, specifically by teia and viago's most trusted and loyal crows. that's his cousin and they might have a fucked up relationship, but he's not giving up on illario. he can't.

[blizzardmuses]

All under the sun

@thedemonconstantine + Dinah Lance

"Less quipping more lock picking Jay."

Three minutes maximum before the patrol would come around the corner, and things would get a lot more complicated fast. Real fast. John might suffer motor mouth disease but he was also really good at getting into places he didn't belong, since he was so adamant on becoming her shadow he might as well make himself useful. Only during recon missions, only when she deemed it safe enough and only with the promise he'd follow any command she gave on the field.

"Nice. Well done-" the lock was opened and they could enter the dockside warehouse. "You're looking for something that looks like a ruby the size of my fist. Don't touch it...I kinda don't think you should touch it." She'd hold her light torch in her mouth while perusing files in the office leaving John to do most of the footwork of going through boxes and boxes ready for shipping.

As long as they kept quiet no one would come as security was under paid agency staff and technically told to guard the perimeter not the inside of the warehouse thus as long as nothing drew their attention...no reason to go peaking inside at 1.37 am in the morning.

"Crimson crystal cult doesn't sound like your down town metal band" Well it might be but this was Gotham, did she know it was a crystal allowing them to communicate with Trigon? No.

But, girls had gone missing and this...was as close a lead as she had. If this was important to whom ever was abducting them with cult in their name it was a tool Canary would make sure they lacked by morning.

A dog was barking from the scrap yard nearby.

"20 minutes and if we got nothing we make like shepherds and get the flock out of here" No clue in the shipping manifests so she'd join him prying boxes open.

[earthmoonz]

thoughts of wifey are returning to my mind in gentle, gay waves. (aka i’ve settled from my big move and the big depression fog has begun to clear which means my creativity is slowly! coming back from the dead)

[bithand]

I've intentionally tried to make Vauquelin's feelings on / relationship with Solas as open-ended as possible while still giving him a reason to be involved in certain things in order to allow for plotting, and honestly? It's kinda fun to work with that.

[lostwcnderlands]

-> @grapefruitey sent “ well shit. i didn’t want you to see this— blood really isn’t my color. ”

always accepting!!

there was a stench of iron in the air before rayan even caught sight of the crimson coating on their clothes. he'd felt death, it was a pleasant weight in the air, like a hug from an old friend. he dealt in such things as shadows && sins, reveling in the cruelty of humanity when pressed beyond the limit. but he enjoyed more simple past times, too. he enjoyed quiet dinners, and movies at the cinema, he liked long drives, and walks on the beach where his toes could feel the tickle of sand between. pleasure could be found in so, so many forms... and yet, he'd not expected to be greeted with such a brutality of the sight laid out before him. especially not, in someone he'd deemed as decidedly quite normal.

an eyebrow quirked upwards, lips twisting into a sideways grin. " oh, no, i greatly disagree. you look absolutely ravishing. " laughter was echoed in the calm, unshaken tone of ray's voice, amusement playing an amber twinkle in otherwise dark mocha eyes. " do you want any help with that? "

[suffarustuffaru]

Not meaning to throw any shade at Rem, but I hate how her character ended up being restricted to only loving Subaru. It became her personality and her reason to exist

Meanwhile my man Otto has layers and fun dynamics with everyone WHILE also being codependent and hopelessly in love to Subaru (in my point of view)

I hope that now Tappei will be able to balance Rem's character and give her another personality trait besides her love for Subaru

ok so if anyone else is seeing this, this is referring to a poll i made a few days ago pitting rem and otto against each other bc theyre both the resident codependent subaru devotees and they do parallel/contrast each other a bit 👍

but yeah anon… not to affect the poll results or anything wkdndnd but i agree a lot with you!! i have mixed feelings on rem bc i do love her a lot—im halfway through her and ram’s prequel novel and im enjoying it a lot, and also i liked her the moment i watched season 1 of the anime for the first time. shes an intriguing character with a well written backstory and her own set of flaws and traits. but i think the big thing is her and ottos relationships with subaru, while subaru is first place in both of their hearts and subaru comes first before anyone else at this point, rem and ottos flavors of Dependency are different?

like with rem, i think its the point that her whole being ends up revolving around subaru. not that otto isnt like that either, of course, but otto has Way More of a life outside of subaru. otto has a whole group of people from the emilia camp to marone and his family that he cares about other than subaru, and on top of that, ottos job in the emilia camp is to communicate with others both within and outside of his camp. then theres his dp, which is also dependent and ABOUT communication. when it comes to rem and otto, theres absolutely no competing on this, otto is the one with more of. a Life. not that rem doesnt have other people she cares about and other people she talks with and other people she likes (and also rem was unfortunately Gluttonyed), but the top two closest people in her life were always ram then subaru. otto got lucky with his loving family, bc rems Entire Life has molded her into being dependent on others. shes told by her family that the only reason shes alive is bc ram saved her. ram is the only person who loves her. she envies ram and then she feels so guilty after her village is destroyed and rams horn is gone (especially when rem is initially. kind of Glad that rams horn is gone). so rem places her worth on serving the people she loves—ram and subaru. rem has spent her WHOLE LIFE like this. remsuba as a relationship has its ups and downs but arc 3 rem is, while sweet and well meaning, shes not the healthiest. remsuba isnt the healthiest. and then arc 7-8 comes in and yeah while rems pov of subaru and the whole situation is Understandable from what little she knows, yeah its not the healthiest either (and also i dont forgive her for being mean about natsumi wkfndnd).

not that ottosuba is the Healthiest given they seem like theyre going to become. a bit Toxic in arc 8 if they keep being stubborn, but the big difference is in how otto and rem devote themselves. bc rems problem (in arc 3) is that she enables subaru a little too much. i mean sloth if exists for a reason, she ran away with subaru and RAM AND EVERYONE ELSE DIED. ottos problem is that hes 1. obsessed with opposing subaru and 2. not straightforward with his feelings the way arc 3 rem is. bc at least pre gluttony rem is gonna straightforwardly be like “id do anything for you” and “i love you” etc etc. like yeah ottos like “youre my friend!!” but hes also gonna complain nonstop about subaru to his face and say shit like “ill leave at the first sight of danger!!” RIGHT AFTER RISKING HIS LIFE FOR SUBARU. and also even then arc 8 rems siding with subaru on louis so shes enabling him in that respect too (even though arc 8 rem is different from arc 3 rem of course). ergo, rem is the one who wants to support subaru Unconditionally. even if its not what youd consider the right decision. otto tries to help subaru get what he wants, but if otto doesnt agree he starts getting aggressive. rem makes herself pliable and into a bit of a doormat for subaru, otto starts getting out the pitchforks and tries to control things bc he thinks his way his best for subaru in the end. that, and while subaru does go first in ottos heart, hes STILL loyal to the entire emilia camp as a whole (minus roswaal). thats why he wanted to leave vollachia, he wanted to save the ENTIRE emilia camp.

but like you said anon—while the point is that rem ends up centering her whole life around subaru, i feel that tappei handles otto (who has SIMILAR PLOT BEATS) with far more nuance. like while otto will literally do anything else besides actually say “i love you” or “id do anything for you”, his arc is more straightforward and consistent than rems. again, rem got gluttonyed and a bunch of different stuff have happened with her so of course her arc has been more Dramatic in its changes, but with otto he grows and changes but at the same time he doesnt change At All. his arc 8 self is doing stuff hes been capable of this whole time, vollachia and subaru just bring out his more hidden traits. the narrative is just way more consistent with emphasizing that while otto thinks hes in the right, hes also Wrong in a lot of ways. his mindset rn is Not Healthy and i feel that the narrative shows that more with him than it does rem a lot. like the writing literally goes out of its way to shit on otto a bit for being a little messed up in the head, while you have to read more into rems plot and then some audiences just completely miss the point of her character. that and—yeah, rems reasons are all very understandable, but i feel that tappei romanticizes her a bit too much. all you have to do is look at sloth if bc sloth if seems a Bit too fluffy to me despite the absolute Dark Backdrop. like yeah. subaru rbds back to arc 3 at the end. but i feel like sloth if just sweeps a lot of the dark underbelly under the rug. ottosuba as a dynamic to me just feels more Equal than remsuba does, which is probably a bit strange HAH bc ottosuba as a dynamic is based on Conflict (especially when you remember ottosuba across the ifs too) and their power dynamics in arc 8 are likely going to get crazy at some point.

plus its like—the way the whole louis situation has been handled made me think that tappei wouldnt even bother examining the Problems with louis and subaru + rems relationships with louis, but luckily arc 8 has been getting into that more. so like i dont completely trust tappei with female characters (he has a habit of. fumbling the bag a bit with them sometimes, imo. he gets out such great complex main female characters then he starts messing up with their writing like halfway through). but like you anon, i hope that rem gets far more character development. the poor girl has spent her whole life basing her worth on others….

and well. again, i think the difference in how the writing treats otto vs rem is probably also bc ottos a boy and rems a girl. so of course otto consistently gets a bit more nuance, and of course certain parts of the audience just see rem and think “waifu who would do anything for you” rather than “this is a traumatized girl who means well but has poor boundaries and Codependency Issues”, and some people see otto and think “he doesnt love subaru that much lol” and sweep his own codependency and Issues under the rug. and then you look at the narrative and, like you said anon, otto is allowed to have fun dynamics with everyone while still being Fixated on subaru. rem hasnt had much of a chance in that category yet.

[gil-estel]

leslye headland really said "this pride we're bringing camp back to star wars"

[dragontamer05]

No lie I can't recall the last time I did like just one long continuous thread.

Like sure still doing small side stuff, asks ect but just idk but also letting muses grow and develop through one long continuous - and not always having to say resort to completely dropping if whatever currently is going on has run its course and instead just time skip with it but let it keep going.

And I say this as some one who is also 100% happy to time skip and jump around.

And hey you want to go back in time and explore a scenario that could have happened earlier in their relationship / knowing each other

or jump forward to something way later or even just explore a what if scenario that doesn't have to happen but could depending how things go/ how we feel about it ect

Hell yah love it all - trying to have some time line consistency is good obviously and as long as we can agree on even a loose idea of How they got to Y or where X fits and what not then sure.

Am fine with even the longest of threads eventually getting a wrap up if things simply happen to feel right in the moment and is what gets decided, doesn't have to be an infinite thread - certainly not about to force one to go on if its reached a point it kinda feels dead but idk call me easily attached but there's sometimes where I can still find / feels like their might be still potential to be found in a thread and all it needs is a bit of tweaking.

The chapter came to an end but the book isn't over kinda thing. Maybe all it needs is a small time skip / scene change but there's still things to be explored within said plot/scenario / whatever is going on with the characters - that would still also work/fit within said thread instead of separating.

Similarly but kind of reverse is I am equally as happy generally to return to threads that were long previously dropped/abandoned. Whether cause someone wasn't feeling it any more or simply we ran into a writing wall and at the time were lost on how to continue it so was better not to force it. But if something new comes along be it from plotting / just newer interactions or simply with having time away from it whatever the reason if a spark suddenly arises and hey suddenly what if we connected - old thread to new idea - or any other reason to want to answer/continue go for it.

idk mostly I this is was just a really long rambly way of saying how I miss long threads. Short quick snippets are fun and fine but 9/10 I promise i am very much interested and fine with carrying a thread for as long and far as it'll go.

[tamedstray]

I should add the sex w.rk au to the carrd tomorrow I just think it's a fun option for plotting. Mainly during his time there, ofc, with Vigor either still joining the tadfools or simply never getting abducted x it's a very flexible au 😌