ask-the-wordsmith

[ask-the-wordsmith]

Do you have any advice on writing crossovers?

Ah, definitely! There are two main types of crossovers: characters from universe A meet characters from universe B (e.x. "The Avengers meet Harry Potter & friends"), and characters from universe A are inserted into universe B (e.x. "The Avengers are students and go to Hogwarts). Usually a "crossover" is used to denote the first one, and the second is referred to as an "AU," but I'll touch on both!

Characters From Different Universes Meeting

The main appeal of this sort of crossover comes from the character dynamics; i.e. the simple pleasure of all your blorbos, waifus, and skrunklies interacting. The bulk of your fic (or RP) should be showing off how characters who could never meet in canon would be best friends or worst enemies.

I thought I'd written about character dynamics before, but no, my old advice is either like... "just do it" (which is TERRIBLE advice) or "have variation" (which only applicable to groups). So, here are a few universal points to start finding dynamics within pairs!

"What do they have in common?"

Shared interests

Similar goals

Similar backstories

Similar experiences

"What do they have that's different?"

Clashing morals

Clashing personalities

Different cultures

Different strengths

For crossovers specifically:

Outside perspective on an established dynamic (an excuse for someone from universe B to comment on the relationship between characters in universe A)

Setting up pairs or groups based on similarities (e.x. "all the young shonen heroes teach each other their dueling systems") and then usually having them talk about the other group in private (e.x. "all the young shonen heroes talk about how cool their mentors are")

CONFUSION OVER DIFFERENT MAGIC SYSTEMS. Please please please I am begging writers to not gloss over the part where they go "wow you have magic here?" "yup!" "cool!" WHEN LITERALLY HALF THE FUN OF CROSSOVERS IS THE CHARACTERS LEARNING ABOUT EACH OTHER'S WORLDS. So here are bunch of different emotions they can have other than just saying "cool!" and moving on.

Confusion ("wait, what's a Pokémon? how is it different from a Digimon? huh??")

Misunderstanding ("wow hi there, little guy! what kind of a Pokémon are you?" "poyo! :)" "I've never heard of a Poyo before!")

Anger ("you're telling me there are cool animal-human hybrids and people are prejudiced against them?! where I come from, being unique like that would make it so easy to get a job!")

Introspection ("I never thought about furry racism that way before. I guess I just grew up with it.")

Admiration (okay, yes, SOME characters would see a witch casting magic and just go ":OOO cool!" but if you're going to take this route, at LEAST have them explain why they think it's cool— "in my world, people can only bend ONE element unless they're the Avatar. you're telling me here, ANYONE can be the Avatar?")

Characters From One Universe Being Inserted Into Another

In scenarios where only one set of characters is being put into an AU where they belong to a different universe, there's a lot more wiggle room depending on what you want from your AU, but the biggest tip I can give is:

Decide how closely you want to stick to the original story.

Hint: it should not be 100%! I once read a crossover fanfic where I literally felt like I was reading the script of a certain movie, but all the character names had been swapped out for different characters. Literally why make an AU? You've added no value to either story.

On the other hand, I've also seen "crossover" AUs that strayed so far from the source materials that they may as well have been original stories. This is okay if you're aware of it and it makes you happy, but do realize that most people reading a crossover AU want to see you actually USE the setting from one universe, and characters from another, to tell an interesting story. If the Avengers go to Hogwarts but then they decide they don't like the system of the four houses so they run away to the woods to start their own school, with magic folk AND muggles, and there's a side-plot about them trying to bust an underground smuggling ring... you've kind of stepped away from the whole purpose of a crossover AU putting them in Hogwarts.

[ask-the-wordsmith]

Um… So I guess this is a thing I’m doing? I’m Candaru, the wordsmith! My forge has been a personal workspace for a long time, but since I’ve hit a few… creative blocks lately, it’s been harder and harder to fulfill my “write or die” passive. (Epithets, am I right?) So I figured I’d open up the place and help other people with their own smithing problems!

Feel free to drop by and ask a few questions! Just read the rules first, please. Specific questions are best— in other words, don’t send me “I’m writing a story about vampires and I need tips,” send me specifically what you’re having trouble crafting. (E.x. “I don’t know how to make my vampire MC broody but likable.”)

[ask-the-wordsmith]

this questions not directly related to writing so feel free to ignore, but do you have any advice for beginners to find spaces/people to rp with?

Man, I'm an established RPer and I still have a hard time finding partners. My #1 advice would be to go find other blogs instead of expecting people to come to you, especially if you're new. Obviously check to see if blogs are open, selective, or closed before trying to send starters, but it's gonna be mostly on you to find and form relationships.

Also, don't just reblog-spam starter lists or aesthetics. People will look at your blog and have no idea what your writing is like. Make a few IC posts, maybe write a starter of your own— at least give people something to gauge your writing by when they're deciding whether or not to interact with you.

[ask-the-wordsmith]

Time for my monthly “feel bad about my inscribedsona even though she’s literally just for fun and games and I don’t use her in ANY stories or pretend like she’d be a good OC to use within the universe” doubts I guess

[ask-the-wordsmith]

Do you ever find yourself tempted to write, er, steamy stuff? NOT romance but the... er... other thing, like, smut. I find myself tempted to write those kind of stories and I have the inspiration to, but its kind of embarrassing

I'm alloaro, so I mean, yeah. Although personally I never take the effort to actually write it out, since that's not what I want to be known for; I prefer getting more genfic out there because goodness knows we need it. In all honesty I have trouble trying to persuade you either way, so just... if you do write it, tag it properly and all that! TWs for social media sites and proper categorization for fanfic sites.

[ask-the-wordsmith]

WIP: oooooh the giiiiiiiiiirls are fiiiiiightiiiiiiing~

me, holding back tears: NO!! I DO NOT WANT THE GIRLS TO FIGHT!!!

You ever just… get to an emotional/confrontational chapter and go… nah… I don’t wanna write this rn… I don’t wanna Feel Those Bad Emotions… and then a couple days go by and you haven’t made any progress on ur WIP even though you’ve had time and energy to write…

[ask-the-wordsmith]

You ever just... get to an emotional/confrontational chapter and go... nah... I don’t wanna write this rn... I don’t wanna Feel Those Bad Emotions... and then a couple days go by and you haven’t made any progress on ur WIP even though you’ve had time and energy to write...

[ask-the-wordsmith]

I'm not very good at writing believable villains that are still bad people- either they're fundamentally good and sympathetic people who just happen to be in an antagonistic role, or they're blatantly evil to the point of being ridiculously campy with no in-between, no matter how hard I try. Any advice?

May I ask what you mean by “fundamentally good and sympathetic people who just happen to be in an antagonistic role?” Are they people who genuinely believe what they’re doing is right, but whose actions are still antagonistic? People whose actions you fear aren’t antagonistic enough? What’s the deal?

(As an aside, there’s nothing inherently wrong with campy villains depending on the genre! Comedy  loves a one-dimensional mad scientist to cause mayhem.)

[ask-the-wordsmith]

Inbox is empty and open!

Um… So I guess this is a thing I’m doing? I’m Candaru, the wordsmith! My forge has been a personal workspace for a long time, but since I’ve hit a few… creative blocks lately, it’s been harder and harder to fulfill my “write or die” passive. (Epithets, am I right?) So I figured I’d open up the place and help other people with their own smithing problems!

Feel free to drop by and ask a few questions! Just read the rules first, please. Specific questions are best— in other words, don’t send me “I’m writing a story about vampires and I need tips,” send me specifically what you’re having trouble crafting. (E.x. “I don’t know how to make my vampire MC broody but likable.”)

[ask-the-wordsmith]

Candaru I would like to say that every time I click on a notification from you, the comic you made pops up in the “posts like this” and it’s terrible/lh

Good.

[ask-the-wordsmith]

There is something so appealing about seeing the reveal of hidden markings or scars on a character, and I cannot yet figure out why. They don’t even have to reveal any information we don’t already know: it’s just really neat to feel like, “wow, that’s been there all along!”

[ask-the-wordsmith]

Any advice for writing comedy (specifically the "style," for lack of a better word, of comedy Epithet Erased does)?

Ooh! Yes! A warning, though: comedy tends to be less funny when it’s explained. So if you’re a passive enjoyer and don’t want some of the fun ruined for you, go ahead and skip this question!

For anon, though, here are some tips on the EE comedy style!

Comedy is usually better if you have a knack for it, but you certainly can break it down into different types and components. The EE style of comedy is very reliant on exaggeration, trope subversion, and multi-punch humor. (I’m sure there are probably official names for these, but I don’t study comedy professionally!)

Exaggeration is the sort of “baseline” humor of EE— EVERYTHING is exaggerated. It’s what makes the world so colorful and fun. Most characters are extreme versions of their personality— think Giovanni or Percy— with very few “straight man” characters to play off of them (Molly or Ramsey). Whatever adjectives are used to describe these characters, they are that adjective ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. This also means that their gimmicks are incredibly important— they don’t even feel like gimmicks so much as a core part of a character’s personality! For example, Howie’s obsession with work. Basically, if someone does something, they do it 120%.

Trope subversion is pretty prevalent in EE, too. Giovanni is the BAD GUY... but he’s also the dorky mom friend who ends up as the main character’s mentor figure (not an antagonist) and teaches her the life lesson of the first arc. Mera is the COOL SECRET FINAL BOSS... but she’s terrible at quippy one-liners and gets flustered easily! Those are traits aren’t usually attributed to those archetypes, which is what makes them fun and funny.

Multi-punch humor is what I’m calling Jello and co.’s improv style, which is “being VERY good at building up on each other’s jokes.” A lot of that improv comedy style translated over from Anime Campaign into EE! If you’ve ever heard of a “one-two punch” in comedy, it’s when a joke has one punchline which is funny, but immediately afterwards there’s ANOTHER punchline that’s FUNNIER. EE does that but on steroids. Almost anytime one character makes a joke, even just a slightly funny one, another character adds to it, and they keep going pretty much until they run out of characters. I’ll give an example of this from NSBH, since it has a scene that I feel demonstrates this concept very clearly and I want more EE fans to watch NSBH:

(Dawn, Quiggly, and Clover are at a bar.)

Bartender: What sounds good?

Dawn: *Cough* Mhm! Uhh! ... Quiggly, you first! (Setting up a potential joke for Quiggly.)

Quiggly: Hm. What do you have in the way of mixed lemonades? Any sort of... exotic berries? Anything that’s not just yellow. (Knocking down the joke by calling back to the character’s gimmick— a love of lemonade.)

Bartender: Uh, we’ve got a— you talkin’ alcoholic? (Setting up the joke for Quiggly.)

Quiggly: HAH! NO! (Knocking down the joke.) Why would I dump POISON in my LEMONADE? I’m no fool!

Bartender: Uhh, well, I guess we just got a shipment of raspberries. So I could probably whip you up somethin’ fruity in your lemon drink?

Quiggly: Mhm, mhm. Do you have any mint? Just like— a mint leaf. Just one. Just a sprig. (Building on the joke.)

Bartender: I mean we’s got some mint growin’ out back, they’s like weeds. (Setting up for Quiggly.)

Quiggly: Yeah, that sounds good. Just gimme like, two sprigs of that and a raspberry lemonade.

Bartender: ...consider it done.

Quiggly, to Dawn: See, that’s how you know it’s going to be a quality drink— when they say they’re going to put some weeds in it. (Knocking down the joke.)

Dawn: [Dawn’s smirking and has her hands folded, kinda leans in for a second.] I’ll take a WATER! (Building on the “non-alcoholic drinks” joke.) ...ON THE ROCKS! (Building on the joke again by using a phrase normally reserved for alcoholic drinks.)

Bartender: Water... with... ice. Right. O-okay. Do you want... any alcohol, or...? (Setting up the joke for Dawn.)

Dawn: NO! (Knocking down the joke.) [Her eyes flash for a second.] But I WILL take one of those weeds stuck in the side of the glass! It’s time to CELEBRATE! (Building on it and knocking it down again by calling back to Quiggly’s punchline.)

...And that’s just the BEGINNING of that scene. It goes on for basically the REST of that episode. The point is, the characters can keep building off of each other for a REALLY long time.

There’s a lot more I can talk about because comedy is such a broad subject (even in EE), but this post is getting pretty long already, so I’ll cut it off there for now! Maybe if someone wants it, I’ll make a part two to this guide.

[ask-the-wordsmith]

I have a question of the upmost importance: How do I start a story? Like, I fantasize about stuff that happens in the middle of stories so much, I could do that in my sleep. But how does one actually BEGIN?

So... this question’s been in my inbox for quite a while. I kept seeing it, thinking “mood,” and then deciding to come back to it when I had a better answer besides “just do it,” because that’s really not helpful. But I think I may finally have an answer. ...And it’s KIND of “just do it.”

I think your best bet... might be to just... start writing what you do have? Whatever the earliest midpoint in your story is that you have clearly in your head— write that. And keep writing from there. You’ll get a better grasp on your characters and their humble beginnings will probably come to you as you write. Besides, it’s a more and more common trend nowadays not to even tell stories chronologically— you might decide that starting in the middle of the adventure is more exciting!

[ask-the-wordsmith]

...I may or may not have forgotten the email I used to log into this blog for a few months.

Anyway, the inbox is now open!

[ask-the-wordsmith]

hello!!! you're really talented at roleplaying on tumblr and i was wondering if you had any tips on how to write for rps and just generally how to get started if you havent really done it before! thanks so much, ur very cool!!

OHHHH thank you so much for asking!! no seriously, thanks for asking, I’m in a bit of an original-content slump so I will grab any chance to talk about RP and feel better about myself—

First off, I have a writing tag on my most well-known RP blog (percival-queen) with a few posts that might be worth the read if you can get past my rambles. There’s quite a few on getting a RP blog started, at least (things like making icons and whatnot). #[ 2 feathered quills - writing advice ]

But, that’s boring to me, so I’m not gonna rehash any of it! Writing tips below the cut!

The very basics

“Yes, and!” Basically, never negate anything your partner says! And I don’t mean your muse can’t say no to something. I mean YOU, as the narrator, should never change something your partner establishes, even if it’s not what you had planned. Jello gives the funniest and best example of this on an episode of Tip Of The Tongue, where is one guy says “hey dude, pass me the soda!” and the other replies, “there’s no soda! WE’RE ON THE MOON!” ...Yeah. Don’t do that.

Don’t godmod. This is what makes the rule above work. Remember that in role-play, you can only 100% control YOUR muse’s actions. You have 0% control over your partner’s actions: try not to assume even little things, like that they’ll accept a handshake. The world around your muses (such as minor NPCs, weather, and other events neither muse caused) might be a 50-50% split, or one person might have more control than the other— but unless you and your partner really click, it might be best to communicate about this number beforehand. Which reminds me!

Communicate OOC. The amount in which you have to do this varies depending on the length/importance of the thread and how chill your partners are. Goldbricker-ramsey and I almost never planned past the setup (“hey can my muse show up at your muses’s doorstep on the verge of fainting” “YES! ...do you know why?” “nah I’ll figure it out later” “OKAY!”), but donutbadge likes to discuss at least the outline of the entire plot before starting. Everyone is different! Figuring out how much you need to communicate is the first step of communication.

Slightly less basic basics

Conflict is good. In all writing, but ESPECIALLY role-play. Note that this does NOT mean every thread has to have conflict— but something I notice a lot of beginning role-players do is that they (usually subconsciously) avoid any kind of rude/mean/conflict-inducing behavior because it makes them uncomfortable. They feel like they’re doing something wrong. But conflict, whether life-threatening or just siblings yelling at each other, is often the source of the most interesting threads, and can even lead to the best fluff further down the line! This is where OOC communication can come in handy, if you feel nervous about your muse doing something that you wouldn’t do.

*disclaimer for the advice above: do communicate OOC if you’re going to have any “heavy/mature” conflict, or even heavy/mature themes in your thread. If it’s the sort of stuff that needs to be tagged for triggers, you MUST ask your partner about it first.

Remember your character basics. I know this feels like it shouldn’t even need to be said on the list, but it’s insane how much I see this just... not happen. With villains, it might tie into the whole “avoiding conflict” thing, but it’s not villain-exclusive. If your muse’s DEFINING PERSONALITY TRAIT is being a hothead who’s easily ticked off, don’t have them immediately forgive the random guy who bumped into them on the street! I think “nice” muses tend to be easier to play because less people are inclined to make a nice character act mean (unless it’s in the context of a joke or crackpost, and ofc those are fine).

Look for contrasts. With same-world characters and new interactions alike, searching for evident contrasts can get past the awkward “hello my name is x what is your name how do you do” stuff and into the actually interesting dynamics. Contrasts can be anything from “one muse is a farmer and the other is a city boy” to “one muse a pacifist sweetheart and the other is literally a murderer.” Once you’ve found your contrast, look for an excuse to bring it up in IC conversation and let the fun begin! (A classic trope if you want a less-serious thread is one muse not knowing or misunderstanding something, e.x. “hey look a pizzeria!” “a what now?” “YOU’VE NEVER TRIED PIZZA?!?”)

Look for similarities. Contrasts are sometimes harder to find but easier to make threads out of. Similarities are easier to find but less interesting most of the time, so try looking for the unexpected similarities between your muses! Do they have similar backstories? Personalities? Especially if it’s something you’ve never seen explored before, find a reason to bring it up and let the Bonding Moments (TM) happen.

Make strong choices. ...when it’s in-character, of course. Some muses really are just Chill and that’s kinda their Thing, but 99% of them are super expressive— because, guess what, those characters are the best ones for writing, whether in RP or prose! If you have a decision, but it seems kind of boring, go back to your character basics and see if there’s anything you can use to make it stronger.

If a partner muse asks your muse to dance, you know what’d be the most boring answer? “Sure.” Unless you’re part of the 1% of muses that would do Exactly That, you know what would be more interesting? “HECK YEAH!” or “I thought you'd never ask!” or “Really? You’re sure you want to dance with me?!” or... pretty much anything!

The same can even be said when the choice is negative. You know what else is a boring answer to being asked to dance? “No thanks.” Again: unless you’re RPing as the 1%, please, PLEASE give your answer more flavor. “Not in a million years, you shallow jerk!” or “No... I’m sure I’d just step on your feet and get in the way...” or “N-no way, b-baka!” or “(*PANICKED SCREAMING, RUNS AWAY, TRIPS ON THE STAIRCASE, AND DROPS A GLASS SHOE AS THEY FUMBLE WITH THEIR HAIR*)” are all more interesting than the first response.

Get used to feeling out endings. This might take some practice, but what I mean is, try to be aware when you’re reaching the natural conclusion of a thread. A lot of threads just kinda lose momentum and die out, sometimes without even an official end, and while that’s okay (role-play is supposed to be relaxing and for fun!), it’s MORE satisfying to have a thread wrapped up with a nice neat bow. For threads that have conflict in them, the ending should be shortly after the resolution of the conflict— whether good or bad. For non-conflict threads (the ones that read like domestic fics), a good ending is for the characters to finish whatever they’re doing— eating a meal, going shopping, whatever— and wrapping up their conversation at the same time.

There are of course a billion variations on ending threads, and I could probably make a whole post dedicated to the subject, but for now I think this ramble is plenty!

[ask-the-wordsmith]

@masu-pasu said not to post this here so I’m posting it here <3

[ask-the-wordsmith]

Do you have advice on outlining, like, any tips on how one would go about the process?

{My personal outlining method is here!}