capricious-writes

[capricious-writes]

Of course you do 😎.

True or False: You primarily write on a computer

False!

I handwrite First drafts, and thereafter use only my phone 😁

[capricious-writes]

How Cuddleable Are Your OCs?

Tagged by @nkta-ink  (took ... a while - to get to, but right now I’m itching to try it out)

Bea: 4/10. Just barely below dead average. If you actually started to cuddle with her, it’d be super cute, and all around a great time. But that’s not viable to happen because she’s pretty averse to being touched by strangers. She���s generally in ‘Nope, nope, nope,’ mode when it comes to acquaintances. And if you’re a friend - she’s liable to feel more awkward than anything else the whole while.

***

Abby: 7/10. If the name of the game is to cuddle, then you better prepare to get cuddled. She’ll take it as a challenge, and you WILL feel loved and supported. If, of course, she’s the one in need of a hug, it’s because she failed stoically, and will take the consolatory popcorn and a movie with plenty of soothing ice cream like the reward she rightfully deserves after such an unwarranted loss.

Rylee: 9/10. He is the King of Cuddles. His body is perfectly suited for the activity. Pudgy and soft in all the right places, yet firm and solid to make you feel safe and protected. He takes your comfort very seriously, almost too seriously, and will be by your side with a crashing hug instantly if full on Mama Bear activates. Fortunately, his common sense keeps him mostly reserved and at bay, else-wise, you only have to say ‘get off, get off, get off!’ half a dozen times before he actually believes you (most usually succumb to the embrace before that point). 

Derek: 1/10. Hug at your own risk. The actual act of cuddling with Derek would be, once again, quite nice I imagine. His easy going attitude and mischievous penchant for fun would create the ultimate take on lighthearted physical contact. Be it lazing across your lap, snatching you up in a quick breathtaking squeeze, or mindlessly fiddling with your hair while lounging. But be warned. This level of intimacy is like the mythical holy grail. Covered with traps and dangers along the way - one wrong move, could literally kill you.

***

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 

Pieter: 5/10. He’s hard to get relaxed enough, but otherwise decent. 

Dee: 7/10. Not much practice, but she knows how she would want to be cuddled and pointedly works her way towards your personal preferences from there.

Patrick: 8/10. Very relaxing. Very comfortable. Very chill. Very fun. He’s not even thinking about it and slowly you aren’t thinking about whatever might be troubling you either.

Francis: 3/10. Stiff. She doesn’t see the point. But at rare moments, she’ll latch on tight, maybe uncomfortably so, and if you’re not pure evil, you’ll wait it out and let her, 100% willingly.

Alice: 8/10. A super great time. Very cuddly in general. Her smile alone practically invites you to open your arms and fall into a hug, or so it feels. Sometimes she just looks that way, but really her thoughts could be anywhere else.

***

Thatcher: 6/10. The feeling is there, but in practice it never turns out as well as hoped. He wants to give All The Hugs, but refrains because its almost always more uncomfortable than he initially imagined. Still, he knows that one day ... 

Rani: 2/10. Serviceable. You’re basically her inanimate pillow, hers for the twisting and squashing and molding to her needs. It doesn’t even occur to her that you might be uncomfortable, so be prepared to state your needs clearly.

Alyssa: 10/10. They have magic. They must have. They MUST HAVE. You feel trapped under a wild, sleeping, wolf. How does something that dangerous feel this blissful?

>>>Tagging:

@kaylewiswrites @howtowritethings @writtenbyhal @leave-her-a-tome @quilloftheclouds @writer-jessicac @shaping-infinity @esoteric-eclectic-eccentric @undertsanding-not-understood @writingmyassoff @the-real-rg @bookenders @candy687

^^^ For whoever is interested

[capricious-writes]

Well now all I want to do is talk about Batman. 

Okay, I won’t go into my ‘Batman rant’, but when you brought up the dark and gritty: the Dark Knight - and I thought of ‘perfect’ characters. Maybe some wouldn’t see Batman up there on the same list as people like Superman or Captain America, because he doesn’t seem like the same light or bright type of superhero. But there’s been a post on how Batman is all but a Mary Sue if you consider it from the right angle. That fuels the idea that the ‘perfect character’ isn’t always the same for everyone. A bit like you said: that what people expect out of their superhero is different for everyone. 

I might say that ‘perfect’ is the wrong word for it then. These are trivial nuances, other important because pinning down the exact root help tear out the weeds. But it probably comes down to relatability more than anything else. 

Other than that, the other idea that sparked in my mind was making sure to - as a superhero story in specific - to have a good handle on the hero before AND after they put on the mask. I have no idea why this is so hard - I genuinely don’t. There’s probably a reason. I wouldn’t know. Because I haven’t tried my hand at this type of story yet. But a common issue with superheroes, is that they aren’t the same with and without the cape. I definitely think you’re right that a writer needs to know their character inside out in order to not have this type of discrepancy. 

Superman - strong, confident, and bold

Clark - unassuming, cautious, and awkward.

I don’t know why ALL the major stories don’t focus on whatever that man’s real character is. Some of the better adaptations of his story have shown that both version are kind, are both by-the-book ‘boy-scouts’ or rule followers, and that they appreciate things that come along with the homier aspects of a small town and not the big city. 

Batman. The reason why this even occurred to me at all is because NO one I’ve ever seen has shown Batman and Bruce Wayne to properly be the same person? Sometimes maybe they excuse Bruce Wayne to be a facade for the real person Batman. Or the other way around? But both are one man, so why does it always feel like the audience is dealing with two?

Batman - brooding, violent, and intense.

Bruce Wayne - flighty, cheery, charismatic. 

A better perspective would show that they both have strong morals or ideas - Batman is a vigilante, but Bruce Wayne has a lot of work with charities. They both care - Bruce Wayne taking in orphans, and Batman training them to become Robins. They both have intense emotions. 

This is never shown though. Everyone wonders ‘who is the man behind the mask?’ So often there is none. It’s just a separate person, devoid of their alter ego. And even when the discrepancies are smaller, so many heroes come across like they change personalities when they done the disguise. I for one want to be able to understand how this character goes from person A to person B. I don’t mind if it’s different - I lot of the time the issue could be that putting on a ‘mask’ helps someone let go of previous inhibitions. Villains allow themselves to go on rampages, but Heroes let themselves take confidence and save others. That’s great - that’s brilliant - but it’s never shown. Or said. Or considered in most superhero stories. 

I’ve hear that idea pop up in the french cartoon Miraculous: Tales of Lady Bug & Cat Noir. Still, it’s fan explanation. Well placed details, and easy to infer - but it’s never addressed. 

This type of thing doesn’t have to be I guess, but I’m always doing a mental double take, considering where that change comes from. Wondering if the writer even knows. And in cases like Batman movies and Superman stories - a lot of times they don’t.

Becoming a superhero changes a character. The experience alone makes them different from anytime before they might’ve been going around and saving people’s lives in a mask. But if a character is serious in their day to day lives, then become goofballs in the mask, or the other way around - it’s at least worth looking into why that is. 

***

And I think that’s all I’ve got in me on the matter of superheroes. I knew there was a rant in me somewhere, but I didn’t actually think I’d find it - nice.

Superheroes

Superheroes as a genre is something I’VE personally never considered in novels, which means there’s tons of potential there I’ve never even noticed. Thinking it over, my mind is drawn to the Morality and Ethics of the genre. When there’s a hero and a villain, someone wins, someone loses, and in my opinion, creating any story with that dynamic has to face some tough questions. Still, that’s not much different than any other antagonist.

Superheroes usually bring to mind a modern world, not an old fantasy setting, or even a futuristic one. Somehow, they also usually end up in large cities, with tall buildings and lots of crowded urban populations. Never in suburban towns where getting to the crime in question is much less glamorous.

So much of superhero stories have to suspend disbelief, and yet I end up loving them time and time again. And that’s because of three key factors, two of which are like any other story:

1. Characters

2. Relationships

3. & COOL POWERS

So hey, point one to novels - they don’t have visual effect budgets.

@candy687

[capricious-writes]

I figured that bc Burn Says the Martyr has, like, a taglist now, I need to start generating content for it. So here, have some out-of-context angst.

characters: Devi, Barachiel

taglist (ask or interact here to be added) @purpleshadows1989 @mvcreates @rkmoriyama @cheap-pins @goosemixtapes @dogwrites @vviciously @tricksexual @holotones @isanyonetoknow @capricious-writes @expositionpreposition @quilloftheclouds​ @irairaptero @thegrievingyoung

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Guess who just started writing the first draft of her Superhero WIP???!!!! 😁

Yassss!! I’m super excited.

Yeah… get used to me saying that word Super often! Nevertheless, I do hope to post something regarding it soon. ☺️

[capricious-writes]

nkThis is cool. I had a chance to think about something along these lines the other month. 

- I know that in pretty much all of my stories, I end up accidentally falling into an unusual emphasis on a side character. My protagonists stay my protagonists, but a secondary character, or even a tertiary one, shows up and gives hints to the reader that they’ve got this huge story, entirely of their own, going on in the background. And it never affects my MC, and the MC usually never ends up really caring - but it’s wide open for the reader, a bit like a mandatory bonus chest. I find I can’t ignore them when they come up, because I find myself on the periphery of other’s ‘stories,’ and I know I have things going on, but I’m not the protagonist in their narratives. So I pay homage to that feeling.

- There’s always magic/advance tech/ both/a mixture in my stories. And usually that helps make any environment possible, or anything possible, or any trope/genre. Because I always want to mix espionage with knights, or space adventures with pirate fights, or monster battles with a night-on-the-town, or everything all at once. Making them all an AU would be the reasonable way to go about that, but instead I make a reality where they can end up in those crazy settings on demand. Don’t even really try to either, it kind of just happens.

- I usually write about two really close people who have a sibling-like relationship even though they aren’t always related. I like the dynamic, but it calls back to my sister being my only super close relationship my entire since the start. I think now that I’m an adult, and as I get even older, that’ll fade away, and I’ll write about other types of relationships, and that’ll reflect me as I experience more than that singular dynamic when it comes to who I consider ‘close’ to me. Story ideas I’ve been coming up with the last year since I went to university already have been, and it’s interesting to see.

tagging @candy687 @bookenders @nkta-ink if anyone’s interested

Random Writing Thought

Honestly, I think about this a lot sometimes. But does anyone else have a repetitive notion throughout their writings?

Mine is the fact that my characters often don’t have parents or have bad relationships with their parents. Or with at least one parent. And I have a hard time debating whether this is because of my own personal relationship with my parents.

[capricious-writes]

Sensitivity reader call

Hello friends!

I’m on the brink of plotting, and I have a diverse range of characters that I would like some input and advice on. 

I am looking for anyone who can help with:

Post Partum/ Depression

Fybromyalgia

Anxiety disorders

Amputation- more specifically Transhumeral (arm above elbow)

Aroace

Please boost, and DM for more information. 

Thank you!

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what’s so funny is that now, after certain situations with them, vivian frequently uses that bedroom voice with benji when she wants something to go her way/etc. and she doesn’t even know it’s happening.

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“Won’t” is the boldest fucking contraction like it really Did That. Just went for it, no shame.

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When it’s an early draft and your monsters aren’t scary enough yet

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It’s honestly really important to me to have my main female characters to be in “traditionally female roles” a.k.a. a healer, a spy, a princess and an oracle and yet still be allowed to be dynamic characters who have individual power and agency. Because I see so much reductive discourse when it comes to female characters with people acting as if it’s the roles they are assigned that are inherently degrading rather than just being a part of a sexist narrative that hates female characters to begin with. 

There is nothing inherently bad about being a healer, a healer is legitimately important! It’s respectable and vital and without it, society would collapse. Equally, I feel the same way about spies who are not less honourable or important than soldiers and princesses provided they are allowed to exercise political agency rather than being a prize to be won. 

We definitely need more representation of female characters in “traditionally male positions” which I also have though they happen to be more secondary. I just think saying that the job/roles women are assigned are the problem is looking at it from the wrong perspective. Women suddenly being all knights and generals or sailors doesn’t mean anything if the narrative is still sexist and these women are elevated as being exceptional examples of their gender in comparison to those silly, dumb women who knit and makes salves. 

[capricious-writes]

In the redraft of Post-Script, we finally hit the point where we’re going to have a major shift away from the original draft.

Up until now, we’ve just been rewriting and refining the letters so that they’re better and more streamlined by trimming the fat.

But from now on, we’re introducing a major character who just… didn’t exist when we were writing the original draft. They’re so incredibly important to Bishop and their existence is going to change our outline in a massive way.

It’s just so incredibly wild to think that they didn’t exist last year. I hadn’t created them yet. It didn’t even occur to me that they would be in Post-Script until @decantae mentioned it to me and now the plot thickens. Literally, there’s an entirely new plotline.

[capricious-writes]

Which OC would, while out shopping, make a beeline for whatever they needed then leave?

Bonus: Which OC would meander around the store and end up with a bunch of unnecessary stuff?

[capricious-writes]

writing ask: 7-8-9!

thank you for asking angel!!! <3 

7: What are you most proud of?

That i finished not one draft, but two drafts of my WIP hollow!!! AND that I can see a marked improvement in my writing since high school :) it’s great to see that im growing and learning!

8: What is your biggest challenge?

I think just the act of writing. I go stretches of days without writing, and then I’ll do like 2k in one day. I’d like to get in the habit of writing daily!

9: How would you describe your writing style?

Oh god, this is one of the things I never know how to answer!!! I know I use lots of commas and em dashes. I like to describe people; I love Donna Tartt and how she really captures snapshots of people so they feel real, and I try to emulate that!!! But I don’t quite know how to describe my style. If anyone wants to read some of my stuff, let me know lol

[capricious-writes]

A smol dragon please? If that's too hard, then an octopus! Thank you!

[Send me a thing to doodle for you!]

How about both, but one with considerably more effort than the other?

My hand slipped and the octopus turned into an Ood. And there are 8 tentacles, I counted.

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sometimes i remember that benji was technically a problem child in kindergarten—not because of how she is—but because she was a notorious back talker and wanted to fight all the kids but had the appearance of a cut in half pipe-cleaner so she just called them cuss words instead.