Remember when I wrote this back in 2018 and then abandoned it? Yeah I'm moving it to ao3 just in case something happens to this blog
Influence
Summary: With everyone gone and out of the way for a couple days, Patton was looking forward to a few quiet days by himself. Nothing can really be that easy.
Pairings: Moxiety
Chapter Word Count: 1,207
Genre: If I had to give it one? Psychological Thriller/Romance.
General Story Warning: Depression, anxiety, intense fear, slightly graphic descriptions of nightmares (death,injury), overwhelming feelings, supportive Virgil, eventual fluff and happy ending.
Chapter Warnings: Sad Patton, general angst
Notes: It’s just starting out so it’s not that bad right now. Probably chapter 2 or 3 is when things will start really going down. This really isn’t going where you think it’s going. It’s IS Psychological Thriller but its Romance…if you stick around…you get to see exactly why everything is happen the way it is. Oops. Said too much. If it gets feedback/notes, I’ll keep it up.
[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4]
The afternoon was still and peaceful. Everyone had something to do today and that was okay with Patton, today at least. It would give him some time to think, relax and not have to be so chipper and upbeat all the time without escaping to the sanctity of his room for some, usually, much needed relief. Logan was supposed to be in his library doing research about who knows what, Roman had been planning a three day quest for quite some time now and Virgil was roped into going along.
Patton pushed his door open and stepped out into the hallway. A smell hit his nose and his eyebrows knitted together. It smelled faintly like coffee and some sort of food Patton couldn’t quite put his finger on.
(based on things that yours truly notices as a freelance editor. This list is in no way complete, and will probably be added to as I continue to find repeated mistakes)
Dialogue
Use beats in your dialogue to break it up. Even “said” can make a very effective beat between lines.
(No beats: “It’s not lethal. Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.” // Beats: “It’s not lethal,” he said. “Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.”)
Note how the break allows a bit of a pause for ~dramatic effect
thinking of dialogue, use punctuation and distinct speech patterns! “Life, uh, finds a way.” is an iconic line anyway, but Jeff Goldblum’s signature verbal tic gives it character.
It’s okay if characters stutter. Don’t let the condemnation of stuttering characters as “cringey” in fanfic put you off. (and on that note, fuck cringe culture. Seriously. It saps all the fun out of creativity and fun is important.)
Use the landscape and settings around your character, and always, always remember a scene’s blocking. Where is everything in relation to your characters? Have you left someone holding a coffee cup for the last three scenes? Did you lose a character somewhere along the way?
using the contents of a scene is also great for fight sequences.
Similarly, large character casts are hard to keep track of so don’t be afraid to break them up. Sending someone off somewhere else can create some nifty little subplots.
Keep a personal note of how time passes. Trust me, it’s incredibly helpful to you as a writer and also for future readers.
Characters
Character growth does not have to be positive. Sometimes characters fail or suffer or get their motivations twisted up, and they finish the book as a villain rather than a hero.
All that matters is that a character changes throughout the plot in a way that readers can see; the sort of change they go through is entirely up to you.
scrap the idea that someone has to deserve a redemption arc. They probably don’t deserve it, which is the whole point. So don’t be afraid to make your villains seem completely irredeemable.
and you don’t need to redeem your antagonists in order to make them complex, sympathetic villains, anyway. Sometimes people get so stuck in their beliefs that they can’t see another way and it goes too far. Not everyone comes back from that.
Also, motivations and goals can absolutely change. That’s okay. You just need to have something that drives your character so that your readers are rooting for them.
Protagonists don’t need to be heroic. How you define the protagonists and antagonists in your story is based entirely on the morality in your story-world, NOT the moral ideas in the real world. What counts as a complex protagonist in a world torn apart by biological warfare will be very different than one living in our world.
Prose & Grammar
simple prose is just fine and you don’t need to fluff it up for pretty quotes.
Remember to vary your sentence structures and length. Start smaller and build it up, drawing your reader’s attention.
“And” and “But” are very valid sentence starters that are great for communicating the tone of internal narrative. You’re allowed to tweak grammar if that’s helpful for telling the story, it just needs to be accessible. Test out what you’ve written on other people.
genuinely terrifying how adhd will have you be fully aware of the responsibilities you’re neglecting and yet its like you’re being piloted by a super chill hedonistic demon who can’t hear you/doesnt care
imagine being a normal citizen of arendelle. you’re just minding your goddamn business when the queen plunges your kingdom into eternal winter, very nearly killing you. she then somehow recovers from that absolute PR nightmare by building a cool ice rink. then three years later you’re forced to evacuate because that bitch decided to Awaken The Spirits of the Enchanted Forest and you almost die AGAIN when the kingdom almost floods– but wait, she saves the day! so it’s Fine!
then she hands the kingdom over to her normal well-adjusted sister and peaces out to the scandinavian wilderness to become a full-time forest cryptid. she can occasionally be spotted riding her magical water horse across the sea like lesbian jesus. you have no idea what the fuck just happened. you’re just trying to sell some lutefisk. how do you explain this to your children
The reason Harry never truly grasps the depth of Ron’s insecurity about being least loved until witnessing the destruction of the horcrux is because Ron has been Harry’s most loved since the day they met.
One of the most helpful things I've learned to do with ADHD is when I need to start a task, I don't think "I need to do this task" I think "I need to do (first step of task)".
I don't tell myself "I need to wash the dishes piling up in the sink." I tell myself "I need to get the scrub brush and turn on the facuet." That's easy, so I do it and bam, I've started the task.
"I need to brush my teeth" -> "I need to get my toothbrush wet and put toothpaste on it."
"I need to write this essay" -> "I need to pull up the assignment guidelines and open a word doc."
"I need to go to the store." -> "I need to put on my shoes."
Tasks are easily overwhelming when you constantly think about them in their entirety, so picking the most immediate part you need to so and only focusing/doing that helps to get you to start it with less anexity & stress.