#Literary technique

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

The whole SPEW thing reminds me of a lot of older British fiction. It's pretty clear that Hermione is at least misguided, but we definitely also see that she's tenderhearted. This is the same sort of ploy used in [Austen's] Emma, for example. A favorite tactic of pro-empire and pro-class system literature is to have a character who battles the class system far too openly and ends up being wrong. S/he sees legitimate flaws in the social order, but in trying to rectify them, goes so overboard that we can feel comfortable retreating to the same inequitable system we had before. (For women, this usually involves making friends of an unsuitable class and being unable to properly civilize them. Men usually have to work with subordinates in the military and come to realize that officers really are inherently superior… or some other rot.) At the other end of the spectrum is the Indian Hater, a common figure in American Westerns. The Indian Hater is a bigot so intensely bad that in comparison, we/the reader can be prejudiced in a normal, everyday sort of way and feel ourselves to be paragons of reason and justice. I would venture to say that Lucius Malfoy fulfils this role. The other HP characters don't mistreat house elves as much as he does, so they must be nice, moral people, right?

via sistermagpie & franzeska's discussion of S.P.E.W., house-elves, and Kreacher, in this 2003 thread posted shortly after the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

[ancientroyalblood]

Exploring Non-Linear Narratives: Writing Out of Sequence

In the realm of storytelling, the traditional sequence is but one path to follow, a well-trodden road where events unfurl one after another, much like dominos carefully aligned, ready to fall. Yet, in the shadows, there exists another path, a web of narratives intertwined, where each word, each sentence, is a piece of a puzzle not yet complete. This exploration seeks to dissect the notions of…

[adastra-sf]

Excellent examples!

At their most basic, epithets are adjectives or descriptive phrases expressing qualities or characteristics of a person or thing. They can also be a term of abuse - think of racial epithets or those reducing people to single physical attributes that have nothing to do with who they are.

A good reason (beyond those described above) to use epithets is when that's what characters are called by those around them. Husband, wife, sibling, dock worker, investigator, pilot, murderer, actor... all these are valid and useful epithets for characters whose names aren't important to the POV or the narrative.

Speaking of perspective, if you're writing in true 3rd Person or Omniscient, certain epithets become less useful than in close 3rd, 2nd, or 1st Person. They tend to be seen as authorial intrusion if not natural to the narrative.

For example, in The Book of the New Sun - a science fantasy novel by Gene Wolfe (originally published as four books with an additional coda book) - the unreliable 1st Person-POV main character starts off as just "Torturer's Apprentice," then goes by epithets based on other roles he attains throughout the series. He eventually earns "Severian the Mad" from his enemies and those who fear him, "Severian the Lame" from his friends, and "Severian the Great" from his soldiers.

History and legend offer lots of epithets like Richard the Lionheart, Alexander the Great, and so on. Homer ("the blind poet") used them regularly (possibly as mnemonics), the most famous of which is likely "rosy-fingered dawn" or "she whose face launched a thousand ships" in The Iliad, or "wine-dark sea" in The Odyssey.

Mel Blanc is known as "The Man of 1000 Voices," William Shakespeare is "The Bard," Bruce Springsteen is "The Boss."

Sauron is "The Lord of the Rings." You get the idea.

Epithets even get used for creatures, like "Daddy Longlegs" for Opiliones spiders, or "Man's best friend" for dogs.

Epithets can be really useful and effective, just be mindful - they're not simple replacements for names or pronouns. When used effectively, they can really elevate your writing.

In writing, epithets ("the taller man"/"the blonde"/etc) are inherently dehumanizing, in that they remove a character's name and identity, and instead focus on this other quality.

Which can be an extremely effective device within narration!

They can work very well for characters whose names the narrator doesn't know yet (especially to differentiate between two or more). How specific the epithet is can signal to the reader how important the character is going to be later on, and whether they should dedicate bandwidth to remembering them for later ("the bearded man" is much less likely to show up again than "the man with the angel tattoo")

They can indicate when characters stop being as an individual and instead embody their Role, like a detective choosing to think of their lover simply as The Thief when arresting them, or a royal character being referred to as The Queen when she's acting on behalf of the state

They can reveal the narrator's biases by repeatedly drawing attention to a particular quality that singles them out in the narrator's mind

But these only work if the epithet used is how the narrator primarily identifies that character. Which is why it's so jarring to see a lot of common epithets in intimate moments-- because it conveys that the main character is primarily thinking of their lover/best friend/etc in terms of their height or age or hair color.

[novlr]

[coffeetank]

Tone V/S Mood

More often than not, writers find themselves confused between tone and mood. I was confused between both for a while too. After some research and more studying, I figured out how to differentiate between both. So let me help you out as much as I can!

To start with, let's first define both.

TONE

TONE: the author's point of view of a particular subject matter. It's not easy to understand, so let me explain it a little more. The tone of a story is specific to a particular scene, character, ambience, probability, dialogue, etc. Tones are particular to an instance taking place and are not constant throughout the book.

Example - Take a secluded house in the middle of the woods. A family of 3 stays in the house comprising a mother, a father and a child. Imagine the current scene being a birthday celebration for the kid. They have a cake, balloons and fun music. The tone in this case is enjoyable, lighthearted and joyful. Why? Because in that particular scene, the author is trying to convey the liveliness of the party.

Tones are conveyed using different sentence structures, punctuations, choice of words, and figurative language.

MOOD

MOOD: the atmosphere of the piece and the overall feeling that the reader feels. The mood of a story is almost always set in the first chapter of the book itself; if not, then the writer establishes it before the story picks up pace. Mood is constant throughout the book, even if tones fluctuate. In simpler words, you could say that the mood of a story depends heavily on the genre/plot of the book. If you pick up a crime novel, you would feel the suspense and mystery even though the current scene you're reading would be of a jostling, busy, upbeat crowd because you know what the story is about.

Example - Take the example above. Even though the tone of the scene is joyful, the mood of the story remains eerie. This is because of the setting. The house is secluded and within woods. This restricts movement within the area, sets the story as strange and uncanny. Despite of their being a celebration, the readers will feel a pit on their stomach, expecting something frightening to occur soon. Thanks to factors like setting, the mood of the story can be established as eerie and uncanny.

DIFFERENCE

The main difference between both is the subject matter. Tone is specific to a subject matter whereas mood is constant regardless of the subject matter.

With that, I end this post. If there's anything else regarding both that you'd like some help with, feel free to reach out!

-ashlee

[aliusfrater]

adi's fics feel like an ingmar bergman film, ap's writing feels like a cross between a wong kar wai and a david conenberg film, and m&b's writing feels like a cross between a john hughes and gregg araki film

[fannishstuff]

Well, the one in which the POV character has neither a sense of Movement and Progression through Rhythm nor a tendency to apply Narrative Symbolism through Song Lyrics to life, and who instead keystones her entire complex, varied set of life experiences and personality with a handful of memorized technical facts. :)

Mmkay. Sorry, but I'm going to be self-indulgent here.

Suppose you're going to write two companion pieces, right? Each with its own POV character. And, in one piece, that POV character is rigid nearly to the point of pathology, pretty much doesn't listen to music, doesn't dance, and would resent the implication that she does. In the other piece, the POV character literally plays the bongos.

In which of those two pieces, do you think, would it be best to dedicate the use of stylistic repetition?

I've made Choices, that's for sure.

[ravensprophet]

coming up w plot details and just general writing plans are always so hard and i feel like im failing and then i remember the fuckers who use ai and im like yeah im 100% better than all of those morons so just a reminder that if ur struggling with writing ur already doing better than so many others who expect ai to do it for them and your work will pay off and feel far more rewarding than those who typed a prompt into a generator

[theferalgeode]

Scott Smajor, The Herald of Victory

In every Life series, there is a common triat.

They were all involved with one Scott Smajor. Grian, our darling sun, was allies with him. The second was Scott himself, our stars of victory. The third was Scott's soulmate, our moon Pearl. The fourth was Scott's teammate, Martin of mars.

Now I may just be grasping at straws here and this may just be due to the small population of these games but

I might be on to something here.

So if you ask me who I think will win Secret Life? I reckon impulse needs a crown.

And I reckon The Herald might just help him get it.

[cachexiacomplication]

I can make anything a columbine reference

[doginasillyhat]

is this a safe space guys…. i gotta admit that the last like. week my brain has been circling back to my adoration for cannibalism as a metaphor for love and then inserting hiccups into the equation. i’m NOT a gore writer im not saying that shit would be disgustingly graphic BUT is this something that people wouldn’t like to see at all? i’ll write it regardless but i won’t post it anywhere if nobody wants to see it

[novlr]

[9w1ft]

Hello friend. I was wondering if you have a link to all your songs analysis', and I was wondering if you had a list of Kaylor songs you could share.

I just don't want to be missing anything!

Thank you so much, a very happy August to you!! ✨💌🌼👁️

hi! i don’t have a link post to all my song analyses because i’m mysterious like that, but i do have a list of links to posts i’ve done in my notes app so send me another ask and let me know if there’s any songs in particular that you’re interested in!

and it’s mostly newer music too.. i only really started writing about songs after a lot of the heavy hitter song interpretation blogs left kaylor en masse.

my list of kaylor songs is super long 🥺 i remember one time a year or so ago i made a list and it was well over 50 songs, and that was before ttpd! im a little wary of sharing because a lot of my picks i think are contested or like, not necessarily representative of the general consensus of the community at large, and i kind of dip into early kaylor at times and that tends to ruffle feathers.

happy august to you too!!

[priestperverter]

my course on american lit less on literature more on post independence political and social issues this is sooooo fun

[darksapphademia]

another day another poetry workshop with teenagers who have no media literacy (aka they don’t know how to do the activities bc their only source of general information is tiktok)

[thenalexica]

Different ways fictional characters say "I Love You"

Dead silence + eye contact after an intense moment Quick scene cuts/camera pans away right before confession Physical description of heartbeats/breathing changes Internal monologue contrasting with external dialogue Metaphorical descriptions of emotions (burning, drowning, etc.) Action beats showing protective instincts Dialogue tags with physiological responses POV character noticing minute details about love interest Weather/setting mirroring emotional state Free indirect discourse revealing unspoken feelings Micro-expressions in gesture and body language Subtext in seemingly casual conversations Breaking established narrative distance Switch in pronoun usage (they/we)