#and even have a narrative format

[bookshelf-in-progress]

To prove that I am trying to write a retelling, here's a failed opening paragraph to a "King Thrushbeard" retelling that I'm never going to write.

Our first year of marriage, my husband and I lived in a hovel. It was a tiny, damp, dim little room, with a dirt floor, a straw roof, and a chimney that always smoked. It sat a mile from the nearest village, abandoned by a farmer who had failed. It sat on the banks of a tiny creek, and at sunrise I would leave the dim confines of the house to wade in the shallows and watch the water ripple over stones, watch the sun flash on the water, watch the birds dive for bugs and sing their praises to the living God who'd given them another day. Sometimes I dream of returning there—the creek would be the same, I think, even so many years later. Of course, at the time, I was miserable.

[drvct-tape]

Has anyone thought of making an SCP Gravity Falls AU... with Stanford as one of the higher-up scientists and whatnot. I just think it'd make a lot of sense... I don't know where anyone else would fit into this AU?? Maybe the entire town of Gravity Falls could be considered an "anomaly" (because it basically is, in canon), and Ford is an SCP scientist sent there to make sure containment procedures are running smoothly.

Also I thought it'd be funny because Bill Cipher would actually not be a Keter class SCP ^_^; and I think that'd grind his gears so bad.

[simcardiac-arrested]

ur probably sick of seeing posts like these but i just want to sit here and muse about how, well, i enjoy tumblr #mytumblr not just because of all the obvious stuff like how it’s not run on an algorithm, and because it’s one of the only social media that i don’t have to jump through hoops to use and that isn’t phone-exclusive (for me)

but i think my favorite thing has to be the askblogs, and running one. which is weird, because if you asked me as little as 3 years ago what i loved most about tumblr, i’d probably say “uh, looking at owl house posts, i guess?”, it’s weird because i never actually planned to make one and created it on a whim based on a few random people’s tags, and even then it was made mostly as a joke. i just never thought about it before—i grew up with askblogs, an era of tumblr that was truly as magical as it was catastrophic (as all things that get vaguely popular), but i never thought about making one because: it’s a commitment, it seems like a lot, i’m inconsistent, how would i draw for it every single time, etc etc all that good stuff

but then i just made it. and fuck me is it the most fun thing ever. it doesn’t have to be consistent. it doesn’t have to be perfect, or polished, or anything really. it just has to be. to exist out there in the world and be open to messages. the most it has to be is loved by me and by u guys.

and that’s the thing! the best thing—i love involving u guys in my writing, pushing the characters in one direction and then the next, seeing where that takes us (because i don’t always know either, that’s what writing is all about babeyyy). i love that i don’t have to just post the most important plot beats one after the other and have the story be done there. i love that i get to weave the development through vaguely connected, sometimes relevant but sometimes completely random joke asks. that i don’t have to write a whole ass novel of build-up or draw everything as one long-running comic just to make my characters feel like they actually exist and react to the things around them, that they’re not just here to get from point a to b. and i love that you’re all part of it. the story seriously just wouldn’t be the way it is without all of you guys who are always so curious to ask something, or call a character out (depending on how much they need to be humbled COUGHHHHCOUGHHHHH)

so yeah, i’m just forever grateful for all of you and for the fact that tumblr allows things like these to happen. i have no idea what other site could possibly offer the same sort of experience, or anything similar, but i am just forever in love with the fact that it’s something you can do here. i wouldn’t trade it for anything. what a cool fucking thing to be able to do

[kacievvbbbb]

I'm rewatching gravity falls and obvioiusly i'm having a blast. but because I am an insane person I rewatched season 2 first and now rewatching season 1 and I have to say I love the monster of the week episodes. I love them so much. and honestly I prefer them alot more to the plot building episodes. dont get me wrong the overarching plot and mystery is definitely part of the intrigue of the show especially when it first aired. but I am so enamored with how the show stands completely on its own as just a regular monster of the week type beat. (also how concurrent all the episodes are it is very believable that every episode happens the next week from the last while still being able to pick up the show from mostly anywhere its just spectacular)

But i just think Gravity Falls and it's overarching plot was something very novel in a children's cartoon when it was first released. Most children shows didn't have an obvious mystery hanging over the entire show to be solved where the entire show for the most part was just one big arc (the only other one I can think of around a similar time frame is ATLA but I'm sure there were others they just were the minority) .

and that made it so intriguing and unique and dont get me wrong it's still an amazing mystery show and the plot still holds strong but also we are now in a timeline where almost every show even cartoons are 10 episode long and have an over arching plot hell all the major disney channel cartoons of the last couple years (ducktales, amphibian, owl house, star vs the forces of evil even tho that last one was really only in the second season) are all plot driven shows but hey atleast even those shows have mostly adventure of the week episodes for the most part. but the only true adventure of the week cartoons I know from the last couple of years have been like big city greens and Hamster and gretel.

And like i guess what I'm trying to say (in this insane manner of mine) is bring back the adventure of the week. bring back 22 episodes where every single episode isn't trying to just push the narrative forward. Like honestly to me the best parts of gravity falls that still holds up all these years later are just dipper mabel and gruncle stan getting into some shit together.

plus the comedy is still fucking golden and some of these shots are legitimately horror movie worthy.

[secondpersonpoetry]

you’ve probably already read it before, but the poem Party by Kim Addonizio really got me tonight. first thought was “oh man. yeah” and then my second thought was “how can i make this about my hockey guys somehow………..”anyway! have a good one! 

oh. oh.

​

[autumnoakes]

my hot take of the day is that breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom are not adaptable into any other format. by doing so, you'd lose a huge part of both games which is exploration. if you follow a predetermined narrative, it's a different formula. a huge point of botw was that you could do the main story in whatever order you want. hell, you could even not do the main story if you really wanted to. the any% speedrun is like 25 minutes because you can just. go to the final boss. and totk is bigger, but it's not much different. you can't adapt that freedom of exploration and choice into another format in a way that really matters.

[dragonsarecats]

To be fair CF is just as much about found family than VW

Hi anon! I'm gonna link the post I talked about the Golden Deer here for clarity's sake lol.

I think when discussing themes of found family in different three houses routes, it's important to talk about Byleth. In a game where the single, main variable between possible futures is Byleth's interference, it means the story has to be written in a particular way--I mentioned this before when talking about character supports and endings; each character needs to be able to have a romantic ending with Byleth, which affects how their supports are written. In the case of the Lord's, this means you're given tangible reasons why you should've chosen them.

I mean. Let's be real here. Claude has the highest survivability rate of any character in the base game. He can't die if you're completing Verdant Wind (for obvious reasons), or Blue Lions. He's heavily implied to live to see another day in Silver Snow, and you can spare him in Crimson Flower! Edelgard and Dimitri die without the professor's stabilizing influence--but Claude? What does he lose without the professor.

That's sort of how I determine subtler themes of each route in a way--by comparing what you get with and without Byleth.

So when I argue that Verdant Wind is the most about found family, I mean it thematically; the other routes don't have tangible less found family, but without Byleth members of the Golden Deer just blatantly disappear unrecruited post time skip in several routes!

Without Byleth, the option for found family is removed for Claude in a big way, I personally feel, and not just by full recruitment runs lol. Not completely, of course--even in Crimson Flower a recruited Lorenz laments having to face off against Claude and Hilda is willing to die in defense of him and the city--but enough that it was blatantly shocking to me that if you don't recruit Marianne, she does not appear at all post time skip, no exceptions.

In a narrative sense, perhaps slightly unshocking; but in a practical sense? This leaves Claude without a healer.

Claude can't hold onto all his Deer even if you don't recruit any of them in the Academy phase. Silver Snow, Azure Moon, Crimson Flower--Marianne will always be gone; consistent, non variable. Depending on the route other characters like Lorenz might disappear as well.

The themes of found family are prevalent in all the routes, but since each route is pretty much defined by the Lord who leads it, I feel as though their personal relationship with the found family is most defining, if that makes sense.

People stand by Edelgard, Dimitri, and even Rhea for better, or for worse. Even recruited, characters like Felix make it abundantly clear that switching sides doesn't change the immense emotional attachment they have to their original lord.

This just. Isn't true for Claude.

Without Byleth, he doesn't get to keep everyone together. Without Byleth Hilda is recruitable in two routes. The idea that you could ever do the same with Hubert or Dedue is blatantly laughable.

Byleth's presence is what enables Edelgard, Dimitri, and Rhea to remain the most of themselves, if that makes sense. Edelgard's war strategy in Crimson Flower is a lot less aggressive and scorched earth then it is in the other two routes because she's had the professor as an emotional rock. Similarly for Dimitri, he's able to recover because Byleth is there to keep him alive and safe. And then Rhea will blatantly die in the Verdant Wind route where she doesn't in Silver Snow. Byleth, in every sense of the word, keeps these three characters alive and well.

But without her? They still inspire loyalty and devotion--unquestionable, again, if no recruitment takes place. Dimitri, Edelgard, and Rhea can all face up against you as enemies with the full force of their houses/allies (save for, oddly, Annette).

Claude does not.

Claude's whole route is about learning to trust others in a way that allows them to trust him. The Deer are devoted to Claude in Verdant Wind in a way they just, textually aren't otherwise, and that's due to Byleth's influence, both as a Professor to these individual students, and to Claude.

When I say that Verdant Wind is the most found family thematically to me, I mean it at a very base level. Claude knows he doesn't have what Dimitri and Edelgard seem to take for granted. It seems almost effortless, in Verdant Wind, the loyalty and devotion he inspires in his friends despite how often you, as Byleth, are told that Claude appears to be an untrustworthy and sneaky individual.

But it's easy to see in routes where you don't chose him that without Byleth, that image mantains. Claude is an outsider. And maybe he doesn't need Byleth in the way the other lords do to survive or achieve his dream (after all, there's nothing saying he can't open diplomacy with his former classmates after he goes back to Almyra so long as he lives to do so), but just as Byleth is uniquely able to be a peer to the Golden Deer, so can Claude uniquely trust and gain the trust of his house in full.

It's not as dramatic as the other two houses, and I think it's the point. Edelgard and Dimitri have already built a solid foundation of devotion and loyalty. Ferdinand and Felix (your "rival" characters in those houses) are loyal without Byleth, even if Ferdinand claims it's to guide her or if Felix complains every step of the way. Lorenz isn't. In Verdant Wind, you sort of take it for granted that everyone will be there at the reunion if they survived the Academy phase. Of course they will--they promised, didn't they?

But outside Verdant Wind, it's clear to see that you as the player took it for granted. And that's why I think Verdant Wind is thematically the most found family. It's not because the other routes don't love each other as much or aren't as complex or there isn't devotion. It's because fundamentally Verdant Wind is about Claude, for the first time in his life, having a group of people he can rely on and who will rely on him without hesitation. It's about the formation of found family, and how Claude doesn't need it to achieve his dreams, but man, does it give him something to achieve those dreams for.

[sevenines]

just listened to 36 hours of a podcast because there was a su au of it.

if i were to sum up my experience it was “oh god these two are fighting” “are they seriously arguing AGAIN” “how many times are they going to have the same fight” “ok wait the argument this time is pretty good” “OUCHH” “yeah fine. i care about them now” and now in my my head plays arthur. arghhhthur. argthgur like the glamrock freddy gregory meme

[thevegetablewhichnoonedaresname]

hmmm once again seeing some opinions that really really baffle me

[phreaticlayer]

my inability to create any sort of coherent narrative in any form is really screwing me in my quest to try and learn to draw comics, i have to say

[inkbomber]

all these characters suck a little bit. the generals? suck. walters? sucks. sonic? sucks. tom? sucks. robotnik sucks so fucking bad. stone sucks. maddie sucks. every agent sucks. gerald sucks. shadow kind of sucks. maria might be the only character that doesn’t suck frankly, and she’s still rollerblading in the hallways.

this of course comes from a very simplistic/pessimistic and overly critical pov, but like. every g.u.n. associated character is working for the us gov. tom and wade are cops. sonic is self-absorbed. maddie hits her husband. gerald is a misogynist [on top of everything else]. rockwell is anti-alien in a way that is, textually, shitty. g.u.n. as an organization still built the eclipse canon! fucking why? because they suck!

these facts dont keep me from enjoying the characters or story, but they are facts. the jokes are also canon, y’know? the framing of the story is what flavors them, makes them less than human. they are just characters. but if you think about what you’re shown for longer than a week, about the parallels, about them as people, stuff starts clicking into place. none of these characters are perfect, because a perfect person 1: doesn’t exist, and 2: is deeply uninteresting.

turns out the the default state of humanity is just sucking a bit.

[imaginarypasta]

i have like 3000 words of this fic left to write so like seriously in the home stretch. and i’m sitting here trying to remind myself it’s allowed to put original characters and plots into a fic because i’m so used to like. not doing that

[amethystroselily]

I was honestly expecting House and Wilson to have undertones in the traditional accidental queerbaiting format of having the mc’s bond with a male rival/coworker/traveling companion feel more important bc the writers don’t care enough about the female characters to focus or make them interesting.

But no, Wilson is literally just written like he’s House’s wife or fiancee. Like from a standpoint of narrative significance. He doesn’t actually work with them, he’s the only one who actively chooses to be around house and seems to think there’s some good in him from the very beginning. He pretty much is House’s personal life. He doesn’t even have that much screen time and seems to exist mostly to demonstrate that House is in fact capable of love. Like that’s…. That’s literally how female love interests are written…

[riddlemearose]

This video helped me realise exactly why BOTW is my favourite Zelda game. I don't entirely agree with the way the video explained it however, so woe narrative info-dump be upon you.

A lot of people are not aware that narratives do not need to be structured or hold your hand the entire time in order for them to be enjoyable.

To explain, I want to briefly mention the most important quote from this video, to me, which is this:

"... what do we expect stories to do? Well, to give us a sequence of cause of effect events that take us on a journey from beginning to middle to end."

Why is this important?

Because BOTW does not drop you at the beginning of the story, it puts you in the middle.

The beginning of the story is Link pulling the Master Sword. It's him training alongside the Champions as they pilot the Divine Beasts and accompanying Zelda as she attempts to awaken her powers. It's the Calamity waking up in Hyrule Castle, taking over the Guardians and killing the Champions and Link.

The middle of the story is Link waking up in the Shrine of Resurrection. You had to have gotten in there somehow, right?

But if you'd played the beginning of the story, you'd lose the point of being in the Shrine of Resurrection in the first place.

Link remembers nothing. He doesn't remember the beginning of the story, he doesn't remember his destiny to help Zelda defeat the Calamity, and he barely remembers how to fight.

The middle part of the story is him reclaiming all that. Rhoam gives you the ultimate task in a plea ("save my daughter"), and then Impa tasks you to find the memories that fill in the gaps to the beginning of the story and asks you to free the Champions.

That's the flesh of the middle part: travelling, seeing the world as it is now, regaining the memories of what is was, freeing the Champions whom Link barely remembers but still offer their undying support.

The little bits amongst this that pad the story is the environment. BOTW leans heavily on environmental storytelling. Just take the Zora monuments, for example. The only one that is in disrepair is right outside the entrance to the Domain. But why is it the only one in disrepair? Because it's the only monument to feature Link, whom the Zora hate. It doesn't matter how easy it is to access, none of them want to remember Link in a good light.

Th village ruins, the stables, the way everyone but Mils and Mina avoid Hyrule Field, all of this exists not to tell you about the effect of the Calamity, but to show you what happened when the Calamity awoke, and how the land is still healing from it.

BOTW's story isn't bad. It just wants you to think and pay attention to the world.

Sure the Divine Beasts aren't typical dungeons, and you can solve them in about 30 mins, but they're more than a pit stop in the narrative. Your friends died in those Divine Beasts. The Divine Beasts are the Champions' tombs (hence why the Master Cycle Zero is obtained in the Shrine of Resurrection).

BOTW is not the traditional Zelda narrative. It does not ask you to go from dungeon to dungeon, picking up one item per place.

Instead, BOTW gives you everything Link already had at the start of the story (+ a Sheikah Slate) and sets you back on your journey to go finish the quest.

And quite frankly, that's a really good way to tell a narrative, because it's one you have to think about and muse upon.

Great short essay about how BoTW uses narrative

Under 30 minutes and features a talking skull if you're into that sort of thing. It's a great little lesson about understanding media genres, something that's vital to reading comprehension, media literacy, and writing!

[thesummerstorms]

I feel like there's a solid group of fans (in all fandoms) who forget that there ARE differences between fanfiction and traditional publishing.

Transformative work is great about allowing you to explore secondary POVs and characters who aren't the focus of a text.

But traditionally published books are by their nature more constrained in their format. The physical nature of books + the publishing system means they only have so many pages. And those pages need to serve the central narrative of a story.

It can be fun to puzzle out 'man but what about the implications of x'? or 'oh, I feel like there's a connection between A and B, that's fun to think about!' or 'okay, but from Character M's point of view this is so tragic, even though they literally only exist in three scenes'. That's why transformative work is transformative, and for me, it's the fun part of fandom!

But what that doesn't mean is that the author is being mean or cowardly for not exploring those things in the source text. An author's focus has to be ultimately on the story THEY want to tell, and what makes that narrative or those themes work.

They do not have the luxury of including every digression your brain might have fun exploring, and it doesn't make them bad authors if their narrative focus isn't the one you would have personally chosen.

"But such and such character was robbed! They only appeared in x scenes and then-"

Okay, but did the scenes they were in serve their purpose? Did we get a sense of how they meaningfully impacted other characters, the plot, or the themes while still having a sense of personhood?

You can critique whether or not an author was successful in using their characters for story purposes or whether they successfully communicated their underlying message or whether the author unintentionally/intentionally included a bias that weakens their writing.

But an author not chosing to spotlight your particular minor character favorite does not make them a "coward" or bad at their craft.

[physalian]

How to make your writing sound less stiff part 2

Part 1

Again, just suggestions that shouldn’t have to compromise your author voice, as I sit here doing my own edits for a WIP.

1. Crutch words

Specifically when you have your narrator taking an action instead of just… writing that action. Examples:

Character wonders/imagines/thinks/realizes

Character sees/smells/feels

Now not all of these need to be cut. There’s a difference between:

Elias stops. He realizes they’re going in the wrong direction.

And

Elias takes far too long to realize that it’s not horribly dark wherever they are

Crutch words are words that don’t add anything to the sentence and the sentence can carry on with the exact same meaning even if you delete it. Thus:

Elias stops. They’re going in the wrong direction.

I need a word in the second example, whether it’s realizes, understands, or notices, unless I rework the entire sentence. The “realization” is implied by the hard cut to the next sentence in the first example.

2. Creating your own “author voice”

Unless the tone of the scene demands otherwise, my writing style is very conversational. I have a lot of sentence fragments to reflect my characters’ scatterbrained thoughts. I let them be sarcastic and sassy within the narration. I leave in instances of “just” (another crutch word) when I think it helps the sentence. Example:

…but it’s just another cave to Elias.

Deleting the “just” wouldn’t hit as hard or read as dismissive and resigned.

I may be writing in 3rd person limited, but I still let the personalities of my characters flavor everything from the syntax to metaphor choices. It’s up to you how you want to write your “voice”.

I’ll let dialogue cut off narration, like:

Not that he wouldn’t. However, “You can’t expect me to believe that.”

Sure it’s ~grammatically incorrect~ but you get more leeway in fiction. This isn’t an essay written in MLA or APA format. It’s okay to break a few rules, they’re more like guidelines anyway.

3. Metaphor, allegory, and simile

There is a time and a place to abandon this and shoot straight because oftentimes you might not realize you’re using these at all. It’s the difference between:

Blinding sunlight reflects off the window sill

And

Sunlight bounces like high-beams off the window sill

It’s up to you and what best fits the scene.

Sometimes there’s more power in not being poetic, just bluntly explicit. Situations like describing a character’s battle wounds (whatever kind of battle they might be from, whether it be war or abuse) don’t need flowery prose and if your manuscript is metaphor-heavy, suddenly dropping them in a serious situation will help with the mood and tonal shift, even if your readers can’t quite pick up on why immediately.

Whatever the case is, pick a metaphor that fits the narrator. If my narrator is comparing a shade of red to something, pick a comparison that makes sense.

Red like the clouds at sunset might make sense for a character that would appreciate sunsets. It’s romantic but not sensual, it’s warm and comforting.

Red like lipstick stains on a wine glass hints at a very different image and tone.

Metaphor can also either water down the impact of something, or make it so much worse so pay attention to what you want your reader to feel when they read it. Are you trying to shield them from the horror or dig it in deep?

4. Paragraph formatting

Nothing sticks out on a page quite like a line of narrative all by itself. Abusing this tactic will lessen its effect so save single sentence paragraphs for lines you want to hammer your audiences with. Lines like romantic revelations, or shocking twists, or characters giving up, giving in. Or just a badass line that deserves a whole paragraph to itself.

I do it all the time just like this.

Your writing style might not feature a bunch of chunky paragraphs to emphasize smaller lines of text (or if you’re writing a fic on A03, the size of the screen makes many paragraphs one line), but if yours does, slapping a zinger between two beefy paragraphs helps with immersion.

5. Polysyndeton and Asyndeton

Not gibberish! These, like single-sentence paragraphs, mix up the usual flow of the narrative that are lists of concepts with or without conjunctions.

Asyndeton: We came. We saw. We conquered. It was cold, grey, lifeless.

Polysyndeton: And the birds are out and the sun is shining and it might rain later but right now I am going to enjoy the blue sky and the puffy white clouds like cotton balls. They stand and they clap and they sing.

Both are for emphasis. Asyndeton tends to be "colder" and more blunt, because the sentence is blunt. Polysyntedon tends to be more exciting, overwhelming.

We came and we saw and we conquered.

The original is rather grim. This version is almost uplifting, like it's celebrating as opposed to taunting, depending on how you look at it.

—

All of these are highly situational, but if you’re stuck, maybe try some out and see what happens.

*italicized quotes are from ENNS, the rest I made up on the spot save for the Veni Vidi Vici.