#and the plot problem

[nondelphic]

"just write a little every day" ok but what if i write nothing for 3 weeks and then suddenly type like i’m being hunted by god

[thewordsarestuckinmyhead]

me when the plot won't plot like it should

[cranberry-queen]

Tips from a Beta Reading Writer

This one's for the scenes with multiple characters, and you're not sure how to keep everyone involved.

Writing group scenes is chaos. Someone’s talking, someone’s interrupting, someone’s zoning out thinking about breadsticks. And if you’re not careful, half your cast fades into the background like NPCs in a video game. I used to struggle with this so much—my characters would just exist in the scene without actually affecting it. But here’s what I've learned and have started implementing:

✨ Give everyone a job in the scene ✨

Not their literal job—like, not everyone needs to be solving a crime or casting spells. I mean: Why are they in this moment? What’s their role in the conversation?

My favourite examples are:

The Driver: Moves the convo forward. They have an agenda, they’re pushing the action.

The Instigator: Pokes the bear. Asks the messy questions. Stirring the pot like a chef on a mission.

The Voice of Reason: "Guys, maybe we don’t commit arson today?"

The Distracted One: Completely in their own world. Tuning out, doodling on a napkin, thinking about their ex.

The Observer: Not saying much, but noticing everything. (Quiet characters still have presence!)

The Wild Card: Who knows what they’ll do? Certainly not them. Probably about to make things worse.

If a character has no function, they’ll disappear. Give them something—even if it’s just a side comment, a reaction, or stealing fries off someone’s plate. Keep them interesting, and your readers will stay interested too.

[wraetingsonthewall]

sometimes your brain really just offers you one banger of a sentence and then that's it for the entire rest of the day. creativity expired, the ability to think has clocked out for the day, context for as to how we even get to this sentence? sorry we're all out. this one sentence is all you get.

[echo146]

How it feels working a 9 to 5 and having too many WIPs of varying forms and genres alongside unrealistic expectations for myself as a writer yayyy xox

[dionysiaproductions]

[the-whitehurst-files]

It connects, okay!

[seekerknight557]

i think it is a very powerful thing when the story inside you is so loud that you are forced to relearn how to draw, write, and talk to people to get it made into a real thing

[idolomantises]

Okay so I’m not going to lie, part of why I haven’t been drawing Mara a lot is for three reasons:

1. She had an entire plotline planned that I ended up scrapping and redoing but that meant putting her in the backseat for a bit.

2. Im honestly afraid of drawing her 20 fallen angel partners I feel like I go a little insane even thinking about it. 20 characters with unique designs and outfits? No, I’m exploding in real life.

3. I’ve been slowly regretting making her a succubus. She was originally an Imp but I didn’t have a base idea for the imp design yet so I just went with a succubus but I’ve been wanting to add more demon characters that weren’t just succubi and hellhounds.

Unfortunately the way people treated the redesigns (specifically Domino’s where I had people messaging me for WEEKS to change it back), makes me kind of unsure if I wanna do a full species swap lmfao. Mara is very cute and I love her OG design, I just don’t want her to be another succubus, so it’s frustrating.

Damn. Remember when this webcomic was a hobby for me.

[mischiefmaker615]

[bumblebeebats]

Just watched the episode of Leverage where Nate chooses not to kill his notorious conman of a father and instead forces him to leave town and sail back to Galway and i gotta say.... you know all those "cozy murder mystery" series where some sleepy rural town is inexplicably besieged by murders? I always used to wonder, what the hell is going down in Badger-upon-Twyne that's causing so much damn crime, but now I know. This is presented in the show like some kind, honorable thing, like oh, yes, I'm sure ol' Jimmy "Felonies Georg" Ford will stop doing crime once he's back in Ireland - why on earth would you assume that!! You've just unleashed this hardened Bostonian gangster upon the innocent sheep and also people of County Galway! Like, don't get me wrong, Galwegians, I'm not trying to say you're pushovers or anything, but i once saw a news article about the police trying to 'clamp down on organized crime' in the city and it said they were on the hunt for a dangerous gang consisting of *checks notes*.... four people. Jimmy Ford is going to own Ballynahinch castle by the end of the week. He's going to start smuggling in cocaine on the little dolphin tour boats. He's going to wreak more havoc on the local ecosystem than an outdoor cat on a nature reserve. YOU DIDN'T SOLVE IT, NATE. YOU HEAR ME, NATE? PEEPAW'S ON HIS WAY TO MAKING GALWAY THE MURDER CAPITAL OF EUROPE.

[nondelphic]

writing is 10% storytelling and 90% rearranging three sentences for an hour like you're trying to solve an ancient curse

[starlingfawn]

through starless sky to blackest ground

[glasshouses-and-stones]

Do you ever just start writing and then it's a few thousand words later, and you're just like, 'Where the hell did any of this come from? This was not the plan. Wtf?'

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

What disabled readers want* from non-disabled sci-fi and fantasy** writers:

Imagine your world where we exist, without being a tragedy, a burden, or (functionally) erased.

Back in 2019, I came up with my own metric for Disability Representation in stories, inspired by the Bechdel-Wallace Test.

I named it the "1,001 Problems Template"

There's a disabled character,

Who wants something,

Beyond Revenge, Cure, or Death,

And personally takes action to achieve it.

I decided to call it a "Template," rather than "test," because I hope that it's a useful tool, and not something to Pass or Fail. 1,001 Problems, because, Yeah. Disability can be a bitch, but characters can have 1,000 other things they're dealing with, too. And you can write a story about any one of them.

The point being: If you can imagine us as part of your make-believe future, and fairy tale past, then it's easier to include us in your real world present.

*With the understanding, of course, that not all readers want the same thing [/standard "Your mileage may vary" disclaimer]

**In other genres, too, while we're at it.

[starryslyii]

Me: This character is soft, sweet, and pure.

Also me: Traumatizes them for the sake of plot.