#construct story

[maple-writes]

Construct story snippet from Malcolm's POV:

Her onlookers said not a word, watching and glancing at one another as if they weren’t sure if she was done or had more to say. Or maybe they weren’t sure what to say themselves. Malcolm stood still as stone as clouds drifted overhead, as insects crawled through the dirt and grass underfoot, as time went on. To her it wasn’t a long time but to the others it may have dragged on as they each waited for another to speak.

“So,” Jackson dared first, small voiced and avoiding her eyes. “Where do we fit in to this? Is it our fault she fled?”

Malcolm shook her head. “No, it is not your fault. Even with hindsight there is little I would have suggested that you do differently in your time with her.”

How could she fault them for caring for her so deeply? For trusting her with their lives and grieving for her losses? How in good faith could she tell them they should have been cold towards her? Should have been cruel and uncaring as if she was little more than a tool or weapon to be commanded?

How even, could she fault Ace for loving them back? Loving them so dearly that she would risk her final life for their sake? Even if she hadn’t told her directly, what else would be the reason she had fled with the doppelganger? No construct would be so easily convinced, doppelganger or not, to abandon their path if they hadn’t had the idea themselves first.

[aniseandspearmint]

just having some fun with interesting fantasy imagery! Give it a reblog, if you play, please? And tell me WHY you picked what you picked if you want?

[bamsara]

I think that one thing people fail to understand is that unsolicited literary criticism coming from an online stranger who is reading with no knowledge of what the authors intended goal is, is not going to be received the same as say: the authors beta reader or friends who know what the authors intended goal and has the sufficient knowledge and input to help the author reach that desired outcome.

"But I'm only trying to be helpful" How do I know you have the knowledge and literary skill for you to be able to actaully do that when we don't know each other and you are essentially a stranger to me? Are you applying this criticism based out of personal biased experience and desire to see the story or characterization be driven in another direction or tweaked, or do you know the author's intentions for the character? If the story is incomplete, are you basing your criticism of a character on the incomplete narration with only partial information available of them or are you building up a report until the story's completion? Did the author provide you with the information needed to make a fully informed criticism?

Have you discussed with the author what their plans are or are you assuming them based off the narration, especially if the narration is proven or implied to be unreliable or missing key points of the plot? Are you unbiased enough to help them reach their desired outcome for the characters and story regardless of your personal feelings towards the characters/antagonists and setting? Can you handle being told your specific input isn't wanted because you're a reader and/or have no written anything relating to their genre or topic? Do you understand and respect that the author's personal experiences might influence their writing and make it different than how you would have done it personally? Do you understand if an author only wants input from a specific demographic relating to their story?

If it's for fanfiction or other hobby media, are you holding a free hobby to a professional standard? Are you trying to give criticism because you feel like the author has produced 'subpar job performance' of their fic? Are you viewing their work as a personal intimate outlet or something that must conform with mass media? Are you applying rules and guidelines when the fic is shared for simple sharing sake? Is your criticism worded appropriately and focused on the parts where the author has requested input on rather than a general dismissal and or disapproval?

Have you put yourself in a place where you assumed you have the input needed for the story to evolve better, or have you asked what the author needs and what they're having trouble with? Can you handle having your criticism rejected if the author decides their story doesn't need the change and not take it as a personal offense against your character? Are you crossing that boundary because you think you are doing the author a favor? Are you trying to be helpful, or do you just want to be?

I think sometimes when people hear authors go 'please don't give me unsolicited writing advice or criticism' they automatically chalk it up to 'this author doesn't want ANY constructive feedback on their stuff at all' and not "i already have trusted individuals who will help me with my writing goals and- hey i don't know you like that, please stop acting so overly familiar with me'

[aethersea]

another thing fantasy writers should keep track of is how much of their worldbuilding is aesthetic-based. it's not unlike the sci-fi hardness scale, which measures how closely a story holds to known, real principles of science. The Martian is extremely hard sci-fi, with nearly every detail being grounded in realistic fact as we know it; Star Trek is extremely soft sci-fi, with a vaguely plausible "space travel and no resource scarcity" premise used as a foundation for the wildest ideas the writers' room could come up with. and much as Star Trek fuckin rules, there's nothing wrong with aesthetic-based fantasy worldbuilding!

(sidenote we're not calling this 'soft fantasy' bc there's already a hard/soft divide in fantasy: hard magic follows consistent rules, like "earthbenders can always and only bend earth", and soft magic follows vague rules that often just ~feel right~, like the Force. this frankly kinda maps, but I'm not talking about just the magic, I'm talking about the worldbuilding as a whole.

actually for the purposes of this post we're calling it grounded vs airy fantasy, bc that's succinct and sounds cool.)

a great example of grounded fantasy is Dungeon Meshi: the dungeon ecosystem is meticulously thought out, the plot is driven by the very realistic need to eat well while adventuring, the story touches on both social and psychological effects of the whole 'no one dies forever down here' situation, the list goes on. the worldbuilding wants to be engaged with on a mechanical level and it rewards that engagement.

deliberately airy fantasy is less common, because in a funny way it's much harder to do. people tend to like explanations. it takes skill to pull off "the world is this way because I said so." Narnia manages: these kids fall into a magic world through the back of a wardrobe, befriend talking beavers who drink tea, get weapons from Santa Claus, dance with Bacchus and his maenads, and sail to the edge of the world, without ever breaking suspension of disbelief. it works because every new thing that happens fits the vibes. it's all just vibes! engaging with the worldbuilding on a mechanical level wouldn't just be futile, it'd be missing the point entirely.

the reason I started off calling this aesthetic-based is that an airy story will usually lean hard on an existing aesthetic, ideally one that's widely known by the target audience. Lewis was drawing on fables, fairy tales, myths, children's stories, and the vague idea of ~medieval europe~ that is to this day our most generic fantasy setting. when a prince falls in love with a fallen star, when there are giants who welcome lost children warmly and fatten them up for the feast, it all fits because these are things we'd expect to find in this story. none of this jars against what we've already seen.

and the point of it is to be wondrous and whimsical, to set the tone for the story Lewis wants to tell. and it does a great job! the airy worldbuilding serves the purposes of the story, and it's no less elegant than Ryōko Kui's elaborately grounded dungeon. neither kind of worldbuilding is better than the other.

however.

you do have to know which one you're doing.

the whole reason I'm writing this is that I saw yet another long, entertaining post dragging GRRM for absolute filth. asoiaf is a fun one because on some axes it's pretty grounded (political fuck-around-and-find-out, rumors spread farther than fact, fastest way to lose a war is to let your people starve, etc), but on others it's entirely airy (some people have magic Just Cause, the various peoples are each based on an aesthetic/stereotype/cliché with no real thought to how they influence each other as neighbors, the super-long seasons have no effect on ecology, etc).

and again! none of this is actually bad! (well ok some of those stereotypes are quite bigoted. but other than that this isn't bad.) there's nothing wrong with the season thing being there to highlight how the nobles are focused on short-sighted wars for power instead of storing up resources for the extremely dangerous and inevitable winter, that's a nice allegory, and the looming threat of many harsh years set the narrative tone. and you can always mix and match airy and grounded worldbuilding – everyone does it, frankly it's a necessity, because sooner or later the answer to every worldbuilding question is "because the author wanted it to be that way." the only completely grounded writing is nonfiction.

the problem is when you pretend that your entirely airy worldbuilding is actually super duper grounded. like, for instance, claiming that your vibes-based depiction of Medieval Europe (Gritty Edition) is completely historical, and then never even showing anyone spinning. or sniffing dismissively at Tolkien for not detailing Aragorn's tax policy, and then never addressing how a pre-industrial grain-based agricultural society is going years without harvesting any crops. (stored grain goes bad! you can't even mouse-proof your silos, how are you going to deal with mold?) and the list goes on.

the man went up on national television and invited us to engage with his worldbuilding mechanically, and then if you actually do that, it shatters like spun sugar under the pressure. doesn't he realize that's not the part of the story that's load-bearing! he should've directed our focus to the political machinations and extensive trope deconstruction, not the handwavey bit.

point is, as a fantasy writer there will always be some amount of your worldbuilding that boils down to 'because I said so,' and there's nothing wrong with that. nor is there anything wrong with making that your whole thing – airy worldbuilding can be beautiful and inspiring. but you have to be aware of what you're doing, because if you ask your readers to engage with the worldbuilding in gritty mechanical detail, you had better have some actual mechanics to show them.

[idontwikeit]

Interview with the Vampire 2.06 // Black Sails 4.10

[3-aem]

stupid whore

[marlynnofmany]

Urban fantasy idea: mushrooms shaped like traffic cones. They tend to sprout from the road around damaged spots, like sinkholes and illegal portals.

[foldingfittedsheets]

My betrotheds mom is big in the SCA and does tons of hand sewing and period accurate clothes, she’s got several custom made outfits and enters competitions with her special projects.

One of them she meticulously researched and created a custom glove. I have no idea how much work goes into such a thing other than A Lot but whenever she tells us stories about these competitions she’s always slighted in favor of flashier offerings.

Her most recent endeavor was some kind of stiff collar. I’m not going to embarrass myself pretending to know the specifics but the original ones back in the day used layers of fabric and whale baleen to get a nice strong silhouette. She researched the crap out of it and wrote up a report to go along with the item.

At the judging one of the judges commented, “Well, it’s alright, but it’s so disappointing that it’s not fully authentic, why didn’t you use whale baleen?”

She sputtered out, “Well, if you’d read my report you’d know it’s because it’s illegal!”

[marley-manson]

bonus:

[box-architecture]

If the DSMP had been a normal show, there would have been an entire episode of cDream being chased through the woods post-prison, none of his usual weapons and armor on hand, but still out-manuevering his hunters left and right.

There would only be brief respites between every encounter where you see Dream nearly collapsing for air, vision blurring for a moment, bleeding through makeshift bandages, before he hears the hunters coming and pulls it all back together into sharp focus, so only the viewer knows the true toll it takes on Dream to be going like this. It would show how devastatingly competent he is even at one of his lowest points in the series, but it's also to show that he's pushing his body limits, viewers holding their breath waiting for that moment he finally pushes too far.

At the end of the episode, he'd find a large, sturdy branch, and use it like a staff to fight off his hunters- and despite all their deadly blades and armor, he still manages to win the battle, knocking a few out with the weight of the branch and kicking someone off a cliff. His vision goes black for a moment and he stumbles, slamming the stick down to hold himself up. He wipes the blood from his eyes.

"Just a little more," he mumbles with grit teeth, and pushes himself up to walk.

The branch becomes his walking stick for the journey as he trudges through the snow. All the trees part, revealing an icy shore with a lone figure standing tall. They turn to him, and their face lights up.

"Dream!"

Dream stumbles the last yard, but he surges forward one last time to land in Punzs, and it doesn't matter. His entire countenance has changed to something a little softer, a little more vulnerable.

"It's been forever; I missed you." Punz's breath is warm in his ear. We see Dream practically buried in their hug, face half-covered by their sweater. Dream's eyes widen, before softening, and then slowly, slowly closing.

"Long time no see."

By the way the screen darkens, you know that Dream has finally blacked out, but he's safe now.

[maple-writes]

Ace agreeing to take Luka back to the surface:

Her last night Ace found the doppelganger by the tree overlooking the mortal world. He tried not to look too hopeful when he heard her coming, only looking up from where he stood by the old trunk. Ace stood next to him, quiet and still. She should not be here at all. They both knew that. She broke the silence. “Do you have a name?” “Me?” He sounded unsure. “I’m Luka.” A mundane name, gentle and human. She nodded. “I see.” She paused. “If I ferry you to the ground I will be exiled from here, and from my deserved fate. Those who leave here are unable to return.” Luka swallowed, eyes closed. “I know. I wish I didn’t have to ask so much of you, and you don’t have any obligation to me, I understand that.” “I fear for those I left behind if your curse is left unchecked.” For Jackson, and Hunter, and Ruby. As capable as they were they did not know what they were up against this time. Quiet fell between them as Luka elected not to speak. She could see the thought whirring behind his eyes as leaf-shade danced on his freckles. Perhaps he was afraid of saying the wrong thing and changing her mind. Perhaps he was smarter than he appeared. She raised her head. “I will accompany you on your mission, and if you deceive me I will kill you.” “Really?” His eyes widened and a heartbeat later he fell to his knees. “Thank you, I, I can’t thank you enough. I promise I will do everything I can to make this right.” “Then we leave now.” She turned and shuddered as her body changed. Arms changed to wings, feathers and fur covering her body and legs turning to eagles talons. A sharp-eyed canine head and tail on a harpy’s body she turned with a mouth of sharp teeth. Luka scrambled to his feet. “Thank you. What should I call you?” She raised her head proudly. “For now, I am Ace. Now jump, and I will follow.”

[mistfallengw2]

Feel free to be more specific in comments/notes if you want! If you want to elaborate further, how do you organize them? By role, species, age, alphabetical order, vibes or something else?

[brettdoesdiscourse]

The thing that gets me about the people who are all "all fic authors should accept constructive criticism!" often just don't know what constructive criticism is. "Your fic was bad and I didn't like it" is not constructive criticism nor is "I don't like this trope/ship/dynamic"

[nb-n0v4]

Disappears for a few months and then makes you look at my Dr Who OCs. business as usual

[gtbutterfly]

hide - gt one shot

hey, so I tried writing a one shot in an hour. I want to write more one shots like this in the future, so feel free to let me know whet you think of this one and what I can improve. criticism is appreciated.

______________________________________________________________

It had just begun and I was already out of breath. We were frantically running around looking for places to hide. We were in a forest during early fall on a cool night, all the leaves were on the ground, crunching under our feet. I ended up hiding in a bush, next to a friend of mine. I didn’t know where anyone else hid. It was dark outside, so no matter where, it should have been hard to find them, at least, for most humans. Soon, almost thirty seconds had passed. We couldn’t quite hear the footsteps in the distance, but we could feel them in the ground.  The vibrations were like feeling the face of the drum when it’s hit. They buzzed through our bones as the source of them got closer. Soon, we could hear the creature's footsteps thumping as they hit the ground. My friend was nervous, he had his hands over his mouth to cover the sound of his heavy breathing, which didn’t work very well. His breathing got louder and faster as we heard a scream in the distance. It just claimed its first victim. Then, the vibrations and footsteps got closer and closer. I could barely see the outline of the creature, standing as tall as the trees, their eyes scanning the ground and glimmering in the moonlight. I ran. I started sprinting as fast as I could from the bush, not wanting my partner's breathing to give me away. 

“Hey!” he yelled at me, shocked at my fleeing. I heard them scream as they were caught moments later, but I didn’t dare look back to witness their fate; I kept running and running, trying to distance myself from the large being.

I kept running until I got to a ditch in the ground. I got down on my stomach to hide from the entity that was chasing me. As I looked up from where I was at the naked trees above me. Someone else was hiding in them, sitting on a thick branch and clinging to the trunk. My guess is that they thought since the creature would be looking on the ground, it would be smart to hide up high. Unfortunately for them, it followed the direction I ran in. The white highlights of its eyes were visible from the dozens of yards away where they were standing, and glaring straight at the person in the tree with no emotion at all. The person in the tree panicked as it started to move towards them. They tried to climb down so they could run, going down branch from branch, but they grabbed one that was too weak to hold them. They let out a blood-curdling scream as they fell. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t see them hit the ground, but they never did. I never heard the sound of bones cracking, or they’re body hitting the ground, or their groans of pain. I opened my eyes. The creature caught her. She was in their hand, shaking but unhurt, as it looked down at her. I quietly got up and started running again the the creature was preoccupied. I counted the number of victims that the entity had claimed. The only people left were me, and some other person. I happened to run into them while sprinting through the forest. After we both processed the pain of the impact, they whispered.

“What are you doing here? This is my hiding spot,” They asked,

“I’m trying to avoid them, we’re the only two left,” I whispered back,

“Well go somewhere else,” they said, “I don’t need you attracting them to me,” Just then, the entity was heard stepping towards us. I looked behind me to see it smiling, practically a couple of steps away from us with its size. “Damnit!”

We both started running as fast as we could, the creature basically seconds away from grabbing us off the ground. Unfortunately, the person I was running aside from had always been a faster runner than me, and I had been running this whole time, so I was already tired. It looked like I was a goner, about to be snatched up by the creature at any second. But then, the other person tripped on the root of a tree. I immediately passed them and heard their yelling from behind me as they were picked up by the entity. I was the last survivor. The winner. All I had to do was get home-

THUD! “Owww!”

I rolled my foot on a rock and fell to the ground. I skinned my arms trying to stop myself from falling. Slowly, the entity stood over me. I started breathing heavily as its white eyes glared at me from above. My arms ached in pain as I held them. It got on its knees, staring at me with its large eyes. It opened its mouth…

“Oh my goodness, are you ok? Your arms look like they need to be bandaged,” the giant said, looking worriedly at me. They helped me up with their index finger. 

 “I fine, big guy, just some scraps,” I said, dusting myself off. “That was a pretty good game. You really good at hide and seek,”

“I didn’t go too far again, did I” they asked, embarrassed,

“Of course not, you did great,” I said. Then, there was a muffled voice coming from the giant’s pocket;

“Hey, is the game over? Can we come out?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, of course,” The giant pulled their “victims” out of their pocket and gently placed them on the ground with his palm. 

“Bro, why did you run away like that at the bush?” The person I was hiding with earlier asked me.

“Your breathing gave us away,” I said,

“Would you have done that if we were really being chased by a giant monster?” he asked,

“Well, probably if I'm being honest.”

“Scew you,” He said, turning away from me. The girl that fell out of the tree looked up at the giant.

“Thanks for catching me back there, I’m not good with climbing trees,” She said,

“No problem, anytime,” the giant said, smiling at her. The last person besides me to get caught scoffed,

“Why do you always have to be it when we play games like this?” They asked the giant. “Uh, because I’d be really easy to find?” the giant shrugged,

“Fine, let's go again, and have you be one of the hiders this time, just to make sure.” they crossed their arms.

“Nah, it's getting late, let's go home.” one of my friends said. 

“Yeah,” said someone else.

“Need me to carry you guys?” the giant asked us. We all nodded. So they picked us all up again, and we went home.

[geryone]

I Will Tell this Story to the Sun Until You Remember that You are the Sun, Erin Slaughter