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dopepoisonivyoncrack · 9 months

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Got quite bugged by the lack of a more nuanced take on Astarion intelligence. This ended up quite long so I'm putting it under line

Won't get medical into the "less wrinkled brain" narrative comment, which can be offensive, I've seen some complain about it, I don’t have the medical expertise and it's not necessary because, while maybe not an excuse, it was used figuratively. Astarion is not the smartest person in the room but also not the dumbest, which makes sense and I'll get to that in a moment. I've seen the jokes though, and there is a big difference between being less wrinkled and having the brain as smooth as a chicken breast. I have not laughed.

About the stats, I think it reflects his current state but not the limits of his intellectual capacities. If anyone more knowledgeable in dnd inner workings can correct me in this, feel free to do so.

What I can say is that intelligence is the ability to solve complex problems, to learn and adapt and make better decisions, and there is nothing to suggest Astarion doesn't possess this ability, quite the contrary, he learns and adapts relatively fast when allowed to do so. The brain is like a muscle that needs to be trained, and unfortunately, he couldn't do that much in the last 200 years. Trauma also messes with the brain and many of its abilities. It can physically change the brain and the mechanisms used for learning and survival [x]. Not to dig into details as it's beside the point here but "trauma significantly impacts our ability to learn, to form memories, to regulate emotions, it can affect our ability to be calm, to learn, to think, to reflect and to respond flexibly and in a planned way" [x]. It should be no surprise that Astarion has difficulties in doing a number of these, if not all.

Before jumping at me like I'm trying to use the trauma in defense of his intelligence, I am not saying he was some brilliant mind before. He was probably a bit above average, with a privileged access to higher education. We can't know anything for sure because we were never given anything on the magistrate elf (not to assess intelligence anyway), but whatever his starting point was, it got affected under Cazador. We only have the current Astarion and some observations during our game travels.

So, while I don't think he was ever the brightest, he is far from being dumb. The lower intelligence stats in the game make perfect sense for someone like him, as he is now. He was killed as a young adult, he was controlled body and mind for 2 centuries, stuck following orders, and in survival mode. He didn't get, and wasn't allowed to think for himself, to grow, to learn, to develop his skills to their potential! Including thinking skills! Moreover, he was told and made to feel incapable, worthless. Cazador likes to remind that quite often. Of course he isn't adept at thinking things through, making complex plans, figure out things that would be more obvious to others, and so on... like when it comes to relationship experience, because he didn't had to think or do anything more complex than seduce someone for a night and carry them to Cazador, for a very very long time. The routine and ingrained mindset, the "chains" so strong, he kept doing them out of inertia for a while even after the tadpole-gained-freedom. It took him a while to even realize he can just stop doing it now, like slowly waking up and regaining senses, and control over his body. It's great writing there, sensitive, thoughtful, realistic writing. It would be quite weird if he knew any better, and that would have to reflect into higher stats. And I would like to point out that he learns and adjusts himself from now on with increasing pace, going hand in hand with recovery. (Going into how this affects Ascended Astarion who, I argue, rejects recovery, would be interesting but maybe another time).

On the other hand, the skills that helped him do what Cazador asked for, are very very honed. I still remember his lines, not being able to even put a name on another type of relationship "You are not a victim, not a target, not another night it's better to forget. But then...what in the world could you be?" (Might be paraphrasing a bit but the point stands). It's not for lack of intelligence that he fails to do that, and it's not for lack of intelligence that he fails to do many other things.

Basically, I am saying is that he was never the smartest, but he is not dumb, he was made a bit dumber/ kept for a long time, by trauma and circumstance, from getting smarter, kept from reaching whatever his potential was, and that if allowed to regain his freedom and recover, he still has the ability to reach whatever his potential is. Things we can witness him doing, gradually. And that his stats or the comments on his intelligence in the game reflect his current situation and not his limits.

#ivy shitpost #astarion #the game: he was not the smartests.#people online: omg he is the dumbest guy ever

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harrietvane · 2 years

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i am very ~intrigued~ by 1899 but i'm trying to decide whether the emotional devastation of not getting a satisfying ending will outweigh the joy of watching the show itself. do you think it's worth it to start it knowing it (probably) won't ever be finished?

Oof, this is a tough one - it depends on your own metric for emotional devastation, I think? Biggest YMMV in the world. Let me try and paint a picture without too many spoilers..

So, for me, while i was very annoyed at no renewal, but i wouldn't say i was the specific kind of devastated you get at an overt and unresolved network TV 'who got shot' cliffhanger? Like, spoiler-free, it does end in the way a serial story 'ends' with a Holy Shit What's Next, and not in the way a movie 'ends' with a sunset ride or whatever: it's an explicit set-up for anticipated future activity (which we'll not now ever see), HOWEVER my own feelings towards it have allowed me to start a rewatch, as opposed to rage-quitting. In my mind, any of the things i hoped for in Season 2 or 3 are still on the table, in a strange way. They won't be shown to me visually, but they're not prevented by the narrative as it exists now, and where/how it stopped. They're just out there, in the ether. I have no need for fix-it fic for the way it ended, but rather 'what-next-fic'.

It's not a spoiler to say it's sci-fi, rather than just a costume drama, but I feel it has things in common with the way Westworld HBO used to end its seasons - they were always flexible enough to act as series finales if needed. Like, they would always end on a note of 'Gasp! and what NEXT!', but also if they happened to get cancelled and stop there at the point of Dolores gaining sentience, or the hosts escaping the park, even though you'd still be hanging out for 'but goddamn i WANT to know what next', and yet it would kind of feel resolved in a way also? Something had still been achieved in each season finale, and the next season set up was laid before you, on a note of 'now what??'

Idk, I never fully watched Lost, but I feel like people got into that show in 2 ways: some folks were obsessed with the puzzle, and had to know The Exact Meaning of each weird thing and needed Answers and a sense of Guessing And Winning to feel satisfied in the show. Other folks simply became fixated on the personal dynamics, and really commited to how each characater gradually revealed more about the kind of person they were, and how they relate to each other within the specific weird boundaries of the story. You'll enjoy 1899 if you're along for the ride re: the second type, but if you're the first type, and have to Know, and value things like 'canon', it'll bug you, probably.

Like, this is possibly my own tendency to make lemonade out of shitty, bitter, network cancellation lemons, but i approach it as one very long Twilight Zone story - it ends in a way that is an Unresolved Resolution. Something was ultimately achieved, and then gently set down without following on. Like short story chock full of 'what ifs and what nexts', it presents them to you, but ultimately leaves them unexplored in full.

In this show, Hercule Poirot is never going to come out and explain it all to our full satisfaction, but if Rod Serling came out and and said 'wow did you see that! that was messed up! anyway, this has been the Twilight Zone', that wouldn't be out of place. It Ends without ending.

#replies #queenofattolia #1899

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criticalrolo · 1 year

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level one, prep, and tpk; secret and heart for sigrun

Level One: What was your first experience with D&D? How did you hear about it? What was your first game like?

My first experience was DMing a one shot LOL

I had just gotten really into critical role in 2016, and was nearly caught up, when some of my friends (who didn't know I was currently Hyperfixating On DnD) actually casually brought up that they'd never played dnd before but it sounded like fun. They just needed someone to run the game since no one there really knew the rules. Cue me jumping into the conversation being like, "HAHAHAH HeyyyYyy you guys wanna play some dnd and need someone to run it? as it JUST SO HAPPENS, I know the rules and would LOOOVE to try running a game hahahaha..."

So I prepped more for that one shot than I ever did for any session ever, it was a level 1 4 hour game where I made everyone character sheets, bought dice sets for everyone, and had them clear out a wizard's basement filled with giant rats. It was REALLY fun, no one seemed to catch on that i ALSO had no idea what i was doing, and afterwards I asked if they would be interested in a Longer Campaign. I had a couple takers, and that first campaign ran for probably about five sessions before the school year ended, so nothing too wild happened, but after that I got some real games set up and ... here we are several years later :)

Prep: How much prep work do you do? How far out do you prep?

I do like... 1-3 hours of prep work before each individual session. And even then, it's mostly like... finding maps and stat blocks for NPCs. I go into each Arc that I run with a general outline in mind for what big beats I want to have happen, but otherwise I let each session progress based on what the PCs decide to do. It's definitely a combination of laying down tracks vs improv on the fly, but so far it's worked out for me! Having a really loose style has definitely helped make the story feel organic and player choice-oriented while still keeping things moving in the direction I'm hoping it'll go. And it gives flexibility for when players do things WILDLY unexpected!

TPK: Have you ever had a game go completely off the rails? TPK? How did you adjust?

I've come CLOSE to some TPKs but the players juuuust managed to squeak by, which is always my favorite kind of vibe. It's way harder to plan for that than you'd think when you've been DMing for 7 PCs for so long LOL

Honestly I don't think I've had anything go completely off the rails, or even really come Close to being that out of control? I've definitely had players make WILD choices that altered the course of FUTURE sessions, but my DMing style allows for a lot of flexibility I think, so I've never really been. THROWN by anything if that makes sense. I always LOVE it when the players make choices that Alter The Narrative Entirely.

My favorite example is when a friend of mine playing a cleric who was devoted (by accident) to Chaos, decided at the last second, in game, to NOT accept the help of their Chaos God and decided to just DIE instead. We had worked out a plan for her corruption arc!! It was going to be sick!! But apparently in the moment, during a big fight against a really difficult Boss, she looked around at her friends and decided her character would actually rather die than become corrupted and potentially break the world/hurt her friends. it was INSANE and COMPLETELY changed the next arc of the campaign since Ethros. DIED and couldn't be revived. And I loved it and we worked out a whole new arc for Ethros later :)

Secret: Is there anything that you know about your character but your character doesn’t know? What is it? How did you come up with this secret?

AUGH YES -- this was actually something that happened in game. From her backstory, Sigrun's village was attacked by raiders and she nearly died in the assault. She was healed by a strange figure she didn't recognize, swore an oath to what she Believed To Be the old gods to get revenge for them, and then this figure gave her Daisy and sent her off to safety.

NOW SIGRUN DOESN'T KNOW THIS... but that figure was actually her dad Osvald. who was sent forward in time by the Old God of Negentropy. to fulfill his wish to protect her. So I was playing Osvald at the time in a mini campaign, got this wish, and wished to Protect Sigrun. Then the DM narrated Osvald getting sent into the future, and I realized it was a scene from SIGRUN'S backstory, and I promptly lost my mind casting cure wounds on her and find familiar to give her Daisy. it was SOOOO GOOD

Heart: What drives your character? Do they have a theme, question, mission, etc. that they’re holding onto? How did you pick it for them?

Sigrun's character absolutely revolves around the theme of Family, in all its messiness and love. What do you do when the people who raised you tried their best but couldn't give you what you needed? How do you feel about them? How do you deal with people leaving, with being alone, with them going off without you? What do you owe family, if anything?

She has this mission to rescue her family members (yes I do this backstory in different variations for like. all of my PCs. dont worry about it) who have all been taken by this interdimensional raiding group, but something she doesn't admit to herself is that she's somehow trying to rescue her Dead Father too. And maybe she's trying to rescue herself? She's got insane abandonment issues from the various family members Leaving (by choice or by force), and I think there's a part of her subconscious that desperately wishes someone had come back for her when she was little, so now she's trying to act out that wish by Rescuing Everyone Else.

#sigrun #dnd #GREAT questions im gonna go cry over my viking girl

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titaniasthings · 2 years

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Rick Riordian has honestly surprised me over the past couple of years … however that won’t stop me from tearing him up.

Over my many rereads of the riordianverse, i’ve come to a conclusion on how the books are so well received.

1. Rick is really good at stringing together themes and narratives. The way he’s able to convey larger issues in his writing is very special and a reason why these books are long-lasting. There’s always something to think about. The way he portrays the oppression of children in these mythical settings that mirror our own allows for children and adults of may read the books to digest the ideas in a non-confrontational way. He also deals with topics like child abuse, war, and neglect really well. The special emphasis that rick puts on children in his stories and how adults fail them makes pjo one of a kind in my opinion.

2. Rick got really good at writing certain characters. Percy Jackson is probably the most widely beloved character to exist. I’ve never met a person who’s read pjo and not absolutely fallen in love with Percy. That is all due to Rick great writing of Percy. He’s lovable, dynamic, flawed, and so damn precious. Along with Sally (World’s Best Mother) Jackson, Nico (Everyone’s Favorite Emo) di angelo, and even Luke (the devilishly handsome and traumatized) castellan, rick’s ability to write these interesting and complex characters that near everyone can relate to. Hell! Annabeth who is arguably the most discoursed about character in the fandom is indisputably top ten girls in children’s media.

Now all of this is great and reasons why you and I love the Riordianverse but that shouldn’t stop us from recognizing where rick falls short and how the screen adaptations and be fixed.

1. I am not the first to say how bad rick’s world building is. It was barely good enough for 8yo me. It’s almost embarrassing how much rick has either forgotten or changed. Even more embarrassing how much of it is incredibly problematic. Like integrating the myths with history. Making Camp Jupiter Confederates, making H*tler a demigod, and ignoring the real life consequences that stem from these conflicts and making it seems like it’s just gods being silly at best horribly offensive. Im just gonna list the way ricks world building is 💩

Trying to make annabeth face misogyny due to her hair color while having a whole cabin of people who look just like her while also being the smartest.

Then making all children of Aphrodite seem dumb because they’re good looking

god’s don’t have DNA yet somehow all share physical traits with their children.

giving almost every kid of the seven powers even though earlier there was a whole camp of kids who didn’t have them

Camp Jupiter and New Rome as a whole

Time as a whole

The hunters are not just a place you put possible lesbians, rick

omg how the hell does the mist work

and so much more

It’s so frustrating cuz obviously rick wants to be flexible with his characters stories but like some structure would be great dude. It almost just takes away from characterization sometimes ( i could get into plot armored Percy but thats for another post(Justice for Jason and Hazel)). In conclusion, the show needs someone to definitively write down some rules and don’t break them!

#percy jackson #pjo fandom #pjo series #hoo #heroes of olympus #annabeth chase #riordianverse #rick riordan #world building #percy jackon and the olympians #childrens books

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waveridden · 2 years

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I hear what you’re saying about the appeal being smaller but I am dying to know how you think yugioh narratives would translate into blaseball. What’s up with Yubel? Does Pegasus’ mind reading leading him to destruction work like the precog trio? Does having access to the physical world but having to play a blood sport make Noah any less cranky?

hedge i completely love this. let's get into it

i have a couple different pitches for yubel! the first is that they were a prehistory player, probably not A Vault Legend but a pretty powerful one (like an abbott wright or smth) that just got totally forgotten by history, and when they come back they're fucking pissed. you could also even make them the parker maccy analogue complete with them being a vindictive firewalker.

yubel pitch number two is that yubel is linked to an item/mod somehow, which has a couple subpitches: the first is that it's a kennedy loser-shannon chamberlain situation (shannon got stuck permanently haunting ken) where yubel is haunting jaden. the second is that it's a non-mechanical haunting situation, sort of tugging on the thread of @polyboros's fics about jesus and tyvi and scorpler - to me a key part of yubel is that they are haunting/possessing people and so the idea of an item that also carries the spirit of a dead legendary player is really fun to me. this one def also allows the most flexibility in terms of yubel being able to haunt other people. but also lastly i HAVE to shout out jaden yuki pgr talking to the parasite (yubel is the parasite) (perhaps this is also the parasite mod. who can say) (like you know how tiana takahashi had the parasite jersey? that)

pegasus time! mind reading actually feels to me like a houston spies thing although i would take it a step further and pitch to you blaseball commissioner pegasus who is fully aware of the woes of prehistory and is doing this anyways. it starts out as kind of a coin boss situation where he is kind of a bitch and cunt about it but there's a lot of genuine empathy and before long he's more of a parker

as for noah. would bloodsports make anyone less cranky, really

no my real answer is (with a grain of salt bc i don't remember this arc super well) i don't necessarily think the virtual world and bloodsport are mutually exclusive (and there's something freaky/fun to me about the idea of only being able to be corporeal during blaseball games) but there's some more built in solidarity and love in blaseball and i think that would go a long way

#candidateofloyalty #waveridden.ask #THANKS HEDGE THIS WAS FUN #yubel (the parasite) is something that can be so personal.#blb ygo hours

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checkmatehq · 2 months

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hello! i get that this can be so confusing to follow, but another suggestion could be a dual timeline style, a la yellowjackets/haunting of hill house, wherein, if you guys are not familiar with, past and present events will be explored interspersedly throughout the narrative. doing so, we can leave room to develop new mysteries and "aren't what it seems" that could shape our muses in the present. but if that sounds a little bit complicated (which i admit it is), i just want to ask if you guys would still allow us to thread 2016 events after the skip for flashbacks and also as a way for writers who may be joining late in the game to still be able to establish their muses in the 2016 timeline?

thank you so much for this suggestion — this sounds like such a great idea! we will admit that it was a little daunting to consider at first, but after some discussion and timeline planning, we think it's definitely doable! we also apologize for the late response — we wanted to make sure everyone got their votes in before starting another poll! with this revised structure, we now have the following options:

I PREFER TO EXPLORE 2016 AND 2024 SEPARATELY.

this option was favored in our last poll, so we're keeping it in to respect everyone's choices! this will run very similarly to what we've stated, wherein we will remain in 2016 for 6-8 weeks before moving on to 2024. however, instead of stopping 2016 threads fully, we will now allow you to thread non-event related interactions in 2016 at any point! to avoid confusion, all event-related 2016 threads will need to be wrapped up when we move over to 2024.

I PREFER TO EXPLORE BOTH 2016 AND 2024 CONCURRENTLY.

with this new option, rather than our original time skip, we will now structure events in two parts: the first part will be placed in 2016 to provide context, and the second part will be placed in 2024 to deal with the fallout. similar to the previous option, you will be allowed to explore 2016 and 2024 interactions at any point and without any time limit as long as they are not event-related. all event-related activities — for both 2016 and 2024 — will have a time limit of tentatively two weeks post event.

for full transparency, the second option may require some flexibility to your muse as more information in 2016 is revealed. we will attempt to forewarn what you should and should not explore to prevent this as much as possible! though with that said, when it comes to individual conceptualization and plotting, you may need to do your part in being mindful of how much each muse has changed and grown — both professionally and personally — since the 8y time skip within the each two-part event. a nonlinear timeline also runs the risk of being generally confusing, but rest assured — we will attempt to plan events at least 3 months ahead at all times to make these events run as smoothly as possible! as always, our dms and askbox are always open if you ever need further clarification!

while we do not also have the option in this poll, we are happy to take any further suggestions! that said, we are mindful that our opening day is quickly approaching and will need to settle on a structure as soon as possible. we'd like to extend a special thanks to everyone who has voted and sent in such wonderful suggestions! if you have anymore either now or even later on, please do not hesitate to send us a message. our goal is and will always be to tailor this experience for your enjoyment!

#cm:announcement

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everygame · 7 months

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Punch Club

Developed/Published by: Lazy Bear Games Released: 01/08/2016 Completed: 22/12/2023 Completion: Beat the main story (but I didn’t finish the Dark Fist bonus storyline.)

I’ve been meaning to play Punch Club for ages, but I’ve always been put off by the fact that every review you read complains bitterly about the fact that the game–a life/combat management simulator–features extremely aggressive stat decay that makes the game quickly an unpleasant grind just to keep your head above water. Well, guess what! This review is going to be no different. I should have listened!

I’ll start with some positives. Punch Club has a great 2D pixel-art look with a decent filter. The game systems make sense basically immediately and are as streamlined as can be. You’ve only got three stats to care about (strength, agility and stamina) and your upgrade trees neatly correspond to one. Working out or working to raise money makes you hungry and tired; you sleep and eat to fix that, but sleep costs you time and eating costs you money. The balancing act makes perfect sense.

The thing is… that stat decay. Now, one of the issues with any of these kinds of simulations is that you are always incentivised to min-max your opening as much as possible, and this game featuring stat decay seems to put that into overdrive. You quickly realise that you have to work out the absolute most efficient way to raise your stats while keeping your character rested and fed because any leeway you might have had is destroyed by every lost day costing your stat growth, allowing you to spiral into what feels like a need to restart as you hit up against opponents you can’t defeat (especially bad if you’re foolish enough to take on an opponent in the illegal fights where you can end up with injuries that make growing stats even harder.)

It’s worth noting that there’s really not a true game over in Punch Club, though. If you screw up completely, you can grind and it’ll just take you longer to beat the game–most opponents give you currency for your upgrade tree, meaning if you go through a long losing period, you should, as long as you can right the ship with stat growth to an even keel with your opponents, eventually out-skill them and defeat them. It’s just not very pleasant.

The game has an interesting take on combat, actually. There are some passive skills, but you select up to five skills that affect if your character is going to punch, kick, guard–or even what kind of punch or kick it is. The problem is that as much as you imagine changing these up between rounds to deal with opponents, because of the way skill trees are set up, and that stat decay means you want to avoid flexibility, you almost alway just have the highest attacks or powers in the skill tree equipped and run the combat at 8x speed because tactics basically don’t matter. You either out-skill and out-power your opponent, or you… don’t.

Punch Club tries to mix this up with the narrative and quests–because otherwise this would be unbelievably repetitive–but those are a mixed bag as well. This is a 80s/90s parody written by a Lithuanian studio with Russian founders, and it has the slight lost-in-translation air you’d expect as a result. The story makes absolutely no sense, and the references are direct to the point of not even really feeling like jokes. But when it comes down to it, that’s probably better than going for some sort of “radical” take on the era. Think how annoying something like Kung Fury is. This is nowhere near that bad, but the game is so relentless that every time it does something like make you travel somewhere just for a cut-scene you think “oh great, now I have to waste 2 ticks of the clock or pay $4 to get the bus back to the gym, thanks for nothing” rather than being that interested in seeing what happens. Things are even worse with the Dark Fist DLC, which does that constantly and culminates with a series of battles you have to do where you have only a chance of winning what you need to progress. I 100% said fuck that.

I didn’t hate Punch Club. Once you get into a rhythm with it, it’s… fine. Sort of pointlessly stressful and ultimately unrewarding though. I couldn’t recommend it.

Will I ever play it again? There are two routes through the game and 3 different fighting styles, and there’s even a no stat decay mode if I just wanted to see the other route. But even with that there’s just so much watching your character fight at 8x speed, or doing a training animation that I can’t imagine it.

Final Thought: For the sequel stat decay has been re-worked into a system where certain skills use “tonus”, a form of MP that is replenished by training, which might be… fine? Very funny to see people complain about the stat decay being removed because it was “realistic” in a game where your character doesn’t have to sleep (always annoys me in a game with a clock when they skip the night phase) and literally eats 5 frozen pizzas in a row to heal after a fight.

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up a digital copy of exp. 2600, a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

#gaming #video games #games #txt #text #review #punch club #lazy bear games #2016

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rebelcourtesan · 2 years

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What 2022 Meant for Me

Well, 2022 has been an eventful year for me.

The biggest change in my life occurred this year. This was the year when I finally got fed up with working in a dirty, abusive, work environment and began working from home. It was a scary change for me as I was leaving a place I had been working for seven years, but I knew it was change I needed. The doctor's office I was working was wearing me down by exploitive management who was paying me only 8.36 dollars an hour and abusive patients who called me foul names each day.

I left that place and never looked back. The only regret was not doing it sooner.

In the six months since I left, my mental health has recovered, I feel appreciated at work, and I am able to perform self-care in exercise, nail art, and coloring my hair. Not to mention, I am getting paid so much more so I'm in a much better place financially. I feel as if I have better control of my life since leaving that hateful place.

I've also taken a dive into GMing games. I currently have two games going. Odyssey of the Dragonlords for my RL group and Avatar Legends for my online group. I think to be a great GM means enjoying telling stories, but also being flexible and open to sudden changes in the narrative.

Also this year, I began Beautiful Trauma, which allowed me to create Bjorn, a Viking bear Sinner. Oddly enough, I originally meant for him to be some dumb jock who'd want to challenge MC to a fight and be obsessed with fighting her again, not out of love or lust, just because he's such a sore looser, but when I began writing him, he turned into Bjorn instead. My lonely, Viking Bear who's suffering from the ennui of living for so long.

Well, since 2023 is going to be Hazbin Hotel's year, I think it's going to be a pretty great year for me.

Happy New Year!!!!

#Happy New Year

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she-who-fights-and-writes · 3 years

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Stumbling upon your blog must be my lucky lucky day 😊 I've looked through your FAQ and didnt see anything addressing a pantser plotting a story so... Hopefully this ask is ok! If not, I'm sorry to bother. I'm a pantser, not a plotter but I have an idea for a long fic. How should I go about it without losing interest..? Maybe interest isn't quite the right word. Cause one time I had an idea, I plotted it with beats but then lost interest / got too intimidated by it... Thank you in advance!

Plotting for Pantsers and Pantsing for Plotters

For those of you who don't already know, when it comes to beginning a new project, the writing world consists of two very different groups of people: plotters and pansters.

Plotters meticulously outline their stories from start to finish, and although they benefit from cohesive, streamlined work, they often hit a wall of writer's block and lose creativity from over-plotting.

Pansters just go with the flow, and despite the freedom that allows them to write whatever they want and boosts writing motivation, their stories often suffer from lack of cohesion and can take a while to get to the point.

In order to make a long project, such as a fanfic or a novel, as successful as it can be, you need to be a mix of both.

You need to plot in order to make sure you don't over/underwrite and can optimize your narrative, while also leaving room for flexibility that allows you to make your own creative decisions and prevent writer's block.

Here's how to do it. It's all in the outline.

Unfortunately for pantsers, all long works should have an outline so you know what points you have to hit along the way.

Unfortunately for plotters, it's restricting and unnecessary to have every single detail planned to a T.

A simple "here's whats going to happen in this chapter" should be enough. It doesn't have to be long. Hell, it can just be one bullet point! But as long as you have a general idea of what needs to happen, you can make the rest.

This leaves enough structure for plotters but enough wiggle room for pantsers!

An example:

Chapter 1

Bar scene

Introduce Character A

Talk with Character B

Foreshadow Character B's betrayal

See? This is a very, very loose idea of what's going to happen in this chapter.

In fact, this is just a list of all the things that HAVE TO happen to make the story go forward; you can still add your own things to it to make it your own!

Tell yourself what is going to happen. Not how it's going to happen.

#writing #writing tips #writing advice #writing help #writing reference #writing resources #creative writing #writeblr #booklr #writers #writer #plotting #plot #plotters #pantsers #outlining

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googledocsdyke · 3 years

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which individual angels are doing drag? an investigation

anna is just trans. like drag and trans are not mutually exclusive but anna is very much trans and not doing drag. she falls into humanity, rebukes being an angel entirely, is literally reborn into a specific human gender and body which she did not previously have and is entirely “hers.” it’s so straightforwardly a transition metaphor she literally went on e got surgery moved to an entirely different continent and lived stealth. verdict: not drag

benjamin is not doing drag but he IS doing this fascinating thing where he allows his vessel to maintain like. a conscious self. that is gendered differently than he is. and they are in active conversation and have like a Relationship. within the world of the show this is just him not doing possession and staying in his chill angel nongender, but it is readable as a metaphor for like. trans dissociation. “he’s an angel his vessel is a woman” washing your hands clean of your gendered body and the way it’s read by the world and being like that’s NOT me that’s a separate thing entirely. it’s kinda hashtag born in the wrong body which i have big political problems with as a narrative but like it’s there. verdict: not drag

raphael despite being only one of two angels to switch gendered vessels is not doing drag because he is not doing gender, he is doing power. like most of the other angels he is using vessels as like an indifferent tool he literally just happens to take two (differently gendered) vessels instead of one. obviously the narrative is not as blasé about this as he is and there are some weird anxious transmisogynistic comments about it from dean and crowley (with their silly human genders) but nevertheless: not drag because raphael does not care about gender and performing.

also, the fact that raphael and benjamin are 2/3rds of the Black angels on the entire show and are both gendered in a way that’s non-normative/flexible/fluid is really interesting in the context of what c. riley snorton calls the “fungibility” of Black gender which is “revisable within blackness as a condition of possibility” (fungible = “able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable”). obviously like all gender, the gendering, and drag or lack thereof, on the show is inextricable from race.

if raphael is doing not gender but power, then ishim is doing gender but not drag. like most of the male-vesseled angels are incidentally a man but ishim is a man in a way that’s VERY important to the story of lily sunder which is like specifically about the abuse and control he has/had over her and the way he engages with her as a woman. ishim does gender because it’s a convenient way to get to power in v disturbing ways. however: not drag

hannah actually is kind of doing drag! like part of this is just the fact that she keeps her incongruously feminine name while in her second vessel, but also with canonically gay cas who rejects her advances right before kshdjkfkds it’s like. she’s like Oh Fuck i need to consciously Do A Gender that is not “my own” rn. the wikipedia page for hannah’s unnamed second vessel refers to her with she/her pronouns even as she possesses “the man”. the show DELIBERATELY avoids gendering her in her second vessel which is so fucking funny. but like. hannah does problematic drag she’s a het woman drag king who hits on gay men when she’s dragged up and complains about there being too many gays on the drag circuit/the oppression she faces as a straight performer. fucking obsessed with her. verdict: drag

gabriel IS doing drag here’s my take. obviously by now we’re moving further from the text and closer into fun times. anyways the trickster is gabriel’s drag persona. like so much of drag is marked by a lack of self-seriousness and a willingness to lampoon both oneself and gender and literally just fuck around and produce elaborate constructs. gabriel never takes himself seriously, has an elaborate persona to fuck with people, creates absurd fantastical worlds with deeply exaggerated Roles for sam and dean and also a literal audience. also, short king. absolutely: drag

cas is doing drag until he transitions. like he gets close enough to humanity to have a particular kind of investment in the gendered form he’s doing, and though he’s not Performing Exaggerated Maleness in the way that dean and less so sam do, he kind of gets closer to understanding what gender signifies and caring about the (gendered) body he inhabits. obviously falling for dean is a big part of him starting to care about/do gender to a degree — desire binds him closer to gender, it’s all very andrea long chu “i have never been able to differentiate liking [men] from wanting to be like them.” anyways he kind of does drag for a bit until he eventually just transitions and becomes gay and trans at the same time. and has like. a very sincere but not exaggerated or performed relationship to like Oh this is my body and i have a gender and i live here. verdict: drag, until it’s not

bonus round: miriam is doing drag because i like her

official drag count: 2.5

#aaaaaand scene #indebted to ziz for deeply helping me hash this out last week #sasha.txt #spn #re: angel gender #it's JUST so fucking interesting #also miriam WILL be doing drag in my banesnatural #spn er&m

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felassan · 3 years

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DA4 Lead Producer Scylla Costa’s BIG Festival talk, “Challenges of Dragon Age production during the pandemic”, can currently be rewatched on YouTube here starting roughly at timestamp 8:57:02 after a lil presenter blurb/intro. It’s 1 hour long. When it was streamed live, there was an English translation ‘voiceover’. There isn’t in this vid, however I want to post the link for Portuguese speakers, and also it’s neat for everyone to be able to see all the slides he presented with for themselves in context.

I don’t know if an English-language version will get put up so I’m sharing the notes I took during the talk below, in case anyone’s interested and because I might as well since I wrote them. The rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

Edit: Found a place to re-watch the English version of the talk

(Quick note: I didn’t note down everything, mostly things that caught my interest, so this isn’t exhaustive, and when I was watching I was real tired, so pls bear that in mind and don’t take these notes as bullet-proof 100% accurate gospel or direct quotes. If you watched it and think I’ve written down something wrong/misunderstood, let me know and I’ll fix. Also if you’re a Portuguese speaker and I’ve gotten something incorrect or missed something important etc, again just let me know.) **

** Edit: I’ve now gone through my notes while watching the talk again. I’ve filled in some of the gaps (although they still don’t cover everything said) and so forth, and now I’m no longer worried about there being possible errors in this post.

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For some context, this slide contained the breakdown of the talk’s structure. Bear in mind there are other slides present in the talk than the ones I’ve posted here, I didn’t include caps of all of them, just ones which were of note to me.

In the talk, chief Producer Scylla goes over challenges of DA4 production during the pandemic. He discusses the adaptations - necessary skills and learning from remote work - and he ponders on the future of teamwork.

After the launch of ME3 he became a producer, all his MMO and other experience helped a lot. He was on DAI for 3 years and MEA for 9 months, then Anthem. Today, on DA4, Scylla and another Lead Producer were the heads of the whole project, and there is his boss is the Executive Producer Christian Dailey.

^ the usual AAA game development cycle (brief introduction)

AAA games are games that are launched for several platforms simultaneously.

In BioWare’s case, the pre-production phase of the game development cycle can have from 5 - 30 people, and up to almost 60 people when they’re just about to go through the gate to production.

In the pre-production phase, they go through the game’s concepts and prototypes and start developing systems. They seek the game’s concept and focus, and its key features. They do lots of market research. In the case of BioWare, all their games are strong in narrative, so they have lots of tools related to game narratives and supporting the development of a narrative (cinematic design, dialogue system etc) that get focused on in this phase. Other parts of the team such as writers and cinematic design need these systems to do their own roles.

In BioWare’s case, the pre-production phase through to launch can take 4 - 6 years, but it does depend on the size of the team during development.

With regards to Dragon Age 4, they were coming close to the time when they would shift from pre-production to the production stage when the pandemic hit.

During the production phase is when the development of content and features takes place, with the systems mostly already existing from the pre-production phase. A few new systems may be developed in this phase. In the production phase is when things start escalating, and the team really starts growing, to like 2- or 3-fold the prior pre-production phase size.

(DA4 is currently in the production phase.)

In the alpha phase, features have to be fully implemented and systems all have to be running / working. All the game features should already be in the game by now. They test from pre-production onwards, but this phase is when they run heavy technical tests with lots of players trying to play at the same time. In the beta phase, the idea is that you should now have full content and that now you’re balancing it and running more and lots of different tests with players before launch. There are final tweaks and then the final launch, when in the weeks prior to launch, all the different business units and areas e.g. marketing team, technology team, publishing team, get together once a day and all of the game’s issues are reported and brought to the table to be prioritized. Then they decide the next steps re: these issues (this is known as ‘the war room’).

After the launch there are usually patches like day zero patches and other patches, this being standard industry practise. The last stage is the new content stage where there are DLCs and a game with more content.

On March 12th 2020, the team gathered to review the DA4 story in the new office. Everyone was very excited. (They had spent over 10 years in their last building and had noticed that with the team growing they needed more space. In August 2019 they found the new studio in the city center.)

Anyway that evening, they got an email from the CEO which contained instructions and said that due to the pandemic, they should from now all start working remotely. They had known that this happening was a possibility so they had been planning on how to have all the devs working from home, but initially less than 50% of the devs were able to work from home successfully/efficiently due to various issues e.g. you need a VPN to be able to log in remotely to do your job normally, varying home office setups. The day after this, the office was basically deserted, except for Scylla, the IT infrastructure people and one or two odd devs.

Scylla was part of the team that was working on allowing the devs to work from home. They first started looking at the short-term changes they needed to make to allow this.

“First, take care of our developers”.

When the pandemic first hit, their and Scylla’s [as Lead Producer] first priority was to look after the devs. Many of them are parents (schools and day-cares were shut, children were studying from home), others have relatives living with them, others have other personal circumstances which of course need to be taken into account when it comes to assessing what needs to be taken into consideration for this new scenario. So, they looked at each dev on a case-by-case basis in order to evaluate, speaking to each one and asking them what they could do to support them.

One of the first changes/adaptations they could implement was flexible working hours and flexibility around deadlines. Generally speaking the devs got a lot of support, EA was really good and really supported the devs especially in the first months of the pandemic (and they are still supporting them). Initially not all devs had suitable office spaces at home, some were working from the living room from laptops or at the kitchen table. The whole covid situation basically just happened over night and nobody was really ready to deal with that change. So their first step was to enable their devs to work remotely. As a producer, Scylla’s main task is to communicate with the team such as via a number of daily meetings. He doesn’t depend so much on powerful hardware.

“Enable developers to work remotely”.

This slide shows some of a BioWare audio team. Different teams have varying and specific needs in order to do their jobs and therefore in order to do them remotely. For example, the audio team need good-quality speakers and amplifiers, while the lighting and art teams need other specific equipment such as tablets and large screens. So there was a lot of work they had to do to go through each dev to understand their individual needs and what needed to be done for them. ‘Could they download the builds? Did they have the right performance [tech-wise]? Could they submit their changelists, their codes to the server?’

Some devs needed a more powerful internet connection as it would take 6-8 hours to download a build (some devs live rurally). Some needed a lot of cable, as they were working far away from their routers (sometimes up to 50m). As time went by things got better and better.

The chair devs work from is also important; a kitchen able chair etc is not suitable to sit in for long-term desk work, possibly leading to health issues like back ache and blood circulation problems in the legs.

Every 3 months they had money given to help devs buy new mice, keyboards, monitors - anything they needed really in order for their office setting at home to be improved. For a while, because lots of people [generally, in society] were needing and buying them, it was quite hard to buy things like webcams and microphones.

On mid- and long-term changes:

In terms of DA, we have to look at this from 2 perspectives, the change in the personal and the professional environments.

As a consequence of working from home, people tend to be less active during the day (even in an office, you go between meeting rooms, up and down stairs etc). Physical activity supports life quality and therefore work quality. Scylla noticed that he began to feel listless and such, and found that he needed to change his routine that he had initially developed when he started working from home, for example; having a normal start time (as in, have a semblance of structure in your day as if you were still working in the office site), get dressed at the normal time, not having meetings over lunch etc. This wasn’t just him, lots of other devs encountered this and had this experience too. Devs which adapted faster had better productivity and became more productive faster.

Scylla bought a stand-up desk which he can raise up and down, and at meetings he would be delivering a talk while standing or even while walking on a treadmill. Other devs also got stand-up desks. He tracked his body’s data on a Fitbit. These sorts of things helped improve physical and mental wellbeing. Other devs did similar things, like starting going out for jogs or began practising yoga. Essentially, everyone needed to make changes to their daily routine in comparison to what they had been doing prior to the pandemic.

The pandemic has been a thing for over a year now. In their location, every couple of weeks a new restriction is put into place or a rule is changed, and every two weeks there’s a new thing that you can and can’t do. Scylla also started moving around his property. He worked on his desk, fixed it up and painted - taking up a new hobby. Other devs picked up new hobbies too. These are good ways to be active and also to be somewhere else, i.e. to break up the working day and not be spending it all in one home office-type location. Scylla found that when he made these sorts of changes to his routine to improve his lifestyle, the data output by his Fitbit as indicators of his health/wellbeing etc improved, e.g. number of steps taken in a day, heartbeats per minute while at rest. As stated many of the other devs went through a similar process.

On the professional side of things:

They had to improve remote delivery of builds. Accessing things from home as a dev requires a VPN. They need to download a build every day and then upload it to the server after making their changes to the game. They had to work with infrastructure and research other tech, such as streaming tech to allow remote console access, in order to better facilitate this process. For remote access, they also had to work on adapting communications channels.

“Adapting channels of communication.”

In this slide, the team are working on the storyboards. Before you can implement motion capture & performance capture, you have to ‘run the storyboards’ like this. These are small illustrating drawings which reflect the drafts and are meant to quickly reflect the intention of the scenes that are to be built. Before the pandemic, the team would go to meeting rooms like this, sit down, talk and interact in person. After the pandemic, the question became ‘How do you do this over Zoom?’ You can, but it’s not quite the same; it’s harder to see peoples’ expressions, some people are embarrassed speaking over Zoom etc. Therefore they had to adapt their communications systems, and unlearn the ways in which they developed before in order to relearn and learn new ways of communicating.

Slack was a tool that they adopted on this front. Communications channels can be confusing on Slack, so there was a need to develop structure. For example, how quickly should someone reply (as a recommended convention for the purposes of work)? They had to define the process/procedures for the channels so it was clear for the team as a whole how it would all flow (this is important especially if you have a team with say 30 people or as a whole hundreds of people). Before the pandemic, they had stand-up meetings where they’d go around in a circle every morning and talk about their activities - what they’re going to be working on, any roadblocks they had encountered etc. The question arose ‘How do you replace these?’ They ended up doing Slack messages at a certain time of day and updating their statuses with some details on what they’re working on and color-coding (green - fine, yellow - need help, red - busy/blocked out).

Another issue that they faced was unforeseen - the number of meetings that devs were having really shot through the roof. When there wasn’t a good structure of communications channels, any conversation would become a meeting. Everybody began scheduling meetings left and right, and at the end of the day they would have little time left in which to actually work on their to-do lists. Hence, they had to work with the team to really analyze and be very pragmatic. ‘Which meetings needed to happen? Which didn’t? Is a specific meeting really necessary? Which meetings should be recurring? What can be done over Slack?’ This guideline had to be given to the team to help, and it improved things a lot. The number of meetings decreased a lot and they got more effective. For example, by making sure to set an agenda for meetings beforehand, and by having meeting notes (then a dev who didn’t really need to be at a meeting could skip attending and just quickly review the notes output after instead). They also decreased the standard length of meeting times from the default Outlook blocks of 1 hour and 30 mins to 55 mins and 25 mins respectively. This 5 minute change gave devs time for things like bio breaks (also 4 hours in a row at a computer in a home office with one meeting after another just isn’t good for a person).

“Adapting p-cap and mocap”.

On content:

From a content point of view, the most difficult thing in terms of the pandemic was adapting p-cap and mocap (performance capture and motion capture). They hire actors and it’s a large studio. The pandemic meant big limits to what they could and couldn’t do. The actors had to be masked and 5 meters apart in distance (although it doesn’t look like it in some of these shots due to angles). Also there could be no other person around in the studio - only the actors. The directors instead would ‘patch’ in remotely on big screens (you can see this in the second photo in the top right).

Before the pandemic, they felt that they wouldn’t be able to do p-cap or mocap properly remotely, as the directors would usually stand right next to actors giving guidance on their performance. The techs would also usually be near. But they adapted! The keyword is adapting, changing process. It’s harder and it’s different, but it is possible, and people start rethinking what is possible. What was said to be impossible before now is possible.

P-cap differs to mocap in that it also captures voice and facial expressions.

On the future of work after covid:

There will probably be more working from home and more flexibility for workers e.g. being able to work say 3 out of 5 days from home. It does depend on what a dev’s specific job is however. For example, the audio engineers require lots of specialist equipment and said equipment is of higher quality and quantity in the office. So, depending on role, devs might be working more often or less often from home.

Another development is that lots of devs are moving house. In lockdown etc people started reassessing what’s most important in life. Some are moving further away from the studio to get a cheaper rent or for example couples who both needed an office space to work from home from but their current place only had one area. Others are moving closer to nature for a better quality of life, and still others have other different reasons for doing so. Over 10 devs that he knows in fact have recently moved, including Scylla himself.

The pandemic changed certain skills being used by people on a daily basis. Scylla used as an example of this one of his soft skills, being able to tell from looking/interacting in-person with someone if they are stressed out. Obviously it’s less easy to tell if someone is stressed out when you’re remote, so you adapt different ways of checking in with people in the new situation. To continue carrying out his role as Lead Producer, he began checking in with his team pro-actively on the new comms channels and asking how they were doing.

Also, now that companies are more open to working remotely, there is going to be increased competition for hiring devs. They saw both sides of this coin at BioWare. They were able to hire devs from many places that they couldn’t hire from before e.g. Montreal, Vancouver, the US, as there’s less need for devs to relocate to Edmonton or Austin. This opens up opportunities to hire really intelligent and skilled people that they would not have had access to before.

Question and answer segment:

The pre-production phase has been concluded. They’re in the production phase.

They are not giving out a lot of details yet but Scylla is really excited as a big fan of the whole series. He thinks that with DA4, they will have the opportunity/possibility to launch the best story out of all DA games. He feels that the characters they’re making are amazing. He’s dying to say more but can’t.

When you work from home you need to keep your team as productive as possible. During the pandemic, when people started working from home, they noticed that some people became more productive and some people became less productive. They were analyzing it on a case-by-case basis so as not to make assumptions. They were interested in seeing what they could do to help. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were looking at the devs as people and seeing what they needed.

Production of DA4 still needed to continue during the pandemic because they want to be able to launch the game.

This slide shows a writer. Writing is an example of a role which is more able to work from home easily.

Their productivity did go down in the first month of the pandemic. After adaptations, some people then became more productive than they were before (this was role and personal situation-dependent, examples of this being artists and coders who were able to art and code at home without being interrupted, thereby being able to produce more). Covid has affected productivity in general, but this is part of our new reality. They have adapted and adjusted some deadlines. They have enough data (Scylla LOVES data) now to understand how long it will take them/how long they’ll need to launch the game. They have always had historical data for this purpose, but they’re doing more of this sort of thing now to ensure that they are doing things at the right time.

Remote hiring opens up the door to more talent joining, so if someone has talent geography will hold them back less. Some companies though may choose not to hire people from other countries due to labor issues, cumbersome legal aspects, time zones. But even in such cases there are activities for example that can be carried out while the rest of the team is asleep such as testing or working on the build, or there are cases where those companies still will want to hire a specifically/highly talented person even in spite of the potential legal aspects and so on.

On mental health: People were affected. There is the mental, physical and social impacts of the pandemic situation on people. EA supported them during the pandemic in terms of their mental wellbeing, there are specific companies (services offered, speaking to a therapist) that they can contact if they need something or help. EA had always been good at supporting them with this sort of thing but this has improved further during the pandemic. Another change was that they could/can take a couple of days off if they needed/need to because of the pandemic e.g. to take care of children, who were obviously not at school at the time. As a producer he had to be very mindful of all of this. How much they were monitoring peoples’ wellbeing really went up during the pandemic.

A question that was asked - in terms of DA4′s storybeats, is there anything in there that they decided to change due to the pandemic as it wouldn’t be sensitive or appropriate to include anymore, for example a plague plotline or something? Scylla’s answer is that DA and ME are games in which they try to have narratives that are relatable, which include things which people will identify with, so that players understand what characters are going through etc. Nothing in DA4′s plotline/storybeats has been changed (in the frame of this question, relating to the pandemic), as it didn’t have anything in it that could be specifically or a directly connected to a pandemic-type situation or anything. Of course the DA story has Blights and the Taint, but these are different & fantastical things and existed long before the pandemic situation. So this wasn’t the case with DA4 and there was no need to change anything, but this has happened to other games where they decided to change a storyline due to a strong correlation with something in the real world.

There were then concluding/closing remarks. The message he wants to send is that a crisis will always spark opportunities. Look at a crisis and try to see how you can grow.

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[☕ found this post interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #covid mention #long post #longpost #wanted to write these up properly and post them yesterday but wasn't able to #mass effect #anthem

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genuineformality · 3 years

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HIIIIII

Number 2 please!

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

This happens to me all the time.

When I write, I generally have a vague plan. I know where I'm headed and usually at least some of the story beats. If I get stuck, I'll put a note on the scene that I'm writing in big red letters "COME BACK TO THIS" and then go to another part of the story.

I try not to let myself be too bound by my outlines, though, and if I start writing and discover that I've wound up in a wildly different place than I thought I was going to be, I pause, retool, and give it another go.

(Sidebar: Running a *lot* of RPGs has really taught me flexibility in storytelling in a way that I never had as a younger writer, so even if I haven't written a lot of self-directed fiction in a long time, I feel like I'm a better writer overall.)

Exit Strategy got away from me almost immediately. My goal in that story was to demonstrate to Kaz that his Post-Rollins Plan (get more money, more power, to do... what, exactly?) wasn't doing him any favors.

I introduced an older character, one who could have been Kaz if things had gone just a little differently. And my original plan of having Kaz talk to him in jail and then have big thoughts and feelings didn't really work.

And then Kaz grabbed the wheel and made it real fucking clear that there was no way he was going to allow himself to be manipulated by a washed up crook, which is how we wound up with a murder in a story that was never intended to have one.

#ask games #six of crows #fanfic #kaz brekker #writing #about the author

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the-dragongirl · 4 years

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Hello tumblr. I have returned from a long period of inactivity, because I must bring the good word to the corner of the Star Wars fandom that used to be my main fannish home: there is a new era of Star Wars canon that was made just for our taste. It is called the High Republic.

WHAT IS THE HIGH REPUBLIC?

The High Republic is an giant multi-media project being carried out by the Lucasfilm story group to create a brand new era of Star Wars canon. It is set a few hundred years before the prequel era (so, a long time after the Old Republic era), in a period of peace and stability within the Republic. It currently includes several English language adult novels, a YA novel, two serialized comics, a manga, some short stories, and some short video blurbs published on facebook and youtube. A TV show for Disney+ has also been announced, but is a few years off. This project is unique in Star Wars, in that all of the different parts are being written together by one writing team, and are coordinated to tell a cohesive story. Also, what has been announced is just the beginning – they have stated that there will be three different sections of the High Republic, and everything we have had announced so far is just part one. As a note: this is an era for which there was NO pre-existing canon in Legends, so it is totally new territory.

OKAY, THAT’S NICE, BUT WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TO CHECK IT OUT?

There are SO many reasons why the High Republic is worth your time to explore. I will try to outline some of them here below the cut (without any significant spoilers).

IT IS A LOVE LETTER TO THE JEDI

This is the era for everyone who loves the Jedi and wants to understand how they got to the point they did in the prequel era. It shows Jedi at their best: saving people, working together, being completely in tune with the Force (in so many beautiful and original ways), demonstrating creativity and flexibility and being rewarded for it, actually thinking through the ethics of things like the mind trick, and DEALING with their emotions rather than repressing them. It shows us how the rigid Jedi culture was saw in the prequels was a corruption of something that was originally healthy and uplifting. Jedi in this era are allowed to be flawed, and to grow, and have a community that supports them in doing so. This is the Jedi culture so many of us created as fix it fic for the prequel era, but made canon.

IT IS AN ERA OF HOPE

There are some serious problems in the High Republic Era. Without spoilers, the era opens with a terrible humanitarian crisis, laid over the Republic equivalent of the New Deal from US history. We see a lot of examples of people doing their best to be good to each other, and working for a more just and kind galaxy. They acknowledge that things are not perfect, but people from many different backgrounds (Jedi, politicians, farmers, pilots, business people) work together to try and make things better. I don’t know about you all, but with the darkness we see in the world today, I NEED some of that optimism in my escapist media. The High Republic provides that.

IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELINGS

The existing material so far is structured to really let you emotionally invest in the characters and their struggles. Unlike with many eras of Star Wars canon, characterization is not sacrificed for the sake of plot (though never fear, there is PLENTY of plot). That means there is huge scope for empathy. I’m not going to lie; I cried within the first three chapters of Light of the Jedi, as did several other people I know. It is POIGNANT in a way that feels truly genuine.

IT IS FUN

The writing team understands that, in the end, Star Wars is space fantasy. If your space fantasy is nothing but serious, gritty grimdark, it becomes pretentious and unbearable. So, for all that there is some heavy content in the High Republic (VERY heavy content – the Nihil should really have their own content warning), it has many moments of levity that keep it from taking itself too seriously. For example, the High Republic made Jedi bodice rippers canon. Also, characters like Geode exist (yes, that rock there is a CHARACTER). The result is something which honors the spirit of Star Wars, and keeps you engaged without being tedious or ridiculously depressing.

THE WRITING TEAM HAS DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

The main writing team consists of five people: Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott. You will note that includes two people of color, two women, and one out Queer person (in fact, one of the writers is all three of those things). This is a far cry from the white-cis-straight-man-dominated writing teams we have seen in the past. And when they bring in other people to the project, they make a point of looking for perspectives that aren’t represented on their team – for example, the manga is being co-written between Justina Ireland and Japanese writer Shima Shinya, and Ireland has stated in interviews that Shinya is taking the lead on the writing.

IT VALUES MEANINGFUL REPRESENTATION

That diverse writing team means a cast that looks WAY more like the real world than any other era of Star Wars we’ve seen, in terms of representation. There are multiple characters of color, who are both heroes and central to the story. There are at least five canonical queer characters to date (a MLM couple, an Ace character, and two NB character). [EDIT: Thank you @legok9 for letting me know about the NB characters]. Among binary gendered characters, there is a very even balance of men and women. The writing team has also stated that they will be incorporating more representation of disability in the works to come. And the story is so much better for it – representation is included here BECAUSE it makes for more creative, believable, and original storytelling.

IT IS ACCESSIBLE

Because of the multiple formats, and the fact that it doesn’t rely on you knowing any prior lore, the High Republic offers many avenues to engage for people with all kinds of needs. Know nothing about Star Wars canon and feel intimidated about catching up? The canon is all new in this era anyway, so you’re fine. Can’t handle flashing lights? No problem – the little bit of video content that exists is totally free from the strobing effects that caused seizure and sensory issues. Need purely audio content? You can still have a full experience of the High Republic with the gorgeously sound-scaped audiobooks. Don’t have the attention span for books or long movies? Then the comics are your friend.

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR ALL

Between the books aimed towards adults and teens (and their respective audiobooks), the kids books, the comics, the manga, the short stories, AND the eventual TV show on Disney+, there is going to be content in the High Republic that suits most audiences. And that is just what has been announced so far – there is still more to come for phases II and III. This isn’t Star Wars written towards one group or demographic – it is Star Wars for everyone.

DID I MENTION THE FANCY JEDI UNIFORMS?

Because cosplayers and fanartists? This is the era for you. We are getting Jedi in silks with elaborate gold embroidery. Jedi with jewelry other decorative elements. Even the practical field uniforms have tooled and embossed leather. If you want to draw or make Jedi that have some of that that sweet LoTR-esque high fantasy aesthetic, the High Republic has your back. (Not going to lie – I am ALREADY imagining the time travel AUs. Put Obi-Wan in fancy clothes!)

OKAY, YOU’VE SOLD ME. WHERE SHOULD I START?

I strongly recommend everyone looking to get into the High Republic (who is old enough to be on Tumblr) start with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. I alternated between the physical book and the audio book, and found it delightful in both formats. After that, you have a lot of options. You can read or listen to the audio book of the YA novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. You can check out the currently running Star Wars: The High Republic comic from Marvel, or the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic from IDW. Or you can skip straight to Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. Honestly, there is no wrong order to try out most of the High Republic.

IN CONLUSION

The High Republic is Star Wars written for people who DON’T want Star Wars to be a good ‘ol boys club for salty white dudes who don’t want to see anything but more of Luke Skywalker. It offers broad representation, and optimistic narrative, and whole bunch of awesome Jedi content. If you are someone who fell in love with Jedi in the prequel era, the High Republic will give you more of what you loved. And if you are totally new to Star Wars? The High Republic is here for you too.

So, go check it. And then go write fic for it (please, there are only, like, 14 fics on AO3, I am dying).

#star wars #the high republic #jedi #long post #recs #book recs #representation #seriously I cannot recommend this highly enough #everything about the high republic is so very tailored to what I love about star wars in general and Jedi specifically #also...sorry I had been absent here #I swear I still love you all #I just have limited interaction spoons these days and spend most of them on costuming stuff

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ciaran-archive · 3 years

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Serious question. How do you write long stories? Is there a technique or advice for that? No matter what story I have in mind, I can't seem to tell it in anything longer than 1 to 2k. Writing 5k is tiring already, where do people seriously get that stamina to even do 50 or 100 or 200k? It's mind-blowingly amazing.

there is nothing less worthy or amazing about writing shorter fic - i know writers who struggle with it, and i’ve come to inhabit that position somewhat myself, though i’m determined to stay in practice. it’s a different skillset, that’s all. your fics aren’t worse for being shorter.

that said i will not deny that longer fics generate far more engagement from fandoms simply by virtue of updating more often → being on top of the ao3 tag when people first open it → getting more clicks and being considered less ‘frivolous’ (which is bullshit, but what can you do)

if you’re dead sure you want to write longer fic, i would first recommend reading this post about writing drabbles, which i promise is relevant to the point i’m about to make.

Because drabbles are about one moment. You don't need to know exactly what happened before this moment of dialogue, or what happens next, or what's happening around it. You don't have to do any of the planning you might do for a longer fic, but you also don't have the space to let the scene lead in and develop naturally. You've got 100 words.

a lot of writing a longer story is about establishing the scope of your story, deciding what beats you want to hit. there are a lot of ways to go about this; [some people like to outline. i don’t outline, ever, so if you want help for outlining you should look at the other sources on the internet. there are quite a few.] i’m going to talk about the way i’ve learnt to do it.

so when i’m writing a short fic, the thing i’m considering is one or two ideas, and one or two moments (short in this case being under 5k). this also depends on the style i’m going for - fics with sparser styles can fit more scenes, if i’m going for my usual style, each scene takes about 700-2000 words at least and therefore takes up more space. a lot of how i eased into writing longer fics was focusing on stylistic changes - you can push up the word count of a fic by going moment by moment. note the difference between:

They’d been standing next to each other as they spoke; now Felix turned to him in the rain, startled by the admission of weakness. He reached out clumsily, bumping his hand against Ryan’s until he took the hint and grabbed on.

and

The rain made it near-impossible to hear Ryan speaking, but the harshness in his voice would’ve been audible through a hurricane. “So you ran away,” he said, like he hadn’t expected this.

“Course I did,” Felix snapped. “What was I supposed to do? Stick it out and let her kill me?” I almost did, he added under his breath.

Ryan’s sensitive werewolf ears, of course, caught that. “I’m glad you did,” he amended, as though it pained him to admit it. “I would’ve - I did the same. It’s all you can do, sometimes.”

Felix turned to him, blinking through the curtains of water. Ryan was slouching in the downpour, eyes narrowed elsewhere. Mostly he was startled by the admission of weakness - rare in a person who prided himself so thoroughly on being reliable and independent. He reached out, struck by the urge to offer whatever clumsy comfort he was capable of; his hand bumped against Ryan’s, and he held it there until Ryan caught up and wove their fingers together.

His hands were wet and cold, and he gripped so hard Felix’s very human bones ached, but he wouldn’t have pulled away now. Not when he’d been the one to offer.

it’s not even that one is necessarily better than the other - they both work, and they’re working in different ways. they’re set in the same scene, conveying the same beat - reaching out to comfort someone in the wake of vulnerability. it’s just that one is longer, and therefore gives you more room to - set the scene (rain, being unable to hear each other) - use dialogue to show what is being told in the first example - convey extra information about the characters (actually, if this was a scene i was writing in a fic or novel, the stuff about ryan being a werewolf would already be known to the reader, so i would use that space to convey something else about ryan in that moment) - elaborate on felix’s internal state: the transition from defensive to curious/surprised to gentle - linger for a sentence or two on the moment of connection

this is about unraveling a scene and making it bigger than it was, breaking it apart into tinier beats and describing each one in the narrative. what happens when you do that and your fic doesn’t get much bigger still?

back to scope! we understand, as people who read and write and live, that the part of a story that you choose to depict in a narrative is not the entire story: events happen off-screen. some of them happened before the story started, and they will continue to happen after the story ends. the narrative is only showing you an arc, a particular series of events.

when you’re writing fic, you have in fact tremendous amounts of flexibility when it comes to the scope of a story. you can write something that is about a single moment in canon, and trust that your audience is following along because they have the context already. so you don’t need to waste time on setting it up, which often means - if you’re given to a certain kind of fic writing (canon compliant / small divergences / missing scenes / character studies) your fics will end up not being very long because you’re not reiterating what you don’t need to reiterate. your idea is small because it inhabits a small space, is squished between canon events, and so doesn’t ever get bigger. if this is what is happening, it’s good, and you should try to preserve this going forward.

people who are writing longer fic are, simply, working with bigger ideas*. they’re not just going “what if he said what he wanted in this scene instead of going home?” and writing the bit where they kiss immediately after - they’re also going “what if this changed everything in the future? what happens if they tackle all their problems together from now on? what new problems arise from this?”

*hopefully they are working with bigger ideas. i have seen longfics that are just incredibly fucking tedious because the author swallowed a thesaurus and had a tenuous grasp on plotting to begin with.

that’s for a canon divergent fic, presumably. you might also be writing a post-canon fic, with its own set of pre-fic events and a new set of problems to deal with. currently, for example, i’m writing a fic where akira and goro were dating after canon, broke up, and stayed together in a deeply dysfunctional way after that - and the consequences for them now that they’re forced to deal with the mess they’ve made of their lives, together and apart. so now they have to deal with: the catalyst for dealing with their old problems, which is a problem in itself, and their old problems, which have been festering for a really long time.

which forms the core of the scope i’m talking about. i have to go through a bunch of scenes to set this fic up - i need to show their old problems and their new problems, i need to explain why the old ones haven’t been dealt with already, i need to set up the potential for dealing with them and the necessity of doing so, i need to give them places to start, and also i want to allow them to fail so they can choose to start again. i know these things because i have some idea of the kind of story i want to tell. if i didn’t know this, my story would not go anywhere by itself, and i would have to start outlining scene by scene the way people who actually outline do it, and i hate doing that because then i never write.

if you can outline and it doesn’t make you want to chew wood, then i highly recommend picking up the habit. it’s very useful, and the methodical approach is a fantastic failsafe for the moments when you (me) get stuck on your fic (breakup au) and have to stop writing for several weeks in order to figure out a single fucking plot point that will let you move forward and

anyway.

so yeah! to sum up;

find a larger scope for your story

get in the habit of picking apart beats into discrete moments and guiding the narrative through them

learn to outline if you can

last thing - which is perhaps the most vital and least reliable - stamina.

you WILL lose interest in half the longer fics you write. it WILL suck. if you think you know pain because you have 700 words of a fic and can’t get through the last 400, i promise you it is like that but much worse because you have 7000 words now, or 17000 words, and you are stuck with no way forward. it will suck so BAD.

don’t beat yourself up over it. once you’re in the habit of writing something long, you will retain that habit, and be able to apply it elsewhere. the words aren’t wasted, they’re practice, and they’re worth what they’ve taught you.

but! all the scope and internal scene-building and outlines won’t help you if you do not (and this is not as bad as everyone makes it sound) actually write. you HAVE to learn to actually write. you have to figure out what you like about writing and make a longfic outline [/ scene beats notes chart / themes mind map / tumblr tag of inspiring quotes and photography] that consists entirely of stuff you love and then you have to sit down and write your fic. it is not terribly scary. it’s okay to fail, but you also have no way around this.

i hope this helped, and good luck!

#writelogging #ok 2 rb #anon #asks

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