#writing fundamentals

[sillygoblinantics]

Just minding my business trying to get myself in the groove of Bonnie’s day out and….

Do I have permission to just use the “that’s you Lily” art?

Lily you’ve shown to never appreciate a story and whine about it being too long and either skip/not read OR refuse to fucking finish it!

EAT YOUR FUCKING SOUP LILY YOU ASKED FOR IT SO EAT IT

It’s almost like it’s a fundamental aspect or structure to writing… maybe make your own opinion rather than constantly stealing others.

Here’s food for thought: maybe the reason everything looks the same to you, it’s a sign that you have not really broadened your perspective of media?

Lily.

Sometimes skipping for the plot cuts context from anything that might’ve been mentioned in the silly unrelated storyline.

You do this Lily, you’ve done this, admitted to doing this and by god do I wish I could link a compilation video of you saying these things to point to as reference

You know those moments are still important to the overall story, right?

Moments like that help the audience or reader (which was implied as being the topic) better know the multiple facets of the cast/character. But those moments are also interwoven with the plot via reflection and worry, just the general thoughts the character(s) have of the threat or plot in the story. It’s not all quiet and peaceful in the slice of life moment. That is the calm before the storm.

I would recommend Lily some books but she doesn’t read anything or even reread to fix her own writing.

But for you guys! I’d be more than happy to recommend these for yall starting out or needing refreshers!

Save the Cat! — Blake Snyder

Visual Storytelling • How to Speak to your Audience without Saying a Word — Morgan Sandler

The Writer’s Journey - 3rd Ed • Mythic Structure for Writers — Christopher Vogler

And these!

Oki ima go back to drawing now

[slayerdurge]

the thing that drives me absolutely crazy though is that gortash is presented as this commanding dominating tyrant and yet it's consistently shown that the thing he appreciates about durge (or tav for that matter) is when they're not willing to submit to him & when they are strong enough to either stand against him or to stand with him & when they are his equal.

an insane thing for someone like him to want. you'd think he'd want to rule alone and yet the insight checks all show that he actually prefers to share so long as there's someone around worth sharing with.

"Half a smile shows he is teasing you. He doesn't think for one moment you'd fully submit to him. Nor should a spawn as formidable as you."

[sthilarions]

AU where Charles has assumed Edwin knew Charles was queer this entire time and was just being Edwardian about it, and somehow this impression managed to last up until Port Townsend, and this assumption was based entirely on:

Charles: What - how - how did you not - ? I have an earring in the gay ear!

Crystal: That’s not the gay ear, Charles. That hasn’t been a thing for decades and still even I know that left is right and right is wrong. Which is, um, the homophobic way to say it, but…

Charles: No, it’s definitely the left ear.

Niko: I didn’t know they had a gay ear in England.

Edwin: They definitely didn’t in the nineteen-tens. I was initially concerned you might be a pirate.

Crystal: Although I am kinda surprised you didn’t figure it out based on how he sits. Or doesn’t sit.

Charles and Edwin: What?

Niko: *nods sagely*

[novelconcepts]

It’s so funny seeing the problems people have with this show and just going *shrug*. The show itself is so ambitious that it was bound to have holes in the narrative, but like. “The adults only remember what’s convenient”—yeah, kinda? Kinda the idea? Do you remember every instance of what you did when you were eighteen, decades ago? I don’t. I definitely do not. And there is so much I know I’ve wallpapered over out of shame and regret and embarrassment—as a very normal person with a terribly boring upbringing.

Imagine spending two years where every day bleeds into the next, where you’re doing unimaginable things just to get by, where you’re sometimes reveling in the worst shit you could possibly be doing because it makes you feel alive? You’re telling me you’d cast that all in stone, memory-wise? Nah, dude, you’re pushing that shit down. You’re fine-tuning it in your head so it’s fuzzy at best and flat-out erased at worst. You think at forty these woman have just been chilling with their most reprehensible memories? Shauna absolutely did not. Taissa canonically repressed everything she possibly could. Natalie sank into drugs. Van ran away. It’s only when they’re together and they’re forced to actually interact that they start behaving like their teenage selves again. It’s only when you come back upon your old classmates that you fall into old patterns. Because doing otherwise for twenty-five years would have undone them completely. They did forget. Not completely, but the way you always forget huge swathes of your childhood. And then it’s easier to make the story what you can live with.

Shauna? Oh, she was kind of always writing, good with a knife, feel like she stressed me out sometimes, but I had my own problems. Oh, Tai? She was intense and ambitious and…did that ever damage me directly? Can’t recall. Van? She was sweet and funny and told stories. That’s probably it. Misty? Yeah, she was the outsider, she wasn’t even on the team. I remember making fun of her, but haven’t we all been there? Lottie? Where did she even go? We just lose track of old friends sometimes. Nat? Nat’s been in and out of trouble for years. Hard to remember what she even looked like when she was small and blonde and…and…rough? She was rough, right? Yeah. Yeah, the yearbook pictures back that up. Jackie? A tragedy. Just so sad. Anyway: life to live, groceries to buy, work to do. Anyway: don’t need to waste any more mental energy on that. Anyway: wait—why is someone sniffing around the story? What even is the story? It’s bad. It’s bad, why would we want to remember? It’s bad, and the details are coming back, and oh no, oh god, we can’t bury it any deeper.

What we’re watching in the adult timeline is far from flawless, but they are remembering as they go. And they’re coloring their own memories, which are really just memories of memories. Like Nat seeing Travis in the dead-wife light, they are still writing the narrative the way they can live with. But their stories are going to start butting up against one another. And the only way through is to be the last one standing: because then you can believe whatever you need to. Whatever lets you keep standing tall.

[black-is-beautiful18]

No cuz let’s talk about it. When it comes to the book community, y’all are some of thee most anti-intellectual people I have ever seen. We say address problematic writers and the themes they put in their books and y’all say “It’s just a book! Let people read what they want!” Y’all get on the internet complaining about long paragraphs and saying y’all skip paragraphs and dialogue as if that makes any sense. Y’all can barely grab ahold of the themes of racism, grief, generational trauma, or the experience of being Black at a white institution in LegendBorn because you’d rather focus on the 5% of romance as if romance can’t also be political. Yet somehow you refuse to read books by Black and Brown authors cuz they’re “too political.” It can be right there in your face and you’d still use the excuse that reading is your escape so you don’t have to pay attention to those things when those things literally drive the book along with the characters. Percy Jackson is about a boy trying to dismantle the system of the gods cuz they got a bit too much dip on they chip and it literally almost always leads to their own children dying. Not to mention they suck as parents too. I’ve yet to read The Poppy War but it’s based off of an actual war. It’s historical freaking fiction. Rin literally sees a chance to have control over her body and takes it. Don’t think I don’t remember y’all being mad about that either. Y’all love The Song of Achilles as if it’s also not about war, touches on the romantic relationship between Patroclus and Achilles after historians have tried so hard to deny that they were in fact lovers, and let’s not forget the misogyny littered throughout the text that’s either there purposefully or the fault of the authors own biases. Like y’all are dumb and you don’t care.

[rowanisawriter]

fic is a safe space, probably one of the last safe spaces. by safe i mean safe from the pressure of caving to advertisers. you can write fic about anything and not worry (shouldn’t worry) about what’s popular or what an advertiser oriented algorithm will pick up. what i mean by this is that you don’t have to bring this advertiser friendly behavior into fic. heroes can make bad decisions, people can fall out of love, villains can win, villainous organizations can win, redemption doesn’t have to happen, etc. make things a little messy if you want to, because life can be messy and art is a reflection of life. not what the advertisers have decided for us life is like, real life. this is one of the last places where this is still possible

[blackbatcass]

the first thing every dick grayson writer has to keep in mind is that he is defined by his kindness. second thing is that he’s an asshole. third thing is that he’s so, so angry. fourth thing is that he loves donna hinckley stacy troy more than life itself.

[wistfulwatcher]

[sillygoblinantics]

Something I have in my personal arsenal of tips and tools for writing and storytelling is something I learned seven years ago and it can be summed up by:

Don’t like it? Rewrite it

By Bri/Gobbo

Great hook huh? Now there’s many pieces of media that have a story or plot that we don’t like (feel free to share ones you don’t like in replies or reblogging) and many of us who have thought the same thing:

I could do it better

So what’s stopping you? Yes rewrite that story that premise and concept that’s been made by big corporate or fake activist. Or maybe it’s a fic made by a bad person?

The core concept of rewriting something to what you would do differently is an excellent way to practice writing stories and plots for many starting out. It helps with framing, fleshing out characters and so much more that is good practice in the industry!

I don’t plan to make this long but I will end with a clip from the video I learned this from, be nice now

And I’m sure yall know about my rewrite of madhouse called Bonnie’s day out

[syn4k]

i saw someone on here write this type of poem (i can't find their post to tag their url however, they wrote two really good ones about jekyll and hide and odysseus and penelope) and it inspired me to try n make one of my own. this was fun to put together :]

[shouyuus]

was thinking about it this morning as i was making tea and i think there's a fundamental gap in the advice we give to writers/creators to "first and foremost create for ourselves", bc yes. in the beginning, i am almost always writing for myself. i write all the time, and im sure that artists doodle and paint all the time too. there are things i've written that will never see the light of day and are truly just for me.

and then there are things that i choose to share, because i want to share them. because i'm proud of a story, and want to put it into the world. the act of sharing it is, above all, an invitation.

its me inviting you into a corner of my mind/heart/soul, opening the window and throwing open the curtains and waving, holding up a sign that says "hi! do you like this too? let's talk about it!"

what im asking for is a connection, a conversation. a shared space. digital or otherwise. and the so-called "harm" of "ghost consumption" is not that artists will stop creating art or that writers will stop writing -- no, that's not quite how creativity works (thankfully, and sometimes unfortunately). we will always create.

we just might not be inspired to share it anymore.

[mamawasatesttube]

supergirl (2005) #34

hi. do you ever think about kara wearing her dead cousin's glasses the first time she tries out a human identity? hi. her dead cousin who also started out as a full time hero with no civilian identity or private life? hi. yeah. her cousin who just died before she even had the chance to know him properly? yeah. hey. um. do you ever think about kara & kon. hey. hi. for the love of god hello

[erinwantstowrite]

tim joins late au but it's inspired by saiki k. in that he knows the Bats' identities and he is actively avoiding them at every cost but they all think that he's their family friend and are trying to convince bruce to adopt him. he writes in a coded journal that's also kept under lock and key and it's basically an evolution from 9 years old like "i want to be their friend so bad" to 15 years old "these mfs will NOT leave me alone" and ends with 16 years old "okay so hey again journal. it's me. you'll never guess what happened." (he got adopted)

[syndianites]

Marble Hornets Yaoi be like:

Toxic Yaoi: Timlex

Doomed Yaoi: Jaylex

Kismesis Yaoi: Brilex

Tragic Yaoi: Brim

Obsessive Yaoi: Bray

Dysfunctional Yaoi: Jam

Special Mention:

Seth x Alex- hey Alex what's up? hey wait what are you doing with tha-

Get Therapy Yaoi: Polyhornets

[bonefall]

Clear Sky threw his son in front of a fox?!

YES!! He SHOVED him in front of a fox! It's in fury from the fact Thunder refused to kill Frost. This entire section is VERY poorly paced and glances over it in two paragraphs, so most people don't fully register it.

Clear Sky dragged Thunder down off the stump and shoves him at it, blaming him for bringing the fox to camp with his loud disobedience.

He then leaves Thunder to fight this fox on his own. Leaf and Falling Feather jump in to help him of their own accord. Clear Sky then tries to praise him for being strong and Thunder tells him to shove off for the first and last time.

It's not the last baby of his he knowingly and consciously endangers to prove a point. In Moth Flight's Vision, he refuses to allow Acorn Fur to get medical help for Tiny Branch's fox-inflicted injuries until his condition worsened, bellowing, "SkyClan does NOT ask for help unless there's no choice." AND didn't allow her to complete her training after he caused Micah's death.

Clear Sky is a serial child abuser. He is willfully neglectful, emotionally abusive, and physically violent.

[creekfiend]

deeply underrated type of song for a band to write, imo, is "I hate touring, I miss my wife"

many good examples of this genre out there