#you HAVE to build up a story. you have to add context and emotion and personality to it. you cannot just pick wrestlers like ur throwing

[fangedtracks]

sorry i am having Real Emotions about this cm punk thing (and the sonny kiss thing) and also how AEW has been dog shit .

[deception-united]

It's me again. Are there proper ways of writing fight scenes that flow well? And are there ways to make fights feel realistic without feeling like it stops the story in its tracks? How do I find the middle ground between realism and injury healing times?

Thanks for asking!

Maintaining realism in fights while keeping the story flowing smoothly is crucial for engaging storytelling. Here are some tips to achieve that balance:

Integrate fights into the narrative: Make sure that the fights serve a purpose in advancing the plot or developing the characters. They should feel like a natural progression of the story rather than an interruption.

Character motivations and stakes: Ensure that the characters involved in the fight have clear motivations and stakes. This adds depth to the conflict and makes the fight feel more meaningful to the audience.

Use variety in fight scenes: Avoid repetitive fight scenes by incorporating different fighting styles, environments, and tactics. This keeps the audience engaged and prevents the story from feeling stagnant.

Show the consequences: Realistic fights have consequences, both physical and emotional. Show the aftermath of the fight and how it impacts the characters and the story moving forward.

Balance action with other elements: Don't let the fight scenes overshadow other important aspects of the story, such as character development, dialogue, and plot progression. Maintain a balance between action and quieter moments to keep the story flowing smoothly.

Keep it concise: Avoid prolonged fight scenes that drag on unnecessarily. Focus on the key moments of the fight that are most relevant to the story and characters, and move the narrative forward efficiently.

Incorporate tension and suspense: Build tension and suspense leading up to the fight to make it feel more impactful. Use pacing, foreshadowing, and strategic placement within the story to heighten anticipation.

Make it believable: Research fighting techniques and strategies to ensure that the fight scenes are realistic and grounded in reality. Avoid overly exaggerated or implausible actions that may break immersion for the audience.

Finding the middle ground between realism and narrative pacing in injury healing times and recovery can be challenging but rewarding for maintaining both credibility and story momentum. Here are some tips:

Research: Understand typical healing times for various injuries. Medical websites, journals, and consultations with healthcare professionals can provide valuable insights.

Consider context: The severity of the injury and the overall tone of your story will influence the healing time. A minor scrape will heal quickly, while a major wound would naturally take longer.

Character abilities: Take into account your character's physical condition, age, and any supernatural or futuristic elements that could affect healing. A trained fighter might recover faster than an ordinary person, while futuristic technology or magical abilities could speed up the process.

Plot demands: Sometimes, the pace of your story might require injuries to heal faster than they would realistically. In such cases, consider adjusting the healing time while maintaining some level of believability.

Show the process: Even if you need to speed up the healing process for narrative purposes, acknowledge the injury and its effects on the character. Show them experiencing pain, discomfort, or limitations even as they recover.

Use time skips wisely: If you need to compress healing times for the sake of pacing, consider using time skips or transitions to indicate the passage of time without dwelling too much on the healing process itself.

Balance drama and realism: Strive for a balance between dramatic tension and realism. Injuries can provide opportunities for character development and conflict resolution, so consider how the healing process can contribute to the narrative arc.

Persistent effects: Even if a character's injuries are on the mend, they may not fully heal before the story's conclusion. Implementing this in your writing involves ensuring that the injury continues to affect the character in some way, whether it's physical discomfort, limited mobility, or psychological trauma.

Plot hindrance: Use the not-fully-healed injury to hinder the character's progress or add tension to the plot. For example, if the character's arm was injured in a fight, they may struggle with tasks that require the use of that arm, such as wielding a weapon or climbing.

Pain and discomfort: Continue to reference the injury after the initial healing period. Describe how the character experiences pain or discomfort, particularly in situations that aggravate the injury. This could be triggered by specific movements, weather conditions, or emotional stress.

Character growth: Show how the character copes with their lingering injury. This could lead to moments of vulnerability, resilience, or resourcefulness, allowing for further character development and depth.

For more tips on writing fight scenes, see my previous post!

Hope this helped ❤

[wanderingaldecaldo]

I've been posting Ros and Val without any context or backstory because my brain has been going brrrrrrrr too much to write anything proper besides drabbles, and a couple of unrelated oneshots. I'm still figuring out their story but I've discovered some of the major beats and wanted to get it down for my future self, as well as anyone who's following along at home.

Their story follows PL fairly closely with a few places where I took some creative license. Val and Ros hook up at the safe house, and it takes Reed a little longer to get everything organized, giving them a few days together in Dogtown before Ros is spirited back to D.C.

Lemme just wipe off your cheek real quick...

Val needs family. She doesn't know it, but that's why she gravitated to Jackie and Lupe. It's why she calls Panam for help in her canon. Rosalind represents family in a different way. She's the mother who knows what's best, who cares about "her" people, and Val doesn't realize how much she needs that attachment. Several times during the rescue, Ros displays affection and concern for her—when the building collapses before the Chimera fight, during the Relic malfunction—and combined with the mission to keep her safe, it triggers something deep inside V, a loyalty that she doesn't understand.

Rosalind, on the other hand, just lost a lot of crucial advisors. While we don't know who was on board aside from So Mi, we can guess that there were high ranking staffers, such as communications, security, and campaign, plus her own personal assistant and Secret Service agent. She has no one. She is vulnerable with V, admitting that she doesn't know what to do, that she has no one; and V's response is to remind her that she's there, and she's determined to get her out of the situation. Loyalty is something Ros values highly, and here is this merc tasked with saving her, but who sees the situation as more than just another gig; who has become personally invested in protecting her. It's intoxicating to have someone who's unflinchingly loyal to you, and who has seen the real you.

Once they reach the safe house, things escalate because of the mix of all those emotions, plus all the adrenaline and endorphins from the escape. It becomes more than just a hookup, but because of their situations (Ros's, let's be real), they both know it's an untenable relationship. Their time is bittersweet because of that knowledge.

Just squint a little and the Dogtown apartment isn't that bad!

Continued after the cut...

Later after the events of PL, they stay in touch, and there is affection between them still. Ros reaches out by text for fashion advice on the magazine shoot. They both agree that V isn't the right person for the job, but Ros knows she'll at least be honest. Later the acting campaign manager thinks having Ros take photos with the merc who saved her life in Dogtown would be good ad material, so Ros recruits V to the photo shoot.

Note: add at least one eagle for the "real" patriots

V uses the photo shoot to her advantage and successfully lobbies for the dinner date Rosalind promised. They have it that evening at Embers, as it's easy to secure for VIPs. Ros wants to know what V expects, because surely she can't think there is hope for a real relationship; but V wants whatever she can have. At this point, she knows she's crazy about Rosalind, while Ros is in denial herself over how much she cares about V.

“Where do you think this will go, V?” Rosalind's voice is soft and melodic. She doesn’t know, doesn’t care. She needs something, will take anything. “Hopin’ the first stop is my bedroom,” V says and gives her cockiest grin, but it quickly fades. “After that? Kinda up to you, yeah?”

They spend the night together and Ros decides to give it a try. They officially start seeing each other, but in secret and only when Ros has reason to visit NC. The new mayor provides a good excuse, so Ros visits under cover of extending diplomatic ties, and providing an opportunity for date night with her merc.

It's good to have powerful friends, like the new mayor of Night City.

After a few months of this, they slip up and the media catch wind that the President is spending time with the merc who saved her life in Dogtown. The campaign manager wants to use the media frenzy by spinning it as Rosalind recruiting V as her personal bodyguard, while still encouraging theories about their secret romantic relationship so the screamsheets will go crazy over it.

Eventually people are gonna notice when AF1 keeps showing up in NC airspace.

At that point V is ready to upend her life for Ros. She agrees to the plan and moves to D.C. The media eats it all up, and suddenly the only thing the NUS cares about is whether the President and her merc are fucking (they are). Eventually they transition to openly dating, and the President's approval rating shoots up by having a partner who humanizes her and makes her more likeable.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hello! This is my first time asking but I could I have some advice on how to write a story that starts in the climax of the plot already? The context is my MC woke up and they are not able to remember anything, but suddenly, he just woke up in the wards of his family (a very strong political figure in their world might I add) whom he told what his life was but the narratives they are telling does not match even in the slightest of the flashback that's plaguing him as the time stretches. And they were in the middle of the war, too. I'm having a hard time to achieve that mind-blowing... thrill I suppose? They also got a love interest that is unmistakably not the one his family claimed ‘their-spouse’ to be.

Starting with Inciting Incident

Remember: your story's climax is the moment your character faces off against the antagonist once and for all. While some stories do start at the climax, and then flashback to the beginning of the story to build back up to it, it doesn't mean you start at the climax and move forward from there.

I think there can be a lot of confusion with the concept of "In Media Res" which a lot of people confuse as meaning starting in the literal middle of the story, or at the inciting incident or climax. Instead, "in media res" simply means starting in the middle of the action. That action can be the inciting incident, the climax, or the literal middle, but again, it doesn't mean the story moves forward from there.

If you're starting your story at the point where your character wakes up without their memories, this isn't the climax but rather the inciting incident. This is the moment when their life and world are turned upside down. Starting at this moment in a story about memory loss is a great way to go, because your reader knows as little about the character and their world as the character does. It puts the reader in your character's shoes right from the start, and they'll be learning everything right alongside your character.

So, that's really the key is to make sure you're filling in the gaps left by not having an exposition. You'll need to make sure to fairly quickly illustrate this character's natural personality, the world they've woken up into, and what their life was apparently like before they lost their memories. If they're being lied to, you may want to build in some clues that hint at what their actual life was like--such as feeling a place is familiar to them even if they're told "no, you would never have been to such a place."

As far as creating that thrill in that opening moment, it's really going to come down to emotional and sensory description. In lieu of recognizing who they are, where they are, and what happened to them, they're going to focus on their immediate surroundings. What can they see, hear, smell, taste, feel? What does that sensory input tell them about who they are and where they are? How does that sensory input--and what they can learn from it--make them feel? What emotions are they feeling as they process this unfamiliar environment and realize they have no idea who they are, where they are, or what happened to them?

I hope that helps!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[likeadevils]

is there a specific order you like to listen to the red vault tracks in? i’ve been thinking about this a lot ever since 1989 tv came out because the 1989 vault tracks tell such a cohesive story so i’ve been trying to figure out how to do that with the red vault

YES ITS LIKE. THE ALBUM TO REARRANGE FOR ME I GENUINELY HAVENT LISTENED TO THE ORIGINAL TRACKLIST IN YEARS NOW

i think i’ve run through it before but here’s my thoughts on the mains tracklist

state of grace: perfect opener no notes

22: this is and holy ground can switch for me, i think either makes a fantastic track two, but it’s hard to pass up 22 track 2. also i like how the second song and the second to last song parallel each other

treacherous: building off of 22’s “you look like bad news, i gotta have you”

i knew you were trouble: it’s the obvious mirror of treacherous, and also i think it’s important to establish the emotion->exact opposite emotion flip of the tracklist, and treacherous and ikywt are a really obvious example of that

all too well: i mean what else can you choose. also it’s a good flip of ikywt because it’s all the moments where it DIDN'T feel like trouble

wanegbt: “i remember it all too well 😔” -> “I REMEMBER WHEN WE BROKE UP 😡🙄” is just an insane whiplash. ALSO track sixes are such a hard landing to stick and can easily be overshadowed by the track five, and having a song that’s already been released kinda lets the song simultaneously have its moment beforehand and let you kinda check out on your first listen through while you recover from atw

come back be here: i think cbbh really just deserves a main album slot, mostly cause it deserved to be played on tour, but i also think it’s a great whiplash from wanegbt and a great lead in to…

the last time: it takes the more crush-focused aspects of cbbh and plays them out to the bitter end, just that cycle of always leaving and coming back and leaving again. also it’s the end of the first half of the album

red: it’s a great pick me up in the middle of three mellow songs, also i can’t separate this from run which i can’t separate from sad beautiful tragic and i can’t put sad beautiful tragic right before all too well so it needs to be further down the tracklist

run: “loving him was like driving a new maserati down a dead end street” -> “give me the keys, i’ll bring the car back around” makes me go CRAZY

sad beautiful tragic: THE AMOUNT OF PARALLELS WITH RUN IS INSAAAAAAAANE

holy ground: again this is a bit of a floater like i could see an argument for this being track two. and the argument is it goes hard at the start of the red tour

better man: this just needs to be by the end of the album for me. it feels like the start of the summary, wrapping up what we’ve learned and starting the hard work of moving on that the last few tracks will continue

i bet you think about me: that first verse really stretching out the betterrrrr’s after better man is funny. also, after an album of one sided pining in one way or another, it’s just like hey. fuck you. also, at first it kinda bugged me how the last few tracks starts at 4am, then 3am, then the middle of the night, but then i started seeing them as just slowly losing less and less sleep over it, which i kinda love now

nothing new: here is the damage i am left with. even if i move on from this relationship, here is the mindset that will whisper in the back of my mind forever— that i am valuable because of my youth, that my happiness is mockable and my sadness is quaint. this is the thing that led me to the relationship and this is the thing that i will be left with after it

begin again: and then… begin again. choosing happiness, choosing maturity, choosing childlike joy. like, you all know it’s an amazing closer, but after nothing new it just sings

+ forever winter: i think this does add important context to her general mental state? like 22 mentions how everyone is miserable, but really focuses on the highs of being 22. forever winter adds to it, how your peer group is falling apart and even when you are at your worst, you are being someone else's shoulder to lean on. it's not Needed to tell the story, but it is a good bonus.

+ starlight: more good context, especially in taylor's personal life-- as far as i can tell, this is the first song she wrote for red that Wasn't about crash and burn heartbreak, and it really kicked into high gear an obsession with vintage fashion and mid century celebrities that she ended up building part of her personality around. she's not just trying to find her old self again, she's building a new one

+babe: what am i supposed to do, not end the album with this is the last time i'll ever call you babe?

+ state of grace (acoustic), the red demo, and all too well (ten minute version) to get the tracklist to 22 and also fun bts context!

[beaft]

Hi and sorry in advance for using this as an excuse to rant a bit about Good omens 2! I feel the same, I binged it with my girlfriend and at the end we just sat in silence for a minute and then went "...what the fuck was that." It was so incredibly poorly written and plotted in many aspects, though I understand that if one doesn't love dissecting stories piece by piece to analyse it from all possible angles it could be hard to understand why some people are saying it's bad. I feel like it's comparable to a house that looks pretty but is build on really shitty foundations and has a lot of structural issues. Most people can't see anything wrong with it and find it good, but the people who know how those things are built can immediately see all the glaring issues under the surface.

In short, in my opinion a lot of this season's short comings hinge on it's complete lack of thematic coherence and structure, completely ignoring or even discarding what was at the heart of the original story. This season was a disjointed jumble of scenes and concepts that only superficially lead to other scenes that within the bigger picture had no weight at all, plot or thematic-wise. Once you start thinking back to some of the plot threads the show established to move the story forward it's almost ridiculous how little they actually meant for the conclusion. And I don't mean stuff that 'might be resolved in the third season'! Creating a miracle to keep Gabriel hidden from everyone? He could've hid in a closet and it would've had the same effect for the plot. Muriel being set to keep an eye on Aziraphale and Crowley? Nothing, no consequences, in fact Aziraphale fucks off on his investigation right after, which, by the way, served no purpose than to give us some exposition that in the end got re-iterated to us during Gabriel's flashbacks. He doesn't actually figure anything out in a way that impacts the story lol. Even the whole "we have to make these two women fall in love so that Heaven believes us!" is kind of just forgotten by the end of the story, and nobody holds them accountable to their claim. The character of Jim is completely non-existent for half of the season and has no emotional arc or impact as a character on Aziraphale and Crowley - he could've been a magical cardboard cutout that spouts funny lines every now and then. There were so many set-ups within this season itself that had completely lackluster or non-existing pay-offs it's actually kind of ridiculous.

So many of the things people list or write about when talking about this season are there in concept, but they're not acted upon in the writing. A prime example of this is the Aziraphale/Crowley and Nina/Maggie parallels that people are pointing out - but within the season's current day scenes there isn't any romantic or emotional development between Aziraphale and Crowley, and the story doesn't center itself around that parallel or development. The only scene I could think of that even remotely does something with that is the Jane Austen dancing scene - except where Nina and Maggie have a conversation about what is going on right in that moment and how they're feeling, Aziraphale and Crowley are as good as emotionally dead and then the scene already ends.

If you start breaking down the plot elements it could've been made so, so SO much more tight-knit and coherent by focusing on what was important - ergo the character's relationships now and the bigger plot beats. As much as I loved the flashbacks in season 1, in this season they merely serve to tell us what we already know about Aziraphale's and Crowley's relationship and to add some superficial and pointless context to the different locations Aziraphale visits. Another thing I think is a big difference between this season and the original story is that every character, every concept had a Point to it, usually a joke or some sort of funny commentary (whether it was good/actually funny is another thing entirely). That's what made it feel interesting and sharp, whereas the new characters in this season just kind of... are. If you break down the concepts to their bare essence, coffeeshop owner in a toxic relationship and record shop owner who has anxiety are pretty bland as character concepts go. Shax as a character is also just so... pointless lmfao. It's almost badly caricaturing the concept of Gomens demons, which are already caricatures, so the effect is somewhat reminicent of beating a dead horse long after it has died. Anyway, so sorry to clutter your inbox like this but I just needed to get this off my chest. It's so weird seeing the dissonance between what is textually there in the show and how people are reacting to it!

hi! i hope you don't mind but i'm posting this publicly because tbh you really hit the nail on the head with every single one of these points. the whole season felt like this:

over and over again a potentially interesting plotline would get introduced, and then the writers would kind of just. forget why it was there? best example is, as you say, the nina/maggie thing - originally it began as a cover story to explain away the Forbidden Miracle, but that quickly ceased to be relevant, and the "we need to make them fall in love to get heaven off our backs" became a half-hearted running gag that was returned to every now and again with increasing half-heartedness. no sense of forward planning, no callbacks or consequences, just the constant sense of frantic improvisation without an end in sight.

[lesbiansforboromir]

So as a member of the "complaining about dead husband Celeborn" faction I KNOW he isn't dead and will probably show up. What I'm conplaining about is that dead-husbanding him is such a lazy way to write him out while he's in the way of the will they/won't they Galadriel/Sauron thing they were going for and equally lazy to have him conveniently show up when they want him to. Also still kind of mad that they gave Galadriel's most iconic lines to Sauron.

See I just find that a very uncharitable way of viewing the whole thing. Like, there was no feasible way for them to do the entire plot for Galadriel they created if she had the support of a loving family. You could remove Halbrand from the picture entirely and that fact wouldn't change, Celeborn's absence served a vast number of purposes. Galadriel's entire story in this first season was about self destructive, hopeless and obsessive vengeance, it wasn't about a 'will they won't they' cus they won't! The point is, why would Galadriel be in such a spiral if she had a reason to live other than vengeance combined with this desperation to be 'worthy' of Valinor? Every single scene Galadriel had, almost every line she had! Was about how much she felt she had no purpose BUT to kill Sauron, she was literally dying on a raft and she was still thinking about how she could get back and kill Sauron. If she had any other connections, why would she be so obsessed?

Also.. is it lazy? Isn't it just... a plot device? Like what specifically is lazy about writing a way for Galadriel to think her husband's dead so that she can be driven further into despair, only to later have an emotional reunion that will more firmly solidify Celeborn's importance in her life? So that she can finally have something else to fight for? Like that's a good character arc and I've said it before but it's a good characterisation for Galadriel too, it keeps her narrative beats intact whilst making her a more sympathetic protagonist, she's not just staying because she wants to rule over people. First she stays out of fear and vengeance, later she stays out of love, for Middle-Earth and Celeborn both, but still with this lingering need to either kill Sauron or become him.

This connection with Sauron had a very specific purpose, Galadriel needed to understand where her self-righteous and unheeding focus was sending her. She needed to see herself in the things she hated. It's a good aspect! It actually adds much more weight to what is essentially the end of her character arc that we see in LotR, it informs us on what precisely Galadriel was struggling with. Did they 'give Sauron Galadriel's most iconic lines' or did they actually add context and history to those lines? Aren't they now heavy with meaning whereas before they were just good rhetoric? Galadriel is saying she still struggles with the idea that Middle-Earth might have been better off under her control! Which is exactly what she does struggle with and exactly the desire she had to give up in order to finally return to Valinor!

Like to me this all connects up pretty much perfectly and was so clearly the point of this whole season in respect to Galadriel. People are shipping her and Sauron/Halbrand sure but that doesn't make the importance they're building for Celeborn's role in Galadriel's story any less clear in my mind. Like you could remove any sliver of romantic tension between Halbrand and Galadriel and Celeborn would still need to be gone for this to have all worked, so it just seems a bit simplistic and mean to say that they just got rid of him in order to make people ship Sauron and Galadriel when it so clearly had way more purposes to the plot and character arcs than that.

[blatantescapism]

Ah yes, it’s that special day where once again I find myself wondering what the ever-living fuck Joe Finigan was thinking.

This is the story of how I utterly failed to have the appropriate emotional reaction to 9/11. Mind the trigger tags. I’d add more but I ran out. This story is insensitive by nature and I probably shouldn’t share it, but it’s also such a weird slice of American life that I kinda feel like I gotta.

So, context.

Columbine happened in 1999, when I was in 5th grade. Schools across the US started to be like, “hm, maybe it’s time to actually address this issue somehow.” Our elementary school brought in some random police officers to talk about it. Police who, if anything, had been trained in how to make kids more traumatized.

We didn’t have active shooter drills back then. They were just like, “Hey kids, I want you to imagine this fucked up scenario that I am vividly describing. What would you do if it happened to you? Do you have a Plan? Will you be able to stick to your Plan even while your classmates are screaming? You should think about it hard, in graphic detail, so that when the time comes you won’t hesitate to make Tough Choices. Breaking your leg because you jumped out a window is still better than being dead! Listen to this story of a girl who hid under a desk, but then the gunman found her and she couldn’t escape because there was no room to maneuver and so she was trapped and the gunman shot her while she bravely said her prayers, we have a weird creepy obsession with painting the victims as modern Christian martyrs and we totally invented the entire story but you won’t realize that for at least a decade. And remember: don’t run in a straight line, run in zigzags so that you’re harder to shoot.”

So yeah, that was 1999, we were 11 years old, and we took that shit very much to heart.

Two years later, it’s 2001. There have been 15 new US school shootings in that time. My sister and I are in middle school, it’s early in the school year but we’ve started to get into a normal rhythm,

Suddenly there is a totally unexpected blare on the intercom. It’s Principal Joe Finigan, he is about to make the most significant announcement of his career, and for some fucking reason he decides that THIS is the best thing to say:

“There has been a, uh, a terrible tragedy. Everyone should go home now. Uh, ask your parents what happened. As far as we know, we are not a target at this time.” Click.

We don’t have any other sources of information. The teachers aren’t telling us what’s going on, but some are crying.

Obviously there must have been a school shooting in town. But what the hell did he mean by “as far as we know, we are not a target at this time”? That makes it sound like the gunman is still at large. Is this a sniper situation? Is it even safe to walk home? Are we going to have to line up in the office and take turns using the school telephone to call our parents?

We cautiously head outside, and there’s a line of parents already out there waiting in their cars to pick their kids up. Oh shit, it must be bad. Was it the kindergarten? Or the Catholic prep school?

Our mom is upset. She says she doesn’t want to talk about it while driving. She’ll show us the news on the TV when we get home.

We get home and steel ourselves to face the news, fully expecting to see the names of close friends and neighbors listed among the dead.

So please imagine how appalled our dear mother is when we say, “Wait a minute- all this fuss is because some buildings are on fire in a completely different state?!”

“As far as we know, we are not a target at this time.”

Dear Joe Finigan. What the fuck made you say that. Please tell me, did you genuinely imagine terrorists being like

“At this time, our target is the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But next, we shall target a mediocre school in a bland suburban town that nobody has ever heard of! Ohoho! Ah hah ha ha!”

Anyway, there’s something to be said about how after both events, the US response was, “You see, this is why we need more guns. We tooootally promise they’ll only be used to hurt Bad Guys! After all, we’re the Good Guys! USA! USA!”

[littlesugarwords]

heyy :) i know you’ve done smth similar to this before, but how would you think people like lee/kenny/luke/javi/etc. (feel free to add others if you want) would feel about clem asking lilly to take her and leave the school alone during the delta raid and lilly agreeing to it?

heyy :) i know you’ve done smth similar to this before, but how would you think people like lee/kenny/luke/javi/etc. (feel free to add others if you want) would feel about clem asking lilly to take her and leave the school alone during the delta raid and lilly agreeing to it?

omg I’m such a sucker for stories about Clem’s dads all stepping up to help her. enjoy, my friend!!

Context: let’s say that the characters have learned this as Clem and Lilly are making their way to go the gate, about to leave.

Lee: “Hey.” Lee’s voice came out harsh and cold. His fists were vibrating as he tried to hold himself back. “Where are you two going?” He stopped before Lilly - with her arm draped over Clem’s shoulders - continued to whisk her down the dirt path they were traveling on. “We’re leaving.” Was all she said, plainly. “I was asking Clementine.” Lee spat. His words were venomous. Deep down, out of everyone there, she knew Lee would be the toughest to get past. Lee loved Clementine like she was his own. He wasn’t going to go down without a fight. “Lee”- He cut Lilly off by kneeling and holding Clementine’s shoulders. “You don’t need to do this.” “I have to.” Clem furthered. Lee could hear her voice crack as she spoke. It was all the proof he needed. “You don’t need to do anything you don’t want. You don’t need to go anywhere you don’t want to go.” He glanced up, shooting a glare. She was unfazed. “Please, Clem,” his voice grew quieter and softer over time as if losing his power to debate her. “You don’t need to let her take you.” Clementine could feel her tears welling as she placed a hand on Lee’s arm, squeezing as if finding comfort. Before emotions could progress further, Lilly snagged Clementine’s hand and turned her away. “We need to go.” Clementine’s gaze didn’t leave Lee’s as she wandered away, watching his arms limply fall by his sides as she was whisked away from him. Lilly turned her face, not wanting her to linger on the idea of missing him. Lilly could feel the child’s wet tears on her palms. She closed her eyes and continued, not letting the sorrow get to her.

Kenny: Kenny scoffed, dumbfounded. “Over my fucking dead body.” “Kenny--“ He lifted a finger, stopping Clem from speaking. “I don’t care how you feel,” then turned to Lilly, “or what you think, but Clementine is not leaving.” “We are, Kenny.” Lilly spat. “You can’t stop us.” “Lilly.” Kenny’s voice was hoarse and tense. Lilly stared at him, shooting daggers. She could sense the defeat in his gaze but retained her posture. When Kenny’s gaze shifted back down to Clementine, his expression softened. “Clem, please. Think about what you’re doing here.” “I have.” She responded curtly. It felt almost too fast, as though she was attempting to shut him out to further convince herself. Kenny frowned, taking a half-step back, as though to demonstrate him giving her space. “I respect whatever you decide.” He said, low and quiet. “But I’ll miss you. It’ll kill me not having you around.” Clementine’s eyes finally met his, lifting from the ground. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without you.” Clementine could feel herself starting to crumble. Luckily (or unluckily) for her, Lilly placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her around. “Let’s go,” was all she said. “I love ya, Clem.” She could hear him say under his breath. As she walked away, her back turned to him, she squeezed her eyes closed, trying to force back her silent tears and failing. What was she going to do without him too?

Luke: “Clementine!” Despite the rain, Luke launched himself out of their building, darting after the duo making their way down the dirt-forged trail. He couldn’t let her walk away without trying to talk some sense into her. “Clem!” His voice seemed more hoarse the second time, forcing Clementine to pause and turn around, much to Lilly’s dismay. “You can’t do this,” he wheezed out as he finally approached the two, fumbling his way to a stop. “Please, Lilly, you can’t do this.” “It’s not my decision, it’s hers.” Lilly snapped back. Clementine couldn’t force herself to meet his gaze. She could tell his eyes were fixated on her despite Lilly’s continued banter. “Clem,” his voice was soft. “Don’t do this. You don’t have to.” “I need to.” She spoke lowly, as though she wasn’t entirely sold on the concept herself. “We need you, Clementine.” He hesitated, feeling an overwhelming wave of emotions flood over him. “It’ll kill me with you not here.” Lilly, sensing how the emotional confession was going to sway the child, stepped in. She whisked an arm over Clementine’s shoulders and continued to guide her down their path. “We’d better get started.” Behind them, Clem could hear one final plea. “I’ll really miss you.” She bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from sobbing.

Javier: The instant he got the news, Javier turned his head to face the front gates of Richmond. Sure enough, there the two were, receiving permission for the doors to be opened. “Shit,” Javier huffed under his breath, launching himself toward the duo. “Clem, please.” Javi pleaded. “I don’t think this is best for you.” “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lilly snapped, stepping in. “You all want to make her soft. Soft is dangerous in a world like this one. She needs someone like me if she wants to survive.” Clementine had her lips parted, ready to speak, when Lilly set her away. “Come on. It’s time to go.” “Clem,” he said softly. He reached out, grasping the  “Don’t do this. You don’t need to leave us.” Clem’s gaze lingered on his. She could feel the memories flooding her - all the times they had her back and supported her when they didn’t need to - and here they were, about to separate, potentially forever. A part of her didn’t want to leave. Didn’t want to go. This wasn’t like a family. In this world, it was her family. Just as her tears started to swell, Lilly tugged her away. “We need to get started.” That was all she said. Javier stood, defeated, watching as one of the most crucial members of his family was tugged away. There he was, powerless, unable to do anything.

━━━━━━

𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜!! ₊˚⊹

𝐭𝐢𝐩 𝐣𝐚𝐫   ♡   𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐨𝐧   ♡   𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐬 𝐢 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫

[kiame-sama]

Lovie; But how do you come up with things to write?

Well, I'm glad you asked!

My process is usually this;

1. Have a general vibe about something, maybe a random line of text or a location.

2. Build on that; who would say it? In what context? How did we get to that point? What will others in the scene do in reaction? Will they bone? Are they already together? By choice or force?

3. Add in details. Use that purple prose and fuck whoever told you not to! Set the scene, put yourself in the middle and tell me what it looks like from your eyes. What memories or sensations does it evoke? Put me in your world and setting. Tell me the story as if I know only what the character looks like- kinda- and explain their character through actions, words are flat without an emotion charging behind them.

4. Remember you can tell it through the eyes of any of the characters and you can even tell it from a complete outsider point of view. Tell it as you would want to read it. Do you like clumps of dialogue or details after every sentence? Are you going to tell the reader what they don't know or leave them guessing from context? Hate certain things? Don't write 'em! Love other things? Put them EVERYWHERE! You are the author, you don't have to stick with present voice or passive, you don't even need punctuation, capitalization, or anything else if you don't want it! Authors who use not an ounce of punctuation are considered visionaries of their time- ie. The Road- so who is anyone to tell you how you want to write style choices? Do consider feedback and incorporate it if you feel you want to.

~~~~~~~

My brain normally is these three.

Moxxie: Lots of fancy words, lofty explanation, emotional point.

Blitzø: Pansexual, good at pulling things together in ideas, keeps the base idea in mind.

Asmodeus: make it graphic! Give me details! Don't shy away from the depravity of it!

[whetstonefires]

not sure if it counts as a trope, but for the trope grade asks: canon divergence AU

I like these! They give a good balance between having the canon as a launch pad and giving the fic writer space to play, and there are so many ways to approach it that you can get a really good story at a number of different skill levels.

Obviously no premise or trope precludes bad fic, but the amount of structure canon divergence AUs offer is good for a lot of different things that work well in a fandom context. You can build in lots of worldbuilding exploration and character study as well as engaging with the structure of the plot and where its give points are, or put in the work to earn a non-canon pairing so it has context that makes it make sense. It gives you space to flex some craft without being unreasonably demanding.

Of course, sometimes people start out saying it's a canon divergence AU and then start building in increasingly massive retcons that make the fic much more AU than that label implies.

Which is fine, in itself, no one's obligated to do things the hard way in their hobby output and where should you be self-indulgent if not in your fanfic, but the mislabeling tends to annoy me--not just on organizational grounds, but because the emotional weight of changes in an actual canon divergence AU is different than if you're rearranging context elements and doing large-scale worldbuilding to get your desired result.

The latter is much easier to get to a given endpoint with, of course, but it tends to mean you haven't actually delivered on what you promised in characterization terms. I'm very invested in the relationship between character and context lmao.

I may have a very strict definition of the term but I think it's pretty self-defining: canon has to have proceeded as it did up until a certain point, from which point the fic proceeds on a tangent vector. Having diverged. The divergence point can be as ludicrous as you want IMO and still count, but you have to build your castle on the established foundation. Stuff that's outside the scope of the original narrative is fair game, but the more of it you add and the more it doesn't play by the established rules the more you're spilling out of bounds.

Which I mean, the only penalty for that is your fic is now tacky and will make some readers feel cheated, but still.

Occasionally I've seen a deliberate fakeout done where what looked like the canon divergence point was a red herring and actually caused by some other much earlier change. This is fine because it preserves the element of causality that defines the 'divergence' concept.

Anyway kvetching aside, B+ I guess? Maybe A? I can see why you're not sure if this counts as 'a trope' because those tend to be more internal elements than entire narrative structures, and it's weird to imagine searching AO3 for canon-divergence AUs. Unless the canon is a very particular flavor of tragedy, maybe.

[formlessvoidbeast]

Question: How do you feel that you have explained enough when writing? When your words are flowing like water from your pen, and the rush is so fast at times you feel like before you stop to ink those details in, the direction, that careful context that brings your readers along for the ride, you end up being swept away onto the next part in your fervour.

And you revise it, yeah, course you do, but how can you tell when you have sufficiently written the right bridges and smoothed out the crinkles in your writing form?

Please, share.

Ok, so, I've been thinking about how to answer this. I think maybe the answer is that I'm not that kind of writer?

The moments when I am being swept along to the next big thing are vanishingly rare. I need to get this scene right before I can go write that scene. This is not a strength. It has taken me years to get comfortable leaving myself something like [some transition] at the end of a scene to come back to it later and moving on to the next bit I can write rather than getting completely stuck.

scrolling back up to revise now: I think also part of not getting swept along to the next bit is knowing that I can always get to that next bit. It's not going anywhere. I'll get there when I get there and the scene will have had time to mature in my head in the meanwhile. But then, I am less at mercy of the whims of hyperfocus than many a writer who is diagnoseable with ADHD or the like. I am not. I don't have to get it done Right Now Immediately or it'll never get done, you know?

I am also not that analytical of a writer. I don't really think logically about if I've written the right bridges and smoothed out the crinkles? It's all vibes up in here. It's right when it feels right. If it feels sparse and incomplete, I add more. Sometimes it feels overstuffed and the pacing is off, and I have to delete some (that one is much harder. I am very proud of the fact that I am now able to take the axe to some of my words sometimes. It is not my strength, but something I'm working on).

Getting a feel for that kind of thing comes with practice. I know a decade ago I didn't think in satisfying narrative arcs when coming up with characters? I was spitballing with a friend fleshing out their OC the other day and found myself going 'ok, if the beginning of their arc is realizing that these people are depending on them and they need to step up, then the satisfying conclusion should be realizing that they can depend on these people in turn'. It's something I might have done instinctively earlier in my writing? But now I have the experience and tools to think about more intentionally.

I am also not that analytical of a writer in the fact that I just write functional words. I greatly admire authors who can think deeply about individual word choices through the entirety of a work, picking them like a poet so every sentence is perfect. They're out there building the literary equivalent of towering aqueducts, stone by stone and word by word. That's not me. I'm just standing in the word fields digging a trench one small shovelful at a time, and eventually I've dug a ditch that the water pretty much flows through to get where I wanted it to go, and that's good enough.

The story is never going to be the story it was in my head. In my head, a story is all unspecified vibes, powerful images, and the occasional good snippet of prose. The story in my head doesn't have to have grammar and punctuation. It's never going to be what it was in my head, but if I can get the main emotions across that's good enough for me. And again, I can't tell you how to know when you have gotten the emotions across. That's something you have to figure out yourself with time and practice (and also by the reactions of the people who read your story. it's hard to do in a vacuum.)

Thank you for this ask! It has been interesting to think about my writing process this morning. But I'm also very sorry I don't have a better answer for you. It's all done by feel over here.

[redwinterroses]

what do you do - other than bashing ur head in with a bat - when you feel like your plot isn't going anywhere or that ur story has run out of gas

usually I drop the story and move on to some newer, shinier idea.

.../hj

But! some possibilities for refreshing the spark:

1. ask if your plot is still a good plot. Is there something fundamental about the plot itself that is a wall to the rest of the story? You are officially granted permission to change major points of your plot: it's 100% okay to do this.

2. if your core plot is still good, maybe you need a subplot to build around. Your heroes are on their way to the Great Dark Mountain to destroy the cursed blade, but meanwhile their allies have to distract the Evil Sorcerer so he doesn't realize what they're up to. Now you get to add in a heist plotline where they go and kidnap the Evil Sorcerer's daughter and it turns out she wants to help them defeat her horrible father. Subplot saves the day!

3. Daydream. I tend to play my favorite scenes over and over again in my mind before I write them, fine tuning and tweaking them to get JUST the right emotion I want. Then I still have to write all the context that leads up to those Good Bits, but it's the carrot driving me forward through the boring stuff.

4. Get a friend involved. Don't necessarily show them the manuscript, but ask if you can brainstorm with them. Sometimes all it takes is explaining the story out loud to someone who doesn't altar know it inside and out for you to see where it's got hangups, and/or to get an idea of where it should go next. And if nothing else, your friend might have some ideas or questions that can spark a new train of thought.

5. Pinterest is your friend. Look for character inspiration, location art, fashion, aesthetics, prompts and quotes. Treat your story like it's a fandom and you're brainrotting over it, because you ARE allowed to do that. <3

6. And finally, because it needs to be said: It's okay to give up on a story. It really, really is. Not every story is meant to be finished -- we are our own audiences first, and sometimes the story that we were writing was what we needed for that point in our lives, and then we grow and move on and we don't need it anymore. Sometimes an idea just wasn't that solid to begin with. Sometimes you'll set something aside for weeks or years and one day go, "You know what, I think I know how to fix that--" and go back to it. There is nothing wrong or shameful in not finishing a writing project. It's not a failure or a failing, and you should be gentle and gracious with yourself if you need to give yourself permission to just let a story go -- maybe for a temporary time, maybe forever. Heaven knows I've got enough unfinished stories to fill ten libraries lol.

Best of luck, anon! Put down the baseball bat, pick up a pen, and if the words still don't come: give yourself some space and grace to grow. 💜

[joe-the-english-otter]

Cerebus The Aardvark: Issues #101-#200. Continued Thoughts (Repost)

This is the second part of the three part saga of my opinions on Cerebus The Aardvark. I suggest you read the first part that I posted a few days ago, if you have no idea what’s going on or need some context. (Originally posted to FA on January 17th 2023) So I've continued reading Cerebus and yeah, the previous flaws that might've shown a bit in the previous issues really start to ramp up here and get worse the closer we get to issue #200. (I did mention in the previous journal about Dave Sim's anti-feminist views and I'll get into even more of his... Interesting views later on) Issues #101-#113: This is a continuation of the previous arc, though more story elements are added in as previous echoes, that were hinted at earlier in the story arc, start to build up properly and add weight to the story as Cerebus ascends (In a literal and metaphorical sense) to where he meets the Judge who.... Well, judges the many people of the world. After a long speech which developes the world building a bit more, he tells Cerebus that he's destined to die "alone, unmourned and unloved", that his empire has collapsed to an invading army and that the vast majority of his followers are dead. Issues #114-#150: After Cerebus literally falls back down to earth, he walks around the mostly ruined city that he once ruled, before eventually running into Jaka and her new husband Rick. Cerebus stays with them for a bit as a houseguest and there's a bit of tension as Cerebus does his best to try and split Jaka and Rick up, still showing that he loves her deeply and is heartbroken that she's found someone else. This part of the story is lightly pushed down as the character Oscar is introduced, who is 100% written as Oscar Wilde, he plays a major part in the story as he starts writing a story based on Jaka's life, without Jaka knowing. Cerebus leaves to go do a basic errand and while he's gone, Jaka, Rick and Oscar are captured by the new dictatorship controling the region (The dictatorship being mostly big burly women and one of the higher ups being Margaret Thatcher... Seriously). The latter half of this arc deals with the last days of Oscar's life, after being severely scarred by his time in prison. It also deals with Cerebus who is deeply shell shocked, believing that Jaka is dead. Issues #151-#200: This is probably one of the longest arc's in the series. In is part, we get more details on two other aardvarks that exist in this world; Cirin (Leader of the new dictatorship) and Suenteus Po (An extremely powerful philosopher who has lived through several incarnations of himself). There's a lot of mind games as Cerebus, Cirin and Astoria (She's back now) try to change things to their own ideologies, with Po trying to prevent things from going to complete shit. In the third part of the arc, the viewer is shown parts of an in-universe essay, which basically describes a theory on the sexes using a female void (Which focuses on feelings and emotions) and a male void (Which focuses on reason and logic). This honestly reads like it's Dave Sim's thoughts and it mostly comes out of nowhere, like it holds a bit of relevance to the story arc but it just feels very tacked on in my opinion and it's one of the first major times Dave Sim would throw his thoughts and opinions into the story. This story arc starts to reach it's end as Cerebus, Cirin, Astoria and Po finally meet together. Po is able to talk Astoria out of fighting Cerebus and Cirin, helped by the fact that Astoria is worn out by the constant violence. Astoria and Po then leave after they're unable to talk down Cerebus and Cirin, leaving them to fight and good god is their fight violent as hell, leaving them both covered in blood, but alive. Eventually they're both shot up into space by "god" (Who turns out to be called Dave and is 100% a self-insert of Dave Sim) and they're slowly split apart, this leaves Cerebus alone with his thoughts and we get a good look at some moments from his past. (Caution warning: Censored Homophobic Slur Mentions) It's also during this time that Cerebus is left alone with his thoughts and he starts praying to Tarim (The none Dave Sim god), at first being thankful for being saved and then out of nowhere, starts thanking Tarim for not minding him being a f*ggot, while also loudly trying to drown out those thoughts by chanting "Shut Up" as he unintentionally brings up a few moments of him being aroused by men, while also repeatedly using the word f*ggot, mentioning that he hates f*ggots and that being a f*ggot is a sin. Now this is all brought up because it's mentioned in the third part that Cerebus is a hermaphrodite and has or had the ability to reproduce by himself if need be, that really troubles Cerebus and is what caused his outburst. I understand that in medieval fantasy, there is some carry over of what the laws were in the irl medieval era, but there are way better ways to handle it and doing it in such a way where the character is disgusted by these thoughts and saying that they're morally wrong, is really hard to take, especially considering they're the main character. But anyway, back to the story; Eventually Cerebus meets "god" who is shown in word balloon text as he changes various things while speaking in Cerebus's mind, proving that he is a supreme being in some sense. "god* then shows Cerebus the destiny that he was supposed to have followed, but that he screwed it up royally and is now set on a path of self-destruction, he then shows Cerebus two possible realities in which he lives with Jaka, neither of which end well for either of them. The arc ends after Cerebus is stuck on a small planet for a while, as a type of penance, before he is sent back to earth. So, here are the good bits: The art is fantastic, both Dave Sim and Gerhard (He was the main background artist from issue #65 onwards) did a brilliant job. The writing can be very good at times, like the converstations between characters as they argue and discuss topics can be really interesting. Now for my main gripe: Dave Sim's thoughts and opinions bleeding into the story. It's now reached a point where it's gone from being fairly balanced, into just full on "This is what I think and you're going to have to deal with it" and it's really hurting the story. Nearly every female character is now an antagonist or is really watered down character-wise (Even more than before). It's also clear that his anti-LGBTQA+ opinions are showing and it's only gonna get worse from here as he goes deeper into has ramblings in the comments section, which at times takes up more space than the actual story he's making. I will continue reading this series as there's only 100 issues left and a few extras that I might comment on. Overall, I stand by that Dave Sim is a fucking arsehole and someone with some serious personal issues that he didn't resolve. He's talented, but that does not excuse the hate he spews from his gob. Thank you for reading. As before, if I'm factually wrong or have said something you disagree with, do let me know via a comment or DM on either here or on Twitter. Cheers.

[u-n-lucky-being]

So apparentely I'm in my writer era on tumblr (thank you emotional meltdown) so I think now is the perfect time to ask:

HOW THE HELL DO Y'ALL START ACTUALLY WRITING?

I have like 30 plot ideas but whenever I set myself to start any story my brain suddenly decides that it would rather very much do literally anything else.

I've only managed to write SPECIFIC scenes that I want to happen in the story but then its like: "what do you mean I need to now add the context, build-up, and the character arcs that lead to this result??????"

So yeah, I need help.

[nsd07-blog1]

Navigating the Stars of Your Relationship with Synastry Aspects!

Welcome to the Astro-Love Adventure!

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Sun/Moon Midpoint: The emotional and soulful core of your relationship. It's where your inner worlds meet!

Venus/Mars Aspects: The spice of your relationship! These aspects talk about your romantic and physical connection.

Saturn Aspects: The teacher of your relationship, offering lessons on commitment, responsibility, and maturity.

The Descendant: Reflects qualities you admire in your partner. It's like looking into a relationship mirror.

North Node: Points to your relationship's growth direction, representing shared goals and destiny.

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