#you have really good taste in books

[lazycowboynerd]

it is currently thursday, my dudes

[egophiliac]

starting off with an amuse-bouche of some of my initial favorite bits! y'all, this update was WILD.

[holoscout]

another day another fern and jermaine sketch dump whats upppp

[chiropteracupola]

The love of the Wanderer is to wanderers.

[tswwwit]

One of the staff workers in raised spirits DEF thinks dippers at least fucking one of the ciphers ghosts

I'd go so far as to say more than one of the staff members has certain Suspicions, re: Dipper talking to thin air all the time.

[just-your-average-cryptid]

“Start with action! You need a big action scene at the get-go or readers will think you have no story!”

…respectfully, no.

What makes a good opening isn’t “convince the reader there’s a story here.” They picked up the book. They know there’s a story in it, that’s what books are for. What makes a good opening is “convince the reader to listen to your story.” Why should they keep reading? Why should they buy your book, or check it out from their local library?

Don’t start a fight, plant a bomb.

Starting with decontextualized action, like an unprompted fight scene, doesn’t grab attention the way it might in film or television. If you have to rewind and explain how you got here, then you just have a jumbled opening with minimal payoff. Good openings set up a thread to follow, one you’d better pay off soon. You plant a bomb, show it to the reader, and let them watch it tick down until it explodes. Setup > payoff, enough to get them interested in what’s next.

Example:

“The wolf lay dead, black blood oozing from its mouth.”

Setup: dead wolf. what killed it? what’s wrong with its blood?

The reader is asking questions. Good. Because now you can answer them. That’s your payoff. Now you’ve got an inciting incident and the beginning of your plot. You’ve established the story and the reader is interested. Mission accomplished 😎

Now, different openings will work better for different stories. A slow-build spec fic might have a subtle first line that gets you interested enough to go on. An action-heavy novel might start with an infiltration, building up tension and dropping lines about the protagonist’s purpose until the plan fails and they have to fight their way out. Whatever it is, it should introduce the world and story they’re getting into and do so well enough to get them invested. Set up a thread, follow it through, and pay it off.

Plant a bomb.

Then blow it up.

[remylong]

Are you a bad person, or do you just have reasonable concerns, are you a bad person, or are you just asking questions?

Tell Me I'm Worthless - Allison Rumfitt

[imaginarypasta]

i’ve been trying to get through hoh for literally like a week now but it’s so hard bc the way my fave nico is treated is absolutely ABYSMAL and i know it only gets worse

[emeraldcreeper]

I love being able to salvage an idea and mush 10 ideas together into a fic idea that holds water at least somewhat

[killjoy-prince]

Manga and merch haul from today!!

[13eyond13]

As much as I roast Beyond Birthday for his lack of subtlety I also kin him for it. Because in art school we were sometimes required to incorporate deep symbolism into our art pieces, and I was always doing things like drawing a dude holding a compass and wearing goggles to represent that he's feeling directionless about his worldview

[aeide-thea]

what if this year i gave up on even gesturing at ""passing"" and instead embraced the world of weird unisex natural-fiber garments available on etsy 🤔

[ohitsmelaura]

if you read Red Queen and you're a fan of Maven Calore, you should totally read Splintered by A. G. Howard

[whoviandoodler]

petition to stop making fun of people who like those pinterest-esque posts with sad quotes and whatever bcs to you they may be edgy and cringy but to someone out there it might be the first time that they are seeing someone put into words the confusing experience of being Human. same goes with those bad ya books like. yes they are objectively, technically bad and most times just badly mimic something someone else did but someone will see deep ideas explored in them for the first time and marvel. and maybe instead of going lmao dumb kids we should go 'hey if you liked that book you might like [a book that was much better at exploring trope from that angle'. peace on planet earth or whatever

[dearest-lady-disdain]

i need a list of all books referenced on riverdale, asap

[gideonisms]

have you read anything by becky chambers? ive only read the start of her series but it is very much spaceship centric

I started the long way to a small, angry planet but ultimately didn't end up finishing it. I may come back to it someday, in the moment it felt a little too slice of life/sweet found family vibes and that just wasn't what I was in the mood for at the time