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how non-writers think writing works: creating a detailed outline and plan, writing each section carefully and weaving in all the different story threads like a master creator, expertly creating a masterpiece with care and precision

how writing actually works: daydreaming that one scene, creating a half-formed plot in a daze all around it, swearing at characters that don't magic themselves into existence, becoming absolutely obsessed with the story for a solid week, it becomes your entire life, you sit down open a blank word document and write approximately two and a half chapters, lose interest, daydream an entirely new idea for a new story, rinse and repeat

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Today’s writing tip? Change the scene before you change the story. I was stuck on a conversation until I moved the location. Suddenly it flowed. Writers block? Outsmarted again. (Until next time.)

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It's frustrating that you can come up with the plot of an entire fic in just a few seconds, but writing it all down can take anywhere from never to forever.

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"Doomed characters who don't know they're doomed are great" ok but what about doomed characters who KNOW they're doomed but TRY ANYWAY?? Doomed characters who RAGE AGAINST THE DYING LIGHT??? Who have nothing to lose so they give up EVERYTHING??? Who are in DENIAL even???

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do yall do that thing where you act out a scene to see how to write it?? i do that and its really helpful but its super awkward if someone walks in😭

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Character who doesn't get to die & character who doesn't get to live. Is that anything.

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Hi! Just wanted to get your opinion on something. I've always had trouble with pacing and looking to improve it and my friend gave some advice. He said a chapter should be a scene in the story's timeline, and no longer than 5k words. Would you say that's good advice to follow, and do you have any tidbits to help pacing?

I am going to be the bearer of bad news. Chapters are completely arbitrary in nature when it comes to storytelling. NOW, before everybody starts yelling, chapters do lend a hand in external structure and they can be a good indicator of pacing, but how they are used is entirely up to the individual author. Creating hard and fast chapter rules is not going to really help in this situation.

When we talk about pacing, we are talking about the flow of the story. Does this scene last too long, or not long enough? Is there a consistent rise in tension, or are your characters treading water for too long a time? Does the beginning take to long to, well, begin? Let's completely forget about chapters for now.

What is the main goal of each scene? Take a step back and summarize each scene in your project. What is the main goal of the scene? If you can't identify it, or have too many, you either have a scene that goes nowhere or a scene that needs to be split up into several scenes. For example:

Main Goal: Lisa discovers Ted is lying to her.

How Does It Happen? He said he was at the soccer game, but his wife told Lisa that Ted called and said he had to work overtime.

Importance to the Plot: Ted is not the prime suspect for murder.

How do you know if a scene is too long or too short? - Did we already establish what was needed only to spend two more pages on meaningless small talk? Are you taking a long time describing plot irrelevant details, like a room we never see again, or a one-time character who isn't even named? If a scene happens and nothing is accomplished - the main character learns nothing, goes nowhere, or reiterates a fight we've seen her think about a dozen times already - you'll need to rethink it.

Is a scene too slow or too fast? Fight scenes are action-packed and fast-paced. No need to describe the detailing of a henchmen's coat when it's pitch-black and your Main Character's being punched in the face. On the other hand, did you rush through a scene where a major clue is discovered through painstakingly searching a room? Slow down a bit, focus more on detail. If you bring the wrong energy to a scene, your pacing will be thrown off.

Other things to think about:

Vary your sentence lengths within paragraphs to help with better flow - the same types of sentences quickly make reading them boring. This requires focusing on each paragraph, but it is worth doing.

Let dialogue scenes focus mostly on dialogue - don't have your main character describe the distant mountains between spoken word unless those mountains are relevant to the conversation.

Don't pack your beginnings with backstory - chunk it up and reveal it throughout the novel when it becomes relevant.

Exposition is the main killer of pacing - explain things when they need to be explained, like when they are plot-relevant or needed for action.

Bring those chapters back to your advantage. Once you have a handle on your scenes and how they should flow, look at how you can shape your chapters to provide necessary time skips, cliffhangers, and narrative changes. Vary their lengths to the advantage of your story, not some pre-chosen page number.

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Legacy!Adjacent Art Fight Stuff, GO!

Jamie belongs to @k1ngtok1 Nici belongs to @zetsubobu Lucy belongs to @miqotepotatoe

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In scenario Lloyd gets a partner and has at least one child, they would get both the Gold Essence and Green Element. What if Lloyd and a random Elemental Master had a child together, and said EM gives up their element first kinda in the way Skylor did? Does Lloyd keep his powers and abilities and child inherits the other parent's element? Or does it not work out since essences are tied to your life?

No matter who Lloyd (hypothetically) has a child with, the likelihood of the child having the necessary genetic makeup to inherit his element/essence is extremely low. Lloyd is the ~Chosen One~ for his powers both spiritually (????) and physically. Ignoring potential Source Dragon shenanigans And moreover, if the GE/GP did managed to get split during inheritance, it would cause problems for both Lloyd and the Child (whether that be a Golden Master situation, or outright kill them :V)

But in the (incredibly unlikely) event Lloyd hooks up with another EM (?????) and that EM willingly intercepts gives up their element to their child, then yes Lloyd's powers would remain untouched, similar to how Kai's powers would be untouched in the case of Blythe. But because of how funky Lloyd's dual Element/Essence works, the child would probably end up with the other parent's element anyway due to the above point.

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What type of inventors are Pixal, Nya, and Jay?

Jay, The Engineer, invents to experiment with new concepts and push the limits of what we perceive to be possible. He'll make a toaster that butters your toast at the same time and metallic wings to give a human the gift of flight and a set of transport tubes to zip you from school to a warehouse and back again and a ship that's powered by rocket boosters plus a supercomputer AND nevermind his whole thing with Miranda -> he turns the improbable into the possible! He invents with ingenuity, and if he can dream it, he can do it.

Nya, The Innovator, invents to improve and enhance what's already available and pushing to its logical conclusion. She struggles to craft ideas freshly from the ground up, taking massive inspirations from things that came before her (i.e. the Movie Mechs —> Samurai X Mech; og Ultra Sonic Raider -> Ultra Sonic Legacy Raider), but through putting her own spin on things creates things that are not just better but might as well have their own identity! She invents with intention, and will keep working until she sees it through.

Pixal, The Technician, invents specifically to problem solve. She may dip into the other two's thought processes depending on what it is she's working on, as often she's doing upgrades on preexisting tech (Nya) or creating something specific to the team's current needs (Jay) but ultimately she creates with purpose- and insanely quickly lol

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Reading your own story is weird because you actually like that one, it has a good plot and like everything in it what you‘re looking for in a story but you can‘t stop thinking “This is the worst story ever” the whole time.

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Im gonna listen tk the true potential theme and hope the sad one gets out of my head

You know what goes good with a True Potential theme? True Potential art!

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Legacy!Adjacent Art Fight Stuff, GO!

Jamie belongs to @k1ngtok1 Nici belongs to @zetsubobu Lucy belongs to @miqotepotatoe

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you know what? fuck it *reads the fanfic I spent hours writing for my own enjoyment*

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i'm so sorry

Assume Lloyd has two children

Child A is born with the GP, because of that, they are a fine vessel for the GE, meaning Lloyd loses the GE

Child B is born also with the GP, but without the GE cuz their sibling already has it, now this child somehow comes across having the Element of Amber

Now usually a Master of Amber can't/shouldn't absorb the GE. But what would happen if Child B tried? Also how would the GP react to the sudden presence of a not false but also not real GE?

And also, what happens when Amber meets Solitude?

Further building upon that, what would happen if a Master of Amber, a normal one, not the superfreak Child B, made contact with Harumi? Or Lucina?

Furtherfurthermore, if Child B did try to absorb Lucina (lets just say Child B only goes after the Elements cause getting Void into this mess is a bit too much for me), how would GP react to the presence (hah) of Solitude? And of Solitude and Green at the same time?

(ofc this is all assuming that Amber actually does work the way I think and the bees in my brain are telling me it doesn't actually absorb the element that deeply)

I need whatever the bees in your head are buzzing about cuz what in the—

1. If Child A already has both GP and GE, Child B wouldn’t be getting anything. But for your hypothetical, let’s pretend

2. If Child B does have GP in them, they wouldn’t be able to possess any other element in them, as GE is the only one ‘compatible’ with GP. Nevermind trying to come up how in the world they’d get Amber short of Skylor giving her element to them (as in the scenario they do somehow get GP, the scene would would trump any biological elemental transfer as well). But for your hypothetical, let’s pretend

3. Child B is in possession of an Essence that is incompatible with Amber, and under the circumstance that they would be able tog eat the element to work, they would only be able to absorb GE if their genetic makeup matched that of their sibling. AND EVEN if they did, it wouldn’t be a sudden magic balancing act, as the soul would still be compromised of GP and Amber, or GP + GE under the influence of Amber, so either way it wouldn’t be like having another Lloyd on our hands

4. Same thing with “Solitude”- improper incompatibility with the og Essence would lead to complications

5. Skylor absorbing from Harumi would be the same as absorbing from Lloyd— and if attempting to wield the Green Element is like trying to wield the four Golden Weapons (or wear the Golden Armor), then Skylor would prolly explode. And absorbing from Harumi would be like, say, trying to wield all four corrupted weapons during Crystalized, so, probably also not a good idea

6. Honestly nothing would happen if Skylor tried Lucina— there’s too much going on in her at once for Amber to latch onto, and instead of choosing one thing at random that would probably mess up Skylor in SOME way, Amber would just be like ‘nope, there’s nothing actually here’ (esp with each elemental aspect of Lucina normally only being at 25% attunement anyway, so there isn’t really a solid foundation for Amber to mimic/absorb from her in the first place)

6. Oh great, miscellaneous Child B is back—in the case of Lucina, refer back to points 3, 4, and 6

But at the end of all things, you are correct—Amber doesn’t absorb what it mimics all that deeply. It’s not as though Skylor is suddenly the master of whatever element she copies(and as stated before, she wouldn’t even have ~all~ the capabilities of whichever element either, as she can’t tap into other NRG Abilities).

But with GE/GP relying on generic components as well and VE/[REDACTED] only able to persist under specific circumstances as well, they wouldn’t be the revered and feared powers they are if they could be passed around silly-nilly and without consequence

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Theres no way Lloyd accidentally kills Zane right? Or Lloyd is indirectly responsible for Zane dying. And Kai semi blames Lloyd. And Cole just pulls away from everything so he doesn't have to think about it. and Jay just tries to replace all of it with something new

You wouldn't do that right Ren?

Ren you wouldn't.

Ren don't you dare

Only one of those sentences is semi-correct, at least :3

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ocs are awesome you get to make shit up and its true now. its like headcanons but you're fully supported by the text (you) made by the author (you)