vicspeaks

[vicspeaks]

hello i must know about matches and jay

lmao I fully thought it was something for you when I first saw the doc. It’s actually a Batman AU where Under the Red Hood never happens because Matches Malone ends up crying about “his boy Jay” in the middle of a goonion meeting and Jason understandably bluescreens about it. Jason ends up accidentally giving away his identity too by making a comment about a private conversation he’d had with Bruce, and they reconcile on a roof. The actual title’s probably gonna be “we exorcise the demons of the things we used to know” from Brandi Carlisle’s Stranger At My Door, which is a very Jason song.

Here’s a snip: Jason watched his one time father visibly steel himself before continuing his story. “A few years back, my boy Jay got caught on the wrong end of a Joker op. He was tryna save his ma, and what did he get in return? A one way ticket to the great beyond is what. So’s they call me, the feds. Show me what’s left of my boy Jay. And I damn near lose it right then and there.” His voice breaks on the last word as he holds back a sob. The man rubbing his back starts patting it instead. “‘Sokay,” he says, “the boss won’t judge you none. Show him your trust and he’ll trust you in kind, he told me.” The other goons nod encouragingly. Matches looks around in a daze, then nods back. “I damn near lost it,” he continues. “To paraphrase the bard, I was ready to take a bite outta the Joker’s heart in the marketplace. Kenny had to wrestle me to the ground ‘fore I got myself a lifetime sentence for murder.” “And you didn’t want to go to jail,” Jason concludes. Figures. Bruce made it clear he wasn’t worth much to him at the end there—certainly not enough to risk his mission. But if that were the case, why Bruce shaking his head? “Nah, I’dda walked to the slammer and sat right in the electric chair if it meant I got to personally escort that poisonous snake to Gehenna. But then, well, I wouldn’t be able to call myself Jay’s father now would I? I’d have become someone else. Someone darker. Someone I don’t think my boy Jay would’ve wanted to know. And on the off chance he were hauntin’ me, I couldn’t let him see me turn into a monster like that. And I…hnn. I don’t really remember much after all that.”

Jason clung to that familiar little “hnn” as a sign Bruce hadn’t been possessed. He’d forgotten how...open he was as Matches. He vaguely remembered thinking it was hilarious when he was younger. It was just unnerving now.

“I ‘member,” said a quieter goon. Bradley, Jason thought. “We didn’t see youse for a while. Youse said you was gonna help me get a job at Wayne Ennerprises, but you done vanished. Came back a few months later sayin’ somethin’ ‘bout a kid named Alvin scrapin’ ya outta the gutter by force, but then you did three straight shots o’ absinthe, so I never got ‘round to askin’ ‘bout that job again.”If that whole sob story hadn’t convinced Jason that this was Bruce, the stricken expression on his face right now would have chased the doubt from his mind for good. “I’m so sorry, Brad. I shouldn’t’ve let you down like that.”

[vicspeaks]

wip title game

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs

tagged by @clonerightsenthusiast! (Technically he tagged my witchblr but this is a better blog for it)

My list is gonna be like a million years long because my gdrive is a graveyard of broken dreams (unfinished WIPs) and the variety of fandoms will reflect just how long ive been at this. I will finish these someday...but not anytime soon probably rip. So, in reverse chronological order:

lover hunter friend and enemy (you have always been every one of these)

Matches and Jay

boys try to con wayne.doc

Little Words

Bringing Sexy Back

Adie Syndrome Sequel: This Time It's Worse

"in time of daffodils(who know the goal of living is to grow)"

Batfam BB

Cap BB sequel

Love Square Fluff Week

Original Work Outline

YOI Star Trek AU

Tinker Bonus Stories: Lady Matriarch

Tinker Bonus Stories: Testimony

Tinker Bonus Stories: Kora

Tinker Bonus Stories: Asrani

Cutting Loose

Dark Cupid Fic--Hello Beastie?

Mother of a Changeling Child --Amaryllis Hill and Heather Dale #??

As for tags, I'm gonna call in the following people (no pressure to post of course!) @wingedscribe (yes double tag but pleasepleaseplease), @snaps-wexley, @chuzilllaa, @tangled-pixel-harpsichord, @dicaeopolis, @taxi-cab-to-slowtown, @jube-art @salparadiselost, @raberbagirl, @trekkele, @brodinsons, @murderandcoffee, @profoundalpacakitten, @i-aint-even-bovvered, @makilade, @river9noble, @centimetersstuff, @imsorrybruce2, @whelmedchaos

[vicspeaks]

site that you can type in the definition of a word and get the word

site for when you can only remember part of a word/its definition 

site that gives you words that rhyme with a word

site that gives you synonyms and antonyms

[vicspeaks]

writing realistic dialogue

I try not to give out writing advice unless it’s advice I haven’t seen anybody give out before. I haven’t seen anybody give out this advice before.

1) Figure out your characters’ point of focus. This is a term that I think I made up, but it’s very useful to me, and something I do with all my dialogue. I think it does much more to differentiate character voices than dialect, catchphrases, et cetera, will ever do. Basically: a character’s point of focus is the thing they are most focused on. This does not change from scene to scene, rather, it’s a part of their personality. 

For instance, I approach things focusing mostly on analyzing the emotional, philosophical, or moral element of the thing–even if that’s not really the main point of the thing. It’s something that, if you know me, you’ll probably pick up on from me–I’m not the type of person you want to talk finance or investments with, because I don’t approach anything at that level. If you tried to talk finance with me, I’d start talking about the moral issues I have with our financial system.

You see? A point of focus is the lens that your character views the world through, and that means it’s the way they approach situations and subjects–and it’s going to show in the way they talk to other people. If you know your character well enough, you probably have an idea of what their point of focus is. Let that shine through in their dialogue. Doing this intentionally will really help your characters have unique voices and distinct personalities, and your dialogue will be a lot better for it. (I find that personality tests are very useful in this regard.)

2) Write your characters as if they have a train of thought. I think this is something that some writers avoid because they’ve been told to “trim the fat” off of their dialogue and only include the “important bits.” This is true, in that you don’t want your characters to have a whole scene talking about the weather if the weather doesn’t matter to your story. But at the same time, you don’t want your characters to sound as if they’ve rehearsed what they’re going to say ahead of time, unless if they literally have in-universe.

Some writers try to show this through lots of pauses and “uh, um,” which… is fine, but isn’t the most realistic. I find that the most useful tool for writing characters as if they have a train of thought is to let them backtrack, and often. You can do it in the middle of a sentence: 

“She wasn’t trying to–I mean, I don’t think she wanted to overpower me.”

Or you can do it over the course of the conversation:

“She wasn’t trying to overpower me,” he said.

She gave him a disbelieving look. “Well, she definitely looked like she was.”

“I don’t think she was trying to overpower me,” he corrected. “I mean, she didn’t seem like she wanted to. She seemed like she was holding back, kind of.”

You can draw it out longer than that, but there’s a short example for the sake of keeping this post fairly short.

Think of writing a train of thought as an opportunity to show more of your character’s point of focus/personality. By letting less-edited thoughts of theirs slip out, and showing how your characters edit their words to communicate better with someone else, you let your reader peek behind the curtain just a tiny bit into your character’s thought process–which can tell us quite a lot.

[vicspeaks]

no but seriously I still get chills thinking about turning off my headlamp in the cave and The Hand That I Did Not Actually See, and it’s been twelve years since it happened

it’s such an unreal experience

like

you turn off your light in a cave and wave your hand in front of your face

and

you can see this shadowy thing moving in the black space where your hand is

it looks like the same shadowy thing you would see in your room at night if you waved your hand in front of your face, it’s there and vaguely hand-shaped, and your brain recognizes it as your hand because your brain is aware of where your hand is and what it is doing

But You Are Not Seeing Anything

Inside a cave, there is No Light. No matter how far your pupils spread, there is no light for them to draw in, no light to put an image on your retina.

But your brain just Fucking Assumes that because it knows where your hand is and what it is doing, clearly it can see it.

So it creates a shadowy thing for your eyes to be seeing.

Brain is like “there’s a hand there”

Eyes are like “yup sure thing brain I can totally see it”

Brain is like “nice”

but there is no hand, you cannot see the hand, you are seeing a literal actual hallucination in the cave because your brain thinks it knows best

Caves are awesome, but also terrifying. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[vicspeaks]

I've been reading a bunch of advice on writing accommodations for disabilities (Replay has a disabled character with mobility issues which I am not as familiar as I'd like with) and I have a question/complaint.

Where are the descriptions of the accommodations that are half-assing it or don't work all the time?

For reference, I have autism. One of the things that I need is a quiet area when I'm becoming over-stimulated.

Usually, I use bathrooms. They're almost always available, always seperate from social areas, often have small areas where you can put boundaries between yourself and others, and usually quiet. Take me somewhere and the first thing on my agenda is "where's the bathroom?"

However, at my psychiatric work facility, we have special quiet rooms where you can relax and chill out in the quiet away from people. These quiet rooms have a lot of variety, and I can tell from a 2 minute inspection which ones are terrible and which ones are ones I'd like.

Like yeah, the quiet room is nice, but the walls echo every sound, the floor is waaay too hard and unforgiving, and it always smells like bleach. That's not a good quiet room.

They are all technically accommodations though, and part of me wants to know what would make someone with other disabilities go: "I can see whst you're doing. I can see that you're TRYING to help, and that's....sweet, but in all actuality, your accommodation sucks."

Yet at the same time, I see all these posts about good accommodations and how they'd benefit tons of people and that feels me with joy so I feel like crap wanting to be like: "yeah, being accommodated is great, but what's one way people accommodate you that just irks you?" Because I can see the strength and hope that arises from these posts. I can feel that in myself.

Yet I can't help but crave not just stories or descriptions of good accommodations, but stories where people are trying, earnestly trying to be good and help. They put braille on things. They have elevators you can always get to. They allow written OR spoken communication, but they fuck up.

The braille never cleaned and somehow always sticky or covered in...stuff. You don't wanna know, and you'd rather just clean it up than find out. The elevators janky and always stops either RIGHT above or RIGHT below the floor it's stopping on, so you either have to drop down or fight to bounce over that edge EVERY SINGLE TIME. And yes, written is accepted, but while you're writing, the conversation always keeps going so you're forever either behind or forced to confine yourself to gestures and short sentences.

Yes, it's accomodated, but it's not a great accommodation. So, does the character suck it up and deal with it, or complain about the little things that suck but they can live with? Do they try to fix the accommodations? Is there a point where those tiny stressers make them snap?

Are they resentful of these accommodations because they're not what they're used to? Are they grateful because its better than what they had? Do others notice the issues with the accommodations? Who are they and why?

What happens when an accomodation fails? How does the character react? How do the people around him react? Is the failure clearly visible to those uneducated in this accommodation? If it's not, do they assume the character is making it up? If so, why?

[vicspeaks]

WEBSITES FOR WRITERS {masterpost}

E.A. Deverell - FREE worksheets (characters, world building, narrator, etc.) and paid courses;

Hiveword - Helps to research any topic to write about (has other resources, too);

BetaBooks - Share your draft with your beta reader (can be more than one), and see where they stopped reading, their comments, etc.;

Charlotte Dillon - Research links;

Writing realistic injuries - The title is pretty self-explanatory: while writing about an injury, take a look at this useful website;

One Stop for Writers - You guys... this website has literally everything we need: a) Description thesaurus collection, b) Character builder, c) Story maps, d) Scene maps & timelines, e) World building surveys, f) Worksheets, f) Tutorials, and much more! Although it has a paid plan ($90/year | $50/6 months | $9/month), you can still get a 2-week FREE trial;

One Stop for Writers Roadmap - It has many tips for you, divided into three different topics: a) How to plan a story, b) How to write a story, c) How to revise a story. The best thing about this? It's FREE!

Story Structure Database - The Story Structure Database is an archive of books and movies, recording all their major plot points;

National Centre for Writing - FREE worksheets and writing courses. Has also paid courses;

Penguin Random House - Has some writing contests and great opportunities;

Crime Reads - Get inspired before writing a crime scene;

The Creative Academy for Writers - "Writers helping writers along every step of the path to publication." It's FREE and has ZOOM writing rooms;

Reedsy - "A trusted place to learn how to successfully publish your book" It has many tips, and tools (generators), contests, prompts lists, etc. FREE;

QueryTracker - Find agents for your books (personally, I've never used this before, but I thought I should feature it here);

Pacemaker - Track your goals (example: Write 50K words - then, everytime you write, you track the number of the words, and it will make a graphic for you with your progress). It's FREE but has a paid plan;

Save the Cat! - The blog of the most known storytelling method. You can find posts, sheets, a software (student discount - 70%), and other things;

I hope this is helpful for you!

(Also, check my blog if you want to!)

[vicspeaks]

Do you really not have any ideas?

Or do you actually have a dozen ideas that would be perfect drabbles, ficlets, and oneshots but you refuse to think of them as "real ideas" because you've convinced yourself that you need to write multichaptered longfic or nothing?

[vicspeaks]

Writing Resources #1

(Note: I’m only including free resources here, mostly because I’m broke and haven’t had a chance to try out any paid apps / programs. These are the resources I use and recommend, and is by no means a comprehensive list of all the writing tools out there. You might find something else that works better for you and isn’t listed here, and I’d love to see some reblogs from people sharing any other resources!)

For when you just need to get words on the page:

Write or Die is easily the most versatile tool for when you need serious motivation to just write. It’s a bit tricky to figure out at a glance, but you can play around with it and find out what works for you. Because of the ability to set time limits and consequences for yourself, Write or Die can help you stay focused and (if you’re like me) stop second guessing every word you write. You can always edit later.

Written? Kitten! is an alternative to Write or Die with only rewards (new picture of an adorable animal of your choice every time you hit a word count) and no consequences. It also has a very minimalist layout without a lot of distractions or customization options, which is helpful if, like me, you’re easily distracted.

For visualizing your word count & progress:

Pacemaker has a free mode and a subscription mode, but the free mode is pretty much everything you need. This is helpful if you’d like a visual representation of your word count. It can make it easier to see your progress on a project.

For editing:

ProWritingAid is… everything. You do need to make an account to use this site, but oh boy oh boy is it ever worth it. (Just make sure to sign up for the free option; it has everything you need.) I use this tool in tandem with my own editing process, and it has an amazing algorithm for catching things that weaken your writing - adverbs, overused words, passive verbs, etc. You don’t need to take all of its advice, but it can help draw your attention to things about your writing that you may have missed. I would recommend this to anyone who is considering trying out a paid program like Grammarly. It’s by far the most useful editing tool I’ve ever come across.

Hemmingway App isn’t for everyone. I feel called out by it, but that’s the point - sometimes we need to hear that our writing is getting a bit verbose and ostentatious, and to consider if toning it down a bit might help our story and meaning shine. Again, you can decide not to take any or all of its advice, but it’s a useful tool. (For example: I put this post into the app and it yelled at me for the word “ostentatious” and suggested I replace it with “showy.” That’s not exactly what I meant, so I kept “ostentatious”, but it was a nice suggestion. Does that count as irony?)

As always, happy writing!

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one word ideas for when you’re feeling stuck

A aeipathy (n.) - an enduring and consuming passion aleatory (n.) - relying on chance or an uncontrolled element in the details of life or in the creation of art alharaca (spanish, n.) - an extraordinary or violent emotional reaction to a small issue anacampserote (n.) - something that can bring back a lost love antiscians (n.) - people who live on opposite sides the world, “whose shadows at noon are cast in opposite directions” áoyè // 熬夜 (chinese, n.) - to pull an all-nighter   appetence (n.) - an eager desire, an instinctive inclination; an attraction or a natural bond aranyhíd (hungarian, n) - “the golden bridge”; the reflection of the sun as it shines on water aspectabund (adj.) - letting or being able to let expressive emotion show easily through one’s face and eyes asterismos (n.) - “marking with stars”; a word that gives weight or draws attention to the words that follow aswium // 아쉬움 (korean, n.) - the mingled feeling of disappointment, frustration, and regret that results from an unsatisfactory situation atermoiements (french, n.) - distractions or hesitations leading to procrastination avos’ // авось (russian, n.) - blind trust in sheer luck

B balter (v.) - to dance artlessly, without particular grace or skill but usually with enjoyment basorexia (n.) - the overwhelming desire to kiss bilita mpash (bantu, n.) - the opposite of a nightmare; not merely a good dream, but a blissful state where all is forgiven and forgotten brontide (n.) - the low rumble of distant thunder brumous (adj.) - of grey skies and winter days; filled with heavy clouds or fog b’shirt // באשַערט (yiddish, n.) - “destiny”; referring to the seeking of a person who will complement you and whom you will complement perfectly

Keep reading

[vicspeaks]

More favourite tropes:

“Unfortunately, [thing that would ordinarily be described in much stronger terms than ‘unfortunate’].”  

“Fortunately, [thing that is in no way fortunate].”  

“Unfortunately, [thing that would ordinarily be fortunate in nearly any circumstance except the circumstance at hand].“  

“Fortunately, [very minor benefit that absolutely does not offset the considerable drawbacks of whatever just happened].“  

“Unfortunately, [the exact, word-for-word thing that somebody just expressed that they hope won’t happen].“  

“Fortunately, [complete non sequitur].”

[vicspeaks]

fictional kiss things that end me

being unable to open their eyes for a few moments afterward

one small kiss, pulling away for an instant, then devouring each other

pressing their foreheads together while kissing

speaking normally, then after the kiss their voice is hoarse

guys furrowing their brow when kissing passionately

staring at the other’s lips, trying not to kiss them, before giving in

running their thumb over the other’s lips

when they lean forward a fraction as if to kiss the other person, then realize they shouldn’t and pull back to stop themselves

ripping the other away - “no we shouldn’t” - but when they kiss them again they moan and hold them close

one sliding their hand into the other’s hair slowly

their entire body freezing for a second when their love kisses them

accidentally being forced inches apart from each other, staring at each other’s lips, and just before they kiss someone pulls them back apart

when one stops the kiss to whisper “I’m sorry, are you sure you-” and they answer by kissing them more

a hoarse whisper “kiss me”

then licks their lips and says “please”

[vicspeaks]

How to write a kiss

Rebloggable version, as requested by davrosbro. :)

Oooh!  Yes!  I love kisses.  Kisses are where it all starts ;).

Okay, first, remember that a kiss is much, much more than just lips.  It is lips, but also tongues, teeth, eyes, faces, hands, noses, bodies, heartbeats,  breath, voice- and most importantly, a kiss is emotions.  A kiss without emotion is just wet mushy lips stuck together.  Ew.  Gross.  The most important part of a kiss isn’t the how, but the who- because of the emotions between the two people.

Okay so:

lips- Lips can slide, glide over each other smoothly, or they can be chapped and rough and dry and get stuck on each other.  They can match, top-to-top and bottom-to-bottom, or they can overlap, with one person’s top or bottom lip captured between the other person’s lips (yummy).  If there is lipstick or chapstick there is lipstick or chapstick flavor, otherwise, lips don’t have a taste (can you taste yours?).  Lips also can smack- the sound of two of them coming together or pulling apart, because they’re wet and warm and soft. 

tongue- Tongues are always wet, and always warm.  They’re very versatile.  They can trace over lips, teeth, or another tongue.  They can be smooth and graceful or teasing and flicking.  When tongues are involved, there is drool.  It’s only sexy when you like the person you’re kissing, or else it’s kinda gross. :P

teeth- teeth can clack together awkwardly, or teeth can bite down sensually.  A person biting their own lip is cute, a person biting another’s lips is sexy.  A person biting gently is sensual, a person biting roughly is sexual. 

eyes- Eyes can be wide open with surprise, half-lidded with desire, fully closed with pleasure.  Eyes can gaze lovingly, lustfully, wistfully, hungrily, seductively- it all depends upon the emotions of your characters.  Have them do whatever you like, but don’t leave them out- give them at least a mention!

faces- Faces are what the lips are attached to.  Noses bump, cheeks flush, ears turn red, foreheads either wrinkle or relax.  Kisses can leave lips, quite easily, and become kisses on chins, cheeks, noses, foreheads, ears, necks, throats.  Kisses on noses or foreheads are cute and adorable, kisses on cheeks are sweet, kisses on chins, ears, and throats are very sexual.  And a kiss on the lips can be all of those! <3

hands- Hands are super-important.  In order to describe a kiss, usually you want to also describe the hands.  Where are they?  Does one character have their hand behind the other’s head or back, holding them close?  Are they on someone’s shoulders pulling them near, or pushing them away?  Fingers brushing someone’s cheek or palms grabbing someone’s ass convey two very different kinds of situations, even if the kiss itself is exactly the same.

noses- Noses are annoying.  They easily get in the way, especially for first kisses!  People have to tilt their head to one side or the other, and if they don’t, noses bump.  I’d only mention noses if a kiss is supposed to be awkward or uncertain or nervous.

bodies- bodies are either close together, or far away.  Someone can be surrounded comfortingly by someone’s arms, or terrifyingly trapped by them.  Bodies are warm or hot, they are calm or nervous, relaxed or tense.  Body language says a lot.  Is your character pulling away, or moving closer?

heartbeat- Hearts can beat fast or slow, and that’s about all they can do- but there are lots of reasons why they do!  A heart can beat fast with fear or excitement or nervousness; a heart can pound with lust or race with terror or sing with joy.  Hearts can glow, cower, or shatter.  When you really want to drive the emotions of a character home, mention the heart.

breath- To me, the most consuming part of a kiss is the breath.  The air that someone else has just breathed going deep into your lungs is very intimate.  Lips and tongues don’t have a taste, but breath does.  Each person’s breath tastes different, smells different, and surrounds a person differently than anyone else’s breath.  Breath can be warm and sweet, breath can be hot and sexy, breath can be hot and frightening.  It is something that is very present and should not be left out.  A lot of writers leave breath out.  And it’s so important; it’s the most intimate part of a kiss.  Someone else is breathing into your lungs, and it’s either heaven or it’s hell.

voice- Voice conveys much, even without words.  A voice can groan, whimper, gasp, moan, catch, whine, scream, sigh.  Voice can convey emotion powerfully, and while some kisses are silent, usually they’re not. 

emotion-  Emotion is the most important- and the thing you try not to say.  You want to describe it, through all of the things above, so that it’s perfectly clear what your characters are feeling, without you ever using the “feelings words”.  If they’re in love, their bodies will lean close, their eyes will smile, their voices will giggle softly.  If they’re nervous, their palms will sweat, their noses will bump, their voices will shudder.  If they’re afraid, their muscles will be tense, their faces will grimace, their lips will not open.  Emotion is the color that you keep inside your mind as you write; it’s the base line that drives the description behind everything else you say.

Wow, that was a lot!  Gosh I hope it wasn’t too much!  Keep in mind not every kiss has all these things- this is just a list of things to consider when writing a kiss, and based on how long of a kiss you want to make.  Keep in mind that typing “they kissed for a long time”…that’s six words, it takes half a second to read, so that’s a short kiss!  If you want a long kiss, you need long sentences that make the reader linger. 

So maybe to start off, pick three things on the list to describe in your first kiss.  Don’t try to do it all- that would be too much for even the most epic kiss.  Just pick what’s most important to this particular scene, to these particular characters, and describe those parts along with the lips, and you’ve got yourself an awesome, emotional kiss. <3

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 Hey, to you sci-fi/fantasy writers out there (and maybe some others, but this is mainly for things that can’t really be researched irl), if you want to write a character who is a driven, passionate expert on something, don’t write about them rambling indifferently about some boring, mundane part of it. Give them a deep, intense hatred of some oddly specific wow-I-did-not-even-know-that-was-a-thing-and-it-would-have-never-occurred-to-me-that-it’s-a-bad-thing thing they’ll gladly rant about.

 Write a dragon rider who really fucking hates it when a dragon is trained to bow while being reined. A space ship engineer who is pissed off when perfectly good antimatter ship has been adapted to run on neutral matter. A historian who is still not over the massive failures of a general who lost a specific battle 300 years before she was born.

 The guy currently giving us a series of lectures on the restoration of historical buildings really, really hates polymer paint. At the artisan school our stained glass teacher really hated this one specific Belgian artist - we never really figured out what did that guy even do, but he’s been dead for over 200 years and our teacher was glad that at least he’s dead.

 Experts don’t just know things you’ve never thought about. They’ve got strong opinions about it.

[vicspeaks]

Tropes that get me every damn time, in no particular order and with no particular rhyme or reason

a group of morally grey criminals/thugs/assassins has a Mom Friend in the group 

Incredibly broken character trying to love, knowing they don’t know how to accept or show affection and trying anyway 

Gentle and Good™ character who would Never Hurt a Fly goes into absolute beast mode after their family or someone they care about is hurt or threatened 

Group of characters who hate each other’s guts forced to team up 

Literally any book-within-a-book device is used: excerpts or even mentions of a made-up in-universe book within the book. Bonus points if it’s some kind of Fantasy Textbook being included purely for infodump purposes. 

Independent, self-serving character ends up forced to be a hero and do good. Bonus points if this happens multiple times and independent self-serving character is just resigned to it at this point. 

On that note: universe/world has to rely on a bunch of criminals with 0 moral fibre that were more or less dragged out of a dumpster to save everyone 

any scene wherein the strong and stoic™ is getting patched up post-battle by their love interest for whom they have not yet admitted their feelings, probably shirtless and definitely wincing in a brave manner as bandages are applied 

Smol and Cute character turns out to be full of terrifying darkness 

Character finds terrifying monsters cute and/or endearing. 

Character doesn’t understand sarcasm or figurative language. Literally. Any. Use. Of. This. Trope. 

Character’s somewhat embarrassing or weird backstory comes out only when it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Example: In the seventh book of a series, the characters must go undercover at a Zyrg’hnrrian ball and the Strong Stoic Axe Warrior Guy, who we have known for all seven books so far, must grudgingly admit that he knows how to dance a Zyrg’hnrrian Waltz. 

on that note: characters must disguise as something and go undercover but their already super shoddy cover starts falling apart, resulting in your entire body cringing at the page. bonus points if their disguises start LITERALLY falling apart 

on THAT note: only reason characters are able to infiltrate something is that the guards are bored and not paying attention 

Characters who are a couple team up in battle and start absolutely kicking ass 

Criminal mastermind getting himself involved in multiple recursive layers of double-crossing that all fall apart at the worst possible time. 

A character who has spent the whole book acting like he doesn’t care suddenly throws himself into harm’s way for another character and comes out of it battered and half dead 

Literally any scene where a badass character comes out of something that should have killed them covered in blood and wounds and with fire in their eyes. 

Any scene where a character puts on a brave face for something that no person should be able to bear or endure, on behalf of someone they love. 

Literally any story where MC goes to school to learn the art of murder/to be an assassin/to be a villain/the ways of evil and darkness in any sense  

S N A R K 

Over the top plots where shit is just hitting the fan and the characters themselves are somewhat aware of how crazy it all is and are just like “this might as well happen” 

A Good, rule-following character forced to collaborate with morally-grey trash can. 

character bonds with an animal that annoys them at first but by the end they are willing to lay down their life for the varmint. Bonus points if they rush back into danger cursing about how annoying and ungrateful their animal companion is while actively risking their life on its behalf. 

Bar fights. hhhhhhhh

Character who has never really received affection and love receives loving physical touch and has no idea how to respond or process what’s going on inside them other than oh god don’t stop 

On that note: hideous, monstrous-looking creature/character is shown gentleness/affection for the first time. 

Any scene where a monologuing villain gets slammed with a comeback that makes him realize all of a sudden what the heroes’ plan is all along and that he’s lost 

villains have great fashion sense 

on that note: sexy villains hhhghghhhh. Yes you can write a callout post. 

[vicspeaks]

Helpful things for action writers to remember

Sticking a landing will royally fuck up your joints and possibly shatter your ankles, depending on how high you’re jumping/falling from. There’s a very good reason free-runners dive and roll. 

Hand-to-hand fights usually only last a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes. It’s exhausting work and unless you have a lot of training and history with hand-to-hand combat, you’re going to tire out really fast. 

Arrows are very effective and you can’t just yank them out without doing a lot of damage. Most of the time the head of the arrow will break off inside the body if you try pulling it out, and arrows are built to pierce deep. An arrow wound demands medical attention. 

Throwing your opponent across the room is really not all that smart. You’re giving them the chance to get up and run away. Unless you’re trying to put distance between you so you can shoot them or something, don’t throw them. 

Everyone has something called a “flinch response” when they fight. This is pretty much the brain’s way of telling you “get the fuck out of here or we’re gonna die.” Experienced fighters have trained to suppress this. Think about how long your character has been fighting. A character in a fist fight for the first time is going to take a few hits before their survival instinct kicks in and they start hitting back. A character in a fist fight for the eighth time that week is going to respond a little differently. 

ADRENALINE WORKS AGAINST��YOU WHEN YOU FIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. A lot of times people think that adrenaline will kick in and give you some badass fighting skills, but it’s actually the opposite. Adrenaline is what tires you out in a battle and it also affects the fighter’s efficacy - meaning it makes them shaky and inaccurate, and overall they lose about 60% of their fighting skill because their brain is focusing on not dying. Adrenaline keeps you alive, it doesn’t give you the skill to pull off a perfect roundhouse kick to the opponent’s face. 

Swords WILL bend or break if you hit something hard enough. They also dull easily and take a lot of maintenance. In reality, someone who fights with a sword would have to have to repair or replace it constantly.

Fights get messy. There’s blood and sweat everywhere, and that will make it hard to hold your weapon or get a good grip on someone. 

A serious battle also smells horrible. There’s lots of sweat, but also the smell of urine and feces. After someone dies, their bowels and bladder empty. There might also be some questionable things on the ground which can be very psychologically traumatizing. Remember to think about all of the character’s senses when they’re in a fight. Everything WILL affect them in some way. 

If your sword is sharpened down to a fine edge, the rest of the blade can’t go through the cut you make. You’ll just end up putting a tiny, shallow scratch in the surface of whatever you strike, and you could probably break your sword. 

ARCHERS ARE STRONG TOO. Have you ever drawn a bow? It takes a lot of strength, especially when you’re shooting a bow with a higher draw weight. Draw weight basically means “the amount of force you have to use to pull this sucker back enough to fire it.” To give you an idea of how that works, here’s a helpful link to tell you about finding bow sizes and draw weights for your characters.  (CLICK ME)

If an archer has to use a bow they’re not used to, it will probably throw them off a little until they’ve done a few practice shots with it and figured out its draw weight and stability. 

People bleed. If they get punched in the face, they’ll probably get a bloody nose. If they get stabbed or cut somehow, they’ll bleed accordingly. And if they’ve been fighting for a while, they’ve got a LOT of blood rushing around to provide them with oxygen. They’re going to bleed a lot. 

Here’s a link to a chart to show you how much blood a person can lose without dying. (CLICK ME) 

If you want a more in-depth medical chart, try this one. (CLICK ME)

Hopefully this helps someone out there. If you reblog, feel free to add more tips for writers or correct anything I’ve gotten wrong here. 

[vicspeaks]

Change of Plans

Palpatine: [sitting in his office, excitedly typing up his first speech as Emperor] Soon…so soon… Anakin: [busting into the room, disheveled, flushed, hair askew, missing half his clothes] …YOU.  Palpatine: Wh-what are you doing back here so soon?! I was expecting Windu and those other –  Anakin: – Yeah, no. SAY YOUR PRAYERS, OLD MAN.  Palpatine: But – but Anakin, surely you still seek a way to save your wife from certain death? Something the Jedi will never share with you? [looking him over] What’s happened to you anyways? Were you attacked? Anakin: No. Well, kind of. It’s…that’s…it’s not important. What’s important is that I’m here, and I am done letting you mess with my head. And it’s time for me to fulfill my destiny. [ignites his lightsaber] Palpatine: This is an outrage! After all I’ve done for you?! What in the hell has gotten into you? [notices Obi-Wan in the doorway] …Kenobi. I thought you’d been dispatched to Utapau.  Obi-Wan: [casually, examining his nails] Yes, but I decided to delay my departure. I just…had a bad feeling about it.  Palpatine: [looking at Anakin’s state of disarray again] …oh no.  Obi-Wan: [smirking] Oh yes.  Palpatine: Anakin, whatever this Jedi has promised you, you must know he can’t be trusted. We’ve discussed this! Anakin: Yeah, well, that was before I had some…revelations this afternoon. [clears throat] And so now, Obi-Wan and I are gonna kick your ass, and then we’re gonna go find Padme and take her to a doctor. And we’re all gonna stop for ice cream after that.  Obi-Wan: [nodding] And you’re going to take a nap.   Anakin: [defiantly] Yeah, and I’m gonna take a nap! In a big bed! With both of them! [advancing towards Palpatine, getting right in his face] And we’re all gonna live happily ever after, and the Republic is going to make a stamp with my beautiful face on it. Because I saved the day.  Palpatine: [furious] This…this is ridiculous! You’re telling me you’re willing to trade becoming all-powerful, having the ability to save people from dying, for…whatever Kenobi was offering you?! Because you had some tryst with him when you were supposed to be revealing my secret identity to Windu so that he’d come over here and fight me?!  Obi-Wan: [placing his hand on Anakin’s shoulder] You know, Anakin, I wasn’t even really trying that time, either.  Anakin: [under his breath] Oh, kriff. [to Palpatine] Yes, that is exactly what I’m telling you. 

(With acknowledgements to @gffa)