withlovelunette - Tumblr blog

[withlovelunette]

Hi Lunette! How've you been?

So full disclosure this is about a self indulgent fanfic with a self insert oc lol but anyway I still want it to be good™

The characters of the actual show have super tragic backstories and my oc is just a regular ol girl, but she's still like.. an emotional/sad character, do I need to give her a tragic backstory for it to make sense & for her to be able to connect with the other characters?

Hello hello!! Upfront, sorry for the super late reply; I began answering this almost immediately when it came in, but then I fell ill again shortly afterwards and struggled to get myself to write anything, and I didn’t want to give you anything that was half baked, hence the delay :,) Aside from that, I’ve been good! And been looking forward to tackling your question!

Firstly, my short answer here is no, you don’t need a tragic backstory for a character to be tragic, nor does your character need to be tragic to connect with tragic characters! But I figure you’d like something more in-depth, so I’ll try my best to provide something more concrete.

I think it’s actually a very good exercise to practice making characters connect despite not having anything specific in common backstory wise. The reason I say this is because I often find that this can be something of a crutch for writers, and there’s a risk of this connection coming off as somewhat superficial. Don’t get me wrong; there are incredibly well written character relationships where part of their bond is shaped by their shared tragedies, but this should never feel like a component that their connection depends on. If removing their equally tragic backstories suddenly breaks their bond completely, then there’s likely something else missing there (the notable exceptions here would be more dysfunctional/codependent/complex relationships). Try and see if you can find some other components than tragedy (such as shared themes, opportunities for narrative foils, opposing or shared ideologies, etc.) that your characters can connect over!

I also think that writers (myself included) can sometimes overemphasise backstories as a "function" for why a character is a certain way. Sometimes, characters can just be a certain way without there being a blatant cause-and-effect in play! Some people are just naturally more emotional and sensitive than others, and have an easier time connecting to other people as a result of that.

There is also an inherent sadness to such characteristics which you might be able to play around with. A character who is very emotional and has an easy time connecting with other characters, but maybe has a difficult time allowing others to connect with her in that same manner. There's a lot of vulnerability that comes with putting in so much emotional labour into other people, which somewhat generates a certain tragedy to her own arc without having to explicitly give her a tragic backstory to justify the way she acts. That in and of itself could be something for your character to connect with other characters (I'm speaking a bit vaguely here, since I don't know what media this is for. Hopefully that's ok!)

A very longwinded answer to what basically amounts to just a "no", but I hope I was able to help you churn some ideas and get the gears going :,) Thank you for trusting me with your question! And again, very sorry about the delay in my answer. If there's any follow-up questions or anything you'd like me to explain more thoroughly, don't hesitate to send in another ask, and I'll do my best to help out!

[withlovelunette]

Hello Lunette! I saw your post about needing advice on how to reconnect with your writing after an absence due to chronic illness, and while I don’t have a chronic illness, I do have chronic depression. Here are 5 tips I’ve learned over the years that have helped me when it comes to feeling disconnected from your writing. Hopefully they help!

Read a book or watch a movie that is similar to what you’re trying to write. Pay attention to how you feel as you read/watch, how the story draws you in, and what kind of imagery/language is used. In what ways is your writing similar to these stories? In what ways is it different?

Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite! Don’t even look at the old scene- just rewrite it from memory. See if anything changes in tone or verbiage.

Bounce ideas off of friends. Sometimes we just need somebody to sort through the weeds with us. Ask for their honest (but kind and constructive) feedback, and see if they have any insights that can help.

Take a notebook with you everywhere you go and jot down your ideas. Whether it’s snippets of prose or dialogue, words that evoke feeling or even journaling! Any writing is better than no writing! Plus keeping all of your thoughts in one spot will help you connect your ideas.

Get excited!!! Make writing fun! Make playlists for your story and/or characters! Make niche memes about your story only a you will understand! Be your own number one fan! Sometimes you just have to let yourself get funky with it!

I hope this helps! If you ever want to talk about your writing or get feedback on something your stuck with my messages are always open! 💛

Thank you so much for the advice!! I saw this ask when it first arrived into my inbox, but didn't get around to answering it until now; I figured other people might also be able to take something useful away from this ask so I wanted to share it :,) Luckily, I have gotten back into the swing of writing, although I'm (evidently) very far behind on tumblr. With some more experience being a chronically ill writer under my belt, these tips have been very helpful for me, particularly the 4th one. Being chronically ill (physically in my case, but this applies to other forms as well!) means you pretty much never know what your physical/mental state is going to be on any given day, so I've given up on planning my writing sessions and embraced writing more sporadically in my notes whenever I feel up for it, and then assemble it into a doc later.

I really appreciate you and everyone else who's reached out ever since I've spoken up about my health problems. Needless to say, it's been a rough (and lonely!) past year as I'm not really surrounded by other people who have any experience with chronic illness. It's a very alienating experience, but that's what makes online spaces like these very helpful; even if I mostly just lurk nowadays until I can manage to be consistent again. I hope you (and anyone else reading this) have a good writing year in 2024! :D <3

[withlovelunette]

I've been trying to get back into writing now that my health has become more stable, but have felt somewhat disconnected to my projects due to my absence. If anyone has any experience with this due to a chronic illness I'd love any tips or advice on how to resolve it, as it's been a problem for me for a few months now ^^; I've never had to deal with this sort of struggle before since it's an illness I've only developed this year, so I feel like I need a creative process overhaul.

[withlovelunette]

Hey! do you have any tips on assessing your own writing better? Im fairly new so I can't tell if what i write sounds decent or amateur (I am an amateur so it probably does sound that way but still)

Hello there! A perfectly valid question regardless of skill, this can be tricky for anyone if you ask me :,)

Read it out loud!

This is definitely my number one tip to check if my writing sounds clunky and if it flows well. In my experience, when I’ve been working with my own writing for long amounts of time, there comes a point where my internal monologue kinda just skims what I’m reading. I don’t pause as much when I come across punctuation when I read it in my head vs when I read it out loud. Try to read it out loud as if you’re reading it to someone else (or even read it to someone else if you’re comfortable with it!). If you find yourself struggling to get through a sentence out loud, then chances are that something about the word-choice or sentence structure is clunky and wordy (though I’m also the type to just stumble in general when I read out loud; but this is an intuitive thing you’ll be able to pick apart with better accuracy as you learn!)

Take a break!

Step away from your writing!!! How long you choose to step away from your writing can really depend on preference and how much you intend to edit. If I find myself stumbling through my writing but I can’t quite figure out exactly what’s wrong with it, then that’s usually a sign for me to take a break from it for a day or two. A lot of times you’ll be able to troubleshoot your own writing much more objectively when you approach it with a fresher pair of eyes, because you’ve detached yourself from the writing a little bit.

Have someone else read it!

If you’re comfortable and want an even fresher pair of eyes to look at your writing, have someone else read it! Whether they do so out loud to you or just for themselves is a preference thing, I’ve found both to be very helpful in different ways.

When someone else reads your writing out loud, you get to experience what it’s like for someone to read your writing without your voice influencing it. (When I say your voice in this instance, I’m not talking about your literal voice, but rather your “writing style”, preference in sentence structure, word choice, etc. Even when you read your own writing out loud, there’s a chance that you can miss clunky writing because it’s in a “voice” that you’re already accustomed to!) But I understand that it can be scary to have someone read your writing, especially out loud to you, so it's definitely not a method I turn to all too frequently :,)

Focus your nitpicking!

It can be very easy to get caught up with fixing every little problem, especially because there's almost always something that can be improved. However, I think I usually get more out of my own assessments by focusing my nitpicking instead of nitpicking... Everything. That isn't to say you should ignore problems that you come across if it's not part of your primary focus (especially if it's a relatively easy quick fix, like readjusting sentences a little bit). However, when tackling larger issues, like story structure, themes, character arcs, environmental descriptions, etc., it can be helpful to focus on only one thing in the editing process, or you'll easily find yourself lost and disorganised in the process, at least from my own experience ^^;

Read books!

And finally, I highly recommend to read! This is sort of a redundant tip to give, but this really does help me for a variety of reasons. The main thing is that it helps me "escape" my own voice, so when I come back to my own writing, it feels fresher and easier to approach objectively.

The second thing is that you can pick up on a bunch of advice whilst reading without even realising it! It's much easier to assess your own writing if you have something to compare it to, particularly if you're new to writing and might not be as "conscious" of the various writing choices you're making.

Outro

I won't make a very fancy outro, as this answer is long overdue, but I hope these tips were helpful! If there's anything I missed or you want me to elaborate on something, don't hesitate to shoot me another ask and I'll do my best to answer :,D Can't promise it'll be super timely considering my health situation, but I'll try to get to it as timely as I can manage :,) Thank you for the ask and good luck with your writing! <3

[withlovelunette]

Hi! Just wanted to send you best wishes and lots of hugs! I hope you'll feel better soon.

Ahh thank you so much, that's so kind!! :,) I hope you're faring well yourself, anon! Thank you for the kind ask <3 !!

[withlovelunette]

(Dusts off this blog) That was definitely a longer impromptu semi-hiatus than I’d been planning ^^; I won’t beat around the bush too much, since I’ve already spoken of having some health issues many times before, but the summary is that I’ve been chronically ill for a while now, and while I’m still not completely sure what the underlying illness/cause may be, I’ve made small adjustments to my life that have been making my days just a little bit easier :,)

I’ve never had persistent health issues like these before, so it’s been very difficult to adjust to it, I won’t lie. I’ll spare the details, but it’s honestly been very rough and frustrating to deal with due to how unpredictable my own health is on a day-by-day basis, and it’s only taken a bigger mental toll knowing I’ve been very unresponsive on here and slow with getting back to replies, so I’m very sorry for that. I still plan to get back to this blog eventually, but it just might take a bit longer for me to get back into the swing of things than I’d originally anticipated. I really appreciate everyone who’s reached out to check up on me in the meantime, I’ll try to get back to those messages as well!

That aside, I hope everyone else has had a wonderful summer!! Can’t wait to see what everyone’s writing plans for the autumn is <3 :,D

[withlovelunette]

Keep thinking “this is going to be my last post on this topic”, and then it’s not my last post ^^; just letting people know I’m working on new posts and answering asks still!! In case anyone has been waiting, I genuinely feel bad taking so long. Although I’ve made progress in my health, I’m still trying to adjust everything and figure out how to distribute my energy correctly, but I’m slowly chipping away at everything! Thank you so much for everyone’s patience and everyone who’s reached out in the meantime, I’m incredibly grateful <3 :,)

Another health update, very sorry about that ^^; feel free to scroll past!! Good news is that I have a doctor helping me out with my illness and guiding me along the way, but it’s going to take a while to adjust to the lifestyle changes necessary. Hopefully this means I’ll have less sick days and more time to write/make posts/answer asks in the long run, but there will likely still be a big adjustment period. Again, I’m very sorry that there’s so much delay, I had no idea I’d have so many autoimmune issues shortly after starting this blog, but I’m trying to work diligently to get my current posts and answers done!! Hopefully this will be my last update on the subject, because I ultimately don’t want this to become a personal blog and strictly stick to writing, but I don’t want to leave people in the dark either.

[withlovelunette]

Another health update, very sorry about that ^^; feel free to scroll past!! Good news is that I have a doctor helping me out with my illness and guiding me along the way, but it’s going to take a while to adjust to the lifestyle changes necessary. Hopefully this means I’ll have less sick days and more time to write/make posts/answer asks in the long run, but there will likely still be a big adjustment period. Again, I’m very sorry that there’s so much delay, I had no idea I’d have so many autoimmune issues shortly after starting this blog, but I’m trying to work diligently to get my current posts and answers done!! Hopefully this will be my last update on the subject, because I ultimately don’t want this to become a personal blog and strictly stick to writing, but I don’t want to leave people in the dark either.

[withlovelunette]

I love your stuff and I hope you feel better!

Ahh thank you so much!!! Been having a bit of an off week health wise, but hopefully the pendulum will swing the other way soon :,) Regardless, I’m so glad to hear you enjoy my posts! It really makes my day! <3

[withlovelunette]

Sorry if there’s a bit of waiting involved with my asks, I’ve been having a couple of rougher health days recently and the asks in question require more in-depth responses, so I’m trying my best to be thorough. I always feel bad leaving people hanging for a bit, but I’m slowly chipping away at asks and posts! :,)

[withlovelunette]

Hi! Im really new to writeblr so this might be an obvious question but please bear with me.. Are your WIPs available for people to read now or will we be able to read them once they're published?

Welcome to writeblr! :D And sorry for the late reply! I've only posted snippets of my WIPs on here, though they're generally very short, since I like to fine tune things as much as possible before making something public :,) You can find posts/excerpts related to my WIPs by their respective tags (md&ws, animal arbiter), though I've yet to post too much about them since they're both still WIPs and I'm still relatively new to writeblr as well! I hope to publish my work some day, but that's not something I'm currently working towards, as I have a lot of other things going on in my life at the moment ^^; Thank you for the ask!

[withlovelunette]

Feel like every time I’m not making a super long post, I’m making posts to apologise for my absence, but here we are again ^^;; Just wanted to update people to say that I’m working on another lengthy post! Specifically one on how to tackle character theme/motif, for no other reason than because I find it fun to talk about :,) I currently don’t have any other topics planned after that one, but let me know if there’s anything specific you would like posts about!

Health wise I’m doing much better compared to before, but there are days where I really struggle to get anything done and am mostly bedridden, so my activity generally fluctuates based on that. Regardless, I’m very grateful for everyone who’s wished me well and been interactive in spite of that! Thank you :D ! <3

[withlovelunette]

Hey! I hope everything regarding your health works out! I love your blog, you're an angel for imparting all this knowledge for free. I love your posts they're invaluable!!

I wanted to ask your opinion on referencing songs lyrics or modern artists while writing? My ideas are so tied to the songs I listen to, i sometimes really want to incorporate them into what im writing. Especially bc often i feel like my character liking certain songs says a lot about them but I've never actually seen this done well when ive read it in other works. It always comes off awkward and out of place (imo) - do you have any advice? is it better to just leave it out entirely?

Please take the time you need to respond <3 I hope you get well soon! Good luck with everything!

Hello hello! Thank you so much for the good wishes :,D <3 And I'm so relieved this blog has been helpful for you, thank you for the ask!

I'll preface by saying that I don't write in very modern settings anymore, but I do have some experience from some of my older projects, as well as from reading books that include songs, so I'll try my best to help you tackle this issue!

For if you have a specific song in mind!

Firstly, and this one is probably the most obvious one, is to make sure that the song actually suits the setting that you're writing in! This is pretty straightforward when writing in contemporary settings (regardless of whether you're specific about the year your story is set in or if you're keeping it vague). If you have a specific time and place in mind, it's pretty much just a quick google search to see if the song was around back then. If you have a vaguer time and place (say, 1980s), you'll want to make sure that the technology/events/celebrities you're including don't accidentally specify the year, in case it contradicts your song choices. This also applies to mentioning artists!

But if your setting is more fictional (even if it's based on our world), this becomes a lot more subjective, and ultimately comes down to whether or not you feel like it fits into the setting.

Onto the actual "how to incorporate music" bit; one way you can go about it is to primarily refer to the music by name and describe your character's experience listening to that music, and then readers can always just look up the song themselves. I believe Haruki Murakarmi did this in Norwegian Wood! He might've included a few lyrics (it's been a while since I read the book, so I can't say for sure), but for the most part, he only refers to the Beatles song by name and describes the song through the characters experiencing it. This allows you to both describe the general vibe of the song to the audience in case they're unfamiliar, while also conveying the characters' relationship with the song.

Another way you can do it is to include lyrics in your writing, and I imagine this is the one you often find to be awkward and out of place, maybe? (I've definitely found them a bit awkward ^^;) I'll be transparent here and say that I generally don't like to include lyrics in my writing, particularly because it can lead to copyright issues if it's not in the public domain, but also because I find this to bring a lot of show vs tell issues for me (as in, it feels very "on the nose"). The main way I've tried to sidestep this issue is by having characters sing parts of the lyrics themselves, and sort of weave it into the dialogue, but it can definitely still come off as awkward if it's not done well. By having characters sing specific parts out loud, you're kinda highlighting which parts of the lyrics stick out to that particular character; but again, this can definitely be a very on-the-nose solution, so I'd really recommend to use lyrics sparingly!

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins includes a fair share of lyrics in it (though they're fictional songs), so maybe give that book a read-through and see if you like her format!

For if you don't have a specific song in mind/songs that don't have lyrics!

This section is more so dedicated to situations where you might not have a specific song, or if the song you've picked doesn't have any lyrics (such as classical pieces), since the solution here is more or less the same.

In these situations, I'd recommend to go the "describe the vibe of the song + how the character experiences the song" route! If it's a song that doesn't have lyrics, but has a name, you can also name it, similarly to what Murakami did in Norwegian Wood. You mentioned that songs can say a lot about a character, and you can often achieve similar effects just by describing the songs that they're listening to as well.

A character who listens to intense, grimy metal with a heavy bass and distorted electric guitar is going to give off a very different image than a character who listens to melodic piano pieces with softened, delicate strings harmonising in the background. It often helps to have specific songs as a reference for these descriptions, even if you don't outright name any songs! I also find that using descriptions that don't typically describe sounds can be very fun to experiment with (such as describing as something sounding "sour"). These can get a bit flowery sometimes, but it can still be a lot of fun to write! :,)

– Outro

Hope this helped you out a little bit! Honestly, lyrics can be very tricky to incorporate, so I completely understand the struggle ^^; And as always, if I was unclear/confusing about anything, or if there's anything else, let me know! Thank you for the ask!

[withlovelunette]

hey! so is it bad that i write about 500-1000 words semi regularly (every 2-3 days)? I see people talking about writing many more words, should I be practicing and making myself write more? I kinda just get the idea out of my head and move on

Hello there! Honestly, this is very much a case-by-case, person-to-person thing, so I don't think you should really strive to have a particular work flow if you've already found one that works for you! I know some people like to track their word count on a daily basis, while others might do so on a weekly/monthly basis. Personally, I don't track my word count per writing session all that much, because my focus is usually to get particular scenes/story beats done within a certain amount of time, and I've found that to work really well for me!

I also think this word count thing really depends on what your process actually is and where you are in that process. For example, I'm a drafter, but I do like to edit here and there as I go. Because of this, my word count is usually smaller compared to a lot of other writers, but I'm also doing extra work as I'm writing (which isn't to say that people who don't edit while drafting aren't doing as much work!! but if I were to draft without editing as I go, my word count would definitely go up by at least 500 words every writing session, because I'm not nitpicking everything I write as much).

If you'd like to increase your word count for the sake of drafting faster, then sure, you can always try to push yourself to write more! But if you don't have a deadline and are perfectly okay with writing at your current pace, there's no reason to push yourself! 500-1000 word every 2-3 days is a very solid pace if you ask me. I find that doing whatever works best for you in the moment is usually the best way to maintain motivation, in my experience!

[withlovelunette]

Hello! Hope you are feeling okay, given recent posts. I was just reading over your post about creating complex characters, and was wondering if you could help me with a problem I’m stuck on.

In one of my current WIP’s, I have an assassin character who is doing that job out due to family traditions, but is generally speaking a rather intelligent and kind person. I was wondering if you had any tips about how to marry up the lack of emotion and empathy needed to be an assassin, and the fact this character is generally a rather empathic and caring person?

Thanks so much!

Thank you! I'm doing much better now compared to when it all started, so I'm hoping that's a good sign!

In any case, I'm very excited to tackle this issue, as character writing is one of my favourite things, so hopefully I can help you out! I decided to break down this issue in multiple different ways; some of them might not be applicable to your story for a variety of reasons, but this is just to show you some of the ways you can break down contradictory characterisation!

So first, I'm going to list off the traits that you've given me, just so we know what we're working with; your character is an empathetic and intelligent person who works as an assassin, a job that requires a level of apathy that might seem contradictory to your character's natural personality. There's a couple of ways we can "solve" this contradiction, and it mostly comes down to how you want to exploit this contradiction for story-telling purposes!

1. Compartmentalisation

One way to tackle this issue is to look at how the human psyche deals with cognitive dissonance, which is something that occurs when a person realises that their thoughts and feelings contradict one another. I'm assuming that, given that this character is stated to be empathetic, you're looking for a way to explain how a character could possibly be empathetic while still being an assassin, and making this explanation believable to the reader; and I think this solution is probably the one that tackles your issue the most "head on".

Compartmentalisation is essentially a coping mechanism people use when their thoughts and feelings contradict with other thoughts and feelings. By separating those thoughts and feelings into separates "compartments" (in different contexts, for example), the person can avoid confronting this contradiction, because the connection between the contradicting information/thoughts/feelings is severed.

So let's say; your character feels conflicted. Their job naturally contradicts their personality, but because assassination is a family tradition, they have to find a way to cope with this contradiction that allows for them to get the job done. At a young age/whenever they become aware of this contradiction, they begin to compartmentalise their empathy for others, because that emotion only makes their job more difficult. They have a "on the job" compartment and an "off the job" compartment. You can play around with what this compartmentalisation looks like for your character too! For example, if their empathy stems from viewing all humans as inherently worthy, maybe this character makes an effort to dehumanise their victims, such as refusing to acknowledge their names or look them in the eye. If you're narrating from their perspective, maybe describe their victims as more animalistic, as if the character forces themselves to view their targets as kettle rather than as individuals. You'll want to hone in on what triggers your character's empathy, and then cut any connection between that trigger and their victims.

While compartmentalisation is generally considered to be a good defence mechanism, particularly in dealing with stress or various forms of PTSD, there are downsides to this coping mechanism as well; because it doesn't really "resolve" the tension in the contradiction, which grants you some great opportunities for character development and exploration. What happens when they're unable to dehumanise someone in their mind? What happens if their target is someone they already cared for? What happens when they can't break out of that apathy, and they start doubting their own empathetic and compassionate nature? Is empathy really something one is born with, or is it a skill they have to fight to maintain? How do they view their own humanity as a result?

2. Turn a "weakness" into a strength

Another way to tackle this issue is to consider; what is empathy, really? Let's say your character is a very empathetic and kind person, but the job requires them to be very emotionless. Empathy and emotions, while they often go hand in hand, don't necessarily have to co-exist, so if you want to lessen the contradictory aspect of your character, this is one way you can do so!

Perhaps your character, from a young age, had their empathy posed as a weakness. An inherent weakness that would eventually get in the way of them doing their job right. Because of this, your character saw it necessary to find a way to turn this weakness into a strength. Empathy is all about being able to understand, recognise and imagine how other people are feeling, and doesn't necessarily require your character to be particularly emotional. In fact, maybe their ability to empathise with people can become their greatest attribute; they're good at predicting their targets, they're good at feigning trust, they're good at influencing other people, because putting themselves in the victim's shoes comes to them naturally.

While this doesn't fully resolve the contradiction (as this character is still supposed to be a kind person), this does nullify the empathy bit being an issue for your character, and there are ways you can nullify the kindness bit as well (which I will elaborate on in a different point, so you can always try to combine these and see if it works!) In this instance, character conflict/developments you could explore is having your character struggle with their habit of using their empathy for manipulation, or maybe struggle with viewing relationships as genuine. Maybe they assume everyone with empathy is manipulative in the same way that they are, and that's how they justify their own manipulative tendencies. Maybe they believe this is a self defence thing, as in "other people would do the same to me, so I have to do it to others first". Maybe their empathy, which they spent so much time to turn into a strength, becomes detrimental to them later in the story, and then you can move onto the compartmentalising solution... There's a lot you can do with this, especially if you want someone who's perhaps on a more morally grey scale.

3. Duty as characterisation

You mentioned that assassination was something of a family tradition, so this can be a great way to further characterise your character! If you've already established that your character is someone who values compassion and empathy, and yet, despite that, decides to sideline those traits for the sake of upholding their family traditions, then that's conveying a lot about your character without you having to explicitly state anything. It'll become very apparent that your character is someone who values duty and traditions, or perhaps they're a people pleaser who wishes to make their family proud. Maybe they have a desire to prove themselves or be accepted. Maybe they have a hard time going against the grain, etc. The stronger the contradiction is (as in, the more you emphasise their kindness and empathy), the more apparent their dutifulness/people pleasing tendencies can become.

Again, you can definitely implement the compartmentalisation thing here, but my main point is that if you'd like for this contradiction to seem more intentional, you can do so by simply explaining why your character is willing to make all these sacrifices and possibly contradict themselves to uphold such a tradition. This can bring about conflicts such as community vs individual, honouring your duty vs honouring yourself, complicity or group mentality (us, the family vs them), an individual finding themselves and struggling to figure out their own morals, upholding traditions to preserve the past vs uprooting traditions to make way for the future, etc. I don't know what your character's family situation actually is, beyond assassination being a family tradition, but if you do go this route, it's a great opportunity to flesh out family relationships and how they've managed to maintain this tradition for so long, even when it might be contradictory to an individual's personal moral compass.

4. Killing as mercy

This solution kinda leans into the "brainwashed from a young age" angle that you often see with assassins in fiction, but it's common due to how effective it can be in justifying a character's actions, even when they seem to contradict their personality. Again, since assassination is a family tradition, chances are that members of the family are raised from a young age to, at the very least, have a mindset that allows them to easily digest murder later on in life. One way to do this is to go the dehumanisation route that I mentioned earlier (where your character might've been raised to view victims as inhuman at a young age), or you could just reframe what killing actually means to your character.

You mentioned that your character is kind, and this can probably be the biggest contradiction in the whole killing thing; but kindness is actually a very relative and subjective term when you think about it. I talked about this in a previous post somewhere, but you can use consequence vs intention to reframe your character's moral judgment to the audience.

As an example, let's say that in this family, there's a particular way that they perform their assassinations. Maybe this technique is considered a kind way to kill someone from their perspective; be it due to their method being painless, or maybe there's a religious/spiritual thing that justifies the murder to them. Maybe taking a life in this particular way is just letting their victims return to nature, or maybe it absolves them of pain... Basically, by emphasising the kindness of their intention, you can maintain that your character is actually a very kind person, but their kindness has simply been misconstrued due to how they've been raised.

If you'd like to emphasise the consequences indicating your character's kindness, you'll want to look at who your character's victims actually are, and what the consequences of their deaths do. Who are these victims? How are they morally posed in the story? Do they cause harm? Do they have beliefs and morals that your character believes are harmful? Maybe your character starts off believing they're killing for a good cause, yet as the story progresses, they realise this might not be the case. There's a lot you can grapple with here!

– Outro

Thank you so much for your question! It was really fun to explore, I'm always happy to indulge in character questions! Again, I don't know the full context of your character and the universe/story they exist within, but my goal wasn't necessarily to come to a perfect solution, but rather to (hopefully) provide you with some ideas to work off of that you can adjust as you see fit! Or maybe you'll come up with a whole other solution that I didn't even think of! I also think you could easily apply multiple of these solutions together and see how that plays out; I personally think solution 1 & 3 pair well, and 2 & 4, but you can really combine them in a number of ways.

In any case, I don't think you should worry too much about marrying those traits together perfectly, because natural contradictions that occur in characters are, in my opinion, what makes a character come off as very authentic and genuine; but I definitely understand wanting to make these contradictions seem plausible and intentional! I hope this was helpful, good luck with your writing! And if anything was unclear/confusing, let me know, and I'll try my best to clarify!

[withlovelunette]

Hi! I love your account and posts! I was wondering if you have any advice for me.. I recently picked up writing as a hobby and I really want to improve. So I've found that im good at writing slow scenes esp fluff / romantic scenes but when it comes to fast paced ones where a lot of action and dialogue is happening especially between more than two characters i find it very hard to make it flow naturally, how can i get better at this?

Hello there!! Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoy it! :,) And also, glad to hear you've gotten into writing, welcome!

So scene pacing is one of those things that can take a long time to fully "perfect". Just from my own experience, I usually focus my first couple of drafts on just making sure I have everything I want to convey within the story, and usually fine tune the pacing later. I'm definitely on the same boat as you, where slow scenes tend to come more naturally to me and usually require less adjustments throughout my editing process, as opposed to my fast paced scenes. I don't typically write a lot of action heavy stories, but I've run into this problem a few times nonetheless, so while I don't think I have any sort of expertise on the subject, I've compiled a list of things I like to keep in mind; from one slow-paced scene lover to another :D

(Also; content warning for some writing involving violence! It's nothing too graphic, but I do compare some action writing that includes violence, so just a head's up!)

1. Sentence length variation!

This is probably the most common advice you'll find so I'm just gonna get this one out of the way right away. Basically, by lengthening your sentences, the reader is forced to pace their own reading, practically "slowing them down" so they can fully comprehend the sentence. For the opposite effect; Be short and concise. Don't drag out your sentences. No meandering.

I should point out that for this technique to actually be effective, you need to have variation (as shown in the paragraph above). When your character is analysing the situation, plotting, planning, etc. you'll want to use longer sentences, and then reserve the shorter ones for the action. This also helps to convey the urgency the character feels, since we generally tend to not think as thoroughly when we're under stress.

This technique can drastically alter the flow of conversations as well, which I've tried to illustrate with this very simplistic dialogue ^^;

Version 1

"Why are you home so late?" "It's not that late. I was just out with some friends," the boy breathes out, slipping his jacket off and draping it over his shoulder. "Which friends?" "Friends, mom," he answers with a groan. "Yeah, I have friends." "I don't like your tone."

Version 2

"Why are you home so late?" "It's not that late. I was just out with some friends," the boy breathes out, slipping his jacket off and draping it over his shoulder. His mother raises an eyebrow. "Which friends?" "Friends, mom," he answers with a groan, head tilted back. "Yeah, I have friends." A grimace etches itself into the woman's face, her features distorted and uncanny beneath the florescent lighting of the hallway. "I don't like your tone."

This might not be a perfect example, but my point is that the entire tone and flow of the dialogue can change based on how descriptive you decide to be. The first version is a lot more snappy, a quick back and forth between an angsty teen and a tired mother, while the second version indulges in the exchange way more, essentially dragging out the pacing of the dialogue as well, and building up to the mother's response.

2. Choosing the right verbs

When writing action, your focus should really be to choose good and effective verbs. The verb "pull" conveys more force than "tug", for example, even though they convey the same action. To haul or heave something has even more force behind it, or compare push vs shove.

I also find that certain words just "sound" more intense, because they have a certain sharpness to them. For example, slip, slick, plunge, snatch, split, etc. Compared to stumble, sleek, push, grab, fracture, etc. I think this is mainly a linguistic thing, since some words have harsher consonants, but it can be helpful to just pull up a thesaurus sometimes and see if there's a stronger verb that you can implement!

This is also a great way to avoid adverbs. I definitely think some people exaggerate whenever they say to never use adverbs, but in action, you should really try to cut down as much of your adverbs as possible. If you have a good verb, you usually don't need an adverb, and by cutting out adverbs, you're quickening the pace of the writing!

For example: "She stabbed the knife deeply into his stomach" vs "She thrust the knife into his stomach". The word "thrust" already conveys the strength and speed of the knife, so there's no reason to add "deeply", because it's kinda self explanatory that a knife "thrust" into someone's stomach would go in deep.

3. Focus on the senses.

Because you want to limit any descriptions of the character's thinking during the height of the action, a great way to still include description in your writing is to focus on the senses, and there's two primary reasons for this.

Firstly - when under stress, we don't necessarily have the time to thoroughly think about or dwell on our situation, and are instead too preoccupied with our senses. Thus, in limiting your descriptions to the senses, it helps convey that those descriptions are all very immediate and urgent.

Secondly - this is a great way to get insight into the character's mindset without meandering. For example, if a character tastes blood in their mouth and takes the time to thoroughly describe the taste, how it feels, and what their reaction to it is, then that naturally takes away some of the tension and urgency. However, if a character describes tasting blood and being hit with nausea, but doesn't dwell on it, not only does this convey the urgency (namely that the character doesn't have time to dwell on it), but also that the character is so preoccupied with the action that their bodily comforts must be sidelined for the time being.

You want to still be very brief with descriptions of the senses (at least during the height of action scenes), and you'll want to pick words that really convey what you want with as little space as possible. For example, describing a smell as a stench vs an aroma conveys two wildly different types of smell, even without me describing those smells. This isn't to say that you shouldn't ever go into any details at all, but if you're reading a draft and find that the action is dragging out too much, try cutting out descriptions and substituting them with stronger words.

4. Don't over-explain

I think writers sometimes get too caught up with trying to make an intense action choreography. I know they can be fun to imagine and to witness on-screen, but in writing, it can get very confusing very quickly. Just remember to be concise with what is where, who is doing what, where limbs/weapons are, etc. It's a lot better to have something that's simple yet comprehensible, as opposed to something complex and confusing. When writers begin to over-explain and complicate, that's usually where you'll find clunky sentences that mess up the flow of the action. Less is often more!

I actually really enjoy listening to Critical Role for this reason (the biggest DnD podcast/stream at the moment). Their action scenes are usually very precise and straightforward, and while I'd definitely embellish some of it when writing, it lays a good foundation! Highly recommend giving them a listen if you want examples of concise action scenes!

In terms of writing multiple characters in fast paced scenes; I really encourage you to either focus the writing on one character's experience/perception of the action (if the perspective you've chosen allows for it), or to split the gang up. Again, it doesn't matter how well paced your action is if it's confusing who is where and who's doing what, because that confusion contributes to slowing down the pacing! If you really insist on keeping multiple characters "on-screen" during a fast paced scene, you can convey some of that tension with minimal confusion by prioritising one character's perspective, because limiting the speed and amount of information is really the key to quickening the pacing, and by limiting the reader to only getting information through one character, you can better manage the flow of information as well!

– Outro

Sorry this took so long, I really appreciate the patience! Again, I don't think action scenes are really my strongest area, considering I don't write much action, but as someone who also struggles with writing action and pacing fast-paced scenes right, these are usually the things I look out for when troubleshooting pacing issues in my writing! I hope this managed to help you out a little bit, but if anything's unclear, just let me know and I'll try my best to clarify! ^^;

[withlovelunette]

Trying to finish up some asks and tag games so hopefully this blog will be less dead soon :,) again, I feel very apologetic about my sudden absence. I don’t have any experience dealing with health complications, especially not on this scale, so I’m in the process of not only figuring out what’s wrong medically, but also how to deal with it and moderate my energy and all that, particularly in balancing it with school work ^^;;

I still haven’t gotten any concrete answers from the doctor, so I’ll just have to continue to take tests and see. But now that I’m mostly done with uni work, I can focus all my energy on this blog! So I’m aiming to get some lengthy posts done soon. I’m surprised to see that my post about character psychology circulated writeblr a lot, and I’m incredibly relieved it was a helpful resource to my peers!

Just wanted to give another update to show I’m not dead :D a few people reached out to check up on me, and I was really grateful for that, so I figured I should probably make a general update in case! As always my asks and DMs are always open—whether it’d be for something serious or just something silly and fun!! I’m trying to not let this medical thing get in the way of my mood, so I really appreciate that people are being so kind, really. I’ll hopefully manage to repay that kindness in some way one day! ᕙ( •̀ ᗜ •́ )ᕗ