So I've gotten into solo ttrpg'ing and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
My current campaing is about Tann the former front desk manager of a shitty law firm with Special Interest ln Trains who isekaied into a baby dragon who got taken in by adventure party who are "accidentally" smuggling luxury goods and getting in trouble with the guilds for not paying their taxes because they didn't know there was any law in the region, except it turns out there's a new Dark Lord making name for himself and they've set some new taxes on trade... only it turns out the party wasn't smuggling luxury goods because their luxury goods are actually fake, so what they actually are is conmen.
Anyway, Tann's goal in life is to reinvent mass transit in this new world, except because the region he is on has no iron and no wood, it's making building railways kinda impossible. So he's decided he's going to become a train when he grows up. You know, like the catbus from My Neighbour Totoro. Only bigger. And dragon based. A dragontrain if you will.
I have to assume that's how they're going to defeat the Dark Lord of trade taxes, with the power of Dragon Mass Transit. Though I don't know yet because currently half of the party is still in jail for smuggling counterfeit perfumes.
Also, and this is the important bit, because I'm using random generators for everything, the Dark Lord's name is Thok Thok.
At the age of thirty-*mumble mumble* I finally cottoned onto the fact that my brother getting his own room while I had to share with 2 of my sisters may have had something to do with sex and it wasn't just that he was the favourite child.
Does anyone know any examples of faux religious art in fiction, that's directly copying Christian art? Like, say, the art about Ardyn in Final Fantasy XV? I'm starting a collection.
On my actual wall, I wanna make a Fake Jesus Wall 😆
Other fictional religious iconography also welcome, especially if they're easily mistaken for crosses, lol.
These are rules I generally adhere to in my own writing, they aren't gospel or meant to be the end all be all of writing. Also it should be noted that like all rules, these too are made to be broken when and where it serves the text. This is not about grammar or Correct Use of King's Englishâ„¢, this is just a list of personal style choices.
Anyway.
1. Indicate who's speaking as quickly as possible.
See difference between:
"Wait, does anyone have an extra eraser? I could swear I brought one, but I can't find it."
"You can use mine. Though if you steal it, I will kill you."
"Nice. I'm changing my brother's name to Gerry, is that okay?"
"You had two weeks to come up with your backstory."
And:
"Wait, does anyone have an extra eraser?" Melanie asks. "I could swear I brought one, but I can't find it."
"You can use mine," Jan says. "Though if you steal it, I will kill you."
"Nice," Melanie says. "I'm changing my brother's name to Gerry, is that okay?"
Annie says, "You had two weeks to come up with your backstory."
But this looks like talking heads in a blank void talking to each other, so, give the characters bodies and physicality, which brings us to rule 2.
2. no talking heads in void.
Though people do just sit around talking without doing anything else, it's not that interesting to read and also, gotta remember that readers can't see what you see in your head while writing. You gotta actually give them something to latch a mental image onto, so. Characters should move and emote.Â
"Wait, does anyone have an extra eraser?" Melanie asks, rummaging through her bag. "I could swear I brought one, but I can't find it."
"You can use mine," Jan says, nudging his own eraser over. It's in the shape of an old fashioned motorcycle. "Though if you steal it, I will kill you."
"Nice," Melanie says and snatches it up to do quick edits on her character sheet. "I'm changing my brother's name to Gerry, is that okay?"
Annie gives her a flat look. "You had two weeks to come up with your backstory."
Now you can sorta tell what they're talking about. Just don't go overboard - dialogue has a momentum and a rhythm, and too much description can overwhelm it.
3. Character Action and Character Dialogue go on the same paragraph.
See difference between this:
Melanie rummaged through her backpack.Â
"Wait, does anyone have an extra eraser? I could swear I brought one, but I can't find it."
"You can use mine."
Jackson nudged his own eraser over. It was the shape of a motorcycle.
"Though if you steal it, I will kill you."
"Nice."
Melanie snatches it up to do quick edits on her character sheet.
"I'm changing my brother's name to Gerry, is that okay?"
Annie gives her a flat look.
"You had two weeks to come up with your backstory."
And this:
Melanie rummaged through her backpack. "Wait, does anyone have an extra eraser? I could swear I brought one, but I can't find it."
"You can use mine." Jackson nudged his own eraser over. It was the shape of a motorcycle. "Though if you steal it, I will kill you."
"Nice." Melanie snatches it up to do quick edits on her character sheet. "I'm changing my brother's name to Gerry, is that okay?"
Annie gives her a flat look. "You had two weeks to come up with your backstory."
Not only does it make the text way more cohesive and snappy but, once again, it's much more clear who is saying what - but even then, I prefer to use dialogue indicators. Text like this to me looks like maybe there's a voiceover going on or something.
4. No mixing and matching characters. One character per paragraph.
This is one of my most broken rules, but in general it's character per paragraph.
So, none of this:
Melanie rummaged through her backpack while Annie set up the DM screen. "Wait, does anyone have an extra eraser? I could swear I brought one, but I can't find it."
"You can use mine." Jackson nudged his eraser over and Melanie snatched it up "Though if you steal it, I will kill you." Melanie begun making quick edits.
"Nice. I'm changing my brother's name to Gerry, is that okay?" Beside her, Annie gave her a flat look.
"You had two weeks to come up with your backstory."
Mixing and matching who's doing what like this makes it hard to see who's saying what, it makes the dialogue messy. However, this is fine.
While Annie set up the DM screen, Melanie rummaged through her backpack "Wait, does anyone have an extra eraser?" she asked. "I could swear I brought one, but I can't find it."
"You can use mine." Jackson nudged his eraser over and Melanie snatched it up. "Though if you steal it, I will kill you," he added.
"Nice. I'm changing my brother's name to Gerry, is that okay?" Melanie ask, grinning at the look Annie gave her.
"You had two weeks to come up with your backstory," Annie says flatly.
Note that in mixing and matching like this, it's all the more important to point out who is saying what. In general though, I tend to minimise this sort of stuff.
5 is kinda rule 1 rehashed, but, again, indicate who is speaking upfront. Especially when there's a larger piece of dialogue.
Sometimes, people aren't actually reading - sometimes for various reasons they're using text to speech, or maybe someone does a podfic or something. Even in visual reading, when there's a big block of dialogue without indicators it can be hard to follow.
So instead of:
"If Melanie can change her background, can I add a cool uncle to mine? I want a cool uncle - like, a gunslinger or something. Or a wizard - oo, a wizard uncle! He can be creepy and vague and give me problematic spells!" Jackson says eagerly.Â
I'd rather do:
Jackson puts his hand up. "If Melanie can change her background, can I add a cool uncle to mine?" he asks eagerly. "I want to give Kaiser a cool uncle - like, a gunslinger or something. Or a wizard - oh, a wizard uncle! He can be creepy and vague and give me problematic spells!"
Especially so when there's multiple characters talking and maybe one character hasn't been talking as much as the others - if they jump back into the discussion, it should be noted.
6. Limit your bits.
But as said before, every rule is made to be broken, and I break my own rules all the time. When I do it, though, it's generally for the bit, to make the text more interesting. Stuff like bits of dialogue without any indicators who is saying what to show that there's a faceless crowd speaking all at once, or two characters going back and forth, stuff like that.
"Jackson's dude has Main Character Energy," Melanie says solemnly.
"Kaiser is the anime protagonist," Jan agrees. "We're just NPCs in his world."
"The cheerleaders of his adventurers."
"Founding members of his harem."
They nod in perfect understanding and agreement.
For a couple of lines, exchanges like this can be fun - if the back and forth goes on for 12 lines, though, it will get tiresome.
There are other bits I do, and again, I break my own dialogue writing rules a lot for stylistic reasons to make the text more interesting or to give it better rhythm, or whatever. Sometimes, there's no dialogue at all, sometimes there's no indicators. There's no actual rules in writing, even grammar is all made up. These are more guidelines than anything.
But I hope the effort makes the dialogue more readable.
I promise you can use "said" and "asked" so much more in your writing than your realise. People won't think your writing is bad. I swear. The words are basically invisible. You can use them. It's okay.
hyperfixation is one hell of a drug. anyway, i spent the last week in a fugue state making a deck of pixelated dungeon cards for my solo dungeon crawling needs.
Behold my OC. I don't know what he looks like, I don't know his age, I don't know his hair colour, I don't know his height, I don't know his eye colour, I don't even know his skin tone. But I do know he wears sick ass pair of high-heeled shoes and that's all that matters.
Behold my OC. I don't know what he looks like, I don't know his age, I don't know his hair colour, I don't know his height, I don't know his eye colour, I don't even know his skin tone. But I do know he wears sick ass pair of high-heeled shoes and that's all that matters.
I wanna write some low stakes shippy, possibly smutty stuff but can't decide on a pairing. Can you suggest some pairings? From somewhere in the neighborhood of Final Fantasy preferably
You have some of the best political explorations on a03 and it makes me curious what you think of books that focus more intently on that. Have you read The Will of The Many by James Islington and if so what was your opinion?
I do like my fictional politics. I haven't read that one, but it looks interesting. I'll take a look at it, thanks.
I wanna write some low stakes shippy, possibly smutty stuff but can't decide on a pairing. Can you suggest some pairings? From somewhere in the neighborhood of Final Fantasy preferably
