The Tragedy of the Boy Who Lived

Writing sideblog

[yb-cringe]

im aware this is an insane thing to say but i fucking. love characters that are just cockroaches. and i dont mean like. gross i mean they just do not fucking die. they can survive anything. they will outlive EVERYONE because they just will not die no matter what be it because they have a reason or because they literally cannot stop surviving the odds i love it i love it

[daitheflu-mx]

[tumblingoverstars]

[madkiska]

[marlynnofmany]

[quill-and-whetstone]

“The Sniper Problem”

I have a favorite litmus test that I apply to just about everything I write: “Could this entire plotline be resolved by one sufficiently trained sniper?” The hypothetical sniper is there to evaluate the quality of the conflict I’ve set up. If they can resolve the whole thing by taking out their target then I… probably have some rethinking to do, because the test succinctly highlights a few key issues with any story that fails it.

First, the obvious: if the problem your protagonists are facing can be solved this way it’s probably just not as interesting as it could be. A conflict of “big bad evil dude does a big bad evil thing and our hero goes and mercs him about it” can make for a fun blockbuster action film, but the plot of those films are rarely–if ever–the point. Stories with a central villain stand to gain a lot of narrative depth from asking yourself what issues would linger if they were suddenly removed from the picture. What internal struggles might remain in your protagonists? How might the world around them still need to be changed or healed? Which elements or areas of the story just seem empty without the big bad to fill the narrative space, and how can we develop them?

The second facet of the sniper problem is an inverted Occam’s Razor, a call to ensure that there’s a good reason the protagonists aren’t just using a simple and direct route to solve their problems. It’s like how modern horror movies have to cripple the victims’ cell phones to justify everything else that happens, though ideally less contrived. When revising a story through this lens, it’s almost difficult not to improve it. It aids suspension of disbelief, lets your protagonists present as more competent, and gives them more to do outside of biffing people they don’t like which in turn showcases more of their personality.

A great example of all of this is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Throughout the show the bottom line is that our heroes are out to defeat the Firelord to stop the atrocities he’s committing against the rest of the world. So it stands to reason to ask, why not camp outside his house early on with an assassin good enough to score a quick or lucky kill? But the show answers this amply with just its concept, mostly without having to draw direct attention to it. If Firelord Ozai dropped dead in the pilot there would still be a whole Fire Nation pursuing his goals complete with other emotionally unstable royals and military officers. It wouldn’t actually… solve anything. “Defeat the Firelord” is just the mission that sets our heroes on the path they need to take to stop a war that’s destroying the world. The real solution is cultivating friendships across cultures, healing and maturing together, growing spiritually, protecting and empowering victims of generational violence, dismantling fascistic power structures, and ultimately even finding a relatively peaceful / humane solution to the problem of the Firelord. While they do call this out directly in one episode, they didn’t have to, because with the way they structured the narrative it was already evident. As a result of that good planning the characters got to do a lot of interesting, character driven, thematically resonant things and the show isn’t just one long and kind of dry martial arts training montage until they show up at the finale. So keep the sniper problem in mind as you write! Or even as you read, watch, and analyze other media for what worked and what didn’t. I can’t promise it’ll be relevant to every story, but I can promise that it’s a quick and easy standard that’ll help you layer in a lot of nuance and flavor into your narrative.

[konoko]

[rheas-chaos-anthology]

REMINDER

THE POINT OF A PLOT TWIST IS TO ENRICH YOUR STORY, NOT OUTSMART YOUR READERS!!!! SPRINKLE IN YOUR FORESHADOWING!!!! LEAVE CLUES!!!

(im not saying to spell it out/make your plot twist cliche or boring. we are going for a "how did I not see that coming" vibe)

[rimonoroni]

pssssst hey. hey. free and expansive database of folk and fairy tales. you can thank me later

[voyaging-too]

Tips for Spotting Bad & Bullshit History

There's no way to make sure you never fall for historical misinformation, and I'm not expecting anyone to fact-check every detail of everything they read unless they're getting paid for it. But you can make an effort to avoid the Worst Takes.

Ask yourself – if I wanted to verify this, where would I start? If you look at a statement and can’t actually find any facts to check, then you already know it’s bullshit.

Read the Wikipedia article on weasel words. Some experts say it’s very helpful!

Look for specifics: a who, a what, a where, a when. If one of those is missing or very broad, that’s a red flag. Statements need to be rooted in a time and a place. “People in the past have always…” Nope.

Vague is bad. Unless you’re looking at a deliberate large-scale overview that’s being broad and generalizing on purpose, you want names and dates and places and primary sources, pictures and quotes and examples.

But an example is not a trend. There’s a difference between what’s possible and what’s common, and history is full of exceptions and outliers. Extremely unusual people and events are overrepresented in the historical record (because nobody writes down what’s normal,) and they can tell us a lot about history, but they’re not directly representative of their place or time. Imagine a historian trying to reconstruct the 21st century based solely on Kiwifarm.

If a historian is competent or even just trying, you won’t have to go digging for sources, they will be shoved right into your face. Not out of mere academic rigor, but because a person who found them, either first- or second hand, is proud to have found them. People who have proof want to show you the proof, people who figured something out will want to show you their work, walk you through it. If they don’t, ask yourself – how do you know this? And - why won’t you tell me how you know this?

Someone might have a legit historical source, and then try to stretch it to cover times and places where it no longer applies. What’s true of 12th century England may not be true of 14th century Venice, even though both are “Medieval Europe,” so watch for those stretches.

Anecdotes are fine, they reveal a lot about people’s values and perceptions, pro historians often use them for context, but what anecdotes are not is factual truth. Notice when someone is feeding you cute anecdotes.

If someone attributes a large-scale social or cultural transformation to a single person or event, yeah that’s usually bullshit. Chances are, that person was part of a larger trend, a small link in a long chain. You can still appreciate their contribution, just put it in context!

Second-guess anyone who acts like they possess secret knowledge that the Media or Academia (or somebody) is hiding, they’re usually bullshit. Remember, if something has a Wikipedia article, it’s not actually a dark secret.

Remember that if it happened in the past sixty years, tons of people will still remember it, and you can literally just go and ask them.

Learn to recognise a smear tactic. Did this person really fuck dogs, or was their posthumous biography written by their worst enemy? Should we take it at face value? Also learn to recognise overt propaganda in the opposite direction: is the king that great or does he have a court historian on retainer? Remember that people sometimes *lie* in their autobiographies.

It’s fine to speculate about what “could” or “might” have happened, professional historians also fill the gaps in the sources with the occasional educated guess. But failing to differentiate clearly between fact and speculation is a huge mistake.

Do not seek validation in history. It's not there. I’m not saying you should approach history in an impersonal, apolitical way, of course not. Our present situation influences our interpretation of history, and it should. What I’m saying is, try not to hang too much of your individual or group identity on a historical narrative. Especially if it’s bullshit. You’re worthy and human because you’re worthy and human today, not because of the deeds and misdeeds of people in the past.

[moonshinemagpie]

This is a response to this awesome post, "Let's write about Jewish characters in dynamic ways," but I didn't want to reply to it directly as someone who's not Jewish (it'd be changing the topic, basically).

How Judaism and Jewishness have entered my life as a non-Jewish person—in other words, ways to acknowledge secondary characters who are Jewish beyond mentioning that they observe Hanukkah or that their grandparents survived the Holocaust:

getting invited to a Shabbat dinner and eating the best baked gefilte of your life (very common for non-Jewish folks in New York to be invited to Shabbat dinners, and since it seems like 99% of trad pubbed novels are set in NYC, where the heck is this in fiction??)

attending conversion classes to support a family member

going to a Jewish friend's wedding and all that that entails (the music! the dancing! the shattered glass!)

knowing piecemeal trivia about what your Jewish friends can eat when you invite them to a non-kosher dinner—like that you should provide vegan options and eggs are pareve; you might search for the circle-K or circle-U label on snacks to make sure they're kosher-certified; and you might find yourself asking the person working at the liquor store if they have mevushal wine

it's also likely you'll mess up trying to provide kosher options, and your friend will never tell you, but you'll know anyway by the way they're trying to be inconspicuous about not eating anything

having an observant roommate who keeps their kosher food on a particular shelf in the fridge

stressing because your Jewish friend has two utensil drawers in their kitchen and you can't remember whether the blue-handled forks in the left drawer are for dairy or for meat

going to a Jewish friend's house (or especially their parents' house) and seeing the beautiful leather-bound books lines up on their shelves, prominently displayed

feeling super proud of a friend's son for memorizing the Torah, even if you can't understand what he's saying at his Bar Mitzvah

having Jewish friends who are shomer negiah, always observe the Sabbath, speak Yiddish as their first language, etc., and also having Jewish friends who eat ham and have tattoos

navigating a new country with a Jewish friend, and neither of you speak the local language, but your Jewish friend gets you both out of a pickle by finding the city's Jewish quarter and asking for help in Hebrew

friends who can't hang out with you today because they're behind on their Pesach/Passover cleaning and are concerned they're gonna have chametz left over in their house (my friend was once so stressed about this she was like "why don't i just move apartments every spring")

being invited to a Rosh HaShanah/Jewish New Year dinner and eating fruit and feeling all renewed and warm inside even if you're fuzzy on the religious details

This is what I can think of off the top of my head! Again: Meant for non-Jews writing non-Jewish protaginists who have Jewish friends. Tired of reading about Hanukkah and literally nothing else!!

[hauntedraggedyanne]

when building a fictional nation:

(these are the things I think some writers tend to forget about but are not just important, but also kind of fun)

—remember there are more types of government leaders than presidents and monarchs (multiple leaders, religious leaders, Athenian democracies, etc)

—the education system and who is or isn’t allowed to learn and what are they allowed to learn

—essential jobs (garbage collectors, firefighters, medical professionals, or any fictional ones you come up with) and is their work process any different from our world’s version of them?

—which animals are protected by the government and why? (Are they endangered? Are they beloved by the people? Is there any time where hunting those animals is legal?)

—Is there a separation between church and state? (No it doesn’t mean just Christianity, it’s asking if the religion run the country, or do both co-exist without interference?)

—Any fictional laws that are used in just that setting alone and NOT our world? (Magic is banned, no flying after dark, all aliens need a passport before entering a planet)

—Is the election process any different compared to how they are done where you are from?

—higher education and what that means in the setting

I know that some writing advisors tell people that they need to ask EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION. about their fictional setting/country, but I think plenty of people would disagree. Write what’s important to your plot and to the characters, but sometimes adding in fun little extra details about everyday life can make it feel more alive.

whatever you do, PLEASE don’t dump all of your setting’s past, present and future in one big ten-page rant because it will shatter the mood so quickly you have no idea.

[transman-badass]

Anyway for those who are interested/care, I [finally] uploaded the second chapter of Which Image to AO3. You can find it here.

[luna-azzurra]

Good Traits Gone Bad

Exploring good traits gone bad in a novel can add depth and complexity to your characters. Here are a few examples of good traits that can take a negative turn:

1. Empathy turning into manipulation: A character with a strong sense of empathy may use it to manipulate others' emotions and gain an advantage.

2. Confidence becoming arrogance: Excessive confidence can lead to arrogance, where a character belittles others and dismisses their opinions.

3. Ambition turning into obsession: A character's ambition can transform into an unhealthy obsession, causing them to prioritize success at any cost, including sacrificing relationships and moral values.

4. Loyalty becoming blind devotion: Initially loyal, a character may become blindly devoted to a cause or person, disregarding their own well-being and critical thinking.

5. Courage turning into recklessness: A character's courage can morph into reckless behavior, endangering themselves and others due to an overestimation of their abilities.

6. Determination becoming stubbornness: Excessive determination can lead to stubbornness, where a character refuses to consider alternative perspectives or change their course of action, even when it's detrimental.

7. Optimism becoming naivety: Unwavering optimism can transform into naivety, causing a character to overlook dangers or be easily deceived.

8. Protectiveness turning into possessiveness: A character's protective nature can evolve into possessiveness, where they become overly controlling and jealous in relationships.

9. Altruism becoming self-neglect: A character's selflessness may lead to neglecting their own needs and well-being, to the point of self-sacrifice and burnout.

10. Honesty becoming brutal bluntness: A character's commitment to honesty can turn into brutal bluntness, hurting others with harsh and tactless remarks.

These examples demonstrate how even admirable traits can have negative consequences when taken to extremes or used improperly. By exploring the complexities of these traits, you can create compelling and multi-dimensional characters in your novel.

Happy writing!

[she-who-fights-and-writes]

how do i get my character out of the corner i wrote myself in without a dues ex machina😭

How to Not Write Yourself Into a Corner (and How to Write Yourself Out of a Corner if You’re Already In One)

One of a writer’s WORST fears is writing themself into a corner.

It’s easy to write your characters into death-defying situations…but it’s not as easy to write the actual “defying death” part.

Some writers, in their desperation to get their characters out of a bind, employ the use of a Deus Ex Machina, as mentioned by anon:

Deus Ex Machina: (Translates to "god from the machine") A plot device where a seemingly unsolvable situation is fixed by an out-of-the-blue occurrence. The term “deus ex machina” is a reference to Greek plays, when actors playing a god would literally be lowered into the scene via a machine to magically solve any situation.

Unfortunately, this plot device is often ridiculed by readers, cited as a hack-job solution for a writer out of ideas.

How do we avoid this situation, then? Here are some tips and tricks on how to not write yourself into a corner, and how to write yourself out of a corner if you’re already in one!

Note that these tips may not work for everyone, so make sure to use your own intuition as a writer— you know your story best.

1. NIP IT IN THE BUD— OUTLINES ARE KEY!

I’m sorry to all of you pantsers out there, but the key to prevent writing yourself into a corner is to already have an idea of how each scene is going to turn out; don't make a problem without making a solution! If you keep on top of your outline, you should have no worries about writing your characters into a situation they can't get out of it.

It may be easiest to jot down ideas about a couple of scenarios and then select the one that works best, especially when it comes to dire climax scenes that have a lot of moving parts. 

Check out my posts below for more in-depth advice about outlining!

How to Outline

Plotting for Pansters and Pantsing for Plotters

This advice, although essential, does require a ton of foresight and time to plan…and if you’ve sought out this post, it may mean that it’s too late for preventative measures. The subsequent tips in this post are going to be for people who are already in the thick of it and need a way to save all of their writing progress. 

2. FORESHADOWING IS YOUR FRIEND (AKA “CHEKHOV’S GUN YOUR WAY OUT OF THAT SHIT”)

Foreshadowing: A narrative device wherein a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. It helps maintain believability while subverting expectations and making plot twists.

Chekhov’s Gun: A narrative device wherein a seemingly insignificant element or object in the story becomes useful later on. Sometimes used synonymously with foreshadowing, but usually refers to a specific object.

Examples of Foreshadowing/Chekhov’s guns in media:

The 1981 Quarter (Or Extra Life Quarter) in Ready Player One

“Don’t Cross the Streams” in Ghostbusters (1984)

Winchester Rifle Hanging over the Bar in Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The Rita Hayworth Poster in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The Water Bottle in Bullet Train (2022)

In my opinion, a Chekhov’s Gun is the more refined twin of the deus ex machina; although it may seem like it comes out of nowhere, observant readers or those who go back into the story will realize that this event was set up from the beginning.

Foreshadowing is the key to turning a deus ex machina into a Chekhov’s Gun. It’s spreading breadcrumbs to maintain believability even when unbelievable things happen.

My advice: plant a line here and there referring to the object/element that will get you out of the corner.

These lines can be about a healing potion that a character carries around to save them when they’re at the brink of death, the fact that the city they’re fighting in often suffers from sinkholes, or that a character has a seemingly useless skill. 

However, haphazardly inserting foreshadowing into your story may come across as heavy-handed; make sure it aligns with the narrative beats. Particularly big Chekhov’s Guns, especially ones that “save the day," may require multiple foreshadowing elements.

It can take a lot of work to incorporate the foreshadowing smoothly, so make sure it actually saves you time in comparison to rewriting the whole scenario/plot point.

3. TAKE A BREAK

Sometimes, the solution to your problem may not come to mind because you’re too immersed into the writing process and not thinking of the bigger picture. Or maybe it might just be good old-fashioned writer’s block. Take a step back, reassess, and return with the scene properly re-evaluated. Maybe start a new book or TV show to get some inspiration, or check out one of my posts below!

How to Overcome Writer’s Block

How to Get Inspired to Write and Regain Creativity

4. ASK FOR HELP

Sometimes, it might be best to have another set of eyes on your story! A situation that may seem unsolvable to you may have an obvious solution to a writing buddy.

5. KNOW THAT SOMETIMES RE-WRITING IS NECESSARY

I know this sounds horrible. It’s something that I wouldn’t wish upon any writer.

Sometimes, however, no amount of foreshadowing can get your characters out of the debacle they’ve put themselves in. Either that, or the work that it would take to insert the foreshadowing would be more than it’d take to rewrite the scene or the plot point.

My suggestion would be to search for the last place that you didn't feel lost, and then cut out everything after that.

(NEVER DELETE MAJOR CHUNKS OF YOUR WRITING! ALWAYS CUT IT AND SAVE IT IN A SCRAP DOC—IT COULD COME IN HANDY LATER!)

Then, take the time to outline the scenario and figure out the solution to your problem beforehand. It will suck, but trust me, it'll be worth it in the end.

HOPE THIS HELPED, AND HAPPY WRITING!

[dyad-of-fate]

do you have a post on your taur anatomy ideas, id love to see that

We have MANY thoughts on anatomy for taurs and you just gave us a perfect reason to ramble xD

Our skinless friend here is an elk, but in general taurs all share one common ancestor which split first into Carnivora (all carnivores) and Euungulata (hooved herbivores)*. There are differences in anatomy based on species and size but GENERALLY speaking they have a fair amount of similarities.

(Small note: this is a recent change, which will ALSO have it's own post)

Starting with the skeleton. If you can't read my chicken scratch;

1) "For horned/antlered taurs, head is slightly extended". This has a to do with the weight of the antlers and horns, mostly for strutctural integrity of the skull.

2) The ear holes are located higher than a humans, which is what the blue writing "(also higher) Ears rotate! Limited movement"

3) "Longer necks with thicker bones" is in general for all taurs.

4) Not written, but the ribcage is wider and longer than a humans, to house VERY big lungs and a heart. In a previous post we talked about taurs on Ithiir having long long lungs...

5) "Very soft cartilage ribs" and plates are for extra protection of the esophagus and arteries that flow here. As well as the ends of the freakistly long lungs.

6) "fake belly button!" Has to do with the above point: the cartilage ribs end, causing a divot for most body types (not all). The umbilical cord connects on the lower half of the taurs.

7) "Thick sternum for extra muscle connections"

8) "All muscles and Tendons" pointing to the back of the spine on the upper torso is mostly a note for me. There aren't any organs here, and these tendons work like a draw bridge that is defaulted to remain upright instead of down. It's a big complex system of pullies and ropes basically.

9) "Like a ball joint" and top view of connecting spinal, small nubs, not wide club shape" refer to the seven extra vertebrae of the torso. They work like an animal's neck combined with a human lower back. They are EXTREMELY flexible, since all taurs are about as flexible as a human rather than their animal counterparts (excluding cats and such, they are exactly that flexible). We just call this area "the mid back".

10) "Real belly button =)" like it says, lol

There are... SO many more thoughts than this, we will probably reblog this with a part 2 for organ placement. :)

[dyad-of-fate]

Okay organ post may be it's own thing since we want to include a few other taurs... so, here is our skinless helper with a clean look at the skeleton :)

[enigmaticpink]

I think some people forget that some literature and some media is meant to be deeply uncomfortable and unsettling. It's meant to make you have a very visceral reaction to it. If you genuinely can't handle these stories then you are under no obligation to consume them but acting as if they have no purpose or as if people don't have a right to tell these stories, stories that often relate to the darkest or most disturbing parts of life, then you should do some introspection.

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

"we need less sanitized queer stories" yall keep saying fucking she-ra romanticizes abuse. you couldnt possibly handle less sanitized queer stories

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

"we need less sanitized queer stories" youre the one saying the locked tomb series is bad because you dont like the prose. based off of a quote from goodreads of all places. that was dialogue, not even the actual prose.

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

people keep reblogging only the first half of the post when the addition was the original post. ok

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

girl help. 4k notes

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

"she-ra fumbled its message" no! crucially, it didnt! it had the same message as the original she-ra show, which is "this lady is a superhero and is going to do superhero things like save the planet" and she did do that!

"oh but catra never apologized for what she did and they just let her join the good guys" thats a perfectly normal thing in childrens media, and the only reason yallre calling it out is because its queer and you want the perfect unproblematic queer media to exist. except that even if it did you would all find ways to nitpick it, which is the whole point of this post!

[shadowkat678]

Also, notably, she did apologize. They just think it wasn't good enough.

They absolutely could not handle more nuanced media.

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

can we please pretty pleasr reblog this version,

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

people are missing the point again

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

"i didnt like gideon the ninth, as a book" ok? nobodys forcing you to read it??? the point is that people are far more likely to judge queer books (gideon the ninth is undeniably a queer book) without reading them than they are to do so to a non-queer book

also stop pontificating about "the q slur" or whatever, i literally couldnt care less. get blocked

[godmodebeginswithlesbians]

yes, thank you

[hellyesbro]

I’m far less interested in fiction where it’s like “This power/ability/prophecy is gender specific but trans inclusive” and for more interested in fiction that just… doesn’t do that

[hellyesbro]

Stuff that’s like “Only girls can use moon magic but that includes trans women :)“ is still stupid and honestly a really reductive view of gender. Now if you wanna write some shit like “It’s believed that only girls can use moon magic but surprise it’s just surpressed/ignored in men because of gendered norms” like have at it. If you’re writing a fictional society you don’t have to stray away from fictionalized gender norms as well, but don’t right some shit where gender is baked into the laws of nature. Gender isn’t a force of nature, it’s a societal tool, and understanding that in real life means understanding that in fiction as well.

[tanaor]

Want quick tips to add instant chemistry to the relationships of your characters??

(🥳With examples🥳)

First of all, I want to say that you can also use most of them for platonic/ non-romantic relationships, so feel free to use this tips however you think they might work better in your story. So, without further adue, let's get to the tips!!!

Make your characters LISTEN to each other. Like, if A tells B they're not a morning person, B could make some coffee for A or lower the volume of their alarm.

This might sound quite obvious, but show that you characters care for each other. It might be as simple as one of them giving the other a glass of water when they feel a little dizzy, but it works wonders!

Make your characters physically close. When you are emotionally close to someone, you tend to be physically close too. But here is the thing. Make your characters react like it's second nature: "how would I not hug B when I haven't seen them in days?" or "Of course I'm gonna take A's hand when I feel insecure".

They don't have to be constantly thinking about each other, but when they do, MAKE IT MATTER!! For example, character A is out shopping, and they see B's favorite cookies. B didn't have a good day, and A knows that. But A also knows B is gonna fucking love the cookies, so they buy some.

Let them believe and trust each other. Also applies if one of them is a little distrustful: let your characters rely on one another, even if at the start they aren't as comfortable doing it. For a distrustful character, letting the other one help with chores might be a HUGE thing.

Other tips for writers: previous | next