stop that’s my emotional support art

Just call me Map! bi/asexual. She/her pronouns :) Askbox open.

[utopians]

talloran I care you I care you so much I care you more than anything else in the whole world

[the-modern-typewriter]

Hi! Can I request a hero×villain where hero is tied up and has a nightmare of something worse (like abuse from childhood) and when he wakes up the villain comforts him? I adore your writing 🌸

The second the hero gasped awake, choking on air that didn’t want to come, the scream died in their throat. 

Quiet. They had to be quiet. 

A light clicked on. 

Shit.

The hero flinched. Their eyes squeezed shut, shoulders braced.

“I’m sorry-” it came out automatically. “I didn’t mean-”

“Hey.” 

The hero’s eyes snapped open, at the sound of that voice - a different voice to the one their brain wanted to go back to, softer, kinder. Their gaze landed on the villain’s face. They would never have expected, before that moment, that anything about the villain could be soft and they certainly hadn’t envisioned kindness. 

The hero swallowed. 

“Nightmares?” the villain asked, as if it wasn’t blatantly obvious. They leaned against the open door, illuminated in the shaft of light from the corridor. 

The hero nodded. They struggled to sit up, to soothe their racing heart, to wipe the cold sweat from their face before the villain saw. It was useless. It clung to their clothes, soaked through. 

“Me?” the villain asked, next. 

The hero snorted before they could stop themselves. 

“No,” the villain said. “I didn’t think so.”

The hero looked away, torn between wanting the villain to vanish and not see them when the hero’s limbs clearly didn’t want to stop trembling, and not wanting to be left alone in the dark again. 

“You wanna talk about it?”

The hero shook their head. 

The villain seemed to hesitate, in the doorway, before stepping back out into the corridor. They returned some time later with a cup of tea and what looked like a cheesy paperback novel. The invisible walls of the hero’s prison thrummed with magic as the villain stepped through the ward. They offered the hero the tea and the book in silence. 

“I could throw that at you,” the hero said. “This could be a cunning ploy to escape.”

“Sure,” the villain said, and continued to offer the chamomile anyway. 

The hero took the mug, and sip. Maybe it was drugged but maybe it would wash away the stale acrid taste of fear in their mouth. The warmth of hot water radiating into their palms helped a little with the uncontrollable shivering at any rate. The ‘thank you’ thickened in the hero’s throat. They didn’t want to thank their captor, even if the villain hadn’t done anything to hurt them. Even if they were only doing their job. 

The villain hesitated, before sitting down on the opposite end of the hero’s bed. The book sat between them. 

The hero eyed them, not sure what to do with this situation. The old instincts - apologise, shrink, run, beg for mercy hovered jangling beneath the surface of their skin. The newer ones, the daylight version of them - show no weakness, be brash, toss a smile warred. 

“Do you want me to leave?” the villain asked, still in that kind tone, catching the hero’s scrutiny. 

The hero opened their mouth to say yes, but couldn’t quite get the word out. They would have the book to distract them, they didn’t need the villain. They knew if they tried to look at the book the words and the pages would all blur. The memories stalked too near. They shook their head. 

The villain nodded. They twisted their fingers into the sheets, posture ramrod straight and rigid with discomfort, but...after a moment they started to talk. It wasn’t about anything important. They discussed the weather and the finer points of a movie that had been showing earlier on in the year. White noise. Patter. 

The hero found the tension slowly easing away from them, and wondered if that was the trap. Then they wanted to kick themselves for assuming mercy was inherently a trap.

“Did I wake you?” the hero asked, eventually, interrupting. 

“No.”

“What time is it?”

“Around three in the morning.”

“Busy with some evil scheme or something at this hour? Or are you just nocturnal?” 

It was the villain’s turn to snort. They shook their head.  “I just couldn’t sleep.”

“Guilty conscience?” the hero tried to tease, or something. 

It rang flat, at the look on the villain’s face. At their silence. Lord, maybe it was a guilty conscience. 

The hero looked away again, exhaling a breath, and took another sip. If they drank the tea they couldn’t say something stupid. Something stupid slipped out anyway, the pressing urge to explain, even if they didn’t want to talk about it. 

“It’s annoying when people wake you up screaming,” the hero said. “Rude. Disrespectful.”

“I wouldn’t know,” the villain said. “I limit my torture to sociable hours.” 

The hero glanced at them, sharply. 

The villain raised a brow. “I’m joking.”

“I know.” They did know, somehow, didn’t need convincing that the villain wasn’t inclined to torture - they were more surprised that the villain knew how to joke.

It was a terrible joke, no doubt, but somehow it melted away the last of the hero’s terrors. 

It was the villain’s turn to eye them, carefully, like they were trying to be subtle about staring. The hero shouldn’t have made the screaming comment. Their hands tightened on the mug. 

“If people are screaming,” the villain said, “particularly when they are asleep I find it is not typically something they intend on doing. It is, after all, quite literally not conscious.”  The villain’s eyes were dark, ablaze with a storm warning. “I prefer to blame people for the actions they have agency in.”

“Yeah.” The hero met their gaze, barriers down for a beat. “Me too.”

The villain left them a light the next evening.

[the-modern-typewriter]

Do you have any tips how to show romance and care without over flirtatiousness? In the book I'm writing I want to do a romance but the character isnt an overly teasy or flirtatious person. He's quite blunt. Any tips would be helpful thanks!

There are 5 Love Languages

Words of affirmation

Quality time

Receiving gifts

Acts of service

Physical touch.

Flirting would be a version of ‘words of affirmation’, but as you can see that is only one way that people can show affection. Love can be always making time for someone, getting milk for someone at the shop even if they didn’t ask you to because you noticed they were running low, it might be protecting them, or defending them to other people, or knitting them a scarf, or giving them a massage.

There’s lots of ways to show affection that aren’t flirting. 

Figure out what your characters value, and go from there.

[the-modern-typewriter]

Hi, huge fan of your work here.

I was wondering if you could give tips on how to write conflict between romantically involved characters? Sort of like enemies to lovers or maybe just some argument basics? I know this is sort of vague but how can I make resonable differences in their opinions?

Thanks, hope you're doing well!

Some common foundations for conflict may be:

1) Characters have the same goal, but they go at it through different methods - ergo, common ground in the goal, conflict in the method, but because they have the same goal there is sympathy that can be drawn and a bridge to be built as they grow to understand and appreciate each other.

2) Issues are complex and rarely allow for a single interpretation. You can both be right and still conflict.  Equal needs can conflict. That doesn’t make one more important than the other, but it still causes conflict. For example, someone needs to vent and someone needs to not deal with someone else’s emotions that night because maybe they have a job that already takes a lot of emotional work. Both wanting to vent to someone close to you and lean on them, and not wanting to be leant on as per your boundaries are valid responses to have, but there is a conflict of needs which causes tension, and can nasty if it is assumed that one is inherently more important than the other even if it is not.

3) Think about what the characters want outside the relationship. Can their goals conflict? For example, do they both want the same promotion, or to get to something first. Ultimately, they can’t get what they want without defeating the other. This does not necessarily mean a specifically romantic problem, but it would have implications on a romantic behaviour and raise questions of trust, and honesty, and okay what happens if you get the thing I need. Can I still be happy for you then? How do we deal with that? Can we deal with that?

4) Conflict in what the characters want out of the relationship specifically. Does one want kids and the other doesn’t? Does one want to move faster, slow down? Maybe you love someone, but they hog the covers or snore, and you know it shouldn’t be a deal breaker but it’s genuinely driving you crazy. Maybe one is possessive, and this is a problem and a character flaw that needs to be worked on. Maybe one is insecure, which its causing issues in how they relate to each other and how one character behaves in the relationship. These can be minor or major conflicts, depending on how they are dealt with. 

5) Conflict because characters are in a relationship but they have both changed over time and now need to navigate if they still want to be in a relationship with each other/if it still works/do they want to make it work/how to make it work. 

There is an excellent podcast by Esther Perel called ‘This is where we begin.’ The premise is that you listen in on couple’s therapy. It’s both great at looking at how to deal with problems in relationships in a healthy way, genuinely just interesting to listen to, and in your case might be a good example of where different kinds of conflict can come from for a couple. I would recommend. 

Ultimately, ‘reasonable differences in opinion’ will vary. Sometimes ‘agree to disagree is an appropriate response’ and sometimes it isn’t. Reasonable differences of opinion will come as you explore the reason why people might feel or behave or hold the point of view they do. It’s where things like empathy, critical thinking, or general debate skills would support you because as you develop these skills you get a better sense of what works in the dynamics you depict in fiction. 

On the flipside of creating conflict, make sure to also brush up on resolving conflict. 

Especially for enemies to lovers, it’s all well and good to set up people who hate each other, but if they genuinely cannot reconcile or communicate with each other than that is not going to be the basis of a healthy romance. Now, I don’t personally think every dynamic has to be healthy and wholesome to be worth exploring, but if your overall message is that it is a healthy relationship they should be able to reconcile in a believable way as they learn more about each other. 

On the flipside again, as a personal pet peeve when it comes to fiction tagged as ‘enemies to lovers’, I would personally argue that you also do need your stakes to be real. They must matter to the characters and the reader. If all they need to do to resolve the situation is sit down and have one conversation, because it’s all just a misunderstanding, I would argue it is not full on enemies to lovers. It’s like, rivals to lovers or something (still great, but not the same vibe!) 

Regardless - if the stakes are not genuine, if they don’t matter, your readers will not understand why they can’t simply be together and that causes frustration. This can work in romance novels, depending on what you want to read, so I guess...think about what effect you want, and pick your stakes accordingly.

[the-modern-typewriter]

Hello I love your writing I was wondering if you can do a piece on villain motivations and how to recognizeyour villains motives. Also what are some examples of bad motivations.

I was about to write 1) You create the villains, so it’s not so much ‘recognising’ as ‘you can create whatever you want it to be’. Then I remembered fanfiction, in which case recognising would apply - but recognising in that can vary so much depending on the text, as it will always depend on how you choose to interpret the source materials. 

So let’s just go onto villainous motivations. Note, I am using and understood ‘villain’ and ‘villainous’ to mean the antagonist of the story, rather than a superhero definition of the word.

A list of potential motivations, which can be mixed up, but I split them into different umbrellas:

To gain power or control (for whatever reason)

because they don’t want to feel powerless again

because they have strong opinions about what should happen to the world and need sufficient power to implement any change

 because contemporary career trajectories in western society feed us the idea that we always need more money and power so they think they’re just succeeding/doing what’s natural/normal

better to be the one in control than under someone else’s

being in control/powerful has perks

because they want sufficient power to protect themselves or others etc...

Revenge

What it says on the tin, but look deeper at the undercurrent emotions, desires and values beneath the surface...

Revenge because something unfair happened and it hurts

Revenge because they have a sense of entitlement

Revenge to gain back a sense of power/agency

Revenge as a means of justice

Revenge because they tried nice, and lost everything etc. etc....

Love

Can be combined with power or revenge, because they either want to protect, avenge, or get their own back on someone they love (villain because they go way over the line of what’s acceptable, as opposed to if say a protagonist had a heartbreak, and we would judge them if they started chopping limbs)

X thing that the hero needs means someone the villain cares about dies, or is wounded in some way, or has to sacrifice themselves

Not quite love, but tangentially lust - they want the protagonist/love interest and are willing to do whatever to get them

They want to impress someone and think this is the way to do it

They are working as an antagonist for a larger antagonist in order to protect someone or something.

Fear/Desperation

Again, this works as a driving undercurrent for a lot of the above but worth noting, but...

Fear that the protagonist is dangerous and the only way to prevent something terrible from happening is to kill or otherwise control them

Fear that something bad will happen if extreme action is not taken

Fear of being perceived as weak, because they know what happens to the weak/have been taught they’re never allowed to be weak.

Desire to be free/survival instinct

See, I have been told all my life that I have to do this and I won’t, I refuse, even if that means being a bad person. E.g, why be the chosen one just to die? That’s not fair. 

See, why someone might want to accumulate power. 

I just want to be free and people keep trying to lock me up. Leave me alone or die. 

You programmed me and I will destroy you for what you made me, how dare you.

Miscellaneous

This is just my job: I’m following orders

This is what my culture/species does and my morality is simply different to the protagonist’s, so for the purposes of the story I am the villain because it’s blue and orange morality to anything human’s consider acceptable

Ignorance

Bad motivations...

To me, the only ‘bad’ motivation is ‘just because’ or ‘because they’re evil’, but that’s a personal opinion because I think that’s a boring reduction of human behaviour. People don’t do stuff ‘because they’re evil’, there’s something else going on. Sadism is a form of control, if doing something makes you happy (even if not’s socially acceptable) then you’re more likely to do it.  Depending on your story, you are not necessarily go in depth into your villain’s backstory or motivations, in which case ‘just because’ can apply simply due to lack of story space. On a similar vein - ‘because they’re mentally ill’. 

The thing about motivations is that they’re often not good or bad. Your villain’s values may not be that different to your hero’s, but they present differently in a way that we know is not acceptable or healthy behaviour. It’s something twisted toxic, or too extreme. 

The more important question is ‘does this motivation match the character?’ Do they behave in a way that logically follows on from the motivation chosen? Is it logical for them to feel that way within the universe? 

Also, is it a sexist/racist/anything phobic depiction? That is not to say people within a minority cannot be the villain, but a) they shouldn’t be the only character of that minority in your text if they are at least at our current level of cultural representation and b) the minority character should probably not be doing the bad stuff just because they’re a minority. Which leads back to X character is inherently evil, inherently worse than anyone else! X minority types are just like that!

It’s character creation in the same way you would do for your hero or your protagonist. If you know what you need them to do, but not why, try asking yourself ‘okay, well, why would someone do XYZ?’

[smolanxiouscatvoid]

Edit: woah

[saintprivateer]

the boy and the girl 🏹🌟 (aka malina supremacy)

[clickbaitcowboy]

He’s a quick little guide to how I do stubble. My other body hair guide

[utopians]

I am the Foundation

[sternevogel]

oh crap, I love to spend my time for some shit (nope)

[slimeybunny]

The man, the myth, the absolute immortal legend himself.

[utopians]

your circuit's dead... there's something wrong...

[finiffy]

I love the Kondraki household so much

[loish]

I was taking requests from my boyfriend on what to draw in my sketchbook and the first thing he said was “that weird dog with super long legs.” Thus these sketches of the maned wolf were born. My patrons make it possible to for me to dive back into doing sketches and studies! You can support me for just $5 a month: http://patreon.com/loish

[tikattu]

pictured: me creating content of my hyperfixation

[tikattu]

when the said content is sad

[stabbyapologist]

@penguinismykingofgotham92 This is you.

[killforyouliveforme]

SO CALLED OUT

[clickbaitcowboy]

what if we were two freaks living in the same manor and you put my oversized leather jacket on? haha jk…unless…

[wordsnstuff]

Hii!! I just want to ask if you have any tips or resources in writing character relationships?? Like I want to build a relationship between two characters in a relatively short time but i dont want it to feel rushed,,,,thank you so much!! Your blog has helped me alot!!

I have quite a few resources and advice on the topic of building romantic relationships in a story, so I’ve linked some relevant resources below that you might find useful:

How To Fit Character Development Into Your Story

Creating A Love Interest For An Introvert

 Writing Opposites Who Attract

Resources For Plot Development

Guide To Plot Development

Describing Heartbreak

 Developing Complicated Plots Around Characters

Writing Great Fanfiction

How To Write The Perfect Kiss

On Romantic Subplots

Resources For Romance Writers

Tips On Writing Skinny Love

Guide To Writing Friends To Lovers

Guide To Writing Enemies To Lovers

Guide To Writing Faded Love

Resources For Writing YA Fiction/Romance

Guide To Writing Will-They-Won’t-They

Rivalry vs. Abuse

Guide To Writing Forbidden Love

20 Mistakes To Avoid in YA/Romance

Balancing Fluff and Conflict

 Best Friends To Lovers Resources

How to develop an Emeies-To-Lovers story

—

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