moonlight✨

call me k. writer. dreamer. fang banger. masterlist. AO3.

[syllviere]

welcome ✨

hi, i'm k. she/her. black american. grown. married. mdni.

yoongi ult bias. armyplli.

vampire obsessed. cultivating peace. always writing.

kpop. fanfics. general writing. bookish interests.

writing masterlist. ao3. fic recs. sideblog.

[syllviere]

😭😭 lmaoooo

[syllviere]

Sometimes it feels silly writing "you looked up at him" in all my BTS fics, when I'm the same height as Yoongi and Jimin.

But then a lot of women are looking like this next to them, so I guess I'm writing for y'all lol 🙃

[syllviere]

A foolish and naive me: "I'm on call this weekend, but maybe it'll be chill and I can get some writing done."

> Mom is vomiting nonstop, can you come?

> I haven't given pain meds in 10 hours, but can you stop my sister from twitching in pain?

> My brother has been laying on his back for 2 months straight, why does he have a wound back there, can you stop it?

> Mom just died

> Dad just died

> My wife hasn't taken a shit in 7 days, can you come dig it out of her ass?

......welp 🫠

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Chekhov's Gun

Chekhov’s Gun - a dramatic principle that suggests that details within a story or play will contribute to the overall narrative.

This encourages writers to not make false promises in their narrative by including extemporaneous details that will not ultimately pay off by the last act, chapter, or conclusion.

Chekhov’s gun has become a highly influential theory of effective writing that mandates noticeable details are integrated into the plot trajectory, character development, and mood of the work.

Tips on How To Use Chekhov's Gun In Writing

Chekhov’s gun can be deployed for various purposes to indicate several different things.

Remember, Chekhov’s gun is not a literary device. It is a theory about the economy of detail within plotted narratives. It’s not something you do as much as something you follow.

To follow it, consider the details you include. This means you need to think about whether they are fits of fancy or they actively contribute to the overall plot structure.

Feel free to break the rules sometimes. Red herrings, or details included to throw the reader off subsequent plot twists, are by design details that violate Chekhov’s gun. Leaving readers to suspect the wrong person of the crime in the mystery by surrounding them with implicating but ultimately circumstantial details is an effective technique.

Foreshadow plot twists with details that, when the twist is revealed, become necessary to the story. If your main character’s mother is a serial killer, you might foreshadow this by having a character comment on her frequent trips out of town in the first chapter and her remote storage locker in the third chapter. That these details will pay off when the twist reveals itself is Chekhov’s gun in practice, the promise that emphasizing such otherwise trivial storage and travel details will ultimately prove relevant to the story.

Anton Chekhov was a 19th century writer of short stories and plays and one of the greatest authors and playwrights of the modern era. The author of Uncle Vanya and The Seagull, Chekhov has become a central figure in literary history and criticism.

The term “Chekhov’s gun” emerged from the ways Chekhov repeatedly characterized writing in letters to his contemporaries. The most famous version advises: “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.”

Other versions include a loaded rifle instead of a pistol, but the underlying point remains the same: if something in your narrative grabs the reader’s attention, that detail has narrative work to do and must be significant to the overall work. Otherwise, its significance is lost on the reader and authors are writing checks they can’t cash, including tantalizing details and possibilities that will ultimately go unfulfilled.

It is important to note that Chekhov’s gun is a literary concept and dramatic principle, not a rhetorical device—it is not something authors deploy, but rather a guidepost they follow.

While the principle of Chekhov’s gun is straightforward, there is some confusion around what actually constitutes Chekhov’s gun. Other tools and analytics—like MacGuffins and red herrings—are related to or follow the rules of Chekhov’s gun, but are not interchangeable with it. This confusion is best resolved by considering what details a reader will likely notice in a story.

Some details will be noticed regardless of context and the author doesn’t need to draw attention to them to get the reader to notice. A gun or other weapon, a giant diamond ring, and a mysterious briefcase, for instance, will always be noticed, whereas others, like a fedora, will not. Noticeable details should always payoff in stories, regardless of how much emphasis the author gives them.

An everyday vase will go unnoticed unless the author specifically draws them out with extended commentary and rhetoric. A floral vase on the table is easily overlooked but, if the author repeatedly draws attention to it, Chekhov’s gun dictates that this vase had better be significant to the overall story—perhaps in addition to flowers, it holds the codes to the French nuclear arsenal.

If an author doesn’t draw attention to such details, however, they do not need to follow this rule. A traffic jam in LA is nothing noteworthy and noting it in the narrative does not mean it must follow Chekhov’s gun and ultimately prove significant. If the author, however, prates and prattles about the traffic,then it falls into Chekhov’s gun territory and must prove important.

Chekhov’s gun can suggest a story is tightly woven, with emphasized details ultimately helping to shape the narrative.

Perhaps the best example of Chekhov’s gun principle in action comes from examples of Chekhov and his work. In Act I of his play The Seagull, for example, the main character carries a rifle out onto the stage. By the end of the play, he has used the riffle to commit suicide. Such a detail—a rifle, in the main character’s hand, on stage—would appear superfluous were it not to figure into the plot’s development and would have violated Chekhov’s own principle had it not been the instrument of the character’s death.

Successful literary tools and plot structures—like foreshadowing—can also be described by Chekhov’s gun, which is a rule effective foreshadow follows.

Though it is not a literary technique, Chekhov’s gun can be a useful analytical tool for critics that can be used to describe narrative shortcomings. Saying that a particular work did not adhere to Chekhov’s gun suggests the story was unfocused, concerned by insignificant details that did not figure into the larger work.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[syllviere]

Shoutout to the time this white chick was like, "Of course you always have lotion, you're black."

Dry skin doesn't discriminate, babe. You might enjoy feeling crusty and aging like milk, but I prefer glowing and having soft skin so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ophelia-is-not-okay]

Might fuck around and start believing I am worthy of all the things i desire.

[minyoonjin]

JUST ONE CHANCE

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

i NEED people to realise foreshadowing is. in fact. a literary device. and not a Bad Thing. the audience picking up on your hints is a Good Thing. because. it makes the story and it’s conclusion make sense. and some people will not see those but enjoy seeing them on a second read through. red herrings are one thing but if your novel consists of nothing but red herrings it’s not a coherent story it’s just a collection of paragraphs that don’t actually plausibly link to one another. you're not fighting with the audience you don’t look clever you look like you don’t know how basic fiction works. be vulnerable for once in your goddamn life and don't treat writing like a game to be won where the audience losing is a good thing.

[ineffectualdemon]

Getting to the end of a story and going "THE CLUES WERE THERE THE WHOLE TIME!" is always joyous for me whether or not I picked up on the clues leading up

If I saw the clues and caught the hints then yes! I am clever and me and the author/creator/artist etc were in on it together the whole time!

If I didn't notice the clues or got fooled but can clearly see them in hindsight then "Ha! You won this time storyteller! I am delighted by this game we play!' and then I enjoy putting the pieces together afterwards and enjoying how clever it was. I feel like the creator respects me as an audience

If there is a "twist" that comes with 0 clues or foreshadowing at all I'm annoyed. I'm pissed off. I feel like I'm being condescended to and patronised. It's not clever or interesting and makes me annoyed I ended up caring about characters and plot points that ended up meaningless.

Because it's not that these stories don't have foreshadowing or plot clues. They just abandon it for a "surprising twist"

A story that pays off the clues is letting me into the fun and makes a participant in the story

A story that just gives me a "shock" but no pay off is telling me not to engage or get attached or care. So why would I watch?

[s-n-arly]

OMG! THIS!

Random plot twists that don't connect to anything in the story are not clever. If we don't see it coming because the writer didn't provide any clues, they aren't clever and it's totally unsatisfying (and I will NEVER read this writer again). These clues need not be lit up in neon with a parade of elephants and showgirls. But they need to be present

I'm a writer and am rarely surprised. Often, if I am surprised it's because the writer was a dumbass and included a "twist" that makes no sense (and therefore isn't really a twist, it's just random bullshit). If a writer genuinely surprises me, without being an absolute dumbass, I am FUCKING DELIGHTED! I will tell everyone I know to read the book/see the movie/watch the show.

[ardentmystacina]

Foreshadowing is the reward for paying attention. It's the story letting you in on the secret like a co-conspirator because you're the clever little audience member who has been picking up on the clues the writer has been setting up.

It even makes watching/reading again more worthwhile because if you didn't notice the foreshadowing the first time you have the joy of being able to notice the things you missed!

[jung-koook]

260720 - yoongi’s instagram story

[syllviere]

You're sitting in a restaurant on an uninspiring date your friend set you up on, only for your date's ex to walk into the restaurant with someone else and of course they end up seated near the two of you.

It starts with menacing looks, then snide remarks muttered under breath, before quickly snowballing into a full-blown shouting match between the two of them.

You lean back in your seat, watching the drama unfold and swearing to dump salt in your friend's coffee next time you see them, when the date their ex brought leans over and whispers to you, "Sooo...you wanna get out of here? I'm Seokjin, by the way."

[syllviere]

Genuinely all I've ever asked for 😭

[syllviere]

I'm off this weekend, I'm not on call, and I'm fucking locked in, let's gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 😤✍🏾📝

[syllviere]

......lmaoooooo, the life of a fic writer I guess 🤪

[syllviere]

Lots of women talk about the relief of coming home and taking off your bra, but let me tell you about the relief of coming home and taking off my wig 💆🏾‍♀️

[syllviere]

Hi, love!! Do you have plans to continue “To Look Within”? It’s been six years. I love the angst of it and I can’t stop thinking about it! Honesty, sometimes, I have nightmares about it (Yoongi cheating in my delusional mind with me). I hope you’re doing okay!

Hello, my lovey!! 🥰 Omg, it's so rare to hear feedback about the Without/Within series, this made my day!

Babe, let me tell you about plans...I have so, so, so many plans. I have all the things that I wish to accomplish, my list of stories I want to put into the world is so nauseatingly long. And then I look up and the whole day is gone. Before, I was in school, then I was learning a new job, then I was depressed out of my fuckin skull, and now I'm back to learning a new job again (and other life things).

So do I intend to finish that series? Absolutely, I have had the last 3 chapters planned out for YEARS, I know exactly what I want and I've written a lot of it. But as for when I'll get all those words assembled into anything that resembles cohesive, passable writing, I wish I knew. I can only say, one day~

But thank you for sending this, and for sticking it out with me for this long. I really hope I'll bring you some joy one day with an update!

[syllviere]

Well shit, I guess I better post Éffleurer 10 this weekend. My new job is kicking my fuckin' ass, like I love it, but also it's so hard to get caught up enough to have time for anything else 😭😭

I'll get there, I stg I will get there