#brosler85

[teeentyonepilots]

@brosler85 lmaooo appropriate way to celebrate the grand return

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Is there ever a good excuse to use the whole "It was all a dream/simulation/vision" trope? Every time I see it, a little piece of me dies.

Unless you are the cleverest person on the planet, or are making an obvious joke or writing satire, “it was all a dream” is probably best left to die a lonely death on the Trope Tree. 

“Stuck in a simulation” can work, especially if the reader/viewer AND the characters (it’s a great TV/film device) know that’s what it is. But to end an otherwise normal-seeming story with “GOTCHA, IT WAS ALL A DREAM” is weak plotting at best and a cheap, reader-hating device at worst.

The bottom line is that kind of “shocking surprise” really isn’t anymore. It’s lazy writing. Blame Emilio Estevez for that. Ask your parents. That ending sucked and people YELLED at movie theater screens when they saw it. 

None of this means it cannot be done well ever again, but the odds are approximately 99.9% against it being good. 

[This does not apply to having dream sequences in your story. This is about ending/not really ending your story by de-legitimizing it as having not actually happened. See this post here from our archives.]

– Aliya 

[nightingaleflow]

Out of context line I came up with yesterday and want to use it to start the story:

“When I’m high, I contemplate infinity. When I’m sober, I think about bills.”

~

Send me an out of context line(s) from your WIP for a reaction gif/image