The noise of footsteps can be heard outside your office, followed by the lights outside of it flickering. You hear 3 knocks on the door.
“I did not wish to just let myself in, so may I enter?”
The voice is… distorted and a little unpleasant to listen to. Yet he seems perfectly calm, maybe even a little too calm.
Serena liked her cubicle.
Always neat and tidy. It was small, which helped her think better, and she could always ask the people in the cubicles around her for help. But now... now she'd been relocated to a private office. 'Until the Void made contact', they'd said.
'So that the other researchers won't be bothered.'
She didn't mind those terms, but 343, was it stifling in there. She couldn't wait to go back once this talk was done. Setting her paperwork away (a first), she nodded at the door.
"Come in. I've been expecting you."
Serena's tone was light and professional, and her expression gave nothing away. The only indication of any kind of nervousness was the way her shoulders tensed, and the way her eyes tracked every escape, every barricade in the room. A fighter's instinct.
Hello! I love your stories! Can I ask a question about your process? I'm curious how you manage to write in installments. I think I would get halfway through and then need to adjust something from the beginning, but your stories just flow beautifully. Do you make a really detailed chapter by chapter outline before you start? Thanks! Can't wait for the next chapter!
Hi there! Thank you so much for reading my stories :) Sorry I sat on this question for a few days, I wanted to think it through a minute, lol.
Besides just practicing (the Panem Nightlocks was not the first “series” I’ve written, so by the time I got to it I was used to the writing style), outlining is crucial for me. I like to map out at least a basic outline for every story I plan to do, and then begin to interweave them into a conducive story-line. It gets tricky, I won’t lie, especially creating a timeline of events and making sure everything fits into it in a way that makes sense. Mistakes will probably be made along the way (I know I’ve made a few, thankfully minor, ones with this series) but it helps to keep them to a minimum when you have everything fleshed out at least loosely in terms of plot, timeline, etc.
Another thing that really helps me is to think of all the characters i plan to eventually focus on as being “main characters”. For example, even though Madge and Gale were in a supporting role for The Bet, I already knew in my mind what their story was. It made it easier to flesh them out as secondary characters in The Bet because they were already Main Characters in my mind, if that makes sense? Fleshing characters out not only in their story but in their supporting stories is important in my opinion, because it makes the reader care about them. If Madge only existed to talk about Peeta for instance, and there was no other background information given into her personality, her likes/dislikes, what makes her her in The Bet, then what interest would anyone have in reading a story about her as the MC? I hope this makes sense, I feel like I’m rambling.
That goes along with outlining, though. When you have a solid foundation, at least so you know where you want to start and where you want to end, it definitely helps things to flow. The little things about the story can be filled in later, but the big main plots its important for me to plot at the same time so that I can ensure it will all fit together.
It’s a lot like a puzzle, which I love doing. It can definitely be frustrating at times, but when you fit the right piece in and everything comes together it’s like
orlamcsupercool replied to your post “This is why I like Mr. Robot. The content can be very dark, but...”
that's definitely true but i'm still so sad about trenton bc i wanted her and darlene to get together :(
It is sad. I think they did a good job at allowing the audience to be sad about it, because “Don’t Delete Me” is almost entirely about loss and a catharsis for sad feelings. The show didn’t pull a “Oh well, shit happens. Get used to it. It’s your own fault you grew attached to them!” They let us grieve.
We spend time with Trenton’s family. We spend time with Elliot. Their paths cross in a very beautiful, heartbreaking way. Like, this is how you’re supposed to write tragic events. This is how you’re supposed to deal with aftermath of a prominent character dying.
The problem with a lot of grimdark shows is not that they allow death to happen, but that they don’t organically deal with it. They don’t give the audience space to cope with it. Shock value is prioritized over plot value, and in this show deaths are rarely lacking in plot value. They have all driven home narrative points.
Trenton and Mobley were killed for their cause. They were framed for a cause that was not their own to hide the intentions of a powerful organization. This drived home the point that they were wholly unprepared to deal with consequences of their actions, but they could still make it right.
And Trenton did. What she did is one of the most important plot points of that season. How she did it was important too, because it reaffirmed her trust in Elliot even though everything had gone to hell and she was in hiding with Mobley. That mattered when Elliot spent much of the episode wanting to kill himself.
There’s a lot that would be cool to see on the show, especially which each of the FSociety hackers. It would be so cool to see each of them fleshed out more, and for each of them to have their own lives. However, the show is four seasons long and meant to be told within the span of a year so I do really like what they did.
I like that Sam never sacrificed his vision for fans, but also respects fans enough to let them feel for these characters. This show, and his show Homecoming are both so... empathetic? I’m never bored, because I feel a lot when I’m watching which is why I’ve typed so much lol (sorry)
Hey, Therius is my personal favourite ship with Cyrus, but what do you think about Cyrus x Odette? These two had a pretty nice chemistry and she deserved him more than... other characters... (cough Therese and Mary cough)
(Hmmm….. I don’t particularly ship Cyrus with anyone (since i see him as a booksexual person lol); Cyrus and Odette seems more like a Brotp to me… if I had to ship him with someone, it probably would be someone from the party, particularly Primrose or, unpopular opinion, H’aanit. But yeah, I agree that Cyrus and Odette have A LOT of chemistry.
My opinion on Therese wavers because of (*minor spoilers!*) Chapter 3, which I thought made up a little bit of her stupidity in Ch 1. Maybe it’s because she reminded me of another character similar to her that I really like (Juvia from Fairy Tail). That doesn’t mean I want her to be with Cyrus though:
1. Age difference, 2. Not much chemistry, like not as much as Cyrus with Odette, and 3. Which results in a one-sided relationship. Cyrus deserves a better person.
So yeah. Therius is kinda nice too; I don’t really have anything against it, and the only reason why it’s not really my ship is because I ship Therion with Ophilia. But it’s your opinion. And it’s my job to respect it. -mod scarlet)
Now that emmet is coming back im begging you to update reckless FOR THE LOVE OF GAWD PLS AT LEAST FINISH IT
Hi anon. So I’m going to say up front that I don’t think you intended this to come across how it was received. And I could just make a joke reply about it but I don’t want to.
What I think has happened here is one (or more) of the following things:
1. You’ve seen me interacting very enthusiastically with the YELLING anon on my Steve and Bella fic and their all caps commentary - which is cute and funny - is what you’re trying to do here. I’ll explain in a moment why this is different.
2. You think you know me because I post a lot and write stories (I think) you enjoy, so you think this is a cute little joke I’ll find funny and say ‘bestieeee I’m trying 🙈😭’ and we’ll all move on and have a nice day.
And before we get into those, for people who aren’t going to click the readmore - I’ve stated numerous times that I am working hard to finish my current story before I work on anything else otherwise it risks going unfinished. My plan for this year is to tie up the first book of Lockdown and then finish Reckless. But real life is also really hard atm so I’m not getting through things very quickly.
Anyway, back to your message.
Unfortunately on point 2, this doesn’t work. Because whilst I would absolutely respond like this to a friend, we are not friends. Or rather, I have no way of knowing if we are friends. Using anon with no reference or callsign means I have no idea if we’ve interacted a bunch of times or never at all. But I don’t recognise the style of this so I have to assume it’s none/not often. So what’s actually happened is that you have come into a stranger’s inbox and yelled at them.
And you could say, ‘but I wasn’t yelling at you, I’m just enthusiastic’. Which, ok sure. I can see how you thought that, especially if you think you know me and this was just being cute in your head. But the difference between this message and the all caps anon messages is that we have built up a relationship where I know who they are, and they are always conveyed with a sense of excitement, joy and kindness, and they’re explicit about their enjoyment of the story I’ve written. And this might sound like shallow needy writer ego stroking but the rules are, if you’re gonna yell at me it’s good manners to preface that with an acknowledgment that you liked what I wrote.
Instead, what we have here reads like:
‘Emmett’s coming back so BITCH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD FINISH YOUR STORY’.
Do you see how this is tonally different to this or this? It’s not ‘Alex I love this story, please I need more’. It’s ‘Alex you lazy bitch, write me this story’. Which to be honest, wasn’t super pleasant to be confronted with minutes after waking up this morning.
To be clear, I am going to assume it wasn’t your intention to come across like this and I promise you that we’re fine, we’re cool. You do not need to be upset about this. We all say stuff imperfectly from time to time.
But I just wanted to highlight that you might wanna think a little more before you hit send and ask yourself: Is my message conveying the sentiment I intended when the person I’m contacting doesn’t know who I am? Or am I just accidentally yelling at a stranger on the internet? xx
Okay this one has me thinking!! I have a lot of great childhood memories - it’s actually really hard to pick a number 1 best one. So you get one of my faves.
I’m probably 5 or 6 and my brother is 9 or 10 and we are absolute besties. Like he’s my number 1 favourite person, and he still entertains my little kid playing even though he’s getting a bit big for it now. It’s summer and we’re in the garden, in a flower bed that we’ve made into a rally racecourse for his toy cars (I still have the rally mini that he gave me now) and these guys have whole lives we have imagined up it’s like a damn soap opera but maybe less murder and such. And we are just having the best time racing these guys and making up shit that’s going on in their little town. It’s just a really good day and an absolute treasured memory of mine.
Partially because I am Dutch so it’s a country I’ve got a lot of access to (the other border would be Belgium but I have no interest in French culture so that’s not gonna happen anytime soon) and it’s gonna be very useful with my potential job later
What are your favourite and least favourite things about Love Never Dies?
I have way too many favorite to list, honestly. Off the top of my head, I love seeing the characters again. Anything that gives me more story to dig into and work with is pretty great by me.
I love Gustave and how he came to be, not just because I’m a big E/C fan but I think it’s pretty realistic that it could happen.
I actually like Raoul in this, because for once I find him interesting. I don’t think he’s a bad guy for drinking and gambling. Those are both things I’ve had way too much exposure to in life, but even I know being addicted to something doesn’t make you a bad person. Even the best people get tangled up in not so good things to help them deal with whatever is bothering them.
That probably didn’t make sense, but essentially I find Raoul incredibly boring and plain- I can’t relate to him. But I find myself rooting for him and relating to him in Love Never Dies. He’s an actual person for once, at least to me.
I absolutely LOVE the idea of the Phantom building up this whole amazing park.
There are only two things I don’t like, one more serious than the other haha.
First, I don’t like that they call the Phantom Mr. Y. In the book it’s based off of, he’s Mr. E. And that makes so much more sense to me since his name is Erik, and it sounds like ‘mystery’
And second, I don’t like that the Phantom lives. I really think it should be him to die at the end, not Christine. And after seeing the new tour, I believe this EVEN more. I think it’d be a better send off for him. Knowing he is loved, and being able to leave everything to Gustave and Christine.
