#tfsodal

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

writing a mythological retelling is turning out to be so funny because LOOK. she's my main character. she's like my baby. she's also a real figure worshipped and honoured by many and could probably get me yeeted off the face of the earth if she wanted. but she's also like my baby.

[solo-walker]

disclaimer: i have literally no one else to yap about this to so please bear with me

so i'm just scrolling through pinterest because i wanted to find that one raja ravi verma painting of savitri for a moodboard. i search it up and the first result that pops up.....is a advert post of a savitri & satyavan retelling with a list of tropes similar to the ones in tfsodal.

and i start freaking out.

like highkey freaking out (as one does when they find out that their novel they've been working a year on might already exist)

anyways with shaking fingers and teary eyes, i click on the link where it takes me to an amazon book listing, CONVINCED that 14 months of work has gone down the drain.

.....only to BURST OUT LAUGHINGGG

i read the plot and it's....the complete opposite of tfsodal, to say the least. those tropes weren't even for savitri and satyavan's relationship. in fact, the book isn't savitri x satyavan AT ALL😭😭 get this--the novel is about savitri falling in love with some other random dude while following yamraj and reconsidering saving satyavan 💀 (rip son)

anyways, we all learn something new everyday, and the moral of the storytelling really does come in different forms and there can be so many perspectives to the same story....quite literally. but hey, i'm not complaining !!

(you don't need to answer this, i just didn't want to stuff all of this text into a dm)

oh man i would have been so scared too! thankfully this has never happened to me with any of my serious WIPs (at least, up till now...), but it has happened with ideas i never really developed all that well to make public/share. I can imagine the relief when you found out that it was... very much not the same, to say the least XD

AND OMG POOR SATYAVAN NOOOO 😭 I mean....... I understand what the author might be getting at with this twist on the myth but it's so very different from your retelling that you have nothing to fear. But rest assured, though this may indeed be a practical challenge in the world of publishing, I and your friends who know about and follow your wonderful story would always be here to read it!

And you're always welcome to come yap in this ask box :D

is this the painting you were looking for btw?

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

character bible? you mean my scattered character pinterest boards of highly specific textposts and random aesthetic images?

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

the demons won

I quit animation a year ago because I was really insecure about my linework (which is still not perfect as you can see) but I'm seriously reconsidering

that's what having hyperfixations do to you sometime i guess

@solo-walker savitri wearing flowers just like you wanted XD

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

when you're doing research for your character in your mythological retelling who (you think) you've changed to be neurodivergent

ONLY TO FIND OUT HE CANONICALLY ALREADY HAS A SPECIAL INTEREST IN THE ORIGINAL MYTH

i don't have to make up anything, it's right there 😭

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

unfortunately my nervous system does not know the difference between falling in love and drawing my ocs for the first time

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

WHY IS WRITING SO HARD WHY IS WRITING SO HARD HRRGHH OW OW SAHOIIEGOHWOI *explodes*

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

hello people, i'm back in need of writing advice!

today's question is: descriptions! how descriptive is too descriptive?

like there are so many books i've read where every setting is described in paragraphs to the most minute detail, like for example if the characters are in a room, every detail of the room is mentioned to the point where there could literally be a fly on the wall and even THAT would be mentioned.

same goes for physical descriptions of characters-- like it feels kind of redundant to use multiple metaphors and similes to describe the character's nose or their face or their figure

and i don't know whether it's just me but i find those whole paragraphs very boring, especially if it's some situation where the things being described don't even play a role in the scene.

but at the same time i understand that those descriptions are what make the scene come alive for readers and help feed into that visual imagery and if i just start and end each scene with just the characters and what they do, it just seems....half baked in a way.

so how much description is enough? and how do i know how much i need to describe so that it's not an essay but also still makes the scene alive?