#writing adjacent

[prophetic-writer]

This is a reminder that your work's popularity has nothing to do with it's quality!!!! Just because you might not have a lot of readers doesn't mean your work isn't amazing.

[the-actual-timberwolfe]

Friendly reminder to let your weapon expert characters be bad at different weapons than they normally use. Different things take different skill sets and not only do they sometimes not transfer, but sometimes muscle memory or mental theories that work for one can make you worse at another, just like any other art or skill. Just because you can throw a knife doesn't mean you can throw an axe.

These thoughts courtesy of my first time axe throwing, in which I discovered that I would probably be great at throwing any straight pointy object...just not an axe.

[kitcatling]

Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier if I had visible scars

I think my Dia may need to find herself a different therapist.

And maybe I’ve already tortured her enough.

She was taken by a vampire Queen and tortured because the vampire Queen didn’t approve of her being a different vampire’s soulmate.

@bardic-tales @manorofshepard @lordkingsmith @chinchinwrites @theprincewhowasnt @nightmaricwriter

[ggswaywardgifrepository]

I think she wants me to stop writing Dino Crisis fanfiction.

[bdafic]

Have you played Veilguard? Do you plan to?

If yes, what is your opinion on how Solas and solavellan was handled? :)

I did! I actually posted about it, encouraging people not to read reviews and posts and just play the game for them. I chose not to go into any depth other than I liked it. I'm cool with going into it now, though I want to make really clear to anyone reading that I have zero interest in seeing, inviting, or participating in the "everything must be criticized hard and moralized" discourse. The level of hostility around this game is off the charts and I'm super not into it.

(I am very into being hostile as fuck about layoffs, crunch, and execs sabotaging projects, setting impossible "goals" and whipping up anger to justify dissolving studios though. We can do that all day.)

Anyway, back to your question.

Overall, my feelings on how Solas/Solavellan was done mirrors my feelings on the game as a whole: I loved 85% of it, and the other 15% I didn't so much 'not love' as much as I wished it could've been more. That last 15% felt like being a kid finding out there's a whole other floor of your house you've never explored, and once you finally get all prepped to go spelunking you find it in the midst of being demolished. All those little tantalizing peeks you got are gone or waved off like "you can make do with what you have". Technically that's true. You've got a nice house that's pretty and isn't falling apart and everything connects and has all the right things in it... but you can't help being really sad for the loss of experiences you could've had on the mystery floor.

I loved all the insight we got into the history of the Evanuris, ancient elves, and Solas himself. It confirmed a bunch of theories I'd discussed with others for years -- and that felt awesome! I love it when fans are rewarded for noticing the details and putting shit together. (If you're also into that, go watch Severance). There's so much of what we saw in his memories and experiences that deepen the sense of sadness and loss in his character. It made people who hate him, hate him more, and people who love him, sympathize with him more. I think he's honestly one of the most well-written characters I've ever encountered in any media, anywhere, and not just because I'm a sucker for beautiful tragedy.

I'm happy they didn't shy away from Solas' edges, either. I'd predicted Varric's death at his hands during The Missing's run, though I thought it'd play out differently. I think that and the war crimes were good additions to his story. It reinforced his position as an antivillain to the series. Solas is a living, breathing, 'sunk cost fallacy' of a man. He (almost) says it himself: to stop now would make all the horrible things he'd done be for nothing. He has to keep going.

He was Wisdom, twisted into Pride. He wants to still be Wisdom. It's how he sees himself, though he's smart enough to know it isn't true deep down. The planning, the arrogance, the failures, the devotion, they're all aspects of that change. Of course he keeps failing. Of course he keeps trying. And of course falling in love without any of that being known would absolutely caboodle his noodle. One of the things that first drew me was realizing how much of him was only revealed upon romancing. It makes a ton of sense for his character, and gave him a depth and longing that was incredibly compelling. A character who lays it out for everyone regardless is just an NPC, but that made him feel like a person. It speaks to his loneliness; how badly he wants someone to find a way to change his mind, and how resigned he is to the belief that nobody can. Wisdom and Pride.

I'm very pleased that a Solavellan ending even exists, because that's a pretty big nod to fandom and the impact of his character. Of course I'd have loved to see more -- Solavellan hell is eternal and I'll never escape -- but I can be happy with what we got. And I understand why it felt truncated.

(And honestly, my biggest complaint with Lavellan's inclusion is that we cannot modify her appearance later if we fucked it up. My kingdom for her eyeballs to've worked properly in my first run.)

I am a bit sad about how 'well' a lot of it got wrapped up, not just because of the loss of mystery, but because it's pretty clear that was a reflection of the (rather prescient) fears from devs/writers about the future of the franchise. The game's impact and mood suffered from that sense of impending doom. Edges were shaved off, things glossed over, middles discarded so threads could be tied up neater, and that probably really sucked for the people who have lived and breathed this world for the better part of 20 years. It needed more time. Chill time. And freedom to fuck about. People say that audiences don't like it when things end on an uncertain note, and honestly after seeing the discourse this produced as is I'm gonna say that the things I personally wished were included would've probably started much bigger fires and resulted in much more smoke. (People like to jump in here with, "it was going for ten years" but that's kind of disingenuous. It was ten years between releases. The game was scrapped twice and the final iteration was only going for three-ish, and writers and devs kept getting fucking laid off.)

Anyway, there's a lot of stuff it's clear they wanted to go into more and simply weren't able to. That isn't their fault, and I grieve with them. People forget the writers were the original spelunkers. They're also people who have to roll with punches in a way that fans never, ever, have to.

That was a lot of words to say, basically, that I think Solavellan and Solas' story were handled well, and I'm satisfied. I wish there was more -- I'll always mourn whatever was on the mystery floor -- but that's what fanfic is for. It's in our hands now.

[knightsofeclipse]

I still desire the ability to subdivide playlists

Hear me out; a shipping playlist with sub-playlists for songs from Character A’s vs Character B’s POVs

OR

A character playlist subdivided into different shipping sub-playlists

[imbecominggayer]

Writing Advice: How To Craft The Perfect Plot!

For @seekerknight557: How do you go about making good plot? I have a lot of characters, but I struggle with making plot for them. I know to use character motivations and etc, but I was wondering what else I could add in order to make it interesting.

Obviously, due to the multi-faceted nature of plots, this post can't cover everything and won't be applicable to every type of plot. :3

In reality, plots are a sum of writing structure so this post will be going over different structures that you gotta have for plots!

A) Writing Structure: Character Roles

First things first, you have to decide what roles your characters are in!

Characters in literary works are divided into roles that communicate what function they serve in the overall plot. While these roles can change overtime as characters develop, having your initial starting point allows you to understand whose story you are investigating and who is just a side character!

If you are a visual person, you can make a diagram that labels characters! Obviously, not all stories have love interests so these roles aren't always used in every individual story. Bear with me as I give you a good list of different characters roles!

Protagonist (the stories' perspective/main character)

Antagonist (the character that opposes the main character)

Hero(the morally good character)

Villain(the morally bad character)

Love Interest (involved romantically with the protagonist)

Deuteragonist (side characters)

Confidants(your best friend characters and other allies)

Tertiary Characters (characters with little to no screen time)

Oftentimes these character roles overlap. Which is a good thing! It saves you pages by not having so many focused-on characters, potentially subverts expectations, and can lead to more 3-dimensional characters!

The point of learning about this non-exhaustive list of characters roles is so you can start understandin the "functionality" of your world. You now know what characters will be focused on in terms of screen time/page appearance, basic attributes about a character, and who the main star-runners are!

B) Writing Structure: What Is Format Of Your Plot?

Authors across the ages and cultures have worked to find different ways of classifying their plot from the infamous Three-Act Structure or the Hero's Journey!

source: https://kindlepreneur.com/story-structure/

But how do you decide what structure you should follow?

Well, look at the genre of your work! While genre is multi-faceted, understanding the genre can help you understand what plotlines you are prioritizing.

Romance tends to focus on, well, romance! Sci-Fi focuses on technology whether showing how amazing it is or how it's robbing people of their humanity! Horror focuses on horrific things!

While Romance can be set in a fantasy land, the focus of the story is the romance. Fantasy can include a romantic subplot but the main focus of the story is the fantastical nature of the world!

You can read stories that share your genre and overall aesthetic, preferably the short stories, to understand what structure they have!

Or you can read an analysis of that book.

If you don't like the structure, you now have some preference and some dislikes!

C) Wrapping Up - Themes And Genre

So, let's say that you have perfectly mastered everything before right now! What happens at the end of your characters journey?

While I can't tell you the exact specifics of their ending since endings depend on other character's goal and motivations, the main character's goals and motivation, and a host of other factors, I can give you a light at the end of the tunnel.

Overally, whether your story ends badly or has a happy ending depends on the genre, tone, and theme! Let's start dissecting that!

Genres like Horror tend to have bad endings for their protagonists! From the casual killings to the fates-worst-than-death endings, protagonists are put through the ringer and even their "happy" endings tend to either set up a sequel baddie, leave them traumatized, or ambiguous. Meanwhile, Romance tends to have a happy ending where the love interest and the protagonist kiss and all problems are solved!

Is this always universal? No, obviously not. Sometimes horror protagonists do unequivocally win at the end. Sometimes Romance leaves a sour-tasting ending, especially in the Dark Romance sub-genre!

The point of genre isn't to tell you what you need to do but just gives you a sense of what readers are expecting and conventions that sometimes need to be followed and sometimes need to be twisted.

For tone, this one is pretty simple. If your story is hopeful, bittersweet endings where not everything is perfect but hope is present tend to be on the rise. If your story is cynical, sad endings are your endings. If your story is cheerful, happily ever afters are always there!

Of course, these can be twisted. Sometimes stories are happily ever afters for one character while everyone is suffering a fate worse than death. Sometimes you don't really know if you should be cheering or not.

But still tone and genre are the major deciding factor in whether or not the ending is happy, sad, justified, bittersweet, or a "he had it coming" type of ending.

What also assists is the theme aka the message. If this story is a cautionary tale against greed, then the story could have the greed-filled people suffering while the heroic, not-greed-filled people rise.

The story could also be about how greed is always rewarded to the detriment of actual virtue and good by showing the good protagonist being crushed by people whose desire carries them off into the faux-heaven or by having the evil protagonist crush everyone to rise to the top.

Tales where wicked is punished and good rises can give you heavy insight into who gets the hammer of the bad ending and who scraps by!

[casual-haterism]

"what makes your ocs feel safe?" nothing they live in constant suffering for my amusement