#writing conventions

[writerpolls]

Writers: have you been to an irl writing event?

Yes, smaller event(s) like local writer meet ups or critique groups

Yes, larger event(s) like conferences and conventions

Yes, both larger and smaller events as described above

Unsure / I don’t remember

No, I have never been to a real life writing focused event

Other answer (explain in notes?)

See results / I don’t write

Voting ended onAug 9, 2025

[animeomelette]

Compound nouns

It's always really interesting to me seeing people fascinated by how German can hypothetically have infinitely long words (because of how compound nouns are written in German) when English has essentially the same feature but with spaces conventionally placed between most components of compounds in writing.

There's nothing significantly ungrammatical about "Railway Locomotive Insurance Providers Association headquarters building collapse investigation committee meeting minutes transcription error", but compounds over a certain length are unlikely to appear outside of technical contexts and even then once they become sufficiently unwieldy they will probably be broken up, or abbreviated to an acronym if repeated usage is necessary. This will apply in any language with compounds as a grammatical feature, as speaking a different language or being from a different cultural background doesn't negate the basic need for things to be easily legible and reasonably concise.

I do wonder what the longest compound one could actually create in English while still conveying a coherent and comprehensible meaning would be (although both points are inevitably subjective), and it would be interesting to see how different languages would compare in that regard.

PS: This is just a shower thought, not an academic essay, I might be talking out of my bum about several things here.

[goldenart004]

I think one of the things I love most about RWBY is its breaking, changing, and flipping around of tropes and writing conventions.

Right if the bat we have Ruby, who if just watching the Red Trailer you would not say is the girl we see in the series. Ruby wears black and red, typically villain colors, has a cloak, and the red trailer was shown taking place at night. The only thing that shines that she’s maybe not a dark edgy character is that fact that she looks very young she childish. And from that point forward the tripe breaking only grows.

The rule of three is thrown straight of the window from the start. Teams are groups of four, and honestly the only time we really see a group of five (ya know, a normal number from groups in stories) is with the Ace-Ops and they’re supposed to be foils to the hero’s.

Not to mention all the shit they pull with Lancers. I’m pretty convinced that all of the reincarnations were/are Lancers, hence why they can’t beat Salem because everyone knows that Lancers are usually the ones to fail so the hero looks better. Ozpin specifically is in the Mentor/Apprentice subcategory of Lancers, but as the mentor as opposed to the apprentice as it normally is. (Also him being both a lancer and a mentor means he 100% cannot defeat shit). Then there’s Oscar who is practically the definition of a chosen one hero, but is a lancer not a hero and that is something that will never not make in laugh. He’s also less of a fighter and tends to be more of a “put all the points into charisma” guy, definitely not a classic chosen one hero move.

Jaune takes that “I learned it from my Brothers” trope and flips that right on its head.

RWBY just says Fuck Tropes and I love it so so much.

[theoneandonlylittlebird]

Chapter Length Poll

Ok y’all!

Need opinions.

How long do you like your chapters to be as a reader? For me, 4-5k words is a great reading snack for an update, but how do other people feel?

I don’t purposefully write toward a chapter length, rather a write a scene at a time and then use *** in between to denote a new scene. The problem is that sometimes scenes are quite short. I’m about to start publishing this RushBelle, I’m serious!!! Really!! I’m working on it!, and I want to know what is convenient for your reading pleasure.

Please comment with your favorite chapter word count!

Thank you!

[rastl]

There's are two very powerful conventions that are prevalent fanfic and are not questioned by the readers.

Because I said so.

No need to try to explain anything. So it is said, so it is done.

And then they fucked.

Because a whole bunch of us are gleeful smut mongers without a milligram of shame

[listlessladylister]

List Of: Media Tropes and Conventions that I Personally Don’t Jive With

Styled/dyed hair being ‘surprisingly soft’. Please please please that character has a bleached perm with 2 cans of hairspray in it it’s not soft and it doesn’t have to be please let hair be dry and tangled and rough and sticky

Comically, supernaturally bad cooking skills. They followed the recipe and have all the correct ingredients but somehow the pancakes are sentient. This is cooking is difficult propaganda, and it’s exhausting to me. Obv, if it’s a first timer trying to make French pastries, it won’t turn out, but please please please stop treating cooking like an arcane art and inborn talent

They always smell like 2 different things and something ‘uniquely them’. I acknowledge that there is really no better way to describe people's natural scents, but it’s still getting repetitive, seeing the same phrasing every time.

POV character always notes how attractive the love interest is even before any feelings exist, but only do this for the love interest and no one else.

^^^ I know this is to establish that ‘instant connection’ between them and show the reader that these are the intended end game pairing. But I find it frustrating, because if you are the kind of person who comments and gets caught up in the appearance of strangers when you meet them, then they should theoretically do it for most attractive people they meet. That they only do it for the love interest could mean that the love interest is just That Attractive I guess??? But usually, they aren’t. There is very little media where the love interest is actually that markedly More Attractive than the rest of the cast. It would make sense that the POV character finds them to be more attractive than anyone else in the room AFTER they have feelings, because affection creates a bias and that makes sense. But when they have Only Just Met??? It does not make sense to me, I find it to be aggravating.

On that note ‘instant connections’ piss me off. I suppose they are kind of cute in a way, but I mostly find them to be contrived.

Comically dumb people being shown to work very hard or put a lot of effort into an intellectual venture only for it to fall flat because they are the ‘dumb character’ and therefore all that work is just played off for a gag. SpyXFam I’m looking at you.

Fat characters becoming skinny and getting a bunch of romantic attention because of it. It will never not be kinda gross and weird to me. This includes fat characters who for some reason have a sexy skinny version of themselves that they can pull out of their back pocket for some reason??

[so-what-then]

I need the style of writing where the writer tediously describes every minute detail of facial expression and emotion as if we're watching a goddamn movie to die already.

This is what happens when writers don't read enough. People craft narratives where nothing happens because there's no interiority just observation, like it's happening on a screen.

[chpearcewrites]

5yo and I are catching up on one of my favourite writing podcasts Going Prose and I'm in this season along with amazing writers, fans and other creatives @aciddropwriting @cztacks @whimsyandmetaphor Narelle M. Harris, Stephanie Wood Franklin, Alex Delamer, and Heather Anne Palmer talking about attending writing conventions! In particular as an introvert, as many of us are. Thank you "emotional support extrovert" Tacks, you are appreciated 🫡 ✨

A.D. Ellicott and C.Z. Tacks share advice, tips, and misadventures about writing, writing advice, and procrastinating on writing.