Mats

Just here for Osomatsu-san | multifandom | eng | 22

[she-who-fights-and-writes]

Tips On How to Write Characters with Wings (For both fanfic writers and original content writers)

So I’ve been reading a lot of fics lately where people are either

A) Putting wings onto canon characters

B) Making OCs with wings

So I decided that, with the influx of people who are writing winged characters (and therefore the influx of errors that come with writing winged characters), I’d make a little thing to help you slap a pair of wings onto anyone!

This is also a bit personal, too, because the MC in my upcoming novel has wings!

1. Know that there are a lot of types of wings to choose from

Part of being a writer is the desire to take something (whether it be a pre-existing work or an idea in your head) and make it into your own. So, instead of just going with the classic bird wings, why not spice it up a bit? If your character is an angel, you certainly don’t have to stick to the classic depictions of angel wings. Why not give them butterfly wings or dragonfly wings?

Here’s a small list of different types of wings to choose from:

Bat wings

Beetle wings

Bird wings

Butterfly/Moth wings

Dragonfly wings

Note that these wings are for animals who can fly. There are also animals who can “fly” that actually glide, such as sugar gliders and flying squirrels.

Yeah, so the options are pretty limited, but feel free to make up your own kinds of wings that aren’t necessarily based on a pre-existing creature’s wings!

2. Be familiar with the anatomy of your character’s wings and their limits

If your wings are completely unique, draw them out. A diagram or picture is key when it comes to things like description. I’m not gonna tell you what everything does and give you Animal Wing Anatomy 101, that’s for you to research. Know that there are different types of wings and that they have different uses, strengths, and weaknesses.

3. Never use the full extent of your research! 

Surprise, surprise!

“But wait, Maddy!” you cry, writing utensil in hand and poised to stab me. “I thought we were supposed to were supposed to show our research!”

Well, you are. Technically that’s not wrong. But, readers don’t want to know ALL of it. Over-described wings are sometimes worse than under-described wings; what sucks more than not knowing what a character’s wings look like is having to look up wing anatomy in the middle of the chapter!

Only use the most basic of vocabulary when it comes to describing the parts of the wing. Most of the time, you just have to say “bat wing” or “feathery wing” and the readers get the basic idea. (Like seriously, do you think the readers know what a dactylopatagium brevis is????? It’s a part of skin on a bat’s wing btw)

4. Don’t bring your character’s wings up only when they’re needed!!!!

Unless your character’s wings can fade away when they’re not needed, wings are a 100% real, 24/7 thing! It’s bothersome when writers mention the wings in one chapter and then only bring them up when there’s a daring escape that needs to be performed! Most of the time, I forget that the characters even have wings at all!

There is also the fact that wings aren’t all pros and no cons. If they’re functional, they’re probably big, and if they’re muscular, they’re probably bulky. If your character is clumsy, they’ll probably knock things over constantly, and if they’re not clumsy, they’ll still knock things over constantly.

Your wings are two (or four, or five, or six quintillion) extra appendages; they’re a part of your character! You don’t have to spend every second reminding the readers that they’re there, but don’t go long stretches of time without even mentioning them.

5. Your character’s wings can be a good way to indicate their mood or to provide for that little bit of description that you think you make be lacking

Why wouldn’t you want to describe the wings? I mean, you don’t want to describe every minute detail over and over again, but it’ll boost your word count a lot more than you think. They can also be used to convey your character’s feelings without explicitly telling the reader! It’s like a new set of facial expressions!

See? You can tell he’s wary and ready to fight from the movement of his wings! Also he’s crouching next to a dead body but that’s not relevant right now

Here’s a list of wing language (?) that you can incorporate into your story that will not only increase your word count, but will also add to the sustenance of your story!

Nervous

Twitch

Flutter

Ripple

Fold tightly

Fidget

Flap

Angry

Flare

Bristle

Fluff up

Ripple

Beat

Raise up

Snap open

Happy

Flutter

Curl up

Ripple

Wave

Flap

During Battle

Bludgeon

Smack

Bat

Clout

Whack

Kick someone’s legs out from under them

Snap someones neck (only for muscular wings like bat and bird wings)

Problems that may come with having wings

Poke out from under blankets and let all of the cold air in

Stepped on

Get pins and needles from being folded for too long

Squashed on chairs/ in beds/ in crowded hallways

Vulnerable in battle

Molting (for bird wings)

Hope this helped!!!

[pinktrouble]

[soaked-doors]

old man yaoi posting

[ngmatsu]

what's up with the denki stuff in the recent youkaimatsu house attraction? I mean, the youkaimatsu in general, but

(oh my god ive been so distracted from my matsu timeline, i didn’t even notice they put out a new set of stories!!! omg.)

i just read through this and i can type up a summary again! theres actually quite a lot of denki references, and a few other references, some of which i don’t really get. it seems to happen around the time of the last yokai event, from november 2016. [i’m not sure when specifically, though - in that event the matsus are possessed by yokai, but at the end they cast them out. that’s what’s visually represented in the attraction sprite, where their house is covered in seals and karamatsu’s ao-andon blue glow is glowing from inside. that said, at the end of the original yokai event, they say there are still yokai around at the end, so maybe they came back and repossessed the matsus?!? or did this happen in the middle? i dont know.]

tl;dr in these stories, the yokai-possessed matsus travel to a bunch of places and seem to experience time-travel-weirdness, and at one point they directly fly over Akatsuka Village and try to save the denkimatsus while they’re being sacrified. ALSO, some of the little object yokai (tsukumogami) show up in the regular town, including the best one, kankan (ozo’s animate coffee can...)

LONG DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW YOKAIMATSU ATTRACTION STORIES:

STORY 1:

-totoko wanders around with a huge katana, through the yokai-overrun version of Akatsuka District [from the 2016 yokai event], seemingly in a daze, singing “matsuno wa itsumo no basho...” [this is the song that appears in denki, that is apparently magical and used to ward off spirits] she slices at unseen entities [probably yokai] with her katana

- “a few days previous”, in a normal-looking Akatsuka District, totoko’s parents are concerned that she’s sleeping a lot, and wonder why she’s so tired.

-that night iyami is walking down a dark street in a business suit, commenting that the sun went down surprisingly fast. he feels eyes on him... totoko appears, seemingly in a daze, and says “someone is calling”. then an unknown sketchy entity gifts totoko a katana, that is said to cut spirits(ayakashi). iyami sees that there are tsukumogami (the little object yokai) around her and pisses himself in terror. narration says that strange entities/yokai have started appearing in Akatsuka District, and it is said a hunter appeared to hunt them down.

STORY 2:

-back at the matsuno house, the parents are terrorized by the sextuplets, who yokai-possessed, dancing around in their room. totoko shows up at the front door mid-battle and asks the parents if the matsus are home; they say yes they're upstairs, and she runs up... but then leaves, screaming "where did you go you neets?!" - clearly the matsus ran away.

-cut to the yokai matsus flying away, marveling at how fast they can soar, away from the town... to a mountain region, where they see a festival, and humans tied up, seemingly for sacrifice. they want to save the humans - kara shines a bright light but it does nothing; choro flaps his wings, then it rains rocks and dark clouds form, raining on the fire below. they flee when a helicopter shows up. 

-they flee to a place (forest?) that's full of sakura petals and smells like flowers - their appearance seems to suck up the pink of the flowers (the sakura!yokai sprites). they make merry, totty dances, oso drinks, but then suddenly it gets dark again and the flowers disappear. jyushi sees a sunglasses-wearing-man in a nearby park, runs over to talk to him - the man seems to be working on design drawings, and says that jyushi’s cool yokai appearance inspires him. [note: this is coachmatsu, specifically the version who appears in the yakuza au (gokuroumatsu), who designed the yakuza!matsus’s yokai tattoos! this is such a cool reference...]

-moving on, they remark that the seasons seem weird, since right now it’s autumn in Akatsuka District, but then they saw a summery mountain and a springy flowery forest. suddenly they’re in a snowy landscape - it's cold and they seek shelter in a temple, that someone seems to have opened for them. oso starts to get more yokai-y, enraged that they left their beer at home. jyushi says they should probably go home soon. then he seems to pause - "something's burning. the autumn mountain. the base of the mountain..." ichi tells jyushi to go home. [note: i’m not sure what the temple and the “autumn mountain” are. potentially referencing the superpowered samurai event [which has a temple], or some people were saying cyberpunk? (i still havent read that one.)]

STORY 3:

the next morning, back at the matsuno house the sextuplets are fast asleep; matsuyo pulls at their horns and tails but they won't come off. her and matsuzo talk about how theres been a big disaster throughout town with people becoming yokai-possessed, and theyre miserable abt having kids who are neets AND now yokai. dayon shows up at their door (dressed as a shrine maiden) advertising Mr. Flag's exorcism business. they take a leaflet.

later on, kara is "working" [as an ao-andon] while keeping a wary distance from totoko, who's still swinging her sword around. he goes to a dark warehouse somewhere, where two figures are telling ghost stories and blowing out candles. he excitedly waits after the 99th one (dokidoki) but they deliberately don’t say the 100th story, creating a “seal”. karamatsu sadly goes back to akatsuka district - where all the matsus are now being attacked by totoko. their parents look on semi-approvingly (hopeful this will cure their sons.) exorcist!hatabou says he wants to buy her katana. THE END

[miloheilo]

Same man I was before

[wolfythewitch]

Shermie!

[tomcruisingthroughlife]

[eisenkrahe]

God help me. I cannot stop laughing.

[itsbrig]

I have deep love for the cat.

[babyanimalgifs]

Little fish eats his foods 

(Source)

[bunigojade]

[aflo]

this is so sad he doesn’t even know there’s a double barreled shotgun pointed at him

[kitsnicket]

[daftpatience]

i dont know why cream cheese makes such faces

[teathattast]

[xnyasux]

[teathattast]

Sure I'll reblog that

[zenryokubatankyu]

soba cats and more gacha draws

[lemoneto]

[zenryokubatankyu]

yeah h

[zenryokubatankyu]

oh fuck! it’s the vampeets!!

[zenryokubatankyu]

part of vampeets au origin story

takes place after kara’s