If you're struggling to figure out what flaws to give your characters, or what even make something a character flaw, think of it like this:
A character flaw is any trait that hinders the character in some meaningful way.
Take, for instance, being clumsy.
Some writers might include that trait as their protagonist's flaw, but then that flaw gets treated more like it's endearing then an actual problem.
It might get justified by the fact that their love interest finds it endearing, which is fair, but that doesn't change the fact that it's not really a flaw. Not if it actually gets them what they want: the attention of their love interest. At that point, it's not a flaw, but an asset.
If you're looking to add flaws to your character, look for traits that actively make their life worse.
To make 'clumsy' a flaw, it has to create problems for the character, and possibly for others as well.
Their clumsiness could lead to them breaking things a lot, forcing them to have to replace a bunch of stuff all the time, which they might not be able to afford.
It could also lead to them getting injured, which leaves them in pain most of the time.
I'm not saying you can't have clumsy characters and have it be an endearing trait. What I am saying is that if you're treating flaws as if they're a good thing, then you've misunderstood what a 'flaw' is.
Flaws are not supposed to be secretly a good all along if you just looked at it from a different point of view.
They're supposed to be problematic, and something your characters want to correct to improve their quality of life.
The reason your fantasy pantheon doesn't feel authentic is because you're starting from the wrong end. Real-world polytheism is syncretic – just deities from neighbouring cultures getting smashed together at high speed and leaving it for nerds with too much time on their hands to figure out how it makes sense. You are yourself a nerd with too much time on your hands. Don't start out asking yourself what domains make sense together. Pick domains at random and work backwards to invent a theology and metaphysics whereby of course the god of war is also the god of baked goods. What kind of silly question is that?
The writer pipeline is: (1) i have an idea (2) i am the only person who has ever had this idea (3) i google the idea (4) seventeen people have already written this idea (5) mine is different though (6) is mine different though (7) mine is different because of the FEELING (8) i cannot explain the feeling (9) i write it anyway (10) it comes out completely different from the idea (11) the new thing is better (12) i have a new idea. we begin again. this is the whole job.
I'm watching a video of a therapist playing Fran Bow, and he made a good point about how to work through anxiety.
In the video, he was talking about the ineffectiveness of approaching anxiety with logic. That one of his clients had pretty bad social anxiety, and that the 'Dr. Deern approach' – referring to the therapist character in the game – would be to use logic to talk through the anxiety. That 'no one is watching you', or that 'no one is paying attention to you'.
It's a sentiment that I have been grappling with for years now with my own anxiety.
The truth is, anxiety is not the absence of logic. They are completely seperate psychologcial traits that can, and do coexist with each other, making the whole situation worse.
Logic has never been able to help calm down my anxieties because my body is still responding to a precieved threat as if it were real. And sometimes it was real, which made it even harder to validate my logic side because I knew there was a chance for things to go really bad.
In that video, he was talking about two related concepts called 'Specific Resistance Resources' (SRR), and 'General Resistance Resources' (GRR).
The basic idea that I took away from it is that SRRs are these survival traits that you naturally rely on to get you through difficult situations. Using Fran Bow as an example, he highlighted that when things got scary, she would turn inwards and remind herself of what she needed to do. And at the start of the game, what she needed to do was get out of the asylum and find her cat, Mr. Midnight.
That trait of Fran's helped to keep her grounded during the horrors of what she was going through.
On the flip side, you have GRR, which is taking those traits that you use in specific situations, and applying it on a more general spectrum. To utilize those strengths in your every day life, not just in the specific situations of difficult, if not traumatizing situations.
What I really liked about this whole segment in the video was the mention of social anxiety (something I struggle with a lot) and how logic doesn't really help to calm down the anxieties.
By talking about SRR like this, it helped me to realize that rather then try to 'reason' with my anxieties – as I've tried many times to do with very little success – what I really should be doing is highlighting the resources I already have that can help me get through anxiety inducing scenarios.
important reminder that most people you follow online are significantly lamer than you think they are including me. and if you feel insecure comparing yourself to someone online: DON'T. theyre probably also lame and weird. most people on the internet are
Knowing that Hell has acid rains, imagine if they get acid floods as well.
They get so much acid rains that it floods the streets, eating away at the structural integrity of the buildings until they collapse into the waters, bringing with them anyone who was inside the buildings at the time.
Appleradio + 'Healing Kiss' Trope + Lucifer being an idiot.
Lucifer and Alastor stood in the kitchen after many hours of arguing and negotiations.
It was discovered that Alastor had been hiding his injury from Adam for months, and has been quietly dying this whole time, all because he was too stubborn to ask for help.
At that point, Lucifer had to make a stand to keep him from wasting away because of his dumb pride.
And, yes, Lucifer is aware of the irony (and probable hypocrisy) for the Sin of Pride to judge someone else for their ego. But this isn't about him. This is about Alastor being too stupid to realize a wound by an angel won't heal on its own, and letting himself permanently expire rather than ask for his help.
So, here they were, with Alastor holding his shirt open so Lucifer can examine his injury.
There's only one problem.
Lucifer can't remember how to heal for shit.
“Enjoying the view, Your Majesty?” Alastor asks in a terse tone, getting more uncomfortable the longer this dragged on.
“Shut up, I'm thinking!”
“My, my, don't strain yourself.”
“I'm ignoring you.”
“Clearly you're not.”
“Shut up!”
This is why Lucifer doesn't make deals with sinners. Even when he's trying to help them, they antagonize him.
Whatever. He's here. He made a deal. Might as well get this over with.
… Which is easier said than done when he can't remember the basic principles of healing magic.
Look, it's been awhile, okay. Demonic magic doesn't exactly have a strong basis for something as benevolent as healing, and what little spellwork there is to use Lucifer didn't usually need to bother with it.
It's not like he has many opportunities to heal demons anyway. The majority of the demons he cares about are immortal, highly durable, and has vast amounts of power at their disposal to heal themselves. Not to mention if he did want to heal a sinner – which he usually doesn't – there's usually no reason for it. They can heal pretty much anything if given enough time, making any healing spell redundant.
That's all well and good, but it does leave Lucifer in a bit of a predicament.
He can't exactly walk away now that he's made a deal. If he tried, he'll never hear the end of it from Alastor.
Maybe he's going about this wrong. Maybe he doesn't need a particular spell, but… something else?
Is there something else?
He feels like there was something he's done in the past to heal others that didn't technically require magic to preform.
And that technicality has to do with the fact that Lucifer himself is made of infinte power of life itself, and was directly connected to the core of Creation. Which means he technically doesn't need to cast a spell like everyone else has to. Magic is essentially a function of his being. No different than breathing is for mortals.
“With such an intense look in your eyes,” Alastor said, interrupting Lucifer's train of thought, “I'm starting to believe you might actually blow a blood vessel thinking too hard, Your Majesty.”
Lucifer wanted to throttle him. “Can you not be infuriating for once?”
“You'll have to forgive me, Sire, I merely thought that when you offered to heal me—” the air quotes were unnecessary “—that it meant you knew what you were doing.”
“I do know what I'm doing,” Lucifer defended himself. “It's just been awhile, okay!”
“Oh, is that all? Well, by all means, take your time. I'll just be standing here slowly bleeding out while you take a refresher course on healing.”
Lucifer was this close to losing his patience. “You really can't help being obnoxious, can you?”
“Says the Devil with God-like powers—” again, the air quotes were unnecessary “—who, apparently, doesn't know the first thing about healing.”
“Oh ho, says the sinner who was dumb enough to leave this,” he gestured to Alastor's infected wound, “to fester for months.”
Alastor's eye twitched in irritation, and it was the most satisfying thing Lucifer has seen in years.
“Well, Sire, considering the lackluster pace you're going at, you might find better success in healing me by kissing my wound better than standing there and staring like an imbecile.”
“'Kiss your wound better'—” A light bulb went off in Lucifer's head. “That's it!” H suddenly remembered a way to heal that doesn't involve magic.
“Wait, what?”
Lucifer suddenly grabbed Alastor's arms in a firm grip, staring intently at his chest…
“Wait, what are you doing?!”
…And dragged his tongue across Alastor's wound, coating it in healing properties of his saliva.
It was gross. Alastor's chest fur stuck to his tongue, making it itchy and uncomfortable. Not to mention the taste of holy infection mixed with demon blood. Yuck!
Lucifer pulled away first, letting go of Alastor to scrub furiously at his tongue to get the icky taste off his tongue. All the while ignoring the deafening screech of radio feedback suddenly blasted into his ears.
Alastor scrambled away as soon as Lucifer let go of his death grip on him, almost too lost for words to process what just happened. Not once during this whole exchange had he expected Lucifer to do that.
Than again, when has Alastor ever been able to predict the Devil?
Wiping at his chest, trying to get rid of that sensation, Alastor made a horrific discovery.
It worked.
Licking his wound (Alastor feels gross even thinking about it) actually worked to heal his wound. Not only is the pain gone along with the infection, but the wound itself is gone, . There wasn't even a scar left behind to suggest he was ever injured.
Alastor continued to stare down at his chest, poking at where the wound used to be, unable to fully comprehend what he was seeing.
Sure, he was a sinner, so the act of a fully healed wound wasn't itself a bizarre concept.
It was the fact that an injury his healing factor couldn't even heal was now gone in an instant that had him weirded out. Months of constant pain and ineffective medication was just resolved in the matter of seconds.
Because of the Devil's tongue…
Ulgh.
Sometimes Alastor forgets he's in Hell, and than stuff like this happens that reminds him he's destined to suffer for all of eternity.
He just didn't think his damnation would be to suffer the presence of an ancient being without a braincell to his name.
Alastor sent a withered glare over his shoulder where Lucifer was swishing water in his mouth, and spitting it out in the kitchen sink, complaining about the taste of sinner blood.
As much as Alastor wants to complain about Lucifer's bizarre methodology, he was feeling a sense of reluctant gratitude. This has been the first time since the battle with the exorcists that he hasn't been in pain, and the euphoria from that is starting to make him feel oddly appreciative of the Devil's intervention.
Alastor buttoned up his shirt in quick order, smoothing out his clothing to make himself presentable once again.
Holding his shirt open while Lucifer examined his wound left him feeling more exposed than anything else he's been through in his long afterlife. His skin was still crawling at the oddly studious and focused attention Lucifer gave his wound. To the point where Alastor wondered if Lucifer was actually seeing through him somehow.
Doubtful. If there's one thing to know about His Majesty, it's that the foolish king hadn't a thought to spare in that pretty head of his.
Alastor was willing to bet Lucifer just spaced out and forgot what he was meant to do.
Either way, their deal has concluded, and his wound was healed. As far as Alastor was concerned there was no reason for him to remain here with His Royal Idiocy.
So, bidding Lucifer a goodbye and a modest expression of thanks – he wasn't about to insult his maman's memory by forgetting his manners – Alastor let his shadow spirit him away, giving Lucifer no chance to respond.
The sooner he forgets this whole transaction, the better.
How would you recommend advertising or presenting fanfiction from other sites (LJ, FFN, and especially AO3) on Tumblr? I'm afraid I have no idea how to approach it, especially when it comes to describing, summarizing, or tagging it in a way that is more appealing to this platform.
Here it is, my definitive list of how to promo. This is what I’ve always done on Tumblr and it’s worked out pretty well for me.
1) Head it up with a graphic banner of some kind.
If you’re not arty, ask a friend to make you one and then keep it consistent for that fic. It’s like a logo. You want to be recognized for it. It doesn’t have to be super fancy, just something with a bit of the flavor of your fic. It can even be a small mood board.
This isn’t strictly required, but I see way more reblogs with bannered promos than non-bannered.
2) Add a well-written summary of your fic.
If you need help writing the summary, ask a writing friend for help. They’re likely to be more objective than you are and can probably boil it down more easily. However, I highly advise learning the skill of writing interesting summaries. It will get you far more readers on whatever platform you use. It’s what convinces people to invest their time in your work.
I suggest boiling it down to one para of three to five sentences. If it’s longer than that, it’s probably too long. Readers don’t need to know everything, just the relevant plot and/or trope info.
3) Next, a snippet of your fic.
Just enough to get people interested, maybe two or three hundred words. You can do it from the very start of the fic for each promo if the beginning is super exciting, or you can give them a little bit from each chapter as you post updates. Choose carefully. Leave it with a hook to make readers want to click over to AO3 to read the rest.
4) Advertise your updates.
Post new promos for each update you do. Start out with saying you’ve updated and maybe the number of chapters if it’s quite a few, then put your summary and the snippet after that. People like reading a fic with more/regular updates—a lot.
5) Ask people to reblog the promo.
Put it right on there so there’s no confusion about it.
6) Tag your Tumblr promos with fandom-appropriate tags.
That’s right. Don’t just tag it as fanfic, tag it with your fandom and the major character names in your fic. Tag it with big ships and/or major brotps in your fic. Get it in front of the eyes of people looking for fic in your specific fandom. Get it in those ship tags or general fandom tags. Also tag it with your URL or a writing-only tag so people can find more of your work on your blog.
Here’s an example of how I would tag a Stony smut fic by me: #stony #stony smut #steve rogers #tony stark #avengers fic #newly updated #mod m writes #hurt/comfort #angst with a happy ending
Get those higher ranking tags at the beginning and any sort of commentary or general descriptions of the fic at the end since that’s not going to get ranked by Tumblr and is only to help decide whoever’s looking at your post if they’d like to read the fic.
If you’re in a smaller fandom, just tag the fandom name also. #marvel isn’t going to get you much, but if you’re part of a smaller fandom, tagging that fandom will get you in front of more eyes.
7) Don’t forget to link back to AO3 so they can continue reading.
Or whatever platform you’re using, LJ, FF, etc.
8) Other little things that can make a big difference:
Do writer’s asks and/or fic prompts if you can to generate interest in your writing/fandom blog. If you do prompts, always link back to your work on AO3 or other platforms you’re using so people can read more and kudos/comment on your work.
Post even Tumblr prompts on your AO3 account as well and link back so people can kudos or comment. Always link to everything. Put your Tumblr URL in your author’s notes so people can follow you here from AO3.
Network with other writers in your fandom.
Network with BNF in your fandom. Ask them to reblog your fic promos or prompts if you’re on friendly terms with them.
See if your fandom has a fic-rec blog. Ask to be on it.
Participate in challenges and exchanges in your fandom. It’s a great way to network with other writers.
Followers, any other suggestions for how to promo your writing?
Headcanon that when Alastor was trying to make a deal with a demon, not only was he trying to contact the Devil, but Lucifer actually heard his call, and just couldn't be bothered to answer it.
Years later, they're now dating, and Lucifer happily tells anyone who will listen about the time Alastor tried to summon him like it's a cute anecdote. Purely just to tease him.
It works.
Alastor gets embarrassed every time he tells the story.
Word of advice for any writer with some strong perfectionistic tendencies: prioritize function over perfection.
Is this line of narration or dialogue functional? If yes, than keep moving on with the rest of the story rather than getting fixated on it to make it 'perfect'.
It's okay to stop at 'good enough'.
I've been getting tripped up on my current wip because the scope of the story got out of hand, and my skills as a writer were not up to the task. It's left me pretty demoralized with it, and as I'm going over what I've written so far, I'm finding all these little things about it that aren't quite 'right', but they're also not really 'wrong' either.
The only real problem with them is that they're not 'perfect', and it's leaving me on edge to ignore them.
But it's also for the better that I ignore them because getting fixated on those details – that are still functional – is a big reason why this chapter has yet to come together.
I get stuck on these details, refuse to move past them, and than the rest of the chapter never gets developed. Which is why I've been encouraging myself to accept that some lines just won't fit 'The Standard™', and that's okay. One or two subpar lines doesn't define me as a writer. It's my ability to craft interesting stories that I enjoy that makes me a writer. And the fact that I keep beating myself up over every little perceived mistake means I haven't been a very good writer.
I love stories, I love worldbuilding, and I love psychoanalyzing characters, so it sucks that I've been making writing so painful for myself that I can't even enjoy it.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that tip to both remind myself to take it easy, and to help any other writer who might be struggling with the same problem.
I kind of feel like resurrection is a bit too easy in Cult of the Lamb.
The fact you can resurrect pretty much anyone who has died outside of a rare few instances pretty much makes burying your followers unnecessary, and even bothersome since it takes up space in your cult.
And on top of that, chopping up dead followers provides some good resources that I'd rather have than burying the dead, which means I never build graves or crypts.
I always forget how morbid this game actually is until I start talking about it lol
What I'd think would mitigate this issue is if resurrection can only happen if you bury your dead followers. That way you'd have to consider what to do: butcher the dead for the resources, or bury them so you have a chance to resurrect them again.
As a writer with some pretty nasty perfectionism tendencies, something I've been doing to 'rewire' the way I think is to focus on comprehension first.
Every time I go over my writing to edit it, I always see ways things can 'be better'. Different minute ways to express the same thing, thinking that this new wording is perfect, only to revisit again the next day and still think it's not good enough.
It's emotionally draining, and leaves me so exhausted just thinking about editing that I end up putting it off for days, weeks, months, even years.
But I'm never going to get better at editing if I don't push through it, so what I've been doing to work through these mental obstacles is to prioritize comprehension over perfectionism.
I ask myself, 'does this get the point across'?
If yes, than I really don't need to do anything. It's already good enough.
Perfectionism is a trap, not a destination. You'll never 'arrive' at it with a finished project you'll be 100% happy with because it's 'perfect'.
If anything, you'll arrive at a place of frustration as this thing you've worked on for so long still doesn't live up to your expectations and standards, leaving you questioning why you bothered in the first place.
Just write the story.
Write it because the idea made you laugh, or got your excited, or helped you in some way to process your emotions.
Write the story because you had an idea you wanted to develop, or characters you wanted to do a deep dive psychoanalysis of.
Have fun with it.
Improve your writing in small ways with each story you write.
One of the best things about creativity is that it is never ending. There are always more ideas to explore, and even if your current wip isn't as great as you'd hope it would be, you're still improving little by list, and the next story is going to be that much better because you've been writing.
