Writer? I Hardly Know Her!

Writing stuff, Mediocre poetry, and flash fiction

[luna-azzurra]

Something neuroscience-y that helps with prose: attention is selective. A character will not notice everything in a room. They will notice what matters to their goal, fear, desire, training, wound, or obsession. A jealous character notices hands. a hungry character notices food. A soldier notices exits. A lonely character notices pairs. Description becomes character when attention has a bias.

[goatedgreen]

i hate that when you try and look up shit for writing purposes it starts linking suicide hotlines and addiction advice articles like bro i just wanna know the information im not killing myself i promise. now tell me what i wanna know

[valtsv]

basically the best thing any character can do is decide they don't want to be afraid anymore - in fact they never want to be afraid of anything ever again - and take action so drastic they fail to realise that this too is a decision motivated by fear. or to account for the Consequences of that.

[valtsv]

[with obvious perverted intent] hey. don't you want to release the safety catches on that character. don't you want to flip off all the switches holding them back and let the control rods go.

[viaalterego]

[trishacollins]

Actually, my therapist has told me this is a healthy way of processing things. Because you can get the trauma out of your head And you can write the ending you wish it had. The trusted person rescue, the catharsis of getting to kill the one who hurt you.

It's good for your brain. It's healthier than bottling it up. Fiction is where we go for emotional release. That can be true with trauma too.

[erelierraceala]

so what you're saying is

character: NO

therapist: YES

[vmures]

Adding @dear-massacre's tags because they are so true:

#this is why it's important to remember that fictional characters are fake #they have no agency. they're made up #it hurts no one to make any character go through the horrors #it is healthy and cathartic

[xenosaurus]

comedy concept: “the hangover” with werewolves, a whole pack breaks out of the bunker they use for the full moon and are now lost throughout the city the morning after

[xenosaurus]

the pov character is the pack’s youngest member, whose wolf form spent most of last night chewing through drywall to get into his boyfriend’s dorm room. he’s the only one who has any idea where the fuck he is.

[xenosaurus]

ideas for situations they find the others in:

woke up in a subway tunnel with dozens of stolen puppies because her wolf form said “it’s free baby”

somehow got into the zoo and was adopted by ACTUAL wolves, who are perfectly happy to keep him now that he’s on two legs

picked up by animal control, she’s currently naked in their ceiling

[xenosaurus]

[tag from @aurora-bore-aura reading #is the boyfriend aware??? or is it just the shining scene]

Oh it’s 100% the shining. Hell of a way to find out that a, werewolves are real, b, your boyfriend is a werewolf, and c, your roommate could LITERALLY sleep through an animal attack (though admittedly an affectionate one)

[washingtoncapitalsbara]

@ryangravytrain

[mikkeneko]

PSA to fan creators who don't have a lot of regular contact with children: They are almost always bigger than you think. A 1-year-old baby may already be walking. A toddler is likely already hip-high. A 10-year-old may already be taller than at least one of their parents. A 14/15 year old may already have reached their adult height.

[amarguerite]

Via @watertightvines

[wildjuniperjones]

Here's the link. It was actually not immediately easy to find, so I thought this might help.

[writersvaguelybrickshapedrock]

Impermanence

My God, how the days grew few.

I miss you today, I'll miss you still tonight.

There was so much we wanted to do.

My God, how the days grew few.

You had to go one day. I knew.

But I wanted us to last, alright?

My God, how the days grew few.

I miss you today. I'll miss you still tonight.

[of-the-stars-and-the-sea]

Revenge.

What were you thinking?

Everything you did, everything we built. All gone in a second. Didn't you realize that by burning down everything you had, you left nothing for me? Or did your fear spur on your haste so much that you couldn't spare even a thought for me?

Maybe you just wanted me to burn in the flames too. It wouldn't be the first time.

Because you're a coward. You're a coward that couldn't even look me in the eye as you tore my life apart. That's your mistake, my friend. You're too afraid to look back at the wreckage you made to realize you left behind scraps.

And those scraps have a grudge. 

What? Did you really think you could get away with destroying so much without losing a single thing yourself? Do you believe yourself deserving of such a thing?

Well, if you really wanted to get out of everything scot-free, you should've finished the job. 

Because now, there is someone left behind who knows what you've done. Someone that, because of you, has nothing to lose.

When I find you, I am going to destroy you. There will be nothing left for you, either. And I will make you watch. I will make you watch and you will look me in my eyes as the life leaves yours. 

I've been told that revenge will only make me feel empty.

I tell them that I will welcome that, when it comes. Because if I'm empty, that will only leave me with more room to fill with something that's better than you. 

You better start running. I know you're good at that. 

[of-the-stars-and-the-sea]

The Universe.

I'm done with this.

You hear me?

I am done.

No more false hopes, no more next times, no more prayers to the universe that will only go unanswered. I am not going to beg, or plead, or get on my knees when I know that there is no one listening and nothing to be given.

I can't do it anymore. I won't do it anymore because my knees are already wine-stained and weeping and my eyes have been trained to be more comfortable closed than open. I refuse to continue like this. Even if I am crawling and squinting my eyes against the light, I refuse to stay here any longer.

I will become something bigger and better than this whole place. I will be so much more than the goodness that I was forced to earn through a worship that preached of selfless love but only offered it conditionally. I'll create something that I can look at proudly instead of blinding myself from it for the sake of faith.

…

Are you listening to me? Or are you shutting your ears and closing your eyes so you can plead innocence like always?

…

I hate myself for it, but some sick, twisted part of me can't help but hope that you'll miss me. That the loss of my presence will rip some hole in you wide enough to require stitches. That it will leave you dizzy from all the blood that leaks from it.

At least then I'll have meant something. Maybe you'll even be forced to admit that I was worth something to you.

It's childish, I know. You always tell me that I act like someone half my age, with all my questions, and backtalk, and each every other part of me that you deem unworthy of respect. Hell, I could fuck the minister and you'd say it came from a place of immaturity.

Funny then, that I'm the one doing the thing that you never did, with all you're "elderly esteem".

I'm leaving this nest. I'm going to fly so far that no one could even think to have a connection to me, or you, or anyone else in this foresaken place.

...

I'd say don't come looking for me, but you'd need your eyes for that. And I think we've already established that they're glued shut.

[writing-prompt-s]

You were a god of textiles; respected, but generally considered a minor deity. But everything changed when mortals started regularly describing spacetime and reality as a 'fabric'.

[fuck-philip-banks]

i'm gonna suck the god of technicalities' dick so hard tonight

[hail-the-villainess]

There are many fun reasons to have a character avoid using guns, but I think "this otherwise-awesome fighter is a really terrible shot" is an underappreciated one. Yes, they're available in my setting and would work against my enemies. No, I don't have a moral code against them or a power that makes them redundant. I just can't aim for shit!

[hail-the-villainess]

In general IMO the more badass and hypercompetent a character is, the more they're enriched by having one skill they're just absolutely hopeless at. Terrible shot, terrible liar, terrible dancer, no poker face, no sense of direction, can't drive, can't swim, can't cook, can't read, always broke, always late, always falls for a certain trick...

[quietwingsinthesky]

the Relationship Ambiguity Zone™️ is a beautiful place to be. safe place to put your characters. put all characters into Relationship Ambiguity Zone. is that guy your mentor or your dad? Ambiguous!!! are you friends or enemies? Ambiguous!!! is it romantic? is it platonic? is it sexual? Ambiguous!!!!!!! never categorize anything ever in the Relationship Ambiguity Zone. just make them fucking weird about each other.

[valtsv]

i refused to stay buried because i love you why are you running

[valtsv]

babe it's me i'm just covered in dirt and blood because i had to claw my way up into the light and crawl on my hands and knees back home to you stop screaming

[otherwindow]

i like it when fantasy settings make the necromancer class or party member kind, and the dead are eager to help out because they're nice :)

[great-gatsby]

every reread kills me a little bit more

[great-gatsby]

reread and enjoy <3

[prokopetz]

Visual novel/RPG hybrid with lots and lots of non-standard game overs whose gimmick is that continuing from the same save file after getting a game over causes the player character to permanently acquire a new, typically troublesome trait reflecting the remembered trauma. The game autosaves, naturally, so this can't be fixed without save file manipulation. The RPG side of play is fairly straightforward if you never lose, but as bad endings accumulate (and some of them are functionally impossible to avoid without prior knowledge), it gradually develops into a disguised puzzle game where the challenge is finding a solution to the problem at hand that doesn't bump into any action or circumstance your accumulated trauma forbids.

Now, the real trick is that the final boss has a psychic attack that's seemingly impossible to survive and triggers a bad ending you don't come back from. An astute player may, however, notice that the mind-warping visions induced by this attack always correspond to a type of trauma associated with a bad ending which has not been received in the current playthrough. The only way to get the "good" ending is to ensure that every possible bad ending, even the seemingly mutually exclusive ones, has been experienced on the current save file. If you manage to satisfy this condition, the protagonist just goes "wait, that's it?" and totally no-sells the psychic attack because it can't find anything to inflict on them that hasn't been done already.

[li-ion-battery]

waiter! waiter! more characters grieving something they can't even remember please!