enchanted001

[enchanted001]

Your character is driven by 3 emotional motives. See? I even made a graphic.

(I’m proud of the graphic, too.)

Mood: The immediate (and temporary) emotions of your character. A feeling of joy after kissing the girl they like; frustration after a busy day working a summer job at the fair; despair after somebody eats the last Oreo.

Situation: The plot and relationship contexts of your character. The apprehension they feel with a friend in the weeks following a nasty fight; the nerves felt in the week leading up to their big championship game; the frustration and boredom of being grounded after crashing the family car into the county creek.

Struggle: The core, deepfelt pain of your character, which often emerges from their background. The fear of failure from overly demanding parents; a deep longing for a family they never knew; a desperate need to be accepted after spending years as an outcast.

How these 3 motives influence your character

The above emotional motives all play an important role in driving your character’s actions, muddying or even overriding their more logical intentions — just as it happens to the rest of us. (We’re all human, after all.)

That being said, while your character’s mood and situation will shift throughout the story, their struggle will remain constant: their true north, emotionally speaking. This struggle will always be at the root of their actions, even as you swap in new situations and moods.

Take Bethany as an example

Let’s say your character’s name is Bethany, and her struggle is this: a deep fear of failure, stemming from her parents’ impossible academic expectations, which conflicts with her own desire to finally experience the life she sees passing her by.

Her actions, while primarily driven by that struggle, are going to vary quite a bit depending on her situation and mood. For example, if it’s the night before a big test, she might blow off a friend’s invitation to a party so she can study.

But if the party is a week before the big test, and she finds a handwritten invitation in her notebook from Emma (the girl on the lacrosse team she has a crush on), Bethany might act differently. Maybe she feels a lightness and warmth in her cheeks as she reads Emma’s note. Maybe she puts those textbooks away, and maybe, just maybe, she sneaks out the window and goes to the party.

But if Bethany finds the note after her parents just chewed her out for being ungrateful and not studying hard enough? Maybe Bethany doesn’t go to the party. Instead, maybe she reads Emma’s note, trembles, then rips it in two, knowing she can’t disappoint her parents like that. Then she spends the rest of the evening studying. Alone.

Mood. Situation. Struggle.

All three kinds of emotional motives are important. Your character’s struggle is the anchor, but their mood and situation are the ever-shifting masks you use to express their struggle in fresh ways. 

And by the end of the story, hopefully your character will overcome their struggle — putting away the textbooks, sneaking out the window, and meeting their crush at a party. Maybe even having their first kiss.

Whatever the character, and whatever their struggle, I’m sure you’ll do great. 

So good luck! And good writing.

— — —

Your stories are worth telling. For tips on how to craft meaning, build character-driven plots, and grow as a writer, follow my blog.

[enchanted001]

[enchanted001]

me playing with a cat: hee hee toy on a string

the cat: what the fucks it gonna take for this bird to die

[enchanted001]

adhd culture is writing fast but having your mind go even faster so you accidentally a few words

[enchanted001]

My friend insists Jodie Whittaker is the Fifteenth Doctor, but everything I see on Tumblr refers to her as the Thirteenth. Can you explain this to me?

okay these are all the doctors in chronological order in the current canon

everything was normal until John Hurt, who was a secret incarnation of The Doctor introduced retroactively in 2013

this incarnation didn’t call himself The Doctor during his life, because he didn’t feel like he lived up to the title

so despite Christopher Eccleston being the 10th incarnation of the Doctor, he was still referred to as The 9th Doctor

THEN

during one of David Tennant’s episodes, he gets shot by a dalek for the first time ever and is forced to regenerate, but decides not to change his face by siphoning the regeneration energy into his own disembodied hand which is a fucking long story

the short of it is that David Tennant regenerated into himself

so

David Tennant, known as the 10th Doctor, was actually the 11th and 12th incarnations of The Doctor, but was still known as the 10th Doctor for his whole tenure

so now we’re on Jodie Whittaker right

who

is known as the 13th doctor, because John Hurt wasn’t called The Doctor and David Tennant was still called the 10th Doctor even when he was the 11th and 12th

but technically she is the 15th incarnation of The Doctor and could just as easily be called the 15th Doctor

PUT SIMPLY,,,,,,,,,,,,

Jodie Whittaker plays the 15th incarnation of The Doctor, who has the 14th unique face of The Doctor, but is called the 13th Doctor because John Hurt and the David Tennant Two: The Re-Tennanting don’t count in the number order

i know it’s silly

but you’re both right

[enchanted001]

The power of the one-liner

Alrighty, listen up. It’s a well-established fact that my favorite kind of scene to write are actions scenes, but a very, very close second is angst scenes. I’ve noticed during my time writing these that there’s one thing I do that always packs a punch. 

You take one of the heaviest lines – the line where the character finally dies, the line where an illness is diagnosed, a trauma revealed – and make it its own paragraph. Just that one line, by itself. 

Why? 

Because it’s the literary equivalent of the sinking stone in your stomach when you receive bad news. The pause, or ‘beat’ as they’re sometimes called, adds gravity to the situation. 

Consider the following:

The beeps of his heart monitor grew further apart. Tears spilled down his cheeks, his eyelids fluttered, like he couldn't keep them open. I laced my fingers in his. He gave them a single squeeze, a promise to see me on the other side, then his hand went limp in my grasp. 

VS

The beeps of his heart monitor grew further apart. Tears spilled down his cheeks, his eyelids fluttered, like he couldn’t keep them open. I laced my fingers in his. He gave them a single squeeze, a promise to see me on the other side.

His hand went limp in my grasp.

Do you see the difference? In the second paragraph, everything is the same except for the one line. One-liners is a phrase mostly used for comedy, but as they say, the only difference between comedy and tragedy is the music. With this technique, I drag the music out. I make you sit in the scene that much longer, experience the pain that much longer.

Obviously, I wrote the examples off the top of my head, but as a part of a greater scene or novel, with backstory, development, etc, the lines would hit even harder.

TL;DR if you don’t already, try taking the heaviest sentences and make them their own paragraph.  

[enchanted001]

Aw! Thank you so much for tagging me!

I like how motivated I am to finish my current WIP!

I like how I randomly dream up random ideas about my WIP.

I like how I’m not as shy as I used to be.

I like how I’m not afraid to show that I’m passionate about something, whether it be a tv show or just some random scene in my WIP.

I like how I can write really interesting fanfics on just some random small insignificant event that happened to me and make it mean everything!

@reading-out-loud @promptsforthestrugglingauthor

@taylorswift @yourlocalwriterblog @foreverlostinliterature @syntacked @the-book-ferret @everchanging-shades-ofsad @colorfulrealm @calmstarchild

Once you get this you are invited to say 5 things you like about yourself, publicly, then send this to ten of your favourite followers!

1. I like how funny I am.

2. I like how I write amazing in media res stories sometimes

3. I like that I’m more of a reader than someone who binge watches tv for the most part.

4. I like how I’ve grown from completely shy guy who’s afraid to talk to girls to slightly shy guy who’s not as afraid to talk to girls

5. I like that I’m unique and that no matter what no one could make a ConsciousDreamz’ story. It’s only me.

@siarven @blueinkblot @azawrites @dailylifeofadizzyfangirl @darealbellabelleoftheball @mademoiselleink @enchanted001 @vodkakilledtheteen @ditzysworld @jessicacaseyauthor

[enchanted001]

I wish it was possible to see your life stats. Like how many bugs you’ve killed, how many chips you’ve eaten, how many miles you’ve driven etc.

[enchanted001]

The official Inktober 2019 list is here!!

[enchanted001]

i hate when the teacher’s like “write about a bad time in your life” like i ain’t tryna get a social worker up my ass, thanks tho fam

[enchanted001]

Logging into tumblr on September 1st

[enchanted001]

Ok so… when am I going to get chased by my true love in a labyrinth of rosebushes at night after we snuck out of the ballroom?? bitch?

[enchanted001]

Music box puts kitten to sleep. (via osirisosito)

[enchanted001]

true writing is knowing exactly how your wip starts and knowing exactly how how it ends but the middle is the equivalent of you standing stranded on highway 52 while your car burns in the background before a freeze frame zooms in on your face and a voice-over goes “yup that’s me. you might be wondering how i got here.” 

[enchanted001]

How to write YA school, and how time-hop seamlessly

I saw somebody ask how to write school in YA novels without showing every class of every day. (EDIT: it was @erinisawriter). That’s two questions in one: what to show of the classes (spoiler: not a lot) and how to show time passing without making it explicit.

I will take the classes in the Harry Potter series as an example - and I’m writing this from memory, so forgive me if I misremember things.

So, the courses and professors are introduced once, when Harry is introduced to them at the beginning of the school year. He forms an opinion about them, and then they become the background event. Rowling gives us enough to imagine what’s typically going on in that class, but doesn’t describe every class. They become a backdrop for conversations Harry has with Ron and Hermione, or locations to walk to while conversations, observations, fights or other plot-related things take place. He actually ignores large parts of the class. If Harry is not paying attention to it, Rowling doesn’t describe it.

Sometimes the content of the classes have other functions. Divination is often used as foreshadowing. Moody Mad-Eye’s classes often further the plot. So do Lupin’s classes. And almost all courses are also used as comic relief: the pixies set loose by Lockheart (comic relief + characterization), Snape in Neville’s grandmother’s dress in Lupin’s class (comic relief + foreshadowing), almost all of Hagrid’s classes…

Rowling not only jumps in the day, she also jumps in the school year. Some weeks contain no events, and they aren’t mentioned at all. The school year starts, the professors are introduced (unless they taught him the same class last year - in that case they become backdrop immediately), Harry has the first Quidditch practice of the year (in which the team is re-introduced: enough for us to imagine practice sessions), fights with Draco, discovers whatever incites the book’s plot, homework increases, Quidditch increases, plot events happen and tension increases, and boom, time to celebrate Christmas. I just counted: There’s 16 weeks between the first school day and Christmas, but she doesn’t describe all 16, or doesn’t even jump in time (”3 weeks later”). She writes it as if there are about 6-7 weeks in the first semester, and gives the reader enough suggestion that more of the same (homework, quidditch practices etc.) has happened in the meantime.

I hope this was useful. Feel free to ask me more questions if it isn’t clear. If anyone else has more advice, feel free to add it. Happy writing!

[enchanted001]

Minimum Wage should be indexed to 2% of a city’s median rent.

And here’s why:

Housing costs are the single biggest financial burden facing Americans today.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development define being cost-burdened as spending more than a third of your income on rent. By that definition, over half of the households in this country are cost-burdened. Source

If we want people to be able to afford to live in cities and not get priced out, we have to make a two pronged approach. One is to build houses towards all incomes and price ranges, not just luxury condos. And the other is a robust wage floor so people can actually afford to live.

Fight for 15 is doing an amazing job and I love them, but we have to realize that is quite a few places, $15/hr still isn’t enough to live on.

Which is where the 2% comes in. It allows a minimum wage that is flexible with regards to the costs of living.

And it wasn’t plucked out of thin air either:

Rent should be a third of a persons income, or to restate the equation: income should be three times a person’s rent.

And since a full time job is 8 hrs a day / 40 hrs a week / 160 hrs a month.

So when you do the math, the ideal hourly minimum wage as a percentage of rent works out to around 1.875%, which for ease of calculation is 2%.

[enchanted001]

Reasons my new physics prof is adorable

- on the first day of class he brought his favorite toy truck from when he was a child - is from Argentina and has a cute accent and sometimes speaks in Spanish on accident - teaches us Spanish phrases for fun - very tall and awkward and has super curly hair that falls into his face constantly - giggles at his own jokes - on the second day of class he showed us pictures of his cat eating a salami - the cat’s name is Pants