for-the-first-time-inforever

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

we have jacks holding evangeline's hand because he realized she was scared of vampires, we have him involuntarily throwing himself in front of her so she doesn't get bitten, we have him saying he's the only one who can bite her, we have him craving her when he is contaminated by vampire venom (which only intensifies already existing emotions), we have him hugging her and not letting go and pulling her to him like she was a blanket the whole time, we have him taking care to button her cape back in place as he noticed she was cold, and that's ONLY in ouabh :D

as evangeline herself says, he needs her to find the stones, yes, but he never needed to be careful or affectionate with her.

we have jacks saving evangeline from luc and saying he would kill him just for scaring eva. we have him throwing himself off a cliff to save her, we have him holding her in his arms so she doesn't hurt her feet. we have him spending two weeks looking for a cure to a curse, a cure he knows doesn't exist. we have him trying to hold back and not cut tongues or kill people because evangeline asked him to and he can't bring himself to do those things in front of her. we see him jealous of her all the time, saying he would kill anyone else who was with her, threatening to cut luc's head off and getting angry just at the mention of apollo's name. we have him consoling and hugging and tending her wounds full of affection. we have him going to check on apollo himself and leaving him in a place where he couldn't hurt himself or evangeline. we have him giving up everything he's ever wanted in life because he wanted evangeline to live.

you cannot look at me and deny that he always cared about her. he was the ONLY person who genuinely EVER looked out for her.

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

apollo: you're so evil, how do you even sleep at night??????

jacks: with your wife.

(note: this post was inspired by a template that i've seen people use for different book fandoms, however i am unaware of who the original for it was so if anyone knows please comment :)

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

"It hurts, Jacks."

"I know, love. I'm going to take you somewhere safe."

"I know, love."

Can we just take a moment to acknowledge that the one and only time he calls her "love" is in the presence of the TRUTH STONE. You know, the stone that compels him to only speak the TRUTH.

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

Okay but here me out...

...Soulmates story of a couple who lives dozens of different lives, dozens of different stories. Some wind up with romantic relationships, some don’t, but the core is always them together and the importance they have in each others lives. Because ultimately that is what a soulmate is. Two halves of one whole, always destined to be important to each other.  I have so many thoughts and ideas. 

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

Testify!

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

You didn’t need my help. You just thought you did. Believe in yourself, Cinderella, and trust him to love you as you really are. Cinderella (1997) dir. Robert Iscove

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

this is peak Craigslist

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

some mini collections of tips for writers

(based on things that yours truly notices as an editor-in-training. This list is in no way complete, and will probably be added to as I continue to find repeated mistakes) 

Dialogue

Use beats in your dialogue to break it up. Even “said” can make a very effective beat between lines. 

(No beats: “It’s not lethal. Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.” // Beats: “It’s not lethal,” he said. “Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.”)

Note how the break allows a bit of a pause for ~dramatic effect 

thinking of dialogue, use punctuation and distinct speech patterns! “Life, uh, finds a way.” is an iconic line anyway, but Jeff Goldblum’s signature verbal tic gives it character. 

It’s okay if characters stutter. Don’t let the condemnation of stuttering characters as “cringey” in fanfic put you off. (and on that note, fuck cringe culture. Seriously. It saps all the fun out of creativity and fun is important.)

Start! A! New! Line! Whenever! Someone! New! Speaks!!

DO NOT FEAR THE WORD “SAID” 

Setting & Blocking

 Use the landscape and settings around your character, and always, always remember a scene’s blocking. Where is everything in relation to your characters? Have you left someone holding a coffee cup for the last three scenes? Did you lose a character somewhere along the way? 

using the contents of a scene is also great for fight sequences. 

Similarly, large character casts are hard to keep track of so don’t be afraid to break them up. Sending someone off somewhere else can create some nifty little subplots. 

Keep a personal note of how time passes. Trust me, it’s incredibly helpful to you as a writer and also for future readers. 

Characters

Character growth does not have to be positive. Sometimes characters fail or suffer or get their motivations twisted up, and they finish the book as a villain rather than a hero. 

All that matters is that a character changes throughout the plot in a way that readers can see; the sort of change they go through is entirely up to you. 

scrap the idea that someone has to deserve a redemption arc. They probably don’t deserve it, which is the whole point. So don’t be afraid to make your villains seem completely irredeemable. 

and you don’t need to redeem your antagonists in order to make them complex, sympathetic villains, anyway. Sometimes people get so stuck in their beliefs that they can’t see another way and it goes too far. Not everyone comes back from that. 

Also, motivations and goals can absolutely change. That’s okay. You just need to have something that drives your character so that your readers are rooting for them. 

Protagonists don’t need to be heroic. How you define the protagonists and antagonists in your story is based entirely on the morality in your story-world, NOT the moral ideas in the real world. What counts as a complex protagonist in a world torn apart by biological warfare will be very different than one living in our world. 

Prose & Grammar

simple prose is just fine and you don’t need to fluff it up for pretty quotes.

Remember to vary your sentence structures and length. Start smaller and build it up, drawing your reader’s attention. 

“And” and “But” are very valid sentence starters that are great for communicating the tone of internal narrative. You’re allowed to tweak grammar if that’s helpful for telling the story, it just needs to be accessible. Test out what you’ve written on other people. 

Check that your tenses are consistent!! 

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

Me, googling this information frantically: Okay now you guys have GOT to be fucking with me, there’s NO way he could’ve actually–

ADVAGDHSGFHHJGHHJ THIS MAN IS INSAAAAAANE

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

Hurt/comfort writers see a character and be like “I want to see them fall so far but I also want them to land on something soft”

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

Sorry, I whistled by accident

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

“we were lovers in a past life” trope but the current incarnations are enemy-to-lovers trope. when. 

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

tell me something nice

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

Living in a city with superheroes

[for-the-first-time-inforever]

The other day a man signed up for our advantage card and I asked for his “email” and he looked at me and goes “No?? I have a gmail, I don’t even know what an email is.” And I was just so in awe for a moment and I just smiled and enthusiastically replied “It’s okay that works!” Meanwhile internally screaming.