justanotherdumpingground

[justanotherdumpingground]

Writing Tips Master Post

Character writing/development:

Character Arcs

Making Character Profiles

Character Development

Comic Relief Arc

Internal Conflict

Creating Distinct Characters

Suicidal Urges/Martyr Complex

Creating Likeable Characters

Writing Strong Female Characters

Writing POC Characters

Character Voices

Plot devices/development:

Intrigue in Storytelling

Enemies to Lovers

Alternatives to Killing Characters

Worldbuilding

Misdirection

Consider Before Killing Characters

Foreshadowing

Narrative:

Emphasising the Stakes

Avoid Info-Dumping

Writing Without Dialogue

1st vs. 2nd vs. 3rd Perspective

Fight Scenes (More)

Transitions

Pacing

Book writing:

Connected vs. Stand-Alone Series

A & B Stories

Writer resources:

Writing YouTube Channels, Podcasts, & Blogs

Outlining/Writing/Editing Software

Miscellaneous:

Overcoming Writer's Block

1000 Follower Special

Writing Fantasy

Character Ask Game

[justanotherdumpingground]

I commissioned jellyfixx on Instagram fanart of Bryce Callahan, one of the love interests of upcoming visual novel Jock Studio by @blitsgames, doing the snow singlet challenge by lying on the snow. The cold never bothered him, anyway.

[justanotherdumpingground]

Awesome job as always, Hayden.

4A for Aiden Zhou (HSS)?

he angy

from this expression meme!

[justanotherdumpingground]

So, I commissioned a crack pairing...

And it's Hunter Fierro and Kayden Vescovi from The Royal Masquerade. I commissioned Leafi on Instagram and Twitter fanart of the two together. Since the pictures are explicit, here's a little preview. If you want to see the pictures, click here.

[justanotherdumpingground]

“Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on.”

— John Steinbeck

[justanotherdumpingground]

I commissioned eljae on Twitter fanart of Rudy Tabootie from ChalkZone as a gymnast performing a pommel horse routine. He may look older here than in the show, but he's still as badass as ever.

[justanotherdumpingground]

I finished playing the demo of upcoming visual novel Jock Studio four days ago, and it was fun. The characters are pretty solid, the art is beautiful, and the premise of surrounded by sexy athletics is exciting.

Warning: This game is NSFW, so expect graphic depictions of sex in the final product.

To start things off, Jock Studio is a gay visual novel about a young man studying at Olympus University, an all-boys university with a strong emphasis on sports. Under his friend’s urging, he joins a club at random, and stumbles upon the secretive film club. After picking up one of the love interests (determined by a quiz), he learns that this film club produces porn, and he gets on board. Even so, everyone, including him, seems to have stories to tell from their actions and dialogue. For instance, Ace (the protagonist) gets told by his friend Matt to find a purpose in life, and he seems to have found it in a club he just joined. All we have to do is wonder how things will go from there.

The premise is perfect for a gay story, especially for those with a huge thing for athletic bodies. I can see people going head over heels over such love interests’ appearance. Every character is pretty fun to know about. Apart from their general appearances, they also have diverse personalities even if some of them aren’t to my liking (Bryce’s rudeness towards Ace, Yuuto’s chaotic behavior, and Leo’s childish approach to circumstances). This still means more room for character development. I admit that I find Ace’s obsession with porn a bit too much, even if it makes sense for people who might come for the fanservice and stayed for the characters and story. Nevertheless, I have faith that BLits will do the game’s characters justice.

As a Greek mythology nerd, I love that each love interest is connected to a god, at least on the surface level. I like that Avan, a swimmer, is associated with Poseidon, the god of the sea, and water is associated with a collected personality like Avan’s. Zayne, the resident Casanova and basketball champion, is associated with Zeus, the king of the gods, befitting Zayne’s popularity and signature color purple (the traditional color of royalty). Leo, an energetic soccer player, is associated with Apollo, the god of the sun, and the sun is associated with boundless energy and cheerfulness. Bryce, the wrestler and frat boy, is associated with Dionysus, the god of wine, reflecting how frat boys like Bryce are stereotyped as hard-drinking party animals. Yuuto, the volleyball player, is associated with Artemis, the goddess of hunting and wildlife, befitting Yuuto’s chaotic behavior because the wilderness is associated with chaos. Derek, the football player, is associated with Ares, the god of war, and he’s also the most physically imposing of the love interests, which reminds me of how soldiers are supposed to look.

It’ll be even more interesting if the characters’ storylines are in many ways similar to those of their signature gods. For example, what if Zayne is desperate for the one person he can feel committed to? This reflects Zeus’ many extramarital affairs that enraged his wife Hera, whom he’s not really in love with. Even more so if Zayne lost his first love, just as Zeus lost his first wife Metis by swallowing her when she was pregnant with Athena? At the same time, I also don’t want their stories to be complete copies from the original myths. I’d like to see twists in their stories as well.

Nevertheless, there are some complaints I have for the demo. I find one part of the writing that favors one route over the others. In this case, Ace learning that he just joined a secret porn club made sense in Derek’s route. In all routes, he made a remark that the lone sofa on the set looked familiar, and when Derek was undressing, Ace said that his back tattoo looked familiar, resulting in Derek revealing that he does porn under a stage name. Then Ace’s mind clicked because Derek turned out to be one of his favorite performers. I like this way better because Ace figured out himself that he would be doing porn. In contrast, the other routes just have the love interest saying that he does porn without Ace figuring out by himself, which makes him come off as dumber. Not to mention that it’s telling instead of showing.

If anyone reading this is interested in backing the game, the link is here.

[justanotherdumpingground]

Hi! I was just wondering, what's the best way to make/write out a plot?

Guide: How to Outline a Plot

The best way to outline a plot isn’t the same for everyone, and sometimes it’s even different from story to story. There are lots of different methods, and most writers use a combination of them, so you just have to try different things to see what works best for you. Here are some of the most common methods:

1. Just Write

Some writers are what’s known as “pansters” meaning that once they have a story idea in mind, they prefer to “fly by the seat of their pants” and start writing without any planning in place. The key to making this method work is to remember that you’re only writing the first draft. Nothing you’re doing is set in stone, so don’t feel the story has to be perfect in one shot. Follow your gut and write the story to the best of your ability. Worry about tightening and polishing in subsequent drafts.

2. Synopsis

Some writers prefer to start by writing beginning to end summary of the story, describing all the important details and events in the order that they unfold. Summaries can be a great way to flesh out an idea for a plot, and they can also serve as a nice guideline if you want to “just write” your story but need a bit more structure first.

3. Old-Fashioned Outline

Do they still teach academic outlining in school? I don’t even know… when I was a kid, we learned how to do outlines with Roman numerals for the main points, capital letters for the minor points, and numbers for sub-points. If you’re good at outlining, this can be a great way to outline your plot.Edit: to clarify, it looks like this:I. Main Idea       A. Minor Idea            1. Sub-Idea                   i. sub-idea                  ii. sub-idea            2. Sub-Idea                  i. sub-idea                 ii. sub-idea     B. Minor Idea            1. Sub- Idea                   i. sub-idea        ii. sub-idea… … and so on. And no, I don’t mean the “seven step story structure outline.” This is an academic outline. It can be used for anything, including outlining a story. :)

4. Timeline

Creating a timeline for your story can be a great way to map it out. All you need is a beginning event, climax event, and end event. From there you can start filling in the events that follow and precede those events. Even if you don’t know the exact date for when a scene takes place, you can still mark it down in the right general place.

5. Scene List

If you have a pretty good idea of the scenes that need to take place, or at least a good number of them, you can start by writing out a scene list. It’s nice to do them in a table if you can so you can organize important details, like chapter, scene number, date and location, who’s in it, and then a short summary. Though, how you organize it is up to you. If you prefer, you can just write the scene number and then a brief summary.

6. Story Structure Map

Some writers like to map out their story according to whatever story structure they want to follow. They’ll pull up a graphic or chart of the structure, transcribe it onto paper or into a document, and then note each relevant event for each structure “mile marker.”

7. Subway/Tube Map

This is a new one I recently heard about. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but I think it’s fascinating. And there are even subway map creators you can use if you don’t want to draw it out. Ultimately, the goal is to map out the events of your story in the style of a subway/tube map. This method makes it easy to illustrate subplots and see how they relate to the rest of your story.

8. The Mind Map

Mind maps can be a fantastic way to get the most important parts of your story out on paper, and to start figuring out where other parts fit in and how they relate to everything else.

9. Index Cards

Some writers have luck writing out key scenes, moments, bits of dialogue (or anything else they have in mind) on individual index cards, which can then be laid out in order on a table, allowing for cards to be easily moved around, added, subtracted, etc. until a more complete story starts to emerge. Some writers even invest in giant cork boards for this purpose. Others use a dry erase board and draw out the “cards” instead. A lot of story writing software, such as Scrivener, even includes digital bulletin boards and index cards that you can use to visualize your story.

10. Method/Theory/Template

There are numerous methods/theories/templates dedicated to building/fleshing out plots. Some to look into:

- The Snowflake Method- Dramatica Theory- Save the Cat! for Novels- The Hero’s Journey

If one of the above doesn’t work for you, you’re sure to find even more ideas online. Try doing a search for “how to outline a plot” or “outlining a novel” to see what comes up. You might even try searching for your favorite author’s name plus “outlining” to see if they’ve done any posts sharing their own methods. You may also want to look into books, software, and apps/web sites that offer ways to help you plot your story.

Good luck!

[justanotherdumpingground]

Like and reblog if you believe HSS special date and holiday side stories (similar to the TFS side stories) are a better side story idea than The Dalton Affair

[justanotherdumpingground]

I've commissioned quite a number of artwork as of late, so I decided to put them in a blog that serves as my gallery. It's right here to view, and I encourage other people to support the artists who made these beautiful artwork. Beware that at least one art is NSFW, so view at your discretion.

[justanotherdumpingground]

I commissioned @hydn-jpg fanart of my HSS!MC Joseph and Aiden together, and the result is an adorable picture of them kissing. This is cute beyond words! Thank you so much for this! 😍🥰

[justanotherdumpingground]

Last month, I commissioned Kaido Masuhiro on Twitter fanart of Zig Ortega practicing ballet. Since I've never seen any fanart of Zig doing ballet, I might as well commission one, and the result is lovely.

[justanotherdumpingground]

Last year, I commissioned Ouchimaro on Instagram fanart of Tommy/Tomoki Himi from Digimon Frontier as a gymnast performing a still rings routine. This has to be one of my favorite artworks I've commissioned. Just look at how cool he looks.

[justanotherdumpingground]

Last year, I commissioned niearts on Twitter fanart of Timmy Turner from the Fairly OddParents as a gymnast performing a parallel bars routine.

[justanotherdumpingground]

Last year, I commissioned @hornyyberry fanart of Kaine from Dreambound, an upcoming visual novel by @twoandahalfstudios, with a plate of fried rice. Isn't anyone dying to have both at the same time?

[justanotherdumpingground]

Last year, I commissioned Kaido Masuhiro on Twitter fanart of Soren from The Dragon Prince as a pin-up model. He looks hot, doesn't he?

[justanotherdumpingground]

And I'm suddenly reminded of Nason (Mason x Noah).

When you’re low key a couple