minlovesyeol

[minlovesyeol]

Just for fun, what’s the worst writing advice you have ever heard?

Oh, easy. I had this professor in college who was just, like, obsessed with Joseph Campbell's monomyth - the hero's journey.

IThe hero's journey itself is really great. It can be a great way to write all kinds of things, and, when you look at the text it comes from, there's also this really beautiful trend where we can see that humans all over the world keep telling this story. The hero's journey goes beyond culture, it's something that seems to speak to humans on a fundamental level. Awesome.

My professor refused to accept that not every story was the hero's journey.

I have literally no fucking idea how he was able to teach at a college while convinced that all stories follow the hero's journey. Nobody believes this. No one! I don't know anyone who thinks that every single story follows this journey. Dan Harmon, writer of Community and Rick and Morty, literally writes all of his episodes based on a modified version of this infographic, and even he is like "Yeah, it's a great way to make timeless TV, but it's not the only way and if it's all you do stuff can get really boring".

I remember talking to this man about slice of life anime, because there are few genres I can think of that are less about the hero's journey than that. I would be arguing with this guy, being like "There's an episode of Lucky Star in which they just all talk about how they eat a pastry. There's no journey." and he just refused to accept it. That must mean that it wasn't a story at all.

Any writing advice that tells you that something is "correct" rather than telling you what purpose the advice serves is just dumb. There are different rules for writing different genres, different audiences, different mediums, and there is no one single way to do it. Good writing advice puts tools in your toolkit and explains how to use them. It doesn't hand you a hammer and insist that anything that isn't a nail isn't worth looking at.

[minlovesyeol]

I'm starting a collection

[minlovesyeol]

The Causal Chain And Why Your Story Needs It

The most obnoxious thing my writing teacher taught me every story needed, that I absolutely loathed studying in the moment and that only later, after months of resisting and fighting realized she was right, was something called the causal chain.

Simply put, the causal chain is the linked cause-and-effect that must logically connect every event, reaction, and beat that takes place in your story to the ones before and after.

The Causal Chain is exhausting to go through. It is infuriating when someone points out that an event or a character beat comes out of nowhere, unmoored from events around it.

It is profoundly necessary to learn and include because a cause-and-effect chain is what allows readers to follow your story logically which means they can start anticipating what happens next, which is what is required for a writer to be able to build suspense and cognitively engage the audience, to surprise them, and to not infuriate them with random coincidences that hurt or help the characters in order to clumsily advance the author's goals.

By all means, write your story as you want to write it in the first draft, and don't worry about this principle too much. This is an editing tool, not a first draft tool. But one of the first things you should do when retroactively begin preparing your story to be read by others is going step by step through each event and confirming that a previous event leads to it and that subsequent events are impacted by it on the page.

[minlovesyeol]

What is... Plot Bunny?

There are two different things that are called plot bunnies.

Plot bunnies can be story ideas that don't leave a writer's brain (gnawing at it like rabbits do) until they get written down.

It also refers to writers having multiple ideas at once that basically multiply like rabbits.

[minlovesyeol]

There aren't any two people matching each other's freak the way that Jude and Cardan do.

[minlovesyeol]

my toxic trait is that while I did not write The Cruel Prince, an insult to the book (and the series) seems like a personal attack to me

[minlovesyeol]

“I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank page.” Nora Roberts

[minlovesyeol]

What do you call a bunch of sheep falling down a hill at the same time?

A lambslide

[minlovesyeol]

“The woman you are becoming will cost you people, relationships, spaces, and material things. Choose her over everything.”

— Unknown

[minlovesyeol]

“If you don’t love yourself you will always be chasing after people who don’t love you either.”

— Mandy Hale

[minlovesyeol]

[minlovesyeol]

I keep seeing people making fun of using growled, hissed, roared, snarled etc in writing and it’s like.

have you never heard someone speak with the gravel in their voice when they get angry? Because that’s what a growl is.

Have you never heard someone sharply whisper something through the thin space of their teeth? Or when your mother sharply told you to stop it in public as a kid when you were acting up/being too loud? Because that’s what a hiss is.

Have you never heard a man get so blackout angry that their voice BOOMS through the house? Because that’s what a roar is.

Have you never seen someone bare their teeth while talking to accentuate their frustration or anger while speaking with a vicious tone? Because that’s what snarling is.

It’s not meant to be a literal animal noise. For the love of god, not every description is literal. I get some people are genuinely confused, but also some of these people are genuinely unimaginative as fuck.

[minlovesyeol]

bringing back this trend,

1. Celebrity

2. Outfit

3. Quote

4. Aesthetic

Tagging @the-unconquered-queen cuz I found this on her account hehe <3

Also tagging @vicissavior to continue

[minlovesyeol]

Aerin Valleros.

That's it.

villain: [is sexy]

me: sorry moral compass broke :(

[minlovesyeol]

stfu and kiss me already mf

when he calls you a ‘pathetic mewling worm’ 😍😍😍

[minlovesyeol]

if this isn't just me

Some Choices memes

[minlovesyeol]

Aerin Valleros x Raine

a/n: I had that draft for like 3 years now and forgot to post it. English isn’t my first language so I’m sorry if there are any grammar mistakes. Feel free to correct them

summary: Aerin and Raine deserve a more emotional big fight at the end of book 1

also it’s Aerin x male MC (Raine)

————————————————————————————

chapter 16

we fight. we die. and we pray we will be avenged.

With prudent, almost poetic precision, Aerin raised the blade, its gleaming edge poised threateningly at his adversary's throat. A picture of suffering etched across his countenance – dark red rivulets tracing its path down his chin, a bleeding nose, and a tapestry of scratches adorning his battered form. With deliberate grace, Aerin placed a foot upon his chest, forcing Raine back upon the bloody stairs. He couldn’t help but cry out in pain as he clutched his bleeding waist in agony. "God, please, stop," he pleaded, wincing as he tilted his head back. A low, sardonic chuckle escaped Aerin's lips as he exerted a touch more pressure with his foot. "And here I thought you'd never beg for anything. Just look at you... It almost felt too easy," he mused, while Raine closed his eyes, trying to seek solace beneath his unyielding grip.

"I… I wasn't fighting you," he finally managed to murmur, peering up at his captor. His dark eyes sent shivers down his spine, as did his storm grey skin. The inky veins coursing down his cheeks reminded him of cracked marble, and his somber lips curved into a mischievous smile, shrouded in shadows, as they lingered in the thunderous echoes of battle that raged nearby. "You truly are as foolish as I thought."

"Why?" Raine countered, his voice wrecked by a cough, his breath growing more ratchet. "Is it foolish to have given my heart to the wrong soul? There exist fates far worse than death." His words hung in the air like an elegy, a profound reflection amidst the chaos. He heard Aerin laugh, and suddenly, the weight on his chest disappeared. Instead, Aerin now straddled his hips and he felt the cold metal of a dagger pressed against his throat. Raine tried to fight back, but before he could do anything at all, Aerin grabbed his wrist, pinning him down once more. "Well then, any last wishes?" he grinned.

"Kiss me," his voice trembled, a final longing expressed with vulnerability and no hesitation. Aerin paused, torn by conflicting emotions and taken aback by the sudden request.

Slowly, he leaned in, their lips meeting in a bittersweet farewell. Raine deepened the kiss, his hand gently cupping Aerin's cheek. In that tender moment, as their lips clung to each other, time itself seemed to slow, and the world around them faded into obscurity. The clashing of swords, the cries of battle, all of it dissolved into insignificance compared to the intensity of their final kiss.

Raine‘s fingers traced the dark veins on Aerin's face, committing every detail to memory. He wanted to remember every nuance, every feeling, as though it would be the last thing he'd ever do. It was a kiss of passion and longing, an aching goodbye to a love that was destined to remain forever unfulfilled.

„I love you.. I always will.“ When they finally parted, a single tear rolled down Raine‘s cheek, mingling with the remnants of their shared kiss. He gazed deeply into Aerin's eyes, seeing a flicker of something more beneath the cold exterior. Perhaps there was still a sliver of the prince, Aerin used to be, buried deep within.

"It won't keep you alive," Aerin reminded him and maybe even himself, his voice a solemn mumble. But there was an undeniable vulnerability in his eyes, a fracture in the armor he had so carefully constructed around his heart.

Raine smiled faintly, a serene acceptance in his expression. "No, it won't," he acknowledged, his voice barely above a whisper. "But it reminds me that beneath this darkness, there's a part of you worth saving."

With that, Raine starred into his eyes, surrendering to what seemed inevitable. Aerin hesitated for a moment, the dagger still poised but trembling in his grip. The battle raged on around them, a screeching of chaos and destruction, but in this suspended moment, it was as though the world held its breath, waiting for a decision to be made.

And then, with a shaken sigh, Aerin withdrew the dagger, his hand falling to his side. He stood up, leaving Raine untouched, a mix of emotions swirling within him. Without a word, he wanted to retreated into the shadows, disappearing into the very darkness that had consumed him.

‘No!’ Despite the pain coursing through his body, Raine's resilience manifested in an attempt to stop him. However, his brother was faster. In a fleeting moment of carelessness, the prince remained oblivious to the lurking presence of Kade. With a swift, silent strike, Kade's rusted sword hilt smashed into the prince's skull, knocking him out cold.

Raine gasped, his hand instinctively muffling his startled sound, gazing down at the two men in shock, "Kade! That was definitely not necessary...!" He hurried to his side, “Tz, of course. Leave him be, we have bigger problems!” he said, pointing to the looming threat of the Dreadlord, who had undergone a profound transformation in the meantime…

———————————————————————————

“What about the prince of darkness over there? Can I go stomp his skull in?” Imtura looked at the others questioningly, “As tempting as that is, we should bring him back. He has to pay for what he has done and serve as an example of what happens to traitors like him,” Tyril replied, but Raine was already kneeling next to the prince and picking him up gently. “I think bashing his skull would set a really good example.” Imtura continued but Raine wasn’t listening to them.

A thin rivulet of blood traced it’s serpentine path down the prince's temple, dripping gracefully from his chin. “I’ll take care of him...” Raine sighed and brushed the dark curls off his prince’s face.

He wouldn't let go of him that fast ever again.