#If we've hung out

[sercphs]

Limbus... Tomorrow.

[girl-bateman]

Genuine question- is writing someone you've been together with for a month a 3-page letter about how you're in love with him and wanna stay together after your exchange semester insane or just pathetic?

[scherzosa]

loving the university life except I have no friends and feel like there's something wrong with me

[icouldbeyourprettygirl]

he didn't text me today. he's been texting me daily for the last couple of days. I'm scared it's because of what I said yesterday. all I can do is hope that he hasn't figured out I'm in love with him

[spade-club]

Ugh. She literally. Is upset that I dont always like her. Like she hasn't. Given me. Two different kinds of trauma. Across many instances. And has not changed that behavior significantly.

Like. I told her not to drink. Because she gets even worse with boundaries when she drinks. And she responded with. Saying its weird that I dont like her. Like. I havent just. Told you. Why.

And I respond with saying. That its not like I dont like her. Its just that I dont want her to drink around me. Thats all.

She also has told me. To my face. That she hates me <3 so

[phantomqueen]

missing my ocs for the first time in 3+ years of not thinking about them but also knowing im not that person anymore...(a person who could make content and/or talk about them...)

[fellstcr]

⚔️ // she'd heard it from marcellus before the news could break. a murder in downtown arcanus. multiple witnesses. accounts of strangulation. the details were still hazy , but from what her partner had managed to tell her , the victim lived next door.

at first , byleth couldn't quite make sense of that. in some ways , it almost felt TOO FAR-FETCHED. ( a shiver crawled down her spine at thought thought . remembering — . . . remembering . ) but she had no reason to doubt marcellus' word. the only thing left to do was investigate herself. her visitation to no . 102 was met with relative silence compared to the effervescent presence of her neighbor. from there , it didn't take very long to wonder where lilith might have gone.

"tae." she greeted. a quick once-over revealed the girl's tension. aggression mounted in her , coiling in her shoulders and flashing in her eyes before recognition had settled in its place. "... i hope i'm not intruding," she said , pausing briefly before continuing. there was no need to mince words.

"— my partner , marcellus , told me the broad strokes about what happened. if it's alright with the both of you , i would like to ask her personally for more information. on behalf of the AIPD ... .... and as a friend."

@dancingxflames ---> @cagcdlxve

[red-eft]

having a crush is so. wbsbdncjsjfngh. i cannot find the words for it. whsbdnfh (<- being shocked to death by one thousand electric eels) hh

[fictionadventurer]

✒️

[not-poignant]

I'm just finishing up FFS and i just wanted to say that I really like the way you bring the side characters to life, like Leo, Han Yuen and Professor Adeyemi. They feel very real considering they have very little time in the narrative, it's something i think a lot of writers struggle with

Hi anon,

Thank you so much!!

Honestly, I think a big part of it, especially with those characters, is that I actually just like to imagine them as being real people themselves with their own motivations and quirks etc. That's something I really love doing. :D

The rest is under a cut because it's basically suggestions to writers and idk if you're a writer anon dslakfjasd

Part of making side characters seem realistic is giving them motives that often have nothing to do with the main character, or only have a little to do with the main character. We can tell Leo's got stuff going on his life, especially around his parents, based on the content of his poetry. He has a shy and friendly disposition, and seems eager to please, so he might be someone who's got some boundary issues in his own life, and some stuff he's working through!

Han Yuen is clearly competitive and very involved in poetry, and has a theme that she strongly adheres to. We get the sense that she's very passionate while also enjoying the deep connections poetry gives her. She doesn't have much interest in Efnisien at all, but she's friends with Leo, and by the time she does come into Efnisien's life, we get the sense she's been living her own just fine.

Professor Adayemi is the same. She has her own motives, she'd absolutely fire Efnisien if he wasn't efficient and she sees him as nothing more than a fast typist/worker who keeps late hours for reasons she doesn't really care about. While she's a great boss that's convenient for Efnisien, she doesn't exist to be a great boss to him, they're just compatible in that sense. She's ferociously competitive in her area of academia (anyone who is publishing as much as she does, is).

When we finally get to see her office, and meet her, we realise that she's a lot more complex than even Efnisien's given her credit! She has a femme side, she can be girly, she likes simple pleasures, she can be messy. In a way, they were both kind of 'useful' to each other until they became people to each other. We also know from her surname and her area of study in anthropology, that she's likely an extremely strong feminist and voice for Black people in her arena, and potentially has some political motivations for the direction she chose in life, or at least informing the reason she's publishing as much as she is.

I really love writing side characters actually, because part of the fun is realising them as people and then picking some thing - something big, something small - that will make them interact with the main character. I enjoy seeing them even if I'm only writing a handful of lines for them in a chapter, because in my head, they're so much more richly realised, it's like meeting a friend you haven't caught up with in a while.

This doesn't have to involve days and days of research or work, either. All of these things are constructed around several key points, and at least one or two things the side character is passionate about.

It doesn't have to be a struggle, and it's something writers can do in their spare time when they have writer's block and are too tired to work on their story, but want to get 'some writing' done. Sitting down and banking some side characters and attaching some passions, motivations, culture etc. to them and putting them in a document somewhere, can give them side characters in a pinch when they need them.

Constructing side characters - both minor and major - is one of those things that can be done at any time, independently of a story. Adayemi could work in a sci fi, fantasy, contemporary, etc. setting. So could Han Yuen and Leo. What makes them them isn't the setting, and that stretches them into 'real beings' or solid characters that are transferable and can exist in many different places.

If you're stuck thinking of how to describe side characters, you can try practice runs with real characters. Pick a handful of main or side characters from your favourite TV shows or movies, and then give yourself only 3 sentences to describe them (or three paragraphs). Practice getting the hang of seeing the big details the fastest, and then adding on what I would call 'textural details' that add sensory anchors (it might be the foods they like to eat, the clothing they like to wear and its texture, the flowers they like to sniff, the scents they wear etc.)

It doesn't take long to build confidence doing this! And then you'll have to stop yourself from adding too many side characters to your stories like I do lmao

Because you only use three sentences or paragraphs to describe them, then - along with the dialogue - that's actually all you need to establish them in your story!

Establishing good/solid dialogue is another part of this, and I've written about that before but am too lazy to link it here. But constructing character can happen long before you get to dialogue. :D

[leslieseveride]

on god, i need a chenford sex scene so bad once we trudge through all this fucking pain, because angst leading to sex is my favorite smut trope. the desperation that leads to hurried, frantic kisses? SLAPS! the heartache that leads to slow, passionate kisses? SLAPS! the face caresses and mesmerized eye contact? SLAPS! holding onto each other so tightly and so closely they practically mold into one? SLAPS! like... please just give us the sneakiest of sneak previews into their naked time together!! just once!!!!

[mumintroll]

smiled at someone i kind of know and he just blanked me. okay

[whimsicalginger]

the struggle of wanting to keep fandom and real life separate but I'm autistic and it's my special interest and I can't seem to stop yapping about it

[philgbtqochs]

how to refrain from becoming obsessed w a dude you met 3 days ago

[carnage-cathedral]

yeah fine I'll try to go back to bed

[chaoticeddie]

lmaooooo I got seated at the gay table at the reception for my sister's catholic wedding