#Lani Diane Rich

[hedgehogreads]

“Just be careful not to lose it.”

“Do I strike you as the kind of man who loses important things?”

You lost me. The thought popped into her head and there was nothing she could do to get rid of it.

 - Dogs and Goddesses, Jennifer Cruise, Anne Stuart, Lani Diane Rich

[doodlebeeberry]

[woodenpicador]

tagged by @yellowjacketslesbian and @haniawritesthings, because i'm actually terrible at checking tags on tumblr

three ships: shaunanat, shaunalottie, taivan

first ship ever: oh wow, probably hanleia (star wars) before i even knew what a ship was, but maybe harry/hermione (harry potter) before, well, a LOT of things.

currently listening to: Puberty 2 by Mitski

last movie: Glass Onion (dir. Rian Johnson, 2022)

currently reading: so much fanfiction, but also How Story Works by Lani Diane Rich, which I've found is really helping me formalize structures in longer, plottier stories and keep them focused

currently watching: perpetually Yellowjackets and Andor, but also Poker Face, The Last of Us, and i swear i'm going to watch bly manor and warrior nun and arcane and more

currently consuming: black tea (english afternoon and english breakfast in alternating cups, it's that kind of day)

currently craving: hot wings, more hours in the day

tagging: @sappy-sappho, @kleksuh, @katebaudelaire, @volcanic-ghosts, @chasingfictions

[lowcountry-gothic]

When you're looking for retribution, the question of ‘Are they responsible?’ becomes relevant. When you're looking for healing and the best outcome, it becomes irrelevant.

Lani Diane Rich, Endless, "Listen"

[writer-at-the-table]

Vulnerability is how we connect with each other. It is when we know each other's vulnerabilities that we become sympathetic to each other as humans, and we have human relationships with these characters that we read about in our fiction, so that is how we access these characters as well.

Lani Diane Rich, How Story Works, episode 1.02 “2. Character Roles,” 15:43-15:48

[thatsdeepyo]

“I have the ability to unfuck my life from what they’ve done to me without having to say ‘no no, that’s okay, I forgive you’”

-Lani Diane Rich

[chrysbuckley]

The Artist's Way Reflections - Re-Starting the Journey

The Artist’s Way Reflections – Re-Starting the Journey

In previous posts in this Artist’s Way Reflections column, I’ve written about having a two-decade relationship with this landmark book on creativity and its basic tools (Morning Pages and the Artist Date) and its essays and exercises and tasks, all aimed and at opening, or re-opening a connection to creativity. Discovering and recovering your artistic self.

And now that the Basic Tools have been…

[bespangeled]

Seeing Red

Lani’s review - Still Pretty #9. Seeing Red (Video)

Lani from Dusted has continued with the BTVS reviews - and is doing an amazing job. In this episode of Still Pretty, Lani talks about solipsistic evil, the inoculative nature of the soul, men, women and all the horrible things that we deal with in Seeing Red (S6.19).

Run by NYT bestselling author and award-winning podcaster Lani Diane Rich, Chipperish Media creates podcasts that celebrate finding joy and happiness in the stories we love, never apologizing for loving what we love, and lighting a path to the bright side, even if that means engaging in an occasional bit of denial. Link  - to her other BTVS reviews, her new literature podcast and Storytelling (her fiction writing podcast). Check out her earlier reviews. I highly recommend!

[wepicy]

Humor Quote By Lani Diane Rich “You have to watch your language. People will think you have no fucking class” - Lani Diane Rich

[taperwolf]

I am a big fan of the podcast Still Pretty, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer rewatch by Lani Diane Rich and Noelle LaCroix. They recently hit the oddball episode "Restless", the season 4 closer (the one that's almost entirely dream sequences, the season's Big Bad having been defeated the episode before). They brought up some problems they had with racism and patriarchy in the episode, and while god knows I'm completely unqualified to wade into either of those topics, I'm feeling nonetheless compelled to make a couple of comments anyway. Forewarned and all that. Spoilers, obviously.

Point the first: it struck me that after the First Slayer (portrayed by a black woman; I'm not sure if my theory that she's meant to pre-date human migration out of Africa helps or not) and before the series finale, we see, on-screen, five Slayers. Three are women of color, and those three are all killed by either Spike or Drucilla. Two of those didn't get names when they first appeared. (Nikki Woods, the Slayer Spike killed in New York in the 1970s, gets a name later in the series; the Slayer he killed during the Boxer Rebellion was named Xin Rong in a later comics story.)

Point the second: I don't want to defend Buffy's ending speech, which, at this point in culture, comes off as entitled and full of white privilege. But in the same way that Angel's ethos is summed up in his statement, "If nothing we do matters, then the only thing that matters is what we do," I think Buffy's personal ethos is summed up in one line in her rant:

"I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back."

It's why the weird fifth-season Angel episode that has her, post-series, as just partying in Rome, reads as so unlike her. If she were to wake up one day with all the vampires and demons simply gone, she wouldn't be able to take more than a handful of weeks off before finding a new way to save people.

[hedgehogreads]

“Look,” Shar said, breathing again. “I don’t believe you’re a god.”

“He’s a god,” Wolfie said.

She looked down at him. “I don’t believe you’re talking to me.”

“He’s talking to you,” Samu said.

“Like I’m going to let the two of you vouch for each other.”

 - Dogs and Goddesses, Jennifer Cruise, Anne Stuart, Lani Diane Rich

[doodlebeeberry]

Just put em in a jar and shake em

[levelstory]

https://www.thisisdanielle.net/blog/re-a-statement

[missusgordo]

Hey girl! Is there a theme/character/relationship within the Buffyverse that you wish was discussed more? If you could get people to notice something specific about the shows, that might be otherwise overlooked, what would it be? (I hope this question isn't too weird. It honestly just popped in my head...)

Thank you for sending me an ask! I can always count on you :D

These are such thought-provoking questions too! With regards to the first question, theme/character/relationship within the Buffyverse that I wish was discussed more I would probably go with Giles and Willow’s dynamic. It’s always in the background, never really highlighted and yet I think it was such an important relationship for Willow and I firmly believe that Giles’ absence contributed to Willow’s spiral in season 6. His being at the forefront of her recovery in season 7 feels so significant (even if Giles morphs into some weird non-Giles like character where Buffy is concerned later in the season). I just think they have such a deep connection and I think it’s never really fully appreciated as best I can tell.

You also asked if I could get people to notice something specific about the shows, that might be otherwise overlooked, what would it be? I think the first thing that comes to mind is just really how groundbreaking BtVS was at the time it aired and continues to be today. BtVS fits no specific formula of any other genre. It’s not strictly horror. It’s not strictly comedy. It’s not strictly soapy/romance. Unlike shows of its time and ever since it uses fantasy elements to explore deeper metaphors for all of the characters on the show and for social themes that are relevant even today. For example, Buffy isn’t just fighting random demons of the day. The demons/villains/stories etc typically have a greater significance and meaning for growing up or later in the seasons - adulthood. She doesn’t just have random love interests - every love interest she has on the show is representative of everyday literary tropes or real-life themes. And in a sea of TV shows with the standard ‘monster of the week’ formula, or of comedy, sitcoms, or soapy type shows Buffy truly stands out because it constantly explores symbolism and larger metaphorical themes on a much deeper level. I once heard Lani Diane Rich (podcaster) talk about how she thinks that as time passes BtVS will go down as one of the best works of our time. I know this sounds so pretentious but I gotta say that I wholeheartedly agree. There is a reason that there are actual college courses on BtVS, that there are scholarly articles written on these characters, the dynamics, and the storylines of the show. You can explore the writing on BtVS on a level that you might examine great works of literature. So yeah I guess sometimes I think it’s overlooked just precisely how unique BtVS is and how we have really never seen anything like it since it was created. :)

[writer-at-the-table]

Your character is what your character does.

Lani Diane Rich, How Story Works, episode 1.04  “4. Character in Action,” 45:35-45:37

[wrex-writes]

How do you come up with good plots? Or maybe, how can you learn how to come up with good plots?

This is a vast question! And because plotting long projects is SUPER not my strong suit, I must answer with what other people have already said. Before I do that, though, I think this might be two questions. It could be:

“What makes a plot good, generally?” or

“How do I, personally, get from an idea to a fully developed plot?”

#1: The qualities of good plots

Before I talk about this, I need to emphasize: your story may not have much of a structure until you’re well into the process of writing it, maybe not even until your second (or third) draft. It’s perfectly legit to write a plotless mess without thinking about story principles at all, then shape that mess later into a structured story. That said, here goes.

Every author I link to below says baaasically the same thing, which is that a good plot goes roughly like this:

Beginning: a character is chugging along in their normal life as they normally do

Then something happens that makes “normal life” impossible, forcing them to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do

Now in new and unpredictable territory, the character tries to cope with the problem, but the more they do, the more the problem keeps thwarting them, or the more new problems come up, constantly spinning them off in directions they didn’t expect

Eventually they face a decisive challenge, and how they deal with it determines whether they’re going to be okay or not

Once the chips have fallen on one side or the other, the character copes with the aftermath and we see what their “new normal” looks like

People will tell you that all stories follow this basic structure, unless the story is deliberating fucking with you. (See: absurdist theater.) Here are a few folks who go into greater detail:

How Story Works, a podcast by author Lani Diane Rich

Pixar’s Storytelling Rules (a lot of people have elaborated on these ideas, which you can find by googling “Pixar story rules”)

Story Structure: A Basic How To by a wonderful writer I know, @pro-antagonist

A HUUUUGE list of plot structure resources if you want to read everything on the internet about this (many of these also talk about about how to plot - see #2 below)

#2: The practical work of plotting

That’s all well and good, but when you start a story, you don’t want to instantly force a structure on it. You won’t even know how you’d do this, initially. You’ll probably need to explore the idea and not worry about the plot for a while. But once you’ve done this exploring, most people will tell you that plotting begins with the following decisions, not necessarily in this order:

Who is your main character?

What kind of world do they inhabit?

What problem do they face?

How you decide these things depends on your initial idea for the story. If you started with an idea for a fantasy world, you might ask, “What is the worst situation that could arise in this world?” And once you’ve got that, you can ask, “Who would be the most interesting person to put in that bad situation?”

If on the other hand you start with an idea for a character, you might first figure out what “normal life” looks like for them, and then think of an event that could throw the biggest possible wrench into that life.

Some people start with the problem. They’ll say, “I want to tell a story about someone with magical powers who is tempted to use those powers destructively.” Then they ask who the most interesting person might be to face that problem. Okay, maybe a suburban mom. What might tempt her? Maybe some mundane life tragedy, like the bank is foreclosing on her house. Or maybe her old magic cronies show up and threaten to upend her quiet life. Or maybe she’s bored with her quiet life. Whatever it is, she hasn’t used her magic in the past because she wanted a normal life, but then this problem comes up and she sees no other way to handle it. This then creates new problems, and things escalate until, I dunno, she has conjured a demon and has to figure out how to banish it while also saving her house from foreclosure.

So the writer has the skeleton of a plot by now. Then they might look at it and ask, “what do I think this story is really about?” What is its theme? Maybe it’s about how each ordinary person has extraordinary powers locked inside them but most of us are too afraid to let them out. Maybe it’s about the massive anger people feel toward arbitrary societal forces that can ruin their lives, like sub-prime mortgages. Maybe it’s about how people’s desires for a normal, quiet life can conceal a secret longing to burn everything to the ground. As the writer gets a clearer idea of what the story’s about, they can shape the plot in more detail to express that theme.

The writer might ask another question: who is the antagonist? Maybe it’s the bank. Maybe it’s the magic itself. Maybe at the climax of the story, our main character chooses to stop treating her magic as an evil temptation and starts using it to destroy things that need to be destroyed, like shady mortgage lenders. Asking “who is my antagonist?” is just another way of asking “what is the real conflict facing my character?” If the antagonist is the bank, the story’s main conflict is a society that can destroy people’s lives without consequence versus a lady who refuses to accept that anymore. If the antagonist is the magic, then the conflict is internal - it’s about this lady fighting against the potential we all have to cause great good or great harm and finding out what happens when we let it loose. The conflict the writer chooses will determine how the plot goes.

Here are some people who go into greater depth on the process of building a plot from a basic idea:

Story Grid is a course you have to pay for, but the site has plenty of free articles too

The Snowflake Method, which I got from this post by @englishable

The “OH NO WAIT!” method, as I now think of it, described by @sageandginger

Plotters vs. Pantsers, terms you’ll hear a lot in discussions of how writers build plots

Inductive vs. Deductive Storytelling, an alternative to the plotter/pantser model

I confess I haven’t read widely on plotting and story structure, so my rec list is thin. Please, followers, suggest plot resources that have helped you!