#and the books are first person POV

[zipadeea]

Just gonna say to all my very excited Percy Jackson friends, whilst you're waiting impatiently for the new episode a week from now, that if you are perhaps interested in watching and reading a British version of Percabeth and a solid and wonderful trio who go on ghostly quests around London and save the world, you should check out Lockwood & Co. on Netflix. It already got canceled, which is tragic, but the season that exists is an incredible adaptation of the first two books in the series, and the book series as a whole is fantastic. Rick Riordan is quoted on all the covers of my copies, talking about how great he thinks they are.

[semperintrepida]

What I encounter in workshops and drafts and sometimes even in published pages is a cooly objective first-person narration, stories and novels told from an I lacking both explanatory power and the impulse toward explication itself. The deracinated I is a filmic projection, dancing on cinema’s halogenic glow, but lacking the charisma and poetic force of cinema qua cinema. The first-person narrator without interiority, subtext, and indeed the very capacity for thought or judgement is the purest expression of the passivity that organizes much of contemporary life. This passivity extends from the realm of the aesthetic into the realms of the personal and the political. We have a generation of writers who have watched more movies, television, and footage of human life than they have experienced of that life firsthand. Even their understanding and experience of their own inner lives originates in skits, memes, and video essays. They have no philosophers or prophets. They have YouTubers and influencers, and in this shallow, highly processed and highly mediated experience of consciousness, there is no thought. Merely the telepathic beaming of image from the screen to the interior of the person’s mind.

—Brandon Taylor, "against casting tape fiction"

[wylansvanhendriks]

there’s actually something so personal about how bc the books are from lucy’s pov it’s very easy to tell how she feels about lockwood vs the show giving us lockwood’s perspective and making it very easy to tell how he feels about lucy

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Gods Below

high fantasy, start of a series

a world in ruins after a divine war, which ended with one god taking over and slowly spreading magical Restoration - rejuvenating the land, but transforming any any humans who survive

follows two sisters who are separated when the Restoration sweeps through their home: one who becomes a sinkhole miner, collecting precious gems, who becomes part of a resistance when she discovers she can channel the magic from them

and her younger sister who becomes changed, and is rescued by a woman who trains her into a devoted godkiller, hunting down all other remaining gods

as well as an inventor traveling deep into the earth with his best friend, in hopes of finding the gods’ realm to find a cure for her sickness, and his cousin, searching for a way to restore her family’s ruined reputation

and a god far in the past, at the beginning of the war

bi, aro, m/f & f/f

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Lmao some people don’t like first person stories because “they wouldn’t do the things told in the stories”?? Do you not see first person stories as someone telling you the story, someone recounting the events to you, or is this just about Y/N reader fics where you’re meant to insert yourself in the POV character’s place!???????

[peach-pot]

if you have an explanation for why please please share it!

[coquelicoq]

the virginia woolf reading experience

oh god what is this syntax. brb i need to apologize to the french

[stare off into space thinking about free indirect speech and her utter mastery of narration and the complexity of thought she is able to transfer, and how the absolutely batshit syntax is part of how she achieves this]

[stare off into space thinking about the nature of consciousness]

the books that are masterpieces to me are those that cause a feeling of such profound unity in every paragraph that you want to run into the street and shout its sentences to people (to say, hey, this author gifted me a piece of the world's substance made manifest in language, and i received it, look at me receive it, and now you receive it, let me watch you receive it), but are nearly impossible to extract from because to remove any passage from the ecosystem the author has created for it/out of it would be to remove its potency. because the content and the form are so inextricable from each other and from all that comes before and after

[stare off into space thinking about the miracle and limits of human connection to other humans & the void & mystery & death & history & posterity & suffering & love & understanding & smallness & bigness & entropy]

[cry]

[tennessoui]

new wip wednesday

i wanted to get the first chapter of this done as an early bday present to me because ive been talking about this fic for foreverrrrr but its not gonna happen because im bad at measuring time and effort 😮‍💨 but look! hunger games au fic!

Anakin pushes his face into his neck, letting his lips press against his pulse for a moment. 

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan murmurs, recognition and warning rolled into one tone. 

But Anakin wouldn’t be who he is if he allowed the man in his arms to so easily twist away. He wouldn’t even be here now, pressed up against him with the scent of saltwater and lilacs and leather filling his nose, if he let one warning word distract him from his goal.

So instead he pushes further, wraps his hands around Obi-Wan’s hips and takes the skin beneath his lips between his teeth. The soft fabric of their pants brush together, so loud in the stillness of the kitchen that it’s deafening—that it’s almost loud enough to drown out the catch in Obi-Wan’s breathing.

But Anakin has trained himself over the past five years to listen for all the small ways that Obi-Wan Kenobi capitulates, so he hears his sigh, feels the slump of his shoulders against his own as his head sways forward and then back.

Anakin takes his time worrying a bitemark into his neck, just at the edge of his beard. On the holos that will film Obi-Wan’s face today, it’ll look like a shadow. 

But Anakin will know. Obi-Wan will know. 

“Anakin,” his lover murmurs, and Anakin’s hand moves from his waist up to stroke down his arm, corded with tense muscle. Fisherman’s muscle. Victor’s muscle too.

Not today, he means. It’s obvious in every line of his body. It’s obvious in the fact that he left the bed so early in the morning when neither of them must work. It’s obvious in the distance in his eyes, the frown across his lips.

Today is not a day where Obi-Wan will accept pleasure from anyone’s lips or hands, undeserving as he feels to be on the receiving end of such a kindness.

Anakin’s left hand falls to cover Obi-Wan’s, tangling their fingers together. His are rougher than Obi-Wan’s, working man’s hands now that he is twenty-one and a man of the sea like most are on Stewjon. The rough drag of his calluses over the hairy knuckles of Obi-Wan’s hand makes Anakin swallow a smile. Victors of the Hunger Games are forbidden from working laborious jobs. They’re meant to languish away in their Coruscanti-funded manors, with idle minds and idle hands, picking at paints or design stencils or any number of different government approved hobbies

Obi-Wan Kenobi is not made to be idle. He has no patience for painting or sewing, for cooking or jewelry design. Luckily for him, Stewjon is the fourth planet from Coruscant, on the edge of the inner rim, and it’s rather small, rather ordinary. In the colder months, during the few months of the star year where the galaxy is not forced to care about the Hunger Games and its Victors, he can slip away to the ocean. Fish and sail like he was born to do, Stewjoni through and through.

But Anakin is out on those choppy seas year-round now that he’s four years finished with his compulsory education. His hands are rougher than Obi-Wan’s and they always will be.

Anakin likes it. Likes the way Obi-Wan’s softness contrasts against his own rougher places. Likes that he can sneak away from Obi-Wan’s manor in the blue of the pre-dawn light, first to the sea and then to the market, and Obi-Wan will be there when he gets back. Likes that when he leaves, his lover is curled up asleep in their bed. And when he returns with the fattest fish from his haul, Anakin can cook it for him too. 

He likes that he is the only thing Obi-Wan needs. He provides. He cooks for him. He feeds him. He touches him with his rough hands, to dirty him and then to clean him up. Everything that Obi-Wan needs, Anakin is the person to give it to him.

He supposes he has Coruscant to thank for that.

He’s not stupid enough to say that—ever, but especially today. Especially on the day of the Reaping. 

[flythesail]

Writing Qimir starter pack:

Head tilts

Asking questions instead of answering

The occasional smirk and/or inappropriately timed smile

[gossippool]

random ramble but one thing i love that probably has gone unnoticed because i also don't notice it at all when reading is playing with tenses. like the OPPORTUNITIES... in my six of crows fic i wrote every pov in the present tense besides one character because he's stuck in the past (and i intended to switch it to the present tense once everything was resolved in the end but i don't think i'll ever finish it 😭😭😭 in my dreams ig). in unhappy man syndrome the first two happy chapters are in past tense and the Bad chapter is in present tense because happiness doesn't last (for them (or so they think)). ok that's depressing but like i love language i love playing with it and i just know people have probably come up with so many other ways to use tenses and punctuation and syntax and everything else and it's just so funnnn. anyway i don't think anyone noticed either but it sparks joy for me to know it's there. or whatever marie kondo said

[ggardengirl]

GGardengirl's Guide to Choosing Perspective & Tense When Writing Fiction

because for some reason, i felt like writing an essay. (word count: 1974)

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First Person: Give Me a Reason, Pretty Please

I don’t think I have written a single thing in first person since I was in middle school, but that is because I mainly write fic. First person fic is generally a turn off for most readers (me included) and I think that’s because first person is such an intimate perspective.

You, the writer, aren’t just writing about a character, you are becoming the character, so that we, the reader, can become the character too. If it is not your original work you’re writing about, then it can feel weird and out of character when we read it, because it implies an intimate knowledge the layman (laystan, if you will) doesn’t have when it comes to the source material. And even if you do know the source material inside and out, and have a serious grasp on the characters, fic readers are not likely to take a chance on it—so keep that in mind, if you’re thinking about first person for a fic. It can be done, and it can be done well, but just keep that in mind, so you know what you’re getting into! 

(This ONLY applies to fic. If you’re writing an original story, I don’t think you need to have any worries about choosing first person, because they are your characters, and it is your story. You can do whatever the fuck you want with them, and no one can say it’s out of character. Now, onto my main thought about first person.) 

First person reads as a real time internal monologue—these are thoughts being thought for the very first time, as something happens, not after. Because of this, it should mainly be used with present tense, unless there is a narrative reason for past tense, such as the protagonist writing the book they exist in. 

Think: Percy Jackson and the Olympians—We are supposed to read the books as if Percy himself is the one who is writing them, not Rick Riordan. (It’s kind of a mixed perspective, because he does address us, the reader, which is direct address, but it’s still first person. The audience is only really referred to as an aside.)

We know this, because Percy straight up tells us it’s a book in the second sentence of The Lightning Thief:

“If you're reading this because you think you might be [a half-blood], my advice is: close this book right now.”

Percy is writing down his story, so that future demigods can learn from his experience. Everything that happens in PJO has technically already happened. Future Percy is telling us how Past Percy felt in those moments, while also having the gift of hindsight, and being able to know what is important and what’s not. (One could argue that this would make it present tense, but Present Percy isn’t telling us what’s happening in the current moment. The story is still set in the past.) 

It can feel weird to read something in past tense when the narrative doesn’t call for it, because it makes me wonder: who is the protagonist narrating for? If the story isn’t happening in the moment, are they just sitting somewhere, going through their past beat by beat in their mind?

“I did [BLANK],” “I thought [BLANK],” —why are they rehashing their own thoughts? And why are we, the reader, being told their past thoughts? Give us a reason!

This is just my personal opinion—there doesn’t technically need to be an in-universe reason for first person being past tense. There’s no hard and fast rule. But I find it distracting to read, and I think it’s something to be aware of—the last thing you want as a writer is for your reader to be stuck on storytelling logistics, and not the actual story. 

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Third Person: Flexible as Hell 

Third person is a lot more malleable. It can be past or present, but it’s still good to think through your choice of tense and whether or not it should be omniscient or limited. You want to choose something that helps serve the story, and doesn’t hinder it.  

Past tense omniscient makes it clear right off the bat that the story being told is a work of fiction. It’s very storybook-esque; very Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, and all that. You don’t need an explicit narrator to make this work, but this is where an explicit narrator works the best—think: The Book Thief, and how it’s narrated by Death. (Once again, one could argue this is technically first person, but since Death isn't actually in the story, he's just telling it, it is seen as third person.)

It works similar to Percy Jackson—everything we are being told has already happened, and the narrator is telling us what happened for a reason. There is a purpose in this specific story being told—we want to read on, so we can find that purpose. 

Present tense omniscient feels more like a movie/live action. We, the reader, are watching the events unfold. These things are happening now, and we are witnessing it. And, like a movie, we see a fuller version of events, because we aren’t only seeing through the eyes of one person. We are watching from a third party camera; a bird’s eye view—not straight through a character’s eyes. If you want your story to feel like a movie, this is probably the way to go. 

Limited and limited omniscient POV’s work in the same way. Both focus on the direct view of a protagonist; we see what they see—limited omniscience just means you add more characters to the mix. This is typically what I choose to write in, but I oscillate frequently between past and present tense with different stories, sometimes with no rhyme or reason. If it’s a book I’m writing fic for, I tend to use whatever tense the book was written in, but otherwise, it’s just based on vibes. 

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Second Person: Criminally Underutilized, Terminally Misunderstood

Second person is…complicated. Which is understandable—it can be weird to read, and tricky to write. I understand why people tend to write second person off, but I think that’s a huge loss for them. Because when second person works, it fucking works. 

Second person works best in the present tense. I think of it like there’s an omniscient overlord who’s describing your—the protagonist’s—life in real time, as it actually happens. Past tense feels weird because why is the overlord telling you what you did? You already did it—you should know. 

SIDENOTE: (spoilers for Harrow the Ninth)

This is the exception to the previous statement. Second person past tense can work, but only if the story is lying to you and is secretly first person direct address. It works when I, a secondary protagonist, am narrating what happened to you, the main protagonist, while I was hidden in your body like a parasite after you lobotomized yourself in the name of love, and you need some clarification of events after the fact. This, and only this, is when it works. (Please read The Locked Tomb series. I’m begging you.)

BACK TO THE POINT:

You can write in second person no matter what the story is about, but I think the real beauty in second person comes through when it’s being used for a reason. I’ve found that it works best in character explorations, and stories where the main character has complicated feelings surrounding their identity. Second person detaches you from the world; it adds a degree of separation from the self that you can’t get with any other perspective. 

For example: there’s a wonderful jackieshauna fic by britishngay on AO3, called memento mori, that’s set in Ancient Rome. The entire story is set in second person, and while reading it, I realized that it couldn’t be written any other way and still work the way it was meant to.

(Spoilers for the entire fic—feel free to come back, but it's still worth reading even knowing what I'm about to say) 

In memento mori, Shauna is a former butcher whose home is destroyed and is taken to Rome. In Rome, she’s forced to be a gladiator, and to go by the name of “Butcher.” 

Shauna is robbed of her identity as “Shauna.” She keeps her name as a secret just for herself, because it’s the only thing she has that’s still hers—the only thing that has yet to be stolen. She takes on the persona of “Butcher.”

“‘Far from home, it’s the Butcher of Gaul!’ The announcer yells and the gate starts to rise. The anxiety in your gut reaches an all-time high before dropping to nothing, you detach yourself from you, the girl from the woman, the rebel to the gladiator, Shauna from the butcher.”

Butcher is violent, ruthless; an amalgamation of the audience’s desires. But she can’t be anything other than Butcher, because Shauna died when her home did. 

“‘Butcher?’ [Jackie] asks, tentative and for a second you forgot that that’s how she knows you, that that’s your name, your identity here. It’s Shauna, my name is Shauna. You almost say but it gets quelled by your head. Nothing else, nothing more.”

It’s only as her relationship with Jackie grows, and she feels like she can open up to her, that she tells Jackie her real name, and then eventually Van. By the end of the story, she’s reclaimed her identity as Shauna all together.

“‘My name is Shauna.’ You tell [Van], in case you don’t make it. She’s probably your closest friend here, and you want someone else to say it, so you can hear it one more time before you go out there, in case." "It’s nice to hear it. You’re enjoying hearing it said again, by people you trust.”

The story works the way it does, and has the impact it does because of the perspective it’s in. There is no other way it could work.

Third person wouldn’t work: Shauna would have to be referred to by name—but the narrative can’t refer to her as Shauna, because she isn’t Shauna, she’s Butcher. But she’s not entirely Butcher, because that would mean she’d completely erased her identity as Shauna. 

First person wouldn’t work either. It would solve the problem of how to refer to Shauna, but it wouldn’t serve the narrative—it wouldn’t show the disconnect she has when it comes to who she is and the things she is doing. First person is far too personal, too intimate, and she has walls up for everyone around her, even herself. Shauna can’t invite an audience into her internal monologue when she doesn’t even let herself into it. 

Which leaves only second person. When Shauna’s real name is mentioned, when we see Shauna call herself “Shauna,” or her friends call her “Shauna,” it feels important. It’s important, because it’s only ever mentioned those few times—only 34 times is the word “Shauna” written. “Butcher” is written 81 times. 

Writing from a second person perspective gets me into a character’s head more than any other perspective. It plays a weird trick on my brain, where I start to feel like I am the “you” I’m writing about. There is something about how matter of fact it feels to write something like, “You walk down the street. You feel broken inside,” that makes me go: “Huh. I guess I’m walking down the street and feel broken inside.” Shit makes me feel weird, but I love it. 

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No matter what perspective or tense you choose to use, remember this: writing is fun! It is meant to be fun! Don't torture yourself with this stuff if it makes writing not fun—talking about technical things and writing strategies is just how writing is fun for me.

Happy writing!

xoxo, lulu ‪‪❤︎‬

(TLDR: first person past tense needs a reason, third person is a jack of all trades, and second person is kinda cool, actually.)

[too-young-to-fall-in-love]

Seven Sentence Sunday

thanks for the tags, @justabigoldnerd and @pippinoftheshire!💕

here's a lil snippet from my When I Kissed the Teacher-inspired retelling of the ear-pulling incident

The office light glints off the damning gold band on his professor’s finger. It is impossible to deny the ache in his heart at the sight of it. There is no way he will ever be able to admit to himself the implications of such a feeling, however, because the yearning for his professor burns in his veins whenever he considers it for too long. Van Helsing’s hand moves to open the door when John opens his traitorous mouth to say something stupid. He is stalling for time, surely, it is that he is painfully aware of the fact, but the warmth of his professor’s presence is something he refuses to give up for the world. Yes, he knows that he is being shown the door because Van Helsing has another meeting in a few short minutes, but there is a part of him that would not mind sitting in on the meeting if only to be close to his professor. He knows that this is impossible, that what he wishes to do is kneel by his professor’s side. 

no-pressure tagging @fandom-meet-fanthem, @yallwildinrn, @heytheredeann, @prettyboynapoleonsolo, @cha-melodius, and anyone else who'd like to do this!💕

[twicetolivetwicetodie]

I'm glad I read Chalice of the Gods right after Blood of Olympus since it does come next chronologically. Plus it really puts into perspective all Percy's fears and anxieties this book. All that being said he's still not nearly fucked up enough by Tartarus considering how recent it was. He should at least still be having flashbacks like he was at the end of House of Hades.

The only way I can justify it is he's majorly compartmentalizing. Him saying Tartarus just made him and Annabeth stronger is not a healthy mindset plus him thinking Grover almost getting dragged into Tartarus left emotional scars but not feeling the same for his own Tartarus trauma is really telling

[yuwuta]

do y’all read fiction/romance books?? any that you like or recommend because all i know other than the classics are things i’ve seen on booktok and i do not trust them or anything with a corporate art style and handwriting script font on the cover