#authors in conversation

[iamnmbr3]

Really wish people could learn the difference between a plot hole and a character making a mistake. Just because the character messed up doesn’t mean the author did.

[wellesleybooks]

Don’t miss these two wonderful authors in conversation Wednesday, April 25th, at 7pm.

[thatsbelievable]

[pygmi-says-hi]

writing tips - banter

I LOVE BANTER WE ALL LOVE BANTER HIP HIP HOORAYYYY!!

Banter is a lovely addition to dialogue between characters. It means a lot of different things - sass, genuine insults, flirting....all sorts of options.

But overusing banter can make conversations sound circular. It's a fun 'fluffy' piece of dialogue, but doesn't do the best job conveying plot.

Pedantry vs teasing

Pedantic speech is basically nit-picking. Somebody who can't bear to let anything slide, no matter how small. This is an interesting character trait and one that adds depth, but if it's unintentional it sounds frustrating. Sassy characters are fun, especially when they go off in an inner monologue.

If a character has a quip for everything, it adds a layer of whiny-ness. Sarcasm is a fun way to tease and complain. Constant complaining gets on a reader's nerves after a while. Soon there becomes so much commentary it's hard to dissect what is actually being described.

Unless your OC has no sense of social boundaries, there's usually a break in between jokes to read the room.

How do I know when enough is enough?

Think about the character. If they have that wonderfully sardonic rapport with their peers, that's great! Why do they act like that? Is it a sense of humor? Is there a running joke? When you incorporate the banter, keep it in the confines of those parameters. It'll still enrich the conversation without overwhelming it.

It's a learning curve!!!!!

I like to do it this way:

write the dialogue as banter-y and indulgent as possible. When the scene is finished, I reread and pick out the really funny bits and discard the rest or move it to a different scene.

Sometimes those indulgent character moments help the really good stuff push to the front of your mind. Go for it! You know your story better than anybody else; if it's telling your story the way you want, that's all that matters.

[elegantmarigold]

Gwen said "Lena won't be as laid back as I am about this" with so much confidence and then left the room thinking she handled that so well, completely oblivious to the atmosphere of the room. this woman has never read a social cue a day in her life and I sincerely hope it stays that way.

[morganbritton132]

Eddie posts a Tiktok that starts with him wedging himself between Steve and Wayne on the couch. He gives Steve a smile that all mischief as he says, “You know what being in Wayne trailer reminds me of?”

Steve, who knows what that kind of smile means: Don’t

Eddie: Remember before Wayne knew we were dating-

Wayne: *scoffs at the notion that there was a time before he knew they were dating*

Eddie, rolling his eyes: Okay, fine. Wayne always knew because we were super obvious, whatever. He has excellent gaydar. Before we told Wayne.

Eddie: Steve would stay over a lot and if a Wayne wasn’t working, he’s sleep on the couch so he didn’t suspect nothin.’ That was the arrangement until Wayne said…

Eddie, in his Wayne-ist voice: Eddie, get your boy in your room so I can hear myself think at night.

Eddie: ‘Cause you know, Steve snores and it was keeping Wayne up.

Steve: I didn’t snore back then!

Eddie: You definitely did, but my point is. Talk about the quietest blow-

Steve, smacking Eddie’s arm: Shut up! That’s not- We did not! Ever. Not where - So, just be quiet.

There’s a beat of silence and Wayne turns the page in the newspaper he was reading. Then he says completely straight-faced “Sure was a squeaky bed” and Eddie busts out laughing.

Steve just leaves.

[wolfgirliosef]

it’s so funny she just had this ready to go. if *I* were ivan the terrible i would’ve done it SO MUCH BETTER.

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

In Conversation, What Can Trip Up an Autistic Person?

Pete Wharmby, Autistic Author

[infighter]

Actually really sucks that gaming conversations have been hijacked by anti-woke people and we need to spend basically the entire time defending games from their dumbass rhetoric that we can’t afford to criticize the things that are actually wrong bc otherwise theyll latch onto them and use it to be further annoying

[coldemergency]

Ron: Wow, get a load of this guy lol

Tom: He already has

Harry: …Tom… don’t

Tom: Multiple times in fact. Sometimes more than once if you get my drift

Harry: omg

Ron:

Ron: I regret everything that has led to this moment in time

[sophiamcdougall]

Sorry if I come off as fanatical, but I do have a LOT of questions regarding the Mars Evacuees universe. So I'll just ask them one at a time, if that's alright. First question: would you ever reconsider writing a third book?

It's been long enough now that I don't think there's any reason not to give the frank answer to this question.

I did consider it. I had a plot worked out. Unfortunately these things aren't always (or often) up to us.

The initial contract was for two books.

Around the time the first book was coming out, I wrote this incredibly mild feminist piece in the New Statesman about the gender discrepancy in bookshop displays and how it made me feel.

And then a certain prominent bookshop chain threatened me. It let my publicist know it didn't want me in its shops to promote my book, because it didn't know what I might do. And then, it decided not to carry the second book, which basically guaranteed it would not sell well.

Maybe those things are unrelated, but it certainly didn't feel like it. My agent and publisher largely abandoned me, (it didn't help at all that my initial editor, who loved the book, had sadly been away with cancer for much of this period) and as sales were obviously disappointing, there was no question of a new contract for a third book. And that's why I haven't published a book since. Aside from the direct damage to my career, the emotional impact was such that I think I'm only over it now. It made it so much worse that when you have a book coming out, you have to be positive about it in public pretty much no matter what is actually happening. It feels like gaslighting yourself. Now, when I talk about this, even people I consider close friends who knew me at the time tell me they had no idea.

I quite recently had a dream in which I was talking to a fellow woman writer I won't name who has been through somewhat similar shit, and heard myself saying, "It's taken a long time, but I think I've healed."

Which might be true. But it did take ten years.

[spearxwind]

Hello everyone I need your help. You need to help me give a name to this fucking thing:

for context this is a very small crop from an AI generated picture. For some reason the AI saw fit to make this little staring freak with pink gucci boots a crucial detail.

it just has me so utterly captivated that I cant stop thinking about it. I have made fanart of this thing. And now I want to make it into a character. Not anything serious, just a recurring visual gag. But it needs a name

I was thinking something silly sounding like 'bingus' 'squingo' 'scrung' and stuff like that but a more unique one. But also it would be extremely funny if it was called 'rupert' or some shit equivalent.

PLEASE I would love input of any kind on this. Thank you.

[thatsbelievable]

[overthinkinglotr]

Inspired by the trash homophobic conservative poll that was going around recently:

[randomshyperson]

Do you even get burned out writing for Wanda?

Naah, I get fucking sad and angry she isn't written with the same amount of love and appreciation through canon stuff.

Have you see the what if new game? She's a villain in there again. Now I don't know who tf decided that the manipulative physco who destroys universe on daily bases was Wanda's real motto but I was so mad at this crap! Ever since Multiverse of Madness and the sexist arc they wrote for her, there's a common and mistaken understanding that Wanda will go nuts now and then and kill people just to get what she wants. Marvel really went with the crazy woman trope and I fucking hate it. Wanda is a selflessness good hearted Avenger. She goes from traumatic event to traumatic event but even when she mess things up she always make amends. She's too powerful for her own sake and because she keep losing everyone sometimes her grief takes the better our of her. But she is never this evil manipulative person Marvel male writers/producers seems determined to make out of her.

I'm really hoping that if Wanda comes back, they either change those misogynistics arcs, or the character should just stay dead. I feel like the reverse thing happened to Natasha, she was over sexualized all years, barely had any screen time and when it was time to say goodbye to Scarlet, we got Black Widow Solo Movie which gave us the best version of Natasha. Wanda was already pretty incredible (even with the lack of development or screen time) then got the best Marvel show only for the producers to destroy her character for the sake of the male lead story. I'm tired of this shit, happens with almost every female character and it's so exhausting.

[disastergenius]

by far the worst take i've seen so far post-ep19 of Junior Year is that having a week-by-week live play would have allowed fans to essentially influence the direction of the story in the way they want it to go and that would have resulted in the cast being more sympathetic to the Ratgrinders (ie getting them a redemption arc)

why do you feel the need to try and control this story? YOU ARE NOT THE ONE TELLING IT. if you want to tell a story please go write your own, or go write fanfiction to cope or whatever but you don't get to say that the players are telling the story wrong when it's their story they are telling