#film inspired plots

[writingwithfolklore]

Fortunately, Unfortunately

                I recently shared my first 30 pages with my writing mentor, and now I’m telling you all the advice she gave me (this is part 4! Part 1 is here, 2 here, and 3 here.)

                One big misstep of how my plot gets into motion at the beginning is what she called “a series of random events.” They were plot points that happened next to each other, but otherwise didn’t impact each other. They were dominoes spaced too far apart.

                She wanted me to tighten up the plot so that from the very first moment, everything impacts everything else. From the first push, each domino falls in tandem.

                The exercise she used to teach us when she was mentoring me as a kid was called “fortunately, unfortunately.” It’s made to help you answer how each plot point leads into the next. It looks like this:

                Unfortunately, Character A gets a note from their estranged uncle inviting them to his mansion for the summer. (inciting incident)

                Fortunately, they’re allowed to bring a friend with them!

                Unfortunately, when they get there, the uncle screams that the friend is possessed.

                Fortunately, they’re both allowed to stay anyway.

                Unfortunately, that night, Character A catches their friend sleepwalking as they build an altar to some unknown god.

                Etc. Etc.

                From the very first domino (the inciting incident) in which the world pushes at the character, everything else falls in place afterwards. This allows you to maintain momentum throughout your novel, and hooks your reader from point to point.

                Good luck!

[miss0atae]

Still trying to find a tie between everything that happened in the second episode of 4Minutes and the near death experiences they talked about in the first episode.

I appreciate all the theories others have made on the series, but I need Den to appear again and give me more info about it. Why is Great having this power if he never experienced NDE in the first episode? Or has he already experienced it and it wasn't shown yet? I feel like it doesn't have to be him who experiences them, but all the others.

The lady was trying to kill herself and he went back to the past. Same for Dome, he was being beaten to death by Title and Great came back 4 minutes before it happened. However, it doesn't work when it comes to Tyme. So it makes him special. Is it only because he is his future love interest? Can't be that easy... There is something more with Tyme that we don't know yet and I don't think it's just because of the last minute of the episode.

This series is truly making me elaborating harebrained theories.

I'm watching it like it's the BL version of Minority Report. Instead of John Anderton, predicting he is going to murder a man whom he has never heard of and , I have Great predicting he is going to sleep with Tyme.

[the-generous-fool]

Plot twist: animals as we see them are a small physical manifested portion of far richer spirit creatures capable of the same or greater intelligence than we are, but humans are the only species to have most or all of their intelligence in the physical portion of themselves.

[feigeroman]

Saturday Movie Night: The Third Sam (1962/1999)

Stanley Holloway narrates this comical tale of Sam Smith - an old steam man who readily takes to the new world of electric traction. One day, something goes wrong, and with the nearest station miles away, Sam is forced to sort the problem out on his own. Like most people, so we are told, Sam has two or three sides to his character: First Sam just doesn't give a damn; Second Sam gives too much of a damn; but what about Third Sam...?

As a bonus, I've included the unofficial privatisation-era remake, made for South West Trains in 1999, and with the storytelling reins now being held by the late great Bernard Cribbins:

[go-go-devil]

Reblog Game: Give us a brand new theory that "finally explains" the plot of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

[mariocki]

Night School (Terror Eyes, 1981)

"There's been another killing."

"Mmm."

"That doesn't seem to surprise you."

"When man kills for the sake of killing, there's no reason why he should stop."

"Do you really believe that man can go out and kill, just like that?"

"Why not? You see, animals kill when they're hungry or when they're threatened. But man is the only animal who destroys his own kind for the sheer pleasure of it."

[jakes3resin]

Modern Reincarnation AU really is just me looking at stills and gifsets of Callum in 'Only Living Boy in New York' and saying this is perfect I could write a snippet about this! Him in glasses? It's powerful

There is an plot for Modern Reincarnation AU buried somewhere in all this. I mean I know where I'm going I'm just choosing to take detours to get there instead of the direct route.

Cause come on, tell me these don't make you want to write a billion words about him just living his nerdy life while everyone around him freaks out that he doesn't remember his past life???

[poems-of-a-lover]

anybody interested in a rwrb rendition of notting hill. would anyone else find that silly.

[writingwithfolklore]

Momentum

              Momentum can be tricky to spot, but very important to keep track of if you’re writing a longer piece. It relates heavily to pacing, but across scenes and chapters—like the overall pacing of the story.

              It might make it easier to track if you keep a quick note on each scene and the order they go in, ala:

1. Mandy and Richard go to the store and talk about his mom. 2. The nurse discovers Richard’s mom has escaped her bed again. 3. Mandy's boss writes her up for missing work.

              When you read them in order, you’ll be able to tell at a glance where the story progresses naturally as well as how ‘quickly’ or ‘slowly’ the plot is moving.

              Recently I came across an issue in my manuscript where the main plot was really picking up to close in on the finale, but because of a character’s arc I had planned, the momentum of the whole thing came screeching to a stop. I had to pivot from the exciting plot stuff to deal with a conflict with his friend, and even though it was very important for both of their arcs, it totally ruined the momentum of the final chapters.

              So instead, I reworked the scene and his arc so that the plot could continue on in the background while he still accomplished the goal of the scene. It looked different than how I initially planned, but it allowed for the story to maintain that forward movement while still wrapping up their arcs.

              A lot of momentum (just like pacing) comes down to intuition. It may be helpful to ask someone (such as me!) to read over your work and let you know if it ever feels like it’s dragging at points, or really racing ahead.

              Good luck!

[blossompoet]

Finally (I guess) watched the first Twilight movie - my bf and I played a little drinking game and here´s a silly spread about it

[angclnumber]

after watching love lies bleeding i am in now in desperate need of crime sapphics so pls like if interested and i will slide into your dms < 3

[soft-serve-soymilk]

Wow I love asshole gay people (things have ALIGNED in the ASTRAL PLANE and Pav is WATCHING SOMETHING?? 🤯)

[m0tel6mxzzy]

[shiversdownyourspleen]

Stories where the villains are right in that the system is broken and needs to change, however they go about it the wrong way and in the end the protagonist recognises the flaws in both the system and the villains' approach, and works to enact more positive changes to the system

[revclations]

if ur gonna post spoilers at least tag them lol

"hi could u tag spoilers please" would have worked just fine?

[writingwithfolklore]

I was reading your character plot post and was curious about what to do if a character doesn't have an unconcious need.

Apologies in advance for the information dump.

My character, Rehema, has a job where she has to be a neutral party in the affairs of people-living or dead. And she can be aloof, a workaholic, and awkward in social interactions.

So my current character plot looks like this:

Objective: Solving a murder

Goal: wants to see justice and put a soul to rest

I want to say her unconcious need is to understand normal people interactions, but I'm not sure.

Any advice if it's not too much trouble?

Hi! That's one of my favourite posts :-)

So from what I can tell from her goal is that she's really invested in justice and maybe that means she can be a bit "black and white", so her unconscious need is that life has more nuance--or shades of grey, and that justice isn't always realistic or executed in a satisfying way.

An unconscious need is kind of the starting point of their arc. It's something they need to realize, or a way they need to change by the end of the story that will help them grow past their flaw, so it's directly related to what's wrong with their life or their thinking.

If we were to go by your example, maybe she's socially awkward because she thinks that everyone around her is super judgmental of her every move and it makes her clam up. Her need in that case would be to realize that other people aren't as harsh on her as she is on herself.

It's very internal and unique to every character. Consider why your character struggles with interactions with others, and if it's something that's just part of them, or stems from a place they can heal/grow from. If it's just part of them, no amount of realizations is going to make it any different.

I hope that makes sense! Let me know if you need more help :-)