#how to write angst

[urfriendlywriter]

20 angsty romance prompts part 2

(feel free to use <33 tag me when yall writeeee)

crying in your lover's arms

^ face buried in their chest, while their heart breaks at your every sob :(

"i wish i loved you less." but it is spat at the other person angrily, immediately being regretted after the words leave their mouth.

watching them cry and not knowing what to do (ouch-)

"why do you love me when you know i can't- shouldn't love you back?"

"you messed me up, you fcked me over and what- how dare i? how dare fckn you!"

"i am sorry. i am so so.. so.. sorry. please.. let me go."

"don't you dare do this to me- No! No, no, no, no- nono, hey, please!!"

"... why can't.. anybody see--that... I'm tired?... " (if written write, this wud traumatize me)

"I'm done waiting for you, [name]."

them literally on their knees, "please, please--just please trust me! Why is it so hard for you to believe me once?"

^ "how many times do i have to get hurt by trusting you!!?"

"i am not sorry that i don't love you. I'm sorry that you don't love yourself."

"i loved you, believe me. i did. then you turned into someone else, someone... scary."

"WHY DO YOU HAVE TO KEEP HURTING ME? why--why am i the one.. always losing everything..?"

"listen to me-" "No, no!" "my dear, i swear, that isn't what i meant." "oh yeah? i don't think so. you were pretty loud and clear back there."

"so.. you're just going to.. give up on me." "that is NOT what i meant-" "you're not willing to fight for me either. i think it's pretty clear, [name]."

hands trembling while holding their pale, bloodied face, "k-keep your eyes open, for fucks sake! PLEASE-please please, talk to me."

"promise me you'll be okay, and that you'll keep living. moving on, even without me." "only if you do the same." (this happened irl yall)

"you saved me then killed me all over again."

[me-writes-prompts]

-:"I can't stop loving you." Angsty romance prompts for your otp:-

(This prompt list...... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. tag me if you write these ☠️)

By @me-writes-prompts

"It's not you...it's me. I can't stop loving you."

"If I knew loving someone would hurt so much, I still would've loved you."

"I'm tired of being the only one who loves you. I need you to love yourself first." oof

"This is not the version of you I fell in love with. And honestly, I've forgotten the real you." T-T

"Is it so hard to believe I've stopped loving you?"

"I can't live without you. I can't love without you. I need you, by my side, always did and always will." "You'll be okay. I know you will."

"It's not okay to just leave me here, after telling me you love me back." "We can't- we'll never be together."

"So you choose them over me? After all we've been through together, you choose them?" (AZIRACROW MY HEARTTTTTTT)

"I'm forbidden to love you. I'm forbidden to be with you. So, what am I to do if not fall on my knees and beg for you to stay?" (bear with me here AHHHH)

"It's truly funny...how you can't choose who you want to be in love with. I didn't choose to be in love with you. It just happened, and I wish it didn't."

Walking in rain to their house just to find that they're no longer there.

"You can't go. You cannot leave me here. You promised we'll be together forever." (No words)

Playing the song they always sang together to, and just crying.

"It'll never be the same between us. We'll never be the same."

"Your silence speaks more than you ever have. And, I'm not sure why it took so long for me to notice."

"You've drifted so far away from my side that I can no longer reach for your hand and guide you back to me." SOB OMG DID I JUST WRITE THAT

"I can no longer recognize you. And that's not even the saddest part. It's the fact that you no longer make any attempt to make me understand you."

[faetima]

𝐝𝐥𝐦𝐥𝐮 (𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝) . .

. . you have hanahaki, a severe case of shyness, and a crush on scaramouche, and scaramouche is an absolute jerk.

// tws ; blood ; gn reader ; hanahaki & modern au ; slight cursing 

a/n: first time posting here yippee (pls be nice)

you sobbed, heaving up stupid yellow carnations while sitting on the cold, hard floor of the school bathroom.

you wretched up the damned flowers. they fell ungracefully into the toilet which sat in front of you.

your knees hurt from sitting on them for so long.

if only you could tell him how you felt. it would finally all be over, one way or another. maybe with your feelings being requited.

or maybe with you choking to death, the only thing with you while you die being the stupid fucking flowers.

you coughed again, pale yellow petals fluttering to the ground elegantly.

it was a stark contrast to how, just moments after that, you were coughing your lungs out, flowers flopping down into the toilet in large clumps; stuck together by mucus and blood.

you wheezed and wheezed and wheezed until it felt like there was nothing left in your lungs and your throat was burning and your knees were bruised.

you sobbed and sobbed and sobbed until there were no more tears left.

you coughed and coughed and coughed to the point you thought maybe just dying would be better than this fucking hell.

you curled into a ball, crying. crystalline tears ran down your cheeks, falling onto your clothes, the ground, anything.

if only you could fucking talk. why were you like this? why were you fine with your friends, but so terrified to talk to anyone? to everyone?

to him?

maybe, just maybe, if you were different you wouldn’t be in this situation.

if only you weren’t so pathetic, so stupid, so scared.

you hated yourself. you hated yourself so, so much. who the fuck was this terrified to talk to people, but opened up so easily once others talked to them?

maybe you should just confess and get it all over with.

—

you opted to just give him a letter anonymously. 

who knew if he would even read it? he received dozens of confessions everyday.

even if he did read it, it couldn’t be that bad, right?

—

if you could, you would eat up your words.

it was much, much worse than you thought.

he had ripped open the envelope, immediately reading the letter with a scowl.

he wasn’t even halfway through when he burst out laughing.

”what the fuck is this?” he snickered, holding onto his locker so he wouldn’t fall from how hard he was laughing.

”what pathetic fucking weirdo confesses from an anonymous letter? are they too terrified to say it to my fuckin’ face?”

he continued reading the letter.

when he was done, he crumpled it up and threw it away behind him, still laughing.

”that’s so goddamn stupid.”

unfortunately, the crumpled up letter hit you on your head.

not embarrassing, right?

well, it wasn’t until scaramouche saw it had hit you.

”oh, sorry,” he exclaimed in a voice dripping with mock sweetness.

”didn’t see you there.”

it would’ve been fine until his next comment, which you unfortunately overheard.

”these dumb fucking bitches. they’re so stupid, can’t even move out of the way. what are they, blind?” he muttered under his breath, tone condescending.

you burst into tears right then and there, unable to stop the overflow of emotions.

you walked away as quick as you could, wanting to kill yourself right there.

”so emotional, and over what?”

his laugh rang down the hallway, following and taunting you.

—

you don’t know what had come over you that day. before that you had always tried to keep your emotions in check, always tried to stop the tears from coming out in front of people you didn't know.

maybe hearing your crush degrade and insult you had just struck a chord or something.

—

weak coughs wracked your frail body, using up the little energy you had left.

you were on your death bed (quite literally! you were laying on your bed while dying).

honey yellow flowers surrounded you, their sickly sweet scent making you feel nauseous.

you choked up another batch of the flaxen flowers, watching them flop forward onto your bed sheets, staining them a dull crimson because of the blood on them.

with half lidded eyes, you stared at the carnations. your mind was hazy, and your vision blurred.

if you recalled correctly, they symbolized disdain and rejection.

how fitting.

[morallysuperiorlips]

Let's Talk About ✨ANGST✨!

What is ✨angst✨?

The Google machine describes ✨angst✨ as a feeling of deep anxiety or dread, typically an unfocused one about the human condition or the state of the world in general.

The world of fanfiction/writing also uses it to describe stories that air on the side of sad/serious/more dramatic tones, themes, etc.

But morallysuperior, how do I write that sort of thing? Where do I even start?

Well, dear writer, it might seem daunting but this is VERY easy to break down.

There are a whole bunch of subgenres of ✨angst✨: hurt/comfort, trauma unearthed, working through loss, dealing with new traumas, etc. But, from my years of studying writing and writing words upon words of shitty fic and chipping away at my WIP, this is what I’ve deduced. All forms of ✨angst✨ fall into one of two categories:

Character-Driven ✨Angst✨ and Character Relationship-Driven ✨Angst✨.

From there, each of those categories can branch off into two slightly more specific but still pretty all-encompassing categories.

Character-Driven ✨Angst✨

Mental: Focus on your character hitting a low. Maybe their deepest fears have just been unearthed. Maybe somebody or something triggered a past trauma. Maybe something about their environment has left them in a terrible place.

Physical: Focus on your character getting hurt. Who hurt them? Why were they hurt? How badly were they hurt? What do they think about as they’re getting hurt? Is it something they can really recover from?

Character Relationship-Driven ✨Angst✨

Mental: Focus on the character’s relationship(s) hitting a low. Did they have a substantial disagreement that may or may not have unearthed some trauma? A miscommunication that resulted in a blowout fight? Do they have to separate for some reason, whether bad or good? How are their bonds being tested? What situation are they in that might make them question their relationship?

Physical: Focus on the character’s loved ones getting hurt. How does your character react? Do they do anything to intervene? Can they do anything to intervene? Did they perhaps cause it in some way? What happens after the fact? Can their loved one recover? How does it affect their relationship going forward? (Makes for great hurt/comfort)

Once you kind of identify those general concepts, I think the possibilities are ENDLESS, and you’re welcome to branch off in any direction your twisted mind desires :)

As always, go fucking write something <3

[3hks]

I write fanfics but I was wondering if you could give some tips for writing angst? Or like just how to write angst in general

Thanks in advance if you do

-anon

Yes, of course! I LOVE angst so much, so thank you for asking! There's a lot of different types of angst, so I'll briefly go over several and give you some advice on how to make it hurt!

First of all, let's talk about the two different types of angst briefly (I'm sure there are more, but I think these two categories cover most of them!). In the first half, I'll roughly cover the internal/emotional one, which is pretty much a one-man-show for angst!

Let's start with the emotions involved with this group. There are a few key feelings--besides depression--that you'll want to be able to utilize because they are the foundation of good angst!

Emptiness: Not necessarily sad, but it's emotion where there's nothing except for a hint of melancholy and perhaps loneliness or a lack of fulfillment.

Numbness: In all honesty, numbness is essentially the same as emptiness but it's usually the result of another emotion. (Grief, shock, stress, etc.)

Regret/Guilt: This hurts A LOT. The feeling of regret for something you did/didn't do is incomparable. Painful reflections, agonizing over a sorrowful mistake, and being forced to accept it knowing there's no going back is absolutely HEARTBREAKING--which is why it makes good angst!

Loneliness: Being isolated and/or feeling alone makes one feel disconnected from everyone else. This is a common factor in depression.

Self-Hate: A traditional one; nothing hurts more than seeing a character beat themselves up when they shouldn't.

Despair: The feeling of excessive hopelessness leaves your character feeling powerless and in a metaphorical sense, drowning.

Internal angst can create highly pensive situations while involving one person! Thus, first person point of view or third person limited (to the character) is the best option because focuses and highlights the character. Not to mention, thoughts are crucial to angst for it offers insight to their person and obviously, first person is the best at accomplishing that goal, but third person limited can also achieve a similar effect!

Next, there's the romantic/platonic type of angst. This not only relies on the emotions and thoughts of the characters, but is also subjective to the situation they're in, which means there's more freedom to explore around! Again, let's look at some emotions that are commonly used!

Hate: Hate is frequently found in problematic and/or toxic romance tropes. Sometimes it could be one-sided hate, where one resents the other, but the other holds absolutely no hate, and sometimes it's mutual animosity.

Fear: This fear is typically along the lines of being afraid of rejection, so much so that it feels difficult to make a decision and progress forward. Fear can easily delve into anxiety.

Longing: Unrequited love hurts a lot, but it doesn't always have to be one-sided. Both sides pining for each other unbeknownst to them also makes a good story.

Grief: The loss of a loved one is hard to cope with yet relatable, generating a lot of empathy and empathy from your readers

Hesitation: In particular, when the ship or close friends are hesitant to get close. This could be due to outside factors, fear of opening up, or self-doubt.

Additionally, the emotions I listed in the previous division still applies here! Contrary to the internal angst, this type works better when both perspectives are written to fully demonstrate their current circumstances and dynamic. Third person is recommended!

But on top of emotions, the situation matters a lot too, so I'll quickly go over some examples of situations that can induce angst!

Anxiety/Panic attacks: This includes a lot of intrusive, scattered, and overwhelming thoughts. Description-wise, make sure to focus on their senses! (Ex: Breathing: heaving, struggling to breath, etc.) Chest/heart: tightening up, pounding loudly, etc.) Eyesight: Blurring, unfocused, etc. Hearing: Too loud, drowned out, etc.)

Final Messages: Did your character die or leave? Their final messages matter a LOT. After all, that's they last thing they're remember by. Sometimes these messages are kind, but they can also reveal confessions (love, regret, mistakes) that hurt, and they can even completely change how your character views themselves and the world.

Misunderstandings: Misunderstandings can go from innocent mistakes to detrimental oversights. Many romantic slow-burns incorporate this tool, as a matter of fact!

Coping: For the most part, it's good if someone's able to cope with a devastating situation, but sometimes these can be quite painful. For example, maybe a character's coping mechanism is to avoid all topics of their previous love, preventing them from facing the issue head-on.

In conclusion, writing angst involves a lot of aspects! From start to end, there will be a huge mix of emotions and thoughts. It may be hard to figure everything out, but try your best to apply your past experiences and do what you think fits the best!

Happy writing~

3hks <3

[azsazz]

do you have any tips for writing angst?

tbh no...like idk how it happens it just does?

I'm not actively thinking about angst...it's been one of the most challenging things to write because my mind doesn't quite grasp the concept. ik that doesn't make much sense.

BUT if there's anything I can try and come up with for how to write angst, here it is:

You have to decide what you want to happen. What is the problem, and is there a solution? I think part of the angst is leaving the fic off a a point where there's still so much that could happen, so many ways that it could end up that it has the reader scrambling to figure it out, wanting more (half of my fics end like this haha I'm so sorry).

So once you have the problem, write about it. Write about everything you can. How the character is feeling, what they're thinking. Put yourself in the characters shoes...build it up, the swirl of emotions that the character is feeling; dread, nerves, etc.

How the other characters look and feel. How are they responding to what's happening before them? What do they look like they're feeling? Does character B have a bob to their throat, giving them away? How does the space that they're in feel? Are they pushed so close that their heaving chests are brushing with each breath? Is she so impossibly angry at him that she can't even speak? Is he so in love with her that it physically hurts? Feels like he's being stabbed in the side with a poisoned blade but yet he can't admit it?

You can describe their surroundings. How thick the air is in the room, the twitch of their fingers itching to curl into fists, swallowing the emotion thick in their throats.

You want to evoke emotion in the reader, make them feel something. You want them to yearn like the character is or smile when something happens or tear up when something utterly devastating happens.

Write about everything and you can always go back and delete the things that don't fit or aren't as important to the story.

Please, if anyone has any other tips, feel free to add them! :) I hope this helps even a little bit 💙

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

HOW TO WRITE A CHARACTER WHO IS IN PAIN

first thing you might want to consider: is the pain mental or physical?

if it’s physical, what type of pain is it causing? — sharp pain, white-hot pain, acute pain, dull ache, throbbing pain, chronic pain, neuropathic pain (typically caused by nerve damage), etc

if it’s mental, what is the reason your character is in pain? — grief, heartbreak, betrayal, anger, hopelessness, fear and anxiety, etc

because your character will react differently to different types of pain

PHYSICAL PAIN

sharp and white-hot pain may cause a character to grit their teeth, scream, moan, twist their body. their skin may appear pale, eyes red-rimmed and sunken with layers of sweat covering their forehead. they may have tears in their eyes (and the tears may feel hot), but they don’t necessarily have to always be crying.

acute pain may be similar to sharp and white-hot pain; acute pain is sudden and urgent and often comes without a warning, so your character may experience a hitched breathing where they suddenly stop what they’re doing and clench their hand at the spot where it hurts with widened eyes and open mouth (like they’re gasping for air).

dull ache and throbbing pain can result in your character wanting to lay down and close their eyes. if it’s a headache, they may ask for the lights to be turned off and they may be less responsive, in the sense that they’d rather not engage in any activity or conversation and they’d rather be left alone. they may make a soft whimper from their throat from time to time, depends on their personality (if they don’t mind others seeing their discomfort, they may whimper. but if your character doesn’t like anyone seeing them in a not-so-strong state, chances are they won’t make any sound, they might even pretend like they’re fine by continuing with their normal routine, and they may or may not end up throwing up or fainting).

if your character experience chronic pain, their pain will not go away (unlike any other illnesses or injuries where the pain stops after the person is healed) so they can feel all these types of sharp pain shooting through their body. there can also be soreness and stiffness around some specific spots, and it will affect their life. so your character will be lucky if they have caretakers in their life. but are they stubborn? do they accept help from others or do they like to pretend like they’re fine in front of everybody until their body can’t take it anymore and so they can no longer pretend?

neuropathic pain or nerve pain will have your character feeling these senses of burning, shooting and stabbing sensation, and the pain can come very suddenly and without any warning — think of it as an electric shock that causes through your character’s body all of a sudden. your character may yelp or gasp in shock, how they react may vary depends on the severity of the pain and how long it lasts.

EMOTIONAL PAIN

grief can make your character shut themself off from their friends and the world in general. or they can also lash out at anyone who tries to comfort them. (five states of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and eventual acceptance.)

heartbreak — your character might want to lock themself in a room, anywhere where they are unseen. or they may want to pretend that everything’s fine, that they’re not hurt. until they break down.

betrayal can leave a character with confusion, the feelings of ‘what went wrong?’, so it’s understandable if your character blames themself at first, that maybe it’s their fault because they’ve somehow done something wrong somewhere that caused the other character to betray them. what comes after confusion may be anger. your character can be angry at the person who betrayed them and at themself, after they think they’ve done something wrong that resulted in them being betrayed, they may also be angry at themself next for ‘falling’ for the lies and for ‘being fooled’. so yes, betrayal can leave your character with the hatred that’s directed towards the character who betrayed them and themself. whether or not your character can ‘move on and forgive’ is up to you.

there are several ways a character can react to anger; they can simply lash out, break things, scream and yell, or they can also go complete silent. no shouting, no thrashing the place. they can sit alone in silence and they may cry. anger does make people cry. it mostly won’t be anything like ‘ugly sobbing’ but your character’s eyes can be bloodshot, red-rimmed and there will be tears, only that there won’t be any sobbing in most cases.

hopelessness can be a very valid reason for it, if you want your character to do something reckless or stupid. most people will do anything if they’re desperate enough. so if you want your character to run into a burning building, jump in front of a bullet, or confess their love to their archenemy in front of all their friends, hopelessness is always a valid reason. there’s no ‘out of character’ if they are hopeless and are desperate enough.

fear and anxiety. your character may be trembling, their hands may be shaky. they may lose their appetite. they may be sweaty and/or bouncing their feet. they may have a panic attack if it’s severe enough.

and I think that’s it for now! feel free to add anything I may have forgotten to mention here!

[pygmi-says-hi]

writing tips - fevers

guys so the injury post absolutely fucking exploded (500 notes in 24 hours is a lot for me) and the fever part really threw yall for a loop.

I didn't go into it but I can! just to clear up questions.

Fevers are funky asf

like, there are so many factors that indicate when a fever is like a big deal and when it's not. part of it has to do with the age of the patient, how long the fever lasts, any causes or prexisting conditions....

Like this:

If person is feverish due to an infection, their symptoms are gonna be slightly different than someone who is fighting the flu. this is because the antibodies are attacking different parts of the nervous system with different kinds of chemicals blah de blah blah blah.

The younger the patient, the more susceptible they are. if the character is a child, a fever of 102 F is way worse than a 30 year old man experiencing that. It'll take a larger toll on the baby's body.

Some people have naturally higher body temps. There is a standard deviation away from the target temp that is still ok. Some people simply exist at 99.2 F, even though for some that's febrile.

idk man it's weird people are weird don't @ me about it.

obviously it's bio science which means not everything has exactly a clear answer. there are so mnay variables at play that it's easier just to blanket statement the whole thing.

because this isn't a blog for medical advice.

please don't use this blog for medical advice.

100% of death.

thanks guys love the effort

xox

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

Part 2/2

By the time Stanley had realized he wasn't as alone as he believed himself to be entrapped in this ravenous abyss; he had honestly begun to suspect that he was finally starting to properly lose his mind.

In all the ceaseless miles that Stanley had journeyed during his apparent permanent residence within the dark devouring void, not once had he encountered another conscious, walking, talking being similar to himself. Every other formerly living creature that he had crossed paths with had been so... silent. Empty. Dead, in every sense of the word. It was as though the very essence of life itself had been sucked out of their bodies with a straw, their forms slowly falling apart piece by piece under the vicious gluttony of the darkness that surrounded them. They looked like they actually were supposed to be there, unmoving and comatose, unlike him.

So, when Stanley first began to encounter the twins, all of a sudden, he wasn't the only one in the dark.

When meeting the first pair of them, he found himself standing in a lake.

He hadn't even noticed the changes at first. It felt as though he had been walking for weeks on end, his body moving purely on autopilot and his aching legs leading him towards a destination only it knew. A thick fog of forgetfulness and flickering memories had descended upon his brain like a heavy blanket of numbing static as he had traveled. In this absentminded state, he hadn't even realized that the ever-present undulating, buzzing darkness surrounding him had begun to gradually shift and morph to form a horizon line; stretching into tall looming cliffsides that almost seemed to close in on him. Once the nonexistent floor beneath his soles abruptly began to ripple and warp, like the disturbed surface of a shallow puddle; only then did he finally notice his transformed environment.

The transition was seamless, almost dream-like. One moment, he was still surrounded by that filthy, overwhelming abyss; and the next, his boots were suddenly plunged deep into the cold, dark lake water.

The silence didn't leave, however. It still choked and stuffed its way into Stanley's ears to clog up his mind with thick cotton; the eerie quiet not quite matching the calm, almost serene scenery the void seemed to have abruptly transformed itself into. Like a movie with its sound cut off; leaving only the unsettling hum of the projector to fill the empty air.

It was odd. The lake was surely incredibly deep. He could obviously tell from how thin and pathetically small the shores appeared all the way from where he now unceremoniously stood in the middle of the lake. Stan could look down and see the darkness below his feet swallow what meager light that managed to break through the murky waters. The overwhelming black almost seemed to beckon him, gaping and haunting; a bottomless underwater pit of pitch black that never seemed to end.

And yet, he didn't sink. Stanley remained perfectly level, the almost ink like waters stopping just at ankle level, as though he were held up just above the surface by some invisible force. Even the writhing waves seemed small and low, as though the waters were shy to climb up his legs further than that. It was odd, so very odd.

However, it wasn't nowhere near as odd as the sight that greeted him when he finally lifted his eyes from the waters.

Stanley had crossed paths with truly unbelievable sights in this strange somewhere; from bursting, collapsing stars; to the imploding heat death of entire universes, but none of them seemed to hold the candle to what he saw then when he lifted his eyes:

Children.

Two, to be exact. Two, nearly identical looking children stood motionless before him; completely soaked through to the bone as though they had taken a plunge into the frigid water that pooled around their ankles. It was a girl and a boy, both adorned with twin expressions utterly devoid of emotion, their wide eyed stare seeming to burn holes into his thin jacket. Their drenched clothes sagged off of their scrawny frames; thin rivulets of water dirpping off of them and disturbing the glassy surface of the water at their feet. The little girl's hair had messily stuck to her face in thin sodden strands, her cheeks still full and round with youth just like the boy's. They looked young. Too young to be in a place such as this.

Oh, but their eyes; their eyes.

They burned with such anger; such injustice, brighter than any dying star or galaxies he had ever seen. Anger towards the world, to fate, to whatever cruel deity that had deemed them fit to be sent to this wretched place so prematurely. They were too young to be here; to be entrapped like he was amongst this hungry darkness. And yet, here they were, sheer denial against their own untimely deaths being the only thing keeping them awake and conscious amongst the dead and rotting. A show of juvenile defiance to nature itself so vehement even the all-consumign darkness seemed hesitant to devour them whole just yet.

It saddened him. It saddened him to know that they belonged there, that they were supposed to be there. He could see it, he could feel it; they were dead. No amount of determination could deny that universal fact.

When they spoke, Stanley could hear anger:

Stan chuckled in a futile attempt to lighten the suddenly heavy atmosphere that threatened to crush him whole. "A lake monster? You kids and your imagination," he teased, hoping to somehow rid the poor kids of the haunted look that seemed to whirl in their glares. No child should have been burdened with such a knowing look; such eyes that looked like they had seen everything there was to see about the world, the horrid and the good.

Clearly, it had been the wrong thing to say, and Stanley's faux pas was rewarded with a scowl from the little boy. A world's worth of sour contempt etched into every contorted groove that his grimace seemed to dig into his much too young face. Stan suddenly felt guilt squeeze at his weary bones for having caused that.

"That's what they all said," the boy spat out, eyes shining with a sheen of wetness Stan wasn't sure he was prepared to deal with.

Stan left that first interaction with the twins with the feeling of guilt and sorrow still clining to him.

He couldn't have known, at the time. He couldn't have known that this wouldn't be anywhere near the last time that he would meet the pair. He hadn't realised just how many of them there were. After that first pair, his endless journeying within the Abyss was hardly be spent alone anymore. Countless more times, he came face to face with the exact same two young and impossibly worn faces; forced to meet one pair of beaten and bruised kids after another.

Not one pair had died the same death as another. Some had gotten lost, prey to whatever threat that had snatched them up out in the open; some had fallen from high up; some had been crushed under an incredible weight; some had burned; some eaten alive; some zombified. Some didn't even seem physically harmed at all, body perfectly intact, and yet that same faraway, distrubed look in their eyes remained.

He thought the worst ones were the ones he found alone. A little girl or a little boy, left all lonesome without their other half there. Twins, he remembered a pair of them telling him once.

Once, he had come across a town full of silent, stone statues. It was a rustic, shabby, almost nostalgic looking town- odd and strangely familiar. The sight of it had tugged at an aged memory that had long since wasted away in the back of his mind. It was serene, almost deceptively so. The sun shone; the air smelled crisp and fresh; numerous waterfalls continued to crash down from the tall cliffsides; and a soft nonexistent breeze whistled through the thicket of pine trees that blanketed the outskirts of the town. None of it seemed to match the gruesome scene of the hundred wailing statues that littered every inch of the town.

He had found the boy's statue on the other side of town, deep within the green forest and toppled over the gnarled roots of a towering tree. Like the rest of the townsfolk, he too, was frozen mid-shriek; his stone face twisted and contorted into a mock impression of a silent scream as his body lay paused in a writhing struggle. He made sure to be gentle when he carried the boy's statue over to place it beside the girl's, whose statue stood far deeper into the forest, sporting the same rictus grimace of terror as her brother's. It somehow felt wrong for them to have been so far apart from one another, even in death.

He had come to dread meeting of the twins. He hated every second he had to confront yet another pair of dead children that did not belong here, but fate had decided they did. He despised having to listen to their tales of woe as they wept about the injustice of the world, of having died young; he despised himself for being unable to do more than weep with them.

"We don't belong here, Grunkle Stan," he would listen to the little girl weep, calling him a title he didn't recognize. He never remembered if they had ever told him their name, but they all seem to know his, without a fail. "If we're dead, then what about you? What about Grunkle Ford? Mom? Dad? What about them? We can't be dead, we can't be," they would say, confusion and frustration written all over their faces. They didn't understand. They didn't understand why they had come to the darkness so early, so unfairly.

He never knew what to say, he'd never been good with words.

All he could do was kneel down to their levels and engulf them in his arms, hoping he could somehow squeeze the pain straight out of their bodies in his embrace. He hugged them, because what else could he do?

[starheavenly]

Locket's first night on the LL. (They end up not being able to find their room and they pass out in the hallway)

[aphel1on]

AURGH auwarghh the autistic parental trauma... the epi was wacky hijinks then dropped this on us out of nowhere... (sobs) laios... laiiiiooooos

[urfriendlywriter]

How to write angst ?

@urfriendlywriter | req by @everynowandthenihaveacrisis @aidyaiden :)

know your character. from their deepest fears to what they cherish the most. know your deepest fear, ask yourself how you will react and feel at that moment. "oh shit, if this happened to me I'll lose my mind" what's that type of scenario for you? write it. :)

decide on the type of angst you are going for!

major, minor, physical, emotional, paranormal, spiritual, verbal, abusive, quarrel, misunderstanding, etc.

and then, decide on--what reaction you can take out of your character by doing what to them.

are they gonna be, held at a gunpoint to give something up? or have their soul wrecked by whom they thought were close to them? or is it going be horror, or etctec, decide on it.

moving on to actually writing it-

Tip 1 - Use sensory details.

her eyes brimmed with tears

his chest heaved

pain clawed at his heart, as his face twisted with hurt

his scream pierced my heart

her lips quivered

she dug her nails into her palms (to distract herself, to stop it from shaking, etc)

show what is happening to ur MC, instead of telling it.

Tip 2 - how to actually write it.

If they're panicking, make them notice too many things at once, show every detail that they're seeing, feeling, from touch, to that burning sensation on their eyes, the blood on the ground, that dryness of their throat, the buzzing in their head and their parted lips unable to trust their own sight, and--and, boom! have them register that they're really really in trouble. and that they've to act fast.

use short, very minimal type of writing for this. make it long, but not long enough that it feels like it's being dragged.

the readers should hold themselves back from skimming the page out of curiousity, they should be in their toes to find out what happens next.

what does your MC do in times of panic? do they chant calm down to themselves, do they get angry, or start crying.. or?? what makes your character genuinely feel an emotion so hard that they'll burst?

there's always something, someone that'll always give them love and easily can be that something or someone to take it away. yk.

Tip 3 - crying.

what is close to your character that u can deprive them of? will it make them cry? beg for it?

what will make ur character cry so hard, that their scream fills everyone's ear, stays in their minds like ghosts and always haunts them?

make a character who never cries, burst out with tears.

while writing crying, focus on the 5 senses, one after the other.

focus it on their breath, make them run out of breath, gasp for air, feel like they're being choked, cry so scrutinizingly. it shud punch the reader's gut.

have them replay what had just happened over and over again in their head

best books and writing styles (for angst) to analyse and learn from (in my opinion);

3rd book in the AGGTM series (yk it hit hard like a truck. it got me depressed in bed the entire time lmao)

Five Survive by Holly Jackson. The moments of red outside of the truck, and moments leading to it.

there's this book called " Warm by @untalentedwriter127 " in wattpad. the author served angst for breakfast, lunch anddd dinner.

and if there's more angsty ones, drop em in the comments! :)

Hope this helps, tag me when yall write a masterpiece! ;)

[starscream-is-my-wife]

This is part 1 of a continuation for my other post where LL Megatron gets trapped in the G1 universe, I was thinking about how someone would go insane in this cartoon world and thought "what if Megatron had someone else to accompany him" so, I gave Starscream an existential crisis

Edit: final part is out, I tagged everything as G1 x LL AU!

[faetima]

𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐞𝐧𝐝. .

. . now he's truly all alone in this world.

// tws ; slight cursing, blood ; gn reader ; modern au, hanahaki au 

a/n: part two to dear. my darling !!

sorry it took so long, i have finals soon so ive been busy studying

aventurine stood at the doorway in utter shock.

you lied on the wooden tiled flooring of your apartment, blood smeared across your lips.

your apartment reeked of rotten flowers and, when he looked down, marigolds were splayed everywhere. single flowers, a few petals, clumps of them--they were all covered in splotches of dried burgundy blood.

aventurine snapped back to his senses. you were laying there, completely still, and he was just standing?

he took a sharp inhale and rushed forward. kneeling down by your side, he immediately placed a hand on your neck to feel your pulse. maybe he was just overreacting, right? he always seemed to do that when it came to you. maybe you were laying there completely unresponsive, but you couldn't be dead or anything! maybe you just fell asleep or fainted or-

he felt no pulse.

your skin was frigid, cold to the very touch. your lips and fingertips were blue, body and face bruised. splotches of black and blue covered you, and your glassy eyes looked forward, never blinking.

aventurine felt his heart drop.

you were dead.

he sobbed and sobbed for hours next to your body, hugging it tight. why was he so fucking stupid? if he had just talked to you or paid more attention or hadn't agreed to break up and had said he wanted to talk things through first maybe, just maybe, you wouldn't be lying here dead, surrounded by the pungent scent of rotting marigolds.

aventurine broke out into a coughing fit. gently lowering your body to the ground, he brought one hand up to cover his mouth.

his coughing ceased.

he lowered his hand.

in the middle of his palm laid one bright yellow petal.

[emarie-stone]

It must be so so horrible for Persephone, to have left the underworld thinking her only son had died stillborn. But then a god finds her, claims he is her long-dead son, and initially she doesn't believe him. She's angry. FURIOUS. That someone would play such a cruel trick.

But then she looks at him, listens to him. Notices his eye that matches hers, the other eye that matches his father's. The way he looks at her, and she begins to believe, maybe this is her son, somehow. And they talk and catch up, and yes, yes this is her son!

But then he looks tired. Weak. He doesn't know what's happening, but he's growing weaker and it's getting harder to speak, harder to concentrate. He's her son and he's scared, he's dying, she knows it, and she holds him and talks to him, but it doesn't matter. He dies in her arms.

And she's alone again, having held her son's corpse for a second time.

[3hks]

Angst Tip 1: Dealing With it Differently

Sometimes, the angst isn't the actual event taking place, but how the characters react to it! Different characters deal with pain differently, and while these tips may seem like it's really just common knowledge, I hope that they'll be able to help you guide your characters emotions as they ride through the tough rollercoasters of angst!

And just a heads up, I won't be addressing the self-inflicting or self-hatred kind of pain. I'm going to be talking about how a character might deal with losing someone dear to them. Regardless of the prompt, it requires at least two people. For the overall basics, I'll give you some advice on how different types of people tend to react during grief or sorrowful moments!

Starting with the typical 'I'm-pretty-content-with-life' character, note that this persona might differ from a very childish and teasing one. (I'll get to that later.) For a person that has a normal and healthy personality/mental stability, they're usually happy and able to feel emotions perfectly fine. If they lose a loved one, they are likely to spiral into an instinctual rage because the person meant that much to them. They will plausibly seek revenge right off the bat and then fall into grief.

On the contrary, however, with a persona that's cold and more apathetic, their reaction may differ just a bit. With this kind of character, someone important to them is really really valuable because they tend to not open up to anyone. There are several outcomes if they lose that person. Sometimes, though, the aftereffects blend together, and that's perfectly fine. For starters, like the character above, they may seek revenge, but their actions are prone to be more rational and calculated. Next, their grief will look different. Instead of the usual sobbing and mourning, a cold character will just feel numbness washing over them. Lastly, assuming that the important character helped change the emotionless one for the good, the latter might fall back into his old ways without the other. For example, if the change involves being most open with people, then they may unintentionally return to their previous state of being wary and closed with others.

Now, we're on the one I mentioned in the first paragraph! An incredibly happy-go-lucky character with a childish attitude and teasing manner! In all honesty, this reaction will vary depending on how you build this character; if you add depth or not. Personally, I prefer to add some to create complexity and such, but, if your character is fully open about everything and has nothing to hide, then their reaction will be rather similar to the 'I'm-pretty-content-with-life' one. Revenge could be out of the question, but their grief should be roughly the same. With more complexity, however, their reaction will alter drastically. If their exterior isn't an exact reflection of their inner thoughts, they don't show everything, they hide things from others, or something of such, then the next few tips apply to you! These kinds of characters can react pretty unexpectedly. For example, it is fully possible for them to enter a state of unrecognizable coldness, much like the reactions I mentioned in the second paragraph. This could be because they lost not only someone precious to them, but because they lost a purpose. Happy-go-lucky characters are arguably, reliant on others. They enjoy having responses to their antics. Without someone to laugh and make jokes with them, they may struggle to see why they should keep it up, especially if it isn't their true personality. And of course, there's the possibility that you all were waiting for: the mental breakdown! Most of you all will be like, "What? For this character type? Really?" My answer to that is yes, but there are a couple of factors that need to be taken into consideration when executing the reaction.

If a character is struggling but puts on a face for others, a breakdown isn't as unlikely as some think. They're already teetering on the edge of mental stability and a gust of wind could push them over. With that, when someone important to them is able to see through the facade and reach out to help, losing the said person will result in a complete breakdown and a strong sense of misery.

Okay! So here are the different types of grief that fit different characters. I'm aware I only did three of them, but I tried my best to detail each one as best as I could to provide clarity and chose some of the more common character types. If you want to ask about another type of character, feel free to ask! I hope that this was able to help or at least clear up a few things, thank you for checking this out!

Happy writing~

3hks :]