#it’s also interesting when Sam says that thing in season 1 about JKR and how he admires that she’s rich because of her achievements and not-

[here-there-everyfuckenwhere]

Is anyone irked by that weird line in season 2 about Sam’s family being rich from bitcoin investments..?

[rainhalydia]

D, I, K, J, Q, R, W? :D

Thanks, darling!

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

For Les Mis, I can’t like any other ships involving Enjolras and Grantaire except for Enjolras x Grantaire. I wish I liked them even a little bit because it would really enjoy the range of fic I’d like to read, but alas, their journeys are too connected for me to want anything else.

For Teen Wolf, I wish I liked Alison x Lydia more. I liked their friendship, and Lydia certainly cared deeply about Alison, but it irked me that Alison never bothered to warn Lydia about the third season treat.

For Asoiaf, Thramsay, because the crowd seems super chill and the fics seem amazing, but I just know I won’t really enjoy them even if they’re high quality. Also any Robb ship that’s not Throbb.

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

No, because as soon as I get in a fandom and start looking for content, I also block anyone that has even the slightest annoying opinion. I’m not in fandom to hear how my faves are terrible, thank you very much. Even so, thanks to tumblr I’m never watching Star Wars.

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

For Les Mis, Grantaire. I love that he’s allowed to fail so badly even if we never hear about the repercussions. That’s an essential part of his arc, and it’s also one of the things that make me remember that Hugo was a professional writer, you know?

For Teen Wolf, Lydia. She has always had hidden depths, but with the actors coming and going from the show, her story grew and I liked where it went by the end. I especially liked how her relationship with Jackson was handled.

For Asoiaf, Theon. Best arc in the series, best words GRRM has ever written.

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

The Untamed, Good Omens, The Witches, The Magnus Archive... I’m only interested in watching one of them right now, but I feel I’ve learned most of them by osmosis anyway.

Q - A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.

I no longer care about Harry Potter. Thankfully it happened before all the JKR drama, and I’m including from her TERFdom to her amazing takes on twitter such as students pooping on the floor even though there are canonical bathroom in the school here, though one is more serious than the other. I simply wasn’t that impressed with the last book, I think I was outgrowing even her writing style looking back, but it didn’t help that my favorite characters were killed off. Also, the epilogue was deeply frustrating, not for the usual reasons fandom doesn’t like it...

That said, sometimes my brain gives me some random headcanons and opinions still, such as: Ron would be the popular one in a world where Voldemort didn’t exist.

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

Les Mis: Grantaire, Joly and Bossuet. That Grantaire rant where he lists Bossuet’s baldness as one of the causes for his hopelessness with the world is amazing. As are Joly’s and Bossuet’s reactions of just letting him rant to his heart’s satisfaction and then just changing the subject. Also love that part where Bossuet finds time to make a little joke about Grantaire sleeping on duty during barricade times.

Teen Wolf: My favorite friendship was Liam and Mason. It was just refreshing. They’re both highly underrated characters, actually, probably due to debuting when the show was alread past it’s prime, so to say.

Asoiaf: from what we actually see playing out instead of mostly being told, I think number 1 is Jon and Sam. I also ship them, but I love their friendship as well. Sam just brings out the best in Jon, which in turn explains why Sam thinks so highly of him and why he’s so shocked at the baby swap. Honorable mention to Arya, who will make friends with a rock if given the chance, though most of the time her “friends” don’t deserve her - the exception being Gendry, who’s her love interest anyway, and the sex workers in Braavos.

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

I’ll read basically anything, but I’ve yet to find a fake relationship fic that I like. No, I lie, I liked @janiedean‘s fic where Throbb pretend to be engaged to rent a place. But that is a good reason to fake a relationship! Which is the secre to make this trope work! In fact, a list of good reasons to fake a relationship with the person you’re secretly in love with features things like:

- renting a place (like in the fic mentione above);

- getting a visa;

- getting a tax discount;

- pretending to be a couple to spy on people or countries;

- getting discounts on stupid things;

- adopting a kid that needs adopting asap.

Those are all things I’d love to read about! And I’m sure there are more reasons if we start to think about it, but you know what reason most fics I’ve seen on the topic pick?

- To get overbearing parents off the character’ back.

Now, that is a good idea in one specific situaton: when a gay character needs a beard. But somehow that’s never how it goes, so we’re left with people getting into fake relationships with their crushes even though the most obvious solution is to tell the parents to take care of their own damn lives!

Another thing that irritates me in this trope when authors pick the overbearing parent route: the whole thing is usually played for laughs. I hate that. If your relationship with yout parent is so bad that you’d rather fake a relationship rather than just make up a boyfriend/girlfriend, then this parent has to be a nightmare of a person! But most authors have no idea what it’s like to have an overbearing parent and it shows. So we end up with well-meaning, caring parents who would absolutely respect their offspring’s privacy and boundaries should they be stated. In short, not the kind of parents that give reason to fake an entire relationship.

I also dislike high school AUs on principle.

[scriptstructure]

I'd like to know how to effectively/efficiently braid together subplots such that the reader can get to know/get invested in the main players without me driving this story completely off the rails. Specifically, how to work in details about other plot threads when a character is present but not POV, how to let create a strong subplot without having to spend a ton of time in a character's POV, etc. Thanks!

My ���multiple plots’ tag is [HERE].

Developing subplots is something that gives your story meat; subplots are often complications to the main plot, or distractions, stuff that your characters have to deal with in order to move on with the main plot, or they can be unexpected sources of help.

I'd like to know how to effectively/efficiently braid together subplots such that the reader can get to know/get invested in the main players without me driving this story completely off the rails.

The thing about subplots is that often they lead back to ‘the rails’, it can be a real treat to read a story where the main character gets swept along on some seemingly irrelevant side-quest while being aware that their main plot is ticking away without them and they need to get back to it, only for them to then discover that they’ve learned/ gained something vital from their involvement in the subplot that is going to help them in their main goal.

Of course, sometimes subplots are there to ‘derail’, and they can create conflict in that perhaps the character is leaving their current responsibilities in order to deal with a problem that seems very important, only to get back to their ‘main’ responsibility and discover that through their distraction Bad Things have happened.

It depends entirely what you want to do with the subplots that determines these kind of things.

how to work in details about other plot threads when a character is present but not POV, how to let create a strong subplot without having to spend a ton of time in a character's POV

I’m going to guess that you’re working with one focalising (POV) character, and you’re writing in either first person or third person limited perspective, your story is coloured by what this character sees and hears and knows.

So say for instance, your Main Character is toiling away on Main Plot Point A (MPPA) and is waiting for really important help from Secondary Character, who is currently embroiled in Sub Plot 1. Without leaving MC’s POV, we can show very clearly the impact that SP1 is having on the main plot, by how SC’s absence at a critical moment affects MPPA.

- MC is waiting at the bus stop, they want very badly to get into town in order to meet up with Love Interest, but need SC to go along with them

- MC is highly aware that there’s a time limit, LI finishes work in an hour, so if they want to meet up it’ll have to be THIS BUS ONLY

- MC watches the bus roll up, stop, people get off and on, they’re looking around desperately for SC, who needs to bring -important object- or else there will be dire consequences

- MC watches the bus depart, a few minutes later SC shows up, hot and sweaty and out of breath, with -important object- clutched under one arm, asks if they’ve made it in time, says breathlessly that it was a struggle to get away from SP1, but they made it!

So in this example there are some clear objectives that the character feels need to be reached in order to keep going on the main plot -- they need to meet up with SC, they need to catch a particular bus, and have a particular object with them in order to meet up with the LI.

With SC being late because of SP1, this means that the bus is missed (a temporal conflict), the important object is not available (a material conflict), and without SC bringing the important object in time, the MC’s plans are put off to your preferred degree of disaster (interpersonal conflict). These are all direct results of the Subplot, and the secondary character’s explanation of why they’re late can give as much or as little detail as to the whys and therefore the events of that subplot as necessary.

The other thing is ‘how much of my subplot do I need to show in order for it to work for the story?’

And the answer, as with so many things, is ‘it varies’.

A subplot can involve your main character actually physically detouring into something tangential to the main plot, it can involve them suddenly being met with a rush of problems or people to deal with who’ve just been involved with your secondary plot, or it can be their plans being upset by the outcomes of the subplot that they hadn’t been aware of until it started causing them issues.

It does often help to have at least one character show up who was personally involved in the subplot, to be able to pipe up at vital moments with information such as ‘that happened because the baddie did x!’, or to otherwise be able to provide contextual clues as to what happened in the subplot to be causing these effects on the main plot.

Examples:

There are some great subplots in the Harry Potter series, and that’s probably one of my favourite things about JKR’s writing, that she can lay in subtle hints and clues extremely far in advance and then have them become relevant as Harry learns something new and is able to put together the information he has.

For instance, it blew my mind as a kid when the Grim turned out to be Sirius Black -- y’know, the guy who was mentioned by Hagrid in an offhanded line in the first book? If you read back over Harry Potter you’ll notice a lot of this sort of thing, Harry doesn’t know anything about the world he’s going into, and a lot of subplots are revealed by more knowledgable characters who are immersed in the wizarding world saying things like “well everyone knows that --” and dropping some information that they think is commonplace but which to Harry changes a lot.

A great deal of the Marauders’ backstory/ the Scabbers/ Peter Pettigrew subplots are revealed when Harry and friends eavesdrop on some of the teachers at the pub in town. Or by Hagrid slipping up and saying more than he’s supposed to. Or by Hermione deciding that she needs to tell them a vital piece of information that she’s known about and either has been told not to share or thought would be obvious.

Doctor Who, especially the first new season (9th Doctor and Rose) is an interesting one, because essentially the episodes are a bunch of adventures in subplots while the main plot (the Bad Wolf arc) happens around them while they’re mostly oblivious until the last few eps and the relevance of Bad Wolf becomes apparent.

The Lord of the Rings has a whole bunch of great subplots that intersect with the main plot in various degrees of importance and influence, especially after the party splits, because at that point while Frodo and Sam’s journey to Mordor is harrowing and dark and dangerous, it’s also ... kind of boring? And the subplots involve things like leading nations into battle and defending strongholds and fighting industrialisation. Before the party splits you get gems like Tom Bombadil and Goldberry.

In short:

Subplots should be linked to your main plot, in that they bring new conflict, characters, information, backstory, etc. Subplots are part of the story, not unrelated things happening to fill time.

Subplots can involve your main character, or they can be related to the main character by others who were there, or they can just have a degree of impact on what is happening in the main plot.

Subplots can be explicitly shown or they can be implied through events and context.

Subplots can be laid in advance and then revealed as important when they become relevant or new information comes to light -- the reader can ‘discover’ them at the same time as the character, or you can keep the reader on their toes by leaving enough information for them to figure it out before the main character realises what they’re walking into.

Well integrated subplots can go a long way to making the world of your story feel more ‘real’. Because it’s not only the main character and the main plot happening in the whole wide world, that is just one character and one plot that happen to be the focus of the story, while other plots and characters are busy doing their own thing just next door.