#writing ramble

[obstinaterixatrix]

the reason miscommunication gets a bad reputation is because examples that stick out to most folks end up being the really frustrating shallow narrative device engineered to extend unnecessary conflict, that is—a miscommunication that could be solved with a one-minute conversation. miscommunication is such a good tool for conflict as long as the writer knows what they’re doing though.

one of my favorite versions of miscommunication is when Character A knows that Character B has jumped to Wrong Conclusions but is either unwilling to clarify or unable to convince B otherwise. I actually really liked The Cat Across The Hall for this because the love interest is convinced the main character’s in love with the main character’s best friend, and the main character wants to hide that he actually has a crush on the love interest, so a lot of the tension between them builds as the love interest tries to help, catches feelings for the main character, and starts feeling miserable and jealous about the main character’s (nonexistent) romance with his best friend (lol).

another really good one is when the characters have such fundamentally different experiences that they really can’t understand each other without a lot more development. in Failed Princesses, the main character is a very popular girl and the love interest is a gloomy nerd, but the love interest sees the main character get brutally dumped. When the main character is basically like ‘yeah I bet you’re having a great time, you probably love seeing your bully eat shit’ the love interest says ‘no actually, you’re not allowed to stop sparkling because that would be unforgivable.’ what the love interest MEANS is: ‘I’ve always wanted the role of a princess, but I can’t have it because that role is monopolized by pretty, extroverted, arrogant girls like you, so as someone who took the role of the princess from me you are not allowed to be miserable’. what the main character thinks is: ‘wow! even though I bullied this gloomy nerd, she’s nice enough to want me to be happy!’ and that kickstarts their friendship, but also ensures that the love interest (initially) rejects the main character when the main character confesses, since this pretty fundamental misunderstanding/one-sided conflict was never addressed or resolved.

there’s also miscommunication because of past history (we’re assuming each other’s feelings/actions/intentions because of past baggage) and miscommunication because of personality/ideology differences (I thought you were condescending/abrasive towards me but it turns out we have similar priorities, just different ways of going about things) etc.

the thing is, if miscommunication can’t be solved in one minute, then either it has to be because of character-specific reasons (fun) or because the miscommunication has spiraled out of control and is too convoluted to unpack in a minute (also fun). sometimes both. the anatomy of a resolvable conflict is just so interesting!

[mulholland-driver]

Notes on How Humans Fall in Love

She noticed his mannerisms and the way he carried himself were always so effortlessly graceful. It was like he was gliding through the world while everyone else meandered around him as if their joints needed oiling.

He noticed that she seemed old for her age in the way that she spoke and thought, a cynic's mind with the heart of a philosopher, solving the world's problems with ballpoint pens on takeout napkins because to her, the fix was easy and obvious.

Immediately and without any fathomable explanation, she was the only one who ever made him feel safe, and he was the only one who ever made her feel like she belonged somewhere.

He radiates sunshine and warmth, and being around him feels  like your first breath of fresh air after breaking away from a pit crowd at a summer concert.

She is the first few drops of rain on your bare skin, and talking to her feels like the comfort of the sound of tea-stained pages turning while you write secrets in your leather bound journal.

Together, they are a hurricane made of burning stars, and when the passion dies down, the little diamonds that cut through the winds are catapulted into the sky to rest over everything like the roof of a blanket fort in the living room at 3am, and the world goes quiet around them.

Even though they both know she is just pretending when she points out Orion's Belt or Achilles in the lights above them, he still asks her to tell him the stories of every constellation because one night of finding shapes in plastic LED bulbs against a satin sheet held up by chairs in a world they made up together is better than a thousand years in the Garden of Eden.

Her voice is the soundtrack to his morning routine, and his smile is that sliver of moonlight that keeps her company when she stirs awake in the middle of the night.

They're the embodiment of fate, the a-ha moment of the soul's recognition of its counterpoint in another person, even if they had no idea what it was, or what it meant, or that it would cut permanent rivers and valleys into the landscape of their lives, connecting them over, and over, and over again.

[imagine-you]

For years, I really wanted to work on an X-Men story. The first one I ever planned was actually set during X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Reader was Logan's daughter (I know it's weird now don't judge me) and basically he had an idea about her but didn't really know her. So, she ends up with the X-Men in First Class and it goes through to the events of Days of Future Past. And it was going to be Peter Maximoff/Reader and Logan was going to hate that so much, but there would have been a lot of familial angst there. I don't know if I'll ever write it, but it's just so funny to me that I always thought that would be the first X-Men fic I finally made myself write. And then I saw Deadpool and Wolverine and my heart just broke over and over for Logan and I had to channel all that into the fic I'm working on now. I'm so glad I finally wrote an X-Men fic, though. It was a long time coming.

[writingwritewrite-storymaker]

ok so for the most part i’m a fantasy only writer, but this is more grim dark fantasy than regular. the protagonist is a girl named Nerine who lives in a small fishing town on a small island. in her world, mermaids are really important and heavily hunted. their scales are used for medicine, decor, jewelry, and even dresses; their meat is a delicacy in most places; their saliva is used as medicine or as beauty products; blood can be used in drinks; etc. etc. but the main thing is that no one has a living mermaid, because not being in water is very bad for them. until one day, the Emperor declares that whoever can bring him the most beautiful mermaid in the ocean- and alive, mind you- will be given millions of coins and invited to join his Court. Nerine is, to put it simply, a very morally gray character, and incredibly greedy due to growing up poor, and her goal in life is to be rich, respected, and powerful, but in the dark sort of way where she’ll do anything to achieve that. so, she ends up joining the deadliest pirate crew across the ocean in order to hunt down this mermaid. they’re said to be cannibals, said to torture those who they capture, kill for fun, capture mermaids to abuse them, and some other horrible things that i’m not even going to get into (i think you get the vibe though).

sorry for info dumping lol. i know it’s a lot but im just really excited to continue writing this, even if im struggling to write something so gore heavy and dark. my goal is to basically make the reader sick to their stomach. but yeah im having a lot of fun, so thanks for reading this <3

Hi bestie I think you need to know that this is fucking cool

[shawtysdelirium]

I'm actually writing a gayass skk fanfic where Dante's Divine Comedy is like the protagonist and where later on Dazai's gonna claim how he's a Dante x Virgil shipper. I'm also making him say all my ideas regarding Dante's idea of love for Beatrice.

[voidlingduck]

Finished the opening scene for my dragon riders project, getting acquainted with Morrigan and Rune. It's definitley a little rough around the edges but it was fun to explore and see how it progressed. At about 2k words for this section, and thinking that this next bit is going to introduce another dragon rider pair... so I need to figure out who they are! I really am just winging it so I don't fully know whose coming up next, just some scraps of ideas that I'll do some work to build upon before I jump back in again.

Some interesting things that have come out of this first scene though!

Both Morrigan and Rune engage in practices of divination, Morrigan throws bones and Rune reads the stars for guidance. Thinking about the theme of uncertain futures... now that they have started to bond as a dragon rider pair they also struggle to engage in these practices alone.

Rune tends to have a playful energy, though when more connected to Morrigan a certain sternness comes out, perhaps drawing from Morrigan's more intense and blunt energy.

Getting a feel for the landscape this story takes place in, and figuring out what it would look like to create a place that accounts for both humans and dragons with such vast differences in scale between them.

I'm having fun just writing and playing around and seeing what happens, no doubt a lot will change as I go, but it's exciting and fun and satisfying to sit down and see what happens as I type.

[fogsy-feel]

Debating on whether or not I should just post the Sterek Fic. It's at 20k and not even remotely done (was supposed to be a oneshot) but now it's looking like I might have to post it in chapters.... which would put ANOTHER wip on my ao3

[attenaeus]

was reminded of a short gothic piece i wrote ages ago for a school assignment (got full marks on it and i am very proud of that), and i've decided i'm gonna rewrite it entirely from memory because i don't have a copy of it now LMAO

no clue when it'll be done because uni is starting up again, but knowing a lot more about myself now it is making a lot more sense as to why i wrote things in the ways i did. i reckon i could make it a lot better now knowing where those ideas come from

[tresdem]

Guys, guys, this chapter would go a lot faster and have a lot fewer words if you stopped bantering and get on with it.

Oh but it's so nice that a happier Edward low key torments Jack. Nature is returning /wipes tear

Until...well...

[penelopwgarcia]

people who can keep up with writing challenges puts the fear of God in the devil himself

[obstinaterixatrix]

anyway I was telling a friend the other day (did I already make this post?) how art is like a cursed amulet. yes I get to go mad with power but at a cost (the madness)

[mulholland-driver]

I miss having someone to love

I wanna cook someone breakfast before they're up in the morning, let the smell of savory bacon and cinnamon coffee dictate the trailing off of their dreams as their consciousness bleeds into the here and now, fueling a lazy, sleepy smile because they know the dream continues just a few paces up the hall.

I wanna watch their eyes light up when I ask them how their day was after a long shift at work, helping them take their boots off, knuckling knots out of their shoulders while all the little details of their daily dissatisfactions dissipate like a long slow exhale in winter air.

I wanna hand them the toothpaste in front of a sunset backdrop while we share the bathroom mirror, making cheeky eye contact over foamy smiles as we get ready to greet the night, pillows waiting to be punched down like freshly risen dough by sleepy heads full of dream seeds to be scattered throughout the bed. They bloom in the dark like moon flowers, just to be picked at the break of dawn and left on the sheets beside them to remind them...I love having someone to love.

[imagine-you]

Finally saw the Thunderbolts trailer and I cannot wait to finally write for Bucky Barnes. I've wanted to for years.

Y'all really got me in my Marvel era. Sorry about that. ���

[dallina17]

By this point I am sure the second most fun character of RWBY to write is Cinder. Is like, yes, she is complex, but once you understand her (really understand her), you really can do whatever you want with her? Take her to any plot you desire relatively easy? (Well, almost whatever you want)

I don't know, when I am doing a Cinder's POVS the words just come. I came with new ideas, references and twists. I love being in her head. What she does? What she thinks? Why she is the way she is?

Plus, alongside Neo, she is the only I have given a new backstory depending on the universe. Because is fun! How very different events can form one singular mentality that looks the same on the surface but each one has some specific details that made them unique. Is crazy!

And her interactions with Neo are pure gold. You end up laughing or crying or screaming, there is no middle ground and I love that.

[shawtysdelirium]

I was made to write angst. Tragedy is my fertile ground. [me after overdramatizing a silly story my oomfie wrote for funsies about some animals that eat a roof and then a goat and I continuing the story by making them all die at the end as some sort of chain of events set in motion by the goat’s self-sacrifice bcuz she digested cyanide pills in order to go against nature’s unjust system of the survival of the fittest]

[voidlingduck]

Having some thoughts about tv writing in our current age of streaming and indie internet shows, and if/how release schedule affects or should affect the way these shows are written.

When you have such long gaps between episodes in indie series, how do you write to effectively manage that and ensure audiences remain satisfied? Do you lean into self contained episodic advebtures like TADC seems to be doing?

And what are the affordances of streaming services released all at once or in staggered chunks? How does the binge model affect consumption and narrative design?

Arcane had its three act structure, releasing episodes designed to be consumed together to make one whole part, but there was still separation between these parts. Hazbin Hotel had a similar release structure that staggered it into chunks, while some shows try to recreate the weekly release schedule of classic television shows.

I don’t really have any answers just a lot of musings… I wonder if it’s something I can investigate in my upcoming English course on narrative television…