bookishmabel

[bookishmabel]

“Aren’t you going to flatter me?” The human turned as the fae walked, watching with wide eyes. “In the stories, your kind is seductive.”

“My kind cannot lie.” the fae drifted closer to the edge of the protective circle, a bemused look on their face. “Why would we shower a mortal with false compliments? For a fleeting mockery of intimacy? No,” they stopped at the edge. “My kind does not care for mortal hearts.”

“Oh.” said the human, becoming increasingly uncomfortable with how the fae was looking at them.

“Why would we play with our inferiors? For that matter, why would we ‘share’ secrets that protect mortals from us?“ they asked, tone darkening. "Unless it were all a farce.”

The fae lunged into the protective circle, bringing the human down in a flurry of limbs and inhuman strength.

“We only seduce that which we cannot catch. Us fae respect the thrill of the chase,” their smile sharpened. “And a sacrificial lamb is always better on the table over a bed.”

[bookishmabel]

Childinnit

[bookishmabel]

Candy

B- *Mysteriously villain like tone of voice* "What are you hiding?"

*silence*

A- "I uh- I have a dresser drawer entirely filled with candy,"

[bookishmabel]

Years ago, the last remaining God of the Universe died, passing on it’s divine omnipotence to humans. It is split across 8 billion people, though, so most people are God of something obscure or unimportant. You are in the police force’s Misuse of Divinity unit.

[bookishmabel]

You’re watching the TV when the news breaks. The supernatural is real! Secret societies of monsters live among us! The masquerade is broken! As you sit shocked, your cat turns to you and says “OK, now we can drop the pretense, I do have a number of complaints…”

[bookishmabel]

A greater demon has fallen for a mediocre demon hunter. As such the greater demon hides themself with magic and signs up as the hunters new apprentice. In hopes of getting closer and protecting the one they love from the other demons that would otherwise do them harm.

[bookishmabel]

Well uh

Have another mini comic of the bois because I like this AU

[bookishmabel]

Creating Character Arcs with the DCAST Method

Hiya! In this post, I’m going to show you how to create a story-level character arc using the DCAST method. Sound good? Super. Let’s get started.

Intro: Character arcs defined

So… what is a character arc? A character arc is the transformation, growth, or inner journey of a character over the course of a story. Character arcs are related to and tied up with plot arcs. Whereas plot arcs are about a character’s external journey (save the castle, get the girl, avoid prison); character arcs are about a character’s internal journey (fearful to courageous, shy to boisterous, miser to philanthropist).

Character-driven stories focus heavily on this internal arc, whereas plot-driven stories may only lightly touch on it, and that’s okay. Every story doesn’t need to be about a deep excavation of a character’s soul. But even plot-driven stories can benefit from incorporating character arcs.

Character arcs come in different shapes. They can be positive, negative, flat, ambiguous, bittersweet, or any combination.

Positive character arcs are the most familiar, since they are used so often in mainstream fiction and movies: Through a series of events, a character improves their situation and themselves. Examples: High Fidelity, Harry Potter, basically every mainstream book and movie

Negative character arcs are about characters who transform in an unsavory way by the end of the story. Example: Crime and Punishment

Flat arcs happen when a character encounters a series of obstacles and remains steadfast and unchanging, for better or for worse. Lolita, The Hunger Games

Ambiguous arcs are more common in literary stories. They present the reader the opportunity to interpret the arc for themselves—was it positive? Negative? Flat? Examples: The Road, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Bittersweet arcs are similar to ambiguous arcs, except, well, they’re less ambiguous. In the end, the reader is clear what both the positive and negative aspects were, but feel that the positive outweighs the negative. Examples: The Fault in Our Stars, The Outsiders

Why character arcs are important

Good characters are essential to a good story. Imagine To Kill a Mockingbird without Scout; The Hunger Games without Katniss; Harry Potter without Harry, Ron, or Hermione; or Everything is Illuminated without Alex. This is not to minimize the importance of good plot. But a plot without good characters will fall flat.

That’s because readers don’t care about your plot by itself. They care about how your plot affects your characters. If your plot is full of crazy, exciting events but your characters are stiff, cardboard cut-outs who watch blankly from the sidelines as the story passes them by, your story will feel lopsided and unsatisfying.

That’s where character arcs come in. But, as you’ve probably figured out already, creating a character arc isn’t the easiest thing to do. I invented the DCAST method because I was frustrated and overwhelmed with all the “character development” sheets and checklists that were a mile long… but didn’t actually help me get to the heart of my character’s arc. Now, I’m able to get clear relatively quickly using the acronym DCAST to remind me of the most important character arc elements.

In this post, I’ll introduce you to the basics of creating a story-level arc for your character using the DCAST method. To apply this method to your own characters, get the companion download Creating Character Arcs: The Workbook over at my Free Resource Library.

How to plot a story-level character arc using the DCAST method

We’re going to look at giving your character an overall, story-level arc using the DCAST method. That means we’ll chart their internal development over the course of the entire story. They may have smaller arcs and changes within the story, but this top-level arc defines their overarching purpose and change (or lack thereof).

I stress this because often writers lose sight of the forest for the trees. They focus on all the smaller internal shifts their character goes through… and forget to define their character’s story-level journey. This can make for a story that lacks focus and drive.

Whew. Okay, I think we’re ready.

Keep reading

[bookishmabel]

am currently crying

What can I say other then I love my bestie and attempt to make the best art just for her

[bookishmabel]

just try and convince me Dream XD doesn’t act dramatic to get George’s attention

[bookishmabel]

My favourite relationship tropes

The tired™ and the tired™.2— 2am coffee run dates? Yes please

The insecure™ and the agressively affectionate who prepares a whole PowerPoint about why the insecure™ is the best human being ever

The golden retriever extrovert and their adopted grumpy cat introvert

The nerd™ and the other nerd™— “HEY DID YOU KNOW STRAWBERRIES ARENT BERRIES” “WAIT FOR REAL???” bonus points if it’s 2 in the morning

The sarcastic duo that can finish each other’s insults— “Do I give a fuck?” “No” “How many fucks do I give?” “Zero”

The idiot number 1 and idiot number 2 that are smarter individually but share 1 (one) braincell when put together

The “FUCK YOU” and the “FUCK YOU TOO” ft. exasperated third wheel: “JUST GO FUCK EACH OTHER ALREADY!!!”

[bookishmabel]

Writing advice: Show don't tell!

I'm coming in with this as a lot, a lot of writers seem to have a little trouble with this. And it's fine it really is, I had to work a lot to understand this myself. It was awful to read my old work when I did learn to describe well.

One of the best ways to improve your writing is to

SHOW DON'T TELL!

It's not easy, despite being such a common part of creative writing. Some find it difficult to start of even explaining it, or implementing it in their tales.

Well, let's see if we can change that!

Let's first look at what it means:

Show don't tell: is the use of excessive descriptive words that produce an image of what you wish to show.

Confusing? Hold up I'll explain. See the main point is to use detailed action and images to show what is going on in the story.

A great example being the famously said on the topic "Don't tell me the moon is shining show me the glint of light on broken glass"

Let's look at some examples:

Telling: When they embraced she could tell he had been smoking and was scared.

Showing: When she wrapped her slim arms around him, the stench of tobacco assaulted her nostrils, filling her nose up with the filthy air. She felt consumed by the substance. Dread rose in her body, completely throwing her in hopelessness.

Telling: It was late fall.

Showing: Red-orange decorated the path in front of him, colouring the road as he walked, crunching under his weight.

Do you understand what I mean?

Here are some effective tips to help you:

1. Use strong details to give a good image. Say your character is blind, don't tell us they are blind show us. Tell the reader they are blind, let them know from the way the character acts, how they feel for things, how do they know someone is in front of them. Show it all!

Maybe she uses a cane to walk or maybe she has a dog to help her, or maybe she has a guide to take her different place. 2. Create the setting Want to show a spooky and eerie setting?

Describe it. Speak about how fog, how thick is it? Temperature, is it cold or hot? How cold or hot is it? Are there cobwebs? Crows crying out in the distance. How is the character responding to it?

How are they feeling in the scene? Showing their impression is quite important as well. You want the reader to feel what the character is feeling and actually have the reader feel it too.

Do they feel calm or do they feel scared? How? Describe it in the best way possible.

3. Use dialogue.

Dialogue is the best way to show a character's personality rather than telling about it. Showing their interactions with others, with objects through dialogues is a really useful way of showing their personality, we can understand what they value, their relationships with others.

Say you have a character who gets annoyed easily. Someone might do something or interrupt them while doing something important and they might just yell out in frustration or huff and walk away.

Show that interaction with words and dialogues.

4. Use themes.

If you wish to know more about themes let me know.

For now, I'll give a little context on how to use it here.

The language and details you use show the theme of your story. It provides the theme in a really subtle way but it's there. A reader may not pick it up at first but over time it becomes clear. It also creates that overall thread throughout your entire book.

Takes this as an example:

From this, we can sense the theme is focused heavily on loneliness and craving for human connection. This is really prevalent throughout the entire book but it's done through showing not telling. So if the author was simply telling it you would just simply read it as the character was not lonely at all and she just needed a friend. Like a direct path to her thoughts but that's not what we want. Because at the end of the day, it's not interesting is it?

5.Don't label emotions Don't show emotions, especially if you're not sure whether you are showing or telling, look for actual emotional words. This is called emotive language. When you use words envoke strong emotions but describing those emotions.

Words such as happy, angry or sad are examples of telling. They tell the reader how the character feels not show.

Telling: John was depressed that day and he wanted to cry.

Show: John didn't feel well. Hos heart felt heavy, under great strain. He didn't feel joyful or motivated or enthusiastic. Instead, all he could feel was the suffocating hold of depression. The great urge to push open his eyes and let them rain. He truly wanted to cry.

Sometimes you need to ask yourself "How does this feel?" and then write how it feels.

So, when should you use TELL?

While summary narratives don't work well in stories, telling is needed at times. A great example is in the Novella Court of Frost and Starlight. Where a character spoke of her sexuality and it took 6 PAGES.

I'm not kidding, and those 6 PAGES were all on her sexuality.

Telling in this case would have been so much better.

Don't use show if there’s no value to the plot/tension/conflict/character arc by showing some mundane but necessary information, telling is preferable.

For instance, say you have to get your character to an important meeting and back before the real action happens. Maybe he has to get clearance from his superiors before he can lead a secret raid.

Rather than investing several pages showing every aspect of the trip from packing, dressing, getting a cab to the airport, going through security, boarding the plane, arriving at his destination—you quickly tell that this way:

Three days later, after a trip to Washington to get the operation sanctioned by his superiors, Casey packed his weapons and camo clothes and set out to recruit his crew.

Then you immediately return to showing mode, describing his visits to trusted compatriots and getting them on board.

Here is an other example:

Sorry, for the long post and thank you for reading.

[bookishmabel]

some fucking resources for all ur writing fuckin needs

* body language masterlist

* a translator that doesn’t eat ass like google translate does

* a reverse dictionary for when ur brain freezes

* 550 words to say instead of fuckin said

* 638 character traits for when ur brain freezes again

* some more body language help

(hope this helps some ppl)

[bookishmabel]

Blurb of sorts for my story !!

“Gods have a way of messing things up and not taking responsibility for their actions. Now, the state of the world bares the consequences.

Are humans worth saving? Meláni thinks so, but the other gods disagree. For every world she's witnessed grow and prosper, she's seen just as many fall to ash and ruin.

It'll be hard, but she has hope. This world will not be like the others, this one will thrive. With her help that is.

She just hopes she's not too late, for the future depends on it.”

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