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OC questions!! 1 for Maya. 13 for Johnny. 23 for Jaylen and Johnny. 31 for Fen. 36 for Andrew. 37 for Maya and Ryan. 41 for Johnny. 47 for Johnny. 80 for Andrew and Jaylen.

Thanks hawthorn! 🥺💖

1. What is the meaning behind their name? Do they have any nicknames? +  Maya In Sanskrit, it means either dream or illusion. It is also considered an alternative name for Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, love, beauty, and joy. In Greek, it means “good mother,” which is also the name of Hermes' mother in Greek mythology. In Hebrew, it means water or “from god.” I chose this name just because I like the name without any consideration for any of these meanings though fsdkjf. She does not have any nicknames.

13. How do they feel about animals? Do they have any pets? + Johnny He does not have pets but in an earlier iteration of RTS, he had a fear of ravens. I'm not sure if this will be relevant in this version of RTS though hmm. Oh he's also a cat person!

23. What do they want their legacy to be when they die? + Jaylen Jaylen doesn't like to think about the future and how they're perceived too much. He actually starts considering his legacy when he meets a fan with one of his lyrics tattooed for the first time. After that moment, they want people to remember their work after they die and consider it to be the third most important part about being in the band. She wants to be remembered for her talents in songwriting and performing on stage.

23. What do they want their legacy to be when they die? + Johnny Johnny also doesn't think too much about his legacy after he dies. Upon getting the first taste of fame when the band starts to get mildly popular, he starts to get an ego about it but doesn't really consider legacy on account of being young and dumb. Even after he sells his soul and is confronted with the fact that he's got an expiration point, he still prefers to live in the moment and rarely stops to think about long term consequences and how he'll be remembered. 

31. What are their strengths? Are they aware of them? + Fen. Fen is very curious and focused. They are also very passionate about the things they love and they're booksmart. They are not very aware of the first two traits but often get told the latter by teachers and peers.

36. Have they ever been betrayed? How did it affect their ability to trust others? + Andrew. Andrew has unfortunately dealt with a handful of very good friends abandoning him after he came out as trans. He has a close knit circle of friends and doesn't trust people outside of it easily.

37. How easily do they trust others with their secrets? With their lives? With their physical possessions? + Maya Maya trusts others fairly easily. I wouldn’t describe her as an open book but she’s also not an especially secretive person. She’s a lesbian and her friends know this about her. She is also a very communal person (especially after starting to tour with a band) so she lets others borrow her stuff readily. She would trust her friends and family (including her bandmates) with her life.

37. How easily do they trust others with their secrets? With their lives? With their physical possessions? + Ryan Ryan is a private person so he doesn't share a lot to begin with. If he has any secrets, very few people know them. He doesn't take a lot of possessions on tour with him so he doesn't have a lot to trust people with. He was also an only child so he’s just not used to sharing things. He would trust only a few of his closest friends with his life.

41. What is always guaranteed to make them smile? + Johnny Spending time with his friends, eating good food, listening to good music, figuring out what makes a song click into place. Being with people he loves is definitely at the top of this list for him though.

47. How do they express their grief? + Johnny Johnny is always stuck in a state of grief of sorts because he has major FOMO. I would say he’s a mix of anger and bargaining. He hasn’t had any significant losses (at the start of this story) but in the previous version of RTS where his dad died and he nearly killed his brother (whoopsies) he was in denial and angry about his father and he sold his soul so that Andrew would live. In this version of RTS, Johnny does eventually experience a major loss and spirals hard about it, sinking deeper into substance abuse. So when he grieves, he goes a little bit out of his mind.

80. What is something they regret? + Andrew Andrew doesn't have many regrets. If he wants something, he'll do his best to attain it. If he has any regrets, it's mostly the way other people acted but he's wise enough to realize it's out of his control. He doesn't even regret leaving the band and seeing them get famous because he didn't want to do it anymore and he sees how his younger brother is not handling fame well.

80. What is something they regret? + Jaylen Jaylen has a few regrets, in contrast. They spent a long time trying to please their parents but when they finally reach a breaking point, they regret not trying to live life on their own terms sooner. She also comes to regret compromising on her songwriting so much, because from the demo to the finished product things were changed a lot so, especially on the band's later releases, she regrets letting that much creative control go.

Send me a number(s) 1-100 off of this questionnaire plus the name of one of my ocs

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If your plot feels flat, STUDY it! Your story might be lacking...

Stakes - What would happen if the protagonist failed? Would it really be such a bad thing if it happened?

Thematic relevance - Do the events of the story speak to a greater emotional or moral message? Is the conflict resolved in a way that befits the theme?

Urgency - How much time does the protagonist have to complete their goal? Are there multiple factors complicating the situation?

Drive - What motivates the protagonist? Are they an active player in the story, or are they repeatedly getting pushed around by external forces? Could you swap them out for a different character with no impact on the plot? On the flip side, do the other characters have sensible motivations of their own?

Yield - Is there foreshadowing? Do the protagonist's choices have unforeseen consequences down the road? Do they use knowledge or clues from the beginning, to help them in the end? Do they learn things about the other characters that weren't immediately obvious?

#ref #plot

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Photographer Robert von Thaden

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can we just….

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Wires

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Who are you when you're not performing?

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learning from the reblogs of that post that there's a lot of people out there under the impression that "kill your darlings" means "kill your characters" and that's the funniest possible interpretation of that phrase

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By Logan Zillmer

#simon

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“Getting” yourself to write

Yesterday, I was trawling iTunes for a decent podcast about writing. After a while, I gave up, because 90% of them talked incessantly about “self-discipline,” “making writing a habit,” “getting your butt in the chair,” “getting yourself to write.” To me, that’s six flavors of fucked up.

Okay, yes—I see why we might want to “make writing a habit.” If we want to finish anything, we’ll have to write at least semi-regularly. In practical terms, I get it.

But maybe before we force our butts into chairs, we should ask why it’s so hard to “get” ourselves to write. We aren’t acting randomly; our brains say “I don’t want to do this” for a reason. We should take that reason seriously.

Most of us resist writing because it hurts and it’s hard. Well, you say, writing isn’t supposed to be easy—but there’s hard, and then there’s hard. For many of us, sitting down to write feels like being asked to solve a problem that is both urgent and unsolvable—“I have to, but it’s impossible, but I have to, but it’s impossible.” It feels fucking awful, so naturally we avoid it.

We can’t “make writing a habit,” then, until we make it less painful. Something we don’t just “get” ourselves to do.

The “make writing a habit” people are trying to do that, in their way. If you do something regularly, the theory goes, you stop dreading it with such special intensity because it just becomes a thing you do. But my god, if you’re still in that “dreading it” phase and someone tells you to “make writing a habit,” that sounds horrible.

So many of us already dismiss our own pain constantly. If we turn writing into another occasion for mute suffering, for numb and joyless endurance, we 1) will not write more, and 2) should not write more, because we should not intentionally hurt ourselves.

Seriously. If you want to write more, don’t ask, “how can I make myself write?” Ask, “why is writing so painful for me and how can I ease that pain?” Show some compassion for yourself. Forgive yourself for not being the person you wish you were and treat the person you are with some basic decency. Give yourself a fucking break for avoiding a thing that makes you feel awful.

Daniel José Older, in my favorite article on writing ever, has this to say to the people who admonish writers to write every day:

Here’s what stops more people from writing than anything else: shame. That creeping, nagging sense of ‘should be,’ ‘should have been,’ and ‘if only I had…’ Shame lives in the body, it clenches our muscles when we sit at the keyboard, takes up valuable mental space with useless, repetitive conversations. Shame, and the resulting paralysis, are what happen when the whole world drills into you that you should be writing every day and you’re not.

The antidote, he says, is to treat yourself kindly:

For me, writing always begins with self-forgiveness. I don’t sit down and rush headlong into the blank page. I make coffee. I put on a song I like. I drink the coffee, listen to the song. I don’t write. Beginning with forgiveness revolutionizes the writing process, returns its being to a journey of creativity rather than an exercise in self-flagellation. I forgive myself for not sitting down to write sooner, for taking yesterday off, for living my life. That shame? I release it. My body unclenches; a new lightness takes over once that burden has floated off. There is room, now, for story, idea, life.

Writing has the potential to bring us so much joy. Why else would we want to do it? But first we’ve got to unlearn the pain and dread and anxiety and shame attached to writing—not just so we can write more, but for our own sakes! Forget “making writing a habit”—how about “being less miserable”? That’s a worthy goal too!

Luckily, there are ways to do this. But before I get into them, please absorb this lesson: if you want to write, start by valuing your own well-being. Start by forgiving yourself. And listen to yourself when something hurts.

Next post: freewriting

Ask me a question or send me feedback! Podcast recommendations welcome…

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Ralph Goings (American, b,1928), Flowered Table Top, 1978, Watercolor and graphite on paper

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I was thinking a lot about character inspiration memes that people used to do for their OCs back in the day, and made a fresh new one that is perfect for the modern creator. I included a transparent version, if that's helpful!

Please, everyone talk about your OCs and what brainwormed them into your being so I am not the only one.

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let’s hear it for!

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Erika Lee Sears

#maya

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heart shaped carabiner my beloved

#maya

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YAAA MY DIGITAL DRAWING OF STUMP

i luv the way i drew the guitar in this >_< this was a rlly quick drawing i think maybe a 3-4 hour drawing!!! got a sneaky @/ihearthira in there lol (my @ in insta)

@falloutboy

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This was one of Thurston Moore's main guitars. A Fender Jazzmaster with one humbucker in the bridge, which was heavily used and tuned in GGDDD#D# around the 90's (Washing Machine era).

#jaylen