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emletish-fish · 3 years

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7. what is you favorite sentence/paragraph? read it to us! (asker can choose what fic) (x)

I chose three! One from each of my 'big fics'. No Zombies, Worst Prisoners and Good Boys under the cut:

NO ZOMBIES:

No Zombies was a delight to write. I had pretty much the whole idea from the get-go, (of a returned style AU with Hector coming to spend time with the family in the modern world). I finished it quick - and it's not too long (side-eyeing Good Boy and Worst Prisoner). It was the first fic where I felt like I really "stuck" the landing. I was quite flexible with my original outline, but I still knew where the journey ended. It ended exactly how I wanted it too - happily but with a bitter-sweet note.

The emotional core of this story is how Elena, family matriach, who is so gruff and no-nonsense, who despises Hector in the films, and who has such a warm heart under such a grumpy exterior would slowly soften and come to love Hector, (and how she grows as a person because of this and becomes more comfortable showing love/emotions to her family). It was like a platonic slow-burn as she learns to understand Hector better - which is why this bit is my favourite because it's where she starts to really feel fond of him for the first time:

“Well, I'm just glad I'm a better teacher for him than watching old Ernesto De La Cruz movies.” Héctor had replied with a wry smile. “It's probably because I'm so much more handsome than that butt-chinned, over-the-top ham.”

“Because you're a pointy-chinned, over-the-top ham?” Elena replied, feeling surprising witty. She never made teasing jokes like this normally, but it was so easy with Héctor.

He looked mock-offended. “I'll have you know, my chin is wonderful and I've given it to several of your grandchildren, so there.”

If Elena was a different person, she probably would have pulled Héctor into a warm, laughing hug then. She might have told him seriously that Miguel had always been difficult for her. He felt things so strongly and got so upset and emotional – she'd always struggled with how to help him, how to calm him. Miguel was so happy now. She knew that was because of Héctor.

She might have told Héctor that he was at least six thousand times the musician, eight thousand times the teacher, and ten thousand times the man that Ernesto De La Cruz was.

But Elena was who she was.

Instead she said “Idiot,” and ruffled his stupidly messy hair rather fondly.

She told herself she wasn't warming to the fool musician, but she knew it was a lie.

GOOD BOY:

My current work. It's another platonic slow-burn, but this time set in the Cobra Kai universe with son and father pair - Robby Keene and Johnny Lawrence. In the show, these two characters have such a dysfunctional relationship that is so full of miscommunications and missed chances, and they genuinely want a better relationship (and it would be so healing for both of them! Do not get me started!) I lean much more into the magical realism in this story, as I turned Robby into a dog (Animal transformation - PIXAR's Brave style), so that he could immediately get the cuddles and easy affection he so clearly needs.... because I have never seen a more touch/affection-starved character aside from Zuko in ATLA.

This also gave Robby a chance to really understand, not only his father, but the other people in his cicrcle. He discovered he had a support network. He got to know he was loved by many. he got to witness the actions people would take as they searched for human-him (not knowing that he'd been turned into a dog). And it gave Johnny a chance to learn how to take care of something, feel needed, and express his love for his son without the weight of their complicated history/his own trauma hanging over him. It was hard to pick a favourite, but I will say the Johnny-stream-of-conciousness chapters are definitely the easiest/most fun to write. One of my favourite bits is in the first one, The queen of ice-cream runaway when Johnny tells Robby about when Laura (his grandmother) found out Shannon was pregnant and she was going to be a grandmother.

It's the first inkling Robby gets that while his father wasn't there for him and he was neglected a lot, Johnny did his best to keep the bad shit from his own childhood away from Robby as his own way of showing care. It hints at the deep and damaging abuse Johnny endured. When he finally had a say with his own kid, he would have done anything to protect Robby from feeling the same. I'd say here is where Robby really begins to warm to his Dad;

Then I told her our chosen name and she said I was a dumbass and Swayze was a terrible middle name, and we had to change it to some shit like Alastair or something. She thought he should have a rich sounding middle name. And I say Mom, Alastair sounds like some lame-ass insurance broker who upskirts his secretary and then cries as he jerks off to the pictures, what else you got? She thought Sebastian, and that was worse! What a pussy name. Sebastian is going to be sitting in the little french patisserie cafe drinking the tiny-ass coffee for dolls and eating the éclair with his prissy finger tips. I already want to kick Sebastian's ass. Who wouldn’t? I’m not going to give my kid a name that is going to get his ass kicked.

And she couldn't talk, cause she named me after Johnny Cash, just cause she liked his music. And she couldn't think of a middle name at the time, so I didn't get one. Thank goodness. I could have ended up Johnny Alastair and had to kick my own ass.

So Swayze stayed.

Then she mentions how she and Sid can help out, so I didn't need to do the two jobs, stupidly long hours thing. And we need the money. I know we need the money. But my whole body froze and I just went No. None of that for little Robby Swayze. ...

... She’s going on about spending Sid’s money on Robby and I just...I can’t. I can't allow it. Cause I knew how he would be, and the way he would treat that kid. So I tell her, no thank you. Not a fucking cent mom. Sid’s not getting to feel like he owns a hair on Robby’s head. That motherfucker can go jump. You thought we needed Sid’s money when I was a kid. You decided it was better for me, and that was your choice. I did not get a vote in that. But this is my kid, and this time it is my call, and I am choosing no. I’m not going to have Sid make my kid feel like he has to apologise for existing every day. I'm not going to have Sid treat my kid the way he treated me. I will never need money that badly. I will never put my kid through that. I'll work myself to the bone doing 20 hour days before that. I'll work on the 40th floor without a harness before that. I will sell my fucking organs before it comes to that. Not a cent mom.

WORST PRISONER:

My 'what if Zuko made friends with the Gaang early on?" AU that then turned into a three-book long saga (and I will return to it, Worst Prisoner readers - Thank you for you patience). It does have evenutal Zutara, but the focus is really on the Gaang + Zuko as a whole, and all the interpersonal relationships. I'd say there is more gen-shipping around Zuko as a central character, as Iroh & Zuko, and Sokka & Zuko are both given equal prominence. in fact, all the friendships and familial relationships were equally important to me. (the book 3 Zuko & Azula stuff is so interesting, but it is ...less funny I guess.)

This fic is such a joy to write, and I really try and balance the humour with the bittersweet/sad parts, and one of the main sources of humor was the Sokka-Aang-Zuko -Katara qudrangle of dumbassery. I love the four of them together in book 1, and so many of their interactions were a hoot to write. But if I'd have to pick a favourite moment, it would be the moment in the deserter chapter in book 1, where they all decide to 'officially' be friends:

“Well, you can figure that out and find someone while I'm up in the Northern Water Tribe. Then when we finish up there, we'll come find you,” Aang offered.

“Really?” Zuko’s eyes were shining optimistically. It was a strange expression for him. Aang was so used to seeing him with a grumpy face.

“Really, I promise,” Aang said, feeling so glad that he could help Zuko go home.

“Yeah, I second that. If this means we won’t have to put up with you chasing us, I am in!” Sokka said. “Sheesh, you could have just asked ages ago!”

“You know, this means I was right,” Aang started to say, feeling very vindicated. The others looked at him curiously. “If we had just talked about friendship in the forest, we could have sorted this out weeks ago!”

“Boo, forest friendship!” Sokka said.

“Don't boo him,” Katara admonished, elbowing her brother.

“I agree with Sokka. There's no way I would have appreciated that speech weeks ago, Aang,” Zuko said.

Sokka smiled at Zuko for saying he agreed with him. It actually wasn't that rare of an occurrence, but it still seemed to surprise Sokka every time.

“See, Aang, forest friendship is bullshit,” Sokka said.

“I didn't say that!” Zuko cut in. “I just meant, maybe … I had to be dragged all over the Earth Kingdom by you guys ... and shot ... and taken to nonsense fortune tellers ... and I had to be forced to eat Sokka's truly terrible and disgusting cooking—”

“Oi!”

“—and I had listen to Aang lecture me about friendship and vegetarianism in the forest just so I could come here.” He looked around at the deserters’ camp site. “I dunno, maybe it was meant to be this way.”

“What are you saying? You want to be forest friends with Aang now?” Sokka asked accusingly.

“I mean, sure. If Aang will have me, we can be friends,” Zuko said, and looked uncertain.

“Yay! I knew you'd want to be my friend,” Aang said, feeling delighted.

He was so happy he had a Fire Nation friend again. Kuzon had been an amazing friend, even though he'd gotten Aang into so many sticky situations. He had already thought Zuko was his friend, but it was nice to make it official. Aang always knew the Fire Nation had good people in it too, and now he had been proven right. He jumped up and gave Zuko a huge hug.

#Emletish answers #Emletish writes #Fic: No Zombies #Fic: Good Boy #Fic: Worst Prisoner

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myaekingheart · 5 years

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1, 2, and 12!!

Bless you, Jessie 🙌💕

Alright so since I reblogged like 20 ask memes, I’m just gonna go ahead and take the liberty of doing all of these numbers for every single one I’ve reblogged that’s applicable to give myself extra stuff to do xD

Fanfiction Asks!

1. Do you read fic? Do you write fic?

I actually write fic WAY MORE than I read fic. I find that the issue I have when reading fic is that I get really giddy and inspired and then I lose my concentration on the story in front of me and my interests rather shift more towards the story in my own damn head. I really need to start reading more of other people’s work, though. I have a handful saved on AO3 that I just have not gotten around to, but I really should. I really have so many damn things I want to read, fanfiction and otherwise, but lack the motivation to sit down and actually read it.

2. Favorite genre of fic?

I feel like it’s kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what kind of fic I’m drawn most towards, but I guess the best descriptor would be drama? I don’t know, I just really like stories that focus heavily on character development and interpersonal relationships (so bildungsroman lmfao), especially when there’s some imperfect romance and action/adventure involved. Both of my main fanfics, my Narnia series Temptation and The Scarecrow and the Bell, my Naruto fic, both are pretty much just that: heavy focus on character with imperfect romance and action/adventure. I just think it’s fun seeing characters, especially ones that have feelings for each other, in stressful and dangerous situations trying to work through them together and oftentimes disagree and have to figure out how to handle the disagreements, too. Or have personal stuff they’re dealing with on top of things. I don’t know, I just really love focusing on relationship dynamics and situations like that are a fun lens to look through.

12. What turns you away the most from a fic?

Honestly, grammatical issues and whether or not the story feels believable. I guess I’m kind of picky when it comes to that stuff, but I’m also used to being critical of writing solely because I’m a creative writing major and a big part of this degree’s curriculum is workshopping peer writing. Grammatical issues in terms of a misplaced comma or something aren’t that big a deal, I’m not that stingy, but things like lacking paragraph breaks, or not knowing when to switch paragraphs, bug me as well as habitual misspellings of common words--the one that peeves me off the most is spelling “definitely” like “defiantly” or “definately” or any other misspelling under the sun. The idea of a story feeling believable might just be me being really picky but I’ve opened up fics sometimes where I could hardly get through the first paragraph because the story didn’t feel genuine to me. It’s kind of hard to explain, but I guess as someone who puts a ton of research into my own fanfics and also really tries to perfectly capture the tone of the source material, sometimes I’ll read stuff that just feels out of place and it really takes me out of the story and honestly makes me cringe. I feel like saying all of that makes me sound like some kind of asshole, though. I don’t know, I’m just so goddamn picky when it comes to what I’m reading and especially with fanfiction, since it’s a lot more organic and it doesn’t go through the same fine toothed editing process that professionally published works do (although I’ve picked up on some questionable stuff even in print books; one such thing was so minor, but it was a forgotten period at the end of a sentence and I kept laughing about it saying to myself “Someone missed a period!” You know, like an asshole.)

Music Asks

1. your favorite album opener

Beartooth’s Greatness or Death off their most recent album, Disease. It just really sets the tone for the rest of the album and feels like such an appropriate intro overall. They have a playlist for the entire album on Youtube with the correct track listing so that was the first song off thei newest album that I had heard and it just felt like such a great and appropriate intro, it really got me into the vibe and energy of the rest of the album and I just...I love it a lot. The song, the album, the band in general.

2. a song starting w/ the same first letter of your first name

Aurora Avenue by Defeat the Low. I’m a huge Nirvana fan, and the song is all about Kurt Cobain. The entire first verse was literally pulled straight from his infamous suicide note (”Speaking from the tongue of an experienced simpleton who obviously would rather be an emasculated, infantile complainee.”) I stumbled upon this song by pure chance-- it was playing at the end of a video for a different song, which I think was actually a Beartooth one-- and it sounded interesting so I pulled it up and the minute I heard the first verse, I, who had read Kurt’s suicide note already, was like “WAIT A SECOND THIS SOUNDS REALLY FAMILIAR” but it didn’t hit me that that was what it was, and that the entire song was about Kurt, until later and it made me love it even more.

12. a song you can scream all the words to

Hospital for Souls by Bring Me The Horizon. It’s an all-time fave, made even more so by the fact that it’s one of my top ship songs (for my Naruto ship, Kakashi Hatake x my OC Rei Natsuki, who I write the fanfic about, and even made an AMV for them with because I’M CRAZY). It also just hits really hard personally, especially the line “Have you ever put a blade to your wrists, or have you been skipping meals?” because it relates to my own mental health struggles. I’ve never had the right opportunity to actually scream all the words aloud along with the song, but I desperately need to find the right place to do it one of these days because I have a lot of feelings I need to get out that can only be done through that exact act and I need to do it in a way where I will not end up getting the cops called on me for being way too loud. I just need a soundproof room in general (not just for these purposes, but also because I’m a voice actress for an independent animated series called Space Hotel and I need someplace to record shit anyways.)

Soft and Ethereal Asks

1.secret garden or forest?

Secret garden! I love the idea of having someplace only I know guarded off by a wall with vines running up the side of it, the kind of place you enter through a wrought-iron gate, where flowers are growing through the cracks and there’s a bubbling fountain in the center you can sit by either on the edge or in the grass or on a dirty old cement bench from times before I was even a thought in my parent’s head, and just revel in the silence with a good book or a pencil and sketchbook and make flower crowns and daisy chains or have a little personal picnic laying out a checkered blanket and carrying everything in a big basket like strawberries and little sandwiches and homemade cookies and shit. I’m such a sap but I live for the idea of that gentle, pastel-tinted quiet afternoon. Pure solace.

2.the stars or the moon?

The moon. I love stars to death, too, but there’s something about the moon that really hits me. Maybe it’s because it goes through phases but no matter what is still whole even when it appears not to be. Maybe it’s because it’s kind of comforting to look at. More than anything, though, it’s probably at least partially because one of my favorite films is Rise of the Guardians (and by extension, the book series it was based upon, The Guardians of Childhood) in which the moon is a major character, or at least The Man in the Moon. In the movie, he’s never seen or heard but he’s always there watching over the world. Jack Frost, the protagonist, doesn’t understand his purpose in this eternal life of his where no one can see him and no one believes in him, and constantly looks to the moon for answers but never hears any. The very first lines of the movie are even “Darkness. That’s the first thing I remember. It was dark and it was cold and I was scared. But then...then I saw the moon. It was so big and so bright. It seemed to chase the darkness away.” Not to get super religious here but in a way the whole moon thing even reminds me of Christianity a little bit, and I’m not really religious in the slightest (maybe spiritual, but not very religious) but this movie also came to me at a time when I was very at odds with the idea of God and faith and everything, and I felt like Jack Frost constantly questioning what the point of it all was and questioning whether something greater even existed and if so, then how could they let terrible things like this happen? Without any solid answer? I don’t know, I don’t want this to get into a debate about my own religious beliefs, but yeah. The moon and I have some history, so I’ll choose the moon over the stars.

12.fiction or short stories?

Fiction. By nature of my degree, I have to read a lot of short stories for college and some of them are really enjoyable and interesting but then we get to the debate of genre fiction versus literary fiction, which I think is a stupid fucking debate and literary fiction needs to get off it’s damn high horse with it’s “holier than thou” complex or whatever. Or maybe it’s not the literary fiction itself so much as the people who praise it. Like yes, I get that literary fiction is contemporary fine art and nuanced and shit but sometimes I like stories about vampires and ninjas and teenagers with weird names and social anxiety. Literary fiction is fine and all, but let’s face it, genre fiction is way more fucking fun and that is why I chose “fiction” over “short stories.”

65 Questions You Aren’t Used To

1. Do you ever doubt the existence of others than you?

If I’m going to be brutally honest, sometimes. Hell, sometimes I even question my own existence but I guess that’s just the depersonalization aspect of anxiety talking.

2. On a scale of 1-5, how afraid of the dark are you?

With 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest, I’d say I’m at about a 3? I’m not as afraid of the dark as I used to be, but it’s situational. If I’m alone and it’s dark, then I get panicky because my awareness is impaired and I’m admittedly a very visual person so if I can’t see and I suspect there’s something going bump in the night, I’m going to freak out. Even hearing something, even when logically I know exactly what it is, freaks me out because I can’t know for sure unless I’m looking straight at it but if it’s dark, I can’t do that. I prefer to sleep when it’s like fully dark, though. I even used to wear a sleep mask to help with that and because the feeling of something soft over my eyes was comforting??? I don’t know, like I can sleep perfectly fine with the lights on, too, and sometimes if my anxiety is bad that’s what I’d prefer to make things easier on myself but for the most part, I guess it’s situational. I also feel like this is an appropriate place to say I have a duck nightlight in my bathroom, which doesn’t really have anything to do with being afraid of the dark so much as darkness in general but I also have a thing for rubber ducks so having a rubber duck nightlight is very on brand and I love it.

12. Who told you they loved you last?

Probably my boyfriend. He’s the one whose always here anyways. If not him, then from my mother but I don’t particularly want to think about her right now because I’m kind of upset with her so we’re just going to go ahead and say my boyfriend.

Sensory Asks

[sight]

1. favourite colour(s)?

Red is my top fave, and has been since I was three. I think it was when I got a red VW Beetle for my Barbie dolls that I really fell in love with the color. All the accessories that came with it were red plastic and looking at them just filled with me a lot of energy and joy, which I later realized I felt whenever looking at red in general. It also helps that I can now make the joke whenever I’m asked this question that I love red “like the blood of my enemies,” which is always fun.

2. least favourite colour(s)?

I’m really not a fan of yellow, chartreuse, and tan/beige. I can handle yellow in certain instances like with sunflowers or lemons or sunshine related stuff, but I prefer gold over straight up yellow. I don’t dislike yellow nearly as much as tan/beige, though. That one I can also handle in certain instances but for the most part, it reminds me of a time I got sick as a kid so looking at it for too long brings back that nausea. Chartreuse is the end-all, be-all of the colors I’m not big on, though. It just...reminds me of snot. It feels really unappealing to look at for me, too.

[smell]

12. favourite scent?

Clean laundry, hands down. I love nothing more than the smell of fresh laundry, like sometimes I’ll catch myself literally sitting at my laptop sniffing my shirt because I love the smell so much. It’s just so comforting, and I think that’s because it reminds me of this doll I’ve had literally since birth. I called her Baby Doll and she was just a basic baby doll with a plastic head and cloth body that my grandmother got from Avon and I was so damn attached to it as a kid. I brought Baby Doll everywhere with me, even in my backpack on my first day of preschool. I slept with her for way longer than I’d like to admit, too. But she smelled like fabric softener, and when I was a little kid and was having bad anxiety attacks (which I’ve been dealing with since I was three), I would hug her really close and the smell was just really comforting. So now I have to get it from my own laundry because I still own Baby Doll, but I’m a grown-ass adult and she’s very fragile now (and also currently in storage for safe-keeping). So yeah, clean laundry hands-down.

Fashions Asks

1. What season has your favorite looks?

Fall! I’m such a sucker for big cozy sweaters and jeans. Back to school fashion lowkey excites me, too, and besides: I feel like it’s a lot easier to find appropriate outfits for my personal fashion sense that fit cooler weather than the seventh circle of hell 106-degree-heat-index I’m currently living in. I adore oversized sweaters, leggings, skinny jeans, combat boots, creepers, hoodies, layers, all that good stuff but you can’t do that when you feel like you’re dying of heat stroke even standing in front of the fridge butt naked. Not that I do that, but it’s hot enough here that I could if I wanted to. That’s not an issue in fall, though, which is super fucking nice. I just really love being cozy all the time always.

2. Formal or casual?

Casual! As much as I love the look of formal clothes, I am chronically ill. I am anxious. I am depressed. I want to be comfortable all the damn time, and I just can’t be genuinely comfortable in formal clothes. For example, I attended my cousin’s wedding last spring and wore these really cute Mary Jane heels that I love. They fit my aesthetic and make my legs look great, too, if I say so myself. I was able to get through the ceremony with them on but after the fact, they started getting so damn uncomfortable that I went to the car and changed into my ratty five year old combat boots like a total punk because comfort. At least they still looked good with the dress I was wearing, though, so that’s a plus.

12. What fashions do you hate?

Okay, I feel like a lot of people might get on my case about this but I really can’t stand Birkenstocks. They just...look like what your overbearing uncle would wear with socks to the summer barbecue to me. I don’t know, in certain cases they’re at least fitting for a certain look and I commend the people who can pull them off but as for me? I just can’t wrap my head around them. I dislike them even more than Crocs, which I am also not a fan of. But then again, like...I’m also not big on today’s fashion trends in general. There are some things I do like, like oversized t-shirts with leggings especially if they’re a band t-shirt, and those cute Japanese uniform style pleated skirts (I admittedly own one and I love it). The whole ethereal quirky pastel modern grunge e-girl shit, though, just doesn’t vibe much with me. My fashion sense is more on par with Luanna Perez’s alternative looks and the 2007-2012 era of the emo/scene style, as well as some pastel goth, genuine 90′s grunge, and kawaii/lolita inspired stuff. Like I will gladly tease the hell out of my hair, add in extensions and coontails and a little pink bow, and throw on a pink polka dot dress with fishnets and creepers or something. I don’t know, I just feel really disconnected from what’s considered trendy in today’s fashion sense. Maybe it’s because I tried so hard for so many years to fit what was in style despite it not feeling genuine to who I was personally, that now that I’ve finally mustered enough confidence to leave the house wearing what makes me happy even if it is unorthodox and alternative (like black lipstick!!!), I just can’t get on board with what everyone else is doing. Sure, I feel a little weird dressing like it’s ten years ago when everyone else is walking around wearing like those dinky crop tops that say “I have no tits” or have like applique roses on them or whatever and anything else that’s considered modern on-trend but like...in the wise words of Kurt Cobain, “I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I’m not.” I’m tired of trying to fit the status quo and doing what everyone else is doing. If I want coontails and snake bites in 2019, then goddammit I’m gonna go for it (though not gonna lie, the 20NINESCENE craze has me crying because I regret not having “the phase” in middle school that everyone else did so much sometimes that it’s physically painful so to think that there are still people out there rocking the thick side fringe and heavy eyeliner and the RAWR MEANS I LOVE YOU IN DINOSAUR shit makes me feel like maybe I’ve been given a second chance to be true to myself and become a part of a community that means something to me, rather than what I was actually doing in middle school being dragged through the mud trying to redeem myself of some sense of popularity because I was losing my best friend to the alpha female clique mentality and I was so damn unhappy, I legit had a breakdown in her pool about it once so you bet your ass I’m going to say screw it and do everything I wanted to back then now that I actually have the confidence and stopped caring what people thought about me.)

#this got so long i am so fucking sorry xD #answered asks #ask memes #lasaraleen

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lets-get-fictional · 7 years

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hello! I'm really glad to find your blog because it helps me a lot to get through many things for my future project! I also wanna know if you maybe can help me, bcs the world of my project is just like our own Earth, but there are monsters and people who can control elements like air, fire, etc. I'm still confused on how to make the world seems realistic and relatable to the readers, I wonder if you can help me? and I'm not a native English speaker, sorry if there is any mistake. thank you!

Hello, love! Your English is great 👍 And thank you for following!

That sounds like a really cool universe :) I strongly relate to your struggle with relatability – I tend to make my worlds complex and a bit inaccessible to readers. And that’s the kind of problem that, when you look at it as a whole, feels pretty overwhelming. That’s why I break it down into three different areas…

The Three C’s of Relatable Stories

In general, there are three big parts of your story that you’ll need your characters to understand and, on some level, relate to. While your fictional universe should be unique and different from our real world – especially the more removed it is from real-life science and society – there should be a few common threads that your readers can see and think, “Oh, that’s just like real life!” Examine your story in the following three areas:

1. Culture

This is the topic I’ll discuss most, so I put it first. Your story’s culture is, for some readers (including myself), one of the most immersive and exciting aspects of your fictional universe. Everything that creates your society – architecture, art, history, education, food, fashion, sports, politics, religion, medicine, community, major moral beliefs and conflicts – will shape how your readers experience your story. Interesting fictional culture also promotes fanfiction, cosplay, and strong fandom ties that enable you to write sequels/spin-offs (J.K. Rowling is living off how strong her fictional culture was).

Because we want our cultures to be so unique and entertaining, though, many writers make the mistake of creating cultures too exotic or fantastical to reach readers. But there are certain “human” parts of culture that reappear no matter what universe you’re in, so make sure your story has at least a few of the following:

Games. Even wild animals, who have nothing to do with our society, play games with each other in real life – so unless fun and games are strictly outlawed in your universe, you should probably have some. Games aren’t necessarily going to mirror ours; after all, we have board games, card games, video games, arcade games, sports games, drinking games, and games that don’t require supplies (guessing games, tag, hide-and-seek, charades, I-Spy etc.). Different games are more appropriate for different ages – some are associated with certain genders, certain events, or certain environments. Develop some of your own games, and maybe use some that mimic real games (with different names, of course).

Food. Food isn’t just something we eat – it’s a culture. Food culture = answering questions like:

Where do people of [lower/middle/upper] classes eat?

What sort of events are tied to food? (e.g. Thanksgiving, harvest festivals, etc.)

Are there special foods or meals for special occasions?

What do children eat in schools?

How difficult is it to get organic ingredients?

What is weight culture like? In other words, are people viewed as more healthy when they eat more/less? What figure is considered normal or attractive? Do people diet?

Sports. No matter where you live on planet earth, there’s generally some kind of sports culture – some sports are more dominant in some places than others (think about the U.S.’s relationship to soccer vs. everywhere else). Some cultures use sports as a social activity for their kids, while others cultivate serious sports practice from childhood. Certain sports are environmentally more relevant to certain places (which is why Canadians are so damn good at the winter Olympics). Some sports are more violent than others – and each one has certain values: strength, speed, stamina, reflexes, agility, artistry, precision, rhythm, teamwork, or strategy. Assess your fictional region’s values and develop sports culture that mirror said values.

Politics. Every type of government comes with its own benefits, challenges, and conflicts. Issues of allocating funds, handling corruption, checks and balances, legal rulings, outdated laws, controversial leaders, foreign relations, taxes, inequality, nature conservation, church vs. state, overpopulation – many of these problems will likely exist in your universe, in some form or another. Pick and choose what political conflicts you’ll share with readers, and think about how they relate to and reflect in your fictional society.

Theology. Decide on the majority worldview/s (theism, deism, naturalism, nihilism, pantheism, new age, post-modernism, etc. – although these worldviews shouldn’t be mentioned by name in your work) of your universe. Read about these worldviews and how they shape society’s morals, legal system, government, interpersonal relationships, parenting, and environmentalism. Create characters who align with the majority, and characters who contrast with the majority – thus creating conflicts that are very familiar to us. This doesn’t mean your story has to become a religious or political commentary, of course! But these belief systems have effects on every aspect of life, including life-or-death situations, romantic entanglements, and day-to-day affairs like work, money, and school.

2. Characters

Arguably the most important aspect of relatability, your characters are the driving force of empathy and comfort for your readers. Although your characters will have some level of difference from real people (especially if your genre is fantasy/supernatural), there are a few common things that your characters should more than likely have:

Desires. Everyone everywhere has desires, both attainable and unattainable, that drive them through every action. There are large-scale desires – dream colleges, dream jobs, dream power, dream relationships – and small-scale desires – to help someone through a hard time, to make money, to eat right, to be a patient person – and even unknown desires – answers, fulfillment, guidance, the “right thing”, passion – all of which will exist in each character simultaneously. Decide what your character wants, and you’ve already got multiple platforms for relatability.

Weaknesses. Where there are desires, there are weaknesses that get in the way of those desires – and that’s usually the best way to find them. What gets in the way of what they want? Look at the Seven Deadly Sins; look at your own flaws, and the flaws that annoy you the most in others, and the flaws you don’t mind in others. If your character, for example, wants to become famous on Broadway… what makes it a challenge? Does she have social anxiety? Is she impatient? Does she struggle with her responsibilities? Does she struggle with internalized discrimination? What makes her dream personally, circumstantially, or socially unattainable?

Self-image. So they’ve got their desires, and the weaknesses that keep them from those desires, so the real question is: how do they see themselves? Do they focus on their failures or their successes? Do they see their dreams as attainable or impossible? Do they make steps to better themselves or do they feel comfortable with who they are now? Do they absorb other people’s opinions of them, or reject those opinions? Self-image is almost more relevant to a character’s story than their actual image, because this directs a lot of how they behave, how they struggle, and most importantly, how they narrate their own story.

Sins. Bad habits, conscious choices, past sins – the sins they don’t even know are sins – these things are the ultimate stuff of relatability. When someone reads your book and sees a character who shares their struggles, they won’t put the book down. Don’t be afraid to let your character do bad things. Don’t try to make them lovable angelic cinnamon rolls who do no harm. Let them do things that make your readers cringe because damn it, she’s yelling at the people she loves again – stop pushing them away! This will keep readers involved and allow them to feel your character’s failures as if they were their own.

Humor. Everybody’s got a sense of humor – even those dumbass middle school boys who joke about sexual experiences they’ve never had. Everyone has their own type of humor based on the kind of people they live with and the TV shows they watch and the experiences they’ve had. Writing humor, however, can feel less natural – because there’s this pressure to make everybody laugh. Don’t worry about that. Just give your characters their own senses of humor, and someone will find it relatable.

Love. Even villains have love to give. Every person, and therefore every character – from every background and every trauma and every bad relationship and bad childhood – has love in their heart, as cheesy as that sounds. They have love they want to give to people (sometimes a particular person) and love they want to receive, and different methods of expressing their love (see: The Five Love Languages) to others. They have love for themselves, too, and conditions on which they’ll treat themselves with love. Determine their potential for loving themselves, for loving others – both platonically and romantically – and for unconditional love. Then allow this to grow over the course of the story, and you’ll have a character arc everyone can appreciate.

3. Conflict

Here is a post I’ve written discussing 4/5 of the main types of conflict, which are:

Man vs. Man

Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Society

Man vs. Self

Man vs. Technology/Supernatural

The reason these categories of conflict are so popular is because they’re the same conflicts we face in day-to-day life. The fight over territory with your roommate = Man vs. Man. Trying to find your car in the rain = Man vs. Nature. Making the same New Year’s resolution for the third year in a row = Man vs. Self. So identify these conflicts in your story, both large-scale and small-scale. Both are important, but the personal conflicts – the ones that most affect your characters, like their resolutions or their roommate, or the killer beast that’s trying to eat them or the A.I. that’s taken control of their spaceship – will give your story stakes that, on their basest level, your readers will understand.

That’s my only real advice for you, since this is something I also struggle to manage – but I hope some of this makes sense for you and your story. If you have any further questions, hit me up and I’ll try to get back to you way sooner. Good luck!

If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask me!

#writing #writeblr #writing blog #writing tips #writing advice #my post #ask #corosays #conflict #characters #culture #relatability #planning #worldbuilding

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powerpalspart3 · 7 years

Text

SYLVIA VIVIENNE DELANEY

OOC Info:

Name: its mel again

Age: i’m 17 … how time flies

Pronouns: she/they!

Skype: we don’t use this cursed entity

Discord: you guys have it jgfkjhkdjf

Other blogs: partypupz is my only active one rn

Character Info:

Name: sylvia vivienne delaney, (though she goes by sylvie / vivi)

Age: 18

School/College: (if any) graduated wakefield scholastic, on her gap year

Powers: time manipulation! sylvie can slow down or stop time, but she can’t speed it up or wind it backwards. she doesn’t have very much practical experience with it, and mostly uses it for self centered tasks (like hitting pause to pull an all nighter’s worth of work in an afternoon so she can sleep the night before a test, or really stretched out summer naps.) while she can influence the timestream around her, (which can involve people mid action, or objects like a tennis ball) the difficulty scales with the object’s complexity and mass / weight, as well as general complexity of movement: ie) while a tennis ball in a parabolic arc in the middle of a match is easy enough, it’s an entirely different ballpark to slow down an entire room full of people and all their bodily mechanisms (mostly the movement of contractions, like your heartbeat, breathing) to walk boldly to the front and snatch the answer key off of your teacher’s desk.) particularly perceptive people may notice a sense of deja vu after an encounter with her powers, or possibly fragmented awareness of their surroundings, as if in a dream; though regular people might just have the odd feeling of ‘losing track of the time / i swear mondays ALWAYS are longer than any other day of the week!’ sylvie most easily influences her own timestream, (like “giving herself more time” to study in her room) and requires sustained focus & effort to try to interact with other entities for any period of time.

Origin of Powers: inherited, both sides of her family are periodically punctuated with those who have powers

Alignment: (hero/villain/neutral/etc): hero leaning, but this mostly involves fledgling attempts like dealing with petty crimes in the streets at night and reporting anonymously afterwards, & letting the cops deal with it, less teaming up and squaring off with big bad guys

Appearance notes: kiernan shipka is a tentative faceclaim. brown eyes, light blonde hair, dark eyebrows & long lashes. she’s got dimples that only show when she smiles. a bit of a babyface, someone that’d be more cute than pretty, classic girl next door / younger sister of your best friend vibe. 5’2. dresses a bit like those romcom leads always do: understated pretty / casual chic, floral or white blouses with blue jeans, little denim jackets with a line dresses and a colorful messenger bag, that sort of thing.

Personality notes: sylvie is a passionate person, with a disinterest in pursuing things to their finality. she throws herself into flights of self reinvention, and has cycled through many different personas, though this has always been viewed indulgently by her parents. she’s currently settled into a poetical, thoughtful sort of self as a ‘beautifully sad’ homage to her namesake (sylvia plath) but is generally more relaxed and upbeat than she has been while trying to force her personality to match more rambunctious or angry characters. naturally, she’s a guardedly cheerful girl, who approaches the world in a way she calls ‘cautiously optimistic’ or ‘a positive pessimist’ with an ocean of cynicism on the idea of romantic love.

she falls in love with the idea of things more so than their realities, and has trouble maintaining close friendships because she will jump in and out of social scenes with very little prior warning, or else have her interest in someone wane rapidly. her sense of self is relatively unstable, and she believes wholeheartedly that the clothes make the woman, picking and choosing traits to match pieces from her closet. she’s a bit self absorbed, not intentionally, and not maliciously, but just because she’s not very used to considering others. she’s protective of the people that she loves, and is effusive about whatever the thing of the moment is, having amassed elective scraps of knowledge throughout her life. if she’s into poetry: poetry consumes her waking moments, infiltrates her dreams, is spooled across her walls and emblazoned on trendy little t-shirts and embroidered onto samplers; though her interests are dropped seemingly whimsically, without much rhyme or reason.

sylvie is stubborn to the point of being hard headed when she does commit to something, even if it isn’t entirely practical or even reasonable. she has a strong moral compass, and is headstrong: often acting before she has the chance to think things through, or fret- which is how she found herself on the novice hero side of things. it’s small stuff for the moment, dealing with petty crime, leaving anonymous tips- but is considering the name ‘flux’ for her eventual persona. she spends a lot of time in introspective reflection, and is trying to figure herself out when she’s not crime fighting or networking, for the most part. she has vague aspirations to go to university, to do something related to medicine: but for now, just sort of “interns” at her dad’s company, which involves a lot of lounging around and sipping coffee while “getting work experience.” she even has her own personal assistant, who is pretty tired of her job.

Backstory notes: her family is well off and comes from old money, (which explains the pretentious names lmao.) she was raised in a fairly conservative household, and is the oldest out of three, (her younger siblings are fraternal twins, a brother and a sister.) she maintains a certain, measured distance from her parents, although she has striven to make them proud growing up nonetheless, and has a fierce admiration for her mother. it isn’t for any particular reason, they weren’t neglectful or abusive, just distant. they’ve always been more so practical, than overly loving parents: she had her fair share of live in nannies, seeing as her mother is a celebrated neurosurgeon (who sub specialized into neuro-oncology) and her father is CEO of an (inherited, of course it is) company that’s a toss up between a private equity firm and a consulting firm; mostly tied into medical research. they went to all the graduations, held all the birthday parties, checked off all the milestones of a regular childhood neatly off for all of the kids, but done it with an exhausted, too short of time to stay the full event, don’t really know what my kid would want to hear or receive and so they get expensive, generic gifts like diamond earrings or a car instead of a heart to heart and something actually pertaining to their interests sort of way. think YA rich girl protagonist issues. she is marginally closer to her mother than her father. she and her siblings are close though, and genevieve and carter are a year younger than her / in their senior year at highschool. she’d realized that she had powers from a relatively young age, while napping on a cruise and waking up to realize that while she’d fell asleep for what felt like hours, the sun was only just setting even though it’d been like that before she’d gone to sleep- and then when she’d realized she could slow down the sparkling of her mother’s necklace on the ceiling, watching it with rapt fascination until she was called up to have dinner. she was convinced that she had ‘magical fairy powers,’ and spent her childhood furtively experimenting, and engaging her siblings in silly games involving them that were dismissed as ‘fanciful flights of imagination.’

3 Character Facts: - sylvie likes to push the limits of what’s allowed and what isn’t, which has manifested itself in sly rebellions at school while plastering on the ‘good girl next door’ look when asked if she had a hand in boobytrapping the bathrooms, pushing her parents to see what she can get out of them, which is why she has had an absurd number of exotic pets, luxury clothing, ate really weird or outrageously extravagant food, has more cars than she really knows what to do with, and got into minor crime fighting in the first place out of a thrilling realization that this was vigilante work outside of the law, but an adrenaline rush she could pursue without feeling guilty because it was working towards the ‘greater good.’ she’s pretty chaotic good.

- she has a lot of collections up around the house due to her various phases, which she regularly decorates (although she delegates the task of keeping them clean to other people) which include things like: victorian mourning rings, glass eyes, vintage medical equipment, mink stoles, large marble busts, original edition scientific texts, flapper’s dresses, etc. it’s sort of a clusterfuck. her mother has arranged for rooms to be devoted to phases in an attempt to organize it all, but it’s still a hodgepodge testimony to her fleeting obsessions. outside of busying herself with decorating them, she dislikes spending very much time around them, because it inspires a sort of existential dread at being surrounded by such a monolithic representation of her lack of a concrete, stable identity. - sylvie’s deeply cynical about the nature of romantic love because of the perceived coolness in her parent’s relationship, (again, more functional than emotional, though sylvie isn’t actually aware that they are deeply in love, it just doesnt align with her imagined perception of “idealistic love” which is very passionate, a flower petal strewn and candle lit affair, and her parents arent really fond of PDA, and are very busy people whose schedules rarely line up, though they have a quiet, complex relationship nonetheless) and has sworn off the concept until she feels like it’s going to be all fireworks and being swept off her feet for good, and not just for an initial fleeting honeymoon phase. her difficulty in maintaining interpersonal relationships has contributed to this, because she has a hard time emotionally connecting with people and because of this feels detached and sullen about the distance between her and other people.

URL you plan to use: baptisian (it’s after wild indigo, not, religious connotations but like it works)

#member #sylvia #submission

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