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kyberphilosopher · 3 years

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Eunoia

The Mantis crew decides to take a well deserved break. Word Count: 2422

Warning(s): straight fluff, short Requested: yep This can be read for a female, male, non binary, or any other reader.

Eunoia is the shortest English word containing all five main vowel graphemes. It comes from the Greek word εὔνοια, meaning "well mind" or "beautiful thinking”. It is also a rarely used medical term referring to a state of normal mental health. In rhetoric, eunoia is the goodwill a speaker cultivates between himself and his audience, a condition of receptivity. In book eight of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses the term to refer to the kind and benevolent feelings of goodwill a spouse has which form the basis for the ethical foundation of human life.

* ✭ ˚ ･ﾟ ✧ *･ﾟ * ✭˚･ﾟ ✧* ･ *

Cal is actually not as observant as people think he is. You know because you’ve been leaning against his doorway, watching him, for about two minutes now and he hasn’t noticed a thing.

Maybe if you were in his position you’d be the same. That seems about right. He’s hunched over his desk with the lamp on bright, tinkering with something that you can only assume is for BD-1. He’s probably lost in thought. Maybe he’s dreaming of better days. Or maybe he’s just trying to figure out which wires and bolts connect to which. There’s no way to be certain from your position. He’s the mechanic, you are not.

So why have you been watching the redhead from his doorway for three minutes now? A simple answer. He is your friend, and you enjoy his company. Even when he’s not giving you attention, completely unaware to your presence in moments like this one, lost in his own world, it’s his warmth that really counts. Cal is such a relaxing bout of fresh air compared to everything else in the galaxy, in your life. It’s like being at a great party, but whether you enjoy it or not, stepping outside and tasting the air and the smell of something wonderful. Even if you had a day full of talking to people and had become burned out, talking to Cal would have been no problem at all. Maybe in a way that makes him your favorite person.

Yeah, maybe.

BD-1 jumps onto Cal’s desk. His head looks at the boys hands, cocking about as if observing. Then he meets your gaze, only to find a smile. One index finger raises to your lips, prompting the little droid to stay quiet about this, before you turn away and head towards the main part of the ship.

“Where’s Cal?” Greez gruffs upon seeing you. He’s shaking spice onto a steaming brown plate, which puts a pep in your step. Greez’s cooking always makes life better.

“In his room,” you answer. You turn from the doorway to the counter, where something hot does cause stringy, swirly puffs of air to waft upwards from a large metal container. With your back to Greez, you pull a plate for yourself and begin hulling it full of food. Some sort of rice or grain?

“Hmph, that reminds me,” the Latero begins mid-chew. “Me and Cere was talking about taking a vacation.”

“Vacation?” you scrunch your eyebrows and put the lid back on the container. “Where to?”

“The beach maybe?”

You scoff as you turn around and lean on the counter. One hand holds the plate while the other uses your index finger to prod at the mush. It smells alluring. The individual pieces of it stick to your skin. They burn and sting, but it’s so small it doesn’t bring much of a reaction. “I don’t know a lot of beaches.”

“Well, ya know,” Greez shrugs. “Just a thought.��

* ✭ ˚ ･ﾟ ✧ *･ﾟ * ✭˚･ﾟ ✧* ･ *

It was more than just a thought. Six days later, the Mantis touches down on Scarif. But first there’s the issue of landing.

“Watch that tree,” you point, leaning over Cal’s shoulder as he co-pilots beside Greez. A second later, the ship gives a great rock and the palm tree crunches beneath it. “You weren’t watching the tree.”

“Sorry,” Cal offers sheepishly.

“What?” Greez says. He’s the one in main control of the ship. He’d never let Cal take over the whole thing. “What he do?”

“Ran over a tree,” you snort.

“Cal!” Cere scolds, turning around in her chair.

“I said I was sorry!” Cal defends.

“I’m telling the wookies what you did,” you whisper.

“Don’t,” Cal whispers back, though it’s still desperate.

The Mantis parks itself in a field of tropical emerald on the cuff of a beach. The sand is white, the waves cyan and royal blue and sloshing. There’s several beaches on the planet. All of which are very beautiful. Would be a true shame if anything were to ever happen to Scarif. It’s so different compared to so many other planets in the galaxy- not occupied by Imperial forces or scumbags.

Greez waves everybody off. Cere exits first. Cal is ahead of you, but he steps to the side and rather gentlemanly insists, “You first.”

You hum and move past him. The Scarif air hits your face with a warm breeze. It smells of salt and water and some kind of flower. The horizon goes orange and pink and salmon with the setting sun. It is... serene. It nearly knocks you off your feet. It takes his voice to realize Cal is beside you at the bottom of the ramp.

“Woah,” he offers simply, in as much awe as yourself.

“Woah,” you repeat in agreement. It’s still for a second. “Come on. Let’s join them. Or else I’ll have to cast a Jedi mind trick on you.” Your fingers wiggle up and down by Cal’s face for dramatic effect.

Cal rolls his eyes. “Shut up,” he utters with a push on your elbow, urging you forward into the sand.

Okay, so maybe you like Cal more than just a friend. But who can blame you? Things had been feeling different between you two lately. You’d always gotten along pretty smoothly. You made up for skills that Cal seemed to lack himself, and his abilities- human and nonhuman- never ceased to amaze you. He was a friend. And then, when you tended to the stab wound he’d gotten from Vader, there was a moment where you held each others eyes. After that, the joking became more constant. The little touches on the shoulders and elbows and forehead taps happened more often. And you started watching him from his doorway sometimes and... and at some point you just caught feelings.

Cal Kestis seemed to feel the same, but who could really say? No use poking that bear right now.

The sand is soft, even beneath your boots. Cere stands in front of the water, just breathing in the air. The light breeze makes her vest ripple. It’s tempting to just join her.

“Gotta say,” you hear a familiar voice say from your left and below. “We picked a nice place.”

“Maybe we should stay a while,” you joke, though you secretly hope for it, to Greez.

“Yeah,” Greez rolls his eyes. “Until this moron gets us into trouble again!”

Cal perks up. “What did I do?”

“Anybody who can lift things with their mind is gonna attract some attention, kid. You just brought it on us.”

“So true,” you jump on with a smirk to Cal.

“Alright,” Cal turns away towards the beach. You position yourself so you’re closer to him, and Greez takes the opportunity to waddle away further ahead to waves.

“Sorry for bursting your bubble, Cal,” you continue with a smug grin. “Maybe in the next life, don’t be born with force powers? Just a suggestion.”

“You think you’re so funny,” Cal tells you, though he’s smiling too. His pale green eyes spare a glance at you, thick lashes dancing on his boyish face.

Your knees bend until you collapse on your bottom in the sand. It’s so soft, it doesn’t even resist your weight. It makes way for you easily, like a blanket. “I do.”

Cal joins you in the sand quickly enough. You’re both face to face, the wind in your hair and the water at your side. It crashes every few seconds, but it’s peaceful. Some kind of bird flies overhead, and butterflies are in the forested area behind you. The light of the sunset illuminates Cal’s hair more than usual. The brightest points of his eyes are highlighted.

“He loves you,” you offer.

“You think so?”

“I am one hundred percent certain... Just don’t touch the ship.”

Cal raises his hands as if surrendering. “Understood. Hands off.”

You turn your head to the water. Greez and Cere are standing ahead, most likely having a conversation of their own. The tide carries so much of the stress your shoulders hold away from you. Everything with the holocron, the empire- it was ridiculous what living in hiding could do to a person. It’s hard to imagine how Cal did it for so long. How painful that must’ve been for him. How painful it is to imagine him in pain.

“How’s your stomach?” you decide to ask at last.

Cal tilts his head for a second. “Better.”

“Perfect?” you raise your knees to your chest and rest your arms on them.

Just then, a little whirring noise pulls both of your attentions away. BD-1 bounds down the ramp of the ship, twirling around in observance as if excited. “Hey, BD,” Cal greets. “I know, buddy. I know.” The droid places itself in Cal’s lap, still looking around at the change in scenery.

“We’ve never been able to do this before,” you tell him. “I mean, I wasn’t here for the whole adventure. But I was here after and before and... and just... we’ve never done this.”

Cal is quiet. “I haven’t either.”

You look at him.

“Taken a break. I guess time on Bracca was the closest thing.”

You smile softly. “I’m sure it was really nice.”

Cal rolls his eyes along with his head, though the corner of his chapped pink lips turn upwards. “As nice as it could be with the Empire.”

“That’s pretty nice.”

Cal and you huff a humorous puff of air in unison.

“What were you doing before the Mantis?” Cal suddenly asked.

“Oh,” you roll your eyes and wave your hand. “Not important. Don’t even worry about it.”

“Come on!” Cal shifts.

“I’m serious!” you defend. “It’s boring stuff. You wouldn’t want to hear about it. Not as interesting as the force.”

“Well anything related to you is interesting,” Cal says casually, one of his palms lifting in the air for effect as he shifts again.

Well that makes your face feel hot. Anything related to you is interesting. How often do people get to hear that? And how casually it comes out of Cal’s mouth, the shrug of his shoulders that you tie so easily to him, that’s how you know it’s honest. Not only have you heard something intimate that not many people will in their whole lives, but it was also heartfelt.

“Yeah,” you mutter, though it sounds distant and far away as you watch Cal’s eyes. He doesn’t seem to mind. Then you snap back to reality. “This is gonna be good.”

Cal watches you pop to life, standing up entirely and running towards the water. BD-1 perks up as well to watch you just in time to see your much bigger form nearly knock the Latero over. And, much to Cal’s surprise, the little droid jumps from his lap and bounds after you. The red head decides he’s next to follow.

“BD-1,” he rasps, also nearly pushing Greez to the ground. “Don’t touch the water!”

But it’s too late. However, nothing happens. BD-1 stands in the shallow waves, unelectrocuted and unbroken. He doesn’t spark a bit, only cocking his head in wonder at his friend.

“Think fast!” a voice calls.

A splash of warm and salty water slaps against Cal’s face. He cringes, turning his shoulders away on impact with a little gasp that makes his throat burn. “Hey!”

Another splash.

Cal turns to you. You’re standing with your hands on either side of yourself, open and matching your smug and proud face. Your boots are still on, which can’t be comfortable given that they’re now submerged in water. BD-1 is on the back of your shoulders- something Cal thought was only between him and the droid. Apparently not.

“What’s wrong, Cal? Can’t handle the current?”

Cal stills himself. Then he bends down himself and flicks water upwards.

“Hey! No!”

He does it once more.

“No!”

So you too repeat your original actions and begin forcing salty liquid up into the air in Cal’s direction as well. BD-1 grips onto your collar for stability while you both go to town, careful to not open your mouths too wide and taste the saltiness.

“Be careful you two!” Cere calls from the shore. Neither Cal nor yourself heed her words, continuing on in disrupting the tide.

“They’re fine,” Greez assures with the wave of one of his many arms.

“Are you sure about that?” Cere responds with a hand on her hip as she watches you tackle the Jedi to the sandy terrain below the shallow water.

“Completely fine.”

You push both of Cal’s shoulders down jokingly, careful not to subdue his head under the water. He cranes his neck to keep it above the waves. Through his soft lashes, Cal can just see your smiling, evil intentioned face with BD-1 on your shoulder gazing at him.

Honestly, it feels just how it did last week- the last time you had watched Cal in his room. Gazing at him, admiring him. Just now you get to touch him, relax with him, splash water at him, even. You wish you could capture this moment if not forever, then for a while, and Cal wishes the same.

* ✭ ˚ ･ﾟ ✧ *･ﾟ * ✭˚･ﾟ ✧* ･ *

Sorry it’s short. Idk if it’s my best work certainly but I haven’t written for Cal or Star Wars in a while. But I didn’t kill the reader in this fic or have someone sick or in danger! So it might be my first ever straight fluff? I don’t know. But what a good character to do it with. I’m glad to give Cal a break. And i hope the requester enjoys.

#cal kestis imagines #cal x reader #cal kestis x reader #cal kestis fluff #fluff #cal kestis imagine #jedi fallen order imagine #jedi fallen order x reader #jedi fallen order fanfiction #fanfiction #cal kestis fanfiction #cal fanfiction #cal imagine #cal imagines #imagine #star wars fanfiction #jfo fanfiction #star wars fluff

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bondsmagii · 3 years

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omg you read we need to talk about kevin? what did you think? i went through a whole range of emotions, most of them bitter & negative, bc i saw too much of my mum & brother in eva & kevin, something i’m still working through. i started off hating eva bc i projected my resentment towards my mum onto her, but i found myself sympathising with her a bit more towards the end. it’s helped me sympathise a bit with my mum too. this book has probably had the most lasting effect on me than any other!

man, I love that book. I first read it years ago and liked it then, but I recently reread it and I loved it even more. it's such a brilliant book -- profoundly uncomfortable and incredibly bleak, but I think it asks so many important questions that, face it, most people are too scared to even acknowledge. it simultaneously asks the huge taboo of a question -- what if you regret having your child? what if a child is just born bad? -- and also combines it with that other big question: why do kids shoot up their schools? the nature vs nurture debate has been absolutely raging for years regarding children who commit violence at school; as someone with an academic interest in this particular crime, it's one I've banged my head up against multiple times. people seem to always be firmly in one camp: the parents are to blame, or the kid is just evil. nobody seems to consider the interaction between these two things, and how it's always ultimately a choice.

the book is a pretty intense read for me, as I'm sure you can relate. the difference is that while you can see your mother and brother in Eva and Kevin, I actually see myself and my mother in Eva and Kevin. I was an unwanted and a resented child. my parents did not want to have me. I was what my parents referred to as "a surprise", said in the same tone as you would describe a sudden house fire as a surprise, or bad news at work as a surprise. the major difference between my parents and Eva and Franklin was that they had me very young (they would have been 19 and barely 20 when they found out, and 20 and barely 21 when I was born) and this most certainly added to the resentment. my father was always away for work, often getting to go to some pretty interesting destinations; my mother wanted to be the kind of woman who wanted to be a stay-at-home mother, but she hated it. like Eva and Kevin, my mother and I were very, very alike in personality and what we did and did not want out of life, and we were engaged in some level of warfare for my entire childhood. while I wasn't quite on the level of Kevin in terms of blinding my siblings and whatnot, I was quite the terror as a child. by the time I reached my teenage years I was uncontrollable and my parents had given up trying. I could not be punished. I did not care. any punishment they did hand out, I was maliciously compliant to the point of infuriation. I'm sure my parents could argue that I was born evil, and indeed that's what they told the extended family. I admit I was not an easy child. however -- I was a child.

I did not ask to be born, and when my parents made the choice to have me and then resent my existence, that was on them. a child knows. a child can tell when he's not wanted, when he's an inconvenience. I knew it very well, from an early age. my parents' resentment of me resulted in them abusing me right up until I left home. I was like an unwanted pet, except they couldn't dump me off at a shelter. no, they never laid a finger on me physically, so they can claim they didn't abuse me -- but emotionally and psychologically they were abusive, and especially in my teenage years, they neglected me severely. (think along the lines of being left at home alone for extended periods with no food, no money, and no way to get supplies as we lived in rural Ireland and the closest supermarket was 30 minutes away. this was not something they did out of malice, but rather something they did because they did not consider me at all. they forgot my existence, most of the time, or they deemed me so inconsequential that making provisions for me was a task that could be forever put off.) understandably this made me hate them in return, and I took great pleasure in being a little shit. it was all I had. nature vs nurture, which is it? my parents weren't exactly nurturing, and they taught me very bad behaviour -- but at the same time from the moment I was born I had my mother's personality, predisposing me to being a little shit. even now, grown up and after many years of working on myself, I still find myself fighting the urge to be as cruel and as judgemental as she could be; likewise I see those positive qualities she had, that she could have shown more of if she had put the work in like I had. we went from being furious carbon copies of one another to an example of the best and the worst case scenario.

basically what it comes down to is choice. Kevin and I had a similar situation going on, but Kevin chose to try and find what he was looking for in mass murder, and I chose to try and find it by getting out of my house and never returning. I mentioned earlier that I have an academic interest in the kind of crime that Kevin committed; since the age of 17 I have been researching these things, and now have expertise in several specific incidents. I bring this up to illustrate that this crime was on my radar when I was around Kevin's age, when I was suffering from the same problems as he was. thousands of kids find themselves in this position, yet so relatively few commit the act. why? it's choice. nature, nurture -- it doesn't matter. there comes a point where you have to make the choice, and honestly? it's chaos theory, baby.

as well as researching this kind of thing I'm also an amateur meteorologist. I love weather. I love trying to work out what makes it tick. and weather is a good example of what I'm trying to say here. weather cannot be predicted. we can get decent ideas, but at the same time we never really know for sure and also weather acts differently every time. there are too many variables. it's the entirety of the earth's atmosphere we're talking about here. identical weather conditions can arise time and time again, and each time the weather is different. a sunny afternoon one day is a washout the next. this is because -- and I broadly sum it up here -- there are so many tiny variables that we cannot possibly predict how they will change the weather. and I mean it's tiny variables. I'm sure you've heard of the butterfly effect -- this comes from the idea that a butterfly somewhere on the coast of Africa can flap its wings, and this tiny reverberation can spread through the atmosphere, creating a bigger and bigger ripple, until a hurricane smashes into the Gulf of Mexico. tiny atmospheric changes all interacting in ways we cannot imagine. this is why some kids shoot up schools. it's easy to look at psychology broadly, but no two people are ever the same. siblings growing up in the exact same house are not the same. identical twins, genetically identical to their very DNA, are not the same. tiny, tiny events, microdoses of chemicals in the brain, exposures -- they all change us in subtle ways. two people -- Kevin and I -- can grow up with almost identical familial issues and outlooks, but Kevin shoots up his school and I study my ass off and get myself to university to escape my parents. why? I don't know. I don't know what tiny little things might influence me one way and another kid in the other. personality, brain chemistry, waking up that morning and having enough or not -- I don't know. it's chaos theory. the variables are too small to say. nature vs nurture are only two variables out of millions. it's an oversimplification.

so to go back to the book -- who do I blame? neither of them. it was a perfect storm. we could say Eva didn't help, but I know of plenty of kids with decent parents who still committed such a crime. we could say that Kevin was just born bad, but there are plenty of people with his resentful outlook on life who don't commit mass murder, or any harm against anyone whatsoever. it's like how every tornado comes from a supercell, but not every supercell will spawn a tornado -- that final genesis point is unknown to us. we just can't predict it. there are no easy answers. there is no simple formula. we just don't know, and that's what makes Kevin's story -- and its real-life counterparts -- so terrifying.

#sorry for going off but this combines two (2) of my Major Academic Niches so you got the full 1hr lecture with slideshow i'm afraid #anon #asks

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septembercfawkes · 4 years

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Why Story = Cause and Effect (And How to Utilize That)

Stories are about cause and effect. That's what makes it a story. There is a famous example of this in the writing world:

"The king died, and then the queen died."

This is not a story. It's just stating what happened.

"The king died, and then the queen died of a broken heart."

That is a story. Why? Because it has cause and effect.

All great stories need to have some level of cause and effect. Otherwise, they aren't really stories. (Well, there are maybe some exceptions, but more on that later.) Readers don't want to read about random, unrelated things (most of the time); they want to read stories.

At the starting of a story, the main character should have (near-future) wants and fears. This helps draw the audience in by getting them to look forward to significant, potential consequences, or in others words, stakes. This also gives the character motivation for making choices.

When we make choices, they automatically lead to consequences.

- If I refuse to exercise, I won't have an athletic body.

- If I choose to eat a bunch of sugar, I'll get a sugar high.

. . . which means they have a cause and effect.

Not all causes and effects come from our own choices. We don't live in a void. There are other people who also make choices, there are illnesses, natural disasters, cultures and societies, the laws of physics, etc.

At the starting of the story, the main character is going about his or her life, making choices, until a cause (the inciting incident) challenges the established normal, calling the hero in a new direction. Cause and effect.

From that moment on, cause and effect will get more important in the story. Or at least, it should.

As a story goes on, the consequences and stakes should get bigger and bigger or more and more personal, so that we have that rising action or escalation, that is vital to a good narrative. If the consequences stay small, or even get smaller as the story progresses, it's not going to be a satisfying book.

Still, occasionally I run into manuscripts that are largely lacking a nice sense of cause and effect. Instead, they are just things happening. And I've sometimes found it missing within my own projects. Perhaps this concept seems so simple, that we never give it a second thought.

You see, too often as writers, we think in sequential events, not consequential effects.

Sure, you can escalate conflict without having cause and effect. Maybe in the beginning, your protagonist is sad she didn't get invited to a birthday party. Then in the middle she has to win a state sports competition. Then at the end, she finds out she has cancer. Technically, that is escalation. So it can be easy to fool yourself into thinking the story is gonna be great. (And then you'll likely be confused when it's not quite satisfying.)

Sure, unrelated conflicts like this can escalate. And the conflicts matter--in that moment, for that time. But because they don't tie into other things, they aren't as meaningful, they don't hold as much tension--hope and fear--or stakes. They can almost never draw the audience in as intensely, because the audience can't anticipate or care about what might come next--it's not connected.

So it's almost always better to escalate conflict by amplifying cause and effect. The protagonist is sad she didn't get invited to a birthday party, and so she plots revenge. Carrying out these plots reveals a new side of her to her friends and family, and so it strains their relationships, and so they plan an intervention, and so the protagonist gets sent to a youth camp she hates, and so . . . and onward.

It's sort of like the butterfly effect. One conflict kicks us off (the inciting incident), and through cause and effect, it builds and builds and builds until it's huge by the climax. That's what's satisfying.

As a Southpark creator teaches, writers shouldn't be saying "This happens, and then this happens." They should be saying, "This happens, and therefore this happens."

This gives the story a sense of cohesion. This is because cause and effect tie everything together. While hooks and stakes and tension get readers to look forward, and draw them in. Cause and effect is the bridge from immediate past, to present, to those futures--linking every event in a chain. When events are connected, the audience cares, because they can predict.

Ideally, each segment of the story is feeding into the next one, which is bigger. Each act in a story, is feeding into the next, bigger one. Personally, I like to think of it as a small fish feeding a bigger fish. Act I is the small fish, but it feeds and nourishes Act II, which is the medium fish, which feeds and nourishes Act III, which is the big fish. Or if you don't like to think of acts, think of it as the beginning, the middle, and the end. Each fish is swallowing up the smaller fish before it. The little fish feeds into the big fish.

All easier said than done.

BUT, the more you understand this, the easier it eventually becomes to brainstorm and structure a story. Because if everything is feeding into something else, then you are largely looking at how one cause leads to other effects, which are in turn causes to other effects, which are in turn causes to other effects--and on and on until you get to the climax. So it's not about just trying to come up with ideas from a blank page, it's about looking at what you already have for potential consequences.

In the process, you will find that there are multiple potential outcomes for the same event, so the question doesn't become "What do I have happen next?" It becomes "Which do I have happen next?"

In such cases, consider these things:

- Which effect is most interesting?

- Which effect carries the most meaning?

- Which effect carries the most tension?

- Which effect leads to the most future effects or the biggest problems?

- Which effect has the strongest connections to the other effects in play?

- Which effect is most relevant to the theme?

- Which effect best plays into the character arc?

- Which effect forces the most change or growth?

- Which effect best fits the story I'm telling?

Also, take into account the story structure you are using (if you are using one). It can guide you on what to pick. If it's time for me to have a pinch point, then I should pick the effect that fits as a great pinch point. If it's nearly time for The Ordeal, then I should pick the effect that leads into that.

It's funny, because often when we learn about such things, we don't want to feel "boxed in," but in reality, all of these things are just tools to help us navigate and make satisfying decisions, which leads to stronger stories. And better yet, they will actually lead you to brainstorm stronger, richer, more powerful ideas, leaving you to ask "Which happens next?" and not "What happens next?" Because the most effective brainstorming doesn't happen in a void. It happens when you have guidelines and pull from what you already know about your story. Because if anything can happen, then nothing really matters.

Cause and effect are key to satisfying stories--from the first bits of brainstorming, to tying up the loose ends during the denouement.

Consider: One Cause that Leads to Multiple Effects

It's also worth noting (and helpful) that one cause can actually lead to multiple effects in the story. For example, the inciting incident may affect each key character differently, leading them to make different choices, which lead to other effects. It need not always be one to one (one cause = one effect). In fact, often it's capitalizing on multiple, possible effects that makes a story more riveting, more of a page-turner. But even as you branch off from the same event, ideally, each of the effects are still going to play into, connect, and affect each other.

For example, in The Hunger Games, the Reaping in District 12 is the inciting incident, but it affects Katniss, Peeta, and even all of Panem, differently. Katniss decides she will do everything it takes to try to survive for her sister. Peeta tries to accept that he'll die, but he wants to die as himself--while doing all he can to keep Katniss alive. Katniss also can't wrap her head around the fact that she'll be in the arena with Peeta, who once saved her life. The Capitol is first impressed by these tributes, and then enamored with their "love story." What Katniss does, what Peeta does, and what the Capitol does all feed and connect into each other--leading up to the climax, which incorporates all these elements and affects each key player differently--what the Capitol views as an act of love, the Districts view as an act of defiance, Katniss views as an act of survival, and Peeta (also) views as an act of love, but just as importantly, an act that shows the Capitol can't change him--all of which affects the second book in the series, so their story continues to build . . . and build . . . and build.

Escalate cause and effect to satisfyingly escalate the conflicts.

Look for opportunities where one cause can lead to multiple, significant effects.

This sort of thing can be particularly key in writing sequels. Many sequels fall flat because they try to create something entirely new, instead of allowing what happened in the last book to feed into the cause and effect trajectory of the next book. They simply start a new thread, instead of allowing the end of the last book to have a ripple effect on the world. (This of course depends in part on the type of series you are writing.)

Possible Exceptions

In certain forms of highbrow literature, a lack of cause and effect is the point. Some people have argued that because life is random, stories should be random too, with just things happening and no real meaning. There is probably a place for that kind of outlook, but if you want to write commercial fiction or genre fiction (which is what my blog is pretty much all about), this is often a terrible approach. Also, while we don't have control over everything in real life, cause and effect is real. And our personal choices do have consequences.

Some types of stories need less cause and effect than others. Like perhaps in humorous slice-of-life stories. I think Napoleon Dynamite is a good example. A lot of it is just funny stuff happening. BUT, I bet if you watched it again today, you'd notice that there actually is a bit of a story structure to it, and some through threads of cause and effect. And if you do write this kind of story, it needs to be super entertaining for your target audience to be successful.

And many stories that don't seem to have much of a cause and effect in the plot, actually have powerful cause and effect in the character. As the plot happens, it effects how the character grows, so that she arcs in a significant way by the end. So the cause and effect mostly exists on a more personal level.

But, with that all said, the majority of stories will be more satisfying when they really utilize cause and effect on a plot level.

How Does this Affect the Writing Process?

It's funny, after I wrote a draft of this post, I read Story Genius by Lisa Cron (which I definitely recommend), and in it, she talks a lot about cause and effect (and nails it). But she said something I've personally felt for a while: The more you utilize cause and effect, the more you will likely need to write your story in order. Because if you are fully utilizing cause and effect, then what happens in the previous scene affects the next scene. Some writers like to jump around, writing whichever scene they want to, and then plug that scene in the appropriate spot, and take a pass at completion to link everything together. If that works for you, who am I to say it's wrong?

But for me, and the way I write, I admit I have found this confusing. How do I know all the effects a scene at the end of the book needs, when I haven't yet nailed the cause-and-effect trajectory of the middle? So I generally prefer to write down the ideas I have for future scenes, and maybe even snippets, but I don't really "write" them until I get there. Do what works for you, but I thought this was worth mentioning.

#Writing tips #writing tips and tricks #writeblr #writing reference #writing advice #fanfic #writing a book #cause and effect

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astarlightmonbebe · 4 years

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The King has a lot of good substance in it, my only problem is the fact that we just finished episode twelve and it feels like we should be only halfway through...like it feels like the plot has come a long way, but looking back, it feels like so little has happened in such a long amount of time. It makes me think that the last four episodes are going to be filled with a lot of information and action, and it will be rushed. This brings me to Taeul and Gon - it’s not that the two don’t necessarily have chemistry, it’s that I can’t buy the fact that their relationship has suddenly developed to the point that he wants to marry her and make her Queen, which is a very big deal and definitely not something he should say so carelessly. Let’s see: they start when she arrests him, manhandles him, indulges him, but there’s not much chemistry there, just a clashing of personalities. Then he’s gone, she kind of misses him, he comes back, he brings her to his world, suddenly they’re kissing, then he periodically visits within large spaces of time, and they have some an hour or two long meetups, but she’s utterly devastated when he leaves? It’s just very hard for me to understand the fact that they’re relationship developed in such little time, especially when they only spent a third of that time actually together.

This also brings me to the fact that he called her the future Queen of Corea, which I really have an issue with, because, while I understand it was in the heat of the moment, I think it was really irresponsible. It’s not something he should have said so lightly, even if she wasn’t from a parallel world. Firstly, he didn’t ask her about it, which is...number one rule in a relationship, talk to your partner first? Being the Queen would be an enormous responsibility and one she is not even in the slightest prepared for, but now he’s gone and told his whole Kingdom that she’s going to be his Queen...I would be so upset. Not that people wouldn’t gossip or weren’t gossiping already, but there’s a difference between rumors and actively putting someone in the spotlight like that.

That being said, there was a lot of good stuff this week. I really like the little kid who is trying to restore balance; he’s a representation of Fate, I suppose, with the red string. It makes me curious how much he can change, because a lot of stuff has happened that he hasn’t interfered with, but he goes as far as to free Taeul...why? What’s his motive? So she doesn’t die? I’m not sure how that can work, though maybe he chose her because he couldn’t dissuade Luna (or knew he wouldn’t be able to). I’m very interested in this and how much of a change he’s going to have in the future. Small pebbles cause wide ripples, after all. I’m also wondering if the butterfly effect will come into play here..like when Gon visited Taeul (presumably from the future). If it becomes an issue not of just parallel worlds, but also of time...that opens so many new possibilities.

The Prime Minister is also up to something. I’m curious how she put the pieces together and I’m wondering if she was really the one in the other world the whole time in episode twelve. I feel like the lightning scars indicates that she did travel across worlds, presumably after getting in contact with Lee Lim - but that begs the question, what did she figure out after getting the pictures of Lee Lim, and why would she make that choice? I know she’s an ambitious woman; however, I also think she’s someone who would know the limits of her own ambition and figure out ways around them. Though I don’t see her as someone who would resort to outright murder - no, she’s cleverer than that, you can see by how she took down anyone who stood in her way. I’m really hoping she doesn’t end up on Lee Lim’s side, because that would our’s and the writer’s loss.

I’m enjoying Jo Yeong and Shin Jae’s budding friendship and how they don’t really trust each other, but also are kind of growing close. They would make a great duo, and I think they show the connection between worlds acutely - finding similarities, overcoming differences, such as we saw in their conversation. I just want more content and interactions that make me happy, okay?

All that being said...episode 13 looks like it’s going to be a ride, but these previews are especially misleading...I’m also pretty tired of how the episodes tend to start with like some epic flashback and don’t get to the ending until we’re at the ending of that episode...come ON, please, stop dragging the suspense, it doesn’t work like that; if you end an episode suspenseful and start off the next one not picking up there, but instead on some mundane interaction, it’s just annoying and boring. I am looking forward to Luna and Taeul’s interactions; I think Luna is a very complicated character (kind of like the PM’s foil), and is just longing for something she never had. if she turned on Lee Lim, I think it would be a sweet revenge. Also, if someone touches Eunsup again...we got away with it because of bulletproof vests, but I’m real tired of my two boys always taking the fall and the pain.

#the king: the eternal monarch #the king: eternal monarch #the king eternal monarch #kdrama #drama thoughts #and that's that on episodes 11 and 12 #every time i watch this show i have an urge to go post about what was good and what was bad about it on this site #it's an addiction #i could rant about the pm for hours #i hope i managed to get my point across !! and not disrespectfully #i think it's funny how we have such a divide #between people who are like 't his show is BAD' and other people who are like 'why do you guys hate this it's peak romance'#like you like what you like

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postmodernmulticoloredcloak · 5 years

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so, I saw many people who think that the ending in Billie's book is suicide? But I kinda felt like, there was no ending. The only other option is for Dean to not die, to keep Michael locked up forever. What do you think is the ending?

Eh, the billion dollar question. Which, thanks for sending because I’ve just been so overwhelmed with feels that I have simply given up on making something coherent out of it.

Let me make a little detour first and say how the show is making explicit some things that we were saying but have been made textual now - cosmic consequences doesn’t mean something neat and clearly visible as the direct consequence of a particular action. It’s a ripple effect, a butterfly effect. Playing with the castle of cards that the universe is... you end up rewriting fate. That’s what Billie keeps saying. To the people who accuse the show of belittling Billie because she warns the Winchesters that Terrible Things(TM) are coming if they do certain things, but then they do the things and Terrible Things(TM) don’t happen - this is the answer. There are no “obvious” Terrible Things(TM) coming, it’s the fabric of fate being changed in ways that Billie can see, but that the other characters - and us - can’t unless Billie tells them (and us).

In an episode where Michael discusses about God being a writer, of course (in a classic Dabb era move, I mean) eventually we come to see where the story is really being written. Just like Anubis said that God doesn’t decide whether a person goes to hell or heaven, but the person themselves decides with their actions -- so the story of the world is not being written by God. There was a script, but it was revealed that following it was a choice (that Team Free Will rejected). There are, obviously, guidelines. But it’s fundamentally choices made by people that write the story. Billie had already shown us that there are many, many possible ways a person’s story can go, and now we learn explicitly that a person’s entire array of fate possibilities can be even rewritten, if that person messes up with the order of the cosmos enough.

Michael, the dark Dean double, says that God can be killed, and that he’ll destroy his “draft worlds” because he can. This is basically the dark equivalent of what Dean does - Dean, who metaphorically destroys God’s scripts, who metaphorically “kill gods”. Dean “Free Will” Winchester can destroy the stories who have been written so far, he can kill God, he can shape his own destiny and the destiny of the cosmos. Of course, right now things are probably going to take a difficult turn because this is Supernatural, but the point is that Dean does what Michael claims for himself - he “destroys worlds-stories” and “kills God” in this sense.

Now, I don’t know what the book Billie shows Dean says, and I’m not particularly interested in making speculations about it because we just don’t know, but what really interests me is Billie’s behavior in this episode.

She breaks the rules. She intervenes, she sends Sam, Cas, Jack and the Michael+Dean package to the bunker so Cas and Sam can enter Dean’s mind, return Dean to the control room of his body, and stuff Michael away for the time being.

Sam said that one of your reapers really came through with the assist. I’m thinking that was probably you.Don’t tell anyone.You broke the rules.I took a calculated risk.

She is interested in the world not being destroyed, and she is making an investment in Dean in the perspective of Dean possibly choosing that one path that doesn’t end with Michael destroying the world. Of course, she is not going to force Dean to choose, she is not going to arrange things in a way that Dean cannot but go in that direction. She is leaving him the fundamental choice. That’s up to you. But breaking the hands-off rule, letting Dean read out of a book from her office - that’s a big move. I’m supposing that Death revealing about the books back about Sam and Rowena wasn’t exactly orthodox already, but now she has handed a book to Dean, which I’m sure is just as unorthodox and the various other adventures Dean has had with Death.

*sound of the millions of Death Dean/Reaper Dean meta-spec written along the course of the show crying of emotion in the distance*

(Consider also Michael basically saying he plans to kill God - the original Death said he was going to reap God, and Michael is a mirror for Dean in this narrative; and now Billie basically puts Dean in a narrative position where he’s framed as Death, because reading those books, holding those books, is what Death does: Dean is consistently shown across the show as on equal footing with reapers and Death, and literally (s6) or metaphorically in their shoes.)

Billie is taking a big “calculated risk” in putting this much... responsibility? trust? in Dean, and I might add that she’s acknowledging Dean not really as an equal - obviously they’re not the same thing - but on an equal footing of sorts when it comes to this situation.

But no, I really don’t know what the book might say.

What are the alternatives to Michael running loose? Either keeping him locked up forever (a), or destroying him (b).

The former is... impossible, or just not really worth investing on. Even if Dean arranged some kind of send-me-to-outer-space-to-be-a-lock-forever situation - oh, wait, that has never worked. The Cage God built is not a very solid solution - Lucifer got out twice, Michael is still there but another Michael showed up, so, really, the purpose of it is basically bypassed. Basically, you lock one Michael up, another one takes his place on the cosmic chessboard, you know? I feel confident in saying locking up Michael doesn’t work.

In fact, locking up your problems doesn’t work. It’s not a coincidence that in this episode Michael mentions God: locking up things is God’s specialty. And it doesn’t work. The Cage is like Swiss cheese. Amara, the ultimate problem he locked up to get rid of, also escaped and almost killed God if it weren’t for Dean’s intervention. In this episode, there are several attempts to lock things up that don’t work in a way or another: in the hotel, they need to be teleported away because the door wasn’t going to hold; the shapeshifter pretending to be a hunter doesn’t lock the bunker... rule of three, the third locking up, Michael’s, succeeds for the time being, but we can’t expect it to last forever.

Unless Dean manages to find a way to mute Michael, to lock him up to well he doesn’t make any noise, literally and figuratively. But... well, no. For the simple extradiegetic reason that we can’t have Dean get to the end the show with Michael just locked inside and that’s it. In-story, it just doesn’t seem like a sustainable solution. And knowing that Dean has a neutralized archangel inside of him in a fridge? Not exactly the prettiest scenario.

Also, it’s probably early to really make statements about this, but all of this Michael, Michael vs God, Dean vs Michael situation is all a mirror for Dean’s dynamic with John, and we know something huge regarding Dean and John is coming, so... whatever the solution to the Michael problem is going to be, it’s going to be a mirror to whatever the resolution of Dean’s John-related trauma is going to be like. Stuffing the problem inside of you forever is not a solution to trauma, and it can’t be a solution to Michael.

And now we get to (b). And we have two possibilities: Dean manages to find a way to destroy Michael that allows him to live, or Dean destroys himself and Michael. But what does it mean to destroy an angel...? Well, we know what happens to dead angels. Is whatever the book says related to the Empty and the Shadow that rules it? That’s a possibility, and also a way the Michael/Dean storyline could merge with the Empty/Cas storyline, but I’m putting the carriage before the horses.

I really don’t like using the CW promo for the next episode to speculate on, because CW promos are notoriously not a reliable tool for speculation, and the Onwards trailer doesn’t seem to give anything away in this regard, so I’m not going to speculate on what Dean “acting strange” might be specifically an indicator of. (He’s planning to die soon? He’s attempting some kind of strategy like when he was trying to control the Mark of Cain? We just don’t know yet.)

This post has gotten long enough, so I’m ending it on with a note on Jensen’s acting. First of all: give this man all the prizes. He’s superb in every episode, but this episode allowed him to showcase his talents beautifully, both as Michael and as Dean.

In the final scene, Jensen initially plays Dean as half-heartedly trying to put on a façade of confidence in front of Billie - I think he’s purposely played it as Dean not really trying, because he does know there’s no point to it (I think he’s doing it more for himself than for Billie, if you get what I mean). The subtle horror when Billie says that ‘all the books’ end with Michael getting control, the wariness when she mentions an exception, the frown when he basically asks her silently if he can/should open it, the shock/surprise -- I think then Dean’s expression reveals a sort of mixture of disorientation and understanding at the same time. He understands what what is written means - Billie doesn’t feel the need to explain more, after all - and that understanding leaves him lost and vulnerable. That’s eventually what Jensen plays - that almost childlike quality what Jensen gives Dean when he’s unguarded in his helplessness. It’s the way Jensen played Dean overwhelmed by the horror of losing his own sense of identity when he lost his memory under the witch’s spell...

Interestingly, he gives a quick glance to the book and he looks up at Billie wide-eyed and slack-mouthed, asking what he’s supposed to do with that knowledge - a sign that he’s understood the gist of what’s in the book - then he reads more and he seems to find some additional detail that further gets him shaken.

But then again, we just don’t know what’s in that book, so we just have to wait and see.

In the meanwhile I’m expecting the fandom to provide crack suggestions :3

#my spn thoughts #spn meta #spn spec #spn 14x10 #dean and billie #dean and death #spn #anon

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