#so i feel like sometimes she's in a weird position of character & self-insert solely because they want to appeal to both ppl who like

[nulltune]

five interesting facts about Hakuno & five things you consider uncanny. Go!

THANK YOU SUE FOR MY LIFE!!!! talking abt hakuno is my hobby fr so thank u 4 enabling me ehe <3 here we go!!

5 interesting facts about hakuno:

her name is an annagram of kimi no na hakushi which translates to "your name is blank". i think it's suuper neat because 1. it gives you the impression of it being an insert name here kind of thing that's common for self-inserts, but it's a nice way to start off hakuno's character journey of becoming her own character from a blank slate and 2. it's a pretty straightforward way of telling us that her name, much like herself, is blank. empty. there's nothing there ^_T

speaking of- you know how with mc characters, there's usually a silly haha kind of dialogue option? that's present for hakuno too but i like it because it's more like an illusion of choice than something more like a self-insert thing. the point hakuno makes in the end is essentially the same, she's just being a lil goofy about the delivery, y'know! i'm not even kididng btw sgfkshfj hakuno herself admits sometimes that she did do it to get a rise/see the other person's reaction to it. moon lady's got a lil michievous side ✨️

she knows the sa-shi-su-se-so which is an expression to memorize essential ingredients for japanese cuisine. so it's safe to say that she'd at least know the basics of cooking, though it's a lil headcanon of mine that although she knows it theoretically, she absolutely flops at the execution (and if you wanna make this more nuanced, you can think of this through the lens of food as a love language-)

she "doesn't particularly like octopus". we don't get a reason why, but it's kinda funny when considering the sea motif in fate/extra! maybe hakuno wouldn't like seafood in general? this isn't that interesting but agfkshf we barely get any information about hakuno herself ya kno!!! which makes sense considering she doesn't even know herself, but that's why i treasure these little crumbs !!

i've noticed this in my reread of fate/extra, but i feel like hakuno brings up the fact that she's "not alone" Quite A Lot post chapter 4 or so. it's her only solace after finding out the truth of her existence so it makes sense why that fact is important to her, but i also like to think that repeating it so much is her (likely unconscious) way of trying to cope with how truly lonely her existence is :,)

5 things i consider uncanny:

OH MAN THIS IS A PERFECT THING TO ASK BC there's always hints about something being "off" about hakuno. in hindsight, it's pretty sad when this disconnect with everyone and everything else seems almost inherent to her existence when all she wants is to be a normal human and find her place in the world </3 and spoiler alert: She Is Not and She Does Not. but it's neat!

there's this one hakuno dialogue response that was essentially her introducing herself in an almost automatic "pavlovian response" — it's a small hint about her true nature as an artificial intelligence but i wish we got more of this aspect explored tbh! how much of her is real? how much of her is her? it could really mess up hakuno's head but it'd be hella interesting to see !

her reaction to being felt up by someone as a first meeting was seriously underwhelming ! a lot of hakuno's reactions to things are pretty tame and iirc it's been noted that she's strangely calm for someone in such a high-stress situation (enough to cripple even the finest soldiers, according to rin). it's likely her being so numb to it all tbh ^_T but it's still pretty weird hakunochan!!!

this one's kinda graphic but there's a scene where hakuno tries to reach her servant-- even as her body is literally being broken down and deleted in the process :,) i say it's uncanny because damn it's a great scene but hakuno's thought process behind it all is a widdle fucked up!! look at what she has to say when she goes numb from the pain + her stomach collapsed: "I just feel gross, like I’ve turned into a skeleton-monster. Though with my body being lighter, I’ll be able to walk faster, which is nice." HELLO??!? (bassbooted)

this one comes a ccc anthology chapter but basically hakuno was asked to pose for a photoshoot and she has no problems wearing a suggestive nightgown, a bikini, and a wedding dress but Draws The Line at a maid outfit (girl?) (she ended up wearing it — and absolutely slaying the look, if i do say so myself — but was Very embarrassed)

#femtaile #&&. out of #THIS WAS RLLY FUN TO LIST DOWN WAAAH TYSM FOR THE ASK SUE !!! 🥺🫶💖💕 #i love h.akuno in all her peculiar and uncanny ways okok VDKSCHSJCJ SHE IS SO INTERESTING 2 MEEEEE #ngl canon disappoints me sometimes bc they they purposely leave stuff abt h.akuno Vague to maintain that ~~self-insert feel~~ #even tho it goes against the entire point of her character and development.!!!!!! #so i feel like sometimes she's in a weird position of character & self-insert solely because they want to appeal to both ppl who like #an mc with their own personality; but also ppl who want to just project what they want onto an mc #it's sad because she becomes more self-insert than her own character in later games (looking at you e.xtella-) 🥹 #AND IM SO UPSET OVER IT TBH 😭😭 H.AKUNO DESERVES BETTER SMH #BUT YEA- i like to repurpose that to make it more in line with h.akuno's character #a nameless being that wants meaning; bonds & connections because she wants to have some sort of humanity/life to herself #I JUST HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS ABT THIS GIRL AAAAA 🥹🥹 but yeah she makes me facking die !!! #i wuv her......... A whole lot.......

[hardlyfatal]

gary’s writing workshop: lesson 5: point of view, part 1

Defining Points of View

Points of view, which I’ll refer to henceforth as POVs, is the narrator’s position in describing the events unfolding in a story. POV filters everything in a story, so if you get it wrong, the entire thing is compromised. There are four types: first, second, third limited, and third omniscient.

First, let’s go over why they’re named as they are. Linguistically, grammatical person is the distinction between who is participating in an event. If a person is by themselves, to whom would they speak? Themselves. They are alone, there’s just one of them, so they are the first person. 

If they are speaking directly to someone else, instead of one person, there are two. The other person is the second person.

More than that, by default, is three or more, so if the individual narrating isn’t first or second, all that’s left is the third person, of which there are two kinds1.

Note: This explanation is solely to explain how the terms came to be called this. It does not mean that scenes with one person must be done in first, with two people in second, and 3+ people in third.

So what does all of this have to do with us? What does it mean to us as writers of fiction?

Narrative Modes/Voices

POVs are also known as narrative modes or narrative voices. I’m still going to call them POVs to make it easier for us, though.

1. First person: 

 When the story is told by the narrator, filtered through the protagonist as if they’re telling it themselves. “I” tells the story. The character relates the story directly, using the pronoun “I” but also sometimes “we” if the narrator is part of a group. “We” should only be used very sparingly.

Pros: It mirrors real life, as we experience our lives only from our own POVs and think of ourselves in terms of “I” and “we”. It creates a clear and direct connection with the reader, and thus also sense of immediacy and intimacy. Excellent for getting the protagonist’s opinion of their own appearance – you get a front-row seat to how they sees themselves, through the filter of their own experiences and conditionings. Their looks could cause them pain… or pleasure, if they think they’re hot stuff.

Cons: Like all limited POVs, you’re pretty much restricted only to scenes showing what the protagonist experiences. Using “I” all the damned time can quickly become redundant and repetitive, and there’s no effective way to make substitutions for it. It’s harder to establish who, exactly, “I” is so you have to take care to pinpoint the protagonist’s identity at the start of the story, and it can feel awkward2.

There’s also a risk of too much introspection, to the point of claustrophobia since we lack exposure to any other POVs besides the primary. The character has to be particularly strong and compelling to sustain interest throughout the story. There’s a danger of the author inserting too much of themselves because it’s easy to slip into that when you’re writing a lot of “I” statements.

Examples: The Hunger Games series, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, and Rebecca.

2. Second person: 

When the story is told to “you”, where “you” are one of the characters. It’s pretty rare to see this in published fiction, usually just when someone’s trying to be artsy, but more frequently in fanfiction, where it’s used in “you are the OFC paired with (Favorite Hot Dude) stories that don’t even try to be anything but blatant self-inserts. Gotta give them points for honesty, at least.

It works best, IMO, in an epistolary story, such as Part Two of my None But You series, where the characters were writing letters to each other. The letters were written in second person, with the assumption that the letters’ authors were directly addressing the recipients. Dracula by Bram Stoker is primarily an epistolary novel and much of it is written in this way as well.

Pros: It creates a feeling of closeness and intimacy between the narrator and reader; it’s as if the former is speaking directly to the latter. It makes the writer less likely to yammer on about backstory or engage in overlong or unnecessary flashbacks. 

If your aim is to render the narrator oblivious to or disrespectful of boundaries, or to describe a dynamic between two people that is intense and encompassing, this is an excellent way to create that ambiance and hammer home the point without having to use the narrative itself; the POV does a lot of the heavy lifting in this regard.

Cons: That closeness and intimacy is kind of intrusive and can feel uncomfortable and downright unpleasant to the reader. It can seem like an assault, relentless and exhausting, since you’re dictating what the reader is supposed to be experiencing, thinking, and feeling. It’s harder to develop secondary characters, and subplots featuring them, because the focus is inherently on the narrator-and-reader duo. It’s weird and uncommon and can be distracting and hard to get through.

Examples: Bright Lights, Big City and various shorter stories by Margaret Atwood, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Faulkner, and Leo Tolstoy. 

3. Third person: 

When the story is told about one or more characters: “he” or “she” or, more rarely, “they”. The two main kinds consist of: 

a) Third omniscient: This POV has been extensively used in some of the most famous fictional works of all time. The story is presented by a narrator with an overarching, all-knowing POV that sees, hears, and knows everything that is happening at all times, including the thoughts and emotions of each character.

The narrator may not be a character in the story, even, merely acting as an observer from a distance who’s recounting events as they progress. Think of it as someone describing a movie they watched; they weren’t in it, but they know everything that happened, regardless of whether various characters were present in a scene or not.

Pros: It can feel ‘traditional’ in the manner of great works of literature. It gives the author freedom to explore multiple characters in a way that sees the ‘bigger picture’ instead of only what each character would be able to perceive; a forest-instead-of-the-trees perspective. Your voice as the author will end up coming through more strongly than that of the characters; if your intent is to give a sense of godliness, that the story is being relayed by a superior figure who sees it all, this would work well.

The author, and therefore the narrator, is not restricted only to what the character would be able to know because there is no filtering3 through a character to begin with. It can create an ‘epic’ format of storytelling because it grants the author the ability to dart back in time for a flashback, or ahead in time to hint at or fully reveal the repercussions of current events in the story, thus contributing to the forest-not-the-trees big picture feel.

It creates a lot of distance between narrator and reader, thus permitting a more effective and easier-to-write description of events since you don’t get bogged down with as much need for showing instead of telling. If your aim is to create a more remote dynamic between characters and reader, this is the best way to go about it.

Cons: The same distance that makes it easier to describe events can weaken the sense of intimacy and how personal the story feels to the reader, and since third person omniscient is already pretty distant feeling, that can make identification with the characters take a big hit.

Can lead to info-dumping; feels a lot like ‘telling’ instead of ‘showing’ because, as an omniscient narrator, they might know everything that’s happening, but they’re not really feeling as the characters feel, as they act and react to events. Thus it can significantly reduce the visceral feel of the story, and whatever connection the reader makes with it.

If you do try to ‘zoom into’ a character’s feelings, you then have to ‘zoom out’ again so you can either return to omniscient narration or zoom into another character, and all that back-and-forth can create not only a sense of literary vertigo but also make the story feel uneven and disorganized. That same strength of voice, with the author being stronger than the characters, can become a problem if it feels like the story is more about you than them.

Examples: The Da Vinci Code, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Brokeback Mountain, the Discworld series, the Lord of the Rings series, and The Scarlet Letter. 

b) Third limited: The story is restricted to narration by only the main character(s). In mainstream literature, it’s usually just the single, main protagonist, but in popular fiction, including many romance novels, there are two or more characters who narrate from their POV4. The huge majority of stories are written in third limited.

Pros: This is the best of all worlds; you get the ‘bigger picture’ benefit of distance that first and second persons lack, but also have access to the thoughts and feelings of the characters in an effective, less distant way. Since the majority of fiction is written in this way, it feels effortless and doesn’t force the reader to stretch to comprehend what’s happening. Since the scope of narration is smaller, and the characters only know whatever is filtered through them, the author can write them in ways that make it easier for the reader to identify and connect – enhances intimacy between character and reader.

Cons: Likewise, with the smaller scope, narration loses that all-encompassing sense of time from past through present to future, and of space from events unfolding in a number of places – you’re limited to only what the narrating character perceives in their particular time and space until and unless you switch to someone else.

Examples: the Harry Potter series, the Song of Ice and Fire series, 1984, Cloud Atlas, Ender’s Game, Fahrenheit 451, The Old Man and the Sea, Alice in Wonderland, and The Cask of Amontillado.

Homework

Your homework is that, if you have any questions or are confused about any of it on the first read-through, write out your thoughts to help organize them, and then try to answer them on your own through in-depth scrutiny of the lesson’s contents – see if you can figure it out for yourself, without explanation from me or anyone else.

I’m hoping you’ll have epiphanies because if you can catch on without assistance it will have more meaning and you’ll get a deeper comprehension of the issue. It’s so important, I really want to you get it as well as possible.

Endnotes

1 There are actually more than two but they fit under the umbrellas of either omniscient or limited and only literary analysts actually care and none of us are here to write a dissertation about this shit so let’s just narrow it down to the main two.

2 Many a Mary Sue and Gary Stu is born because a less-than-deft author favorably describes their protagonist in a way that irritates the reader. Plus, how to go about it? Many fall into the trap of the ol’ “looking in a mirror” scene, which ends up seeming narcissistic more than not. It’s been done and done and done a zillion times since the invention of fiction a few thousand years ago – it’s gone beyond trope to cliché and now is universally considered by good authors to be lazy, shitty writing.

3 We’ll be going over filter words in more depth in a later lesson but for our purposes here: they are words that aren’t strictly necessary and act as a layer, or filter, through which the reader must pass to get to the story’s meaning. This meaning as well as urgency and intimacy can create distance between the character and the reader. Words like “saw”, “thought”, “wondered”, “felt”, etc. are filters.

4 Having numerous POVs in a single story is very difficult to keep organized and maintain, and I advise against it until you have mastered just doing two of them, as in a romance novel. I took on five POVs for Desperado, and don’t think I don’t regret that choice every damned time I have to write another chapter.

© 2019 to me

#gary's writing workshop #writing #writing tips #writing resources #writing references

[backseat-imagines]

I've been reading your stuff pretty solidly the last few days (and I am really loving this all btw, you're great!) and I see OCs have been mentioned here and that you have some. Some of them wouldn't happen to be XV ocs would they? I wanna hear about them if you do.

Aww thank you so much! I am glad you’re enjoying the content here!also YES! Of course I have some, I got a small handful and every day it gets harder and harder to resist making more! Of course some of these are going to sound ridiculous but… They OC’s, they are here for fun more than anything…

I’ll give a summery of the ones I have under the readmore so I don’t clog your dash with my nonsense!

Duma Timere

The first of’em is Duma. Now surprisingly she’s not even a self insert she just kind of ended up sharing the same name as my moniker here.

Not too much is known really about where she came from, and she doesn’t remember too much of it either. But since she was young she’s been left wandering around in the Lucian Kindgom’s territory, all by herself.

Much of her childhood was spent scavenging, hunting and stealing and just trying to survive. And when she got into her teens, being bigger and starting to feel strong and invincible, she moved on to stronger targets and… getting bold enough to finally go after and try taking on people.

Of course eventually this all lead her to Hammerhead, where Duma tried stealing goods and food from them but that didn’t work. Just like Takka, she ended up getting taken in and made to work. The rest is history and she grows up the rest of the way in Hammerhead.

Duma is rough by nature. Has no regards for most authoritative and those in higher up in power positions. Rude, aggressive, defensive, short in patience, doesn’t really give too many people much time of the day. But she’s much kinder to those who she’s on friendly terms with. Though still tough and rough with them, even lightly teasing/lightly bullies them. Ofc if a friend is down then they gonna get some tlc~

(She’s good if you get her as a friend or have her view you as a sibling but outside of that she’s not one you hang around too often, but good luck getting that with her because honestly she doesn’t want to become too attached to anyone)

Zodiark

Yeah, yeah, I created my own Astral. I bought Zodiark back again and they are part of the reason why the Star Scourge became a thing.

Zodiark is just an entity made of pure darkness who hated humanity and hated the rest of the Astrals and tried to create something big to try and get rid of everything- but ultimately that failed.

In their weakened state they ended up being banished and sealed away by some of the other Astrals. However part of that entailed reverting them back to a much weaker form- Zodiark was reverted back to a much more infantile state, though only in body, but the problem is it kind of deformed their body tremendously and that doesn’t seem to be a thing they can reverse.

So they’ve been left sitting their in their own bitterness and festering, waiting for the day someone releases them once more.

(Gee I wonder who would possibly ever do that)

Very unfriendly, if you don’t get killed by Zodiark that is because you either benefit them or they are biding their time.

Has a really huge personal beef with both Bahamut and Ifrit.

Nunda Kenua

Nunda is a traveler shrouded in mystery and is brash and impulsive. Often Nunda extends a polite hand and seems like a warm person. One will feel like they’ve known’em forever, though when they think about it, they likely will reflect on the fact they don’t really know anything about Nunda.

That’s because they don’t, Nunda doesn’t allow for that most of the time. The only reason why Nunda feels like a friend is because they’re digging under the skin for some kind of reason- Nunda doesn’t honestly care and is a very cold and callous person. A very deadly one.

I bought back the prospect of Blue Mages, except this time with a little bit of a twist. They can learn and do things exclusive to certain creatures and monsters, but it’s from outright absorbing a piece of them (and with that some physical traits will end up getting changed on them for an extended time).

Nunda came from a place that was full of others like them that had that ability, but that was a long time ago and that place was wiped out, which is why you won’t find much others with that same ability. This all can also apply to daemons. No one back then really attempted to absorb them, but Nunda was exiled by their own and doing just that was a necessity, which also extended Nunda’s lifespan. We have a fossil here that’s very slightly over 1k years old.

At this point Nunda is very bored in life, is looking for a challenge. Mostly because a challenge means it could be a way of strengthening- if something poses a threat, Nunda will try to absorb them.

Gaius Labrum

Gaius is kind of a joint character between me and my one friend and they started the idea a bit and I sort of took over the rest.

He’s not originally from the Lucian Kingdom, but he’s changed his name and at this point he lives in Lestallum. He owns a flowershop. Lestallum is a very good area to actually grow a lot of his own. Though there isn’t much demand for that mostly, he does go into other crafts and sells a lot of what else he makes; Terrariums, those fancy decorative candles, paintings.

He can be a nice boy, but he’s petty as hell. Haughty- he’s got a bit of an ego and really the quickest way to get something from him is to compliment the pretty plant guy.

He’s smarter than a lot of people give him credit for, also a better fighter than most would peg him for as well.

Can pilot mechs.

Gaius doesn’t have too much of a given plot point so far, he’s just trying to exist in a quieter life. However he is related to someone in the Niflheim army.

(Since he knows flower language really well, and because sometimes he is petty, he’s not passed assembling a bouquet that will express his dislike of someone)

Okay, okay you have got to bear with me here because this name is a mouthful and… it’s utterly stupid and ridiculous but here we go…

Buttz Squall Darya Laleh Mitra Setareh Siavash Mehr Kaur

That’s right… That’s his name, and he mostly gets Buttz Squall too.

He’s a young, sneaky man who’s spent a good few years of his adult life pretty much doing a Gladiator job. Not what he wants to do but it pays him good money. Really all he’s wanted to do was have a life of adventure and actually go out and explore the world like all the heroes in those stories (though he doesn’t exactly fancy himself a hero and doesn’t expect to become one either).

He finally gets his chance at it when his sole parent ends up leaving without a trace. Buttz Squall already expected that to happen, but then suddenly it’s been months and still no call, text, letter or anything, and that concerned him. So he finally sets off on his journey just to know what’s happened to them.

He’s playful and fun to be around (sometimes, might get you into trouble other times), but also keep an eye out because he’s good at pick-pocketing.

Supposedly a lot of the pieces of his name is from him “being named after some of the best people I know”.

Never really had the chance to keep too many friends when growing up because him and his parent was traveling through a good chunk of his childhood. The closest ones he had were ones who were co-workers in his field.

Never knew his father- all that gets said is that he “was a gift from an Astral”.

Annnnd. My last one doesn’t have a name but it’s just a weird giant snake-like daemon that just blobs out like the flans and it hides in mud.

#Duma Speaks #Duma talks OCs #I am willing to go more in depth if anyone ever wanted to know anymore #just because this doesn't go too in depth but if it did it'd probably get too long #but there you go #a little of my creations #remember peeps OCs are for fun #just have a blast and do what you want #follow my ridiculous example