winddragonart

[winddragonart]

Day 16: Flowers, Book to Movie, and Over Hyped

I refuse to allow Twilight into my home

#book photography #books and cupcakes #book photo challenge

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Day 15: Quote and Seriously Funny

I wasn't expecting The Kaiju Preservation Society to be funny, but it had me laughing out loud in public with no regrets. Also, I love this cover design. Too bad it's a language I can't read, else I'd buy a copy just for it.

#book photo challenge #books and cupcakes #book photography

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Day 14: Mythical Being and Favorite Time Period

#book photography #books and cupcakes #book photo challenge

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Day 13: Artist Cover and One Word Title

Does manga count as artist cover?

#book photo challenge #books and cupcakes #book photography

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Day 12: Fiction or Non? and Non-Fiction

FICTION ALL DAY EVERY DAY!

#book photography #books and cupcakes #book photo challenge

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Day 11: POC Character and Favorite Setting

Hands down, I would live in the Shire if I could.

#book photo challenge #books and cupcakes #book photography

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Day 10: Female Author and Book Stack

#book photo challenge #books and cupcakes #book photography

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Day 9: Magical

#book photography #books and cupcakes #book photo challenge

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Day 8: Nostalgia

I grew up watching these two. It would have been awesome to see them team up. And I know the Turtles did team up with another Ranger team, but the OG Rangers? That would have been cooler in my opinion.

#book photography #books and cupcakes #book photo challenge

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Day 7: Awkward Character

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Day 6: Edition, Books & Animals, and Clouds

#book photography #books and cupcakes #book photo challenge

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Being obsessed with your own OCs but literally never creating any art or content for them is such a curse. You'll be like "this reminds me of blorbo from my head :)", and everyone else will just be like "? who thef uck"

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Day 5: Favorite Cover and Dual POV

I love that sketchbook cover. I'm kind of too nervous to use it.

Also, I hope the second book to Song of Silver, Flame Like Night is also in dual POV.

#books and cupcakes #book photo challenge #book photography

[winddragonart]

Hi!! Do you have any pointers on writing a genderfluid character?

Genderfluid peeps tend to not have an affixed gender, fluctuating between all kinds of gender expressions and identities. Sometimes they mix and match, sometimes they express as feminine or masculine, sometimes entirely neutral. A lot of genderfluid people also use gender neutral pronouns (two links here).

My pointers would be to just search around the internet and read whatever you can about genderfluid as an identity, and learn how genderfluid people wield this identity in the real world by listening to their experiences.

Some links for you~ 

Genderfluid Facts (Tumblr)

My Trans Character Guide & Bio Building

Wanting to Write Genderfluid Accurately (answered question)

How Can I Live a Gender Fluid Life

How do you know if you’re genderfluid

[winddragonart]

Writing Superheroes and Villains

I wanted to ask about writing superheroes, how do you first go about balancing their powers out and finding equal villains for them to go against? -cluewhite

What a wonderful question! I’m really going to enjoy answering this one and hopefully our followers might be able to share their own opinions (hint hint). 

When creating a superhero there are a few things to consider:

What gives them their superpower (special spider, iron suit, the fact they are a god).

What their superpower is and its limitations. (All superheroes have limitations- think of Batman!).

What is their weakness. (Small knifes? Hahaha I made a funny.)

Who knows their weakness?

How does their personality contribute to their superhero status? Do they deserve to be a superhero?

Best question: Are they a superhero by choice?

These are just some questions I would consider to start developing this character. Superheroes are normal characters, they deserve the same amount of character development and they need to be rounded characters. You also need to really consider their motives. Are they driven by revenge? Or simply because they want to make a difference?

So your superhero can have any power they want, but it needs to have a limitation. If this character is unbeatable then there is no point in your story. Also, your reader will struggle to empathise with your character if they aren’t challenged and if there isn’t a struggle to succeed. 

So lets talk about villains! Now, what you need to think about to start with is why are they enemies? Is it because your superhero knows this character and wants to stop them? Is it because your superhero has suffered at this villains hands? Or does the superhero want to act for the good of the people? 

I’m going to mention some villains here so you can catch my drift a bit more.

Obediah Stane (Ironman) - knew Tony and was motivated by greed. Tony fought him because he felt like it was his fault, he had created this ‘monster’.

Lizard (The Amazing Spiderman)- Peter felt responsible for the Lizard thing as he had given him the formula. 

The Joker- (Batman) had no real motive, he just liked chaos. Batman fought him because it was the right thing to do, to save Gotham.

Loki (Thor and Avengers)- Loki was motivated for revenge. Thor fights him because he is his brother and he feels responsible for him.

You can see a trend here with comic book superheroes. The superhero is normally motivated to fight the villain because he knows him, feels partly responsible or less common he just wants to fight them. 

Of course this means nothing, you can do whatever you want with your superhero. But it is interesting to consider the relationship between these two central characters and how well they know the other. 

So, making them equal.

You don’t have to make them equal, not at all. A common trend seems to be that one party is the brawn and the other the brain. What I think is more interesting though is when both characters are equally brilliant. It then is more a battle of tactics to win.

To make an equal villain develop them like you did your superhero. Consider what makes them powerful, what gives them the power. Their own weaknesses and strengths. 

Give them both strengths and weaknesses and they should start to balance themselves out. Or they could just be equally as powerful and it is their personality that determines who wins. 

Writing about superheroes

How to write a great villain

How to make a scary villain 

I hope this has helped you! If not, hit us up again. (We don’t bite- much). Followers, as always feel free to chip in.

-S

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Writing Intelligent Characters

Writing intelligent characters is tricky. It must be, because it’s done horribly so often. I come bearing advice to help you solve the problem!

First off, there are two kinds of intelligence. Crystallized, which is how much information you’ve got in your head and tends to increase as you age and learn more, and fluid, whichis the ability to figure out puzzles and otherwise figure things out quickly, which tends to decrease after a certain age because of the connections in your brain failing.

This is totally compatible with the theory of nine intelligences, by the way: it’s common to know more about one subject than another, and it’s possible to have a “good ear” and be able to figure out musical patterns without, say, being able to do calculus easily.

The two forms of intelligence need to be handled very differently, so let’s examine them separately.

Crystallized Intelligence seems easy to write on the surface. Just look up a subject online, and now your character knows all of that.

This is a terrible idea.

Crystallized intelligence is closely related to ignorance, or not knowing anything. Your character should not—cannot, realistically—know everything convenient to the plot. I’m looking at you, Artemis Fowl.

Skills and knowledge sets take time and effort to build, and yes, your character will probably have one, two, maybe three areas of focus. They should be related, for the same reasons you pity the Religious Studies/Accounting double major in college. Skills sets can be built on in the same field.

Note that eidetic memories are extremely rare, if they exist at all.

Fluid Intelligence is ignored a lot: we don’t really think of using it as a way to indicate a character’s intelligence, despite the fact that it’s a better indicator than just knowing stuff is. And if we do use it, it’s some Asperger’s-level obsession to detail exhibited by characters like Sherlock Holmes.

This is not necessary.

What you need is to avoid your reader going, “Oh my God, you idiot, how do you not get it yet?” It makes foreshadowing a little harder—when your character is capable of piecing together what it all means, some of the suspense can be lost. I like Rob Thurman’s books: the hints are all there, but the characters are written, even with a first person narrator, that you don’t figure it out thirty pages before the main character and don’t sit bored, waiting for the cast to come to the same conclusion.

A good example of a fluidly-intelligent character is Armin Arlet, from Attack on Titan. Towards the end of the anime, most of the Survey Corps are wondering what their superiors are up to and keeping from them, but not Armin. Armin, based on the clues and events, figures it out with his supervisors having to tell him anything. Everyone saw the same things, but Armin could put it together coherently.

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How to Choose Your Main Characters

If you’re not someone who develops character before story, you might find it a little difficult to decide who deserves a place in your novel. Even if you figured out your protagonist, there will probably be several other characters that need to be thought about, depending on your story.

Choose your main characters by considering these important questions:

Why type of protagonist does your story need?

If you’ve already developed the basics of your story, you’ll need to know who it will revolve around. Think about your story and what type of person it needs. What should your protagonist be like? What do they want? How will they get it? Are they motivated? Is there something extraordinary about it? You don’t have to settle on your first idea. Experiment!

Who will stand in your protagonist’s way?

Do you have a villain in mind? What do they think about what the protagonist is trying to do? You need to consider that something will need to slow down or prevent the protagonist from getting what they want, if it’s not just their own flaws or an outside force. Your antagonist deserves just as much attention as your protagonist.

What characters will support your protagonist’s journey?

Take some time to think about side characters. How will they help or aid your protagonist? What are their own personal goals/motivations? What’s their purpose in the story? Remember, each character should want something.

Will you be switching POVs?

If you want to switch POVs, you might need more than one main character. Develop those characters separately and make sure you get each of their voices just right so they don’t sound the same. Consider which characters you want to focus on and how their stories might fit together.

-Kris Noel