Latest Posts by every-soul-a-battlefield - Page 9

VACCINATE YA KIDS FFS

prompt 1496

There was definitely something inside the garage. And whatever it was, it was alive. She got out of bed, wondering why these things always seemed to happen in the middle of the night, when her husband was out of town.

The glorification of an unhealthy work/life balance is robbing us of ouf time. ⏰

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it a thousand more times: No piece of dystopian fiction has ever been a prediction of the future. They are observations and criticisms of the present. 

I can confirm that this is how music is actually written

“S/partiti”

Riccardo Guasco 2021

Seeing unhealthy patterns in your family and deciding that those pattens end with you and will not be passed down to future generations is an extremely brave and powerful decision.

Forgive yourself for repeating what was taught to you as a child, then put the conscious effort into deprogram these patterns.

must i pursue a career? is it not enough to be obsessed with classic literature, books museums and old records?

Broke: You’re too young to know what your sexuality is when you’re a teenager.

Woke: You are old enough to know what your sexuality is when you’re a teenager.

Bespoke: Everyone develops at different rates and while some people know what their sexuality is from a young age, other people need to take more time to figure it all out. Both of these are 100% valid and okay.

winter longings

ra ra rasputin 10 months into quarantine

Idiots to lovers implies that they stop being idiots when they finally get together, but that is just not true, they will always be idiots

the turkey swiss on rye incident

Your characters have problems.

I don’t mean flaws in character design, even though they possibly do. I mean the problems your characters SHOULD have. The problems they face in your story ie. villains, conflict, war, homophobic parents, not having a date to the big dance. Y’know…like a plot.

Here are 3 ways to improve your plot

1. Your Characters Need to Make Decisions

This may sound obvious, but it isn’t always. The Problem™ isn’t just something your character has to go through that sucks—they should be faced with options, and have to make Active Decisions™ that affect the outcome of the story. This gives your characters agency—if they don’t have agency, if they don’t make decisions, your characters will be read as passive. Passive characters aren’t interesting.

2. These Choices Need To Be Hard

Give your characters inner conflict.

Hard, tough decisions to make. How to face their big problem. In figuring out what options your characters will choose, remember their

Motivations

Background

They way they were raised

Moral/Ethical/Spiritual beliefs

Fears

Loyalties

3. Figure Out The Stakes

Based on what kind of story you have, the stakes for your protagonist are going to be different.

SciFi novel about how the world is going to get obliterated by an evil force in 2 days? High stakes.

Romance novella about 29-year old Tequila Sheila who can’t seem to find a date to her brother’s wedding? Lower stakes.

And there’s nothing wrong with having higher or lower stakes—but do think about where your stakes should be for your particular story. Many stories don’t have high enough stakes for readers to be captivated; these stories need to be reconfigured, after realizing what exactly is at stake and to what degree. Understanding what your stakes are can help you figure out what kind of reading experience your book will be.

she's trapped

My reaction to the outcome of the impeachment trial:

And we wonder how dangerous dictators come to power...

I found mirkwood while on Mount Buffalo

Be kind to a person who smiles a lot, because surely somewhere he always cries alone, loaded with guilt, restlessness and anguish.

If I’m not supposed to like villainous characters why are they always the best dressed 

Welcome to American politics, folks...

This is the funniest headline I have EVER read god

Some words stay in your head long after they’re spoken.

Robin Roe // A List of Cages (via qvotable)

Always demand a deadline. A deadline weeds out the extraneous and the ordinary. It prevents you from trying to make it perfect, so you have to make it different. Different is better.

Kevin Kelly (via keepcalmandwritefiction)

“Do not touch”

Must be the scariest thing to read in Braille.

There is so much loneliness in this world

Loneliness that makes you write these sentences knowing that no one will ever read them