“our Teeth And Ambitions Are Bared” Is A Zeugma

Love it! It's so Sadira!

Did @sinedra 's Sadira for a Halloween prompt. The randomizer said cute grim reaper and I was like...bet.

This blog is against 50 Shades of Grey and sees it for what it truly is: glorification of abuse on women and literal trash

OKAY HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS BY MARIE BRENNAN

NO! WHAT IS IT?! I MUST KNOW!!

P.S. sorry for public answer, forgot my settings were like that.

“Boring when you aren’t around,” he said with a grin. Finishing up his own food and standing, holding out a hand to her. “Indulge me for a second.”

Sadira stared at them in a silent awe, they were gorgeous. It was nearly impossible to pick which one was better. She looked up at him, and smirked. “I could always model them, and you can decide which one looks good enough to deign the Tuuli Thea’s neck.” She pulled out her hair, as her sister often wore it down, and put on rose gold necklace.

She pushed her hair out of the way and made sure it rested on the hollow of her throat before turning to him. “Well?”

Kiesha’Ra RP- Private pt. 8

Araie turned and smiled at her, happy to see she was till alive and that her brother hadn’t chased her off. “Thank you for letting me borrow Aiden, he was a great guide through the Keep.”

Ulyesses scowled and looked away. That large eye sore of a building? 

Mara finished with with Ulyesses’s burn and turned back to her guests. “So, about that tea.”

A month had passed since Sadira had come to the Opries home and Araie had spent most of her nights with Aiden, dancing, laughing, and his attempts at formal courting made her only fall deeper and deeper in love with him.

Ulyesses had avoided leaving his shop the entire month, not even to venture to the nest to seek comfort from one of the dancers there. There was a banquet soon for the celebration of the new royal baby. Though not yet born, serpiente usually held a banquet in celebration of a new family member. Ulyesses did not know what to give his friend.

“Araie…I need you to tell Sadira that I…damn it, need her help with something. Make it quick.” He shooed his sister out of the stall.

"But my Plot isn’t UNIQUE or BIG enough!”

One thing that I worry about is that my plot isn’t good enough. I know lots of other writers who have had this issue in the past as well, and it’s all about having confidence in yourself and your ability to tell a tale. 

The plot doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, just think of how many people get fed up of Shyamalan twist-endings. They’re clever sometimes, yes, but they’re also not what everyone ever is looking for, and when they are forced into a piece of work it is painfully obvious to anyone who really values what you’ve written. 

What matters is the telling of the story. Your plot can be exceptionally simple, and you might write one of the most compelling books of our era. 

I found one thing that helped was to look at other works, and try and break them down into their very, very simplistic terms - the bare bones, the things the author would have decided up front perhaps. The things that… if told without the wonder of the story, might have been boring. 

Like A Song of Ice and Fire, for example, which tells the stories of Political struggle against a backdrop of Ice creatures who can raise the dead and force them to attack you. It’s basically a Socio-Political zombie apocalypse, with dragons. That could have gone either way; as it was, it went amazingly. Because Martin is a master of making every character a person, and building such a rich, colourful world that we believe it. 

So, what I’ve done is looked at a very popular work that spans multiple books. Harry Potter is widely known, so this should be useful to as many people as possible. It is also praised as one of the most in depth and atmospheric works for children, young people, adults, or just about anyone, having been translated, adapted and studied over and over. 

                           HARRY POTTER BREAKDOWN

Bread and Butter

So, when I asked Google what the heck the plot of Harry Potter was, I got this;

This is what I’m going to call the BREAD AND BUTTER of the story. It’s what happens in the day-to-day of the story. It’s perhaps the introduction J. K. would have given when first sending in her manuscript. It’s also a hugely unoriginal idea. 

The concept of a young Witch or Wizard attending a magical school where they can learn their abilities has been done before, a lot. It is basically the prmise of books like EarthSea and the Worst Witch. 

So next time you think your premise is overdone or uninspired, remember that it doesn’t matter. It’s not the premise that counts, it’s what you do with it. What Rowling did with it was create an in-depth world, full of structures and rules, populated by characters we all loved, hated, felt sorry for or routed for. She also made sure to include a way for us to learn more about the world, so she made her protagonist just as unaware of the wonder and horror as all of us. 

Tea

In this case, tea is gonna’ be the conflict of the story. The main arc. Because going to a Wizard School is freaking awesome and everything, but this story needs risk. Our characters need to be in danger, and they need something to overcome. Often writers get stuck here. They have a wonderful setting and they really want to write about their character doing this or that, but what’s the main goal? What is there to overcome? 

Very simply, Rowling’s villain is a man who wishes to purify the progression of magic by weeding out those who’s blood he see’s as tainted. He is a Hitler-figure, who himself should be ‘tainted’ in his own view. That’s the villain’s GOAL. It’s clear, and simple. 

If you think your villains goal is too simple, just look at Voldemort’s goal. What makes it more complex are the many twists and turns he and Harry both have to adapt too. His many failures, as well. 

Voldemort fits into many tropes, including the bad guy ‘selling his soul’ to achieve a vain goal, the bad guy murdering the heroes’ parents, the ‘more like you than you think’ trope, where a Villain and a hero are quite similar. I especailly like that last one, because J. K. played with it. Yes, she included it, and yes she gave a magical reason as to why. 

That just shows that unique elements can be added on to overdone ideas, to make them wonderful. 

Jam and Cream

This is where Rowling turns her simple ideas into something beautiful. Whether an idea is original or not, it will not matter if the depth is not there. Jam and Cream stands for all the little things. 

The fact one of the most hated antagonists was only a prime player in one book but left such an impression, the fact Hermione was disliked by the main characters at first, the fact Neville was the cowardly laughing stock of the group for years. Let’s see… The fact Sybil was right about almost all of her predictions and no one believed her, thus linking her with the Mythological figure Cassandra. 

The use of diversion and tension in The Prisoner of Azkaban, the fact that Harry’s own father was rather arrogant and mean at times, yet still a good person. The moral ambiguity of characters like Dumbledore or Snape. 

And…

That isn’t even naming the things the books got wrong. Because every author makes mistakes. Yes! You’re allowed too! J. K. has Dumbledore play the ‘I’m going to withhold information from you for the sake of the plot,’ card. We are also supposed to believe Harry forgave everything Snape ever did and named his son after him because he rather fancied his mother. Many issues are left unaddressed, such as the disinterest/damn right rudeness towards Hagrid in the final years, or the silly quest over the fake Sword. 

But in the end, if the story is told masterfully, no one is going to care. 

Basically, what I’m trying to say is, if you plot is overdone, don’t worry about it. If your world feels familiar, do more to make it your own. If your villain feels like a trope, give them more twists and turns, and maybe a reason for the trope that fits your world alone. If your characters feel stale, give them more scenes that address their personality. 

You’re doing fine, and your manuscript is totally fine. If you believe it in, there’s gonna’ be at least a hundred more people who would too. 

writing specific characters - advice

a young character

a character who lost someone important

a villain (2) 

a character based on yourself 

a hit man or mercenary

an indifferent character

a bitchy character

a dancer

a vampire

a drunk character

a manipulative character

a friends with benefits relationship

a natural born leader

a nice character

a rich character

a witty character

I love these two so much, I remember creating Sadira back in middle school. Then I forgot her and she just kinda faded and was forgotten. Now she's back and hot dang she has never looked better. She's the oldest character out of any I've ever made that I remember and her progression and new maturity has proved how much I've grown as a writer. As a person. Ulyesses as well, kinda, he's grown but his vocabulary of curse words just grew. Anyway, these two are my otp and thus piece was very ambitious. I waited months and every minute, day, was worth it. They look so amazing and that word doesn't even cover it. This is my background for every electronical device I have. Thank you, for making them look better than ever, for accepting this commission when it rejected by a few others. You have done them a great honor and I love it so much. I keep noticing new details every time I look at it. P.s. @janeopries your tags are gold

Finished commission for @sinedra! ♡ This is their character Sadira and @janeopries’ character Ulyesses. I loved their story and had a lot of fun drawing them (while listening to sad florence + the machine songs of course). Thank you so much for commissioning me!

[fullview] ✧ [commission info]

Writing Tips #10

Spend time world building. Even if you're writing fanfiction, you need to know the world in which your characters reside. I’ve beaten this to death, but that will require research of the source material or history books.

Is it a monarchy or is there a president? Who delivers justice? What are the rights of the people? How is education?

Keep notes and make sure nothing conflicts. It’s just as important to have a seamless world as a flawless plot. You can’t have a world full of contradictions (unless you’re writing Alice in Wonderland) and holes without hurting yourself in the long run.

Plot out your worlds like you would your characters.

Friendly reminder that fan-made content (fanart, fanfic, fanvids, etc) are:

extremely time consuming. Remember someone actually took time out of their life to create that, time they could’ve used to, idk, sleep, for example

entertainment you’re consuming for free. I can’t stress this enough: you’re enjoying someone else’s craft for free. You paid exactly zero money to look at/read/watch it.

S H A R E D  with you, not made for you. This is the most important point: someone created that, put it online and you found it. No one forced you to consume that fanwork, you C H O S E  to do it. 

Whenever you feel like leaving a mean comment, anonymous hate or make a ~clever post about how ‘lol look at all of these overused tropes every fic writer crams into their fics’ remember you’re being a dick to someone who shared their work with you. You’re not being funny, you’re not being edgy, you’re not being brave for calling something out - you’re being a dick.