‘the protagonist should be endearing and relatable’ the protagonist should make the audience scream and start banging on the one-way glass of the fourth wall. the protagonist should burn their entire life down and make the world’s worst sandcastle from the ashes. if they aren’t the cause of at least 50% of their own problems what are we doing here
Im reading a biography of John Dee rn and the author keeps giving me these maze sentences like:
“It is from this narrative that the facts of his early life are ascertainable. Perhaps we discern them through a faint mist of retrospective glorification for which the strange streak of vanity almost inseparable from attainments like Dee’s was accountable.”
Girl there is a damn MINOTAUR living in your paragraphs.
Violence: A Writer’s Guide: This is not about
writing technique. It is an introduction to the world of violence. To
the parts that people don’t understand. The parts that books and movies
get wrong. Not just the mechanics, but how people who live in a violent
world think and feel about what they do and what they see done.
Hurting Your Characters: HURTING YOUR
CHARACTERS discusses the immediate effect of trauma on the body, its
physiologic response, including the types of nerve fibers and the
sensations they convey, and how injuries feel to the character. This
book also presents a simplified overview of the expected recovery times
for the injuries discussed in young, otherwise healthy individuals.
Body Trauma: A writer’s guide to wounds and injuries. Body Trauma explains what happens to body organs and bones maimed
by accident or intent and the small window of opportunity for emergency
treatment. Research what happens in a hospital operating room and the
personnel who initiate treatment. Use these facts to bring added realism
to your stories and novels.
10 B.S. Medical Tropes that Need to Die TODAY…and What to Do Instead: Written by a paramedic and writer with a decade of experience, 10 BS Medical Tropes covers exactly that: clichéd and inaccurate tropes that not only ruin books, they have the potential to hurt real people in the real world.
Maim Your Characters: How Injuries Work in Fiction: Increase Realism. Raise the Stakes. Tell Better Stories. Maim Your Characters
is the definitive guide to using wounds and injuries to their greatest
effect in your story. Learn not only the six critical parts of an injury
plot, but more importantly, how to make sure that the injury you’re
inflicting matters.
Blood on the Page: This handy resource is a
must-have guide for writers whose characters live on the edge of
danger. If you like easy-to-follow tools, expert opinions from someone
with firsthand knowledge, and you don’t mind a bit of fictional bodily
harm, then you’ll love Samantha Keel’s invaluable handbook
Forever, uh, doing The X-Files, I would read Chris Carter’s dialogue; and, um, he used a lot of ellipses: dot, dot, dot. And, uh, I would think, “Oh, it must be a, uh, y'know, something I’m not saying. Something the character Mulder is not saying.” And so, I would think about what I’m not saying. And I would, y'know– if I wasn’t too overwhelmed in the moment– bring that into the performance. Or, or, the intimation of the line.
Anyway … when we were doing the reboot– six or seven years ago, or whatever it was– there was one of these dot dots, dot. And I didn’t know… I didn’t know what might have not been said. And so, I called Chris.
“Where’s he [Mulder] going with this? Where’s he not going with this? What’s he not saying here?”
And [Carter says], “No, no, that’s just ‘no widows, no orphans.’”
And I go, “What? What are you talking about?”
And he’s like, “No, I don’t allow any widows or orphans in my writing; so, I always use ellipses or em dashes to make it a perfect square or rectangle.”
And I said, “You mean, I’ve been working with you for ten years trying to fill in those ellipses; and it’s just because you don’t like the way it looks on a page?”
Miscommunication: I told you the appointment was at 7, and you thought I meant 7am when I actually meant pm.
Misunderstanding: I said the appointment was at 7 and check-in is half an hour early, meaning I had to be there at 6:30, but you thought I meant that the appointment was at 7:30 and I had to be there at 7.
Obfuscation: I said that I have appointments at 4, 7 and 9 today and then a handful more tomorrow, nothing is too important, no worries.
Lack of Communication: I won’t tell you when the appointment is, if I’ve even told you there’s an appointment at all.
Lie: I said that the appointment was at 5.
Gaslighting: What do you mean I told you the appointment was at 5? it was always at 7. I definitely never told you 5. You’ve been getting confused about a lot of things like this lately, are you sure you’re okay? Maybe you need more sleep, or you should consider seeing a doctor. I’m worried about you.
The number of people reblogging this post thinking its main purpose is to explain gaslighting is in retrospect entirely logical, but it was actually about what does and doesn’t count as “miscommunication”
love it when an extremely high-functioning and put-together character gets slammed with something that would topple any lesser person but continues to function in an alarmingly efficient manner while everyone who knows and cares about them flutters anxiously around them like “please lie down please rest please accept medical attention” while the high-functioning character just looks askance at all their concerned faces like “what are you talking about? I’m perfectly fine” as tiny cracks start appearing in their demeanor and facade
Coughing up blood doesn’t make sense for 99% of injuries and illnesses in fiction but it’s HOT and I think the sexiness of whump outweighs the medical accuracy most of the time. I WILL die on this hill and I will be coughing up blood as I do so.
