If You’re White And Wanna Write A Poc Character And Feel Awkward About It I Implore You To Ignore Any

Troubleshooting Your Plot

                Plots are such complicated things that often when something doesn’t work, we can tell that it’s falling apart, but we can’t really tell where. I’ve spent many hours picking apart my plots and looking for the loose thread, so here’s some ways I’ve noticed plots most commonly go wrong.

The character transformation isn’t believable

Very likely whenever an arc goes wrong it’s not because of the circumstances the character went through, it’s because the character didn’t have enough agency. If your characters are never forced to make tough decisions, they’re also never forced to change. I’d go back to their goal and motivation and look through your plot to see which ways they are actively choosing it again and again.

2. It feels rushed

Plots that meander or feel rushed are usually not due to the plot itself, but pacing issues within it. Before you touch your outline, look into your scenes and see where you could be adding more description. Are you using all five senses? And if you are, are you getting into your character’s head? Sometimes all a rushed scene needs is a moment of reflection, a little “check-in” with your protagonist.

                Look through your work and mark down what the pacing of each scene should be. Fast-paced action scenes should have shorter paragraphs and less reflection than say a deep discussion between two characters.

3. It’s too short!?

When it’s not an issue with pacing the problem might be with the scope. Is the transformation you’re writing large enough for the word count you were expecting? Lord of the Rings couldn’t have been written in a novella, and an episode of Spongebob couldn’t have been turned into a novel. Consider the stakes of your story—if it’s too short, the inciting incident might not have turned the world upside down enough.

4. The character dynamics aren’t coming together

Ah the friends that just don’t seem to want to be friends, the group that’s constantly falling apart, the attractive strangers who stay strangers. Characters are really good at ruining our plans. In cases like these, it often comes back to the goals and motivations of every character involved. When groups don’t come together maybe not all of them have a reason to want to be there—how will it help each one of them achieve their goal?

                Good luck!

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

could you tell us of your religious journey? i've never had any real religious beliefs, but i've been trying to explore and it's hard to know where to start, so i was wondering if you had anything you could share that could help. maybe even some blogs you could point me to?

hey anon! i just got back from work so sorry if my thoughts are jumbled, but this is a great question!!

so like a lot of folks around here, i was raised catholic before i became pagan. i considered myself agnostic for a while after getting confirmed, but after about a year and a half, i had to reckon with that because of apollo reaching out to me! it was a crazy feeling, i jokingly say he was "tugging on my sleeve" for a while till i got the picture haha.

after that i just kinda ambled through religion for a while, cuz i was like 15 and didn't really know what i was doing, and just kept tacking gods onto the list of gods i wanted to worship, though i didn't really do anything for them. see, when i'm not in my dorm, i've got to practice in secret (still do), so i was sort of limited in what i (thought) i could do (until i started learning more about devotional activities and whatnot).

i'm not sure what made me stick specifically with the hellenic pantheon, but that's what i did for about 4 years. it took nearly 3 of those 4 years before i actually started researching the gods, the ancient cult they received, and ancient practices, so that's when my religious practice really started to finally take shape. i saw what others were doing and tried to work it into my practice in a way that worked for me, so i began doing morning prayers and weekly libations. it's important to make sure that you do these in a way that works for you instead of just parroting someone else! there are tons of academic books you can read about ancient greek life and religion, which a lot of blogs on here have links for. if you can't find any by just scrolling through the hellenic polytheism tag, i have a google drive of my own that i can hook you up with.

then, last july-ish, i became interested in learning more about the ancient gods of the place where most of my family came from, so i began researching the pre-roman gods of the iberian peninsula (specifically the area that later became portugal). from there, learning about them turned into wanting to connect to them, and after a year of on-and-off learning i'm finally beginning to do that! it's been a much more delicate process, because there's little surviving information on these gods, so it's been a big puzzle game of piecing together what information i have with practices from other areas and faiths to fill the gaps.

for as long as i've been a pagan, i've always been sort of an ominist, though i didn't know there was a word for it for a while. so it's really been a matter of putting out feelers about what i want to do, and what gods i want to include in my practice, and seeing what works (and being okay with something not working!). so my biggest advice is really just to stay open minded, and see what interests you instead of feeling a need to do things like everybody else.

this turned into quite the ramble lol but i hope this answered your question!! if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out again!

the problem with knowing things about battle tactics is that an ever-increasing subset of popular media becomes impossible to enjoy properly because you have to sit there like 'wow Captain Protagonist good to know all those dead people on your own side are a direct result of your total lack of anything resembling brains'

Yes

One thing White Collar gets absolutely right and very few other shows do, is that people React to guns.

The reaction varies, depending on their level of training/comfort with firearms, but there's no cool guy bravado* when someone pulls a gun, especially not from Neal. When he sees a gun he always always always reacts like things just got very serious, this is no longer fun and games.

And you know what? Yes please. It also ups the stakes for us when a character reacts to someone pulling a gun on them, and it's also highly realistic. I just really appreciate it that guns aren't a prop to signify "antagonist" but a weapon that should and does elicit fear.

* except for when Kate pulled a gun on Peter, and even then his reaction was warranted.

meet ugly steddie au where steve gets broken up with for the first time since moving blasts his favourite song and has to find a new delivery place for his comfort breakup food and opens the door absolutely sobbing starts to cry harder when he sees how hot the delivery man is and tips through tears meanwhile eddie hears wham playing at horrific volumes while walking to the door to give the food and expects a party or smth but at least a customer he doesn’t want to deal with only for it to be this one incredibly hot guy who looks like a puppy thats been kicked while its down

Learn the Differences Between Novelettes, Novellas, and Novels

Since I am currently in the process of writing a story, but I'm not sure what I want it to be... I'd figure I'd go ahead and share the differences!

So let's get to it!

Writing the first draft of a novel can be a daunting, arduous task. That’s why the novelette format can be so appealing. In many ways, a novelette is like a short novel. It allows writers to hone their craft by learning how to tell stories under a strict word count restriction.

What Is a Novelette?

The definition of “novelette” is any short, fictional work of prose narrative. Novelettes have a lower number of words than a novel or novella, but a higher word count than other forms of prose fiction like short stories or microfiction. Despite lacking the page count of a full-length novel, novelettes generally tell a complete story. Some people refer to novelettes as “long short stories” or “short novellas.”

How Long Is a Novelette?

Any work of fiction with a word count between 7,500 and 19,000 is generally considered a novelette. A novelette is longer than a short story, which usually has a word range of between 1,000 and 7,500 words, and flash fiction, which is usually under 1,000 words. Any piece of creative writing that is longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel is considered a novella.

Three Differences Between Novelettes and Novellas

A novella is a standalone piece of fiction that is shorter than a full-length novel but longer than a short story or novelette. Novellas incorporate many narrative and structural elements of novel-length stories—but like novelettes, they often focus on single points of view, focusing on a single central conflict, and rely on fast pacing. Here are the differences between novelettes and novellas:

Word count: The primary difference between a novelette and a novella, then, is word count (novelettes are shorter than novellas).

Subject matter: Traditionally, novelettes tended to focus on whimsical, sentimental themes. The modern-day novelette, though, is more like the novella in that it can encompass different genres like sci-fi, drama, or historical short fiction.

Complexity: In terms of storytelling ambition, novelettes tend to split the difference between novellas and shorter forms like short stories. Novelettes tend to have a greater focus on character development, worldbuilding, and plotting than short stories. However, the stories are generally more concise and focused than a novella-length work, as the word count is often too restrictive to tell a long story.

Three Differences Between Novellas and Novels

The most obvious difference between novels and novellas is page length and number of words. However, beyond this superficial difference, many structural and thematic hallmarks of novellas make them their own standalone genre of writing. Some of these include:

 A single central conflict: Most novellas explore a single, compelling central conflict. Because of their shorter length, novellas have less time to explore subplots and tend to focus on the main plot. Novellas generally have one main character and a handful of secondary characters. Because of length constraints, most of the character development will be focused on the protagonist.

 Fast pacing: Novellas usually move at a quick pace. Whereas novels can spend time diverging from the central conflict to delve into backstory and explore multiple points of view, novellas generally offer a quick compelling story with a singular point of view.

Unity of time and place: When writing novellas, writers should root the action in continuous time within a limited space, ideally one location.

Benefits of Writing a Novelette

For short story writers or people who generally write shorter works, novelettes can be an opportunity to tell a longer-form, standalone story. For writers who are used to writing, say, full-length science fiction or fantasy novels, the word count restriction of a novelette offers a chance to tell a good story with a simple cast of characters and few subplots.

Seven Examples of Novelettes

Novelette writers know how to tell a complete story in a relatively short amount of time. Here are some famous examples of novelettes, many of which were originally published in literary magazines:

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe (1839)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1915)

The Call Of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft (1928)

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)

Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler (1995)

Hell Is the Absence of God by Ted Chiang (2001)

I hope this helps! Thank you for still being my followers and patiently waiting for a post!

Sometimes fiction doesn’t have a moral to the story. Sometimes fiction points at something and goes “Ever thought about THAT???” And you look at what it’s pointing at for a bit.