Active verbs to use in a fight scene or an otherwise violent encounter, color-coded by severity (with red as most intense and purple as most mild), and categorized by type of fight.
Hey guys! So this post is something that I think a lot of fanfiction/RPers/general fan content creators could use: drug information. Now, I’m not telling people to use drugs. Nor am I telling people not to use drugs. This post isn’t about the ethics, morals, legality, or health of using drugs or not using drugs. I’m not giving dosages in g, mg, or micrograms, or anything like that—if you are going to use, look this stuff up and do so responsibly, but don’t come here. This post is purely about how to represent drugs in fanworks, from someone who knows what the fuck they’re talking about.
Anyway, I’m going to do this by breaking down some common and not-so-commonly described substances into four categories:
Relationships, especially in beginner writer’s works, have a tendency to feel forced. Even in some popular and famous works of fiction, the relationship doesn’t feel natural. It seems like a boring afterthought which the writer added in at the last minute. Far too often, I find myself completely indifferent to a character’s romantic life. A good romance in a story will give the reader a bit of second-hand infatuation. They’ll root for the relationship, beg for it. If the romance is well written, you can make a reader smile and blush just by reading a few sentences. When done properly, it can even compensate for a weak and cliché plot.
But first, decide whether the romance is needed. If you’re adding a character to the plot simply for the sake of being a love interest, it’s probably not a needed romance. You can still add it, of course, but it will be much harder to keep your story focused on the central plot.
Step One
Make sure the characters have chemistry.
The characters should compliment each other’s personalities. If he’s loud, stubborn, and aggressively opinionated, a more tranquil and soft-spoken love interest would suit him well. Two headstrong people wouldn’t be likely to have a lasting relationship in real life, unless they (impossibly) agreed upon every subject. But, there should be some similarities. While opposites do attract, polar opposites will not and the whole relationship will feel forced. The characters should have something in common. It could be morals, a parallel backstory, the same motivations, whatever. As long as there’s a reason for them to be drawn to each other, there’s potential.
Step Two
Slow burn ships are fantastic.
Don’t make your characters fall in love right off the bat. There can be attraction, of course, but genuine feelings of true love don’t happen instantly. Your characters should become closer as people, feel at ease around each other, and truly know the other before they fall head-over-heels. The readers will crave the relationship far more, like dangling a treat right in front of a dog’s nose, but keep pulling it away. Teasing is a beautiful thing.
Find ways of showing (NOT TELLING) the characters are falling for each other. Have them stand up for one another, be protective. Have them break their own normal routine for the other. For example, a callous, guarded character could lower their walls for a moment if their love interest needs emotional support. These scenes can be awkward for the character changing their typical behavior and that discomfort can demonstrate how much they care for the other, altering their own selves for the other’s benefit.
Howeve, make sure that you combine these cute emotional moments with distance. Make the characters deny their true feelings or even distance themselves from their love interest upon discovering their feelings. The more the characters long for each other, the more the reader will long for them to be together. Build barriers between them for your characters to have to work to knock down. Keep them close, but maintain that distance until the moment is right.
Step Three
“_____” translates to “I love you”
The first example of I think of when I think of this is The Princess Bride, where the male protagonist tells his soulmate “as you wish” when he really means “I love you.”
This falls under the category of show, don’t tell. Hearing a character say “I love you” has become so boring. Unless it’s done in a surprising confession or unique way, it’s boring and stale.
Come up with a phrase that you can repeat in moments throughout the story until it has a meaning of love for the characters and both know exactly what the other means when it’s spoken.
Step Four
Taking a break can help create tension.
You know you loved someone if you leave them and feel awful. Apply this into the writing. Your characters can break up, then get back together in a joyous reunion.
Step Five
Not every couple has a happy ending.
Sometimes, things don’t always work out for different reasons. An ending that leaves readers craving more can be a good move.
for the self-conscious beginner: No one makes great things
until the world intimately knows their mediocrity. Don’t think of
your writing as terrible; think of it as preparing to
contribute something great.
for the self-conscious late bloomer: Look at old writing as how far
you’ve come. You can’t get to where you are today without covering all
that past ground. For that, be proud.
for the perfectionist: Think about how much you complain about things you love—the mistakes and retcons in all your favorite series—and how you still love them anyway. Give yourself that same space.
for the realist: There will be people who hate your story even if
it’s considered a classic. But there will be people who love your
story, even if it is strange and unpopular.
for the fanfic writer: Your work isn’t lesser for not following canon. When you write, you’ve created a new work on its own. It can
be, but does not have to be, limited by the source material. Canon is not the
end-all, be-all.
for the writer’s blocked: It doesn’t need to be perfect. Sometimes you have to move on and commit a few writing sins if it means you can create better things out of it.
for the lost: You started writing for a reason; remember that
reason. It’s ok to move on. You are more than your writing. It will be here if you want to come back.
Well, the saying ‘Sink or Swim’ is basically saying that, when something happens, you can either give up or you can keep fighting; that, in life, you can give up on something or you can fight for it. I think that’s an important message for Lily (and for the Winchesters in general) because there are so many times when Lily wants to give up (or she does actually give up !!) but when she’s older she really gets a ‘never give up’ mentality, even though there’s so many times when she wants to just throw in the towel. I chose that for the title because persevering is something that Lily really believes in as she gets a bit older, and we get to see her grow into that person I guess. It’s also something that applies to her life no matter what season of the show it’s in, even though she doesn’t gain that mentality for a little while.
Plus it’s a song title (and all my oc stories are going to be named after songs if I do publish them) and it has a nice ring to it lmao.
I’ve been looking at ways of writing character groups that work; one of the classics is the Freudian Trio, (like Kirk, Spock, and Bones in Star Trek TOS) but since I’m working in an ancient world setting, the Four Temperament Ensemble, being based on ancient Greek concepts, seems to make more sense. I found some charts on the internet, but none had all the info, so I added some color coding and additional notes to one that was pretty good.
These go back at least as far as Hippocrates, c. 460 – c. 370 BC.
