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epersonae · 6 years

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ye olde liner notes

A whole bunch of meta for The Truth or Something Beautiful, which @magcretia and I posted two months ago? Sure why not?

It’s hecking long, so more under the cut....

Elaine: so I guess at this point (almost 2 months later) this is more of a retrospective, yeah? But we both want to take a look at how this thing happened, so it's all good.

Kath: Yeah, I mostly thought it’d be useful to us as we’re working on this big WIP of [redacted] where there’s gonna be some intense feelings to kind of take some “emotional inventory” for Taako and Lucretia, and maybe also ourselves? And remind ourselves where we came from and where we’re trying to go.

E: I think we were both pretty wiped out after finishing this, so a little distance is good. I’m trying to remember what the bit was where we decided, fuckit let’s just publish after trying to cut and then put back blah blah blah? Was it “But we — we keep choosing Forsake,” ? We cut because it seemed like a weird turn, but then it turned out to be important?

K: I think it felt like a beat we were hitting without it flowing naturally there, which happens sometimes? But I think with these two, there just isn’t always a flow, because they’re in their own heads so much and say so little of what they need to say aloud. So a lot of times it just comes out abruptly and feels uncomfortable, which isn’t pretty, but it’s true to life. And a LOT of writing this was uncomfortable, I think.

E: Ok, I’ll just dive right into that, then. We both went into this thinking it was going to be an easier conversation than Find the One Safe Way and NOOOOOOOOPE.

K: YEAH UHHH LOL.

E: I had this moment of absolute low where I thought: we broke it, the thing that we thought we’d fixed, we absolutely just broke it, and personally (hi overidentifying with Lucretia) I just kept thinking WOW that was a mistake bringing up Lup.

K: Yeah, I had that same feeling, and I remember talking about it with you like “do we scratch this? Are we really going to keep this?” and I think it was that uncertainty of letting Taako and Lucretia do what they do, the same way we wrote Safe Way, that was scary.

E: these chucklefucks. And the moment where Lucretia dives to the bottom of the pool and, look, I try really hard to stay away from the suicidal stuff when I write Lucretia, I’m just too soft to really handle it, but I was right there in it. (which was super surreal having those feelings at work, LET ME TELL YOU) But I had to trust that “no way out but through” was going to work.

So, ok, this “How could you not do something?” hit me, personally, so hard I could hardly breathe, because duh, of course. sigh

K: So, that all started from your coke!Taako fic, The Mirror, which really stuck with me for… clearly a long time, for a lot of reasons, but I hadn’t really explored those feelings until I started writing my longfic, Another Beach Year. And in ABY, in a scene that I never finished and probably never will, Taako has a nightmare that’s actually a memory of Sizzle It Up days, where Lucretia was watching him from the crowd (as she did in The Mirror) and she sees just how messed up he is, how poorly he’s doing, and she does nothing. And I think that stuck with me even though this series isn’t necessarily in either of those continuities, and I wanted to incorporate that, because I feel that a lot of times the Taako and Lucretia conflict is boiled down to the “you made me forget my sister” thing, and that’s not the whole thing. At least for us, (ESPECIALLY for us?) it’s, “you were my best friend, and you did all that, and you knew I was doing badly, and you still didn’t do anything.” And I think Taako didn’t know how to articulate that in any way that wasn’t accusatory, but it was (and I am biased) perhaps deserved? Definitely necessary, regardless.

E: So I think what made that as difficult as it was on my end was that she felt bad about what had happened, but what she was sorry for wasn’t the thing that was hurting him the most. She thought she knew but she had no idea. I don’t even know how to articulate the dawning horror of “I’ve been sorry about the wrong thing this whole time” except I guess how I actually did? And I think of Lucretia as someone who very much wants to be able to fix things, to make a plan that comes through and improves everything, and to be hit with “this is bad and I can’t do anything about that” is a heavy hit.

K: Mmm. I think it’s hard for Taako to admit that he’s hurting at all, so when he does, it’s kind of a “well I guess while we’re doing this, I’ll get it all out” deal. And so he has all of these feelings about the forgetting, and about Lup, and about a decade being essentially a shell of himself, but what we’re bringing to the table here is this added dimension of their relationships with Magnus, and consequently their friendship with each other. So I think it’s almost easy to lose sight of what exactly he’s hurting about and default to the Lup stuff (and, wow, yeah, there’s so much more there that in True Taako Fashion, even I am avoiding) but fixing the Lup stuff still won’t fix the Lucretia stuff, because he has his memories back. It’s not the forgetting that’s hurting him now, it’s the betrayal.

E: “it’s hard for Taako to admit” — so this. At one point, I was questioning whether he really would have pruney fingers (from the pool) because the amount of actual dialogue wasn’t long enough, and one of the curious things about this whole thing is how much goes unspoken. They take soooo much time to say honestly the briefest things. It’s tremendously frustrating, on some level, because god just say a thing already but it’s also artistically satisfying because it feels true to them, that they dance around their feelings until something just breaks. Usually because I have Lucretia just blurt out some godawful thing. (There’s a bit in the WIP where it’s WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT, but I just feel it.) Of course Lucretia would ask if he’s talked to Lup, and then instantly regret having asked.

K: Oh no girl she didn’t ask, she just abruptly said “I’m sorry about Lup,” which is maybe? Possibly? The worst thing she could have done in that moment. Which makes for good radio but not a good emotional state LOL.

E: Ha, I was thinking about the bit later.

K: YEAH. TWICE. OK LUCRETIA. I think it really does attest to how much she wants to fix things, and all her good intentions, but she can’t do it her way. That way doesn’t work with Taako… They’re the same in that they can’t handle being blindsided with feelings, but that doesn’t stop either of them from doing it to each other? And that’s why these conversations keep happening with the intensity that they do, is they have such a hard time navigating those feelings in the first place. To which we just say, at this point: these chucklefucks.

E: With so much love, but yeah. I can’t believe we thought this one was going to be more lighthearted. Because they were less defensive, maybe? Safe Way they were both on guard because it was a planned encounter, but this was accidental.

K: And they were getting along. For pages, it was like, wow, fuck, this feels good, they’re chatting? Laughing? Together? And then it was, (and wow this is a theme, huh?) talking about family, and ultimately Angus, that caused this whole… thing.

E: There’s so much I have to say about Angus in [redacted], because I’ve fallen headlong into the idea that out of all the adults in his life, Lucretia and Taako are the most parental. But even here, he’s almost a proxy for all this other stuff that’s hanging between them. The theft of the silverware ends up being about what Taako is like on his own, and how Lucretia made her friends into her employees. Angus as a kid on his own is both a thing that Lucretia feels guilty about and a reminder to Taako of his own childhood, and being a kid with Lup.

K: And that was something that I really only scratched the surface of here, because I think that feeling runs deep for Taako. And I think it’s not only why Taako winds up as the parental figure that he is in our timeline, but it’s also why he is so insistent on doing what he can to give Ango a normal life, or to somehow make up for the time Ango spent “alone,” so to speak. It’s hard to articulate, but Taako definitely feels a kinship with Ango in that way, and I think he is projecting some of his own feelings about his own hardships of childhood onto Lucretia? In the way that he blames her for… kind of many things lol. It’s something I want to explore separately later on, for sure.

E: Something that I’m noticing on re-read is that they have this common thread of “you’re the only person I can tell how shitty I know I am” — that might not be exactly it, but something in that neighborhood. That they look at themselves and think “I’m not a good person,” and everybody else is yeah yeah whatever, but they can say it to each other. Which is kinda fucked up, but interesting.

K: YES. I think for Taako it’s mostly “I can say I’m a shitty person to you because there’s very little shit that I could do that’s worse than what you did to me!” Which, yeah, fucked up and interesting lol. And for Lucretia, probably “You already know I’m a shitty person and are the first to tell me so, so I’ll say it anyway”?

E: I don’t think she means it to be calculated, but there’s definitely an aspect of “I’ll admit to it before you accuse me” on her part. I also sometimes see a bit of “you helped make me this shitty” from Taako. And for both of them, they feel like they’re comparing themselves to the people they see as whole-heartedly good, ie Magnus and Lup. (Having this set in Magnus’s yard turned out to be a hell of a thing.)

K: Yeah, I think Taako is a bit more calculated about it, but also I think he’s always been quicker to admit that he’s not really good. (Justin saying “Taako’s not a good person, though, Taako’s not a good person,” on air was like. A LOT to take in. But also, my qualms with Justin’s Canon are well known lol.) I don’t think Taako’s a bad person. I think I summed it up nicely through Kravitz in The Way We Really Are, where he basically says “we’re not good, we’re not bad, we just are.” I think Taako really needed to hear that, especially considering he is Constantly Comparing Himself to everyone else around him, and he honestly believes everyone around him is just… Good. Capital G Good. It’s hard not to compare yourself to your twin.

E: They both have this comparison thing that WOW do I relate to, and actually that circles all the way around back to the thing that was such a difficult editing experience: Trust or Forsake. It was sort of a sideways swerve in the conversation, but it’s such a good metaphor. That they’re both good at calculating the odds and thinking in a very pragmatic way, but then experience the feelings backlash later. They’re both coping with the “rush of shame”, as you put it.

K: I was about to say, I always seem to gravitate back to the robot world, with Taako’s “Am I the only pragmatist here?” and how that was the only time we ever saw him actively disagreeing with Lup. The fact that he was almost angry with her there really stuck with me, and subsequently how he conceded after and promised (with the rest of the team) not to get “scary” like that again. It stick with me, and because of that, it sticks with Taako. I think he feels guilty for a lot of stuff that he knows had to be done. And for that reason, he and Lucretia have a lot in common.

E: That’s one of the core theses of our work together, this commonality. And it’s always such a visceral pleasure to play on that in the interior monologue. Maybe most of all in the new things/good things bit? (Bringing in Kravitz always makes me cry.)

K: Any excuse to bring in Krav. And it was really nice for me to tie him in with a callback to one of your pieces (which you gifted to me!) that was also mentioned in Safe Way. We’ve done a lot of talking outside of our works about how the seven, but particularly Taako and Lucretia, didn’t wind up with the lives they expected, but they wound up with something new and good, and I think that’s a big part of how Taako arrives at his conclusion of “we can’t fix this but we can build something new, maybe.” He knows the power of these new good things, and perhaps the Newest and the Best thing is Kravitz.

E: As I’m thinking about this, and rereading that part in particular, I’m actually reminded of some personal conversations that we’ve had, and this conclusion that they get to resonates: there’s a lot of Bad Shit in the past, and we’re/they’re kind of broken, but there’s enough good now to keep going. Which is a pretty …….. weird? conclusion to end up at, but for me personally it’s oddly hopeful. That it’s better to keep trying than to give up.

K: For sure. I think part of what attracts me to Taako as a character is that he’s the embodiment of the “third option.” Like, no matter how much shit is absolutely fucked, he finds some way to break the game and get the hell out of dodge (and sometimes save the day. But only sometimes.) And I think despite the fact that he struggles so much afterwards (and… basically all of that is my own doing bc lol projecting on fic) he still manages to find a lot of good. It reminds me of a thing you tagged me in that said something like “you don’t have to be hopeful about the future, you just have to be curious enough about what could happen if you stick around” which really rang true for me personally. And for Taako, I think it’s almost a matter of “well, my life was buckwild enough so far, might as well see it through.” (The ravishing boyfriend is a plus, tho.)

E: And honestly, Kravitz’s presence in Taako’s life is something that Lucretia cherishes as well, not that she can take credit for it, obviously, but seeing him happy makes her feel a little better about how everything went down.

K: Absolutely, and I think that gratitude comes through in some small moments in both of our individual works, as early as To New Beginnings which I wrote in October (!) and perhaps even before that? But I feel like there’s this unspoken understanding, almost, between Kravitz and Lucretia (which also came through in Copper for Your Thoughts, in a way) that I think comes with the territory of being the wise characters they are, always laden with such gravitas lol.

E: To zag on you: THE TEA? (which, actually, I’ve never had rose tea, I don’t think? But you made it a Lucretia thing in To New Beginnings at least, and it crossed over into this continuity.) This is another “third option” that changed the whole thing, and I love it.

K: Hah, I never even thought about the symbolic “third option” for tea. (There’s a lot of threes with these three, lol.) Rose tea tastes how roses smell, and it’s weird, but I’m kind of into it? It just always felt like a Lucretia thing to me. BUT YEAH THE TEA, I was having him transmute the juice into tea and I was gonna have him make rose tea, but he already did that in Safe Way, so I was sitting there musing for a minute and thought, oh, what if they had Magnus’s tea? (Oolong, if you’re playing along at home.) And then it hit me: oh, I don’t even know what kind of tea Taako drinks, because he’s always making two cups of whatever the other person wants, which I then raised to you outside of the doc, which then we were both just kinda like “oh… fuck… that’s a thing now” lol.

But I do want to go a little deeper into that, bc I think about it a lot, how Taako isn’t good at saying how he feels. This is known. And that’s another aspect that draws me to him, because wow, fucking same. I used to have quite a knack for naming my emotions, and then somewhere along the line I kind of lost that. And it’s not just about the negative. It’s absolutely a Thing to have a hard time showing people how you feel positively. And I think a lot about that in my own life and have done musing on “love languages” and all that jazz and I think for Taako, he does that in really subtle ways. Doing little things that he almost hopes people won’t even notice. He doesn’t want that “aw that’s so sweet” reaction. He just wants to make that person feel good and move on— which is quite different from the showboating Taako from TV. It’s an interesting contradiction that was so nice to be able to explore so naturally here. Lucretia’s spent a century with him and it hits her all at once that she’s never had the tea he likes, because he’s always taking part in hers. It’s so meaningful and says so much about him. (And maybe he’s not as Bad as he thinks.)

E: And she absolutely notices, first with the mugs — which AAAAAAAAAH the Moon’s Best Director mug, please — because it’s such a little detail that shows that he’s paying attention to her and to her relationship with Magnus, and then the tea and what that means. Again: trust. That she’s going to not try to protect herself or hide from him, she’s going to trust that she can be open and let what happens happen. Ok, I also have to say, we haven’t talked much about the actual process of writing, but the part where Taako says he’s sorry, I read that in the grocery store and then I just wandered the aisles in a daze for like 10 minutes trying to even figure out her response. (In the vein of “leaning into the feeling”, that sound that might’ve been oh or no was literally me in the frozen food aisle.) But they pull back from that brink so quickly! And I think what we’re both noticing in really digging into this again is how actually unresolved it is.

K: I am a big fan of Observant Taako, who cares very deeply but won’t admit it. Even if he’s not in a good place with Lucretia, I think at this point he’s moved forward for his own sake and everyone else’s sake enough that he can appreciate that she makes Magnus happy, and at least that much they will always have in common.

But um, yeah, that apology. It’s loaded, and it’s (appropriately) multi-dimensional. I had Taako feeling sorry during Safe Way, and not understanding why, and not being able to say it. And so here, he feels it again, and he’s ready to say it, but he still doesn’t know why. And it partially comes from a personal place, but it also comes from a lack of emotional literacy when Taako is taking stock of his own feelings? It’s a complicated apology that (you pointed this out, really) he thinks is surface-level for the emotional distress this conversation caused (re: “you spooked me” etc) but in reality it’s more than that. But the rest might be [redacted] here bc I’d like to explore that more in later installments. But yeah, the way they wrap up is… more unresolved than I ever realized? Like reading this back, they didn’t talk about half the shit they brought up, they kind of just threw it out into the arena. Which, for Taako, is more of a “well nothing else is gonna budge til I talk to Lup” thing.

E: In a way, it’s good to see how everything is still so half-formed, because it resonates so nicely as we get into [redacted]. It makes some of the interpersonal weirdness? unevenness? that comes out make actually a lot more sense. Also, if I may say it again for the Nth time: THESE CHUCKLEFUCKS.

#taz fic #my fic #writing about writing #actual tag: these chucklefucks #fwiw writing this influenced a scene we just worked on #so yay us?

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serendipitous-magic · 4 years

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when you were talking about stylistic influences, you said that you found it hard to do comedy. would you mind elaborating on that? i also find that there's very little writing that makes me LOL, and most of what does is fanfic. have you seen comedy done well in writing (novels, fic, etc.)? how do you approach it yourself? (btw fwiw i think your comedic sense is great)

Writing comedy is like writing a sex scene. You have to maintain tension. Except, I find comedy 200% harder, because with sex scenes you can rely on physicality. It’s a momentum built on what and how the character feels. There’s expectation and payoff, just like with comedy - except, in comedy, the payoff often hinges on surprise. A reversal of expectations - or, if not a reversal, simply something you didn’t expect. A huge amount of comedy is made up of the unexpected. We laugh because we’re taken off guard.

Ex:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D61dV18TNE

Ex:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBJU9ndpH1Q

Ex:

Ex:

Now, not all humor is based on shock or Wacky Zany Unexpectedness, but I would argue that all humor relies on a sort of momentum, a tension. It’s something you have to actively keep up throughout the duration of however long the humor is supposed to last - and if you’re writing a comedy, that’s the whoooole thing. It’s performative, in a way. You can’t create comedy passively, even if part of the humor relies on silence or expectant pauses; you have to be engaged, start to finish. It takes a lot of creative energy, even for people who have a gift or passion for it.

And moreover, even for people with a natural gift for comedy, it’s a skill. You get better at it when you practice. There are rhythms and shortcuts and rules of thumb.

I would say this may be especially true when you’re writing, because (unless you’re working with a co-writer), writing is just you. If you’re an actor or performer you have your co-stars to play off of; or, at the very least, you likely have an audience. Humans naturally feed off of each other’s emotional states. We’re herd animals. Ever noticed how it’s 1000% easier to laugh when you’re around friends than when you’re alone? For me, it’s even much easier to laugh when I’m listening to a podcast or watching a video than when I’m reading, because hearing human voices tricks my brain into thinking, “Oh, it’s Social Time!”

I personally find writing pure comedy difficult because it’s just me, sitting alone in a room typing words on a screen. However, I also haven’t done much comedy, and like I said it’s a practicable skill, so I’m sure I’d get better at it if I made a real effort to practice.

Comedy well done in novels:

Douglas Adams! Especially The Hitchhiker’s Guide series. Classic touchstone of literary comedy in my opinion.

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.”

“For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.”

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

Terry Pratchett also does a great job at humor - I especially enjoyed his team-up with Neil Gaiman for Good Omens:

“All tapes left in a car for more than about a fortnight metamorphose into Best of Queen albums.”

“Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft are written by men.”

“The Kraken stirs. And ten billion sushi dinners cry out for vengeance.”

They also do a fantastic job with situational humor, such as Crowley’s car being on fire and the one random guy giving directions completely ignoring it because he’s like “Well, surely he must know his car is on fire.”

Rick Riordan:

“Ever come home and found your room messed up? Like some helpful person (hi, Mom) has tried to “clean” it, and suddenly you can’t find anything? And even if nothing is missing, you get that creepy feeling like somebody’s been looking trough your private stuff and dusting everything with lemon furniture polish?”

“I’ve met plenty of embarrassing parents, but Kronos, the evil Titan Lord who wanted to destroy Western Civilization? Not the kind of dad you invited to school for Career Day.”

“He’d changed since the last summer. Instead of Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, he wore a button-down shirt, khaki pants, and leather loafers. His sandy hair, which used to be so unruly, was now clipped short. He look like an evil male model, showing off what the fashionable college-age villain was wearing to Harvard this year.”

“We only came close to dying six or seven times which I thought was pretty good. A minute later Annabeth hit a slippery patch of moss and her foot slipped. Fortunately she found something else to put it against. Unfortunately that something was my face.”

J.K. Rowling:

I love me a smart-ass narrator.

“This is night, Diddykins. That's what we call it when it goes all dark like this.”

“Lee Jordan was finding it difficult not to take sides. 'So — after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating —' 'Jordan!' growled Professor McGonagall. 'I mean after that open and revolting foul —' 'Jordan, I'm warning you —' 'All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession.”

-_-_-_-

I’m having trouble finding the funniest quotes, but y’all know what I’m talking about.

As far as how I approach it myself:

Well, see the top up there. (Waaaaay up there before my whole lecture, lol.) If I’m trying to write something humorous, I approach it from an angle of momentum or energy. Keep up a kind of tension, even if the scene itself is fairly laid-back, and play on unexpectedness - sometimes situational, sometimes in phrasing or dialogue. A snarky narrator is always a good way to add an edge.

Basically, if I’m trying to be funny in my writing, I write as if I’m joking around with a group of friends - the group of friends being my audience. Same ballpark. Reference inside jokes (which were established earlier in the story), play on repetition and reversal of expectations, joke around about “relatable” things (much of early meme humor relied on this), be sarcastic or dry or exaggerated as the situation calls for. Even if there’s no one really there and I’m just typing words on a page, I find it much easier to approach humor if I come at it from a perspective of kidding around with my audience and having fun with them, instead of just sitting by myself at my desk writing words.

Well that was kind of all over the place but hopefully it answered your questions!

I should start a consistent tag for these asks where I accidentally write long-winded essays on how I write.

#asks #anon #writing #my writing #humor #comedy #gwen talks about writing

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astrologista · 5 years

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so that was An Episode.

SPOILERS SPOILERS MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN S3E1 THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING

i’m sorry but i have to write these down right now before the thoughts go out my mind. i swear to my lord i it’s 4:17am and i’m compromised here we go

where do i even START.

so cass. that was definitely. not what i expected. or what i wanted, really. i feel that this origin is somewhat low-hanging fruit in my opinion just based on the context of how it was explained and cass’s positioning within the narrative. at the same time i completely understand it, and it was executed very well and heartbreakingly. the song was in-cred-i-ble. and tbh i’m glad they got the heck out of the dark kingdom so quickly, because it would have crippled the ep time-wise for them to stay even a few seconds longer.

adira is 100% going after cass now and nothing can change my mind

i imagine edmund will prolly team up with adira

HERE’S THE THING THOUGH HERE’S WHERE I GO OFF

when they showed that emblem of saporia, i honestly freaking thought they were gonna give us the ol’ tee-hee again and that we weren’t going to see any varian in this ep.

well.

i am glad to be wrong. because DAYUM.

varian has a beautiful new outfit. it’s like a steampunk cosplayer with sort of a pirate alchemist motif. it’s really nice. he’s got some thanos gloves and this amazing little bandanna he wears that has a print of an evil looking smile with sharp teeth. very fitting for him.

he also had a goatee which i in my infinite hubris actually thought was like a real goatee that he had somehow grown lol because puberty. but actually he just scribbled it on his face with a marker. that’s such a varian thing a ha. WHY’S HE SO CUTE

so andrew said they were CELLIES OH GOD I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT. if that’s true it means king frederic threw him in gen pop jail. good goin’ fred.

now quite honestly i never thought that varian is the type to team up with other villains. and i was right, because he did have his own plan going and was ready to betray his whole gang as soon as he felt like it. but it does seem like andrew was super playing into varian’s affection-starved side lol and was doing a BAD job of trying to play big brother. like. he tried it lol. and i need to know more about this. i’m hoping to god more will be revealed.

varian named his new compound quirinium. so now no one will ever forget.

but oh wait. actually everyone’s gonna forget. because his plan is to pump out gas to literally make everyone forget everything he’s ever done because he’s got a GUILT COMPLEX THIS CHILD HAS A GUILT COMPLEX THE SIZE OF TEXAS Y’ALL

and i know i missed a bunch of details and i have to go back over it but now i understand. I UNDERSTAND NOW AND I’M SO SAD... the way he was listing off offenses on his fingers it’s like. he must have had a long time to think it over and he’s been rolling each one of those around in his mind for basically months. we need a flashback. give us a flashback.

i’m 99% sure the group of saporians hanging out with andrew are commies and also possibly meth addicts and i don’t think they’re a great influence on varian. not just because they’re villains but because they’re so low-tier he’s beyond them really. i get the sense he could do better.

i really honestly wanted this arc to happen... slower. i wanted there to be more time, more of an organic change, more of everything. but how it turned out, i’m glad. varian is a variable character, and just as quickly as he can turn villainous, so too can he turn to the light, as long as there’s someone there who cares about him. he still don’t give a darn about morality, he just happens to be on the side of good again? yay?

someone needs to cap that scene when they’re in the jail cell and varian is just sitting there looking like a sad, kicked puppy because that shit gave me a Feel.

when lance wiped off that magic marker goatee all of my crops were miraculously watered. oh varian.

and then i watched it again and became sad because he just looks so shocked and then DEPRESSED like “well. there is goes. what’s left of my manhood. gone in an instant. it’s over” also i think he looked a tad scared of lance because. he’s a big guy. who reminds him of his dad

don’t TALK to me about how sad he looked when eugene didn’t trust him oh MY GOD eugene i know this kid almost killed several people... and kidnapped the queen and went berserk... but like. look at him. how can you not trust him. he wants to be trusted. TRUST HIM EUGENE

by the way speaking of TRUST oh my GOD. HE REALLY WANTED THEM TO TRUST HIM AGAIN TO THE POINT WHERE HE WAS WILLING TO ERASE EVERYONE’S MEMORIES. varian. baby. you don’t go around erasing peoples memories to reinstate your social standing in the community. whatchu doin. i think we established that mass mind control is a big no-no

RAPUNZEL COMPLETELY TRUSTED HIM SHE IS PURE. SHE IS PURE.

blah blah some action scene with some cute/funny moments

varian be making BATH BOMBS good god. lush could never. someone get on manufacturing those for purchase.

where the F IS RUDDIGER OH MY GOD

ANDREW WENT IN FOR THE KILL LOL DISNEY. y’know FOR KIDS. but seriously this cements my hatred of andrew/hubert forever and ever. amen. not only is he a d-bag, he also tried to kill a kid. a kid who trusted him to some extent. nice

VARIAN ACTUALLY TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR SOMETHING. i’m gonna cry. he’s BECOMING A MAN. proud of him.

and THEN i freaked it. because um. YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH.

so i honest to god was NOT prepared for quirin in this episode. i was not at all prepared. i was gearing myself up for that close to or in the finale. but no. no they hit us right in the FACE, friends. they simply did not wait.

yknow i could say i wish they had extended this scene, and i do, because it could have used a little more, but the way it was executed was REAL GOOD like i LIKE liked it. i have 2 think it over a little bit more but quirin’s VA did THE MOST too. he was GOOD you can really hear the emotion in his voice and i’m crying now ha ha

oh yeah btw VARIAN JUST HEARD EXACTLY WHAT HE’S ALWAYS WANTED TO HEAR and that makes me sad in a way because to me, that essentially completes his arc. he will appear in more episodes but his arc is like, done because QUIRIN SAID THE THING! THE THING! AAHHHHHHHH HE SAID THE THIIIIIIING

he said the thing

and also i’m kinda glad that they didn’t wait any longer to yknow. free him. varian’s been jailed for a long time at this point and it’s just not good for him to make him wait any longer. HE NEEDS HIS DAD AAAAAAAAHHH

as an aside, i’m 99.9% sure that that note said WAY more than just “i’m proud of u son” but quirin was NOT up to having that convo in that scene so he just made shit up lol. good ol quirin still lying as usual lol. but this leaves something to be said here because VARIAN STILL DOESN’T KNOW THAT HIS FATHER WAS A FREAKIN GENERAL IN AN ARMY THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY HELLO???? hello.

in closing i am so glad varian & quirin showed up for that last song because it looks like they may actually be getting re-integrated into the community and none too surprisingly, it didn’t look like any coronans were going for varian’s throat. because he’s paid his debt to society. he’s good now. he learned that you always win when you are good. or something. idk about how they left this. the end of this ep really feels like the end of s3 except. we still have a whole freaking season ahead of us. and the main lingering plot point other than the king and queen’s memory loss is cassandra. because andrew & co. are jailed, remember?

this episode is full of plot holes some of which will be addressed in this season and some of which we will never receive full disclosure for. i understand why they did it, and fwiw the way this episode was implemented in EXECUTION is VERY satisfying to me and i enjoyed it like a LOT. but at the same time a lot of people are gonna be crying foul about wanting to see a more developed varian arc and cassandra’s origin and what was going on with varian and andrew and uhmygod. this is too much for me to process and it is now 3 minutes to 5am, and i need to get in a 30 minute nap before a full work week. so i have to end it here but i am NOT done talking about this you guys.

i know the storyline for this season was set in advance but something about this episode makes me feel like they made a few adjustments based on things people said? that’s probably not the case but idk i wouldn’t mind if it was.

so in short, 10/10 great episode you guys. it all really happened. tune in tomorrow for more. ahhh

#tangled the series spoilers #tts spoilers #rta spoilers #tangled spoilers #tangled the series #what in the h #i'm beyond it right now. im truly transcendent. what just happened to me

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dreampalacepress · 6 years

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Some Tips for Writing Romance

So, here are my tips:

MAKE SURE YOUR CHARACTERS ARE REAL PEOPLE FIRST.

Not cardboard cutouts. Develop them into real characters first, preferably likable people. Preferably ones whom readers want to succeed, not die because they’re too stupid to live. Having characters that the reader wants to read about ensures that they will stick with the book through any rough patches.

There’s a strong tendency to have the lone wolf alpha male and the perfect (skinny) female who doesn’t know how beautiful she is*, but you might want to consider changing it up a bit. Instead try the alpha male’s sidekick who’s nice to his mother and has four boxers because he works at a dog rescue in his spare time. He doesn’t even have to have a tortured soul.

(*Although yes, I KNOW the alpha male sells, and if that’s your thing, you can still write it.)

–

HAVE THEM REALIZE THERE’S A POSSIBILITY OF A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP.

You need to go slowly enough that there’s a moment when each realizes that there might be a relationship building: more than just friendship or, depending on what you’re writing, more than just sex. These realizations can come at different times in the story. Statistically, men tend to fall in love faster, so it might be more realistic to have the male POV think in terms of love first, then the woman (but beware of him turning into a creepy stalker and turning off your readers. Ew.)

These things don’t have to take up pages and pages of time, but putting in that realization into at least a sentence or two makes a sharp division between a realistic romance and instaluv*. In addition, it can be sidestepped by building in a relationship in the past–they were best friends in high school, they dated in college, but married the wrong people. However, if these characters have just met for the first time, they need some time to build up to having a relationship.

(*Although yes, I KNOW instaluv still sells, and if that’s your thing, you can still write that.)

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HAVE ONE OR BOTH PUT OUT FEELERS TO GAUGE THE OTHER’S INTEREST…

…AND THEN MAKE A CONNECTION

This is one of the best parts: the first date, the first talk, the first kiss, the first waltz. Savor it.

It’s not the most important part of the novel, but for readers of Romance, this is often the part they’ll go back and reread over and over.

It may not be the kiss, it may be that moment when she reaches out a hand and brushes back a bit of his hair, the moment his hand touches his lover’s over a ripe mango in the kitchen, the moment in the hospital where she’s holding her best friend’s hand and they both realize that they’re more than friends.

This is about reaching out and being rewarded with a connection. The reader’s been WAITING for that connection to happen, and it doesn’t have to be sex or a proposal or even touching. The important part is the emotional connection.

–

FALLING IS LOVE IS NOT EASY

Remember, the saying is not staying balanced in love, it is falling, losing your self to love. So, if you are in the early stages of falling in love right now, and you feel a little crazy, don’t worry, you kind of are. You are under the influence of your hormones that are making you feel, all at once, euphoric, endangered, and exhausted. —Psychology Today

That ENDANGERED is important. Both characters are putting themselves into a trust fall with another individual. If they’ve known each other a long time, this is easier. If they’re new to each other, it’s scary. Especially for the females in the equation. Either party in the new relationship can be hiding things from the other.

That can be born from a sense of fear that the other won’t accept the hidden factor. That hammer toe that grosses everyone out? That horrible scar he’s hiding, physical or emotional? That crazy ex who might drop by at any minute? All of those things can endanger the fragile new relationship.

And no, the participants are not at their most stable, so it might not hurt to have them reflect on the fact that X is SO out of character for them. (Or have a friend comment.)

FWIW, this endangerment is huge in the Romance genre, where we have–about 3/4 of the way through most books–the Black Moment. Where the thing has happened that will split up the fragile relationship. So look for that sense of endangerment, because it makes for a better final act.

–

MAKE CONSENT CLEAR…

Not everyone will agree with this, but as a writer, I feel it’s part of my job to model healthy relationships. This is my stance. I would like everyone in the world to adopt it, to have their characters verbally agree that this is the time for a relationship, that this is the time for a kiss, that this is the time for sex.

So if you want readers to see characters who are behaving in a morally responsible way toward their potential partners, write it. Make sure you include clear language that says both of your characters want to continue on this path, that they’re emotionally committed to the next step. And clear language when they want to say NO, also.

(Personally, I like my characters to have talked in terms of possible children as well, since that’s a consideration in many romantic relationships. And depending on the time frame, perhaps they should also talk about protection against STDs. Including condom use is pretty common in Contemporary Romance these days.)

Communicate, people.

–

…BUT SEX IS NOT A REQUIREMENT.

I actually mean this two ways. IF there is sex during the time spanned in your novel, you can choose whether or not to ‘show’ it to the reader. You can ‘fade to black’ if you’re not comfortable writing those scenes.

Personally, I’m not. My characters usually kiss a little, engage in a little foreplay, discuss whether they’re going further, and then I fade out. There are exceptions, but generally I have a reason for showing the sex. (Forex, when I show the sex in the Horn series, it’s largely because with the two main characters being ‘sensitives’, it changes the dynamic, and I still don’t go into detail.)

In my view, what’s the most important is the part is where they commit to going all the way.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Once the emotional impact of that moment happens, what remains…is an action scene. AN ACTION SCENE. (Think about it, you’ll get there in a moment.)

Additionally, characters do not need to be having sex at all. Not all couples bump and grind their way through their relationships. One may be incapable for one reason or another. They may have more of a meeting of the minds. One of them may be asexual. Or both of them.

–

COMMITMENT

If you’re writing a Romance of a book with a Romantic Subplot, this usually comes near the end. We usually tie up the romance part of the show with an HEA (Happily Ever After) and an HFN (Happy For Now). Both require that there is some sort of commitment to work on the relationship. Not always marriage. Sometimes there’s a more complex thing going on.

Either way, your HEA/HFA has to make sense. If your characters have not resolved their issues (ENDANGERMENT), then the HEA/HFN might not work. Does she still live on Mars and he still lives on Earth? Did they have to move in with his ex? Will she still not tell him that secret? Then a declaration that they will live Happily Ever After will fall flat.

The HFN is more common when we have a series, with more books coming up. In those cases you can still have unresolved issues. (Are we Okay? Yeah, we’re okay.) It’s not a perfect relationship, but they’re committed to working on the issues.

FWIW, I ended my first book without either, which I’m sure some people hated, but it WAS part of a series.

All of the above are just my opinion, as a writer of non-Romance stories that often have a romantic subplot. Just about every other writer who includes Romance in their work will have other ideas, possibly better ideas than mine.

Go forth and write romance. Or Romance. If you want to.

#romance #writing advice

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