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graceshouldwrite · 10 months

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The Most Powerful Hack to Make Your Readers Cry

You’ve seen it all: show, don’t tell, plant a visceral image in the reader’s brain of the environment/character, write a complex character arc with lots of growth and setbacks, establish deep relationships, high stakes, etc.

All the advice for making readers cry I’ve seen so far is basically that list. But, while those things are absolutely important, I find that the thing that always does the trick, whether as a tipping point or in and of itself, is this:

THE CALLBACK!

Before we move on, this is an ANALYSIS heavy post, so all the book + show examples contain spoilers!!

So, what do I mean by a “callback?” Think of Chekhov’s gun, but, here, you use the gun to pierce your reader’s heart. As a refresher for anyone who needs it, Chekhov’s gun is just a rule in writing that anything you introduce in the book should play some role in the plot.

Specifically, the name comes from the example that if a reader introduces a gun in the first act, it MUST go off later, (maybe, say, in the third act). For example, in the TV show Breaking Bad, the protagonist Walter White prepares a vial of poison (ricin) that he wanted to use to eliminate an opponent early on in the series. After the assassination attempt falls through, the ricin makes an appearance again in the very last episode of the show, when Walt finally uses it to kill another opponent.

Got that? Alright, onto the examples of successful, tearjerking callbacks:

1. The Last Olympian (Rick Riordan); “Family, Luke, you promised.”

Context: The character Annabeth says this line. Years ago, Annabeth had run away from home, and Luke had effectively adopted her into a found family with another kid named Thalia. Common reason for leaving home = parental trauma! Yay! He promised Annabeth that they would be each other’s “family” from now on.

Now: Kronos, the antagonist titan, has possessed the demigod Luke and uses his body to strike Annabeth, injuring her. She’s also holding a dagger that Luke had given her when she joined his “family.”

Significance: her words + the dagger are a mental + physical reminder to Luke of his promise. They force him to recognize the sheer degree of his current betrayal by bringing him back to a different time. The fact that their found family only happened because of parental trauma bringing them together makes it worse—Luke felt abandoned by his Olympian father, Hermes. Now, he realizes that he basically did the equivalent to Annabeth by joining the titans.

2. Les Miserables (Victor Hugo); Jean Valjean’s death

Context: At the beginning of the book, the bishop had caught Valjean trying to steal candlesticks to sell. Instead of handing him over to the police, the bishop told the police that he had given them to Valjean, saving him from arrest and showing him mercy. This changed his life forever, kickstarting his character redemption arc.

Now: Jean Valjean dies surrounded by his loved ones, remembered as a benevolent man who bettered thousands of lives. He’s surrounded by light from candlesticks that once belonged to a bishop.

Context: Valjean had once taken in an impoverished woman named Fantine, showing her mercy and promising to take care of her daughter, Cosette, after Fantine died. Valjean then rescued Cosette from abusive quasi-foster parents (it’s a long story), raising her as his own daughter. This furthered his arc by allowing him to finally understand how unconditionally loving someone feels.

Now: Valjean describes Fantine to Cosette, who never knew her mother.

Significance: Both examples throw readers back to much earlier points in the story before the completion of Valjean’s character arc. In a way, this final scene feels like an external manifestation of his kindness paying off; both he and the reader feels a sense of accomplishment, relief, and just a general “OMG WE MADE IT.” Readers don’t feel cheated, because they were with Valjean every step of his 1,400 page arc. The weight of it all just crashes down on you...

3. Your Lie in April (anime); Kaori’s letter after she dies

Context: Kaori’s entire plot significance is that she helps Kousei, a piano prodigy who can’t play piano anymore due to traumatic parental memories associated with it, play again—but also, just to help him enjoy life again after a turbulent upbringing. She meets him a year before she dies of a medical condition, and her free spirit + confidence influences him to find beauty in life and music again. They basically do a crap ton of crazy funny stuff together lol

Now: Kaori has died, and she leaves a letter to him. Among other general confessions and thoughts, she references things they did and memories they shared: she says, “sorry we couldn’t eat all those canelés,” reminisces about jumping with him off a small bridge into the stream below, “racing each other alongside the train,” singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as they rode the bike together, etc.

Significance: Yes, the nature of the letter is just sad because she’s revealing that she loved him all along, apologizing for not being able to spend more time with him, lying that she didn’t like him (to spare his feelings b/c she knew she would die soon), etc. BUT, these small details highlight exactly how many experiences they shared, and the depth of their relationship. Thus, they emphasize the significance of her death and the emptiness it leaves behind.

4. Arcane (show); “I thought, maybe you could love me like you used to, even though I’m different.”

Context: Character Jinx says this in the last episode to her now estranged older sister, Vi. Without going into the crazy complex plot, basically, orphans Vi and Jinx used to care for each other before a bunch of crap went down that got them separated. They then grew up on opposite political sides; Jinx grows up on the side of the underbelly city rebellion, and Vi grows up working on the side of the richer city that essentially oppresses the undercity. Thus begins the development of their opposing viewpoints and work environments, to the point where they always meet on opposite sides of a political battle, never able to come together as a family or understand each other again.

Now: After a super dramatic confrontation, Jinx reveals that although she wants Vi to love her like she did before their separation, she knows it’s not possible because “[Vi] changed too.” She finishes with, “so, here’s to the new us” before blowing up a political council meeting a few blocks down filled with people Vi sides with. Oops! This cleanly seals the fate of their relationship as something basically irreparable.

Significance: This callback isn’t through literal flashbacks or items like in the previous examples. Jinx’ lines are enough to bring back images of their childhood to the audience’s mind. Now, the audience subconsciously places this image of: 1) two sisters so different, hurt, and torn apart, right next to 2) the image of two sisters as innocent children who loved each other and would care for each other no matter what.

Why do callbacks work so well?

If you’ve noticed something in common with all of them, you’re right: they remind audience of a time BEFORE the characters have come so far on their arcs, developed, and put on so much more emotional baggage.

Callbacks force the audience to SUDDENLY and IMMEDIATELY feel the weight of everything that’s happened. The character’s anguish and overwhelming emotions become the audience’s in this moment. Callbacks are a vehicle for the juxtaposition of worlds, before and after significant development.

This works because we, as mortals, fear IMPERMANENCE the most. We fear LOSS. For us, time gone is time we will never get back; callbacks make us face that exact fact through a fictional character. A lost moment, time period, or even part of oneself may hurt as much as losing a loved one, and nothing makes humans grieve more than the realization of a loss. A callback slaps the audience in the face with the fact that something was lost; loss hurts so much because almost 99% of the time, what’s gone is gone forever.

Of course, a good callback requires good previous character development, stakes, imagery, and all that jazz, but I thought I’d highlight this specifically because of how under covered it is.

∘₊✧────── ☾☼☽ ──────✧₊∘

instagram: @ grace_should_write

I’ve been binging general media lately: I finished Death Note, Your Lie in April, and Tokyo Ghoul all within like a month (FIRST ANIMES I”VE EVER WATCHED!!), reread lots of Les Miserables, analyzed a bunch of past shows like Breaking Bad, watched a bunch of My Little Pony, worked to fix up my old writing... and that’s not even all! The amount of times I’ve CRIED while enjoying the above media and so much more honestly just inspired this post.

Like, no joke, my eyes were almost always swollen during this period whenever I hung out with my friends and it was so embarrassing help

Personally, I just find that this method works super well for me, and I watched a bunch of reaction videos to these above scenes (and read book reviews on the book scenes I mentioned), and it seemed that just about everyone cried during these parts. That’s when I realizes that the callback might also just be a universal thing.

Anyway, this post is long and dense enough as is. SORRY! As always, hope this was helpful, and let me know if you have any questions by commenting, re-blogging, or DMing me on IG. Any and all engagement is appreciated <3333

Happy writing, and have a great day,

- grace <3

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sammypog · 2 months

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men in gothic literature are the ultimate master yappers

#‘i am by birth a genevese and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic🤓☝️’ ok victor let’s get to your pain and sufferin #also the like 20 pages where dorian gray just describes a bunch of random gemstones (???)#like yes thank you for this really useful and relevant information that is definitely a necessary plot point #(guys this is a joke i honestly find these kind of tangents in books charming)#frankenstein #the picture of dorian gray #gothic literature

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fromtheseventhhell · 4 months

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Sorry but Arya's assassination of the insurance man eats; the reluctance to carry out the plan until she knew he was a terrible person, the level of observation and her learning about his business + clients, being able to carry out a precise plan utilizing said knowledge, the display of her sleight of hand skills, her using what she's learned from the faceless men...starting to think people pearl-clutch over her so much because they know their fave could never

#arya stark #asoiaf #/my fave would never/ your fave literally couldn't even if they tried...next!🥱#Arya has one of the most diverse skillsets in the books but constantly gets regulated to a bodyguard and that's crazy #she's in the final stages of her training arc and twow WILL be showcasing what she's learned #and y'all are gonna be pissy (+ shocked) when her plot has her navigating braavosi politics 🤷🏾‍♀️#but also her killing terrible men is always going to eat and I hope she does it more in the next book! death to predators!#I fully support everything Arya and Dany have ever done and will ever do

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captainkirkk · 20 days

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When I started writing 'lessons in tea making', I set out to make it a longfic that following ATLA Book 2 and 3 in its entirety but now its been almost 5 years and I'm realising that I'm probably never going to get around to finishing this monster of a wip

HOWEVER, I do have around 15k of chapter 2 collecting dust in my google drive so.... what's everyone's opinion on authors uploading (signposted) unfinished chapters....

#i can admit that the plot at the end of book 2 spiraled entirely out of control #it's the wall i will never be able to scale and i need to admit defeat #i have some of chapter 2 written but i also don't want to ruin chapter 1 for everyone #so.. thoughts??#my posts #ficblogging #i'm usually strictly a one-shot writer #for a REASON #every time i get the urge to write longfic i have to remind myself that that's the devil talking #because the attempt will likely fail and kill me in the process #authors who effortlessly write 100k fics..... who did you sell your soul to and can you give me their number

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writeouswriter · 25 days

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*banging fists on table* more mentally ill characters in stories that aren't just about them being mentally ill! More mentally ill characters in sci-fi, in fantasy, in romance and fun and high stakes situations and everything in between, as the heroes, as complex individuals, multifaceted and treated with respect, not having their needs and differences ignored or skirted around but, again, not having them be their only trait or plot point/entire premise! Please, I'm begging, on my hands and knees, there's a place for these topics and characters in realistic, reflective and literary fiction, yeah, but there's also a place in those magical, mystical, action packed, mysterious and alien worlds, give them to ME

#books #mental illness #mentally ill characters #writing #writeblr #not so much a problem with writers here but in books and such in general it's an impossible search #because you try and look up books with mentally ill protags and it's giving you either 1. the worst horror rep you've seen in your life #2. secondhand inspiration or pity p*rn #3. just irl biographical or realistic literary fiction which is not what i'm looking for at the present #4. either complete hollow cardboard tokenism or just barely true hc or etc.#&god forbid you try to find a character with psych*sis w/o it giving you killers or big plot twists where it was in their head all along 😑#like i just i want a funky scientist studying aliens who happens to be b*polar #i want a fantasy adventurer or ghost hunter or etc who happens to be sch*zospec is that so much to ask 😔#bizarrely hard to find male protags in this category as well? if you do have recs for scientists in fiction like this hmu 👀#anyway and yeah yeah yeah write what you want to read I'M TRYING #i have all these guys i have this funky scientist but i have the illnesses™️ as well such is the world #so i want something to read or see like... now

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bonefall · 2 months

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Divorce was right around the corner...

Team of writers that thought it was romantic when Clear Sky was attracted to Star Flower because of traits he was grooming into his child: "The emotionally unstable boy who is unable to reflect on his own behavior and makes impulsive decisions is the best version of himself with an enabler who has a repeated problem with telling people no."

#Writers what the FUCK do you think is normal???#MISS HUNTER.....#So i WAS right when i identified at the fucking start of the series that they should break up #WAIT.#fuCK... DOES THIS MEAN THEY CHANGE THEIR PLOTS MID BOOK??????????#DO THEY REALLY FUCJING WRITE THEM ON THE FLY???#DO THEY NOT HAVE OUTLINES FOR THE ENTIRE ARC?#OH NO.... OH NONONO #i dont rewrite the arcs until theyre done but please fuck please god i need to find some way to wrench night out of TC #How can i get your rusty butt into riverclan asap

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writingwithfolklore · 2 years

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Your Plot Will Always Have Holes

My stories always have holes. I used to get so frustrated with the fact that almost all of it worked except one or two points that just didn’t quite line up. Then I’d replan/rewrite and something else wouldn’t fit, or the problem couldn’t be solved without completely changing the narrative.

I’ve come to accept that stories will always have plot holes—that they’ll never quite work perfectly. The good news is, readers also know this, and they don’t care.

We can talk endlessly about “why didn’t character A just blah” or “how did the antagonist figure this out” or any other little problem your plot has—or we can suspend our disbelief and just enjoy the story. Often that’s what I find myself doing for others’ stories, and what I hope others will do for mine.

Plots are big, tangled, complicated things with a lot of moving parts. The chances that everything will tick just right is pretty low. I think as long as the story isn’t completely falling apart, you can get away with a few holes in your narrative. Just write a good story, one that you enjoy, and it’ll be enough.

Good luck!

#writing #writers #writing tips #writing advice #writing inspiration #creative writing #writing community #books #film #filmmaking #screenwriting #novel writing #fanfiction #plotting #plot holes #your plot will always have holes

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sonik-kun · 3 months

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"Jiang Cheng would have been involved in the attack on the Burial Mounds even without the death of sister"

For context, this all takes place AFTER JZX was killed. From JC's pov that was all 100% WWX's fault (bear in mind, WWX does have some culpability with his death. He lost control because of his unrestrained resentment for JZX. Sooo).

Was JC not supposed to do anything? Just sit there and twiddle his thumbs? Object to the siege entirely, perhaps? How do you think that would have looked to the rest of the CW? It would have been very suspicious if he didn't take part in eliminating a potential threat to the CW. Especially when said threat was once a part of his sect and KILLED his brother in law. Wouldn't they think it is strange that he refused to take part and get revenge on behalf of his sister??

If he did object or refused to take part, the rest of the CW would have grown even more suspicious of him. And the Jiang sect would have had a huuuuuuge target on their backs next. Especially giving how power hungry the Jins were becoming.

It was a very difficult situation he was put in. Not one he could easily talk his way out of. We've seen him try to numerous times even before things escalated to vouch for WWX and even once for the Wen siblings. And we all saw how that went down. Do you seriously think he could talk his way out of this one? After a sect heir had been slaughtered by his former SiC? Come on now.

All of this is why we see JC desparing so much because he is watching his brother spiral and spiral, and all he can do is watch on helplessly, for it is beyond his power to save him.

WWX kept so much from JC. He sided with the sect that almost wiped out his own and then goes on to inadvertently kill his brother in law. How do you think that must have looked to JC? How JC must have felt?? Let's be real here and look at things from his pov. Because I feel as though some of yall are failing to do so.

To JC, WWX had become unhinged and out of control. But even after the death of JZX, JC still seemed to desperately hold onto hope for his brother. He exclaims when he's holding his dying sister in his arms, "I thought you said you could control it?!"

That says to me that JC had faith in his brother that he could fix all this up until JYL was caught up in it all.

If you look at things from JC's pov, you'll see how bad things looked for WWX. How culpable he appeared throughout it all. And when you take that into consideration and realise that JC doesn't have all the information we as the reader are privileged to have, we can easily see why he came to such a conclusion.

It was either WWX or the lives of hundreds in his sect. JC chose to protect the many. And that doesn't make him a terrible person. Nor does it make him a terrible brother. He did all he could for WWX. But to him, WWX had made his bed, and so he should lay in it.

#canon jiang cheng #jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #mxtx mdzs #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #the untamed #to be clear im not bashing wwx here #i obviously know he isnt 100% culpabale and was a victim in all this too #but failing to see jc as a victim in the whole mess is just failing to understand him and the plot im sorry #his pov is very important because it explains all of his reactions towards wwx when he returns from the dead #these highly crtical jc posts always seem to lack any context on regards to his character #and i think it's very disingenuous to withold the details in his character assessments #plus its doing the character a huge disservice #jc loved wwx and wwx loved jc #thats why the events in the book destroyed them so much and why jc found it difficult to let wwx go #stop taking away all these facts away from him just to spread your anti jc agenda #it's annoying and disingenuous af

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lagosbratzdoll · 7 months

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On Daenerys, Colonisation and Race Discourse within the ASOIAF Fandom

This has been on my mind for a good long while and honestly, as much as I would like to leave discourse in the pits, it has been bugging me intermittently over the past few weeks.

Far too many of you get on here and call people who like the fictional dragon-riding family, neo-Nazis and that sentiment is so prevalent, that white people feel comfortable telling me a black woman that I am a neo-Nazi for rooting for Daenerys Targaryen. I am upholding neo-Nazi power fantasies for wanting to see a little girl live at the end of a story. I am a neo-Nazi for wanting to see the rape survivor have the family she aches for and children with the man (or men) she loves.

Then, those same people go on spiels about how the systemic erasure of those who sing the song of the earth and other old races is not colonialism. That their removal from their home is not displacement but an agreement between two equal parties. The fact that the only place where those who sing the song of the earth exist in the present timeline is north of the wall, surrounded by the bones of their dead, is not a travesty. That the expulsion of the old races from their home isn't that bad and should not be condemned.

Instead, people argue, completely seriously, that the harm that the First Men and Andals have caused is centuries in the past, so essentially the slate has been wiped clean. The logical leaps that are required to arrive at such a boneheaded conclusion are truly mind-boggling, and those who make such arguments are not good people.

I am unsure how one could read those books and come away with the impression that the old races do not mourn the loss of their home. I am unsure how one could read The Last of the Giants[1] and Ygritte’s reaction to both the song and Jon’s dismissal of the ethnic cleansing of the giants then believe that the old races and the free folk have moved past their displacement.

In Westeros, from the Wall to the broken arm of Dorne, they all speak one language despite the fact they are all different ethnicities and they all landed on the shores at different times. That is not the case in Essos, we have been introduced to at least six languages and in A Dance with Dragons, Tyrion notes that the Valyrian spoken in the Free Cities has evolved into nine distinct dialects, and they are well on their way to becoming different languages.

How would a continent as large and diverse as Westeros maintain its hegemony over the people if not for forced assimilation, discriminatory practices and violence? The brutal repression required to keep one house in power for thousands of years is nothing to sniff at. The suppression required to keep the vast majority of Westeros worshipping one (or seven) gods. The systems in place ensure that language does not grow or evolve amongst the highborns at least.

Centuries before Aegon's Landing the maesters were the definitive educational authority and even now centuries after, nothing has changed. The grey rats still decide who learns what and when they learn it. There's one in every highborn home, all correspondence passes through them, they are the healers and the councillors.

The circular logic gets even more blockheaded when you factor in the fact that Daenerys is far from the only white character in the books. She is not the only character who wishes for home. She is not the only character who draws strength from her ancestors, her bloodline and her magical creatures.

Cersei draws strength from her family’s iconography, and the Stark children (Jon included) all draw strength from their direwolves, their home and their blood. Sansa, Arya and Bran wish to return home and their home was built on the indiscriminate murder and displacement of the indigenous peoples. Their home is built on centuries of rape, murder, exclusionary practices and sexual slavery.

However, if we give the nonsensical argument that time erases crimes air; the Starks, Lannisters and Tullys are warring to settle personal grievances in the present timeline. As a consequence of that war, thousands (a modest guesstimate) of small folk, minor nobles and even some major ones have been raped, tortured, maimed and killed.

Despite all this, no one writes meta after meta about how Sansa and her siblings must surely die for justice to be had for those who sing the song of the earth, the free folk, the giants and all the old races that fled beyond the wall.

People write meta about Cersei and how she must die, but those are typically more misogynistic nature. They typically argue that she must die not for the “crime” of being Lannister, but for the “crime” of being Cersei and “ruining” Jamie.

I would not mind criticisms of Dany and her peace-focused approach to ending slavery because the approach is naïve and she gives the slavers far too much ground. However, she is learning, growing and self-critiquing. At the end of A Dance with Dragons, she has decided to embrace fire and blood, her knight is breaking the false peace which is a necessary step forward.

What I find offensive is people saying that she should have planned better before she abolished slavery. And that the death, violence, and sickness that arises from her quest to eradicate slavery is somehow worse than the death, violence, and sickness that already existed in Slaver’s Bay.

This argument often downplays the horrific conditions and suffering that exist(ed) under the slave system in Slaver's Bay. Such arguments are often in poor taste and prioritise the lives and comforts of the slavers more than the people they have enslaved.

I would not mind criticisms of Dany if people applied that same critique even-handedly. The same people who believe that Jon and Bran have done much to rectify the evil that their ancestors perpetuated believe that Dany has not done anything to right the wrongs of her ethnic kin. They praise them for the non-existent steps that they have taken, but in the same breath, they condemn Dany for not being able to immediately end the plague that is slavery.

It is perfectly alright to not like fictional characters, no law requires you to like certain fictional characters over others. However, what is not right is making broad accusations about those who do, it is beyond the pale. It is disgusting, and annoying, and trivialises real-world issues to score cheap points against fictional characters.

Equating the survival of a teenage survivor to the restoration of a fascist house or neo-Nazi power fantasy when such designations do not exist in the world of ice and fire is strange behaviour. Saying that the teenage survivor will eventually be manipulated and raped (again) before ending up dead on her manipulator's blade is also strange behaviour.

Dismissing the horrors of colonialism, especially when the text shows you that the involved parties are still affected by it, is not normal and often veers into real-world imperialism apologia. While criticism and analysis of characters and their actions are valid and even encouraged, it is essential that we do not resort to sweeping generalisations about other people and that we keep criticisms of characters grounded in the text.

[1]

Ooooooh, I am the last of the giants, my people are gone from the earth.

The last of the great mountain giants, who ruled all the world at my birth

Oh, the smallfolk have stolen my forests, they’ve stolen my rivers and hills.

And they’ve built a great wall through my valleys, and fished all the fish from my rills

In stone halls they burn their great fires, in stone halls they forge their sharp spears.

Whilst I walk alone in the mountains, with no true companion but tears.

They hunt me with dogs in the daylight, they hunt me with torches by night.

For these men who are small can never stand tall, whilst giants still walk in the light.

Oooooooh, I am the LAST of the giants, so learn well the words of my song.

For when I am gone the singing will fade, and the silence shall last long and long.

#I do not like most of y’all.#Do not call people of colour you do not know neonazis to win points against a fictional character.#It is not my fault that most of your faves are boring and do nothing to drive the plot forward #take it up with george rr martin and stop villifying dany and her (mid) family.#The insistence that we must mind fandom etiqutte is tired as hell too especially because people use it as silencing tools.#“Yes I called you a neonazi but you are the real weirdo for finding my post so really it’s on you that you saw that.”#that’s how y’all sound.#If I see another post that equates enjoying dany to being a neonazi #i will make it everybodys problem.#Took a long break from this fandom because the rancid takes were overshadowing the good takes #and i’ve been back less than a year and the takes are even more rancid than before.#hotd opened an evil door that should’ve remained shut.#Cause why the fuck are there criston cole apologists? Why are there aemond and aegon ii apologists? It is a dark world we live in.#put the last giant at the bottom for my homies who have not read the books which if we're speaking real is more than half of y'all #now that i have gotten this out of my system #it is time to get back to demon slayer #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf #asoiaf thoughts #asoiaf nonsense #if you saw the typos in the first version #no you didn't #edited this to add some thoughts I originally put in the tags because I felt it worked better there.

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the-unconquered-queen · 10 months

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If you think about it, the eras of PB’s obsessions form a pretty linear timeline of a shitty relationship. Hear me out: first came the barrage of wedding books, then it was the pregnancies and parenthood, but now they’re tired of the picturesque shit so we’re on to the affairs and homewrecking. At this rate we’ll be playing divorcees or widowers by next year.

#playchoices #and all the eras sucked because they didn't execute them right #I mean not the affairs there's just no doing that right but-#I think most of us have at least one series we'd like to see a wedding for—PB just chose the worst books to give wedding books to #and then paywalled the crap out of everything wedding-related #the pregnancy trend could have been improved if (in Baby Bump's case) they'd stuck to established pairings #instead of introducing that plotline through a new cast we had no reason to care about #and in TRH's case if they hadn't dragged it out in the worst possible way with the dumbest plots known to man (TRH had potential imo)#but yeah no there's no saving this affairs trend it just doesn't get unsexier than that #PB staff I'm begging y'all to go to couples' counseling with your SOs cause seriously it's getting concerning

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specialagentartemis · 10 months

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Person pitching their book: Neurodivergent, bi main character! Plant magic! Big cloak appreciation! Chosen family! Friends—solid friends! Dragon buddy! Big heart (+ polyamory)! Mage towers! Quiet, gentle storytelling! The villain is greed!

Me, crying: why are you allergic to telling me What Your Book Is About

#Pitch me your book without me having to try to intuit the premise and plot like a jigsaw puzzle

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ahsokatanos-lightsabertechnique · 5 months

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Girl help, I blinked and now I have 22 urban fantasy novels checked out of the online library

#no but actually #i literally have 24 books checked out in the last week and 22 of them are ilona andrews or seanan mcguire #it's nothing but ilona andrews and seanan mcguire in there #GO READ ILONA ANDREWS AND SEANAN MCGUIRE #we stan the urban fantasy authors that write strong leading ladies and have diversity in their books #we DON'T stan urban fantasy authors that have a bunch of shirtless werewolves and vampires flexing at each other over a “tough” girl #and then “seduce” her with extra strength questionable consent while the plot trips and falls into a wood chipper in the distance #HAVING SAID THAT if that brings you joy #have your joy #enjoy those books #they just creep me out and I can't personally stand to read them #AND THAT'S WHY I LOVE ILONA ANDREWS AND SEANAN MCGUIRE #seanan mcguire #october daye #kate daniels #curran lennart #tybalt #quentin sollys #urban fantasy #books #library #ilona andrews

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dulcewrites · 2 days

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I think the thing that shocks me the most about the discourse, if you can even call it that, around book Alicent vs show Alicent, is the idea that people think book Alicent had full autonomy over all her choices and she wasn’t a “victim” like show Alicent.

Now first, I put victim in quotations bc the way people who do not like her have almost bastardized that word. Alicent is a victim, and those things (rape, abuse, neglect) were done to her. That says everything about the men who did that do her and nothing about her. But people are hellbent on throwing Alicent, a woman in a violently patriarchal environment, being victimized back at people as if it is moral flaw of hers. Which is just terribly ironic bc the same folks who say Alicent “did it to herself” or “deserves what she is getting” also seem to think the crux of the story isn’t about generational trauma catching up with itself, how far people will go for power, or even how all girls and women are harmed - albeit to different degrees. But more the fact that Rhaenyra is the only woman to be harmed - and the only harm done is not getting the throne easily. Those same people wouldn’t be caught dead admitting that Rhaenyra is also a victim in the way they shit on Alicent for being. From the father who sets her up fail, to the baby daddy that’s been eyeing her since she was barely 18, to the uncle that grooms her. It takes away from the fantasy projected onto Rhaenyra if she too is surrounded by men that use her and she never escapes that.

Second, it’s funny how F&B gets heralded by some as this exploration of how history is skewed depending on who is telling it. But people can’t read between the lines (you honestly don’t even have to do that much work) with book Alicent. Showing 14 year old Alicent being preyed on, 16 year old Alicent being pregnant with her second child, and 18 year old Alicent being raped is somehow the show needlessly making Alicent a victim. But reading about a 13 year old bathing, dressing, and taking care of a king who mistakes her for the daughter he abused and neglected, and then that same girl, at 18, marrying another king that killed his previous child bride is just girl bossism on book Alicent’s part?

People hate conceptualizing the idea that (even book) Alicent is caught in patriarchal trappings bc to some that takes away from Rhaenyra’s plight…. Bc they can’t wrap their heads around several women *gasp* all going through hardships, and that ultimately people will respond to trauma differently depending on tools/knowledge they have at their disposal. Alicent neither being gleefully evil nor picking herself up by her bootstraps to somehow end years of patriarchal violence is not the neat box they want for her.

#people want Alicent to gleefully be evil not bc it would be more interesting (newsflash it wouldn’t)#but so they can be justified placing her in the ‘evil woman’ category #bc to them their is only ‘good woman’ and ‘bad woman’#but since the show doesn’t lineup perfectly with the woman they made up… they put her in the ‘weak woman’ category #bc the only thing worse for a woman than being a bitch is being perceived as passive in your demise #trust me I would have loved to see Alicent let Viserys rot and plot against him just as much as the next person #but please do not act like that wasn’t probably self preservation and trauma on book Alicent’s part #not her doing it for shits and giggles #and lbr the same people wishing the show went that route would’ve been the same people STILL shitting on her #pro alicent hightower #alicent hightower #pro team green #anti viserys i targaryen #anti targaryen #ok NOW I’m done lol #told myself no more of these lol

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