Symbolism In Writing

"Lunar and Solar Funny Moment"

I love this moment of them, they deservers a Show :,c

10 Actionable Tips to Help You Get to Know Your Characters Better

Here are 10 actionable storytelling tips for writers to get to know their characters better:

1. Create Detailed Character Profiles:

Write out a comprehensive profile for each character, including their background, personality traits, physical appearance, and quirks. This helps to flesh out their individuality and makes them more real to you.

2. Conduct Character Interviews:

Write out a list of interview questions and answer them from the perspective of your character. This can include questions about their past, desires, fears, and daily life.

3. Write Backstory Scenes:

Develop scenes from your character’s past that might not appear in the main story but inform their motivations and behavior. This can include significant childhood events, first loves, or pivotal moments.

4. Develop Character Arcs:

Plan out your character’s development throughout the story. Consider how they change from beginning to end and what events catalyze their growth or decline.

5. Explore Relationships:

Write scenes or dialogues focusing on your character’s interactions with others. This can reveal how they relate to different personalities and social dynamics.

6. Utilize Character Diaries:

Have your character keep a diary or journal. Writing entries from their perspective can provide deep insights into their inner thoughts and feelings.

7. Engage in Role-Playing:

Spend time role-playing as your character. Respond to hypothetical situations or daily routines as they would, helping you understand their decision-making process and emotional responses.

8. Write Monologues:

Create monologues where your character speaks directly about their dreams, struggles, and philosophies. This can help clarify their voice and mindset.

9. Build a Character Playlist:

Compile a playlist of songs that resonate with your character’s personality, story arc, or current emotions. Music can evoke a deeper understanding of their internal world.

10. Use Character Maps:

Create visual maps that chart your character’s relationships, key life events, and emotional highs and lows. This can help you see patterns and connections in their story.

These tips can help you delve deeper into your characters' psyche, making them more vivid and relatable in your writing.

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Yeah, Nexus's model can be better but actually, I think it suits Nexus.

Because no matter how Nexus refuses to acknowledge, he is still Moon. He has the same attitude, the same way of thinking, the same ego, the same way to react to things when he is desperate.

(Doing things without thinking, being so impulsive and self destructive, throws everyone care about him out of the window )

And when he went down the deep ends, he hurt everyone around him without caring.

It's just that he is more childish, and more self-deprecation. Like the nerd kid that tries hard, in his teenage rebel phase, he tries to do things he thinks will make him the opposite with Moon, but actually it is not.

That is why Nexus is so tall now, because he wants to be more superior than Moon. He also makes himself monstrous, because he thinks badly about himself and thinks this is what him deserve, this is him being a monster. He wants to cut ties with everyone so badly, yet, he still thinks about them, and wears the sign that obviously people would know it is a Moon model because no matter what he did, he can't get rid of himself.

And well, like people said, you only hate someone if you loved them first.

Nexus joked about Earth's burn because it still leaves a mark inside Nexus's heart. He wants to kidnap and torture Lunar, because Lunar distrust him and never try to get close with him anymore after the "Eclipse event".

He mocked Sun because he knows he let Sun down, and that still haunts him until now.

If he truly doesn't care like he said, he wouldn't let them inside his head like that. And that is sad, because just like Moon, Nexus only knows about hurting people who love him the most.

Like the boy in the kindergarten who only knows how to express his love for the girl he likes is pulling her pigtails.

How to Make Your Writing Less Stiff Part 3

Crazy how one impulsive post has quickly outshined every other post I have made on this blog. Anyway here’s more to consider. Once again, I am recirculating tried-and-true writing advice that shouldn’t have to compromise your author voice and isn’t always applicable when the narrative demands otherwise.

Part 1

Part 2

1. Eliminating to-be verbs (passive voice)

Am/is/are/was/were are another type of filler that doesn’t add anything to your sentences.

There were fireworks in the sky tonight. /// Fireworks glittered in the sky tonight.

My cat was chirping at the lights on the ceiling. /// My cat chirped at the lights on the ceiling.

She was standing /// She stood

He was running /// He ran

Also applicable in present tense, of which I’ve been stuck writing lately.

There are two fish-net goals on either end of the improvised field. /// Two fish-net goals mark either end of the improvised field.

For once, it’s a cloudless night. /// For once, the stars shine clear.

Sometimes the sentence needs a little finagling to remove the bad verb and sometimes you can let a couple remain if it sounds better with the cadence or syntax. Generally, they’re not necessary and you won’t realize how strange it looks until you go back and delete them (it also helps shave off your word count).

Sometimes the to-be verb is necessary. You're writing in past-tense and must convey that.

He was running out of time does not have the same meaning as He ran out of time, and are not interchangeable. You'd have to change the entire sentence to something probably a lot wordier to escape the 'was'. To-be verbs are not the end of the world.

2. Putting character descriptors in the wrong place

I made a post already about motivated exposition, specifically about character descriptions and the mirror trope, saying character details in the wrong place can look odd and screw with the flow of the paragraph, especially if you throw in too many.

She ties her long, curly, brown tresses up in a messy bun. /// She ties her curls up in a messy brown bun. (bonus alliteration too)

Generally, I see this most often with hair, a terrible rule of threes. Eyes less so, but eyes have their own issue. Eye color gets repeated at an exhausting frequency. Whatever you have in your manuscript, you could probably delete 30-40% of the reminders that the love interest has baby blues and readers would be happy, especially if you use the same metaphor over and over again, like gemstones.

He rolled his bright, emerald eyes. /// He rolled his eyes, a vibrant green in the lamplight.

To me, one reads like you want to get the character description out as fast as possible, so the hand of the author comes in to wave and stop the story to give you the details. Fixing it, my way or another way, stands out less as exposition, which is what character descriptions boil down to—something the audience needs to know to appreciate and/or understand the story.

3. Lacking flow between sentences

Much like sentences that are all about the same length with little variety in syntax, sentences that follow each other like a grocery list or instruction manual instead of a proper narrative are difficult to find gripping.

Jack gets out a stock pot from the cupboard. He fills it with the tap and sets it on the stove. Then, he grabs russet potatoes and butter from the fridge. He leaves the butter out to soften, and sets the pot to boil. He then adds salt to the water.

From the cupboard, Jack drags a hefty stockpot. He fills it with the tap, adds salt to taste, and sets it on the stove.

Russet potatoes or yukon gold? Jack drums his fingers on the fridge door in thought. Russet—that’s what the recipe calls for. He tosses the bag on the counter and the butter beside it to soften.

This is just one version of a possible edit to the first paragraph, not the end-all, be-all perfect reconstruction. It’s not just about having transitions, like ‘then’, it’s about how one sentence flows into the next, and you can accomplish better flow in many different ways.

4. Getting too specific with movement.

I don’t see this super often, but when it happens, it tends to be pretty bad. I think it happens because writers feel the need to overcompensate and over-clarify on what’s happening. Remember: The more specific you get, the more your readers are going to wonder what’s so important about these details. This is fiction, so every detail matters.

A ridiculous example:

Jack walks over to his closet. He kneels down at the shoe rack and tugs his running shoes free. He walks back to his desk chair, sits down, and ties the laces.

Unless tying his shoes is a monumental achievement for this character, all readers would need is:

Jack shoves on his running shoes.

*quick note: Do not add "down" after the following: Kneels, stoops, crouches, squats. The "down" is already implied in the verb.

This also happens with multiple movements in succession.

Beth enters the room and steps on her shoelace, nearly causing her to trip. She kneels and ties her shoes. She stands upright and keeps moving.

Or

Beth walks in and nearly trips over her shoelace. She sighs, reties it, and keeps moving.

Even then, unless Beth is a chronically clumsy character or this near-trip is a side effect of her being late or tired (i.e. meaningful), tripping over a shoelace is kind of boring if it does nothing for her character. Miles Morales’ untied shoelaces are thematically part of his story.

Sometimes, over-describing a character’s movement is meant to show how nervous they are—overthinking everything they’re doing, second-guessing themselves ad nauseam. Or they’re autistic coded and this is how this character normally thinks as deeply methodical. Or, you’re trying to emphasize some mundanity about their life and doing it on purpose.

If you’re not writing something where the extra details service the character or the story at large, consider trimming it.

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These are *suggestions* and writing is highly subjective. Hope this helps!

It's Early (Where I Am) But Hear Me Out...

If the Sun and Moon Show cast had code names, they would be as follows (or at least, my head cannons):

Sun: Cat Daddy

Moon: Aroace in Space

Earth: Captain Planet

Lunar: Overpowered Jumping Bean

Solar: Sad Mechanic

Jack: Jack be Lethal

Eclipse: The Better Afton

I'm not sure about Eclipse's name. I might go edit it later.

That is all.

Hey so first off, absolutely love your blog. I have learned so much and I can hardly wait to implement it! My question is: I have a character with vitiligo (and’s Celiac’s and rheumatoid arthritis) in a comic book I’m working on, and I want to represent that, but the problem is the comic is abstractly colored to display the characters’ emotions rather than their actual physical appearances, and my art style is designed to be pretty minimalist so I don’t need huge amounts of time and energy to actually make the comic itself (I’ll attach a picture at the bottom for easier reference). My current plan is just make lighter patches of the abstract color in place of skin color, but while that works great in theory, in practice it doesn’t show up well in lighter colors, including his default color, and since absence of color indicates absence of emotion, I don’t want to just leave them blank for the lighter colors either. Do you guys have any suggestions for alterations so I can more clearly represent that?

Thank you so much in advance!!

This is the guy in his default color. This was also the drawing I first ran into the light color problem with

Hi!

So I don't really think there are other ways to draw it than “lighter skin” for vitiligo, as that's kinda what it is, visually speaking.

What I'd keep in mind is that vitiligo isn't always super visible.

[source for images: 1 2 3 4]

If the character's skin color changes, then the vitiligo patches will be less visible when it's lighter. That doesn't mean he suddenly doesn't have it, just like how people with pale skin still have their vitiligo, no matter how apparent it is at first glance.

Regardless of skin color, vitiligo patches will tend to be of a very similar color - it's not just lighter skin (an incredibly wide category), but loss of pigment.

However, if his skin isn't human-colored but instead gray or green (or anything else), the shade of the patches will slightly shift to be less saturated or have a different undertone. But if he goes between going dark blue and light blue, the vitiligo would still be the same shade of very light blue, rather than getting darker when the rest of skin is darker. I see this a lot with how people draw characters with vitiligo, and it just Doesn't Work Like That (top right on the image above, also featuring the trope of pale people never having vitiligo for some reason).

If his skin color constantly shifts, then his vitiligo will be more visible one time and less at other times - there's not much you can do about that, it's just how contrast works. That said, sharp-edged and larger patches will be more apparent to readers than smaller ones.

So basically his vitiligo patches should probably float at a similar amount of pigment regardless of how the rest of the skin looks like, with slightly different undertones depending on the skin color at the moment. Sometimes it will show up more, sometimes less, if you want to make it clear to the readers then you can first show him in a color that makes it more obvious.

Either way, he has vitiligo!

Hope this helps,

mod Sasza

So nice to see Solar has 100% embraced the role of being a single father

Overlord Husk Au – Comic

♠️ ♥️ ♣️ ♦️

If we ever get Old Moon back (which we won't, but oh well), I want both him and New Moon to exist simultaneously. Like, I obviously miss Old Moon, but I don't want him back if that means New Moon would disappear.

But imagine all the silly scenarios if they both existed, and were forced to interact on a daily basis. Like, obviously at first they wouldn't like one another, that's pretty clear in New Moon's case, but just imagine.

For the sake of this post, I am going to refer to Old Moon as Moon, seeing as he was the first with that name, and to New Moon as well... Newmoon. Very creative, I know.

Like, imagine them, just at eachother's throats, trying to strangle the other, and then Sun comes in and suddenly they are in different ends of the Daycare, one at the security desk and the other pretending to have jumped down from the balcony.

Imagine them having this sibling rivalry, competing to spend time together with their favourite person in the whole world: Sunny Boy! Like, they are recording for the channel, and then one comes in and just attacks the other for the right of recording with Sun. Like, suddenly it's just: "Get off of me!" and Moon's then like: "Sorry for that, what were we doing again?" because the one not originally in the recording won, but has no actual idea of what's happening. And the Moon that was knocked down just being tied up in the room behind, screeching profanities.

Newmoon just running up, and grabbing Sun, who was having a converstation with Moon, and just dragging him off with a: "Come on!", while Moon's left flabbergasted (the audacity!).

Imagine Moon just doing all those "Oh noo! The gravity!" sibling stuff, and just falling on Newmoon, while Newmoon's trying to get him off, but the little bastard's using magic to weigh himself down.

Imagine Sun just waking up, walking out of his room, and his two idiotic siblings are just hiding very obvious weponary, but suddenly both of them are just sweetly asking if Sun wants to spend some time with them. Just some good ol' brotherly bonding. Together. Just the two of them. :) Without the loser.

Just imagine Sun's resigned sigh, and just silently leaving while the Moons duke it out, to spend time with Earth and Lunar. And then the Moons look up, and where's Sunny? D:

Them just competing for ✨Best Big Brother Spot✨, because they both wanna look cool in front of Earth and Lunar. Because let's be real, Moon would have adored Earth. (It's kinda canon, if you know the first deleted Earth introduction video)

Harvest (as I mentioned, I call new Bloodmoon this) would have no chance of getting to Sun now, because there's TWO helicopter siblings sitting on his head, making everything lovingly miserable. Like, my guy can never be alone if one's always with him. Especially if they are both competing for his time and attention, seeing as both are unused to someone always wanting to be with Sun.

The shenanigans with Ruin while he was still 100% infected would probably happen differently, cause let's be honest, Moon was a lot more paranoid, than Newmoon is (understandably). Heck, we might still have Spaned and Yargo insread of Spaniard (although I do like him), because Moon would be suspicious of Ruin wanting to shake both hands, and not let Newmoon touch anything without examining his hands first.

Newmoon would also absolutely stand up against Moon, when he acts like a jerk, and call him a twat to his face. While Moon would help redirect Newmoon's anger at himself, so it's them shouting at one another, instead of Newmoon accidentaly shouting at Sun.

Newmoon would probably call Moon out, if he was being a jackass, and Moon would probably also bite back, if Newmoon was acting stupid.

The two of them, sleep deprieved, would also be terrifying. Like, imagine these already insane mfs with even more questionable sanity, just going: "You know what would be a good idea? Flamethrower. That can shoot icecubes. And looks like a videogame controller." and the other (probably Newmoon) going: "Great idea! Why didn't I think of that?" And just this abomination blowing up in their faces. Sun's crying in the corner. Is he crying from laughter? Is he crying in general? Who knows?

And the furry incident. Oh, the furry incident. If it was just Newmoon turning into a furry, Moon would be recording every second. Before family movie nights, he'd just stand up and be like: "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention?" and just putting the entire Newmoon turned furry video on. And that's the second he'd get tackled by Newmoon trying to smoher him with a foam block. A laughing Earth and Sun would have to drag him off.

If both turned into furries, Sun would just come in to them having the biggest argument, over who fucked up. Like it'd be the most five year old level argument on the planet. Both would be pointing fingers, because obviously it was the other one that messed up! And Solar would just come in like: "Heey >:)"

My poor guy would be in danger.

Moon would probably atleast attempt to be a bit nicer with Solar, seeing everything. Like, we know that Moon was aware, that Solar was a nice Eclipse, and willingly sent Lunar there alone, so I feel like he'd attempt to act friendly.

But this furry incident, if it happened to them both, would unite them against the greater evil, Solar, in what will essentially turn into a prank war. They'd totally lose.

If it was just Newmoon turned into a furry, then it'd be Moon and Solar teaming up, and essentialy bullying poor Newmoon. All lovingly, of course. Like, poor Newmoon would never be able to forget the one time he got turned into a furry.

Just imagine all the fear from them playing a mannequin game, and both pretending to not be scared. "I'm not scared! You are!" and then both just gasping in insert scared Moon noise. Like imagine them playing that art gallery game from Dread X Collection, they'd both be so fucking afraid. The one not playing would attempt to act all macho, saying he isn't scared, but then panicking just as much as the one playing. Sun would have to be called.

If both were around, Jack's building would have happened a bit differently too. Moon would have wanted to oversee it a bit more, so maybe all those poor dogs would not have ended up in Antarctica. The Creature(tm) would probably still have some kinks that needed to be worked out but, ultimately they'd either be less, or entirely different. Cus, yet again, Moon's paranoid. He'd not trust others' work as much as he trusts his own, so that'd need to be a part of his character journey. To better trust in others.

But just imagine the Solar-Newmoon-Moon Trio. Absolutely unstoppable science nerds. Ruin, if he's still evil, would stand no chance against them. Harvest would be beaten already, torn to pieces. Stitchwraith would have to face these three's combined righteous anger, rabid dog energy, and mad genious. The Creator would find himself with multiple ridiculous weapons aimed his way, all ready to go off, held by trigger happy individuals who run on the animatronic equivalent of caffeine. Eclipse who? You mean this smoldering pile of atoms?

They'd be an unstoppable science trio. And an unstoppable family. Because they'd tease one-another to death, but only THEY can bully the other. And maybe Sun, Lunar, Earth and Solar, but even then they should get ready to pay.

Imagine Moon's reaction to meeting Forkface for the first time. He'd develop a hit and run mentality in miliseconds, then just skedaddle his way outta there. He's maybe not leaving Sun to the wolves, but that's very dependant on how close he is to Forky. He'd totally use Newmoon as a shield. Newmoon's crying.

Newmoon would know better next time Forky appears, and throw Moon into the 'danger'. "Take him, not us!" "Why me?!" "You're the older brother!" and just leave. He'd get out of there as fast as he can. With Sun. Maybe.

It'd be incredibly fun to have this. But it won't happen. Witch is fine, that's what AUs are for!

But I've never before seen anyone putting them into a situation together (coulda missed it). I think their characters would balance eachother out, bring out aspects that weren't seen before.

Moon would take on this more mentor-like role, while Newmoon would be at constant odds with himself and Moon, because he doesn't like Moon as a person. He hates what he sees in Moon, and is afraid of becoming like him.

I think it'd do Newmoon a world of good if he could see that while not in an obvious manner, there is good in Moon. And it'd do Moon good to have someone with more similiar interests to guide, someone who WILL step up to him, someone who will encourage him to do better, to be better.

They are just so silly, and I love them both. :D