2018 Was Five Years Ago let That Sink In

Level 1: Prophecy proclaims that no man can kill villain; killed by woman.

Level 2: Prophecy proclaims that no weapon can harm villain; pushed down stairs and dies.

Level 3: Prophecy proclaims that villain will be brought low by no mortal hand; kicked to death by angry mob.

Level 4: Prophecy proclaims that no power on Earth shall be villain’s undoing; fatally distracted by sun in eyes.

Level 5: Prophecy proclaims that only power of laughter can defeat villain; beat up by clown.

Bad Pacing Advice

Anything that can go wrong, should go wrong. Right?

Not necessarily.

This is really common advice for when a plot feels flat or boring. And sometimes, it's really good advice. But sometimes, it the worst advice you could get. It really depends on why the plot is feeling flat.

A plot is made up of beats: events that have to happen in order to move the plot forward. Another way of saying this is, what things need to happen before the story's conflict can be resolved?

When a plot is falling flat, it generally has one of three problems. Either there aren't enough story beats, the story is moving too quickly from one beat to another, or the story is moving too slowly from one beat to another.

Making things go wrong is good advice if there aren't enough story beats. Too few beats means there might be too much space between beats where the story can sag and get boring. In other words, slow pacing. It can also make the conflict seem too easy to resolve, because story beats are often obstacles that need to be overcome before the story can satisfactorily end.

However, if your story is moving too quickly between beats, making things go wrong isn't always the right answer. It can work if you deliberately use a set-back to delay getting between two points that would otherwise be too close. But just making something go wrong for the sake of it will only add more beats to the story, it won't slow them down.

If your story is moving too slowly, making more stuff go wrong is about the worst thing you can do. At best it just makes your story longer. At worst, it adds new beats between your already existing beats, increasing the distance between them even more. It might seem counter intuitive but making things go wrong (killing a character, losing a fight, getting captured, friendship and relationship drama etc.) can actually slow your pacing down more.

I notice this issue a lot in epic fantasy stories. Maybe it's just me, but I find when things are constantly going wrong -- when the plot isn't getting any closer to being resolved because every time the characters try to take a step forward they end up worse off than before -- I get frustrated and bored. I just start thinking "here we go again. Get to the point!!"

Sometimes your characters need to succeed too. Good pacing isn't making your characters fail at every opportunity. It's knowing when to let them fail and when it's time to move forward.

My Rules

If you are under 18 years of age, please tread carefully. Do not message me personally, I am quite uncomfortable with speaking to someone so young, but feel free to send asks. I will tag everything smut and violence related with the tag nsfw. If I find out that you are under 18, I will have to block you. I ask you to respect my wishes, and in turn I will respect yours.

I know that asking you not to interact whatsoever is pointless, we’ve all been there, but just don’t go past my boundaries.

If you are shy and want to send me a message, please feel free to! If you don’t want to send me an anonymous ask, message me as well! I am honestly open to it if you’re 18 or over, but I am not that great at messaging so expect a reply within the next 3 days. Requests will have their own separate post, and if I get curious enough I’ll create a Masterlist here. I will link my AO3 account here as well when I have the time. Don’t be afraid to give me criticism on my works btw, I strive to improve as much as I can!

That being said though, I won’t take any bashing seriously. If you need to rant, let me know and I’ll listen, but mindlessly bashing and blasting anyt writing of mine or someone else’s will be ignored and the ask/interaction deleted. If you didn’t like it, you can just not read it or ignore it. You can also just leave a sad or angry face if you don’t like my latest story/stories, maybe both, maybe even just a bunch of stabbing emojis. Go at it, have your fill, but don’t be mean.

My last rule is to please try and be patient. I am not good with managing literally anything time-wise or other, so if I don’t reply right away, just wait a few days before sending the same message. Threats aren’t appreciated no matter who they come from, bad-mouthing or swearing at me won’t make me answer faster, and asking me to hurry up with an update or a story idea is just, really stupid. I don’t get paid for this, I do it for fun, please remember that before sending me your impatient message.

Also for those of you who understand how hard it is to balance everything, you’re the real MVP’s. I love you guys, can’t wait to write for you all! Stay tuned for all my stuff!

AO3:

Time for Childhood for you 90s/Early 2000s kids

I love Aang’s relationship with literally everyone

Writers, please, please, please, I am begging you

I know we don't vibe with Mary Sues, and I know we like watching characters fail...

But if your character is the world's best assassin, they shouldn't be botching nearly every single step of every single job just because the plot demands it. If your character is one of the greatest fighters to ever live, they can't badly lose every single fight the plot throws at them and then barely win the final confrontation. If your character is a competent military strategist, they need at least a few small successes during the course of the plot. If your character is an experienced leader, they can't be constantly making the kind of missteps that realistically would cause their subordinates to lose confidence in them.

If your character is good at something. Show them being good at it.

I redid this older comic I made for my storytelling class based on this post. Have some cute wlw love in your day.

It’s hard, if I had more free time I could make it so pretty, this is what I could throw together for the assignment.

ok wait, reblog if you’ve cried at least once because of math, doesn’t matter which grade i’m trying to prove something