I Made A Huge Mahoyaku Guide/infodump For Anyone Who Wants To Get Into It But Doesn't Know Where To Start!!

Good morning.

Prompt for today was "domesticity"!

"we're even now."

something beautiful about an old as fuck wizard taking in a silver haired kid despite knowing that the kid is a prince but they still decide to raise the kid as their own

"i take it back, i'm sorry"- reactions to making someone cry

prompt list by @novelbear | cw for some very slight cursing!

"are you crying?"

"no, don't do that wait-"

"oh, stop with the tears.."

"i didn't mean it like that, hold on."

"was it something i said?"

"shit, no, that's not what i meant."

"oh, honey."

"there you go, let it out."

"suck it up."

"this was supposed to make you happy!"

"aw, don't cry sweetheart..."

[giving them a panicked hug] "no, no, no, no!"

"i should have stopped, i'm sorry..."

"what? what now?"

"you're so emotional. it's cute."

"good. now you know what it's like."

"how can i make this up to you?"

"i didn't mean to make you upset, you know."

"oh come on, it was a joke!"

"you always do this. making me look like the bad guy."

"my poor baby, i'm so sorry."

"did i scare you? sweetheart..."

"i mean i knew you'd like the gift but not this much..."

"ice cream? a movie? hugs? what do you want? name anything."

"why do you act like you're the only one with feelings? how do you think i feel?"

Editing Your Novel Part 2: The Plot Pass

Okay, it's finally time to edit. You've got all your materials sorted, it's time to dive right in. You want to start with the big edits first, aka the plot pass.

Now listen. You're going to want to linger and fix those little bits of grammar or dialogue, and I know it's so hard not to, but letting yourself get off-track might mean wasting hours on a scene you realize later you have to delete. Fix a few spelling errors, leave a note, and stay plot-focused.

Making Sense (Of the Plot)

In the plot pass, you're asking yourself some basic questions:

Do events follow a clear order? - When you're getting everything down on the page for the first time, scenes might get jumbled up or events might not have clear causes. Maybe you have a car crashing into the cafe pages before, but in a writing haze, you wrote your main characters having a casual conversation moments later. If the bad guy beats your heroes to treasure, is it clear how they got there? (Not everyone can be Yzma.)

Do circumstances feel contrived? If there are any problems that can be solved by your characters sitting down and talking to each other, it may be better to lean into their motivation for not speaking to each other, rather than coming up with bad romcom scenarios. If the plot can be resolved by the mcguffin the grandma had the whole time, it might be better to make finding that mcguffin part of the plot instead.

It doesn't have to be perfect, and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. If someone gets bitten by a werewolf, it's perfectly fine to have them turn into one at the worst possible moment. When it comes to contrived, you're looking for problems that seem easy to solve and look for more interesting ways to complicate them.

Are your character motivations consistent to the characters throughout the story? - They can change throughout the story, but character motivations do need to be linked to the actions they take. An out-of-nowhere betrayal is way more satisfying if you lay the groundwork for it ahead of time.

Take a moment to list out the motivations of the characters in a scene you're not quite sure of can help you figure how to fix it. Having an outline helps with this a lot!

Are you following an "if... then" format? - My brain doesn't work like this when I'm writing, because as a writer you know how A got to Z, and it seems (in your head) obvious how it happened. This is where my scene card outline come in handy, because I can look at my overview of what should happen and why, and then compare it to what actually happens in the scene. I've discovered so many threads I forgot to connect that way, like why a character had a certain device (I forgot to have him pick it up two scenes earlier), or adding a few simmering dialogue bits that make the big fight pay off much better.

Can you fix the "Because the Plot Demands It" scenes? - Look, sometimes your character needs to be in that haunted house to see that damn ghost, but your character isn't the type to set foot in such a place. It's really easy, especially in the first draft, to contrive a way in there (she took a wrong turn on her way to grandma's!), but retooling these scenes to connect them to the characters motivations and needs is the way to go. The main character doesn't want to go into that obviously cursed place, but her best friend hasn't shown up for school in three days and now she's crying for help from the second floor window. Your character's strong desire to be there for her friend is a much better way to get her into that house.

This is not always easy - it took me six fricken drafts to realize a critical part of a character's motivation was because his father blamed him for his mother's death - but it is going to be worth putting in the work to hammer down.

Do you have a solid timeline? - This might not seem as important, but it's super easy to accidentally fit two weeks worth of activities in three days. Make sure you have that on reference, even if you don't mention it in the book. Also make sure to gauge your distances if your characters are on a trip, because if you do accidentally say it takes two hours to drive from Seattle to Spokane instead of five, someone will dive down your throat for it. Not me. Just someone.

Okay, maybe me. Slow down, you maniacs.

Next post we'll dive into the structure pass. See you then!

more ranwan family brainrot !!

Imo in order to finish your writing project you need to be unhealthily obsessed with your characters to a point where you question your sanity

today i found out i lost all my gendice drawings so in compensation i drew this new one

year n can be about any old wizard yaoi ship if you think hard enough tbh. it's lenofau to me but it can be bradnero or some other ship for those who open their eyes to old wizard yaoi