A Closer Look At Elizabeth And John In The Episode "Echoes"✨

If Marvel movies were written by women

-Peggy Carter’s funeral would have been more than 3 minutes long.

-Tony Stark would have given a eulogy to Peggy, having grown up admiring her, his dad’s colleague of many years, a tremendously strong female role model (the woman who approved Pepper’s hire, of course).

-Steve Rogers would not have put the moves on Peggy’s niece within a day of burying Peggy.

-Black Widow would have gotten her own movie by now.

-A big part of Bucky’s backstory/flashbacks would have been told through Natasha’s viewpoint, her memories of either working with or against The Winter Soldier in Russia and the East. 

-Pepper Potts would have been in Civil War, speaking for herself.

-Wanda’s grief over her brother would still be very present.  Her feelings of loss and mourning would be front-and-center for her character.

-Black Panther’s woman bodyguard would have had more than one line. 

-Natasha would have told Steve that she was at Peggy’s funeral in part because she didn’t want him to be alone, but also in part to pay respects to the great Peggy Carter.

-There would be way more women in these movies.  There would be women of many ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and nationalities in these movies.  There would be many scenes of women talking to women.  There would be many more scenes of women talking.  And doing.  And feeling.  And being. 

reasons to not quit writing:

your writing is a skill, not an inborn talent (unless, yeah, maybe it is). not everyone can do what you do and love

everyone says they want to write a book. everyone has what it takes to write a book. not everyone does it anyway. you be the small percentage of success you read about

your writing will always seem brickshit horrible because you wrote and read it a million times

you love this writing thingy. quitting it will be like cutting off your fingers one by one.

someone out there will want to read what you wrote.

someone out there wants to know what is on your mind. 

someone out there appreciates your art. they will share it with their friends. they will share it with their loved ones. they will share it with their future self because maybe what you wrote saved them.

if you give up now, you know you will just come back to it again, whether it’s years from now, months, or next week. you love writing, that’s why you planted the seed of thought that you are going to write this book, and whether you come back to it or not, your unwritten stories will come back to you.

THAT is how you deliver a tribute speech.

Why I Love Writers

How We Write: The world in the morning was a land frost kissed and chilled. The sun rising above the willows to burn away fog and drink it up again. We rise anew, our bones stretching, our skin shimmering, our blood beating a drummer boys concerto. The land is coffee beans and frying pans and sweetness on the tongue, and we follow its path to whatever life may bring. We are the people and we are alive and we are ready.

How We Talk: Um- I mean… sure… yeah… uh, I mean I guess I’m a morning person I mean oh shit I stuttered didn’t I I mean fu-frick, there’s a lot of stuff in the morning that I like and coffee is basically, you know, good or something or… um… the floor is cold? And sorry, I keep saying cruse words, oh shit I mean curse words I messed up my letters lol um… wow this is super awkward um… maybe we could start over and HOLY SHIT A PUPPY.

Sometimes stories cry out to be told in such loud voices that you write them just to shut them up.

Stephen King (via psliterary)

Ways to un-stick a stuck story

Do an outline, whatever way works best. Get yourself out of the word soup and know where the story is headed.

Conflicts and obstacles. Hurt the protagonist, put things in their way, this keeps the story interesting. An easy journey makes the story boring and boring is hard to write.

Change the POV. Sometimes all it takes to untangle a knotted story is to look at it through different eyes, be it through the sidekick, the antagonist, a minor character, whatever.

Know the characters. You can’t write a story if the characters are strangers to you. Know their likes, dislikes, fears, and most importantly, their motivation. This makes the path clearer.

Fill in holes. Writing doesn’t have to be linear; you can always go back and fill in plotholes, and add content and context.

Have flashbacks, hallucinations, dream sequences or foreshadowing events. These stir the story up, deviations from the expected course add a feeling of urgency and uncertainty to the narrative.

Introduce a new mystery. If there’s something that just doesn’t add up, a big question mark, the story becomes more compelling. Beware: this can also cause you to sink further into the mire.

Take something from your protagonist. A weapon, asset, ally or loved one. Force him to operate without it, it can reinvigorate a stale story.

Twists and betrayal. Maybe someone isn’t who they say they are or the protagonist is betrayed by someone he thought he could trust. This can shake the story up and get it rolling again.

Secrets. If someone has a deep, dark secret that they’re forced to lie about, it’s a good way to stir up some fresh conflict. New lies to cover up the old ones, the secret being revealed, and all the resulting chaos.

Kill someone. Make a character death that is productive to the plot, but not “just because”. If done well, it affects all the characters, stirs up the story and gets it moving.

Ill-advised character actions. Tension is created when a character we love does something we hate. Identify the thing the readers don’t want to happen, then engineer it so it happens worse than they imagined.

Create cliff-hangers. Keep the readers’ attention by putting the characters into new problems and make them wait for you to write your way out of it. This challenge can really bring out your creativity.

Raise the stakes. Make the consequences of failure worse, make the journey harder. Suddenly the protagonist’s goal is more than he expected, or he has to make an important choice.

Make the hero active. You can’t always wait for external influences on the characters, sometimes you have to make the hero take actions himself. Not necessarily to be successful, but active and complicit in the narrative.

Different threat levels. Make the conflicts on a physical level (“I’m about to be killed by a demon”), an emotional level (“But that demon was my true love”) and a philosophical level (“If I’m forced to kill my true love before they kill me, how can love ever succeed in the face of evil?”).

Figure out an ending. If you know where the story is going to end, it helps get the ball rolling towards that end, even if it’s not the same ending that you actually end up writing.

What if? What if the hero kills the antagonist now, gets captured, or goes insane? When your write down different questions like these, the answer to how to continue the story will present itself.

Start fresh or skip ahead. Delete the last five thousand words and try again. It’s terrifying at first, but frees you up for a fresh start to find a proper path. Or you can skip the part that’s putting you on edge – forget about that fidgety crap, you can do it later – and write the next scene. Whatever was in-between will come with time.

All the time….

Wraith Gifts by Bil

What’s In A Name? by Patricia de Lioncourt

Common Ground Episode Tag by OracleDru

Silver by ravenstarwind40

Common Ground Tag by koalathebear

Defining Moment by SGAFan

The Grudge by 001ElvenWarrior

The Dark Corners of the Mind by Lorr

Shades of Grey by Anjirinka

A Second Chance by brains103

Cry by angelqueen04

Aftermath by Vickysg1

Uncrossed Lines by tyger cub

The Burden of Leadership by digitalfletch

Jealousy by Shayz

The Sound of Agony by hanorganaas

Divided We Fall by Kesdax

Love or Duty by hanorganaas 

When We Bleed We Bleed The Same by hanorganaas

Hate by angelqueen04

Not Surprised by angelqueen04

Forgiveness by alianne

The Dark Hours by ugahill

Common Ground Epilogue by YunaDax

On Shaking Ground by wanderingsmith

Burden of Command by krisrussell

But What If? by From The Stars

Stronger by Bil

Sleeping Habits by XakliaAeryn

Heartfelt Confessions by brains103

Forfeit by Sunny

CG Balcony Scene by Lizabeth