Reactions To Tragedy

Reactions to tragedy

In real life, pretty much everybody reacts to tragedy differently. So why is it that every author has their pet reaction to tragedy that all their characters use? Not only is it unrealistic, but it takes away the chance for the characters’ different reactions to reveal things about themselves.

Possible reactions to tragedy (not an exhaustive list):

Distracting oneself with mindless activities

Distracting oneself with others’ humor

Distracting oneself by making jokes

Distracting oneself by reading/watching/playing stories

Distracting oneself with hard mental work

Distracting oneself with hard physical work

Distracting oneself with creative endeavors

Distracting oneself by chatting with friends about normal things

Talking to friends about the tragedy

Talking to authority figures about the tragedy

Talking anonymously with strangers about the tragedy (if possible)

Getting wrapped up in others’ problems

Staying unusually silent

Screaming

Crying loudly

Crying silently

Doing everything possible not to cry

Pacing

Taking unhealthy risks

Going for revenge against whoever one can blame

Punching random objects

Throwing random objects

Lashing out against friends and family members

Trying to prevent a similar tragedy from happening

Eating more than usual

Not eating

Taking mind-altering substances

Getting in unhealthy relationships

Isolating oneself

Obsessing over routine

Numbness combined with apathy

Numbness combined with going through one’s normal motions

Trying to get things back the way they were

Denial

No reaction at first but a reaction hits later in greater force

No reaction at all. Emotions relating to the tragedy just fail to load. Note that this can happen to anybody and does not mark a character as a sociopath.

Characters can have more than one reaction at the same time, one reaction after another, or different reactions to different tragedies.

More Posts from Thedemoninthecorner and Others

4 years ago

Writer’s “Have You Ever”

Rules: Tag the person who tagged you, then bold the things in this list that you have done, then tag five to ten other writers!

Tagged by @radiowrites, thank you kindly. This one looks fun.

First Person

Second Person

Third Person

Omniscient POV

Past Tense

Present Tense

Future Tense

A complete story

A story longer than 1k

A story longer than 5k

A story longer than 10k

A story longer than 50k

A story longer than 100k

A story longer than 150k

A story shorter than 1k

A story shorter than 500 words

Fanfiction

Original Fiction

Fantasy

Science Fiction

Historical fiction

Dystopian

A story in the Romance Genre

A Story with No Speculative Elements At All

Non-fiction

A children’s book

A story about vampires

A story about robots

A story with a non-human protagonist

A story with a main character based on yourself

A story with a character based on somebody you know

Male POV

Female POV

A POV character the opposite sex from yourself

Animal’s POV

Multiple Viewpoints

POV character under age 15

POV character over age 30

A story told in non-chronological order

Story with a happy ending

Story with a sad ending

Death of a minor character

Death of a major character

Death (offscreen)

Death (onscreen)

Antagonist death

Protagonist death

Villain gets a redemption arc

Kissing scene

Sex scene (offscreen)

Sex scene (onscreen)

Swears (Mild)

Swears (Heavy)

Violence (PG or under)

Violence (PG-13 or over)

Fight scene

Torture scene

A flashback

A dream sequence

A scene that made you cry actual tears (i never wrote a scene that made me cry but it was real close so i’m counting it)

A scene that made you laugh at your own joke

A prologue

An epilogue

A story with more than 30 chapters

A chapter with fewer than 100 words

A poem

A prophecy

Story that takes place in the future

Story that takes place in the past

Story that takes place in a world that is not Earth

An anti-hero

An anti-villain

A parody

Description of male character’s scent

Description of female character’s boobs

Character with eyes of a non-natural color


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3 years ago

hey so a longass time ago, i saw a post that had a link to a website with a bunch of angel names, and i can’t find it again, so i was wondering if anyone knows what i’m talking about or can find the post again


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3 years ago

It is increasingly obvious that most people have no idea how to indicate an illness is slowly killing someone without making them cough up blood. Doesn’t matter what it is or if it has anything to do with your respiratory system, if you’re dying, you’re coughing up blood.

3 years ago

writing prompts masterlist

a shit ton of kisses + writing prompts

a shit ton of angsty prompts

a shit ton of enemies to lovers prompts

a shit ton of prompts for slow burn couples

a shit ton of more angsty prompts because writers are evil apparently

+

enemies + rivals sentence starters

angsty dialogue for a break up + sentence starters

kisses + sentence starters

even more starters for break ups 

+

things fictional couples do that make me lose my mind

a writing guide to rivals (or enemies) to lovers + writing prompts

soft things fictional couples do when going to sleep

friends to lovers, a writing guide

prompts for characters who don’t want to admit they’re in love

friends to lovers + writing prompts

+

dumb movie tropes that i love

10 types of kisses + writing prompts

25 date ideas for your characters

cute things your OTP would do during sex

enemies to lovers, when feelings first begin

waking up after a night of drinking, and doing the horizontal tango

dialogue prompts under the cut

Keep reading

5 years ago

This resonates with me in a way I like a little too much, and it's perfect for most of my wips. I'll do my best to reach the point this can fit and write it.

Person A: “The answer is no.”

Person B: “I haven’t even asked you anything!”

Person A: “I know that face, and I know you’re going to ask me to do some crazy dumb shit that’s likely to get us both killed, all for the sake of some ridiculous plot that doesn’t make sense to anyone but you. So the answer is no.”

Person B: “….”

Person A: “….”

Person B: “….”

Person A: “You totally were weren’t you?”

Person B: “…….Maybe.”

4 years ago

“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.

3 years ago

I’ve been trying to think of a setting for a nautical campaign. A vast expanse of tropical islands and waterways with the obligatory shady towns that sit on the water and temples of worship deep in both the jungle and the water. Any thoughts?

Yeknow what, fuck it, I wasn’t planning on writing a full pirate campaign anytime soon but everything’s better with pirates so lets do this!

image

Campaign: Scoundrels of the Sundered Isles

The Priests debate as to how our hearts may be weighted against its bearer’s sins.. but we Sailors no Better: ‘tis not sin our hearts are weighed against, ‘tis coin, as only coin could get a man to sail out to the edge o’ the bleedin world and gettim to stay ‘ere long enough to get to sinnin in the firstplace. 

-Overheard at The Last Hurrah Tavern

Setup:  The Tropical waters of the Tourmaline Sea have been a flurry of activity over the past century and a half, as natives and settlers from three different continents work together to reclaim land once lost after a half-millennia of supernatural darkness rendered a large chunk of the mainland uninhabitable. Most people deserted the Sundered Isles ( their name derived from a mistranslation that they were “Sun-Dead”) fearing the raiders and plagues that issued from that calamity, and they stayed away even after the sun returned, letting the gentle creeping of green reclaim the once barren rocks. 

Ever hungry for expansion, civilization makes its first tentative steps into these dangerous lands, with ports popping up all along the coast and archipelagos, the first wave of resettlement of a land once thought consigned to oblivion. 

All is not peaceful however, as powers both foreign and continental strive to establish dominance in this new frontier, with settlers, traders, and foolhearty sailors caught in the clash between. Discover the Mysteries long buried in darkness and sunken beneath the crashing waves, as you and your party strive to make your way in the Sundered Isles

Campaign Start

Captives of the Villainous XROC Merchant company and on their way to do hard labor in one of a number of debt-colonies, the party is miraculously saved when a tremendous wave crashes against the ship where they are imprisoned, shattering it upon the coastline and giving them the chance to escape together through the island.   There they find themselves Port Calmayne, a prosperous trade hub where the party can get their sea-legs under them while determining the best course of action and evading the Company. 

Early Game: 

A Priestess of the sea god has work for the party, neverminded that she’s a “retired” pirate, and the job involves helping a group of smugglers exterminate some monsters they accidently imported from the continent 

Investigate the haunted manor of an old Commodore, recover a treasuremap, and perhaps acquire some funds by looting through his hold treasures. Don’t get shot by a ghost while you’re at it. 

Earn the Respect of the local sailorfolk by diving for treasure into shark infested waters. Hidden among the bones of a great dragon are tokens that prove the party’s skill and sea-blessed luck, earning them passage on any ship going anywhere in the Sundered Isles

Mid Game: 

Make your way to Greenveil Lagoon, hidden home of all true pirates and the Bretherin Court. Help reunite an old salty-dog pay respects to his long departed crew, or start treasurehunting for the world’s most skilled but unlukiest mapmaker. 

Hunt ruins for a fabulous relic, then defend it in a ship-duel from a mystic privateer intent on taking it back.  When a job goes bad, it goes bad, and it’ll take all the party’s skill as sailors to evade this tenacious ( and seemingly omniscient) foe. 

Sign on With the Monster Hunting Crew of the Leviathan’s Bane, travel to the most dangerous corners of the archipelago, fight creatures that break ships between their coils, learn how to cook seamonster

Explore an ancient, eternal lighthouse, used as a lair by an eccentric pyromancer. Help a wayward celestial find their misplaced chariot of fire and learn clues as to the darkness that overtook the mainland so long ago. 

Late Game

The Merchant company that enslaved the players wants control over trade in the Sundered Isles, and is willing to unleash a madwoman in order to get it. This renegade pirate is obsessed with becoming the terror of the high seas, going so far as to overthrow the brethren court that keeps order among the Isles’ freebooters, and even unleash a vampire on the populace in hopes of becoming one herself. 

Venture into the lush jungles and overgrown ruins of the continent, and meet the fallen demigod who caused the devastation in the first place. Now little more than an eccentric old lizardfolk, this seemingly benign evil has many stories to tell, and more than a little wickedness still in him. 

The Wave that set the party free was only the herald to a true upset, as over moths an entire new archipelago of islands emerges from the seafloor after millennia in the depths.  Dotted with ruins and artifacts of a long dead civilization, these new isles draw fortunehunters into a clash with the merfolk exiled by the sudden rising of their home, all the while an ancient power wakes, looking to assert itself over the world once again. 

As always, I’m tremendously grateful for all my followers, but if you’d like to support my creative efforts, consider checking out the links below:

If you liked one of my adventure ideas and would like to leave a one time tip: https://ko-fi.com/villainforhire.

If you’d like to support Daily Adventure Prompts and future creative activity, consider becoming a patron: https://www.patreon.com/Villain4hire

Art 

4 years ago

Okay seriously. Reblog if you're OLDER than 11.

3 years ago

care

Change a single letter and change the word game

I decided this would be fun. So reblog with a new word and see how long we can make it.

The starting word is...

Lady


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thedemoninthecorner - Greaper's Corner
Greaper's Corner

Hello. I am Greaper and this is my corner.

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