*Taking Notes*

“There’s not enough art of Ripred raging.” I completely agree.

“Not enough soft art of red with the kids.” I know and I love you.

But hear me out. There’s not enough art depicting Ripred in his melancholy majesty. Sensual tired delusional man bathed in blood. A romantic and depressing renaissance oil painting of carnage and despondent curiosity of the world around him. Exhausted from the answers he’s gotten.

Percy: Yeah, I'm arguably one of, if not THE, strongest demigo-

Some random fucking Hermes kid from 2,000 years ago:

I have had an incredible(y heretical) idea.

Female Iron hands space marine x male tech-priest who makes their augments. Make the tech-priest flustered and worship the space marine. Make the space marine be completely clueless about their obvious attraction but internally obsessed with the tech-priest.

I don't care how much this fucks up the lore.

Let the seas boil, let the starts fall, even though it takes the last drop of my blood,

I WILL HAVE THIS, GATEKEEPERS BE DAMNED.

i needed this

Some Quick Character Tips

Here are a handful of quick tips to help you write believable characters! 

1. A character’s arc doesn’t need to grow linearly. Your protagonist doesn’t have to go from being weak to strong, shy to confident, or novice to professional in one straight line. It’s more realistic if they mess up their progress on the way and even decline a bit before reaching their goal.

2. Their past affects their present. Make their backstory matter by having their past events shape them into who they are. Growing up with strict parents might lead to a sneaky character, and a bad car accident might leave them fearful of driving.

3. Give reoccurring side characters something that makes them easily recognizable. This could be a scar, a unique hairstyle, an accent, or a location they’re always found at, etc.

4. Make sure their dialogue matches their personality. To make your characters more believable in conversation, give them speech patterns. Does the shy character mumble too low for anyone to ever hear, does the nervous one pace around and make everyone else on edge? 

5. Make your characters unpredictable. Real people do unexpected things all the time, and this can make life more exciting. The strict, straight-A student who decides to drink at a party. The pristine princess who likes to visit the muddy farm animals. When character’s decide to do things spontaneously or in the heat of the moment, it can create amazing twists and turns.

6. Give even your minor character’s a motive. This isn’t to say that all your characters need deep, intricate motives. However, every character should need or want something, and their actions should reflect that. What’s the motive behind a side character who follows your protagonist on their adventure? Perhaps they’ve always had dreams of leaving their small village or they want to protect your protagonist because of secret feelings.

Instagram: coffeebeanwriting  

Twirltounge manipulating the Bane into commiting mass genocide:

I'm sorry but if i do make pilot episodes/shorts for my TUC animated series, Gregor's going to know and use the language of kids today. why? it's funny.

and as the questers get closer throughout the series, others start picking it up. Luxa gets to look someone in the eyes as they lose a brutal fight, bleeding out on the floor, and say "Skill issue."

I might have seen this said before, on a different post, but I couldn't find it, so I'm just gonna say a few words on this, partially because of that and partially because it's been ages since I've last read the series, despite it being ingrained into my head.

Almost all of the characters in TUC have moments where they are genuine assholes. Gregor has a few points where he says some genuinely disrespectful shit. Luxa, as well as most of the other humans (including Gregor, although arguably to a lesser extent), are deeply prejudiced against the gnawers. Ripred, is, well, Ripred (look, I love him, we all do, but he's a dick).

Even Vikus, arguably one of the nicest characters in the series, admires Sandwich (I think, been a while), a man who literally used poison to commit genocide in the name of stealing land that didn't belong to him.

The only characters I can think of in TUC that don't have flaws are the ones who also have the least lines: Aurora, Dulcet, Miravet. Oh, and all of those characters? Probably also prejudiced against gnawers, just never explicitly stated (to my knowledge), probably due to their obscene lack of lines. Of course there are characters like Lizzie and Hazard, who are literal fucking children so as nice as they are, I think it's safe to say they can't really be counted up here. (Should probably also mention that Gregor and Luxa are also children, just ones that were forced to grow up faster, sadly).

Then again, all of these characters have redeeming qualities. Gregor can be disrespectful at times, but that's mainly because of the stress placed upon him by the various bullshit situations he has to go through, and he usually apologizes after. Luxa and all the humans are deeply prejudiced (actually, I should probably add the fliers might be in that category too), but they are basically raised from birth to hate and kill gnawers, and vice versa. plus, it's shown that despite what is practically being brainwashed from birth, they can grow and change to overcome their own bigotry and accept gnawers as genuine people, as well as friends.

And yes, Ripred, the glorious bastard himself, is a dick. But he's also a war veteran who's lost his family, and most of the respect from his people, meaning he mainly works with humans, who tend to treat him with suspicion, if not outright hostility (until they get to know him). And he makes up for it by letting his guard down at times to be a father to the traumatized pups that dragged him into their pack.

Point is, flawed characters are one of the things that make TUC so great. They're not few and hid away either, they're everywhere, with visible flaws. If you want to make a good character, TUC is a great series to use as an example. Everything casts a shadow, just like every character has a flaw. If they don't, you probably just can't see them from your angle. And if they don't? Like, at all? Give them some, just make sure the shadow they cast matches up with the object itself.

noted

I've had this little idea in my head for a while now, so I decided to sit down and plot it out.

Disclaimer: This isn't meant to be some sort of One-Worksheet-Fits-All situation. This is meant to be a visual representation of some type of story planning you could be doing in order to develop a plot!

Lay down groundwork! (Backstory integral to the beginning of your story.) Build hinges. (Events that hinge on other events and fall down like dominoes) Suspend structures. (Withhold just enough information to make the reader curious, and keep them guessing.)

And hey, is this helps... maybe sit down and write a story! :)

Announcing the COMPLETION of AHS 1 & 2 [3rd Edition]

It's a new year ... and new AHS!

I would like to formally announce the COMPLETION of the "A Henry Story 2" edit!! Book 1 has been done for a while, nonetheless ... this is a grand moment.

Please download the professionally formatted PDFs here if you like. Otherwise, I have updated Book 1 on all platforms, Book 2 on every platform except FF.net (that one will follow soon, but the UI is a pain so it's a bit of a hassle.)

BOOK 1: Memories of the Fallen Prince

BOOK 2: Trials of the Fallen Prince

I am incredibly proud of this third edition; the story is truly coming together now. I HIGHLY recommend all of you who have read it in the past to reread it :) This is now the fully realized vision I had for this book. I assure you, it's worth another read. Also in preparation for the continuation of book 3! And of course, if you have been waiting to start AHS as a whole, GO FOR IT NOW! Believe me, you don't need to like Henry to read this series. Come for more Underland and get attached to him somewhere along the way (it will happen, believe me.)

PLEASE LEAVE ME SOME THOUGHTS AND/OR COMMENTS IF YOU DO CHECK IT OUT :) I cannot be held responsible for any soul-crushing or tears, btw. You read at your own risk :)

... MEANWHILE, I'LL BE OVER IN AHS 3 ... The plan now is to edit everything that exists of that book so far, and then finish the bit of the ending I have left. WISH ME LUCK AND ENJOY!

I have an incredible idea. Hear me out here

Buddy-comedy PJO spinoff where Percy and Grover hunt down the Stingray that killed Steve Irwin.

Why is it that the first thing I thought at the sight of this was "Is that an Underland Chronicles reference?"

how many angry female cows could you fight bare handed do you think

Cows? Those big ones? Realistically probably about 400 before I'd start breaking a sweat.