WEIRDLY SPECIFIC BUT HELPFUL CHARACTER BUILDING QUESTIONS

It is well-known that if you give your name or eat the food of a Fey, they have power over you, and in turn own you. You decided this wasn’t a terrible deal.

some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.

Structuring Your Fight Scene

adapted from <Writer's Craft> by Rayne Hall

Suspense

Show your characters gearing up, readying themselves.

The pace is slow, the suspense is high (use suspense techniques)

Provide information about terrain, numbers, equipment, weapons, weather.

May have dialogue as the opponents taunt each other, hurl accusations, or make one final effort to avoid the slaughter.

Don't start too early - we don't need to see the hero getting out of bed, taking a shower and having tea.

2. Start

Fighters get into fight stance: knees slightly bent, one leg forward, abdominal muscles tensing, body turned diagonally, weapons at the ready.

Each side will usually try to be the first to strike, as this will give them advantage.

The movements in this section need to be specific and technically correct.

3. Action

This section may be quick or prolonged. If prolonged, no blow-by-blow descriptions are needed.

Focus on the overall direction of the fight

Make use of the location to make characters jump, leap, duck, hide, fall, etc.

Mention sounds of weapons

4. Surprise

Something unexpected happens: building catches fire, a downpour, relief force arrives, staircase collapses, bullet smashes into the only lightbulb and everything goes dark, hero losses his weapon, etc.

Add excitement, raise the stakes.

5. Climax

Both sides are tired and wounded

The hero is close to giving up, but is revived with passion

Move to the terrain's most dangerous spot: narrow swining rope-bridge, a roof-edge, sinking ship, etc.

Don't rush the climax! Hold the tension

6. Aftermath

The fight is over: bes buddies lying dead, bandaging, reverberating pain, etc.

Use sense of sight and smell

The hero may experience nausea, shaking, tearfulness or get sexually horny

Fight scene length

Historical/adventure/fantasy: 700-1000w

Romance: 400-700w

Ten origin stories for Dungeons & Dragons sorcerers that aren’t “my mom fucked a dragon”:

Sorcerer who attained their powers by practising bending reality to their will for thirty minutes every morning, and is honestly baffled when people try to explain that magic doesn’t work like that  

Sorcerer who was incredibly unlucky and kept getting struck by lightning, and after the seventh or eight time it sort of stuck  

Sorcerer who claims to be a god of calamity and ruin, and they’re actually telling the truth – they just happen to be a very small god of calamity and ruin  

Sorcerer who tried some pipeweed they found in a beholder’s stash and experienced some unusual long-term effects  

Sorcerer whose parents learned the hard way why you’re not supposed to get frisky on the night of a lunar eclipse (answer: because you end up with a baby who can conjure knives)  

Sorcerer who’s a time traveller from an unimaginably distant future where people can just do that  

Sorcerer who spent four minutes technically dead due to one of those incidents that begin with the phrase “watch this”, and woke up with slight brain damage and power over unearthly spirits  

Sorcerer who’s been cursed to die in a fire, and the curse is fulfilling itself in an extremely roundabout way  

Sorcerer who was supposed to be an ogre mage’s dinner, but the ogre mage had been brewing potions the night before and didn’t clean their cauldron before dunking the poor kid into the soup  

Sorcerer who got so angry one day that they spontaneously developed the ability to set things on fire with their brain

I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

(save the images to zoom in on the pics)

Write a piece about a sudden change of plans

Learning magic is an arduous journey, requiring sacrifice and dedication. Your parents made you give up your childhood to study magic—only after completing your studies do you learn that most other mages actually choose to start in adulthood.

“I was already a hedonistic creature, but with you around I can barely tear myself from this bed.”

🍂 september poems 🍂

September 1913, William Butler Yeats

The Imprint of September Second, Ethan Gilsdorf

September, Joanne Kyger

Drowning in September, Eric Pfeiffer 

September, H Stuart

September Tomatoes, Karina Borowicz

One September Night, Franco Fortini

September Sunday, Lucille Broderson

September, 1918, Amy Lowell

September Midnight, Sara Teasdale

Monday, September 25, 2006, Susan Schultz

One September Afternoon, Leo Dangel

You allowed your child to join the vampire hunters against your better instincts. A decade later, they return home for dinner with a vampire spouse.