* 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐄 𝐁𝐘 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐄.

* 𝐀 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐑𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑             – 𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐑 𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐔𝐏 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃 !

sass is great, and so is silence — but when aren’t they using their biting wit? when do they speak up? do they use their ass-kicking skills for good? for evil? have they lost people along the way — actually, it’s inevitable, so what happened after the funeral? did your character attend? did they seek revenge, or search for answers at the bottom of a bottle? 

don’t toss around tragedies if you’re not going to apply them to your characterization. alcoholics aren’t just loud and physically abusive; ptsd doesn’t mean you’ve boarded up the windows and refuse to leave your house. you won’t always continue to hate your parents after they’ve died. you will doubt your life decisions. being rich doesn’t make you sexy. being smart doesn’t make you socially awkward [ alternatively, it doesn’t make you the most attractive person in the room. ] even if you’re wicked smart, you’ll still get some things wrong. 

do your research. if you put your character through traumatic events, not everyone walks away unscathed. but being haunted by the ghosts of your past doesn’t make you attractive either. it’s a nitty gritty, dirty fucking business. you get mad, your world loses color, you feel alone, and sometimes you ask yourself why you’re the one who lived. 

treat your character like their own person. just because you wouldn’t say something to someone doesn’t mean they’ll keep their trap shut. it doesn’t mean they’ll want a big wedding or fast cars or apple pie made the way your mother taught you. maybe you’re pro-life and your character is pro-choice. maybe it’s vice versa. just because your character is a dick doesn’t mean it should be a reflection on yourself. but if they’re going to be a dick, and you want it to be believable, give them a reason to be a dick. a reason to hate the world, only slightly less than they hate the people living in it. maybe more. maybe it’s maybelline.

“There are some who have walls yet to climb          /          You and I on the fly, just in time          /           but tonight there’s a sky          /           and quite a view.

Welcome to my Petersburg.“   x

❛ you can’t keep it a secret. ❜

❛ it’s our secret, okay? please. ❜

❛ i know what love is because of you. ❜

❛ how are you doing today? i know you don’t want to answer my questions. ❜

❛ there’s no going back. not for you, not for me, not for any of us. ❜

❛ still don’t trust me? ❜

❛ give us a reason to trust you. ❜

❛ you helped us once. what we can’t figure out is why you stopped. ❜

❛ there is no one in the world i have known better. ❜

❛ you had your past lives. i had mine too. ❜

❛ when i put that ring on your finger, i made you a promise, and i’m going to keep that promise. i’m going to marry you. i can’t believe in a future where that doesn’t happen, because it would be no future at all. ❜

❛ [name]’s not doing anything until [name]’s had a fucking cup of coffee. ❜

❛ how can a child be this brave? ❜

❛ there’s nowhere to go from here except home. ❜

❛ i have no home. ❜  

❛ one bullet ends all this shit. ❜

❛ you look a lot like this woman who kicked my ass a couple times. ❜

❛ are you saying you miss me, [name]? ❜

❛ i’ve been staring at this screen for so long even my glasses are sore. ❜

❛ no more carbs in the house! ❜

❛ i am definitely not panicking, but i just received a very, very worrying email. ❜

❛ [name], if i’m caught by these men, they will kill me. ❜

❛ i don’t know about you, but i’m not good with heights. ❜ 

❛ and here i thought i was the one with the big secrets. ❜

❛ i love you, [name]. and this feeling hasn’t gone away or been changed by learning that the woman i love is so much more than the woman i married. ❜

❛ vive la résistance, or how you say in english, fuck off. ❜

❛ is it easy for you to sound like a creepy villain or is it something you have to work at? ❜    

❛ we both know that if i pulled this trigger, no one would shed a tear. ❜

❛ the smallness of your life is nothing to fear, only pity. ❜ 

❛ [name], i pray that one day we will emerge from this darkness. ❜

❛ let’s nip in the bud all this nonsense about dying. ❜

❛ come on. pull that fucking trigger. you chicken-fucking shit! come on, show me your certainty! you cockless fuck, do it! ❜       

❛ do you think we have any chance of surviving this? ❜  

❛ sorry, lover, this is goodbye. ❜

❛ never been to paris. i hear people fall in love here all the time. ❜

❛ [name], most men wouldn’t have done what you did for me. i’ll never forget it. ❜

❛ [name], you are so much more than the man i thought i’d married. ❜ 

❛ i never knew what it was like to have people in your life that would fight for someone like me. thank you. ❜     

❛ after everything we’ve been through, would any of us go back to the world we’re used to? ❜

❛ oh my god! i can’t believe you’re here and not in a lot of little pieces. ❜

❛ let me guess, this is your ‘this is hopeless, [name], turn back now’ speech? ❜

❛ you’re not a revolutionary, just another collaborator. ❜

❛ someone will survive this war. that someone will be me. ❜  

❛ my wife! you’re a killer! can you teach me? ❜

❛ first, this isn’t a real gun, it’s a taser. ❜

❛ well, is anyone going to do anything? or are you just going to let me die in your arms? ❜

❛ stay with me. you said i couldn’t give up. you can’t either. ❜

❛ to think i might never have kissed these lips again. ❜

❛ sir, the day i met your daughter was the best day of my life. ❜

❛ thank you for being my family. ❜

❛ i’m afraid of things pretending to be permanent because nothing is permanent. ❜ 

❛ i can think of no better life than watching you change, evolve and grow. ❜