🌱

hey friend

dont kill yourself tonight ok

you have a really pretty smile and i know its not always easy to manage one but itd be a bummer if we never had the chance to see it ever again

I have gotten some requests for advice on how to write specific characters, but the underlying principles to keeping characterizations canon-compliant can apply to writing anyone in any series. Better yet, this advice may help you come up with character interpretations that feel both canonical yet original (and distinct from mine!).

You can reduce characterization to three basic principles:

1) Habits and speech patterns

Habits and speech patterns serve as “shortcuts” that immediately connect the character to the canon. The audience recognizes these cues and will associate them to the actual character.

Speech patterns are particularly important to keeping a character recognizable. As soon as the speech pattern of a person deviates from canon with no explanation, the suspension of disbelief will break for an audience. A common issue I see in shipping fics is that people will make a character give the love interest a pet name that just would never leave their mouth in canon-compliant situations.

Habits can be verbal tics (e.g. they say “babe” a lot), bodily motions (e.g. touching their hair or pushing up their glasses), behavioural trends (e.g. eating a lot), or even phrases that come up often. The latter I find is underused but very effective. Here’s the thing about people in real life: they will repeat phrases and stories, sometimes even verbatim, to different people! If you lift a line out of the show or book and re-contextualize it, it’ll immediately feel like the canon.

Habits come with two caveats:

Do not overuse the tics. It can be annoying and intrusive, especially when used more frequently than in canon! 

Do not rely too much on these habits for characterization. Your character may come off as a shallow imitation of canon without “substance” if so. 

The next two tips will help give your characterization substance and originality.

2) Drivers in decision-making and thought patterns

People in real life often have patterns in the decisions they make or the thoughts they have because of some kind of underlying motivation, whether or not they are cognizant of it. The same will apply to well-written characters in fiction. Try to think about any significant decisions the character makes in canon and why they might exist. (Hot tip: If these motivations are not explicitly stated in the canon material, this is where you can come up with some extremely juicy headcanons!)

Understanding the fundamental drivers behind the character’s actions will allow you to extrapolate and write what they’d do in the situations in your fanfic. These non-canon situations can include relationships! It’s a common issue for romantic relationships in fanfic to feel OOC because the characters act inconsistently with their canon decision-making and thought patterns solely for their love interest.

Examples of common drivers in fiction:

Abstract values such as freedom, revenge, survival, self-preservation. (If you’re writing anything political, try to figure out how they value conservatism vs liberalism, anarchy vs authoritarianism, etc).

Baggage and trauma relating to familial issues or past relationships, which can often result in maladaptive trends in behaviour or hard-lined moral codes and ideals.

Significant relationships that affect their needs, goals, etc. Pay attention to platonic, familial, or romantic bonds that are strongly featured in the canon.

All these examples are interrelated. Often our abstract values will arise from baggage, which then influence relationships, which in turn influence our values. Try to think about how each of these types of drivers may relate to one another for your characters.

Stories tend to have the most layered characterizations when the author has identified two drivers that are in conflict with one another, or one that leads to opposing behaviours. This can also be the starting point for character growth, whether it’s a hero’s journey or descent into a villain role.

3) Cultural context

Cultural context is a subcategory of drivers that I often find is overlooked. 

The culture in which someone was raised will often influence their decision-making habits, whether they conform to it or outright reject it. Recognizing the cultural context for a character can be very useful for figuring out cool little headcanons or extrapolating behaviour/opinions in the absence of canon material.

Some examples of how culture contributes to behaviour:

The kind of art and hobbies they enjoy, or at least are on their radar. 

Knowledge they would have about certain topics—even mundane things like musical instruments, certain skill sets, etc.

Their judgments on themselves and other characters, as well as the values they’d project onto their relationships.

The actions they would take when trying to conform to social norms of the time period—or even the set of actions that might occur to them!

It’s a pet peeve of mine when characters behave in a way that ignores their cultural context, simply because it won’t feel realistic! Since I’ve been relating this to shipping, I will make this point: what time period and country (or coded culture) is this character in? What are courtship norms like? And, if we’re going to go the nsfw route, what “interests” (haha) would exist?

Here are some quick examples of this analysis applied to two different characters: Hakuryuu Ren (Magi), Daryl Dixon (TWD). These are characters I’ve gotten requests for—let me know if anyone is interested in others!

Actually funny. Not making jokes at other people's expense, not the butt of the joke, just villains that have absurd senses of humour and top-notch intentional comedic timing,

CHARISMA!!! Please, can we have more charming villains, villains that can sway a crowd, villains that get away with things because their too polite, too well-spoken, too funny to possibly to evil.

Respected. Villains whose villainous deeds have led them to success and made them widely respected members of society. To be clear, this isn't respected person who is secretly evil. No. I mean, the bad things they've done are the reason they're respected.

Let them win. Let them win because their plan succeeded. Not because the protagonists fucked up, not by pure luck. Let them earn their victories.

Supporters! Lots of them. The more powerful your villain is, the more supporters they are going to need. If the evil king is unpopular with everyone he's not going to stay king for long. He needs allies, lots of them, especially if he's a tyrant.

Knows how to play the game. Manipulative villains who say whatever they have to to get their way, chose their allies and enemies carefully, bribe and blackmail, play the victim, the hero, or even the innocent when it suits them. Make it hard for your protagonists to convince anyone they are a villain at all.

Cold Steel. Give me villains that don't get angry easy, that laugh things off, that kill because it's efficient and for no other reason.

Clever and creative. Strategists who always have a trick up their sleeve and problem solvers with personal flare.

Show other characters reacting with fear. Nothing rams home how terrifying a villain is quite like watching other powerful characters fall to their knees--fast--when they walk in the room.

Irredeemable despite their tragic backstories. For the love of god people, tragic backstories do not justify a villain's actions. You can have empathy for what they've endured while still expecting them to take responsibility for what they've become.

Unconventionally attractive. Take this however you want. I, for one, would like to see more tortured bad boys who aren't white and shredded. But also, villains whose attractiveness lies in how they talk, their body language and facial expressions, and their outfits. Why do y'all think smirking is such a popular word??

Love. Let them love their spouses, their children, their friends. Not in an abusive way either. Let them have healthy relationships with their still living wives, daughters, sons, comrades in arms etc.

honest - insensitive

persuasive - manipulative

caring - overprotective

confidence - arrogance

fearless - cocky

loyalty - an excuse

devotion - obsession

agreeable - lazy

perfectionism - insatisfaction

reserved - aloof

cautious - skeptical

self loved - selfish

available - distractible

emotional - dramatic

humble - attention-seeking

diligent - imposing

dutiful - submissive

assertive - bossy

strategic - calculated

Also known as the “crisis” or the moment when all hope is lost for your protagonist. The Darkest Hour is when your character hits rock bottom and that “happy ending” just seems unreachable. In this scene, success for your protagonist appears impossible.

What could be a Darkest Hour?

In my opinion, you want your darkest hour to be as dark as possible. Push things to the extreme, create stakes, and hurt your protagonist.  

• Not just any death, but the death of someone your protagonist loves (did your protagonist fail to save them? They now blame themselves.)

• Not just a mild injury, but a serious and life-threatening one (does this injury follow your protagonist into the end of the story? Permanently?)

• Use their fears against them (if they’re afraid of snakes, don’t just have one appear… have them fall into a pit of them.)

• Make your protagonist lose all hope and put their insecurities on full display (they’re embarrassed and ashamed in front of everyone.)

• Attack their mentality just as much as their physicality. (Betrayals, lies, deceptions, self-doubts.)

When does it happen?

Typically, the Darkest Hour occurs right before the climax. Your protagonist is at their all-time low until they have an “a-ha!” moment and gain the hope, strength, or resources to overcome their conundrum and push into the climax of the story.

How does my Protagonist overcome their crisis?

There are numerous ways that your protagonist can trudge out of the mud and gain the strength to continue fighting. They could do it independently and prove themselves a true hero, pull hope from memories and past encounters, receive aid from allies, divine intervention, etc. 

Why is the Darkest Hour Important?

The Darkest Hour is vital to a character’s arc and story because, during their all-time low, their true nature is revealed. Their insecurities, flaws, and fears are all out on the table and the readers get to see them at their most vulnerable. Watching them overcome the crisis shows the reader their growth as a character.

⭐ Show the readers how much your protagonist has grown. If this crisis happened at the beginning of your story, your protagonist would NOT have been able to overcome it. Only through their growth, learning, and plot experiences… are they able to overcome it now.

⭐THIS IS WHERE YOUR PROTAGONIST CAN FINALLY SEE THEIR MISBELIEF/FLAW.

During or after your protagonist’s Darkest Hour is an amazing place for your protagonist to realize the flaw in their thinking (their misbelief). 

Referring back to older posts, your protagonist needs to have a “flaw” or “misbelief”. A false way of thinking that eventually, they will realize is wrong.

• “I’ll never be good enough.” • “Magic is wrong and I will never use it.” • “All aliens are evil and need to be eliminated.” 

This misbelief should have been impeding on your character through the entire plot, causing them conflict and turmoil. After fighting for survival in their darkest moment, they realize they were thinking wrong all along.

• A character reminds your protagonist that they are good enough. • Your protagonist sees magic being used to heal their allies and realizes finally that it can be used for good. • An alien saves your protagonist from a bullet and suddenly your character sees that not all aliens are bad.

Whether you’ve been writing for a long time or want to start, everyone begins in the same place—with a scene.

Not an entire chapter.

A scene.

Here’s how you can make it happen on the page.

Step 1: Have Characters In Mind

Scenes can’t happen without characters. Sometimes you might have a place in mind for a scene, but no characters. Sometimes, it’s the opposite. 

Pick at least two characters if you’ll have external conflict (more on that in step 4). One character can carry a scene with internal conflict, but things still have to happen around them to influence their thoughts/emotions.

Step 2: Give Them Goals

Short stories combine mini scenes into one plot with a beginning/middle/end. Longform manuscripts combine chapters to do the same thing, but with more detail and subplots.

You don’t need to know which form you’re writing to get started.

All you need are goals.

What should your scene do? What does your character(s) want? It will either use the moment to advance the plot or present a problem that the character solves in the same scene/short story.

Step 3: Include the Senses

If you’re recounting an experience to someone, you don’t say, “I had the worst day. My shoes got wet and I couldn’t get home for 10 hours.”

You’d probably say, “I had the worst day. I stepped in a puddle so my shoes got soaked, which made my socks and feet wet all day. Then I had to wait 10 hours to get home. It was miserable! And now my feet smell terrible.”

Okay, you might not use all of those descriptors, but you get the picture. The story is much more engaging if you’re talking about the feeling of wet socks, soaked shoes, and the smell of stinky feet. The other person in your conversation would probably go ugh, that’s horrible!

Your scene should accomplish the same thing. Use the five senses to make the moment real for the reader.

As a reminder, those senses are: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing.

You don’t need to use all of them at once, but include at least two of them to make your stories shine. You also don’t have to constantly use environmental or sensory descriptors. Once you establish the scene for your reader, they’ll place your characters and want to keep the plot moving.

Step 4: Identify the Conflict

Speaking of plot, scenes and stories can’t move forward without conflict. There are two types:

Internal conflict: happens within a single character (may or may not affect their decisions at any given time; it can also be the reasoning for their goals and dreams)

External conflict: happens outside of a character or between two characters (may or may not have to do with their internal conflict or personal goals; it always advances their character growth, relationship development, or plot development)

A scene could touch on either of these types of conflict or both! It depends on your story/plot/what you want your scene to accomplish.

Step 5: Pick a Point of View (POV)

Sometimes you’ll know you want to write a specific POV because you’ll have a character/plot in mind that requires it. Other times, you might not know.

It’s often easier to pick a POV after thinking through the previous steps. You’ll better understand how much time you want to spend in a character’s head (1st Person) or if you want to touch on multiple characters’ minds through 3rd Person.

Example of Setting a Scene

Step 1, Have Characters in Mind: Two sisters arrive back home from their first fall semester in different colleges.

Step 2, Give Them Goals: Sister A wants to ask for dating advice, but the sisters have never been that close. Sister B knows that Sister A wants a deeper conversation, but is doing anything to avoid it.

Step 3, Include the Senses: They’re in a living room with shag navy carpet and the worn leather couches have butt-shaped shadows on the cushions. The house smells of vanilla bean, the only scent their dads can agree on. Christmas lights hang on a fake tree that sheds plastic fir leaves on the floor. Their family cat purrs from within the metal branches.

Step 4, Identify the Conflict: Sister B will do anything to avoid talking about feelings. That includes trying to get the cat out of the tree (shaking the branches and reaching into them doesn’t work), checking to make sure the windows are closed against the winter air, and faking an obviously unreal phone call. This makes Sister A go from passively hoping for advice to chasing her through the house. 

Step 5, Pick a POV: 3rd Person, so internal thoughts and feelings from both sisters are obvious to the reader and emphasize the scene’s comedy.

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These are also useful ways to rethink a scene you’ve already written. If something about it doesn’t seem to be working, consider if it’s missing one or more of these points. You don’t need to include all of them all the time, but weaving more sensory details or conflict into a short story/chapter could solve your problem.

Like, I have plenty of ideas for my characters that I really wanna write, but it’s hard to put stuff into words. Sometimes I just get overwhelmed at the thought of trying to write a story and end up not writing it at all.

That's my best answer, but I have a few more miscellaneous things:

Sometimes intimidation comes because you hang onto the idea that the idea is really good and if you do a bad job executing it it'll... idk, be a shame? Ruin the idea? Either way, you can confidently banish the thought, because you can do literally as many drafts as you have patience for. Didn't like it? No loss, just stash the draft in a file somewhere and give yourself a do-over.

If the hang-up is worrying that the actual image in your mind will change, yeah, it probably will. That's something you have to accept and embrace if you hope to write anything at all. If things go well, the new characters & stories can be made better than the originals.

Also, sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the logistics of it. Frankly I do my best writing when I can forget there's a keyboard in front of me and just G O. It's really hard to describe, but I've heard it said as like... "immerse yourself in the scene, write like you're really there," etc. Just, doing your best to not think about the fact that you've use the word "just" eight times in a paragraph.

writing is a skill! (Actually it's a bunch of skills in a trenchcoat.) If you haven't written much, it's going to be relatively hard at first, but after a few days/weeks/months, it'll get easier.

Start small! When I first started writing, most of what I did were one- or two-page short stories. Write out a moment of your story that you can imagine vividly and consider it done for now. As you practice more, you'll get more comfortable writing stuff that's longer, but you don't have to start with that.

Gonna be honest with y'all, I have never ever written a story completely in order. I am actually incapable of doing that. Even though I write the most detailed outlines known to man before I even think about writing, I still can’t write the scenes in order. I swear by this because I sincerely believe that writing scenes out of order increases my productivity which I’ll talk about later. Even if you haven’t done this before, I recommend everyone try it at least once, so without further ado, here are a few reasons that you should write your stories out of order. 

You Can Write The Ending First

When you write your scenes in order, generally that means that you’re going to write the ending last. In my experience, the ending is one of the most important things in your story, so I recommend that even if you write everything else in order, always write the ending first. Writing the ending first always gives you a light at the end of the tunnel. It gives you a destination to eventually reach. Even when you feel like your story is going absolutely nowhere, it allows you to go back and see what you want the ending to look like from the beginning which should help your motivation and hopefully lessen that pesky writer’s block!

Oh, Those Continuity Issues 

Continuity issues are the absolute worst. I can never seem to remember the way that I described stuff at the end of the book when I’m writing everything back at the beginning. One thing that does get frustrating about writing scenes out of order, is keeping up with continuity like what season it is, what characters have already met, and even who is alive and dead at certain points. Writing scenes in order eliminates these issues because you are writing everything in the order that it happens. I would most definitely recommend keeping an outline or at least a sheet of notes when you’re writing scenes out of order, so that you can keep yourself organized and lessen the continuity issues that you have to go back and fix in later drafts!

You Can Follow Your Inspiration

I plot every scene out extensively, but if I do have an idea for a scene, I immediately write it down and worry about where it fits into the story later. For me, this increases my motivation because at least I’m writing something even if it wasn’t in my original outline. Every story has scenes that aren’t the most interesting, and as writers, those can be the hardest scenes to write. Especially if you write all of the interesting scenes first, you won’t have anything to look forward to when you’re struggling through the more transitional parts of the story. This is just my opinion, but whenever I write in chronological order, my motivation goes down a lot. I like writing whatever scenes I want to write instead of writing what comes next in the story. Knowing that I can write whatever scene I want to next makes me super excited about writing

Sprinkle In That Foreshadowing

If you introduce a named character with a relationship to a protagonist, their character arc must be resolved in a way that feels reasonable and satisfying

✦ if you're tired of using the same repetitive words to describe feelings or actions on your writing, here are some aesthetic words that are not frequently used to help you evolve your vocabulary better and also maybe help you with creative titles <3

ABENDROT: the color of the sky while the sun is setting.

ABIENCE: the strong urge to avoid someone or something.

ACHROOUS: colourless.

AEQUOREAL: marine, oceanic.

AESTHETE: someone with deep sensitivity to the beauty of art or nature.

ALIFEROUS: having wings.

AMITY: warmth and heartfelt friendliness in a friendship; mutual understanding and a peaceful relationship.

AMBROSIAL: fragrant, delicious.

ANTHOMANIA: great love for flowers.

AQUAPHILE: someone who is an enthusiast of all things related to the water.

ARENOCOLOUS: living or burrowing in sand.

ASPERSE: change falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone.

ASTERISM: agroup of stars; a constellation; a cluster of stars.

ATTAR: essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

AUREATE: golden or gilded; brilliant, splendid.

AURICOMUS: with golden or yellow colored foliage.

AVIOTHIC: the strong desire to be up in the air or to fly.

BALTER: to dance artlessly, without particular grace and/or skill but usually with enjoyment.

BATHIC: pertaining to depths, especially of sea.

BELAMOUR: the one who is loved; a beloved person.

BELLICOSTIC: aggressive, belligerent, warlike.

BENEFICENCE: the quality of being kind or helpful or generous.

BERCEUSE: a quiet song intended to lull a child to sleep.

BLÁFAR: indicating the freshness and beauties of youth or health; attractive and possessing charm.

BRONTIDE: the low rumble of a distant thunder.

BURBLE: to speak in an excited manner.

CAELITIS: the divinities who dwell within the celestial planes.

CATHARSIS: the release of emotional tension, especially through kinds of art or music.

CELERITOUS: swift, speedy, fast.

CERAUNOPHILIA: loving thunder and lightning and finding them intensely beautiful.

CHEVELURE: the nebulous tail of a comet.

CINGULOMANIA: a strong desire to hold a person in your arms.

COCCINEOUS: bright red; scarlet.

COCKAIGNE: an imaginary land of luxury and idleness.

CONSTELLATE: to eluster; to compel by stellar influence.

COSMOGYRAL: whirling around the universe.

CORDOLIUM: heartache; heartfelt sorrow.

CORUSCATE: to reflect brillantly, to sparkle.

CRAMOISY: of a crimson color.

CREATURELY: a person who is controlled by others and is used to perform unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else.

CRYSTALLOMANIA: an obsession with crystals and other crystalline objects.

CHRYSALISM: the amnotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.

CLINQUANT: glittering with gold and silver.

CLYSMIC: cleaning, washing.

CUPIDITY: greed for money or possessions.

CYANEOUS: a sky-blue color.

CYNOSURE: guiding star; a object of common interest.

DARKLING: of or related to darkness.

DÉCLASSÉ: having fallen in social status.

DEIFORM: god-like or divine in nature.

DEMERSAL: that lives near the bottom or a body of water.

DESIDERIUM: an ardent longing, as for something lost.

DISPITEOUS: cruel and without mercy.

DOUX: sweet, soft, mild, gentle.

DRACONTINE: belonging to a dragon.

DYSANIA: the state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning.

ECCEDENTESIAST: someone who fakes a smile.

EFFLORESCENCE: a period or state of blooming, blossoming.

ELEGY: a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.

ELEUTHEROPHILIST: someone who advocates free love.

ELYSIAN: beautiful or creative, divinely inspired; peaceful and perfect.

EMACITY: desire or fondness for buying things.

EMPYREAL: pertaining to the sky; celestial.

EPHIALTES: a nightmare; the demon Incubus that supposedly causes a nightmare.

EPICARICACY: the joy that results from others misfortune.

EREMOPHOBIA: the deep fear of stillness, solitude, or deserted places.

ETHEREAL: extremely delicate, light, not of this world.

EUMOIRIETY: happiness due to state of innocence and purity.

FLORENTIS: abounding in flowers; being in bloom and adorned with plentiful flowers.

FREICEADAN: guard, garrison, watch, sentinal.

FULMINATE: cause to explode violently and with loud noise.

FURCIFEROUS: brat; rascally, scandalous.

GLOAMING: twilight, dusk.

GRAME: anger, wrath, scorn; sorrow, grief, misery.

HALCYON: calm and peaceful; happy, prosperous.

HELLION: a rowdy or mischievous person.

HELIOPHILIA: desire to stay in the sun; love of sunlight.

HEAVENIZE: to render like heaven or fit for heaven, to purify and make a holy place or a person.

HENOTIC: promoting harmony or peace.

HIRAETH: a homesickness for a home you can't return to, or that never was.

HOLILY: belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power.

HYPNAGOGIC: the state immediately before falling asleep.

IGNICOLIST: a worshiper of fire.

ILLECEBROUS: attractive and alluring.

IMPLUVIOUS: soaked with rain.

INCANDESCENCE: light produced by high temperatures.

INCALESCENCE: the property of being warming.

INCENDIARY: designed for the purpose of causing a fire, likely to cause anger or violence.

INEFFABLE: too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words.

INSOUCIANT: free from worry, concern or anxiety.

IRENIC: aiming or aimed at peace, promoting peace.

IRIDESCENT: producing a display of rainbow-like colors.

INVIDIARE: to envy.

ISOLOPHILIA: a strong preference and affection for solitude.

KALOPSIA: the delusion of things being more beautiful than they really are.

KALON: beauty that is more than skin deep.

LACONIC: expressing much in a few words.

LACUNA: a blank space; a missing part.

LATIBULE: a hiding place, a place of safety and comfort.

LAMBENT: to glow or flicker softly. Luminous, light or brilliant.

LIMERENCE: the state of being infatuated with another person.

LONGANIMITY: still suffering while planning revenge.

LOUCHE: disreputable; morally dubious.

LUCIFORM: resembling light in appearance; having, in some respects; the nature of qualities of light.

LUMINESCENCE: light produced by chemical, electrical or physiological means.

MALTALENT: the negative emotions of wanting injury or harm to befall someone; a hostile behavior or attitude towards someone considered an enemy.

MARMORIS: the shining surface of the ocean.

MAZARINE: a dark blue color; rich blue or reddish-blue color.

MELIORISM: the belief that the world gets better; the belief that humans can improve the world.

MÉLOMANIE: an excessive and abnormal love and deep attraction to music and melody.

MERCURIAL: subject to sudden or unpredictable changes.

MESMERIC: appealing; drawing attention.

MORDACIOUS: biting or given to biting; biting or sharp in manner; caustic; capable of wounding.

MORPHEAN: of or relating to Morpheus, to dreams, or to sleep.

MOXIE: courage, nerve, determination.

NEBULOCHAOTIC: a state of being hazy and confused.

NEFARIOUS: wicked, villainous, despicable.

NEMESISM: frustration, anger or aggression directed inward, toward oneself and one's way of living.

NERITIC: pertaining to shallow coastal waters.

NOETIC: of or associated with or requiring the use of mind.

NOIRCEUR: the state of being pitch black in color; a state of lacking illumination.

NUBIVAGANT: wandering in the air, moving through the air.

NUMINOUS: spiritual or supernatural; surpassing comprehension or understanding; mysterious.

ONEIRODYNIA: restless, disturbed sleep, characterized by nightmares and sleepwalking.

OPHIOMORMOUS: snake-like.

ORPHIC: mysterious and entrancing, beyond ordinary understanding.

PETRICHOR: the scent of rain on dry earth.

POIESIS: creation; creative power or ability.

PORPHYROUS: purple; of purple hue.

PRATE: to talk excessively and pointlessly.

PROCELLOUS: tempestuous, stormy.

QUIDDITY: the essence of something.

QUIXOTIC: extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical or impracticable.

RANTIPOLE: a wild, reckless young person; to be wild and reckless.

REDAMANCY: the act of loving the one who loves you; a love returned in full.

REDOLENT: having a strong distinctive fragrance; serving to bring to mind.

REMEANT: coming back, returning.

RESPLENDENT: having brilliant or glowing appearance; dazzling and impressive in appearance through being richly colorful or sumptuous.

REVERIE: a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream.

RODOMEL: juice of roses mixed with honey.

ROSEATE: rose-like; overly optimistic.

RUTILANT: glowing or glittering with red or gold light.

SANGUINEOUS: accompanied by bloodshed.

SASHAY: to strut or move about in an ostentatious or conspicuous manner.

SCIAMACHY: a battle against imaginary enemies; fighting your shadow.

SEQUACIOUS: lacking independence of originality of thought.

SERAPHIC: beautiful and pure; having a sweet nature befitting an angel or a cherub; of or relating to an angel of the first order.

SERENDIPITY: finding something good without looking for it.

SKINT: having little or no money avaliable.

SOLIVAGANT: someone who wanders or travels the world alone; a solitary adventurer.

SOMNIATE: to dream, to make sleepy.

SORTIGER: delivering prophecies of the future; having the qualities of being oracular.

STELLIFEROUS: having or abonding with stars.

STELLIFY: to transform from an earthly body into a celestial body; to place in the sky as such.

SUCCIDUOUS: ready to fall, falling.

SPUME: a white mass of bubbles or froth on the top of a wave.

SYNODIC: relating to or involving the conjunction of stars, planets or other celestial objects.

TARANTISM: the uncontrollable urge to dance.

TEMENOS: a sacred circle where no one can be oneself without fear.

THANATOPHOBIA: fear of death.

TYYNEYS: the state of peacefulness; absent of worry or fear, being composed and at ease.

ULTRAMARINE: beyond the sea; greenish-blue color.

VELLEITY: a wish or inclination not strong enough to lead to action.

VENERATION: a profound emotion inspired by a deity.

VESPERTINE: in or of the evening; setting at the same time as, or just after, the sun.

VERDANT: with plants and flowers in abundance.

VERMEIL: a liquid composition applied to a gilded surface to give luster to the gold.

VERTICORDIOUS: to turn the heart from evil.

VIOLESCENT: tending toward violet color.

VORFREUDE: the joyful anticipation that comes from imagining future pleasures.

WANDERLUST: a strong desire to travel and explore the world.

WHIST: to hush or silence; to still, to become still.

Employ the causal chain - every action must be connected to what comes before and after. Each action and beat needs to have impact. They don't all need to be shown but the author needs to know what they are. It is impossible to build suspense without this principle. Things can't happen "just because" or there's no reason for the audience to become engaged with your sequence of events or do things like make predictions. All subsequent rules follow from this principle.

When showing a new type of fictional magic or science, you must show it work before you can show it break. For example, if a character has the ability to summon objects into their hand, we need to see them do so successfully and see how it works, before we see it break at a critical moment during the climax. Otherwise, the audience can't be expected to follow why this situation is unusual because they don't know how it works during normal circumstances.

When claiming a character is good at something, you must show them succeeding at it before you show them failing at it during a moment of pressure. Otherwise, we don't believe you when you establish your character's competence or badassery. For example, when saying your character is an excellent military commander, we need to see them win a fight using those skills and tactics. We can't open with a fight they lose, or else the character and author lose credibility. By all means, show the experienced hero/military leader/ruler/assassin/mage etc break down during a moment of intense pressure, fall down sobbing in terror at a truly insurmountable foe, or otherwise fail to meet the moment, but don't do this before we've seen them succeed at least once, or the moment loses impact.

During the build-up of tension, coincidences should hurt the hero and help the antagonist. This plays into the causal chain rule. Coincidences that help the hero feel cheap. Coincidences that help the villain raise the tension.

Every beat, whenever possible, should be connected to conscious action by central characters (hero, love interest, or villain). The more events are connected to purposeful action by key characters, the more satisfying the causal chain for the reader.

Well, after a very long, unexpected House of the Dragon fandom break, we are now back to our regularly scheduled writing program! Funnily enough, this is kind of House of the Dragon related because today we are talking about writing plot twists. And not just any plot twists, plot twists that make sense and don’t leave your reader wanting to pull their hair out and throw your book across the room. Writing plot twists is a lot harder than it looks. I know that when I read a book with a great plot twists that I actually didn’t see coming, I always wanna give the writers a little round of applause because that is impressive my friends. Especially in the day and age of super common tropes and readers’ having particular expectations, it’s always nice when there’s a new innovative twist out there. Worry not, here are a few simple twists that will help you on your way to writing the best plot twist for your story!

WWTRD??

What would the reader do, my friends? In order to write a good plot twist, you need to try and put yourself in the shoes of the reader who will actually be reading this. This might seem like a pretty obvious tip, but it’s one of the most simple and effective ones out there! As you’re going through your story or even your outline, write down all of the ways that you would normally expect the story to go. What potential twists and turns immediately come to mind? Write every single one of those down and then make sure that your plot twist does not include any of them. Especially if you read and write in the same genre (like I do, fantasy and sci-fi all the way), then your brain probably works in the same way as most of your readers. Like I mentioned above, people who always read in the same genre are used to the conventions and standards of their genre. Unfortunately for us writers, that makes it a lot harder to come up with a plot twist. I recommend looking at the list of plot twists that we’re going to throw out and writing down the opposite of all of those. That’s always good advice, imo. If you feel like your story is getting too predictable, take it in the complete opposite direction. When even you’re surprised by what’s going on, you’re on the right track!

Bread Crumbs a la Hansel and Gretel

The original versions of fairytales are absolutely terrifying. I had to look into them for one of my English classes and boy, oh boy, childhood = ruined. Anyways, just like Hansel and Gretel with their little bread crumbs, you want to subtly guide the readers’ attention away from any potential plot twist, so the twist is all the more surprising. You always want to make your readers think they know what’s going on, then flip all of that on its head. There are a lot of different tools that you can use to do that like red herrings, false flags, or other types of MacGuffins. These decoys deliberately plant false clues, or other misinformation that leads the reader in the wrong direction. Sometimes, they even lead the reader to even think they have reached the happy ending only to reveal their devious nature. HOWEVER, you will noticed that subtly is bolded above because please remember the subtly. This is another one of my big problems with YA fiction because some YA writers seem to think that kids are like legitimately stupid. That’s why I don’t think, imo, there’s been a YA book with an absolutely great plot twist in a while because YA writers tend to spoon-fed their readers everything and try too hard to steer readers in the wrong direction. Readers notice when writers do this, and you don’t want it to happen.

BFFR

Be fricken for real, guys, and that means not only ensuring that your plot twist is believable and necessary but also MAKES SENSE. Plot twists making sense is a problem that seems to have popped up in the last five years in all genres not just YA, I would say. Authors seem to focus a lot on the part of the definition of plot twists that says sudden, unexpected and shocking change of direction whilst ignoring the part that includes realistic and reasonable. To me, the realistic and reasonable part is almost more important. If a super unpredictable plot twist pops up out of nowhere without even relating to the story, of course I’m gonna be surprised. Does that mean I’m going to be surprised? No, it does not. Which leads us to the most important lesson: SHOCK VALUE FOR THE SAKE OF SHOCK VALUE IS NOT GOOD. It’s just not. That means not resorting to gimmicks or having a plot twist just to have one. Just like everything else in your story, plot twists should serve to further the story in some way. Not every story needs a plot twist, and some stories are far better off without them!

Phone a Friend!