They mean EVERYTHING to me. 🧡🤍🩷 #ABCPride

bobby is a childless parent and buck is a parentless child but you can get more specific than that and point out that they're missing the same period of time of those relationships. i'm not doing the full maths but Bobby jr. was around 11 or 12 when he died and Maddie tried her best (as a child herself) to nurture Buck until she left when he was again around 11 or 12. so when buck and bobby meet they jump into a father/teen dynamic. bobby literally teaches buck to tie a tie, did we miss him teaching him to shave off screen? i'd believe it.

so when i look at the lawsuit arc what i see is teenage rebellion. buck is pushing at the edges of bobby's love for him. he grew up with with parents who had one specific condition for their love and he failed that before he could talk. so now he does have an adult who does love him without conditions and truly wants the best for him he can't understand that there aren't edges this time, that bobby will love him regardless, because when there wasn't edges before it was because there wasn't love. but as an adult he has access to much more permanent and destructive means of rebellion than stomping to his room and slamming his door, even though that's essentially what he's doing.

as for bobby, there's obviously the guilt over being the cause of buck's harm (he wasn't) which gets all mixed up in his guilt over the apartment fire. then on top of that, he's a father trying to stop his child from making his mistakes. it's my understanding that most parents have a moment during their child's teen years where they realise they need to make their own mistakes because that's how you learn and grow. bobby is an amazing father but he didn't get the opportunity to get that far before now and he handles it clumsily.

Write like you mean it, then cut half. Your first draft is always bloated with words you thought sounded good in the moment. Get it all down, then grab the knife. Half of it is throat-clearing. The guts will still be there after you trim.

Verbs carry the weight, make them strong. "He walked slowly across the room" is nothing compared to "He dragged himself across the room." Strong verbs do the heavy lifting so you don't need adverbs tap-dancing behind them.

Adjectives are seasoning, not the meal. Pile on too many and you smother the meat. Use a few sharp, precise ones that bite. "A chipped coffee mug," tells you more than "a small, old, dirty, white coffee mug."

Dialogue = tension + subtext, not small talk. No one cares about the weather unless it's hiding something bigger. Characters talk to dodge, deflect, provoke, seduce, or wound. Strip it down to what hurts or reveals.

Description needs teeth, anchor it in real objects. Skip the floaty, vague mood-setting. Give me the cracked leather chair, the chipped countertop, the cigarette burn in the rug. Readers need something they can see, smell, or touch.

Kill your crutch words. Just, still, really, that, very. They're dead weight. Once you spot them, you'll see them everywhere. Slice them the fuck out. Your sentences will stand straighter without the crutches.

If it doesn't serve plot, character or mood, it's dead weight. That page you love about the rainstorm? If it doesn't push the story or reveal who your character is, it's a pretty corpse. Bury it in a notes file, not your draft.

Swearing is spice: use it to sting, not smother. A well-placed "fuck" cuts sharper than a dozen lazy ones. Overdo it and it's background noise. Swear when it hits like a slap, not when you're board.

Every sentence should earn rent on the page. Ask yourself: doe this line move the story, reveal character, or nail the atmosphere? If not, it's squatting. Evict it.

"aww!" they said, "it's a flag!!"

but the thing is: they're little. a lot of them don't really have a handle on all their mouth sounds yet.