BILAL_UNBOUND

𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐲𝐤𝐨𝐬

・The Reaper had his eye on you ever since you met.

・You weren't a Gold, or a soldier, but you wanted to be apart of the revolution.

・Placing a gun in your hands made Darrow uneasy. Moreso than the others.

・He was the one that taught you how to use it; Darrow found ways for you to be alone together.

・But he was never honest with himself. Never let the love he had for you, be felt within him.

・Because you could be taken from him. Just like so many others were.

・And he didn't know if he could survive that.

・So, it wasn't until you were taken.

・The heard the gunshots, then your comms failed.

・His mind only played a word, a two letter word: 'No, no, no, no.' Over and over again.

・He ran down to the hanger. Telling the nearest pilot to gear up. His was going after you.

・But somehow your comms reconnected. You were badly injured, but on your way back to him.

・Everyone left the medbay when the Reaper walked in, eyes red-rimmed, he knelt beside your bed. Took your hand, and kissed your knuckles.

"You cannot do that again.," he looked you at you; his golden eyes watering.

"If something happens to you. I will not survive it. Because ... I-I ...I love you."

𝑹𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆 ▸ Slow burn ▸ Pining & Yearning

𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐫𝐨 𝐚𝐮 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐚

・He finds you in your quarters.

・Acting completely un-Sevro-like. His hands are in his pockets.

・He's actually clean for once. No dirt or blood on his body or clothes.

・And even once the door closes, he's doesn't walk towards you. Sevro hesitates. His red eyes dart towards you then at the floor. He cannot look at you for too long.

"Sev? You okay?"

・He coughs, rubbing the bag of his neck. His mohawk is perfectly done

・He has a few bruises on his exposed skin. Many scars. Many, many scars.

"Yeah, yeah uh-"

・You get up from your desk to walk over to him. Crossing your arms, you cock your head and wait.

"Talk."

"Right- I um..."

・You give him a minute. But you start to get worried. What if he's sick? What if he's dying?

"Sevro tell me right now!"

"Fuck! Fine! I bloody damn love you! Okay?" He quiets. Then looks away, takes a breath and looks you in the eyes.

"I love you with everything I have. Everthing I am."

・You stand still.

・And let out a breath of relief.

𝑹𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆 ▸Feral Love ▸More Alike Than Not

𝐑𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐫 𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐬

・Feelings are shown differently by the Obsidians.

・They are more open, more poetic in their emotions. And feeling love -

・It feels more heavy ... more enveloping

・And that's exactly how Ragnar feels

・As he stands face to face with you (having to kneel down to see your face) He does not smile.

・It's outside, stars above you, grass below.

・You had been drinking along with the other Howlers and Ragnar had pulled you aside.

・Just within the treeline, you watch him as he watches you. A blush blooms across both your cheeks.

・His hand reaches out and touches your chest; exactly where your heart is. You gasp:

"I need to tell you," Ragnar whispers in his mighty voice.

・His attention makes it hard to breathe.

"You can tell me anything, Ragnar," you reply in a hush voice, finding it difficult to keep eye contact. Ragnar doesn't find it hard at all.

"You are the air I breathe," he takes your hands in his big ones. He's warm. Even without a shirt.

"And I can't think about anyone else. You are on my mind, even during grave missions."

・You laugh. But he doesn't.

・You're feeling warmer and warmer. Then he pulls you closer.

"May I - may I kiss you?"

𝑹𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆 ▸ Different Cultures ▸Soulmates

𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐮 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐚

・You only new the older Cassius, not the young, petty, dramatic Golden prince who wanted to keep the Society.

・No, you met the mature Cassius; and you still hated him.

・Well, you called it hate. When really you were head over heels for him but didn't feel good enough.

・He was the most handsome man you had ever met. Curly golden locks, tanned skin, dimples when he smiled.

・Hell, he was nearly 7 ft tall.

・And he had such charm that you blushed 1. whenever you were in the same room with him and 2. whenever you thought about him

・Little did you know, he cared about you deeply.

・And he didn't think he deserved anything good. Because Cassius was too ashamed of his past. Too ashamed of his actions.

・But with more time spent together, he made you feel so at ease, that your guard started to slip

・Small physical affection started; bumping shoulders while sitting next to each other. Moving the hair from your face. Sparring but getting closer then what was necessary.

・One day, you two were doing your normal routine. When you turned to face him and he was already so close. Nearly nose to nose.

・You let out a sound. A sound that captured how you felt inside: wrecked and devoted.

・His hand cupped the back of your neck and pulled you forward. His plush lips meeting yours in a politely passionate embrace.

・It only escalated when he pulled back, releasing what he had done. You didn't want to stop. So you pulled him back in. By grabbing his cheeks.

・He moaned and bit your bottom lip.

・Breaking apart, you were both stunned. You could not speak.

・But of course Cassius could -

"I have wanted to do that for weeks."

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

kindergarten

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawnshop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

windmill

wishing well

After I figure out what the main event is gonna be, I start writing and once I complete that event I end it and move on. I try not to carry on too much after the main event has finished because I feel like my chapters might drag if I do.

Writing the chapter:

When it comes to a chapter, I try to have a beginning, middle, and end section. (Keep in mind this doesn’t work for every chapter.) Let me explain what I meant about those sections. The event in this example is Nix and Dante are tryna get information, but something goes wrong after they get said information. So the chapter starts at the beginning where Nix and Dante enter a secured location. The middle is where they get passed all of the alarms and hacked into the network. The ending is they got the information but an alarm gets triggered anyway.

Expanding the chapter:

So, I wrote the beginning, middle, and end, the event is done, but it was kind of boring. Let’s expand it to them escaping. This is where I think chapters start to become long. Some people combine two events into one chapter and some events are longer than others. Escaping a secured facility sounds more difficult than sneaking in. So, adding an escape attempt can spice up the chapter, but you need to be careful with how you do it.

I think when people complain about long chapters, one of their reasoning is “This feels like it could’ve been split into two chapters”. It might be the fact there are two separate events, both with their beginning, middle, and ends. If you want to expand upon your chapter, I would change how the beginning, middle, and end originally played out so it feels more natural when you go from one event to the next. This will take practice and beta readers can help if a chapter sounds too long or just right.

So instead of sneaking into a place, getting the information and having to escape. I would get rid of the middle part where Nix and Dante were sneaking and just show them entering the building, maybe talk for a few paragraphs before they reach their end goal because I already know escaping is gonna add several more pages. It’s a trial and error, and some readers might prefer the sneaking portion, while others might enjoy the fast pace. The end result is what do you like?

Continuing chapters:

What about chapters that don’t need a beginning, middle and end? Those chapters are what I call, continuing chapters. The most obvious examples of continuing chapters are the final climax of a story, like a big battle. The big battle might take multiple chapters to get through, and starting at the beginning, middle, and end of each chapter where the main event is the final fight, might get a bit tiresome. A simplified way of taking a large event, like a big fight, and breaking it over several continuing chapters is having each chapter be its own thing. Let’s say it takes three chapters to finish the final confrontation. The first chapter is the beginning, so there’s lots of build-up, but nothing too bad. The second chapter is the middle and is normally the longest out of the three. It’s the one with the most fighting and maybe a character dies at the end as a cliffhanger. The third chapter is where the villain is defeated and the fight is over thrust concluding the three sections.

That was a very simplified way of explaining continuing chapters, but yeah, not every event can be told in a single chapter, sometimes you have to space them out a bit. I would recommend letting the readers know that said event will most likely take a long time to complete so they'll be aware it's gonna be a long read.

Length of a chapter:

People often ask, how long should a chapter be, and there’s no real answer to that. Some can be a page, and I’ve seen others that are thirty. (Looking at you DragonFire). I personally don’t try to go for a word count or page limit. Often times when I try to make my chapters reach a certain goal, I find there’s a lot of filler that could’ve been cut. This is why I like to write my chapters as if I were writing an event and just focus on the event itself. If I need to expand or get rid of something, I can do that later.

My chapters are normally three pages in length, whenever I go over that, I try to tell my readers the next upcoming chapters will be long. This kind of tactic will depend on your story of course, but let’s go back to Nix and Dante.

In the example, Nix and Dante went into a secured location, took some information and got caught, now they needed to escape. If I want to add the escape portion in the same chapter because breaking in was kind of short, I might tell the reader before said chapter even began that “This mission won't be an easy one”, or “You’ll need to be real careful stealing the information because if you get caught, guards will come.” So, by the time Nix and Dante do get caught, the reader should be aware, the chapter will continue for a few more pages.

Oh yeah, if you’re gonna write a long chapter, make sure to have at least one smaller chapter to break it up. (DragonFire) Having long chapters, after long chapters, is, at least for me, very tiring. I don’t like to stop reading midway through a chapter, but reading thirty pages in a day is very difficult. So if you know you have some long chapters, throw in a few short ones.

Readers might also hate long chapters because they feel like there’s a bit too much filler in them. (Filler-in chapters aren’t the same thing as filler chapters).

Filler-in chapters might appear in one of two ways, either there’s too much filler to get to the main event, or there’s too much filler and the chapter should’ve ended already. Beta readers are a good way of telling you if there’s filler in a chapter or not. Keep in mind, that you, as the writer know what’s best for your story. Readers can only tell you how they feel. If you feel the “filler” part isn’t filler, but a lot of people say it is. Finding a workaround can be difficult. Unfortunately, I don’t have any advice on this kind of topic because this kind of writing problem is unique for every writer. Writing groups might be able to help as they’ll have your text and can help figure out what's going on.

Filler chapters:

There’s nothing wrong with filler chapters. Not every chapter needs to focus on the main story. I personally like filler chapters. They’re fun chapters which explore the characters and the world. A bit of a refresher after an intense fight is fine. When people complain about filler chapters, it’s often because there’s a bit too much of them. Or they came out of nowhere and killed the pacing. For example, if everything has been dark and gritty, having a chapter that’s more on the upbeat side is strange. Also if the chapter ends with a character's death and the next one ignores it, readers might not like that. This is one of the reasons why I don’t like POV swapping between every chapter. If someone dies in character (A) POV, and the next chapter switches to character (B) POV where they’re on the beach…I might get a bit annoyed. Even if Character (B) POV isn’t filler, I just witnessed someone die, I wanna know what’s going on and not swap to another POV.

Also filler chapters tend to be on the shorter side as well. If a filler chapter goes on a bit too long, then it might feel like the story is losing its focus a bit.

Beta readers can help point out which chapters are filler and where to add in filler if that's something you want to do.

Chapter Endings:

Ending a chapter is always interesting, do you want to end it with a cliffhanger or not? Does your chapter flow smoothly from one to the other? I don’t mind cliffhanger endings but try not to make every chapter a cliffhanger. At some point it becomes a bit much for some readers such as myself, I prefer to stop reading at a good stopping point. Cliffhangers aren’t a stopping point, I need to see what’s gonna happen next. Creating a cliffhanger after a long chapter, for me is a bit much. Long chapters already drain me, and forcing me to continue to get to an actual stopping point will make me enjoy your book less. (I understand no one is forcing me to read a book, but I just really, really hate stopping at cliffhangers). Not to mention if there are multiple cliffhangers in a row, I might put the book down and not pick it up for a long time because I’ll have no idea how many cliffhangers I’ll have to deal with before getting to an actual pause in the story. Personally, as a reader, I feel like there needs to be good stopping points. Places where it’s safe to stop reading and the reader can pick it back up later.

If you end a chapter in a city and the next one starts in a jungle, that kind of scene change might be a bit confusing so again, just send it through a couple of beta readers and see how you did with the transition portion of going from one chapter to the next. The same thing goes for tone as well. If the last chapter ends with a death, and the next one is in a circus, the tone shift might be a bit much. Just pass it along with a beta reader.