acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt

what would completely break your character?

what was the best thing in your character’s life?

what was the worst thing in your character’s life?

what seemingly insignificant memories stuck with your character?

does your character work so they can support their hobbies or use their hobbies as a way of filling up the time they aren’t working?

what is your character reluctant to tell people?

how does your character feel about sex?

how many friends does your character have?

how many friends does your character want?

what would your character make a scene in public about?

for what would your character give their life?

what are your character’s major flaws?

what does your character pretend or try to care about?

how does the image your character tries to project differ from the image they actually project?

KNIFE SUMMER | BACKSTORY (2020) by @evergrcen

She soon faded into obscurity, and really it was for the best. The girl was a raving lunatic by the end of it all. It was a good thing that no one had expected her to inherit, anyway. 

[all film edits] [wip tag] [intro] [photos]

TURKEYS     VOTING     FOR     CHRISTMAS;                    /                    wip     intro.  

                        it     was     also     right     about     then     that     she     realized     that     she     could     have     every     inch     of     nija’s     body     pressed     against     hers     and     she’d     still     say:     “come     closer.”

                          this     was     never     going     to     be     enough.

     destin bridges is enjoying her quite life.

     sure, it is not much. it rarely ever is. she lives at river valley school of arts where her mother and her mother’s mother and her mother’s mother’s mother all went to, a school that’s halfway a family tradition and halfway a certificate. her days are silent and her nights are peaceful and nothing wrong ever happens.

     then comes nija soledad.

     nija is chaos. she runs as she pleases, debates as she pleases, argues—talks back—does not repent her mistakes; she is everything destin has been warned against and she is everything destin has ever wanted to be. free spirited, untamed, uncaring—these are things she can’t be no matter how much she tries.

     but more than that, she believes in her when destin tells her that otis mayburn, a girl who died two days ago, is not dead.

AHHHHHH THANK U GUYS SO MUCH

—The Pinnacle of Art; by @ambrosichor

Vincent, do you ever wonder what life would be like if things were different?

She looked at me with the same tenderness she had given me that night as she laid in my arms. I already have.

related links —

[page | intro | tag | cordelia’s intro | cordelia’s tag]

taglist —

@evergrcen @lucamused @goldbonne @yourwriters @semblanche @psych-analysis @theforgottencoolkid @ekaloi @vigilantscar @inkstarlight @elsieiswriting​ @vandorens​ @prettybutpainful @qelizhus​

Hiding information from your readers on purpose will help you create tension in your novel. I know this doesn’t work for every novel, but if you’re writing something with elements of suspense and mystery, hiding details and revealing them later will improve your story. This also helps add dimensions to your characters and explore their motivations on a deeper level.

Here are a few things to hide about your characters to create tension:

Whether or not your protagonist is lying

Even good characters lie, especially if they feel like it will protect other people in the long run. There are ways to hint that your character is hiding the truth without actually revealing what the truth is. If your protagonist gets nervous or changes the subject when they’re asked about a specific detail, this will help show your readers that something isn’t quite right. If your character’s deception is hidden and then revealed at the right time, you’ll be able to add exciting tension and shock value to your story.

Who the real villain is

Some of the best tension is created when we’re uncertain about who the real villain is. In mystery/crime novels, for example, there’s often evidence that points to one person who ends up not really being the one we need to worry about. If you hide this information from your readers, you keep them guessing throughout the course of your novel and this will aid in creating suspense.

The truth about their past

When you hide your character’s past from your readers, you have the ability to use it as an explanation for something important later on. For example, if you character has these mysterious powers they can’t explain, you can use their parents and back story in order to reveal later on why it’s happening. Revealing past details slowly over the course of your novel helps build the mystery.

What their secondary goals are

Sometimes characters will have goals no one else knows about but them OR they will have a false goal that their using to cover up their real goal. For example, a character might say they’re rescuing another character because they want to help, but it really might be all about finding some hidden treasure along the way. There are many reasons why a character might want to hide their goals. Explore character motivations on a deeper level and you’ll be able to realistically include this type of deception in your story.

Below are some questions to consider when trying to construct a magic system! There are more questions, endless questions really, but hopefully these will be helpful to someone starting out their magic system.

Where does magic come from?

What is the origin of magic? Was it created by someone, or discovered? Did it come from nature, from heaven, from under the ground?

Has magic always existed? If not, when did it appear? What’s the history behind it?

Is magic passed down through bloodlines or is it random? Or both? If so, are there implications surrounding the different origins?

Has magic changed or evolved since it first appeared? How? Why/why not?

What type of magic is it?

Is it elemental magic? A form of kinesis? What’s the focus of the magic? Light/darkness? Life/death?

What does the magic look like? Can you even see it? Can you hear it? Smell it? Taste it?

Is it more based in alchemy, sorcery, witchcraft?

How do people use magic?

Are physical movements needed to use magic?

Do they need to use their mind? Is it more of a mental power, or a combination of physical and mental?

Do emotions affect magic use/effectiveness? Age? The time of day?

Is using magic a painful process? It is a pleasant or unpleasant feeling?

Are special tools required for using magic, or other specific conditions?

What does using magic cost?

Does using magic cost pain? Energy? Money?? For example, creating a Horcrux costs a human life.

Does using magic too often have consequences? What are they?

Are some forms of magic more costly than others? Why?

What is the connection between magic and society?

How is magic viewed by society, and how are magic users viewed? Are they feared? Admired?

How many people can use magic? Is it common, or rare?

Are there traditions associated with magic? Ceremonies, rituals?

How does magic affect everyday living? See a post of Avatar’s worldbuilding through a magic system here.

Is it a hard or soft magic system?

A hard magic system is one where the rules and limitations are explained in-text. We know how magic works, who can use it and how they use it. The Harry Potter and Avatar series are good examples; though certain parts might be more mysterious, the overall magic system is explained. With a hard magic system, it’s important to avoid info dumping.

A soft magic system is one where the rules and limitations are kept a mystery. A Song of Ice and Fire and The Lord of the Rings series are good examples of this. Magic is a mysterious thing; the characters generally don’t know how it works. Usually, this works best when the POV characters don’t use magic themselves, such as the hobbits in LOTR or characters like Davos in ASOIAF witnessing Melisandre’s magic. When writing a soft magic system, it’s important to avoid the “deus ex machina” effect.

A magic system can be a mixture of the two, with certain aspects explained and understood by the characters and other parts a total mystery. In a vast fantasy world with multiple peoples and regions, multiple magic systems are also possible.

If anyone has more questions, feel free to reblog with some?

from the science teachers that i worshipped the ground they tread on like it was something next to holy and idolized as women who had walked through such difficult territories, who had left their mark in halls-hostile: and cried when they acknowledged that they saw in me someone who could go just as far. to the women who saw in me a keen mind that would benefit from sharpening, their hands cool and soothing, steadying my own as i nervously clicked and pressed micropipettes or stirred hot plate concoctions roiling away at heavy boil. women who took me on as a protege- women who debated with me, talked to me, explored with me, threw around concepts and verbiage and questions and answers like tossing something hot between our hands, burning and precious. 

to english teachers with quiet acceptance and a love burning in their chest for literature they were so eager to share- monologuing macbeth, ophelia, hamlet, elisa, stepping in and out of roles without regard for who ‘ought’ to carry their voices, the dadum, dadum, dadum of iambic pentameter coiled deep in my bones, thrumming in my adolescent, thin voice. to lose yourself in worship of language. to the women who taught me that self expression is the most beautiful form of art: that storytelling is intrinsic to the human experience, that in every day people- is grace and gorgeousness beyond comprehension in the stories that froth up and bubble out of us given half a chance. to the women who helped me find my voice, my words, clumsy and imprecisely beautiful, in adolescent years where i had none.

to foreign language instructors who understood otherness and being alone in a grief indescribable with language: to women who knew what it was to carry longing and hurt and anger and an inability to forgive, an inability to articulate: only capitulate in wordless crying and sobbing: sadness knows no boundary of language. to the women that taught me that kindness knows none either: an open classroom, a quiet lunchtime eaten in solidarity, in photographs of lands i will never set foot on but to be able to bask in that loveliness captured: to have hope to aspire to, that someday, someone will love me enough to take an unplanned blurry polaroid of me laughing in rome, too. 

to art teachers who understood my joy at finding female painters who captured not only the sweet domesticity of a life well lived, but of women who were every bit as talented as the male greats at domineering shadow and light, explosions of colour and form encapsulated. to be taught that my body is nothing to be ashamed of: a floral blooming, a blood leavening, a halo of warming light. to bring out girl-saints in stained glass and acid etchings, of the wonders of the female form, of the beauty of woman, of the glory that it is to lay worship at the altar of women, women, women: the pale powder blue cloaks of mary, swaddled in modesty, to the laid bare goddess erupting from seafoam like a coming-home-again. 

women. they have made my formative years, as fraught and painful as they have been, bearable. they have uplifted me, they have cradled me close, they have held me by the shoulders gently and said: you will be someone, someday. you are already so precious, so worthy. you have nothing to apologize for. you have so much to grow into- so much to live for.