#chibipika

More late ask replies! (For this old meme.)

1. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

That one's actually really tough, because a lot of them I've actually written, they just can't go in the story itself for one reason or another! For example, I've written a couple of scenes of what Nate gets up to after he splits up with the protagonist in Chapter 38, buuuuuut since this is a single-POV story, for some value of single POV, I can't include them. I've written a number of backstory bits, some published, some unpublished. I've written my various AU's, i.e. scenes I think would be loads of fun but which actually make no sense in the story as written.

As far as scenes that might actually go in the story, I do regret not having more scenes of Nate just getting to hang out with his pokémon during the League arc. Part of that's the fact that he was going to hang out with his pokémon away from the protagonist wherever possible, and part of it was that there's just so much going on in that arc already, it's bloated as it is, and so fun but not strictly necessary character scenes were naturally trimmed or not written at all. I'd also love to have more scenes of Nate's team interacting with the protagonist's team. I realized earlier today that there's a scene of that (which I quite like) in the next two chapters, and that's... the only one? There's only one time in the entire story where they talk?? How is that even possible???

So, nothing particularly plot-consequential, just generally more of characters that I enjoy bouncing off each other, angsting, being cute, whatever. Which I guess doesn't really qualify under the "can't be arsed to write all the set-up/context" requirement. I guess the only thing I can't be assed to write specifically because it would be too much effort is... any of the sequels? There are some bits there that I think are pretty *chef's kiss*, and I've already written a lot of them, but yeah, if I wanted those in actual fic form I'd need to write, like, all the scenes that go in between? Where you actually get from one chef's-kiss scene to another? Ugh. There is NO WAY I'm writing like three additional monster-sized stories to get some of my favorite follow-up out, I have other things I want to move onto instead.

Although I've been reading 20020 lately, and yeah, okay, if I had all of eternity, there is no way the universe would escape the entire Salvage series, lol.

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

Iiiiit's definitely Nate, if you couldn't guess. :P It's just very easy to get under his skin; he *reacts* a lot more than most of my other characters. Toss him into a scene for instant conflict, or have him on his own just to watch him work himself up and expode. All good fun.

In general it's the more bombastic characters... I think Steelix would be my second pick. I really enjoy characters who misunderstand the heck out of what is going on around them but are very confidently constructing a narrative that explains it nonetheless. The protagonist is also good for this! Both the ability and tendency to be very confidently wrong are things I enjoy writing in a character, heh.

There's also pretty much always a Rats-like character in my longer stories... they're just kind of my default personality. If I'm just sitting down and writing whatever, someone like her is probably going to emerge. I like these kinds of characters, they're fun, and they're also extremely easy/relaxing to write, since they're just what comes naturally, so to speak.

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

Ahahaha, funny you should ask that... *sweats loudly*

Probably the biggest one, prose-wise, is that I rely a great deal on verbs! On the flip side, I usually describe characters' looks very sparsely if at all. There tends to be more description of the physical environment, but not a great deal. Pen made a great point in that I like my compound descriptors, like "bruise-dark" or "lava-smoothed." One particular bad habit that I have to stamp out all the time in editing is sticking "half-" on the front of something, like half-turn, half-smile, etc. If it's like they kinda did a thing but also kinda not and I don't know how to say what I mean, that's what I reach for--pretty lazy! I want to try and save it for situations where I really like the effect rather than kind of gave up and stuck it in.

I also do a fair amount of personification, or maybe it's synechdoche, where you'll have somebody "twitch an annoyed ear" or "waved a dismissive hand" or what have you. Obviously the body part itself isn't annoyed or dismissive or whatever and the action is the external signifier of whatever emotion, but yeah, I do that a fair amount.

I also love battles and action sequences in general. Even in one-shots, there's almost always at least a little fight involved. Part of this, too, is probably my tendency towards very stubborn characters. If neither of them are going to bend in their convictions, well, then they're going to have to fight it out, right, if only with words? On the flip side, this can make character development very difficult for me. I have a lot of trouble getting my characters to change their minds! In fact, I generally need to hit them in the face for tens of thousands of words before they start to go, "Okay MAYBE I was slightly wrong about that one thing, a little tiny bit. Perhaps." I am not very good at dramatic revelations or character shifts, and they tend to land poorly for me in other media. ("What, X is really going to open up to Y about that? Already? And Y is going to reflect on their past behavior and resolve to do better? Sounds fake.") Definitely an area where my own personality puts some constraints on my ability to handle characters.

Rather abrupt plot swerves are another big one. They never seem very abrupt to me, of course, since I know where things are going the whole time, but ~dramatic events~ do seem to come in and turn the plot on its head a lot. It turns out we were totally wrong about whatever, so now we need to go do completely different thing instead! Oh no we screwed that up real badly, help we need to flee the consequences now, etc. In general this tends to be how I structure story arcs, I think... Things change very, very slowly for a while, then abruptly everything happens all at once, and things can shoot off in a completely different direction before slamming to a halt again.

Annnnd finally, people are always eating in my stories. All the danged time. Maybe I enjoyed Redwall too much as a kid, idk.

Going to just put all of these under a cut for TQftL spoilers.

Art Fight 2019- Stenowatt

By Scott Reid on @drawingwithdinosaurs

PLEASE SUPPORT US ON PATREON. EACH and EVERY DONATION helps to keep this blog running! Any amount, even ONE DOLLAR is APPRECIATED! IF YOU ENJOY THIS CONTENT, please CONSIDER DONATING!

Name: Hongshanornis longicresta

Name Meaning: Hongshan Bird

First Described: 2005

Described By: Zhou & Zhang 

Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Hongshanornithidae

Hongshanornis is the titular member of the Hongshanornithids, a group of wading Ornithuomorphs from the Early Cretaceous of China. Hongshanornis itself lived in the Yixian Formation of China, living about 124.6 to 122 million years ago, in the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous. Hongshanornis was a small dinosaur, with a wingspan of 35 centimeters and a body length (with the tail) of 18 centimeters. It had a small and round head, and even though it’s often portrayed as having a crest, this may or may not be a preservational artefact, especially since the skull itself is rather poorly preserved. It had teeth, even though they weren’t preserved, the sockets appear to have, and it is uncertain on whether or not it has a beak. 

By Jack Wood on @thewoodparable

It had long and narrow wings that were tapered on the edges, as well as long claws and long, slender legs. It had a tail fan like that of a modern bird, and showed many adaptation for aquatic life. Its long skinny legs would have allowed it to wade in deep marshes and lake shores, and its narrow wings would have allowed it to soar above its environment and look for places to feed, probably on insects or on animals that lived in the mud. They had a generalized diet of food in the aquatic environments, and would flap above it environment while looking for food. 

Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongshanornis

Martyniuk, M. P. 2012. A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and other Winged Dinosaurs. Pan Aves; Vernon, New Jersey.

I think that's a good note to go out on! Luckily so, since I managed to screw up the queueing on these at least twice. Many thanks to antialiasis and chibipika for submitting questions; I had a lot of fun answering them.

Final transcript below the cut.

**Transcript **

Negrek: How much are you willing to sacrifice for that which you deem most important?

Protagonist: Well, if you're a hero, you have to be willing to sacrifice everything to beat the bad guys, right? That's what being a hero means!

Honestly it doesn't really have any, at least in terms of irrational fears that are divorced from how harmful things actually are (e.g. spiders, heights). You could get more philosophical and go with something like fear of failure or death or something, but it doesn't really have those either. It just isn't very introspective at all and doesn't really meditate much on the future, whether it's a good person, what if life has no meaning, all the usual things people can get hung up on. For the most part it trusts that things are going to work out, because they have to, right? That's just the way things work.

Must be nice, eh?

For this meme. Transcript under the cut.

==Transcript==

Negrek: What is your biggest fear?

Realistically, the best gift anybody could give it at this point would be a whole lot of patience, and also forgiveness.

But one billion credits wouldn't go amiss, either.

For this meme. Transcript under the cut.

==Transcript==

Negre: What is the greatest gift you could ever receive?

Protagonist: Ooh, a present? I love presents! And I get to pick whatever I want?

Protagonist: I want a billion credits!

Protagonist: Or, wait, did you know they're going to start letting eople go on the rockets they launch from Mossdeep? I want to be an astronaut!

Protagonist: Or a time machine! I could go back to when prehistoric pokémon ruled the world!