#tiadane

Telling instead of showing; in this case, short-cutting things and telling the reader stuff without actually delving into the character/narrator's reaction/thoughts about it, which are often critical, and also add flavor and readability

The characters behaviors are not necessarily out of character, but they are out of theme.

Okay, so I think the first bullet is self-explanatory, but maybe the second one isn't. Here is my most recent example of this:

Five characters are tromping through a forest together. I sort of skimmed through this forest tromping in a few sentences, which...frankly, I could have skipped instead and just cut to where they were going, but I didn't want to. Wanted to emphasize that they are truly in the middle of nowhere and build up to where they were going.

(There's something to be considered for having a chapter just open with horror, but it doesn't really lead off in a way that would work)

Two of these characters are rapidly growing into a QPR with each other, and one of them has wings and kept running into tree branches. In the previous version of this, I had his zucchini (do people still use this term?) brush the tree branches aside. This kind of quiet care and taking care of problems is very in keeping with the kinds of things he does in general.

But. There's a fairly intense thread in this book about where people are from and what home is and how people are products of where they come from, and etc. And both members of this QPR are from cities (as is a third character), while the other two are more adjusted to wilderness.

So, okay. Having one of the city kids handle the trees probably doesn't quite match up with the overarching story, even if it's in character.

So instead I kind of replaced it with them both struggling through the trees together (and the third city kid making her own complaints). And it fits a little better with the themes of the stories. So I think it works better.

I think I've forgotten every Pokemon ever.

Do you give a kid with wings a pokemon with feathers? I mean I guess in a Pokemon AU he wouldn't????

*has a brief crisis while I think about how Tiadane can't have wings in a number of common fanfic-style aus*

So, um. Maybe like a Fletchling as his pokemon partner? Please don't make me figure out a whole team right now.

dealer's choice for ocs bc i'm curious to see who you'd pick for each :3

Okay, aggressively trying to focus on my revisions for a while:

⚠️: If this oc came with a warning sign, what would it be?

Tiadane deserves to come with a warning sign. He'd get something like "WARNING: Actions not predictable. Do not try to contain."

Honestly I want more characters with that label, now that I wrote it out. I don't think Tiadane would exactly be what you'd anticipate opening a box with that on it to contain, but.

💙: Describe their bedroom! Is it personalized, unchanged? Messy, neat?

Tiadane and Cian both have their rooms described in canon, so that feels cheater-y. Allare doesn't have one because he's fairly nomadic. Felix gets the rest of their house described.

But Felicity has to leave her home before she gets to describe it. It would be warm with lots of soft fabric furniture and loads of books and a deceptively large box of hairpieces/accoutrements. If she lived in the modern setting, there would be string lights. She does not. The walls are purple.

🦷: Would this oc ever bite someone?

What would your OCs do in a beach episode?

Avel: Avel would honestly be very confused that he was invited to the beach in the first place. Most of his friends are online, due to the fact that he's Niche Famous, and so anyone who cares about his passion in life knows his name and is a little intimidated, and no one else he meets IRL Gets It.

So he'd probably be messing around on his phone the entire time until it died, and then he'd go looking around for shells or something, and trying not to stare at Rafael without a shirt on.

Rafael: Is going to get roped in beach volleyball he does not want to play and is very bad at. Is trying to get out of it to go swimming by himself. Fails the entire episode dramatically until the last few minutes when he gets a few minutes to go swimming and ends up talking to Avel instead of something.

Selena: Is busy kicking her nerd brother's ass at volleyball.

I'm...still working on the rest of the case for this book, so that's all I got for them.

Tiadane: Tiadane would be the most enthusiastic person on this entire trip because he has never seen the beach in his life and he would eagerly jump in to go swimming only to discover he doesn't know how to swim and has to be taught how to dog paddle.

Cian: Cian is trying to get out of the beach episode and back to the plot. He's going to have a whole B Plot that actually ends up being relevant later.

Allare: Is the person who has to teach Tiadane how to swim; is a little frustrated he can't enjoy himself. Does not admit it.

Felicity: Is extremely excited about the beach until she realizes sharks might be in the water and then panics and wants to go swimming in a pool instead. She will not go near the tide and keeps watching everyone in the water apprehensively.

Felix: Is the only person who knows anything about this particular beach and wanders around picking up strange crabs and shells.

Me: Okay, but you see, my the protagonist of the book I'm working on most right now is a pretty, androgynous teenager with feathered wings and loads of jewelry

People: OOOOH???

But most of the time it's me turning this:

into this

Watch this

turn into this