Transformers Fandom Shoutouts

“Your” is possessive. For example:

How is your cat? That is your food.

“You’re” is the contraction of you and are. For example:

This being Part 2 of my description showcase. Part 1 (the Basics) can be found here.

I see purple and beige prose mostly in descriptions of scenery, so I’m going to describe the picture of this mountain next to the lake (x).

Beige Prose

Beige prose is the bare-bones description of something. It doesn’t use a lot of adjectives, the adjectives used are basic, and the sentence structure is fairly simple. This is a beige prose description:

The mountain rose high over the still lake. The mountain was grey with green trees growing on it. Its colors were reflected in the lake. Birds flew over the lake. The morning sunlight lit the mountain’s side like a lamp, but did not touch the water. The lake water was mostly blue. The shores were rocky.

Cons of beige prose:

Dullness – The above sentence is a very boring read. It doesn’t have any variety whatsoever. It tells you what happens and that’s about it.

Vagueness – “Birds flew over the lake”; what birds? “Green trees”; what kinds of trees? There are also twenty thousand different shades of blue that could pass as lake water blue. Are we talking Marine Blue, Dark Royal Blue, or Midnight Navy? Also, if the lake is mostly blue, what other colors are in it?

Pros of beige prose:

Understandable – beige prose tells it like it is. You know that there is a lake with a rocky shore adjacent to a mountain with trees and that’s all you really need to picture the scene.

Concise – It’s 56 words long and conveys the full picture of the lake and the mountain. You can’t get much more concise than that.

Purple Prose

Purple prose is at the other end of the scale as beige prose. Purple prose is characterized by long, complex sentences, and the liberal usage of polysyllabic adjectives.

The mountain clawed upward like an unctuous parvenu, reaching towards the dove grey sky with its proud peak. Its sheer face bare save for where the gentleness of slope allowed lustrous evergreens to take root in the meager soil. The mountain was a palimpsest of eons of erosion, seasons, and other such orthographical changes. Pale white sunlight bathed the mountainside where the clouds allowed it, giving the mountain an air of mystical beauty. Reflecting the entirety of this glorious scene was the lake yawning at the mountain’s feet. The sapphire water was still in the biting, frigid morning air, the only movement on its surface coming from the reflections of robins as they flitted over it, singing their melodious aubades. Perhaps the only other quantifiable movement was at its rocky shores, where the water gently stroked at the boulders scattered helter-skelter like a child’s toys.

I need to go wash my hands.

It’s not uncommon for writers to rely on filler words while writing—and especially while first drafting. From filter phrases to adverbs all over the place, drafts that aren’t scrutinized to condense the writing are often full of words that unnecessarily clog up the writing.

Good news is while this is totally not something you should worry about while first drafting (seriously), when the time comes to take care of this issue, it’s relatively easy to do. Time-consuming and painstaking, yes, but thankfully not too difficult to do.

To make it even easier, however, I’ve decided to add to my how to make cuts without losing anything useful post with more easy-to-remove words to look out for.

Starts/begins to. This is actually a tip I picked up from my editor, and it’s a good one—9/10 times when you preface an action with “starts to” or “begins to” you don’t need that phrase. Just by describing the action, the readers assume it’s just started unless otherwise stated.

Immediately/without warning. Like “suddenly” these words are usually unnecessary. I’ll refer you to the other post for a longer explanation.

That. I’m not going to say you never need “that”, but oftentimes I find “that” is super overused. In sentences like “She said that I should go,” for example, removing the “that” improves the flow and we don’t lose anything by cutting it.

Up/Down. For these two I only mean in very specific cases: sitting up/down, standing up/down, etc. In those cases, the up/down is unnecessary.

Dialogue + action tag. I see this a lot, and tend to do this a lot when first drafting and just slapping words down, but when you have a dialogue tag and an action tag, you usually only need one—and oftentimes I go with the action tag because it’s more visual (although there are exceptions, of course). So, for example: “‘Where’ve you been?’ he said, scowling” could be condensed to “'Where’ve you been?’ He scowled.”

-ly adverbs. One of my last condensing steps is to go through and do a search for “ly” to cut down on my adverbs. While I definitely don’t recommend removing all of them (adverbs can be useful!), writers in general tend to use them more than necessary, so it can be good to go through and do a quick sweep.

1. QUEST - the plot involves the Protagonist’s search for a person, place or thing, tangible or intangible (but must be quantifiable, so think of this as a noun; i.e., immortality).

2. ADVENTURE - this plot involves the Protagonist going in search of their fortune, and since fortune is never found at home, the Protagonist goes to search for it somewhere over the rainbow.

3. PURSUIT - this plot literally involves hide-and-seek, one person chasing another.

4. RESCUE - this plot involves the Protagonist searching for someone or something, usually consisting of three main characters - the Protagonist, the Victim & the Antagonist.

5. ESCAPE - plot involves a Protagonist confined against their will who wants to escape (does not include some one trying to escape their personal demons).

6. REVENGE - retaliation by Protagonist or Antagonist against the other for real or imagined injury.

7. THE RIDDLE - plot involves the Protagonist’s search for clues to find the hidden meaning of something in question that is deliberately enigmatic or ambiguous.

8. RIVALRY - plot involves Protagonist competing for same object or goal as another person (their rival).

9. UNDERDOG - plot involves a Protagonist competing for an object or goal that is at a great disadvantage and is faced with overwhelming odds.

10. TEMPTATION - plot involves a Protagonist that for one reason or another is induced or persuaded to do something that is unwise, wrong or immoral.

11. METAMORPHOSIS - this plot involves the physical characteristics of the Protagonist actually changing from one form to another (reflecting their inner psychological identity).

12. TRANSFORMATION - plot involves the process of change in the Protagonist as they journey through a stage of life that moves them from one significant character state to another.

13. MATURATION - plot involves the Protagonist facing a problem that is part of growing up, and from dealing with it, emerging into a state of adulthood (going from innocence to experience).

14. LOVE - plot involves the Protagonist overcoming the obstacles to love that keeps them from consummating (engaging in) true love.

15. FORBIDDEN LOVE - plot involves Protagonist(s) overcoming obstacles created by social mores and taboos to consummate their relationship (and sometimes finding it at too high a price to live with).

16. SACRIFICE - plot involves the Protagonist taking action(s) that is motivated by a higher purpose (concept) such as love, honor, charity or for the sake of humanity.

17. DISCOVERY - plot that is the most character-centered of all, involves the Protagonist having to overcome an upheavel(s) in their life, and thereby discovering something important (and buried) within them a better understanding of life (i.e., better appreciation of their life, a clearer purpose in their life, etc.)

18. WRETCHED EXCESS - plot involves a Protagonist who, either by choice or by accident, pushes the limits of acceptable behavior to the extreme and is forced to deal with the consequences (generally deals with the psychological decline of the character).

19. ASCENSION - rags-to-riches plot deals with the rise (success) of Protagonist due to a dominating character trait that helps them to succeed.

20. DECISION - riches-to-rags plot deals with the fall (destruction) of Protagonist due to dominating character trait that eventually destroys their success.

This is your Saturday pep talk.

Today’s topic is: Creating garbage. 

Producing bad work is always going to be better than producing nothing. The idea of making trash can twist something dark and nasty in the gut, but making garbage does not mean that you are garbage. You don’t have to get it right on the first try– and if you don’t try at all, you’re never going to get it right. 

Make garbage that you enjoy. Have yourself a fantastic time making it. The idea of allowing yourself to make bad work is really to stop stressing and start playing. If it’s something that you love doing, then either a) you’ll improve just by doing and end up taking risks and doing more interesting things because ‘failure’ has been removed from the equation b) your work will always be garbage but you’ll be happy doing it. I wish more people did things that they loved but don’t have an immediate aptitude for. I wish I did more things that I suck at, unapologetically, because they make me happy. 

I think that we’ve been lead to believe that if we do not immediately show talent in a given area that we should quit. This shit kills me. I’ve lost count of the number of times that someone who is about to draw something in front of me apologizes for their lack of skill. If you ask a child if they can draw, usually they unselfconsciously bust out their crayons and draw you a sick giraffe. 

At what point were we taught that if we’re not good at something right away, we’ll always be bad at it? When were we taught so much shame for trying to do things that we enjoy but aren’t naturals at? 

The Joker just killed half of Manhattan.

Seriously though, there are characters in YA that believe putting arrows through people’s joints is the more merciful option and those characters are portrayed as heroes. Not only that, the author seems to believe it’s the more merciful option. The character is never shown they’re wrong.

Death is the worst thing ever.

This is Saturday morning cartoon logic, often used to excuse a character’s capriciousness and cruelty. This excuse often comes into play when some writers want their characters to be violent but don’t want them to be judged for it or seem like bad people. Thus, they take up the approach that as long as their victim lives then they haven’t really done anything wrong.  

This is where we get characters that say stuff like, “Well, I only ever kill when my evil uncle tells me too. However, the rest of the time I just use disabling shots to hit them in their joints and cripple them for life!”

Yay!

Don’t you feel their kindness?

You can no longer use both your legs because you took a few arrows through your knees. This would be difficult to repair in a modern environment much less the Middle Ages.

You get this a lot when writers want to imitate the success of a more popular but dark franchise like 24, there are others but that was a big one for a while. They want the darkness and brutality without having to deal with minor issues like accountability or question what level of violence is actually acceptable. Or, really, ask any questions about it at all. They see their Saturday Morning Cartoon logic as a get out of jail free card.

It’s the extension of the superhero or PI detective that ram a guy, who isn’t even a suspect, into a wall to get answers. The supposed detective who goes around waving guns in people’s faces and threatening to shoot them if they don’t cooperate or just casually threatening to shoot them in general. (No, really, a real police officer would get into so much trouble for that.)

“You shut up or I’ll break your kneecaps!”

Hero, yes, this is our hero.

“I’m having an off day. Do you mind if I just break your arm in three places, snap your elbow, and send you home?”

It’s the hero who tortures people.

K.

Aren’t they such a good person!

What?

The hero who protects their city, doesn’t kill their villains, but runs a secret prison on an island in the middle of nowhere where they hold their villains indefinitely without due process.

Aren’t they such a great and noble person?

The answer is no.

No, mutilating an enemy so they’ll never walk right again isn’t kindness and it isn’t actually better. If you haven’t spent a lot of time looking at the consequences of your favorite hero’s behavior or thinking beyond what the narrative shows you to the context of their actions, you might want to. Especially if the narrative is insistent that they are a truly good person while they engage in any sort of violent activity.

It may also be somewhat disturbing, especially if they land in the “They’re Such A Good Person” category.

Did your character just stab someone through the hand with a knife in order to make their point? Are they supposed to be your hero? Have you constantly focused on how hard their life is and how tough things are for them throughout the narrative?

Say it with me: that’s not a good person.

And you know what?

That’s okay.

Navigating the line of what violence is and isn’t culturally or morally acceptable should be part of a narrative if you intend to bring morals into your story. There are huge debates happening all over the world today about violence, about what kind of violence is allowed, who should be able to commit violence, and what is acceptable.

The problem for a lot of writers ultimately comes back to Kant.

At a basic level, there’s a subset of Kantian philosophy which says that intention rather than action is what defines guilt.

For writers it often comes back to this:

“My character didn’t intend to hurt anyone.”

 They didn’t think they were doing wrong, so they weren’t doing wrong.

Superman destroys half of Metropolis in his battle with Zod.

People claim he is a hero. Not only is he a hero, but he’s someone every human on the planet should look up to and believe in as a symbol of hope.

This is standard Superman, but does that fit at all with the Superman who destroys the people’s homes, places of business, cars, like a one man hurricane that passed through their lives with no regard for them or their safety?

This is what happens when we separate a character’s actions and the destruction they cause from the context of what they are actually doing within their narrative. And, hey, who cares about the human wreckage so long as there are no body bags? Right?

It’s not like there are any consequences to violence other than death, right? Anything between reckless endangerment to flat out cruelty don’t count at all.

One of the great things about characters like Daredevil, the Punisher, and (sometimes) Batman, is that they often don’t have the full-throated support of their communities. They cross lines that you’re not supposed to cross and make people question whether or not this is really appropriate.

If your character is making controversial choices then let there be controversy. Violence is, at its heart, controversial.

The act of hurting another human being is.

It should be.

How many sacrifices can you make before you’ve sacrificed your soul?

“I don’t kill enemy soldiers, I just hurt them.”

“And how do you hurt them?”

“I ensure they’ll never harm anyone again.”

If those words don’t chill you, I don’t know what to say. Maybe you’ve never been faced with another human looking to take away everything that you take for granted about the way you live your life. If you did, you’d find this “kindness” isn’t kind at all.

It’s time to graduate to the next level in morality.

Hurting people is wrong.

Thank god we got this far.

There are so many more steps to climb.

-Michi

Not every day is a good writing day. Especially if it’s been more than a few days since you last decided to write. You get rusty. It happens. You write a sentence and delete it. You do that again and again until you’ve deleted a day’s worth of writing that never amounted to more than a couple hundred sad attempts at a first sentence. It happens to all of us. But now let’s talk about how to get out of that rut! 

Don’t try to come up with a sentence, come up with a scene. If you can’t come up with how to start, come up with your first plot point. It might not be your inciting incident, but start with an image that will tell you who these characters are. Fixating on a single sentence can drive you crazy, but if you’re just trying to accomplish something small in a scene, the bar is set a lot lower. Not ever sentence needs to be amazing. In fact, if no sentence is even great, don’t worry, you’ll get there. You’ve got a scene to work on. You might not even keep it in the later drafts but it’s a place to start. 

Remember that you will edit later. The really lovely and poignant stuff will come eventually as you get deeper into the story and attached to the characters, but if you’re not there yet, don’t worry. A bad sentence is not going to kill you. You’ll fix it in the next draft. 

Swearing is an easy and fun way to add emphasis to dialogue and even narrative, but sometimes it acts as a crutch to prop up weak sentences.

Try writing with absolutely no swearing for a little bit (not even shit). At first, it may seem like your writing totally looses its edge. But in time, you may realize you were using swears for sharp emphasis in otherwise lacklustre sentences.

A huge part of writing is making the idea your own.

Do you want to write about vampires?! THEN FOR GOD’S SAKE, WRITE ABOUT VAMPIRES!

Oh, dystopian futures are overused? PUT YOUR OWN SPIN ON IT!

Guys, don’t let people stomp on your ideas. A story is a bunch of puzzle pieces that everyone has access to - but it’s your choice how you put them together. How you put it together and how you present it makes that idea uniquely yours, even if it’s a familiar concept.

Your idea isn’t lame.

Own it.

• laugh at their own jokes

• don’t finish/say complete sentences

• interrupt a line of thought with a sudden new one

• say ‘uh’ between words when unsure

• accidentally blend multiple words together, and may start the sentence over again

• repeat filler words such as ‘like’ ‘literally’ ‘really’ ‘anyways’ and ‘i think’

• begin and/or end sentences with phrases such as ‘eh’ and ‘you know’, and may make those phrases into question form to get another’s input

• repeat words/phrases when in an excited state

• words fizzle out upon realizing no one is listening

• repeat themselves when others don’t understand what they’re saying, as well as to get their point across

ahauntingwewillgo said: You said in that ask meme that you use table cells for outlines. Do you make them yourself or do you use a program or something? Sorry if you’ve already answered this.

so a few people asked me last night [along with these two asks] to show or explain the outline format i was talking about, and i’m happy to oblige!

in essence, my outlines serve as both an outline and a completion chart, so i can both plot the story and track how much i’ve done and have left to do. it uses the table feature in google docs to divide parts, chapters, and individual scenes into cells, along with any other information you might want to include.

it’s not, like, academic or anything - i was taught harvard outline format and i can use it - but i just like mine better. it makes me feel accomplished to “watch it grow” as the colored boxes increase, which helps me a lot in the “middle of the ocean” phase of the story. when i can’t see either end, i can just look at the outline, and see that i’m 50% done and which scenes i can take on next.

here’s an example, using the first few chapters of daud and jo’s fic:

Shout out to writers who pour a ton of love, devolution and time into a story they’re super proud or and excited to share but end up getting little to no feed back on it

Shout out to writers who feel under appreciated in an environment where creative thinking is highly celebrated but so much of that enthusiasm is geared towards artists that they feel lost in the shadows 

Shout out to writers who have quit because they felt their writing wasn’t good enough, because they weren’t getting any feedback, because no matter how much effort they expended, they got the same response they did when they started out

Shout out to writers who work their butts off to get exposure, to get themselves known and still end up with little to no recognition 

Shout out to writers who stare down at their keyboard or empty Word document and wonder what the point is 

Shout out to writers who continue to write regardless. Shout out to writers who need that support and love to keep writing. Shout out to writers who are told their works suck or they’re a terrible writer, and feel so discouraged they want to stop. Shout to writers who appreciate all notes - whether they’re reblogs or likes. Shout out to writers who get excited every time someone reblogs their fic.