A Court Of Rants And Salt

⊹ What do they want vs what do they need. these should not be the same thing. what they want is the surface goal ( the job, the person, the revenge, the answer.) What they need is the thing underneath that they can't name yet. The story is what happens in the gap between those two things. if they're identical your character has nowhere to go.

⊹ What are they wrong about. Not morally wrong necessarily. just. what belief do they hold that the story is going to test. What assumption do they make about themselves or the world that turns out to be incomplete? A character without a wrong belief is already finished. They have no arc, give them something to learn even if learning it hurts them.

⊹ How do they talk when they're nervous. Do they go quiet or do they talk too much? do they deflect with jokes? do they get weirdly formal? do they ask questions instead of answering them? the way a person behaves under pressure is who they actually are. And it should be different from how they behave when they're comfortable.

⊹ What do they find funny. this one sounds small and it is not small at all. Humour is worldview. What makes someone laugh tells you what they value, what they're afraid of, how they handle pain. A character with no sense of humour is just flat. even the gravest person finds something absurd. find the thing.

⊹ What are they ashamed of? not their tragic backstory. their actual shame. The small ugly thing they would never say out loud. The time they were a coward. The feeling they pretend not to have. The desire they think disqualifies them from being a good person. Shame is where the most interesting character work lives and most writers skip straight over it :(

There are going to be days (or weeks, or months) where you sit down to write and feel... disconnected. From your voice, from your characters, from your ideas. Like the person who used to write your stories just packed up and left.

They didn't. They're just tired. Here's how to keep writing anyway:

Lower the bar (Until it's on the floor) You are not here to write something brilliant. You are here to write something. A paragraph. A sentence. A single line of dialogue. Movement matters way more than quality.

Write around the story Don't force it. If you can't write the scene, try: ⋆ A character ramble / journal entry ⋆ A conversation that won't be included in the final draft ⋆ A list of things the character would never admit out loud ⋆ A messy summary of what should happen Engage with the story from a different angle.

Borrow a voice until yours comes back No, not with AI. Read something that feels close to what you want to write, or watch a scene that captures the tone, then write immediately after. Not to copy, to reignite your instincts.

Write the emotion, not the plot. What is your character feeling in this moment? What are they afraid of? What do they want but won't say? What's being kept from them? The emotion leads, the plot catches up later.

Stop trying to "feel like a writer" first. You don't write when you feel like a writer. You feel like a writer because you write.

It doesn't matter if all you did was day-dream about your characters while staring at the ceiling.

☆ "I'm not angry. I'm just done explaining myself to people who already decided."

☆ "You don't scare me. You used to, but not anymore."

☆ "I kept every promise I made to you. You kept none of mine."

☆ "Don't touch me like you still have the right to."

☆ "I watched you choose everyone else and called it love. Never again."

☆ "You're the reason I check my exits before I walk into a room."

☆ "I'm not hard to love. You were just too lazy to try."

☆ "Say that again. Slower this time, so we both understand what you mean."

☆ "I didn't come this far to be treated like a backup plan."

☆ "You look at them like they hung the moon. It's disgusting. I'm obsessed with it."

☆ "We were fine until we weren't. That's the part no one warns you about."

☆ "I don't miss you. I miss who I thought you were."

☆ "The audacity is truly breathtaking. I almost respect it."

☆ "I'm bleeding out and you're asking me if I'm okay. Do I look okay?"

☆ "You taught me that love isn't always enough. That was an expensive lesson."

☆ "Don't come to my funeral if you couldn't check on me while I was alive."

☆ "I was rooting for you. That's the part that hurts most."

☆ "I don't forgive people because they deserve it. I forgive them because I'm tired."

☆ "You have exactly ten seconds to explain yourself before I stop caring."

☆ "I've been loyal to people who didn't even know my middle name."

☆ "Don't mistake my silence for peace. I'm planning."

☆ "You called me difficult. I call it knowing exactly what I want."

☆ "I would've burned the whole world down for you. Funny how that works."

☆ "Stop looking at me like you still know me."

☆ "I didn't ask to care this much. Believe me, I tried not to."

☆ "We don't talk about what happened that summer. We just... don't."

☆ "You left like it was easy. I'm still mad about that."

☆ "Next time you disappear, stay gone."

☆ "I've met ghosts with more presence than you right now."

☆ "They smiled and I knew--we were not getting out of this alive."

☆ "You were my favorite bad idea."

☆ "Don't apologize. Just never do it again."

☆ "I trusted you with the quiet parts of me. That was my mistake."

I have this theory, but I'm willing to discuss it.

Fan content moves in GAPS and BELONGING.

If a piece of media (literature, visual, cinema, so on and so forth) is:

set in a universe which is big enough to leave gaps,

faulty enough to have gaps,

un-explained enough to have gaps

the fandom will move in those gaps.

Let's take some examples:

Rop's orcs have families like Tolkien's naming convention of "Bolg son of Azog" in the Hobbit strongly suggests. They are actually quite reluctant to go to war if they don't have to, which is sth we also see in the Lotr when a couple of orcs complain about Sauron forcing them into war and they wistfully speak about going back East and being free together. Even the orcs aversion to Sauron’s leadership and clear lack of respect shown in the new season's opening is sth found in Tolkien's own writing. In Nature of Middle-earth, he writes that the eastern orcs ridiculed and made fun of Sauron’s fair appearance.

let's talk about that fuck ass HIKE from HELL:

so the hike scene that happens in a court of silver flames is supposed to be framed as a healing "break through" and is supposed to be just sooo beautiful and emotional right? it even ends with sex!! (but of course it does bec these two have never been able to have a serious conversation literally ever)

so this hike happens bec Nesta spills the beans and RIGHTFULLY tells Feyre that her fuckass husband and ALLLLL of Feyres fuckass friends kept this ticking time bomb of a pregnancy from her. but you see, despite Nesta telling feyre about it AND feyre HERSELF saying Nesta was avenging both herself and feyre, this is narratively framed as a BAD thing

Rhysand finds out that Nesta ratted him out and he orders Cassian to get Nesta out of the Velaris or he will kill her

mind you he didnt want feyre to know about her legit DEATH due to childbirth bec he just couldn't bring himself to make her sad, but threatening to murder Feyres legit sister? sure

So Cassian takes Nesta on the hike from hell. before hand Azriel packs a bag for her to carry and he intentionally makes it too heavy for her. Cassian is a whole man child mad at Nesta for telling Feyre about the pregnancy despite Feyre not being mad at her. shes actually mad at THEM

actual conversation:

"im not mad at nesta she was at least brave enough to tell me" - 21 year old pregnant woman

"well WE'RE mad at her so" - literal 500+ year old man btw

while this is all going on Nesta is RACKED with GUILT bec no one fucking told nesta feyre wasnt mad at her!!! so her terrible mental health is now EVEN WORSE than it was before

cue the hike:

Cassian takes Nesta to the mountains where they walk in silence for DAYS. Nesta is forced to carry a bag too big for her to carry. Cassian wont even LOOK at her. meanwhile Nesta is having a mental spiral and is thinking about throwing herself off the side of the fucking cliff because she hates herself *that much* and she is *that depressed*

Nesta finally breaks down and Cassian is just so shocked about this!!! why he NEVER thought Nesta ever considered KILLING HERSELF

this breakdown is actually considered a ✨️good thing✨️ by SJM bec Nesta finally actually had a break THROUGH!!! and now Cassian can see just how badly Nesta was actually doing now that she almost fucking killed herself

the emaciated body and the drinking and the random sex surely wasn't enough to signal Something was Wrong. Cassian even says these aren't moral failures in the beginning!!! meanwhile he and literally everyone else treat them as such despite engaging in similar behaviors

Nesta has her mental breakdown and Cassian gives her like 2 pages of ✨️words of affirmation✨️ and then BAM cliff-side sex with the guy you've been sleeping with who also incidentally was in charge of your rehabilitation

this shit was actually TERRIBLE to read. it was triggering and very reminiscent of wilderness behavioral therapy "troubled teens" are put through. you know, the notorious wilderness behavioral therapy notorious for ABUSE. anyways.

her stans like to go but but but 🥺🥺 sjm was writing from her own person experience 🥺🥺 she was writing about a healing hike she went on with her husband 🥺🥺

does it look like I give a fuck about SJM self inserting into her books that MILLIONS of people read? Use your experiences all you want, I do too, but be fucking responsible about it

That scene was legitimately *terrible* and it ending in SEX????? right after she almost KILLED HERSELF????