dandelionsquad

[dandelionsquad]

cannot recommend more putting secrets and hints in your creative work that you dont expect anyone to figure out

[dandelionsquad]

More writers should consider just not telling their readers all of shit. Just don’t tell them stuff. What’s that monster? Fuck if you’ll find out. How did that weird as hell landscape marker come to be? Wouldn’t you like to know. How does the magic work? Just believe it does, motherfucker.

Readers don’t need to know everything. In fact, I absolutely advocate for not telling them certain stuff. If the characters don’t know, neither do they. If the narrator is omniscient? Lol no they aren’t.

Is this necessary for every story? Probably not. There’s plenty of good stories you could write while explaining all of it. But leaving those gaps, leaving those holes, can bring a story to life. Sometimes things happen in life that just… happen. Fucked if anyone knows why. Sometimes information gets lost. Sometimes information is hidden. But even beyond that, it expands the narrative.

If you explain when and why and how the murder monster became a murder monster, well… that’s forever set in stone now. Now they know. But if you leave it blank, absent of explanation, any explanation… it becomes an unknown. It forces your audience to wonder. Makes them think. That, more than you might think, makes a story get into your audience’s head, and once you’re there, you can make some real impacts.

So yeah, tell a story. But sometimes? Don’t tell your readers something. Make them fill in the blanks themselves.

[dandelionsquad]

A WIP can sit dormant for a year and a half and still be happy to see you.

[dandelionsquad]

i love you, media that turn into psychological deep dive about life, death, love, grief and mental health, i love you, "mortality is what makes life meaningful", i love you, choosing love no matter how cruel the world gets, i love you, finding kindness within yourself even when the world feels unearning of it, i love you, embracing grief because it means what's lost meant something, but still learning to move on, i love you, moving forward even after everything is lost and the worst possible scenario happened, i love you, absurdism,

[dandelionsquad]

something that's easy to miss when we talk about problematic tropes about marginalized characters is that a LOT of them are fundamentally really just side effects of the fact that the story is so rarely ABOUT those characters. women get shoved in refrigerators to motivate male characters because the writer never cared about the woman as a character in her own right in the first place, just about her effect on the man, and this is just where it's becoming really obvious. characters of color get to be wise mentors or quirky sidekicks because the writer liked the idea of a diverse cast in theory but wasn't willing to write a non-white lead and those are the good-guy roles that are left. if you want to do better the answer is usually not to go down a checklist of problematic tropes and make sure you're not doing any of them, it's to treat marginalized characters as fully realized people with agency and narrative focus in the first place, and if you're doing that right a lot of this will follow naturally.

[dandelionsquad]

Going insane about kicked dog with rabies type characters

#wardell :) to a certain extent at least #also kallayn definitely. and millie a little bit #oh and empty mask

[dandelionsquad]

i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good

[dandelionsquad]

nothing makes u feel stupid quite like being a writer. out here googling “rooms in a house” to make sure i didn’t forget one of em. blockhead behavior.

[dandelionsquad]

do you ever find yourself bedeviled by writing ideas that are the equivalent of finding a single carrot in your fridge. your brain goes "we should write a pirate story" or "we should write a parisian thief caper" and you ask, "all right, what do we cook with that, then?" and it says "no other ingredients (:"

[dandelionsquad]

people always talk about evil clones like oooh a dark mirror oohh what if you saw what a cruel person you were/are capable of becoming. and well yes but what if you were the evil clone. what if you looked in the mirror and what you saw was so bright it blinded you. what if you had to know exactly how good you could have been.

[dandelionsquad]

The very best writing tip you will ever hear is this:  

              Analyze stories.

Don’t just listen to what other storytellers say you should do, figure out what you like about the stories you enjoy and learn to replicate that.

Want to learn about pacing? Examine stories you think flow fantastically. Want to learn about description? Study your favorite author’s descriptions. Want to learn about characterization? Critique your favorite characters.  Want to learn about foreshadowing? Explore how it’s done in stories where the plot twist blew your mind.

Storytellers giving advice to other storytellers is fantastic and useful, but you will never know something as thoroughly as you know the things you figure out for yourself. 

And by analyzing the stories you love instead of listening blindly to advice, you’ll never be swayed by the bias of other writers and you’ll never take in advice that’s suited for a story you wouldn’t enjoy writing.

So put on some thinking caps and go analyze those stories.

[dandelionsquad]

“One of the most solid pieces of writing advice I know is in fact intended for dancers – you can find it in the choreographer Martha Graham’s biography. But it relaxes me in front of my laptop the same way I imagine it might induce a young dancer to breathe deeply and wiggle their fingers and toes. Graham writes: ‘There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.’”

— Zadie Smith (via campaignagainstcliche)

[dandelionsquad]

if anyone ever asks me why theres specifically 39 fae courts in the DL worldbuild, i will not be able to answer them bc my answer sounds like the ravings of a madman

also theres only TECHNICALLY 39, but two are not usually counted in casual conversation (which brings us to 37), the other two are only counted in the most technical sense.

#i just like patterns in numbers and theres SO many layers of patterns to this .... #and the patterns overlap with 37 so thats why THAT number is there too #god i love being able to do whatever i want w worldbuilds HFDSJKL i can just crank my autism to the max and go hogwild #junos posting #deadwood lodge

[dandelionsquad]

character-centric stories you can write in 1K or less

where did they get that shirt they wear in that one scene?

what is their typical morning routine?

what song got stuck in their head when they were in the grocery store just now and how do they feel about that?

what would happen to a houseplant in their care?

they're talking a 5 hour flight in economy class and they paid to choose their seat - which one do they go for?

how do they achieve a fully-assembled piece of IKEA furniture?

how would they deal with a malfunctioning computer?

what gives them ASMR - and is it a pleasant or unpleasant feeling?

what helps them fall asleep at night?

how do they behave when they have a bad cold? allergies? a migraine?

they have accidentally caused a fire - how did they do it and how do they react to it?

they are at the club - is this a good situation for them?

what is their opinion of street performers?

which social media platform(s) they use and which they hate

how do they feel about the idea that the tomato is a fruit?

where do they stand on Pluto, vis a vis its planetary status?

what would they do for a Klondike bar?

what kink did they learn about by accident on the internet, and they don't have it but they get it

who is their celebrity crush?

who is their small-time personal nemesis, separate from any big bad in the show (think neighbour, coworker, mail carrier etc.) and why do they hate them so much?

what is the last greeting card they bought? what occasion, who did they give it to, and what was the message inside?

what have they been putting off forever, even though it will only take 10 minutes?

#prompts

[dandelionsquad]

taking off a mask to reveal what lies beneath as a romantic gesture is overdone, and besides i want to see the romantic or even platonic potential of protecting someone's identity beneath the mask, without any expectation of ever being allowed to see what's under it. picking it up and holding it gently to their face when it's knocked off and they're in danger of being exposed, without trying to catch a glimpse of what they "really" look like under there. throwing yourself in front of them to hide them from view while they put themselves back together without taking advantage or looking back to see what you're protecting. learning to read them by body language, tone of voice, and behaviour so well that you never need to see their face to feel like you know and understand them.

[dandelionsquad]

Constantly obsessed with the concept of a man forced to be a myth. What do you do when every step you take is embedded into the text. Every word you say prose to read. You're part of something bigger than yourself. The narrative tugs you along like water currents. There is no time to rest, to be human. You must be great, you must be legend

[dandelionsquad]

a lot of people have said this before but i still think it’s true that the best stories are the ones that grab you by the face and scream THE LOVE!!!! THE LOVE WAS HERE!!!!!! IT DIDN’T SAVE US IN THE END AND IT DIDN’T LAST LONG BUT IT WAS HERE !!!!! AND WE MATTERED TO EACHOTHER!!!!! AND WE CARED SO MUCH AND WE TRIED SO HARD!!!! PLEASE THINK OF US WHEN YOU GO