#I'm mostly drawing to be honest

[amethystina]

Your TDJ meta was amazing, are you planning to do more? Because it's what the fandom needs, while we wait for season 2 (?

Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed it <3

As for writing more, I don't know? I AM tempted to write one about Yo Han and Ga On's first appearances in the drama (like, their introductory scenes) but I haven't really had the time for it. And also one about the use of light in general, but that one would be HUGE and the thought of trying to write down all my thoughts on that subject is hella daunting.

And, to be honest, I'm not really used to writing meta. I tend to weave my interpretations and ideas into my fanfics instead of presenting them in such a concise, gathered format (Who Holds the Devil is basically a 200k+ artistic meta at this point).

Writing meta kind of makes me nervous because it feels like I have to be more coherent, precise, and to-the-point xD Which is probably why I keep making stupid jokes to calm myself down and distract myself from the fact that I'm not really sure what I'm doing. Weirdly enough, meta feels more personal to me? Like, me writing my observations into my fic means it can simply be seen as my interpretation, but to write a meta feels very much like stating an opinion — which feels a lot more rigid and easier for people to disagree with or judge me for.

... I might be overthinking this x'D

ANYWAY. Long story short: Maybe? But I can't guarantee it since it's not my usual format and I have a lot of other projects right now.

Thank you so, so much for the interest and compliments, though! <3

#Amethystina Replies #not-another-mechanical-heart #Amethystina Writes #Or maybe she doesn't #Who knows at this point? #I'm mostly drawing to be honest #It's easier #With my current state of mind #Also #If there IS a season 2 #I guess I'll be officially out of a job? xD #Who Holds the Devil will just become my weirdass pet project or something

[merry-finches]

YAAAY TECH ISSUES RESOLVED!

HAPPY "SECRET" GIFT DAY TO....Mo!! <3<3<3 @lotrmusical

Where would we all be without you? :>

I'm so happy to be a part of this little fandom, everyone is so welcoming and joyful and skilled and friendly, gahhhh I'm never over it. And creative, oh my goodness, when I have half a moment to indulge in everyone's amazing creations I've caught glimpses of 👀

So please enjoy mine, I hope you love it :] 💚

I had entirely too much fun pulling from all sorts of places for the construction of this gift 👀 I... wonder... if they will all be obvious! Please do tell me what you spot :] (the invitation is open to all to yell with me always)

I think I managed to hit most of your likes list in one way or another ^.^

And a happy birthday to jirt too!

Heydey 🦵🦵🙌🧍(that looks deranged out of context someone take emojis away from me or get us better ones :D )

🌻🍃🌼🦌🐞🍀🐦🌸🐝☘🐞🐎🌼🍃🌻

#ive not been around tumblr lately (tragic) life is such a bully but the second i can I am ZOOMING to look at everyone's stuff !!!! omg!!! #@my gifter i saw your post and i am an inarticulate ball of mush about it i am going to read it and EXPLODE and CRY #lotr musical exchange #lotr musical #Aaaaaaaaaaaah <3 #to be honest i am refraining from spilling the beans exploding abt what i put in here #mostly because i want them to be discovered in real time so anyone listening can have the same feeling i did when i put it together #but also a little bit because I've hit the limit on feeling obnoxious I'm that pleased with myself 😅 I'm rly proud of this #i deserve it tho after yesterday drafting this post all excited only to upload it the first time and find out the audio was no good. crushe #vibrating with the amount of synchronicity you can find in this music and ACROSS MEDIA and you nudge it and wiggle it and it all FITS #absolutely shatnering myself into the wall. that both the musical and the movie draw a parallel between Boromir and Frodo through MUSIC!! #i did not end up including that particular howard shore-ism for style reasons but I Thought about it #anyway <3 christ. follow for more unhinged guy going feral about all things musical and all things hobbits #🐟🥛 #im so nervous at the same time posting this hfhfjd

[blondeaxolotl]

Bro I want to know Joanna's (Baldroy's deceased wife) colour palette so bad, I want to draw her (well I mean I can, it'd just have to be greyscale) LIKE CMON YOU CANT JUST GIVE ME THE PRETTIEST WOMAN IVE SEEN AND NOT GIVE ME HER COLOUR PALETTE, I WANT TO DRAW HER AND BALDROY TOGETHER CMOOON

#black butler #kuroshitsuji #baldroy #black butler bard #black butler joanna #how the fuck did baldroy win her #my man actually won the lottery and then lost it #ill be honest i mostly want to draw her because she is very similar to an oc of mine #LIKE DOWN TO THE PERSONALITY AND ALMOST APPEARANCE AS WELL ITS SCARY #which is probably why I'm so attached to this woman ngl #i miss her

[blujaydoodles]

A more complete breakdown of Mel's outfit including a bunch of details I never draw, and a breakdown of her newer super cool vantablack outfit that she's now always wearing because it gives her +1 AC and which I also never draw

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #character art #illustration #wizard #gnome #character reference #oc ref sheet #I'm 99% sure I have literally never drawn her spellbook actually worn on her hip even once in my life but it's been there the whole time #the THING IS I usually forget about it until after I've posed the hands and it's usually interfering with where I want the hands :'D #to be fair the thing about most dnd characters is: of COURSE this isn't everything but do you think I have all day dfgkjhdgk #she's also got a bag of holding and a glass eye worn like a pendant and multi-lens spectacles of comprehend languages and-- etc etc #oh and winged boots which I DID think about swapping her shoes for in these but in the end just didn't feel like it right now :') lol #to be honest this was mostly about 'shirt and stockings Cute' and also 'I don't feel well and I wanna draw without thinking' so #my OCs #melliwyk #vale walkers #dungeons and doodles

[sneez]

fairfax in 70s clothes because i think seventeenth-century men would love flares and incredibly loud shirts and questionable woollen tank tops. i don't have a better explanation than that i am afraid

#artwork #fairfax #puritan swag. the parliamentarian drip #i'm still mid-exams (which is why i havent answered my asks yet i am so sorry dear friends) so this has been my stress relief activity #it has been very effective! would highly recommend drawing historical figures in flares :-D #and belted jumpers for some ungodly reason. i looked at many 'top ten worst 70s outfits' articles in the process of drawing these #i must confess though i would wear 100% of these outfits. especially the first two he is making it work so much #to be honest i dont know if fairfax would actually wear any of these in reality but the whole cavalier/roundhead fashion divide is mostly #fake anyway (they pretty much wore the same clothes for the most part) so i like to think he would. he was a swanky guy #ALSO theres that one extant buff coat he owned which i have posted many times before which had pink silk sleeves so i am choosing to #believe that he would wear all of these. thats my opinion as a historian #anyway! i hope you are all doing well my dear friends :-D i miss you all very much #i am so close to being Fwee now..........i only have two more exams and my final one is on the last day of term so i am Almost There #i am absolutely exhausted though. i have five five-hour exams writing three essays for each and they are about as agonising as they sound #but this time next week i will be done!!! and then i will have time to draw more 70s fairfaxes (my purpose in life) #until then though i will continue crawling across the ground making horrible moaning noises until my final two exams are out of the way #eeueuuu. eueuuuuuuhh. eeeeuuuu. like that

[mechahero]

THE BABEL BRACELET

This bracelet here isn’t just an ordinary accessory. Built to serve as a temporary solution until the wearer can properly learn the language of their choice, the Babel Bracelet works by tapping into the brain’s language processors (specifically the Wernicke’s and Broca’s area parts of the brain) and subtly rewiring it so that the wearer may understand what’s being said and in turn, what ever they say in return will be in the language they’ve selected. The catch is that they'll hear the words in their native tongue but whatever they say in response won't be in their native language. Getting a language programmed into your Babel Bracelet is easy! All you need to do is hook it up to your computer or send it in, and download the language you want into your bracelet! It only takes a day and it's quick, it's easy, and it's free! Complete with a hologram menu that can pop up from the screen for even easier scrolling through the languages programmed into it, the Babel Bracelet is made to be part of that next step to unifying the world. ...Or something like that.

#//using a pic of it from lambda’s 2021 ref bc i can’t be bothered to draw a new ref rn #//lambda's got an older version specifically one of the prototypes and he does kind of lean heavily on it #//but mostly this thing's creation sprung up bc i needed a logical way to explain why lambda can talk with muses that speak other languages #//-without saying idk he can just do it. you know? dbhnfjkdsfnmk #//newer iterations have a set amount of languages preprogrammed in but you still have to download ones you want to speak #//and the download time being a day is because you know languages have a lot of words so it'd take a lot of time to get everything dled #//but yeah! fancy translator bracelet! #hidden depths: {info} #//idk where else to put this so i'm plopping it in there #//im going to be honest i totally bullshitted the brain thing im not even entirely sure i got right but i tried LMAO

[no-context-nonsense]

This one's a bit rough, FORGIVE ME

#fanfic #fanfiction #nonsense #making shit up #steddie #saturdaycryingclub #stranger things #archive of our own #marauders #regulus black #how do you say reggie/reg? #there IS a right answer #oonionchiver #that one shot was brutal #let's be honest #I'm mostly crying because I read the Lesbian Masterdoc #and had a crisis #yes at age 36 #i am not a smart man #sending drawings to friends and insisting they get them tattooed is my favourite hobby #DON'T YOU LOVE ME? #k love you bye

[bloodsoakeddoodles]

The differences are what makes the other so intriguing!

#Doodles #Pajama Sam #Florette #Luke Wigglebig #Flukette #If I had to guess they probably don't have a ship name hmmm #Considering there's Almost no fanart I can find of them haha #Especially together which is Weird 'cause like - they're always the first two delegates :0 What's with that #Well anyway whatever I'm used to rarepairs by now lol #Starting with a simple sleeping side-by-side ♥ Florette's florets have gotta be nice to nap on ♪ #Speaking of - there's no real candy equivalent to nature's design #Tiny flowers just aren't that common and then there's the fact that Luke's made of sugar and presumably mostly hangs out with other candies #My original doodles of them have a set where Flo tells him off for staring and he apologizes haha - they're just so alien to him! #So he finally gets to touch here congrats on the level up in relationship lol #Why were you being honest in so much detail you weirdo #Lol ♪ #I do love his embarrassed face looking off to the side and then hiding his face in his arms haha #Florette can't even facepalm about it #Or can she!! What if arms were more of an accessory than an actual body part?? Clearly this needs exploration through drawing lol #She'd look very cute in a jacket ♪ I was imagining a nice subdued purple would compliment her well :) #Very convenient for things like reaching shelves and making fists lol

[enfieldkit]

The brainrot for my boy Zeke is real, my goal is to put him in so many outfits. I'm taking him for a spin as my PC in a Changeling the Lost game that's happening eventually, he didn't really enjoy being a pretty decoration in a Fae estate. But that's ok now that he's out he gets to pick his own outfits!

#my art #my OCs #Changeling OC #I promise I'm drawing other things but half of them are spoilers for the pathfinder game I'm helping run #and if we're being honest it's still MOSTLY Zeke art that's happening

[rustywolf14]

i WAS WONDERING IF YOU GOT MY MESSAGE ABOUT MAKING FNAF DRAWINGS AND FNAF ANIMATIONS!

Yep I did

...now replace every "fnaf" in these with "original" and we'll be cooking!

#ask #i'm gonna be honest #it's been years since i've drawn fanart #i have read none of the fnaf books #or even checked out sb #only thing i'm still looking forward to is the movie #i'm just mostly checked out from it #like i DO wanna create more drawings and comics and even animations #...of my ocs #but i feel like no one will care #since i still get so many reqs to do fnaf art #not just here but on my other socials #only thing that's keeping me going #are the 10-20 people who do leave likes #and the rare ask in my inbox #for my silly dogs #and occasional other fanart #you're the real mvps ^^

[avaelangel]

I don't care much about Shadow and Bone, frankly.

But Darklina sounds waaay more interesting than anything else, really, because people are never canonically evil together. And I can't kinda be against Darkling, we might be related.

#i was very sceptical about the whole russian flare and i am kind of still #nichevoya sounds just not great #but morozov name and yes that more true seems to carry a lot of dickheads #i can confirm #shadown and bone #i'm watching amanda the jedi video about the second season and the crows draw me back to be honest #i can't be super duper against the whole thing #mostly because so many alinas not only in russia got their main character moment #i also wanted to be alexandra at 14

[benevolenterrancy]

Artfight Collection Round 3!

Credits:

1. Instagram @ rye_draws 2. Twitter @ Icee_Baer 3. Toyhouse/Artfight @ XyonDew 4. Twitter @ Sneketica 5. Instagram @ LuvenCreations 6. Tumblr @rainecloud020604

#artfight #art fight #you don't often see me work on canvases that wide #my art #mostly because Tumblr Really Hates These Dimensions And Will Destroy It but i had to fit in those wings #i haven't tried drawing proper feathered wings in ages that was fun #i'll be honest it shamefully makes me want to go draw acotar fanart... hm. let's try to nip that one in the bed perhaps #the milkshake goat was also a really fun challenge that was a very cool design #lots of nice colours and shapes and styles to work with on this batch #i'm hoping to get one more complete set of six before artfight is over! #animals

[starlit-mansion]

want to post wip (fanart) but also don't want to have the wip reblogged/lose the impact of posting

#if it was just one of my ocs then i would lmao #the problem is that. well. to be honest. i've kind of lost motivation for working on oc art at the moment #mostly because if i want to draw the ones that i've been thinking about most lately. then i have to do a bunch of design work #and it is. kind of easier to just. do fanart of stuff that is at a similar level of complexity to my style ngl. it's a confidence boost #part of the reason that i don't do more fanart is that i kind of struggle to interpret really simple stuff like cartoons or mc skins #when i make these illustrations with detailed features and hair #i'm not saying that i'm a better artist because. simple styles are good and i wish i could do them more #i just dumped all my skill points into semi-realistic portraits. did not dump any into backgrounds or objects either

[lovelybrooke]

Platonic Yandere Hazbin Hotel Concept (Pt.3)

I know this says Hazbin Hotel but this mostly concerns Helluva boss. Please check out my immortal reader au masterlist and read part 1 and 2 before reading this.

masterlist

---

Getting back to regular life was hard.

Your mother made you go back to school quickly after you woke up from your coma. People were nosey, asking too many questions that you could barely answer, and on top of that your mind was still racing with everything that had happened. It all felt so real, you didn't expect to wake up. But ultimately you fell back into a routine quickly. Going to school, going to work, going home, and waking up to do it all again. It was hard to accept that everything was just in your head, but you moved on.

All you wanted to focus on was catching up with school, but that was difficult with your peers and their questions. You guess that's what happens when you get hit by a car. But you just wanted all of them to shut up and leave you alone. It was all so much that you were leaving work early constantly because everyone seemed to know you. You spent most of your time back at home taking care of your mother.

While after finishing cleaning up one night and finally getting your mother in bed, you went to go take your medicine. While most of your wounds healed shockingly fast, you still needed medication to keep you stable until further notice. Maybe you weren't paying attention, maybe you got confused and picked up the wrong bottle, but when you went to bed, you didn't wake up.

Well that wasn't correct, because when you did, you were back in Hell, but you didn't recognized any of this. You knew this was Pride, but noting by the fact that you've never really left the hotel alone, that was the best you got. You didn't want to be here, you just wanted to go back home, you didn't want to go through this again. You watched with an anxious breath as Imps passed you on the street, and as a kept looking around, you noticed you were in front of a building, so that's were you went, attempting to hide away from everything.

The building looked normal for the most part, kinda dirty if you were being honest, but it was better than being gawked at in the streets. You were hoping to find a way back to the hotel, just find the people you knew. As you sit in the lobby of building you hugged yourself and sighed, barely hearing the door open. You wanted to laugh at how familiar this whole situation was, but the noise wouldn't come out, and all you could hear was "who are you, sweetie?"

It was a female imp, right next to her another male imp, who looked way more concerned than her. "Millie, is that a human." He whispered to the other, but you could still very much hear him. Honestly, you were finding it hard to care about their shock, you've already been through this before you don't need to hear it again.

"Excuse me, yeah—I'm sorry, could you tell me where I am?" You interrupting their muttering. They both instantly stop talking, looking at you for a few seconds before the female imp moves towards you and takes your hand, ignoring your question.

"Could you come with me?" You didn't really have a choice, so you go with the two into another room, this one with a long table, another Imp and a hellhound in the room, both unbothered by the two other imps storming in the room. "Blitzo why was there a human in the lobby?"

Suffice to say that Blitzo didn't know who you were at all, but your presence still caused an uproar. Talks about grimoire's and jobs, all of which didn't matter to you. You sulked back into the chair you were now in as you listen to the others argue, mentally trying to think of a way to get to the hotel without drawing too much attention to yourself. "Look..." You eventually spoke. "Just tell me where the Hazbin Hotel is and I'll leave you all alone."

"The what now?" Blitzo gawked, causing you to sulk ever further into your chair. This was going to be impossible.

Since then, the married couple, Millie and Moxie, were nice enough to let you stay with them, spending the rest of your time at their job with Blitzo and his daughter Loona. It wasn't ideal, but since one seemed to know about the Hotel, you given up getting back there any time soon. But everyone seemed nice, especially Mille and Moxie, who seemed very happy to have you around, even though you tried to stay out of their hair. Even though, they both seemed to like you, making it a surprise that they didn't have any children of their own.

The couple loved you, they loved having you at their home, taking care of you. It was a nice change of pace from the work that Blitzo put them through. Even though you were older, they couldn't help but treat you like a child. They couldn't care less that you were human, all they wanted to do was take care of you.

Blitzo and Loona were also nice, even though you tend to hang out with Loona more. She was closer to you in age, and while sardonic, it was nice having a friend your own age. And for the first time in a while, it seemed like she actually enjoyed hanging out with you, which made you happy. Blitzo at first made you nervous, but after realizing that he wasn't nearly as scary as you once thought, you warmed up to him. You never really understood why Loona hated him so much, he seemed like a great dad, but you're not really the judge of good and bad dads.

Loona thought you were great, you related to her in ways others didn't, you were fun and a distraction from work. What she didn't get was Blitzo and his weird fascination with you. Maybe it was because you were close to her in age, or because you were a human, but it's not like Blitzo hasn't seen them before. Honestly, Blitzo couldn't explain it himself, but you reminded him of Loony in some ways, and he just knew there was something deeper about you, even if you would never admit it.

After a while, you started to fall into a routine. It was nice having people take care of you. You felt like a kid again around Millie and Moxie, and their care nearly mad you forget about the hotel. They were interested in you as a person, in your life, and it made you feel important. Blitzo also seemed to take an interest in you, one that seemed strange for someone that had a daughter. You never wanted to get to close to you, afraid of making Loona uncomfortable, but it was nearly impossible to get him to leave you alone.

One day, Loona invited you to party in part of hell you've never even heard of. To not seem like a loser, you excepted, and while Millie and Moxie were nervous for you, you managed to meet up with Loona and head to the party. It was--a lot to say the least, and while you tried to keep up with Loona, you eventually lost her, and you headed outside to catch a breath. It was there that you met Octavia. She didn't seem like someone to be at a party, but a lot of people were at this party so it wasn't that weird. She was soft spoken, but nice, and she eventually even invited you over to her home. You couldn't give her an answer before Loona found you and dragged you off. It seemed like she knew Octavia, but you didn't want to assume anything, and never asked.

Octavia liked having a friend, something to distract her from the chaos of her home life. You were a safe haven for her, something she seemed to crave as time went on, and on top of that you seemed to understand her. You were a great listener, a great friend, and someone she wanted to keep to herself. It's why she wanted to keep you away from her dad, she cared about him, but she didn't want anything to change about you, she just wanted you to be hers.

You spent a lot of your time after that messaging Octavia whenever you could. She was similar to Loona in ways, cynical and moody during some times, but also funny and genuinely a great person. She also hated her dad, who she complained about a lot when messaging with you. You didn't know how to act when she got like that, making you feel awkward when she complained to you. She was the first person you told about your family, feeling like a weight was lifted from your chest, even if there was still a lot to be worried about.

---

A/n: All the characters wouldn't fit, so feel free to ask about them in separate posts. I really don't want to write a part 4 but I will if I have to. Also I know this sucked but I wanted to get this over with, sorry

#yandere x reader #soft yandere #platonic yandere #platonic yandere helluva boss #yandere helluva boss #helluva boss x reader #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel #platonic yandere hazbin hotel #yandere hazbin hotel

[relaxxattack]

okay because of the differing opinions on @calware's post i had to go and check for myself. after all, we've all heard info passed down the fanon grapevine over the years. so, here it is:

is dave strider right or left handed?

obviously, this being homestuck, character sprites flip like every half a second, so i'm trying to take that into account here. alright, let's plow through an entire comic's worth of dave panels.

in his very first appearance, dave uses a katana from his wall to slash through his name command left-handedly.

he proceeds to use his left hand for many actions he takes in his apartment, including typing.

he then uses his right hand to fistbump cal, open the attic, pick up a sword, and escape the puppet pile. his computer is also set up for his right hand.

so already we've got a lot of switching going on, as to be expected with homestuck. i'm going to just try and focus on "main" shots now and not minute sprite details, since those seem to switch constantly.

dave climbs the staircase after picking up the sword with his right hand. however, when beginning the strife with bro he switches it to his left.

during that fight his sprite (and dominant hand) flips many times. while he is laying on the floor beaten he texts john with his right. once he gets up, he resumes typing with his left. [EDIT: he pretty much always uses his left hand when texting; there are very few panels where this sprite is flipped.]

during the [s] enter, dave is famously seen drawing a sbahj panel with his mouse right-handedly. he does this again talking to tavros later. his computer setup seems pretty consistent in this way.

during [s] accelerate, dave flips his sword between hands multiple times both in sprite and hero mode.

then, for no apparent reason except for that he probably hates me and wants me to suffer, dave switches his main hand back and forth repeatedly for the entire rest of the comic.

he frequently carries his sword in his right hand, except for stray panels where, when actually using the sword, he favors his left (panels 5 and 8 above). however, this isn’t a case of him only carrying with his right and then using his left to actually wield— because as you can see in panel 9 above, he also uses it right-handedly.

he uses his left hand during the entire fight with jade and bec, but then, switches back to his right during cascade.

during meteorstuck he seems to use his right hand for most activities, including drawing and writing, except for the penis ouija scene, in which he uses his left.

he takes all his selfies with his right hand, then confronts jade with his left hand. his watch is also positioned on his left wrist, which is traditionally an indicator of right-handedness; and he holds his sword in his right again as he absconds.

during the dogfight he makes most of his attacks with his right hand, and switches to his left to parry bec. when he dies in game over, he's holding his sword in his left.

he's using his right hand in essentially all of the non-sprite shots in collide, except for this last big red one.

that's all i've got.

conclusion: ????

in all honesty, he seems to switch between either hand frequently enough that you could make an argument for almost anything. hooray, everyone's headcanons are valid!

though i will say that he definitely uses his right hand more frequently in panels. if you only count panels where he's actually using his sword, it's closer to an even split, but i'd still tentatively say that he favors right more often than not.

the widespread fanon concept that he canonically only uses his right hand while drawing and otherwise uses his left, is unfortunately mostly cheryypicked in terms on panels. but that's not to say it's necessarily wrong. there's too little consistency in the art to definitely call it false

considering he's been seen both writing and swordfighting with his left, you can headcanon whatever the fuck you want! (and let's be honest, he has leftie vibes).

that's all! hopefully this helps someone. this took way too long to do help

#did i just spend hours scouring the entire webcomic for every instance of dave holding something ever? yes. what are you gonna do #homestuck #dave strider #hsmeta #op #am i perhaps salty that the popular headcanon i believed for years isn't true...? who's to say... *eye twitching*

[howtofightwrite]

For a character that virtually can’t die and regenerates in order to keep living, how do you make action interesting? Emphasize they still feel pain, why they’re doing it?

I'm actually going to step back a bit from this question first, and complement it. This is a very honest question, and something most writers who include violence in their work, should really think about. Even if you don't think you have characters like this, you do.

Now, I'm going to dunk on Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw for a moment. Ages ago (I think it was in one of his Resistance reviews), Yahtzee described, “threatening to blow up the world,” as the laziest form of raising the stakes. Because, “hey, I live on a world.” He's mostly correct. Threatening your protagonist's life is even lazier. In the vast majority of cases, your audience knows you won't go through with it. That you won't kill off your protagonists.

With that in mind, when you decide your protagonist is completely immortal, that changes less about how you write them than you might expect. The biggest difference is simply that they're directly aware of their plot armor, rather than them engaging in faux indecision based on their perceived mortality. Again, this is something that every writer who uses violence should think about, at least a bit. It is natural for a character to fear for their life, and have reservations about risking their life, but making the part where your character's lives are on the line isn't automatically suspenseful. In a lot of cases (consciously or not), your audience will call your bluff, when you threaten to kill off a major character.

If you think back to major character deaths where something drops them without warning, part of what makes those scenes work is the lack of (apparent) setup. The writer didn't spend pages teasing you with the idea, they just went for the throat and ended that character on the spot. This is more respectful of your audience, because you're not telling them, “well, I might kill this character, or I might not.”

To be clear, I'm not saying that there's no place for teasing your audience with a character's impending demise, just pointing out that in a lot of cases, this won't generate the kind of suspense you'd hope for.

So, to get back on topic, how do you make it interesting? Remember that while this character can't die, the same is not true for the characters around them. Depending on the tone you're going for, you could create an absolutely brutal crucible effect, where everyone around your immortal gets burned off, sooner or later. Whether that's literal, or figurative, is up to you. Even if your character can't die, watching people they care about suffer and die is going to have an effect on them.

You probably don't need to draw special attention to the physical pain they experience, but you do want to be aware of it. Especially in the context of how pain affects the victim's behavior. Beyond that, there is probably an element of pain being far more annoying to the immortal than it would be to a normal person. They know it's not telling them anything meaningful, but it is distracting.

Long-term, both of these can easily result in personality shifts. And, legitimately, this is a scenario where a character may be immortal, but they would still experience significant changes over time, and with the growing emotional pain, could have very adverse effects on your personality. This does have some very real, “live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” potential. How many friends can you lose before you stop caring? How many funerals can you attend before you start taking the phrase, “you're either part of the solution or part of the problem,” a little too far? How many times can you pick yourself up off the pavement a blood-covered alleyway, surrounded by corpses, before you start to forget what made you human in the first place?

And, that's not the only option. The simplest answer for maintaining tension when one of your characters is immortal is keeping your eye on what they're trying to accomplish. Keep track of their objectives, because I guarantee they can fail those. Even just keeping their own nature concealed from the mortal world is probably fairly important, because of the idea that men in hazmat suits will drag them away to some research lab and poke them until they figure out how to replicate their immortality, is a classic (and potentially plausible) threat. (Bonus points, if you're wanting to loop in something like the medieval inquisitions, or some other secret societies that could pose this kind of a threat.)

So, what do you do? To dig out an old cliché threat, “there are fates worse than death,” and it's probably worth exploring them. This also opens up new possibilities for threats. Finally, it's worth remembering that immortality does not guarantee success. If your character is hoping for that, it might be time to give them a very harsh lesson.

-Starke

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#writing reference #writing advice #writing tips #how to fight write #starke answers