#it’s better for introspection in books | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vermillioncrown · 1 year

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if you don't mind me asking, and if i just missed something again somewhere thatd answer my question, i am so sorry. but. it seems like even tho with the assumption that korvin is basically from our world, he doesnt know all that much about general comic book lore. so like. how aware is korvin that he was isekai'ed into the comic book world?

don't mind, will clarify.

let's think of it like this. at what point does it matter how much you know about the world you've isekai'd in? especially for a comic book world, in which canon and continuity are already loosely defined? what about it being so close to the real world for most of the time, and then jarringly different during the highest stakes?

are you willing to bet your life on assumptions?

korvin's not.

he knows of batman from the cultural zeitgeist but has my general...uh, disinterest and skepticism in the messiness and narratives of comics and superheroes stories.

and on his general mindset (my mindset): it's folly to walk into something assuming you have the ground truth. a lot of the work i do day-to-day is interdisciplinary aka working between specialties to connect them into a larger analysis. and by god i work with some of the most brilliant people... in their field that can't for the life of them understand and articulate their working assumptions that only WORK FOR THEM. knowledge bias is real and it's a barrier for this type of collaboration. so, i'm extra-wary about going into things treating it like it has to be some way. i rather rely on a more abstracted and fundamental set of first principles and adapt as necessary.

and so you get korvin.

#inquiry #maryallenc tries to write #on tpac #it's also the reconciliation of comic book logic and real world logic #if there was obvious blatant differences in day-to-day living then sure. but there's really not #short answer is: he doesn't generally enjoy the genre + doesn't know enough + knows he's better off without clinging to half-baked lore #trusting the isekai'd metaknowledge is like a trade of how well you know it vs how well you can observe/prove it #my little rib here is at the transmigrators that think they're set bc they're obsessed with whatever they're now in #like buddy you may have encyclopedic knowledge of the 'verse but you lack life experience + unbiased observation skills + introspection #those are isekais that can only be done with a certain mindset that isn't me #edit+caveat: doesn't mean korvin's better off. boy could do w some therapy and anti-anxiety meds

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cannibalismyuri · 9 months

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hey sara when you read rwrb did you also assume alex knew he was bi up until his sexuality crisis revealed the truth to you or was it just me who labored under delusions for the first 25 percent of the book, a whole quarter of the way through, before getting the shocking surprise that alex claremont-diaz, main character of nyt bestselling debut novel red white and royal blue, by author casey mcquiston, was NOT an out and proud bisexual man?

no actually, because im not delulu like u are . anyway .

#LMAO theres a pattern to how these books work and only occasionally are Both ppl comfortable in their identity before getting together.#bc queer panic is fun to write and also a convenient plot point to maybe add Angst or just further the Getting Together process.#besides‚ the whole point was to have a Major Big Realization that his obsession w henry wasnt purely antagonistic.#and it made for some good dramatic irony and unreliable narrator shenanigans. so im saying that it was the only way to fill up space.#and also it caused introspection‚ which leads to us learning more backstory and empathising with him more in general.#also it was hilarious that alex was high key obsessed with him for years and also had Gay Experiences in hs but still didn't realize.#and that makes alex a relatable character overall and makes the pacing of the story better‚ which is why Most queer authors tend to do this #so basically for technical reasons that i Knew bc i do literary analysis‚ also in the specific case of rivals to lovers it just made Sense.#sara's asks #rori <33 #rwrb

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cmonangel · 5 months

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do you ever start a popular book and its like. am i reading the same thing as everyone else read

#ive been looking forward to alone w you in the ether for so long #and i finally started it and its like nonstop existential info dumping?? which im usually fine with but im just not convinced at all #with this book like it sounds made up #and this is coming from me a tlt fan #i love crazy introspective world view books like the overstory and cloud cuckoo land and cloud atlas and things like that #like to be clear #my issue isn’t the quote unquote science #like not to be judgmental but these characters just seem like a manic pixie dream girl and a guy with undiagnosed autism #has anyone else read it though like does it get better??#i usually only read reviews after i finish a book bc i want to read it without others opinions but im so not excited so far

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prettyrowantree · 1 year

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a collection of short stories all set on the same superpowered world that just explores the less-considered side effects of powers. e.g. the guy who can slow down time is suffering from memory loss at age 35 because he literally has lived two to three times as long as anybody else, mentally. or the girl who can teleport accidentally doing it in her sleep and hurts herself by teleporting partway into a wall. etc etc

#superheroes #my hero but better #i love introspection #books #writing

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seekingxanadu · 2 years

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The fact that Task Force Z is in main continuity is the biggest joke here. NO WAY is Dick who has been a vigilante for over 2 decades such an idiot LOL. Tim has never been a great fighter; but Dick IS one of DC’s greatest fighters. While I personally rank Cassandra and Dick equally in terms of raw ability, I can accept that Cassandra edges ahead in pure fighting skills. Both outrank Jason in raw ability. Dick’s strengths have been in his resourcefulness and savviness, his tactical nous is literally one of the qualities that makes him a great leader. I bring up the leadership trait because leadership isn’t simply leading 5 or 50 people into war, it is the ability to strategise, to anticipate, to plan.

Showing Dick as a novice fighter, as someone who doesn't even land a punch or even a dodge simply shows that others need to be written as idiots, as what they are NOT in canon, for Jason Todd to just appear good LOL

#poor jason #jason todd #his sole character trait is as the official batfam whiner #always crying about daddy not loving him enough #batfam fandom needs to have an introspective phase #as does DC's modern writers #task force z #is another in a long line of Jason books that depends on getting others wrong to prop up Jason #Jason is STILL measured by his betters in the batfam #poor kid #he can never redeem himself

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wheelbrough · 2 years

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i miss bill :(

#like i get it but any active or semi active it blogs i can find are reddie centric #i would like. bill posting.#maybe i Will actually read the book get a better grasp on his full character #and like. write a bill introspective character analysis #bring back bill postinggggg #mine

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arospecsyourblockdudes · 1 year

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There’s this specific style of writing I see in a lot of books I read these days and it’s like that faux-pretentious purple prose-y forced-introspective style. You know? You know the vibe? Like NORMAL pretentious purple prose-y introspective is fine because if it isn’t clashing with the story I’m reading I don’t care I vibe with it. But there’s a time and a place and either it’s the books I pick up or a trend but everyone is trying to do it and sometimes it just doesn’t work with the story being told. Sometimes the style and voice clashes a lot with the subject matter and makes me feel that disconnect. Like it’s fine to not use lots of metaphors and talk introspectively about identity and love and whatever sometimes it doesn’t have to happen.

#again idk might just b the books I read #but I just finished up dead collections and like … idk that style didn’t work for that story imo #good book otherwise I do recommend it it’s got vampires #a good couple other books do it too and it just like . idk. just doesn’t Work #like the atlas six got away with it because it worked and meshed with the story #some other stuff just like . doesn’t #they both die at the end coulda worked well with that tone if the actual story wasn’t like. the way it is #if the story was better that tone woulda worked but it wasn’t better so it falls short #one book that had a perfect mesh between story and style/voice was highfire #it was sort of unserious with serious parts and lots of action and the style mimicked that #they were making dick jokes. they were introspecting at appropriate moments. they were swearing. it was great #don’t b afraid to make some dick jokes and not introspect all the time

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meiieiri · 2 months

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𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐩 [toji fushiguro]

synopsis: toji will never forget the first night he spent away from the zenin clan and the day he met you.

pairing: toji fushiguro x f!reader | song inspo: saw you in a dream, timeless | hidden inventory: the lost tapes series masterlist

warnings: mentions of emotional abuse but generally pretty much a fluff fic where toji and y/n meet for the first time. | a/n: finally launching my little love project called “hidden inventory: the lost tapes”! 🍒

Now isn’t this just perfect?

Toji’s is just one inconvenience away from just going back to the Zenin clan with his tail between his legs. First, he underestimates just how expensive living in Tokyo is so, with what little pocket money his emotionally distant mother gave him before he left the estate, the first thing he does is spend it all on a girl — in broad daylight — he’s heard his brother, Jinichi, talk about those cute little call girls that crawl the streets of Kabukichō with flyers in their hand for thirty-minute “massages”. Naturally, as a young man who is only first experiencing the carnal joys the city has to offer, Toji was curious and he took the bait.

A bait that cost him ¥30,000 and the girl was unfortunately sloppy at best.

Now, he doesn’t have money to buy so much as a soggy red bean pancake for dinner. He doesn’t know how long he’s been walking around this dingy part of Shinjuku but as long as the red light district’s trashy ambience is distracting him from the growling of his stomach, then, he’ll stumble around this hellhole until morning.

“Ha! You won’t even last two minutes out there!” That’s what Naobito Zenin, the head of the clan said to him when he left. “Only two things await you when you get out of here, either you’ll die hungry or a cursed spirit will get to you first — either way, you’ll die with your eyes wide open with no one!”

Overrun by his thoughts, Toji doesn’t even notice that he accidentally intruded on a random cockroach and curse-infested alleyway that apparently belonged to some junkie who is now angrily telling him to get lost. “I was just looking for a place to sit down,” Toji scoffs. Weren’t they both bottom feeders in this city? Why was this rancid-smelling meth addict acting like he’s any better than him?

“Well, go sit somewhere else, this place is off-limits!”

It was almost funny how Toji thought that the world beyond the gates of the Zenin estate was any better than the shit show he was born into.

He should have known better than to be enticed by the glitz and glamour of living independently from his abusive family who at least had the decency to feed him maggoty rice from the estate’s second storehouse dedicated to prepare the animals’ food. They also gave him shelter, of course, he’s had to live in the Zenin estate’s shed for a while now since his father discovered he was born useless without an ounce of cursed energy. But at least he was warm, and the termites made him feel less lonely.

He continues on in his aimless quest. The night is still young. There’s plenty of time for self-depreciating introspection.

Hopefully, that grade three cursed spirit that’s been following him around the block for a while now gets to him first before the rain does.

“That guy over there,” your coworker whispers to you from the cash registers. “He’s been there for a while now and he hasn’t ordered anything.”

You look up from your pocketbook, your eyes curiously trained on the rugged looking man whose eyes were downcast, trained on the service water he requested from the counter when he came in. As if he could feel a pair of eyes on him, he looks up, and glances your way for a bit but you quickly hide your face behind your book.

“He kinda looks like trouble, no? Shady too, just look at the scar on his lip…”

“It’s not fair to judge someone like that, Rika-chan,” you whispered to your junior, turning to arrange the menus, painstakingly wiping each one clean with a cloth dampened with sanitizer. A small smirk appears on Toji’s lips at your passive defense of his character and as if to goad you on, he drums his fingertips against the table daring you to say another word. “Anyway, I’ll handle closing the shop tonight. You need to get home since you have class in a few hours.”

That seemed sudden. Rika looks at you funnily before shrugging off her apron in favor of her raincoat. “Well, alright, if you insist. Should I clean up the kitchen at least?”

“I’ll handle it,” you give her a thumbs up, waving her goodbye as she leaves through the backdoor. Now that you’re alone, you could hardly stop yourself from glancing at the mysterious man, and Toji himself wonders if his presence here is starting to turn into a nuisance. You were probably waiting for him to step out so you could close shop for the night but it’s raining hard right now and there are no other places open nearby to take shelter in.

The chair’s feet screeches against the wooden floorboards and you head to the restaurant’s kitchen. Toji stares at your retreating form, looks like he overstayed his welcome. He searches around for a few coins to give to you for your hospitality, of course, it probably doesn’t mean jack shit, but you must have known he didn’t have enough money for a meal when he came in here. You would have realized that immediately. But you allowed him to stay regardless.

You return a couple of minutes later with a bowl miso soup with ginger pork gyoza and shredded cabbages. You set the bowl down in front of him and Toji is thoroughly taken aback, he looks at you dumbfounded. “I don’t have any money,” his voice comes out a little gruffly but you barely flinch at the sharp edge of his tone.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Refilling his water, you explained that while you could have easily stuffed those leftovers back in the freezer, customers wouldn’t want to eat frozen food, so, you decide to heat these items up to give to him instead. “Oh,” Toji answers a little dumbly. “Or you could have thrown them out.” He stares at the sumptuous meal in front of him. Even in the Zenin estate, he never had such good food laid out in front of him before and it was surreal to see a stranger do the things his family should have done for him.

You return to the counter, leaning on your forearms as you engage in light banter with him. “You’re saying I should feed rats over people?” you chuckled, sitting back down, smiling softly when Toji gingerly bringing the bowl of miso soup to his lips, the rich earthy broth warming his throat that he lets out a content sigh.

He smirks at your little remark. “I’m saying you shouldn’t make a habit of feeding strays.” He polishes his soup bowl clean within minutes and you have to remind him to slow down every now and then as you watched him eat ravenously. “You never know when you could get that dainty hand of yours bitten off.”

You blushed pink at that. He was right, being too generous could cost you dearly one day but being the altruistic soul that you are, you’ll probably continue to be graciously selfless despite the risk of being taken advantage of. It’s just how you are as a person who believes that a little kindness can make the world better than it was yesterday. “I…don’t really know about that…whether I get bitten or not by the people I help isn’t really something I can control. The world would be better off if people just learned to be kind to one another.”

Toji hums at your naive countenance, folding his arms over the table. The room is silent for a few minutes save for the occasional rumble of thunder in the distance. “You’re kinda dumb, aren’t ya?”

“And you’re a pessimist,” you answered, quirking an amused eyebrow at him. “Who doesn’t even know how to say thank you.” You stand up to clear out the table, a teasing glint in your eyes as your curious orbs collide.

Toji scoffs, leaning against his seat, crossing his legs. At his reluctance, you shake your head, giggling softly. What an infuriating interesting guy. Toji hears the rushing of tap water from behind the counter and he smiles inwardly. The rain begins to slowly stop and he takes this window of opportunity to leave.

You don’t even try to hide your disappointment when you come back to the dining room only to find it empty, the stranger having left nothing in his wake — not a goodbye, not a thank you, and certainly not his name — except a single rusty five yen coin on the table.

Clang-dong!

“Hello, welcome—“ You stop mid-sentence. Your throat constricting with a mix of emotions, the most dominant one being joy at this happy chance, you’d recognize those sharp dark green eyes anywhere despite only first seeing them a week ago. After all, they looked so dangerously beautiful under the dim light of the dining room’s ceiling lampshade. “—back. Welcome back,” you smiled brightly at Toji.

Toji nods, his hand coming up to cover his lips as he coughs once. “Thanks…ah, right — shit, where is it?” After rummaging around his parachute jacket’s many pockets, he finally takes out his wallet and you look at him, bewildered, when he hands a few hundred yen bills to you. “For last week. Sorry I couldn’t pay you back then.”

“It’s fine.” You take his larger, calloused hand and return the money which Toji responds to by stubbornly placing it on the table.

Toji pinches the bridge of his nose when you playfully return the gesture by rolling it up and placing it in his jacket pocket, buttoning it. “Look, it was real nice of you to treat me back then, but I’m not a charity case, alright? I just wanna pay my dues.”

“Then, a simple ‘thank you’ is enough.” Toji just couldn’t understand you. You have absolutely no reason to be nice to him, but you are. For a moment, he begins to fall into the enticing thought that maybe life outside the Zenin estate won’t be too bad after all if there are people like you still around just waiting at random corners to be found in joyful happenstances such as waiting out a storm at a random family-style restaurant over a heartwarming serving of miso soup with tender pieces of gyoza and cabbage.

Relenting, he smirks at you, unable to figure you out. “Thank you.”

“Anyway, need a table for lunch?” you smiled warmly at him as you lead him to the table he sat in a week ago which you now affectionately refer to as ‘his’ table instead of table number four.

Toji nods following your lead and chuckling when you hand him the menu. “Where’s that thing I had last time?“ he oddly flips through the booklet.

“Oh uh…it’s not on the menu actually, but I could make that for you if you’d like.”

“Sounds good.” Toji hands you back the menu. You are just about to scurry away to the kitchen when he calls out to you. “So, do you have a name or should I just keep referring to you as gyoza girl or something?” Embarrassed at the way your knees seem to become weak at his boyish grin, you have to take a few deep breaths before turning around to face him again. “I’m Toji.”

He doesn’t say his last name. He doesn’t feel the need to anymore now that he’s finally closing the door to his past. You nod, noting how the name suited him. It’s brief but strong, muted but loud in its rhythm. Toji. At that moment, you find it impossible to name a prettier sound. After a few excruciating minutes in the kitchen, you come back out with two bowls of miso soup this time around and you sit down on the chair directly in front of him.

“Y/N.”

Toji repeats the melody of your name in his head. “And how much do I owe ya for this, Y/N?”

You shrugged as the two of you dig in, your hand coming up to cover your mouth as you chew the steamed gyoza, joining him as he laughs (well, he’s scoffing more than actually laughing, really), his eyes alight with wonder, when you simply say, “Five yen.”

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hostilehospitalbeds · 2 years

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ok so. Just saw a post criticizing the hunger games films compared to the books. And of course I have my complaints about things from the books that got left out of the films - like the scene where Katniss realizes coin is just as barbaric as the capital with her treatment of katniss’s former … beauticians I wanna say? Don’t remember exactly. BUT to be like “the films have no teeth it’s just a teen romance none of the social commentary is there katniss’s hatred of the capital isn’t there”… that’s nonsense (katniss still kills coin at the end! And we can infer why from the things we do get to see even if we don’t get that specific scene, and even if we don’t get it laid out for us word for word from katniss!) and what I think this person is confusing is the inability of a film to capture things in the exact same way that a book does (as I said above - we get access to katniss’s entire internal monologue in a book! That can’t happen in a movie!) with “they cut the teeth out to make it marketable”. I think they’re excellent books and excellent movies and honestly I get kinda bored of the whole “the book is always better than the movie” I mean yeah if you like books better than movies as a delivery format it will be that way. I personally enjoy them both so I’m very careful with when I decide that a movie did a book disservice (as I feel about annihilation). Bc there’s a huge difference between “the plot was completely altered” and “the entire plot of a 400 page book can’t be fit into a 2-hour movie”

also like. If you want to make the case that the MARKETING of the movie was poorly done, that doesn’t require dragging down the films themselves. They’re good movies Brent.

#I feel like there’s an example of a movie I liked better than the book but not coming to me #but almost always my perspective is ‘I enjoyed both of them and got different things out of them”#I love books but I also love the audiovisual experience of film and television! you just don’t get that from a book!#but you don’t necessarily get all the detail and introspection from a film that you get from the written word! They function differently!

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michaeljoncarter · 7 months

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man, not to be melodramatic, but there is something like. genuinely a little disturbing about just how widely accepted rhato's WILDLY classist willis todd retcon is. in all my years lurking on the comic book internet, i've seen a grand total of one person really pushing back & being vocally pissed about it, and that's... so fucked, considering just how bad it is

people who have only read later comics at least have the excuse of only having been exposed to the post-butchery version of jason's origin, but there are WAY too many people who've clearly read his post-crisis robin run but talk about it like the changes lobdell made were these minor cosmetic tweaks

i don't know how you could read a story where the through-line is that this kid loved his parents (BOTH of them) so much, not even bruce wayne could relate to the intensity of his grief when he lost them... but NOT see a retcon that rewrites said parents to instead be neglectful, abusive caricatures of poverty whose son only learned about the concept of love and kindness by the grace of some virtuous rich fuck who takes him in in an attempt to teach him how to be a good person as anything but a fucking insult

"jason grew up in poverty on the 'bad side' of town" and "most of jason's childhood was spent in a (relatively) stable home with parents who loved him" are apparently just completely incompatible statements. because yeah i mean, obviously, it's a lot more realistic if he'd never experienced a single positive thing in his life before he met bruce, right? if literally every single person he'd ever met before bruce rescued him from the hell on earth that is a low-income neighborhood was a morally-vacant piece of shit?

willis todd's rap sheet in jason's post-crisis origin had not a single violent offense. the dude ran numbers and worked in chop shops. he was the criminal equivalent of a mechanic with a delivery gig on the side (and it's pretty heavily implied he was only even doing that because he wanted to be able to give jason a better life)

if that translates to "violent, morally bankrupt scumbag who beats his wife and doesn't give a shit about his kid" in your mind, i mean this in the kindest way possible, but i think you really need to do some introspection on why that is lol

#jason todd #willis todd #this feels so overly serious & weirdly aggressive but i just saw a post that made me want to ACTUALLY die hhgfvn #most people aren't that bad & it's more just going with the fandom trends than anything nefarious #but a few of yall............

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physalian · 1 month

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What No One Tells you about Writing #3

Opening this up to writing as a whole, because it turns out I have a lot more to say!

Part 1

Part 2

1. You don’t fall in love with your characters immediately

But when you do, it’s a hit of serotonin like no other. I’d been writing a tight cast of characters for my sci-fi series since 2016 and switched over in a bout of writer’s block this year to my new fantasy book. I made it about ⅓ through writing the book going through the motions, unable to visualize what these new characters look like, sound like, or would behave like without a ‘camera’ on them.

Then, all of a sudden, I opened my document to keep on chugging with the first draft, and it clicked. They were no longer faceless elements of my plot, they were my characters and I was excited to see what they could accomplish, rooting for them to succeed. Sometimes, it takes a while, but it does come.

2. Sometimes a smaller edit is better than a massive rewrite

Unless you’re changing the trajectory of your entire plot, or a character’s arc really is unrecoverable, sometimes even a single line of dialogue, a single paragraph of introspection, or a quick exchange between two characters can change everything. If something isn’t working, or your beta readers consistently aren’t jiving with a character you yourself love, try taking a step back, looking at who they are as a person, and boil down what your feedback is telling you and it might demand a simpler fix than you expect.

Tiny details inserted at the right moment can move mountains. Fan theories stand on the backs of these minutiae. One sentence can turn a platonic relationship romantic. One sentence can unravel a fair and just argument. One sentence can fill or open a massive plot hole.

3. Outline? What outline?

Not every book demands weeks upon weeks of prep and worldbuilding. I would argue that jumping right in with only a vague direction in mind gives you a massive advantage: You can’t infodump research you haven’t done. Exposition is forced to come as the plot demands it, because you haven’t designed it yet.

Not every story is simple and straightforward, but even penning the first draft with your vague plan, *then* going back and adding in deeper worldbuilding elements, more thematic details, richer character development, can get you over the writer’s block hurdle and make it far less intimidating to just shut up and write the book.

4. It’s okay to let your characters take the wheel

I’ve seen writing advice that chastises authors who let their characters run wild, off the plan the story has for them. Yeah, doing this can harm your pacing and muddy a strong and consistent arc, but refusing to leave the box of your outline greatly limits your creativity. I do this particularly when writing romantic relationships (and end up like Captain Crunch going Oops! All Gays!).

Did I plan for these two to get together? No, it just happened organically as I wrote them talking, getting closer, getting to know each other better in the circumstances they find themselves in. Was this character meant to be gay? Well, he wasn’t meant to be straight, but you know what, he’d work really well with this other boy over here. None of that would have happened if I was bound and determined to follow my original plan, because my original plan didn’t account for how the story that I want to tell evolves. You aren’t clairvoyant—it’s okay if it didn’t end up where you thought it would.

5. Fight. Scenes. Suck.

Which is crazy because I love fantasy and sci-fi, the actiony-est genres. Some authors love battle scenes and fistfights. It comes naturally to them and I will forever be jealous. I hate fight scenes. I hate blocking and choreographing them. I hate how it doesn’t read like I’m watching a movie. I hate how it could take me hours to write a scene I can read in 5 minutes. I hate that there’s no way around it except to just not write them, or put in the elbow grease and practice.

Whatever your writing kryptonite is, don’t be too hard on yourself. It won’t ever replicate the movie in your head, but our audience isn’t privy to that movie and will be none the wiser of how this didn’t fit your expectations, because it’s probably awesome on its own. It could be a fight scene, sex scene, epic battle, cavalry charge, courtroom argument, car chase—whatever. Be patient, and kind to yourself and it will all come together.

6. Write the scenes you want to write first

And then be prepared to never use them. It can be mighty difficult working backwards from a climax and figuring out how to write the story around it, but if you’re sitting at your laptop staring at your cursor and watching it blink, stuck on a tedious moment that’s necessary but frustrating, go write something exciting. Even if that amazing scene ends up no longer working in the book your story becomes, you still get practice by writing it. Particularly if you hate beginnings or the pressure of a perfect first page is too high, you’re allowed to write any other moment in the book first.

And with that, be prepared to kill your darlings. Not your characters, I mean that one badass line of dialogue living rent free in your head. That epic monologue. That whump scenario for your favorite character. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out anymore, but even if it ends up in the trash, you can always salvage something from it, even if that’s only the knowledge of what not to do in the future.

7. “This is clearly an author insert.” … Yes. It is. Point?

No one likes Mary Sues, because a character who doesn’t struggle or learn to get everything they want in life is uncompelling. The most flagrant author inserts I see aren’t Mary Sues, they’re nerdy, awkward, boring white guys whose world changes to fit their perspective, instead of the other way around—they don’t have anything to say. I’m not the intended audience to relate to these characters and I accept that, but I don’t empathize with the so-called “strong female character” who also doesn’t have flaws or an arc either.

A good author insert? When the author gives their characters pieces of themselves. When the “author insert” struggles and learns and grows and it’s a therapeutic experience just writing these characters thrown into such horrible situations. They feel human when they’re given pieces of a human’s soul. They have real human flaws and idiosyncrasies. I don’t care if the author wrote themselves as the protagonist. I care that this protagonist is entertaining. So if you want to make yourself the hero of your book, go for it! But make sure you look in the mirror and write in your flaws, as much as your strengths.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #writing #writeblr #fantasy #scifi #what no one tells you about writing

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