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mrs-steve-harrington · 9 months

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JBB steve/tommy for the ask game *red eye emojis*

Ooo, this was for last year's July Break Bingo and never got finished. I hoped to maybe finish it for this year's and HA. That didn't happen, either. Now I'm planning to use it as backstory for a fic I'm planning for my Scalding Hot Consent Issues Bingo card.

Set after Nancy tells Steve he's bullshit at the Halloween party, Tommy follows Steve out to his car to "cheer Steve up". Of course, when Steve isn't in the mood, Tommy forces the issue.

Here's a snippet!

Tommy let Steve pull him away from the door, but grabbed hold of Steve's arms once they were facing each other. He leaned back against the top of the car, pulling Steve a step closer. His hands slid down Steve's arms, letting them go entirely so he could wrap his hands around Steve's waist, thumbs digging lightly into the jutted out bones of Steve's hips through his pants.

Craning his neck around, Steve didn't see anyone else around. The relief he might normally have felt over that didn't hit him, but he knew it was better. Showing up late had meant parking a bit further down the street than he usually did. At least no one would be around to see and draw the right-- wrong conclusion.

"C'mon Harrington," Tommy tightened his grip when Steve moved to push away, and his voice got softer when he said, "Steve." One of his hands drifted up, fingers just grazing the skin of Steve's side under his shirt and even though it had been a while-- more than a year-- since the last time this had happened, it still felt familiar.

"What're you doing here, Tommy?"

Tommy shrugged, head tilted slightly back to meet Steve's eyes.

"Whatever the princess said… you ran outta there pretty fast." Pressing his palm flat against Steve's side, Tommy's other hand skimmed the top edge of Steve's pants, fingertips just barely dipping under it. "Thought you could use some cheering up, like old times."

#wip game #thanks for the ask!#asks #urisarang #fic snippet #my writing #st*mmy

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delta-piscium · 11 months

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WIP Weekend/WIP Wednesday

thank you so much for tagging me @steves-strapcollection @starryeyedjanai and @sidekick-hero (and @thefreakandthehair right when i posted this lmao) <3

THE RULES

In a reblog (or new post w/ rules attached), post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can’t share from (for example, an event fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. If you tag me in your post, I will send you an ask request!

THE WIPS

(and bad summaries because idk how to summarize, also i might change my mind about things so.. tentative summaries)

if you want to send more than one ask then please do because I need to write (may complain loudly)

blatantly making [DnD character’s] backstory a steddie fic: fuckbuddies to lovers with some running away in between and being bad at dealing with feelings, just starting out rockstar Eddie and Steve studying to be..something (undecided)

cringefail vampire eddie (beloved): Vampire Eddie (i mean obviously) a little bit based on this post but very expanded on, just the trials and tribulations of vampire life

steve holds hands while fucking (eddie is in the trenches): Eddie and Steve sleep together to escape everything (or Eddie assumes so) but Steve has sex like that and it's a whole thing because how is Eddie even supposed to exist in a world where Steve Harrington holds hands while fucking him?

meddling and forced proximity (can't run anymore hehe): both of them moved away from Hawkins and haven't seen each other in 3-4 years, mostly because Eddie started avoiding Steve (but no one else), the younger teens drag both of them along on a trip, and well, there's forced proximity and meddling

THE SNIPPET

from "meddling and forced proximity (can't run anymore hehe)"

Steve knows if he relaxes even the tiniest bit, lets some of it out, the dam will burst. He’s spent years carefully securing it, making sure everything’s locked in tight. And now because a boy is looking at him he might destroy it all. He tenses his jaw, closes his eyes, and tries to clear his mind. “I-“ he begins but is interrupted by the door slamming open behind him. “There you guys are,” Nancy's voice says and then the sound of her soft footsteps follows as she steps into the room, “I’ve been looking for you guys forever.” Eddie doesn’t respond, and when Steve opens his eyes he isn’t looking at her either. His gaze is still locked on Steve, eyes big and pleading. Steve turns away from him towards Nancy, plasters on a smile. She won’t see how strained it is because it’s the same smile he used during their relationship. “Sorry,” he makes his way to the door, “lost track of time, let’s go back.” He grabs her arm and pulls her with him as he leaves. “You coming?” He calls over his shoulder to Eddie but he doesn’t look back or wait for a reply.

not tagging anyone because I think most people are doing it or have been tagged but if anyone sees this who hasn't been tagged consider yourself tagged now <3

#lets not mention how i title my work alright?#and the summaries...guys its hard idk what info is needed #most of these fics are written in little snippets non chronologically which is not what i usually do so idk why i switched bc im confused #no I still haven’t written my 98 scentences for the hand holding fic shut up #my post #wip game #tag game #my writing

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theguildedtypewriter · 6 years

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What Did You Say? A guide to writing good dialogue

(Remember all pieces of advice are meant to help guide, that is all. They are not dogma.)

Ever read something and heard the dialogue in your head, and you just stopped. There was something off about it and for a solid minute there you couldn’t tell if the character was supposed to sound like that or if the author just didn’t have dialogue down. Chances are some mistakes were made.

Dialogue can be tricky. There’s no doubt about it.

You need to make it sound like the characters are having a real conversation but if you write it exactly like people talk it can get confusing and sound even worse.

“So how do I write good dialogue?!”

You can usually sense when your dialogue needs work. So here’s a set of some dialogue trick that might help you. When you think something is off with your dialogue use this to help you figure out what and make some changes.

All about that Flow-

It’s said all the time about your first draft, the important thing is to get the words on the page, you’ll refine later. This technique applies to your dialogue, and you’ll even come up with lines you never would have if you spent your time trying to be perfect.

You can even try writing the dialogue first. Get down what your characters are arguing about, planning, revealing, etc. Do it fast, pay no attention to who said what. Just get the words out.

This dialogue can give you a good idea what the scene is about and it might be different than what you thought. Then just go back to it and fill in.

This can be good for when you’re in a slump.

Talk it Out-

You can also practice dialogue or get yourself going by speaking the lines of two of your characters as they interact. An argument or conversation between your two character except you say all the lines as they come to you.

Overt the Obvious-

A very common mistake is creating a simple back-and-forth. Each line directly answers the previous line, often repeating a word or phrase from that previous line, echoing it. Ex:

“Hello, Tina.” “Hi, Jane.” “I really like your blouse.” “Oh, my blouse! You mean this old thing?” “Old thing! You’ve never worn it before.”

No surprises and very little interest. Some direct response is alright, but your dialogue will be better if you overt the obvious:

“Hello, Tina.” “Jane. I didn’t see you come in.” “Nice shirt.” “Did you finish your half of the project?”

Okay, I don’t know why they’re pissed at each other but this exchange is way more interesting and suggestive of what’s going on behind the scenes than the first.

(How could I not use the Crow?)

Zip It-

Another powerful way to overt the obvious is silence. It can be the best choice for an exchange. Hemingway is good at this. By using a combination silence and action, he gets the point across through a short but compelling exchanges. Look at “Soldier’s Home”:

“God has some work for every one to do,” his mother said. “There can’t be no idle hands in His Kingdom.” “I’m not in His Kingdom,” Krebs said. “We are all of us in His Kingdom.” Krebs felt embarrassed and resentful as always. “I’ve worried about you so much, Harold,” his mother went on. “I know the temptations you must have been exposed to. I know how weak men are. I know what your own dear grandfather, my own father, told us about the Civil War and I have prayed for you. I pray for you all day long, Harold.” Krebs looked at the bacon fat hardening on the plate.

You can express a lot by what a character doesn’t say.

Confrontation is your Friend-

We all want to avoid the info dump. Telling out readers everything that happened in the backstory in one chunk that slows down the story. You can avoid this by using dialogue. When you create a tension-filled scene, typically between two characters, you can get them arguing and then have the information come out in the natural progression of the conversation.

The not so great way:

Regina Black was a cop running from a terrible past. She had been fired for bungling an operation while she was drunk.

Try it out in a scene:

“I know who you are,” Nancy said. “You know nothing,” said Regina. “You’re that ex-cop.” “I need to be—” “From the 54th . You got your partner killed because you were drunk off your ass. Yeah, I know you.”

This can give you dialogue weight and increase your pace.

You Don’t Need ALL the Words-

People don’t often speak the say way we write things. We leave words out, we use contraction, we shorten. A standard exchange might go down like this:

“Your mom was killed? “Yes, she was in a car accident.” “What was her name?” “Her name was Martha.”

Try something more like this:

“Your mom was killed?” “Car accident.” “What was her name?” “Martha.”

This is leaner and sounds more like real speech without sounding too weird or chopped up for a reader to understand.

Don’t Explain Everything-

I know we always want to make sure that our readers understand exactly what we’re getting at. But consider the following:

“That’s amazing news,” he said gleefully.

Look right to you?

Well, it’s not technically wrong so yeah. But this is a pretty commonly trap. You’re telling your reader your character’s feelings twice. The adverb ‘gleefully’ really isn’t needed here. Now, that’s not to say that adverbs have no place. For example:

“That’s amazing news,” he said mournfully.

Oh wait what? He’s not happy about that? Why? See in this context the adverb actually gives the reader important information quickly. Many people that they don’t like adverbs but I find them useful when not stuffed into your writing too much.

Here’s another example:

“I can’t believe it!” Marnie said.

Here, there’s no dialogue explanation, so it’s tightened up and the focus is on what is being said rather than how. Plus, readers can now imagine my OC’s surprise, which helps them get closer to my OC.

You really shouldn’t have to explain your dialogue.

Keep your dialogue transparent-

When your dialogue is powerful, the last thing you want to do is move the reader’s attention somewhere else. Explanations and ‘ly’ adverbs can break the flow because they jump out to the reader, making them focus, if only for a second, on the fact that they’re reading instead of being engrossed in the story.

Now, people may not like this, but said is NOT dead. When we see the word said, we tend to gloss over it like it were a comma or period. And that’s exactly what we want. We want the reader to pay no attention to the word but accept it’s purpose.

Study Conversations-

Coffee shops, bars, and restaurants. Fantastic places to do some people listening. This kind of people studying can really help to create dialogue that sounds so natural. I am personally a huge fan of Buffy for this because it genuinely sounded like teenagers/young adults and the pop culture references where amazing. People talk in cliches, gestures, and movie/TV quotes. So many quotes.

Also remember, conversation isn’t just words. It’s body language, tone, eye contact, facial expressions, etc. Consider this:

“You lied to me,” said John.

“I did it to protect you,” said Tate.

James moved toward John and reached for his hand. “We didn’t want you to get hurt—”

John pushed his hand away and backed away from them. “I trusted you.”

You can use actions to break up dialogue. This is a creative way to move the conversation along and show what the characters are feeling using their responses and gestures together.

Just keep in mind that if you intersperse action between every line of dialogue it loses it’s usefulness.

Don’t keep pointless prose-

As writers, we frequently stuff too many details into dialogue. You need balance realism and dialogue purpose. Dialogue is suppose to help move the story along, offer depth, and convey information. When dialogue doesn’t fulfill any of these purposes, it has to go. Look at this:

“I saw Todd in the park the other day,” said Steve.

“Oh yeah?” inquired Susan. “How is he?”

“He has a new job. He has a flexible schedule, so he has way more free time,” said Steve.

“Well, good for him,” said Susan. “Do know how he’ll use his free time?”

“No. I meant to ask him, but forgot,” said Steve.

This conversation is slow, boring, chunky, and serves no purpose. This didn’t really relay any new information and it didn’t move the story anywhere. Now, if the point was to show a stilted conversation between ex-lovers, friends, or a conversation about nothing because the characters can’t face the hard stuff, this would be great for that. But honestly, that’s a purpose right there. If you can find no purpose for the prose, take it out.

Read it aloud-

The last tip is to read your work aloud. I do this. Complete with facial expressions, gestures, and voices. It can be a really fast way of finding a problem. Pace, punctuation, flow. When you read out loud, issues with these things become crystal freaking clear.

Where did you stumble or pause unnaturally? Fix that. Any accidental rhymes or repeated words? Edit them.

Does the dialogue match the character? If your character is uneducated , make sure they sound that way. A professor? Make sure the OC sounds smart.

When you read a bad sentence you’re sure to flinch or stumble along the way. When you do, you know where there’s work to be done.

Applying your dialogue tips-

The tips above aren’t quick fixes. You’ll need to work on them throughout the course of your writing. Don’t feel overwhelmed. Consider them one at a time. Do whatever works for you. This is all just meant to help.

And remember,

NEVER STOP WRITING!

#writeblr #writing advice #writing tips #dialogue #writing dialogue #tips and tricks #writers #writing #this is meant to help #this is NOT law #said is not dead #adverbs have their place

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