#creative writing
“Why do you hate me so much? I haven’t done anything to you!”
“No, you haven’t. But you will, very soon in the future.”
“I don’t want your help or protection or whatever this is. I’ve been helping the city for a long time before you were even a blip in my radar, and so far, I’ve done a really good job.”
“No, you’ve been lucky so far. And it’s only a matter of time before your luck runs out, Hero.”
“Is that a threat, Villain?”
“Why didn’t you ever tell us that you’re from the future?”
*Shrug* “Eh. You never asked.”
“Wait, how will we find you again? It’s a big city!”
“Exactly. Big city, big crime. Don’t worry, it’s only a matter of time before we meet up again.”
Continued in: https://seafoamicecream.tumblr.com/post/671197036043960320/villain-a-hide-me-villain-b
“Hold up, have we met before?”
“No, we most certainly have not.”
“Yeah, I’ve definitely seen you before.”
“No you haven’t! This is the first time you’ve ever seen me, and the last before I grind you into dust!”
*Snaps fingers* “It’s you! My old best bud! I remember how you’d always use that phrase back when we were kids.”
“Listen here, I am not your anything except eternal mortal enemy.”
“Yeah, I remember you’d always say that too. Good times.”
“Last time, you only managed to defeat me with the help of your team, and where are they now, hmm?”
“Down on the ground, everyone! This is a bank robbery! Hey you! Didn’t you hear what I said?”
“I did. I’m old, not deaf.”
“Why you-get down on the ground, right now! You have five seconds, old timer!”
“Well, I may be an old timer, but you’re a brat in a serious need of a time out.”
Bang! The gun fired, but suddenly, the robber froze in place like a statue. The bullet remained suspended in mid-air.
“I’m terribly sorry about this, Hero. Is there anything I can offer you other than freedom or a means to obtain freedom?” Henchman asked.
“How on Earth did you get past my state of the art security? Actually, you know what, I’m so sleepy I don’t even care right now.”
“You don’t have any superpowers!”
“No, I don’t. So what?”
“What do you mean ‘so what’? You’re in way over your head. When the other villains find out, they, unlike me, won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“They always want to kill me anyway, powers or no.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
“Oh yeah, what are you going to do? Follow me to all my fights to keep the other baddies from hurting me?”
“Yes.”
“…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I liked you more when you used to want to kill me.”
“Hey, now that we finished saving the world, do you want to go on a da-”
*Narrows eyes* “Don’t even think about it.”
“Yeah okay, you’re right. I don’t even know why I-like, we’ve had zero buildup throughout the story. Hooking up at the last second would just be weird and make no sense.”
“Shut the window, you’re letting all the air out.”
“You just found out that I’m Hero, and that’s all you have to say about this?”
Beat. “Eh. Don’t forget to lock it. I don’t want my things to get stolen.”
“That’s it?”
“Kid, I don’t care what you do outside my house, as long as it doesn’t make the social worker take you and my respective stipend check away.”
“Oh, okay.”
“And for the record, I always knew you were Hero.”
“I should’ve never led you on for so long, but I did, and I’m sorry I hurt you that way.” Her eyes then hardened to steel. “But I’d do it all over again if it means keeping this city safe from you.”
“Of course. In the grand scheme of things, the lives of innocent civilians are worth more than one villain’s broken heart.”
“Now you’re getting it.”
“How cruelly pragmatic.” He sneered as the first tears ran down his cheeks. “You would’ve made a better villain than I ever was.”
“I never meant to hurt you. Not like this. It was stupid of me to think that you would ever give up. I realize now that it’s because you can’t. You truly believe in doing the right thing. I used to hate you for that, you know? You were always getting in my way, until the day I snapped and went too far-”
*sigh*
“I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can, I just want to say that I’m sorry. And…and I love you. Please wake up.”
“I thought being healed faster would make me feel better, not worse.”
“I told you, it doesn’t work like that. There’s a reason it takes so long for humans to recover from sickness or injuries - it takes up a lot of energy. You feel that way because your body had to rapidly cannibalize your muscle mass and burn through your fat reserves.”
“Wait, you mean-no! My abs are gone!”
“Small price to pay for being alive. Next time, try to avoid getting mortally wounded.”
“No promises.”
“I’m serious. I was forced to accelerate your healing factor in order to save your life. But right now, if you got hurt again and I tried to heal you, your body would consume itself to dust.”
“You…you sound like you’re saying that from experience.”
“…just be more careful out there. Please.”
“You can’t adopt me! I already have parents.”
“Oh, well if that was the only thing bothering you, I can fix that.”
“What?”
“Preferably, if you give me your parents’ identities, I can get rid of them right now. Otherwise, I’d have to systematically get rid of all this city’s parents with kids who are roughly your age, gender, and ethnicity. It’d take me a while, but it’ll be worth it to have you as my kid.”
Subjective VS Objective Criticism - How to Improve Your Writing While Consuming Other Stories
You’ll often here writers say that you need to read, watch, or listen to stories in order to be a better writer, but what does that mean in practice? How do you consume media from a critical perspective?
Generally speaking, if you want to be a better writer, then you need to be able to coherently articulate not only if you liked a piece of media, but whyyou feel that way. A big part of this is understanding the difference between subjective and objective criticism.
Subjective criticism is criticism based solely on personal taste. When we use subjective criticism, we’re usually expressing how a work made us feel and there’s no real argument for or against that type of criticism. You either like something or you don’t. It can be one of the most well loved stories of all time still not appeal to you and that’s fine! However, it’s important to be able to identify personal taste verses actual writing issues and that’s where objective criticism comes in.
Objective criticism is criticism based on technical elements of storytelling. When we use objective criticism, we step back from our feelings and look at things like the story’s pacing or character arcs and discuss if there was room for improvement. Part of this is thinking about how those improvements could have been done.
Do know that you can love a work and still be able to point out flaws with it. Similarly, you can hate a work and still be able to point out its strengths. It’s also worth noting that there is a subjective element to objective criticism in that different viewers will give different weight to an objective flaw. Some people will see a flaw as ruining a story while others will view it as a minor issue and, in most cases, neither viewpoint is wrong.
These differences are incredibly important to keep in mind when we discuss media. Disliking something doesn’t mean that it’s bad and liking something doesn’t mean that it’s good. Acknowledging a flaw in something you love isn’t the same as condemning it as trash and finding a flaw doesn’t mean that others have to give that flaw the same weight that you do. A story can have objective flaws while still bringing joy even if the flaws are massive. After all, there’s nothing wrong with a good, old-fashion guilty pleasure, which I define as something you like, but know is objectively bad.
For an example of these two types of criticism, I’m going to give a very quick critique of Pixar’s new movie Turning Red. I was not a fan of this movie, but a lot my criticisms are subjective ones and I’m well aware of this, which is why I thought it would make for a good case study on this concept. I know that the movie is decent and I’m glad that people like it. It’s just not for me. Warning, spoilers below the cut!
Subjective Example:Turning Red has too much of a focus on celebrity-style crushes for it to be an enjoyable film. Nothing about that statement is an objective fact. There’s nothing wrong with celebrity-style crushes and they’re a super common thing for teenage girls. I just never had one and always found the whole concept weird, so I don’t like stories that have those types of crushes as a strong part of the narrative. It’s good that I know this, because it means that I don’t have to try and justify that criticism. I don’t have to try and argue that this is a true flaw with the film because it’s not. I also have nothing to learn from my dislike for this element of the film. There’s nothing that I could recommend as an improvement here. If anything, I can appreciate this movie for giving me perspective on writing characters who are wildly different from me.
Objective Example:Turning Red’s climax failed to fully address the conflicts that the movie had set up. This one is a far more objective criticism. I can give a full logic as to why I feel this way based on how the narrative is told and I can discuss how it could be improved.
Throughout the film, Mei’s mother – Ming – is constantly repressing her daughter. Mei never actually speaks up about these feelings and instead constantly lies to Ming. A prime example of this is that Mei is able to control her magical powers because of her connection to her friends, but she lies and tells Ming that she can control her powers because of her connection to her parents.
Ming never learns that this is the case. In fact, we never get a scene where Mei and Ming really talk about this conflict. Instead, the climax focuses on a magical fight and, by the fight’s end, Ming goes from angry to accepting her daughter. We get some idea that this is because Ming had similar issues with her own mother, but that conflict is never full explored. It’s just implied that remembering that conflict made Ming forgive and accept Mei. Also, Mei never has to face consequences for lying to Ming.
All of these things are objective facts that we can discuss in order to see if the climax could have been improved to be more impactful. Like, should the film have cut out Mei’s extended family and focus on her relationship with Ming instead? Should the climax have had a flashback style scene like in Encanto? A scene which let Mei understand Ming and made Ming realize that she’d forgotten what it was like to be 13? Should Ming have kept her powers, too? Was the climax fine as is and this weakness feels like more of a nitpick to you? Thinking about questions like that is how you actually improve your writing.
The warm feeling in his chest radiated a soothing calm as he watched his friends clamor around his apartment. He wasn’t really talking to anyone, but he was glad that they were there.
Wesley’s eyes flitted from the small group who bobbed and weaved between one another, the decorations slowly climbing the walls and the plastic tree stuck in the corner. Glitter covered ornaments shined as the last of the sunlight clung to the room, each ray slowly losing grip on the room. The sun brushed a gentle warmth over the apartment, the last bit of warmth that almost made things seem normal.
Like she wasn’t truly gone.
The thought was only there for a moment as his coarse hand slipped over his shirt, his palm resting on his chest above the heart that shattered and crumbled, dark onyx eyes falling to the coffee mug gripped in his free white-knuckled hand.
“Wes,” The gruff voice was gentle as another body settled onto the couch next to him, a hand finding his shoulders that seemed to send an electric current straight through the tanned man’s worn down body. Obsidian eyes flicked away from the cold coffee that Wesley was too tightly holding. Beside him was one of her friends… Ian was tall, cocoa skinned with honey colored eyes that never lost their kindness.
“How about I take short-stack for the night? James and I don’t have anywhere to be, you need sleep.” The older twin’s voice was hushed as to avoid drawing the attention of the others, his brother James who was holding Courtney over his head as she topped the tree, auburn hair tied into a knot at the base of her skull. Near the kitchen archway was Taylor, a curvy collage student who held the small bundle in question, green eyes on the young infant’s face as she cooed…
“I don’t know, I need to get used to it– I’ve heard the first few months are the worst–”
“They are, trust me. But Fallon wouldn’t want you to do it alone. We’re right down the hall if something happens or you miss her.” Ian gently squeezed Wesley’s shoulder before he stood. “Just think on it,” The pair met eyes once more before Wesley let his head bow. The mention of Fallon hurt… But thanks to the friends that they– he had now, because of her, he would be just fine.
Their daughter would be okay too.
“I’m proud of you,”
The voice was gentle, a whisper on the nonexistent wind that made the tanned skinned man grow ghostly pale, his grip on the mug’s handle slipping as the half filled ceramic tumbled towards cheap hardwood floors. Dark hued eyes flicked up to the others who occupied the flat to see if they had heard hervoice as well. The hairs stood up on his neck, his chest became painfully tight- tears brimmed his eyes as anguish washed over the young single father.
‘Please, just go away–’
The images that flashed in his mind’s eye only served to drive the stake further into his chest, his breathing was labored and panicked as his back slumped, eyes shutting tight to try and cut off any further games his mind would play.
She had been stunningly beautiful, with pale honey skin, dark red hair that held the waves of the ocean in them, while her crystalline blue hues never ceased to carry wonder and imagination. Her laugh was melodious, her voice a song all its own. But that’s what she had been.
Hehadto remember that, for their daughter. For their little Nova.
I fear a lot, but I don’t fear death
I fear a lot, but I don’t fear death
I fear a lot, but I don’t fear death. I fear life, I fear love, I fear the future.
Fear has always had a stronghold on my life. Most decisions I make are unfortunately based on fear. It’s a sad realisation. I did not realise it until my depression pushed me into therapy, forcing me to confront the ways in which my fear has manifested itself and when it first appeared.
Throughout my twenties I…
