In every story, we have the main (A) plot; the detective is trying to find the jewel thief
AND
The side(B) plot; the detective is going through a divorce
Most stories contain more than one side plot. There can be as many as you like. What is the purpose of them, you say? I’ll tell you!
Side plots make the story more dynamic. They give ‘screen time’ to your minor characters, offer relief from the main tension and allow your protagonist to shine in different areas. You know what your detective is like at work, what are they like at home?
Side plots will begin after the main plot is introduced and are resolved before the main plot ends. They introduce storylines that are important, but secondary to the main plot.
How do you write side plots?
Think about:
Who are your minor characters? What role do they play in your story? Who are they in relation to your protagonist/antagonist? Do they have their own arc?
Do they have a love interest? – Common side plots involve your protagonist’s relationships. Unless you’re writing a romance story, a romance arc often belongs to a side plot. The romance doesn’t always have to work out, but it is important that your love interest is a fully dimensional, fleshed-out character. Give your readers a reason to root for, or alternatively, boo for them.
What does your protagonist’s life look like? Who are they in different environments? What’s important to them? What are their hobbies? What is their daily, mundane routine?
Where has your protagonist/antagonist been? What is in their past? How has it impacted their present self? Are they harbouring secrets? Are they holding on to something? Where do their strengths and weaknesses come from?
Where else is the conflict? You have your main conflict; catching the villain. What else is going on in their life? Are they struggling to pay rent? Do they miss their ex? Is their mother unwell?
How can all this add to the story? Do these scenes reveal important information? Do they develop your character? Do they develop relationships? Do they relate to the overall plot? Do they build the tone and message of your story?
Without any side plots, your story can become one-dimensional. Your readers may get bored, or be overwhelmed by the main arc. Give your baby dimension!
Your side plots can be whatever you like. They should add to the story as a whole, even if it is something as simple as a silly prank war between your protagonist and their neighbour. Simple things can add meaning if written well. As long as it fits your vision, write away!
-Cait
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If you have a difficult time plotting, try writing or outlining your story backwards—from the end to the beginning. Writers who have a difficult time outlining, plotting, and planning their stories often benefit from this technique. You’ll need a general idea of what your story is about for this to work, and of course you need to know the ending, but you might be amazed how helpful this trick can be.
Why is writing backwards easier? Basically, instead of answering the question “this happened… now what comes next?,” you’ll be answering the question “this happened… so what would come right before that?” which narrows the possibilities for your next move and can help keep your story on track. (Incidentally, it’s also the way Joseph Gordan-Levitt’s character comes out on top in the film The Lookout.)
Writing backwards can also help you more tightly weave together your subplots, themes, and character relationships, and keep you from going too far down any irrelevant rabbit holes.
If you don’t want to write or outline completely backwards, remember that you’re free to jump around! If you’re feeling stuck in your story or novel, jump to the middle or end and write a few scenes. Many writers get stuck because they feel they have to write their story linearly from beginning to end, which results in an overdeveloped (and often irrelevant) beginning and an underdeveloped ending.
So go work on that ending! It’s much more likely that you will need to change your beginning to fit your ending than the other way around, so spend time on your ending sooner rather than later!
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The Literary Architect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler. For more writing help, check out my Free Resource Library, peruse my post guide, or hire meto edit your novel or short story. xoxo
The but/therefore method* is an easy way to create your plot and test the cause-effect connections between your plot and character motivation.
If you don’t have a plot yet, it can help you create one. If you already have one, the method almost always reveals gaps that need to be addressed with new or stronger chapters/scenes. (For help with your character motivation, check out the PDF “Creating Character Arcs” in my Free Resource Library.)
Use this template for each scene or chapter:
[Main character] wants ______, but _______, therefore ______.
In the first blank, put the motivation for that chapter or scene.
In the second blank, the conflictorobstacle.
In the third blank, the resultoraction the character takes, which leads into the next goal, and so on, and so on.
Chapter-by-chapter it might look something like this:
Chapter 1: Julian wants to ask Matt to the dance, but he’s scared of being rejected, therefore he slips a cryptic note into Matt’s locker.
Chapter 2: Matt doesn’t see the note. Now Julian wants to get into his locker and retrieve it, but the principal sees him trying to jimmy open the lock, therefore Julian is given detention for a week.
You can also do this scene-by-scene. My suggestion would be to start with the chapter outline, see what it reveals, then move into the scenes. If you’ve already written a draft, you can outline your draft using the template, which should reveal holes in character motivation, plot, and cause/effect, all with one fell swoop!
Hope this helps!
*I adapted this method from South Park writer Trey Parker, who first introduced it in the documentary Six Days to Air.
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The Literary Architect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler. For more writing help, check out my Free Resource Library, peruse my post guide, or hire meto edit your novel or short story.
Hey everyone! Sunny D here with another writing post. This is one I actually thought of yesterday while I was tutoring someone, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. You know when you try something new and then it works so well you just have to talk about it? Yeah. Welcome to this post.
My plotting and planning process tends to be fairly linear. I’m used to planning in terms of eventsandoccurrencesand going from there in terms of everything else I need. With this process, I often get the “what,” but not the “why.”
Plotting with questions takes this concept and flips it on its head. I actually started thinking about it not too long ago during a tutoring session, so I figured I’d talk about it here!
Why are questions in storytelling important?
At the core of the concept, we use questions in our storytelling to keep readers reading. One of the biggest things you’ll hear in terms of writing advice is that you always want to keep your readers guessing what’s next. However, this often leads to cheap thrills and twists that don’t quite make sense.
Questions in storytelling are important in a bit of a weird way. By the time a question comes to its natural answer, the readers should already have the tools and the information they need to answer it on their own. And, uh, this is tough to do without directly giving the answer! Planning a story around these questions kind of takes out those in-between moments.
How can I plan a story with questions?
There are a few different ways! The two main ways I tend to plan with questions revolve around the what and the why - it just depends on the answers you need. For the purpose of this post, let’s say the story culminates in Margaret killing Jimmy over a debt problem. We can take two different perspectives to planning this scenario with questions.
What does Margaret do to resolve her debt problem?
This is the what or the how type of question. What does Margaret do; how does she solve her problem? This kind of question is the kind of route for writers who know the motivation for an action, but not the action itself. We know what Margaret wants, but not how she gets it.
This type of question aligns most closely with the normal outline plan we use, and it establishes the plot as it moves along. It builds forward.
Margaret kills Jimmy. Why?
This is the why question. We know what Margaret does, but we don’t yet have her motivation. In asking this question, we don’t know what Margaret is hoping to achieve in killing Jimmy. We have an action, but not a motivation.
These questions lead to a backwards-planning scenario. The story builds as we navigate through it, and it leads to our ability to give readers clues to Margaret’s motivation before it’s said outright. The other type of planning gives clues as to what Margaret might do, while this type builds to why.
What if I have multiple questions?
Here, we navigate into the territory of multiple plots and subplots. I say, do it the way you’d normally plan! Things in a story are meant to tangle and interact; that’s just how they work.
This is something I’m still learning about myself, but it’s really serving me well. New methods of planning always help me bring back that spark for writing, and this is one of them! I definitely recommend giving it a try if you’re looking to experiment or learn something new!
Hey all, Sunny here with another writing post! Today’s focus is on plotting, specifically the low point of your story: also known as the point of no return.
What is a low point?
The low point of your story is often the part that happens before everything builds up to the climax. In my own stories and in many I’ve read, it tends to punctuate the middle of the story, or to come a little while after. It’s earned its loving name through a tendency of being an absolute disaster. Some common examples include a character dying or becoming injured, or the villain winning a major battle. Somehow, something in the story changes in a way that can’t be reversed. (Therefore, point of no return.) They’re my favorite part of the story to write.
How do I write a low point?
Plots are extremely variable from story to story, so I can’t give any direct instructions. However, here are some tips!
Consider your low point the first climax in the story; it’s just a bad one most of the time. It’s something that kicks the story fully into gear and moves your characters on the way to the story’s final climax. In the same way that that final moment needs a lead-up, your story should have elements leading to this point.
In all honesty, while they’re my favorite, they can also be pretty tough to write. It’s tough to put your characters through hell as a plot device (for most writers at least), and tougher still to keep your characters moving after this. Your low point will most often be a difficult moment, but don’t break your characters fully yet. Push them to the edge of that, and show your readers what it takes to break them. You can actually do it towards the final climax. This is a hint to the rest of your story; it sends expectations.
Many writers also use this as an opportunity to take their characters by storm. My favorite low points are the ones that I as a reader can see coming or can see the connection to, but that the characters don’t. For example, in my story Vagabond, one of the main themes of the story is memory loss. (Surprise, surprise.) It fits then, that the low point of the story matches the themes identified so far. It helps to tie the story together and cement any main concepts you want threaded throughout.
The last tip I have is to remember that if your characters have emotions, they should feel them. Let them feel whatever feeling they’re feeling afterwards, and let them need time to recover. (Whether they actually get that time is up to you.) One purpose of the low point is to show that your characters are not unbeatable, and that there are things at stake. Your characters could lose. That vulnerability is something to be explored.
Writing low points is so much fun. I’ve written about 15k words over two days for these moments because I love them so much. Best of luck with yours, and happy writing!
Hello! I intended to write a story in one pov but I realized that there’s not one main character but two, and they are both equally important and relevant to the story. I’m doubtful about using two pov though, because I wanted the relationship forming between the two to be a surprise. I don’t know how I can manage it to still be a surprise if we see in both their minds.
It sounds like you’ve come to the point in your plotting where you have a fork in the road: stick with one idea and you end up with one story, or go with the other and end up with something totally different.
I definitely know this feeling. A good way to tackle this is to flesh out what each potential story might look like, then compare the two. A good way to get a clearer vision of the two stories is to map out the positives and the negatives of what could happen.
I only know what you gave me, but let’s make a hypothetical example:
This illustrates a better vision of what the two stories might look like, and if you fill a chart out like this, you can add various plot points that may be affected differently (the stuff that I don’t know). If you don’t have your story plotted out this far, then this can challenge you to really start thinking about it. Brainstorm those ideas. Look at them from the angle of all your potential story ideas.
Once you fill out your chart, you’ll end up with two very different stories (or three or four for those who have multiple ideas for their story). What you want to do after you map out the traits of both (or all) versions of your story is add in the answers to these questions:
Can I combine any of these ideas? When I have multiple story ideas, sometimes I’ll look for a way to combine them if the end result is something cohesive and comprehensible. Sometimes combining story ideas creates something even better than the two (or three or four) ideas separately.
What is the strength of both (or each) story? Think of pacing, twists, intrigue. Ask yourself if one POV is enough to carry the story. Ask yourself if the second POV affects the story enough to be included as a POV. Overall, find the points that make each story idea brilliant and map those out at the bottom of your chart.
What are the weaknesses? Just as important, map out where each story falls short in comparison to the other idea(s). Unreliable narrators can create awesome plot twists when they come to realize something they didn’t know was happening – and this might not be as strong of a twist when a second narrator already knows this throughout the story. However, while the first aforementioned example creates one type of story, the second example can create something entirely different but just as interesting.
How can the weaknesses be improved? Just because you find weaknesses in your potential story doesn’t mean those weaknesses can’t be improved upon. Sometimes it takes some tweaking, some rearranging, or adding some additional subplots or ideas.
Which is the better overall story? This is a tough question and might require a five paragraph essay – but this part is your opinion. Your personal opinion. And, if you need to, you can always ask your fellow writerly friends for their opinions as well. If you do this, however, make sure you get lots of opinions, not just one or two. Then chart these as well.
Which story do I want to tell more? The most important question of them all. Write the story that most excites you. If you’re excited, someone else out there will be, too.
Linked to this post is a free google slides document I’ve designed for the purposes of character and plot development. You can use this in several ways, including:
Making a copy to your google drive and editing it digitally
Downloading as a Microsoft powerpoint document
Editing in google slides and then downloading as a printable PDF
This document includes technical instructions and guides to the planning models I integrated. The included pages are:
the most fun thing about being a fic author is when you know what’s supposed to happen but when you go to write it you realise that, for the event to be plausible, you need to add another 2k of development and establish like six extra things before you can even get to the scene you need to write, and by ‘most fun’ I mean fuck everything someone take this fucking story away from me I’m on strike
We all know I am a huge plotter – like excel spreadsheet level – but I wasn’t always like this. I’ve used many methods in the past and here are the best ones:
The Big Plot Points
In this method, you simply write out the big points like the catalyst, the midpoint, the climax and any big plot twists in your story. This helps you keep in mind the focus of your story as you write it, without actually plotting.
Baby Steps
More detailed than the Big Plot Points, Baby Steps involves writing all the little plot points down in chronological order. Think of it like a list of directions that get you from the first page to the end of the story. You can stray from the path, but this helps you know exactly where you’re going and what you want to achieve along the way.
Next 10 Steps
This is one I used a lot when writing fanfic in conjunction with the Big Plot Points. Here I would literally plan out the next 10 things that I wanted to happen in the story and treat it as a mini arc. If I’d known more about story structure, I could have done this 4 times and ended up with 4 acts (1, 2a, 2b, and 3). Instead, I did it 6 times and ending up with 170k words… don’t be me.
Save the Cat! Beat Sheet
An industry classic, the 15 beats of Save the Cat! can help you outline all the key moments that shape a story without interfering with panster discovery fun. This method breaks each of the 4 acts mentioned above into bite sized chunks to ensure that all elements of a compelling story are there. I would highly recommend the book Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody if you want to learn more about this essential method.
Enjoy Editing
Finally if outlining is not for you, you’ll need to become well acquainted with editing. All drafts take editing, but many pansters will spend more time on this stage than plotters, but then plotters spend more time plotting! There’s nothing wrong with being a complete panster, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you wish to forgo the plotting stage entirely.
As always, hoped this helped!
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send a ♡ and i’ll fill this out for our muses ! i’ll bold what i want for their relationship, italic what i could see and strike out what i don’t .
FRIENDS. childhood friends / work friends / family friends / recently friends / turning antagonistic / turning into something romantic / stable / falling apart / friendship of need / friendship of circumstance pen - pals or internet friends / coworkers / partners / other .
ROMANCE. childhood sweethearts / newly entered / soulmates / skinny love / unrequited from my muses side / unrequited from your muses side / friends with benefits / awkward / fading / turning toxic / toxic and destructive / other .
FAMILIAL BOND. sibling bond / older sibling figure to your muse / younger sibling figure to your muse / parental figure to your muse / parental figure to your muse / guardian figure / legal guardian / other .
ENEMIES. dangerous to themselves / dangerous to others / unpredictable / passionate / rivals / petty / developing into a sexual tension / developing into a romantic tension / based off family matters / based of circumstance / based of professional matters / based of misunderstandings or lies / other .
I have had more than a few Asks about how to get an entire plot when you only have an idea, a character, or a fraction of the story. And to be honest, I haven’t responded to any of them because I could never articulate my thoughts on this.
Many writer blogs and channels have tackled this topic, so I will be limiting this post solely to my own method:
Write it Out
I know it can be hard, especially for writers like me who value outlines and planning, to just start writing. But it is the only way that I’m able to build up an idea.
I write at whatever point I can most easily visualize. Whether it’s at the beginning, middle, end, or a random scene that could fit anywhere. I just write out a scene and throw in all the elements I don’t have.
I usually have a set of 2-3 characters and not much more, so I throw them into an environment I’m familiar with and just have them talk to each other or try to solve a problem.
Usually, the characters and scene flesh themselves out and I get a few pages out of it. It doesn’t matter if I use these pages, that’s not the purpose.
The idea is to write with what you have until everything eventually falls into place.
This could mean writing until the other plot points come to you for an outline or writing until you’ve gone from the point you began to the end. Somewhere in this, you’ll get the ideas you’ve been struggling with.
It’s a very organic method and it won’t work for everyone, but it sure does for me. Forcing myself to go with what I have quickly shows me what I do and do not want in the story. I use the conversation to deepen my characters and find their motivations.
You Don’t Know Until You Try
It’s exploratory. Like panning for gold. You’ve got the glint of gold in the sediment, but a bunch of other crap is in the way and the river is blurring everything.
But if you don’t go for it and shove your hands into the dirt, you’ll never even get close to picking out the gold.
If all else fails, play the What If? game.
What if this place had a shared secret? What if these characters decided to run away together? What if this plot point wasn’t the ending but the beginning?
Question the Norms
One other thing I would suggest is to ask yourself if the traditional idea of plot structure is holding your story idea back. I’m going to use movie examples for this, forgive me, but hear me out.
Pulp Fiction, Lady Bird, Inside Llewyn Davis, No Country for Old Men, Hereditary, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Juno, and so many other critical and audience hits would not be as successful if their writers had not broken from the traditional 3-Act Story Structure.
Don’t limit yourself if you feel unmotivated or stuck by the traditional structure. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se, but it doesn’t fit all stories.
And remember that you’re no less of a writer or creator for struggling to mold your ideas into a plot line!
You’ll hear it described in numerous different ways.
It’s the event that launches the plot into motion. It’s what shakes up the protagonist’s life (in a positive or negative way) and shoves them into an adventure. It’s the event that upsets the protagonist’s normal life or status quo. It’s the beginning of the narrative’s movement and can be either positive or negative as it pummels us down the story and to the climax.
A strong inciting incident will make use of the protagonist’s internal struggles, fatal flaws, and false beliefs.
When does the inciting incident happen?
The inciting incident happens within the first act.
A common misconception is that the inciting incident is the hook of your story. This is not typically the case. The hook is an opening tactic used to capture your reader and keep their interest, typically the first sentence, paragraph, or page of a story.
As a good rule of thumb, the sooner your inciting incident occurs, the better. If you wait too long, your readers could lose interest— after all, it’s the event that launches your characters into the real story.
Some sources say it should happen around the 12% mark of your story. Between the first 20-30 pages of your novel, or the first couple chapters of your story.
How do you write an inciting incident?
1) Your inciting incident should begin your story’s main plot and change your protagonist’s life forever.
What happens before the inciting incident is your protagonist’s status quo or normal life. The inciting incident will force your protagonist to leave this world behind, thus beginning the plot. Nothing will be the same for your character after this event. The choice they made is irreversible and has consequences (good or bad).
2) Your inciting incident should set the tone and touch on your story’s theme(s).
If the inciting incident launches your protagonist into a new world, this event should reflect the tone and overall theme of the story you’ll be telling. For example, we’ll use “betrayal” as one of our story’s main themes. Maybe the inciting incident could be something like:
“Alice comes home early to find her boyfriend cheating on her with her bestfriend. These two people were her only friends/family left in this small town, so she packs up her bags and leaves for a fresh start somewhere else.“
3) Typically, the inciting incident is out of your protagonist’s control and happens to them.
4) Convince the readers that your protagonist had no other option but to leave their normal life behind.
Your protagonist has to make a choice to either stay in their status quo or to risk everything and go out on a dangerous adventure. You should structure your inciting incident in a way that convinces readers that your protagonist had no other choice but to take on the adventure. Otherwise, your readers might say, “oh well they could’ve just stayed home. They didn’t need to go on this adventure.”
If Katniss doesn’t volunteer, her sister dies in the Games.
5) Use your protagonist’s misbelief/fatal flaw.
If you want to make your inciting incident stronger, think about how your protagonist would really react to the event given their fatal flaw. When the inciting incident happens, your protagonist responds based on their current misbeliefs of the world.
Examples of inciting incidents
The Hunger Games. Katniss volunteers as tribute for her sister Prim in the beginning pages of chapter 2. From this moment forward, Katniss’s life is thrown off course in a negative manner as she must fight in the Games.
Pride and Prejudice. The arrival of Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy into town is seen as the inciting incident as the course of the story changes from here. When Elizabeth overhears Mr. Darcy talking negatively of her at the Ball, their string of conflict begins, preventing them from admitting their love for one another.
A Court of Thorns and Roses. Feyre kills a fae that she believed to be a wolf. This sparks Tamlin coming to town to capture her for breaking the treaty.
The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy is literally ripped away from her status quo by a tornado and launched into a new world.
Romeo and Juliet. The two lovers meet each other at a Ball, sparking their love at first sight and dramatic romance.
Plot armor is when important characters seem to survive each and every treacherous obstacle that is thrown their way just for the sake of the plot. The readers know that your protagonist is important and won’t meet their demise because who else will defeat the bad guy in the end? This can result in underwhelming battle scenes, loss of suspense and an overall boring experience.
Here are some ways to avoid having your readers notice the plot armor (because let’s be honest, it’s there whether we like or not) or at least make it more realistic:
1) Injure your characters. Let it be known that no one is safe. During the heat of battle, the prized soldier loses his sword arm. The invincible superhero receives PTSD after witnessing a terrible event. Raise the stakes!
2) If they escape, make it believable. Did they sacrifice something to escape? Did a past experience give them the wits and knowledge to outsmart the danger? Justify your protagonist’s escape. Don’t make it an easy get away just because you need them out of the situation.
3) There are consequences. Every action sparks a reaction. Have there be realistic push back. Your character shouldn’t be immune to the rules and laws of your world.
4) Detailed Explanations. So, your character needs their limbs, their sanity and anything else you could strip them of. How do you make it seem like they’re not immune to everything then? Equip them with what they need (knowledge, weapon, confidence, etc) and really sell it to your reader on how they survived.
There’s no way a teenaged girl stakes a 400 year old vampire just by picking up a branch and defending herself. Equip her with some knowledge of vampires (fanfics to the rescue?), an ancient relic that she unknowingly wears around her neck and an insane amount of adrenaline… and maybe I’ll believe it.
5) Kill off other characters. Have their deaths affect the protagonist.
Thinking of a master plan…. Seriously plotting a way to permanently live the soft life. @ke_puleng #spaday #girlsday #plotting #frolove #fancy #pampersession #fancyhuh #vscocam #softlife https://www.instagram.com/p/CM7hSevDyqA/?igshid=2b70vfzbxfjl
It’s another Wacky Wednesday, so here’s our wacky question of the week: Q: Do cats plot to overthrow their human masters? A: This is a fun question, and I do appreciate the fun/silly factor. However, I’m going to answer this one factually, since that’s what I do. Cats generally see as as equals, not superior (like dogs see us) or inferior (like 80% of cat memes would have you believe). Cats are…
Character death is sad, but it also has huge consequences on your plot that can’t be reversed. Not to mention, depending on your genre, character deaths are often reserved for later in the series as a way of telling the reader that things are getting serious.
So, until that moment, here’s a quick list of things you can do to tug at your readers emotions:
1.- Destruction of an item of value. For this to work you’re going to have to set this up early on, it could be a childhood toy they need to sleep at night, a necklace they swear gives them good luck, and old family trinket or any number of things. The important thing is you show just how important it is to the character, make them happy and excited just to talk about it. Later on your character will feel loss and so will the audience.
2.- Arguing. Two characters with a strong bond arguing can be heartbreaking, even if you know the argument is going to resolve itself eventually, going from cuddles and banter to cold looks and the silent treatment, can easily hurt the audience just as much as the characters.
3.- Betrayal. When well done, it’s worst than character death. When you as a reader fall head over heels in love with a character, only for them to betray the rest, it’s heartbreaking, especially if when you read back the foreshadowing was there. It was so obvious yet you were all so blind! As blind as the other characters. Also, unlike character death, they’re still there, there to taunt you with their mere existence.
4.- Failure. We have probably all felt that emptiness, that feeling as the world crumbles around us, haplessness, when we failed an exam in school or just couldn’t get the house clean in time for that visit. Take that feeling and reflect it into your characters, it doesn’t have to be an exam, it can be anything, a task they’re parents asked them to do and they tried their best, a mission, anything. Just let them fail and feel the world crumble.
5.- Being forced to stay behind. Following from point four, if a character is not good enough they can be left behind, perhaps it comes from a place of love, an attempt to protect them from enemies too strong, yet it still hurts. Perhaps they haven’t failed, perhaps they are left behind for another reason, because they are “too valuable”, or because they’ll be more useful back home. Either way, watching those close to you go of to fight for what you believe in, without you, can be painful.
6.- Finding out something they believed in was a lie. It can be something relatively insignificant, an assumption they never bothered to question. Or something world shattering. Allow me to offer up an example with an unimportant spoiler from my second book (it’s not even out yet but oh well): in this book, while talking about some law, Henry realises his daughter believes he and her mother were married. This is an assumption Itazu made and never questioned. It affects nothing, nothing changes, yet finding out her mother and her father were not the happy married couple she’d always pictured, it’s painful.
This could also be something huge, finding out you’re adopted for example.
7.- History. Oh, history, how depressing it can be. And if you have a fantasy world you have many opportunities to go into this. From slaughters to slavery, finding out how society got to where it is, the base on which it is built. Well, it’s pretty depressing. Obviously be careful how much inspiration you take from real world history and always be respectful and do your research!
8.- Scarring. An injury can be painful, it can be scary. And depending on what caused it, leave you with traumatising memories. Now add to that a physical visible reminder on your skin you can never remove. Well, that can be pretty horrible. Imagine the scar came from a battle the protagonist longs to forget, but can’t because every night before going to sleep they can’t help but glance at their arm where the nasty scars forever lies.
As usual, check out my book, stories I’ve written plus other social medias: here.
This another post I could probably do a part two on someday. Can you think of any books where any of these are done effectively? Do any of these happen in your owns book? Please tell me! I love hearing from you all.
If you’re going to have your character be seriously or even possibly fatally wounded… Talk about the angst with your partner first. I personally really hate having angst pushed on me with no warning. As much as I love writhing angst I need time to prepare for what’s coming mentally often times.
I hate when my roleplay partner always focuses on their own character. It’s all about him. It’s all about his ‘dying disease’. What’s even worse is that we agreed to do a shipping rp. But in every single rp that we do, he always brings in a ‘beautiful/handsome’ second character and makes them flirt with his main muse. At first, I figured it was to advance plots. But now I can see that he’s just trying to make my muse practically get on their knees for his. I hate his unoriginal methods and way of role playing.
