Plot Question Tag Game

Reblog because I must

Could you please give me something like a list of things that need to be determined about a character, more than just age, height, gender and things like that, please i need like a list of as many as possible 💕💕💕 your blog is a miracle

I will try my best. This is a list I usually try to conform to (but I have it stored in my head, rather than as a physical list, so apologies if it doesn’t make much sense…!):

Character motivation. What are they doing? Why are they doing it?

Backstory. What happened before their debut in the story?

Greatest fear. Speaks for itself; what do they fear most?

Relationships with other characters. Who do they like? Who do they not like? Who opposes them? Who helps them? Who are they related to (by blood, or circumstance)?

Main personality traits. Positive ones, and negative ones.

Moral limits. What will they absolutely not do? What would they consider doing to meet their goal?

Attitudes/Opinions. What are the main issues in your story’s world, and what is this character’s opinion on it? How do they behave towards other characters, based on their opinions of them? Who or what do they consider to be below them? What behaviours do they choose to do or not do, which gives them a sense of importance/self-esteem (i.e. being tee-total, going to church every Sunday w/o fail, always adopting pets, rather than buying them, etc)?

Abilities. Either magical, or non-magical depending on your setting. What are they best at? What are they not so good at?

Speaking skills/conventions. How do they sound when they speak? What is their vocabulary like? How do they manage/behave in everyday conversations?

Education. According to your world’s standards, how educated is the character?

Family. How were they brought up? What was their family situation like?

Friendships. Which friendships do they value the most? How many friends do they have? How easily can they make friends?

Sexual/romantic relationships. How many relationships has the character committed to? Can they commit to relationships? How do they behave when in a relationship? How do they feel about other people’s relationships?

Work. What do they think about work? What kind of work would they like to do? What kind of work are they doing? If the character is a student, then consider their work ethic, their favourite subjects, etc.

Sense of self. What is your character’s self-image like? How do they feel about themselves? What do they think about themselves in relation to other people (i.e. how do they compare themselves to somebody else?).

Health. Speaks for itself; what is this character’s health like? In the past, in the present, and in the future?

Housekeeping. How do they live, in an everyday setting? Are they tidy, or messy? What things do they consider to be necessary to a daily routine, and what things do they consistently forget about/deem to be unimportant?

Politics. How they view society, and what should be done in a ‘civil’ society. What they think of their world’s politics. How they might ‘class’ themselves.

Religion. Their views on life, death, and creation. Their understanding of their ‘purpose’, or their beliefs in how everything came to be.

Tastes. In fashion, food, and anything else you might think of.

I hope this helps, Anon! Maybe some of our followers might reblog this and add extra things, or you might think of extra things you can add yourself. Feel free to do so, if this is the case!

- enlee

Yeah, Go Get HIM, GIRL!

5 ways to increase/decrease suspense in your writing

Suspense is one of the trickier parts of writing to manage effectively because, as the author, you can’t experience your story the way a reader does. If you don’t have enough suspense, it can be difficult to keep your readers interested. If you have too much, frustrated and stressed-out readers might throw your book against the wall. Too much suspense can even backfire - if you try to keep your readers constantly on edge, they can stop taking things seriously and the end result is as though you never included any suspense at all.

So how can you tell if you’ve reached the right balance? Unfortunately, I can’t answer that for you. Some things really do require feedback from honest and insightful readers. Once you have that feedback, however, there are easy tricks to adjusting the level of suspense without a drastic re-write. Here are my five favorite methods.

Promises and Payoffs

INCREASE SUSPENSE by promising something huge and then giving your reader something unexpected. To borrow an example from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, imagine a teenage boy and girl sneaking into an empty building. Everything from the costumes to the lighting is designed to make you uneasy about the girl’s safety but, in the end, she’s the vampire. Give the audience something sensational and they won’t be disappointed that you didn’t deliver on what you originally promised.

DECREASE SUSPENSE by promising less than you plan to deliver. For example, if you plan to kill off a character as they walk through a dark alley, let them worry about being mugged rather than murdered. Not only is it less suspenseful, the payoff is more shocking.

Characters are Crucial

INCREASE SUSPENSE by shifting the focus to a character who’s more involved in the action or one who has more at stake. Even if you have a single POV character, another can come in and demand that character’s attention, along with the readers’.

DECREASE SUSPENSE by focusing on a character who’s more concerned with a secondary goal. Subplots are a fantastic way to give your readers some room to breathe.

Calm vs. Chaos

INCREASE SUSPENSE by cutting back on the action. Suspense flourishes in the quiet moments when your characters have time to think and to anticipate what may be in store for them.

DECREASE SUSPENSE by giving your characters a big, exciting mess to deal with. Even when that mess causes more problems and puts more pressure on your characters in the long run, you’ve still created an oasis where both they and the readers are too distracted to worry about how the big picture will pan out.

Devil’s in the Details

INCREASE SUSPENSE by concentrating on the details of the setting. Horror movies are great at this - every creak of a door, every shadow across a wall keeps the audience immersed in the experience and tense with anticipation.

DECREASE SUSPENSE by breaking the “show, don’t tell” rule and allow exposition to help you move things along. You don’t need to take readers through every aspect of your story in excruciating detail. It’s okay to gloss over some things and it helps readers relax because they know you’re not going to be springing any surprises on them just yet.

Ticking Time-Bomb

INCREASE SUSPENSE by imposing a deadline that your characters struggle to meet. It’s one of the oldest and most obvious tricks in the book, but very effective.

DECREASE SUSPENSE by allowing your characters to believe that the deadline has been met or pushed back. If they (and the readers) believe that they’ve accomplished their goal or bought themselves more time, it relieves pressure and allows everyone to relax until the truth’s revealed.

Aww...Hide is such a tease....WAIT! THIS ISN'T HIS ROUTE!! 😬😬

Brave Heart

Fandom: Samurai Love Ballad: PARTY

Pairing: Hideyoshi/MC, Kojuro/MC (broken relationship)

Summary: Hideyoshi is curious about his newest retainer’s wife. The one who traveled alone across lands to be with him. He realizes, over time, that his curiosity might be turning into something else, something familiar.

Words: 2198

Tags: broken marriage, angst (?)

A/N: This is something I started after having finished Kojuro’s Act 2 and hence, has spoilers for his Act 2. Originally planned as a smut/angst fic, it now lies incomplete and rots within my WIPs.

Putting this out here because of Mitsunari’s Act 2 now. I wanted to write something for Hideyoshi, dark cape Lord of my heart. Someday, I’ll finish this… I think.

Might take it down later when I’ve stopped sobbing over Mitsunari’s Act 2.

Unedited as well, so please excuse the errors.

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Hideyoshi had no other word for her except that she was a hindrance. An anomaly he hadn’t predicted; couldn’t have predicted. She was a mere chink within his Kojuro’s perfect armour, albeit a small one but a defect nonetheless.

Kojuro’s frosty denial of a relationship between them had been enough to confirm his suspicions. She was important to him, perhaps in the very capacity she had so confidently declared when she had first met him; the conjugal bond between them, however, swiftly betrayed as soon as the news had reached her said husband’s ears.

Hideyoshi couldn’t exactly pinpoint what exactly it was about her that had caught his gaze - more than anything had in a long while.

It hadn’t been blatant interest but rather, a flickering curiosity that had taken him, as he had looked down upon her kneeling form, her quivering lips pressed into a firm line as she had lifted her head to meet his eyes.

It had been a look lacking of any remorse or fear that had taken her features as she had gazed at him. It was not the way enemies looked upon him with defiance in every line of their bodies, but with a quiet sort of strength that refused to be moulded, pierced through him as he stared into her quivering eyes.

She hadn’t shed a single tear as might have been expected of another samurai’s noble wife; back straight with no hesitance in her, even as he had requested of her – no, she had known it was a command, even delivered with his usual easy smile – to serve him as his page.

It had been a split second decision on his part, and that was an unusual thing for Hideyoshi, to not tread carefully wherever was possible.

He would later convince himself into believing he had acted as such in order to prevent Kojuro and his wife from being together, lest she take away more of him with her.

Keep reading

Samurai Love Ballad Party - Ieyasu Tokugawa & Hideyoshi Toyotomi                  

They aren’t smiling with their eyes … T^T  (Click to enlarge the image)

**please do not upload anywhere else - ask for permission thanks**                                                                                                                         

This is what it’s like to have dyslexia. Web developer Victor Widell is hoping to shine a light on the learning disorder with this creative coding simulation.

Wayhaven Chronicles Book 2 Be like

SAVE DOUG + BE KIND TO DOUG =

And lets not talk about how he practically immitated Adam's choice of clothing when he approached Detective that eventful night.

But his attempt at seduction is quite entertaining.

??

Wait, isn’t this dragon a castle item last BE?

Buhuhuhu...I am at this point to forgive rushed story lines and Unrealistic event of Slbp ES all for the sake of studying Boys' characterization and narrative style. So you can guess why my rates are more generous.

Masa - 1st (9/10) - I love political intrigues...and I kind of understand why Masa was late to decide whether to join Hojo or Toyotomi because even though Date are powerful, siding on a losing clan in a war could still devastate them into nothingness (even great families across history are decimated when they lost a war due to the damage and political backlash...you know...POLITICS...not to mention how victors ruthlessly kill the children, wives, siblings, in-laws, elderly parents and grandparents of their defeated enemies to "cut the grass and weed out roots" to prevent them from becoming powerful enough to dipose them in the future) and that is why Masa wanted info on both sides first and due to their seemingly evenly matched strengths (Hojo being powerful clan for hundreds of years and Toyotomi being the powerful conqueror of the west), he had a difficult time choosing...and letting MC be a hostage to one clan was a HUGE gamble not only for her life... But for his clan.

Saizo - 2nd (8) - I want to smack the head of that elder's son!! But cliffhanger!

Yuki - 3rd (7) - He's sweet.😉😉

Kojuro - 4th (6) - This one could have been my fave, but I could think of many ways to solve the child problem and let him go home....AND KOJURO opt him to stay! Is he trying to use a child for his own ends?? Maybe? But nevertheless, I don't like it.

Mitsuhide - 5th (4) - MC's cooking helpsthe sick get cured, but disease seems to be respiratory in nature. And besides....this one ends in a cliffhanger! I hate cliffhangers!

Nobu - 6th (3) - sigh...why is NOBU unbelievably cruel in here? If he suspects Murashige was betraying him, the ES showed no signs to indicate Araki's deception but his retainer's disgust in the sword mochi thing that comes from Nobu's actions...Why Nobu? Are you bored? Pretending? If so, that is not a good reason to antagonize new allies this much if you want Divine Rule. There are many ways to exert dominance, but this reason isn't enough for me. This is a poorly made motivation/plot tool to make Nobu bad...sorry.

SLBP “The Bride’s Memories, Fleeting as Tears in Rain” Event Review

Props to Voltage for exploring past the traditional happily ever after! This event has been a little surprising to me in several ways - first, I didn’t expect it to ever exist, and second, well…let’s just say there is no correlation between how much I like a character and how good I thought their stories were, lol. My personal ranking, from least to most fave:

In Masamune’s ES, Hideyoshi and the Hojo clan are preparing to go to war against each other. Both of them want the Date clan to help…and both of them want MC as a hostage as well. WTF? The retainers are split, Masamune’s obviously reluctant to do anything, and MC ends up getting chloroformed by Hojo sympathizers at some point, only for M to conveniently save the day at the last second. She convinces M she wants to be a hostage, and the story ends up with MC in a palanquin, on her way to…somewhere.

My tolerance for unrealistic bullshit in SLBP stories is pretty high, but this story was just too damn much, lmao. Masamune clearly has the position of power here as the third party…can’t he just declare that he’ll ally himself to the first clan to rescind their hostage demand?! Hideyoshi and Masamune seemed to get along ok in M’s Act 2…I’m sure the guy could be made to see reason. I did like the beginning scene where Masamune strokes MC’s hair and lets her sleep in, but to be very honest I kind of thought the rest of the story was crap. ^_^

Personal enjoyment: 1/10

In Kojuro’s ES, he and MC decide to take care of a boy from the enemy Ashina clan who’s lost his memories (not sure why they couldn’t have just watched him from a distance, tbh). Except then the whole town becomes convinced that said boy is Kojuro’s “bastard” child from before MC, and gets super mad at him! I’m sure this is exactly how people in ancient Japan would’ve reacted to a powerful man’s extramarital child, lol. In the end, boy regains his memories, the Ashina clan learns about him and declares war with the Date clan over the “hostage” they imprisoned, and that’s that. 😂

I mean… I’m glad the story didn’t end with some bullshit reason to separate K from MC?! Besides that, I’m not really sure what the point of this whole ES was. The plot was pretty boring imho, and Kojuro was absent/distant/not romantic for a large part of it. I’m not sure why MC was so insistent that Kojuro be nice to an enemy child, either. Also I saw that trap coming from a mile away once Kojuro mentioned the Ashina were plotting something, and I can’t say I’m super excited to see how this story plays out.

Personal enjoyment: 2/10

Nobunaga spends most of his ES humiliating his new retainer Murashige. From forcing Murashige to eat mochi directly off his sword (not an innuendo!!) to insulting his young son’s drawing of him to giving a military leadership position to Hideyoshi when Murashige made the most strategic sense, one really starts to wonder how Oda “no people skills” Nobunaga was ever able to get that close to Divine Rule in the first place, lol. In any case, to nobody’s surprise Murashige ends up betraying Nobunaga at a crucial moment, and Nobunaga ends up divorcing MC (this again?! 😂) after a night of astounding sex.

Things I did like about this route: Nobunaga secretly being nice to the son when he thinks nobody’s watching. That sex scene. Nobunaga getting pissed with Murashige claiming his young wife is the most beautiful woman in world (of course, lmao). Things I didn’t love so much: Nobunaga’s total lack of communication regarding why he does the shit he does! I bet we’re going to find out during the sequel that Nobunaga knew all along that Murashige was suspicious. ^_^

Personal enjoyment: 6/10

After saving the road to a neighboring province from kidnappers and murderers, Yukimura truly proves himself to be the hero we all know he is in his ES! There isn’t too much plot beyond that, but this story is full of cute/hilarious moments instead, such as the poor idiot freaking out when he learns that MC’s gravely injured herself after several rounds of telephone, lmao (spoiler: she just cut herself, a little, while cooking). There’s also a bit of drama/angst when the neighboring province tries to poach Y for a few months to handle some problem I don’t remember and he’s reluctant to leave MC, but he eventually does leave, only to quash said problem… and have a cliff fall on him. !!

This story was definitely super light on the plot, lol. But no plot is better than a bad plot, imho! I did really like the little slice of life moments we got between MC and Yukimura, such as his adorable reaction to MC figuring out how to carve a turnip chrysanthemum ^_^ These two dorks are so in love and impressed with each other. I thought it was super sweet!! Best quote: “I cannot put anything or anyone else before you, even in my thoughts.”

Personal enjoyment: 7/10

Mitsuhide’s ES is a cute little treat. Here, the poor guy’s been obviously overworking himself, to the point of not having time to accept MC’s care/food (!). And in the meanwhile, people in town have been collapsing for mysterious reasons! After M himself also passes out, he realizes the townsfolk have been suffering from malnutrition after switching from farming to fishing. While MC teaches them how to cook veggies with the fish (lol), he saves the day by establishing a vegetable/fish trading route, and everyone lives happily ever after! …Except not, because MC finds the guy coughing BLOOD. Uh oh.

I thought the plot was a little silly (do the townsfolk really need some uppity city girl teaching them how to cook vegetables?! lmao), but it was nonetheless a lovely, self-contained, and interesting read! The real star of this story was definitely Mitsuhide himself, who apart from being an overworked sweetheart for the whole ES, also busted out the single best line of dialogue in this event: “When I eat your food…that’s how I know I am home.” Awww 😍 I’m really hoping we learn his illness isn’t terminal in the sequel!

Personal enjoyment: 8/10

Saizo’s story is one of the more adventure-filled ones! Here, the ninja’s been sent alongside Yukimura on a diplomatic mission to one of their more remote territories/villages. Unfortunately, the son of the village elder holds a grudge against Saizo due to murder (understandable). Said son also kidnaps MC and tries to rape her (less understandable!), but of course, Saizo saves the day. MC talks S down from killing the guy, but the ungrateful bastard claims Saizo’s attacked him and has him arrested…! Yikes.

This story was delightfully dramatic, and I really enjoyed it. Not to mention, Saizo was sweeter than I’ve ever seen him before! From buying MC a cord she was eyeing to resting in her lap to talking in the onsen with her to acknowledging that MC’s made him less murderous, this guy showed that he definitely is capable of doing the romance thing when he wants to. Not to mention, his saving MC scene was super badass (The ravens have come…and so has he)!! I’m quite curious to see what’ll happen in the sequel!

Personal enjoyment: 9/10

I may not have loved every story in this latest event (cough Date clan), but every CG looks so good, like wow! My favorite is definitely Nobunaga’s ;)

Anyway, what did you think of this event?? ^_^