Math Problem: *begins With “we Know That..”*

Hi yes my hobbies include actively searching for spoilers and then drowning in self hatred after

Harry: Come on!

Ron: What?

Harry: You heard what Hagrid said. Follow the spiders.

Ron: They're heading to the dark forest!

Harry: (stares at him and continue on walking)

Ron: Why spiders? Why couldn't it be 'follow the butterflies'?

SPOILER ALERT.

Alex Claremont-Diaz is not throwin’ away his shot! *chortles*

Per EVERYONE’s request, albeit @andakillerqueen beat everyone to the punch, here is the Red Room Scene from Red White and Royal Blue! Having seen this room in person on a tour of the White House, this was a fun challenge. Although I swear, it took just as long to paint the dang Hamilton painting and its picture frame as it did to paint Henry and Alex. Lol

Peter Davison went to Wales Comic-Con with a message

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fake dating to lovers is nice but married for non-romantic reasons to lovers is next fucking level

a list of quirks for characters to make them a little more interesting

doesn’t like to wear shoes

always has a piece of sugarfree gum in their mouth

has a collection of cartoon dvds

walks everywhere they go

only wears pastel colors

won’t go anywhere without three hairbands on their wrist

refuses to wear any shoes except red converse

has a crippling fear of something mundane like mushrooms

has a dream notebook filled with every dream they can remember

has a really loud sneeze and goes into sneeze fits

only wears vintage clothing

has damaged hair from messing with it too much

super good at advanced math but can’t do addition for shit

believes in the supernatural, like ghosts

likes to go on midnight shopping trips and run through stores

gets too emotionally attached

loves dogs and has three of them

has hallucinations, but not scary ones

works at a fast food establishment in their free time

always carries a musical instrument with them

always carries a sketchbook with them

likes to name inanimate objects

strictly against drug use

excessively polite

excessively indecisive

can recite the first 200 digits of pi

can only play clocks by coldplay on the piano and plays it 24/7

gets itchy skin when anxious

has to move things around in a certain pattern before going to sleep

worries that if they do one thing wrong they’ll die

obsessed with puzzles

obsessed with rpg videogames

texts with one thumb

always has red painted nails

an amazing runner with super toned legs

has a beautiful voice

has restless legs, especially at night

has terrible performance anxiety

doesn’t like to turn assignments in because they’re afraid they’ll fail

loves science but is really bad at it

can/can’t make friends easily

likes to lie in fields and stare at the stars

believes that wishes can come true

falls deeply in love

bruises super easily

beautiful/horrible handwriting

ambidextrous

only likes nintendo games

only drinks sparkling water

doesn’t watch tv/listen to music

goes to concerts every week

likes slam poetry

likes to study in coffee shops/libraries

doesn’t understand politics but tries nonetheless

wears the same sweatshirt every day

collects sweatshirts

works three part time jobs

crazy intelligent but super shy

likes to memorize phone numbers instead of writing them down

loves to calculate probability

gets homesick very easily

wants to leave home very badly

trips a lot

can’t dance but tries anyway

brushes their teeth seven times a day

incredibly honest to a sometimes brash extent

only draws with mechanical pencils

only writes with pens

collects pens from hotels

wants to believe in heaven but can’t

watches a ton of anime

makes people cute nicknames

makes people origami

uses origami as a coping mechanism

owns a ton of t-shirts from hot topic, but has never been inside

makes all their own food

vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian

eats rice krispies every morning

does everything “for the aesthetic”

watches kids shows

goes to a private school

short term memory loss

loves disney movies

makes lists of random things in their free time

only eats foods with a spoon

only likes to wear skirts

never has their hair down

dyes their hair every two weeks

likes to collect pokemon cards

gets obsessed with games really easily

gives up too easily

gets their heart broken too often

has a mysterious disease

has a big social media following

tries too hard to be popular

likes to draw everything and everyone

can eat a whole lemon

listens to “edgy” music all the time

“you support gay rights so you must be gay”

i support animal rights do i look like a fucking alpaca to you

TOM HOLLAND The Puppy Interview (Part Two)

Sera: Are you still mad at me?

Nyktos: Yes.

Sera: Are you going to let go of my hand?

Nyktos: No.

Underwriting: ways to boost your word count

I wrote a fic recently and the word count for the first draft came to about 40,000 words – roughly the length of a novella or ficlet. And that’s fine because I wasn’t striving for a novel or a 100K slow-burn coffee shop AU.

But coming to edit my first draft I realised something about myself. I am an underwriter. My fic could actually be at least 10k (maybe 20k) longer. Of course it’s not all about word count, it’s about the story, but in this case a smaller word count isn’t because I’m a fantastically efficient storyteller it’s because I’ve missed out a lot of stuff. Like, Important Stuff.

So as I set out to add muscle to the skin and bones I’ve already created in draft one I thought I’d share five tips for my fellow underwriters to help you flesh out your writing too.

1)     Make sure to describe the place and space in which the action happens.

There are quite a few places in my first draft where there’s no indication as to where things are taking place– or there is, but it’s the bare minimum and not really enough to build up a clear picture. This probably because as the writer I know exactly what the place looks like so I make the assumption that a bare minimum description will mean the reader knows too.

Now I’m not saying go into masses of detail about what your settings look like. In some cases it’s not useful to describe setting in a lot of detail (e.g. during really fast paced action sequences) but doing a verbal sketch of the space is essential for putting your characters in context and reader understanding.

I really is a fine balance (which is why beta readers are your friend!) But definitely go back to your setting descriptions if you’re an underwriter, they might need some work.

2)    Make sure to describe your character’s appearance.

Similar to the above point – you know what your characters look like, but unless you describe them, the reader won’t.

It’s fair to say that descriptions are open to reader interpretations, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t describe them in a healthy amount of detail. So you might try to nail down some of the interesting quirks about your characters to help the reader build a picture – not only will it help the readers understanding, it’ll boost your word count too!

Note: This one functions a little differently in a fic because the readers are probably familiar with how the character looks, but there is nothing wrong with adding your interpretation (or even reminding them, especially if the characters are from a book.)

3)   Include character reactions outside of what they say out loud.

Real life conversations aren’t just about the stuff that comes out of our mouths. So much of human interaction is about body language – so include it in your writing! Saying that the character covers their mouth with their hand when they talk suggests shyness. While another character crossing their arms shows they’re defensive -perhaps because they’re feeling threatened. In real life we don’t always say what we mean – but a lot of the time our actions give away what we’re really thinking. By including these actions around dialogue writers can influence how we as readers view characters and how we interpret interactions between characters. And it can boost your word count too.

The big stuff:

4)     Check your pacing.

When you write it feels like your scene is taking place over hours, days, weeks because when you’re writing it takes time. Reading, on the other hand, is much quicker. A seasoned reader can fly through a 100 page novel in a few hours – a seasoned writer can spend hours writing a 100 words.

When you read back your writing, make sure to check your pacing. You might just find that the Impossible Task you set for your characters at the start of the story is suddenly resolved within the next fifty pages. To boost your word count you might want to start by adding more obstacles between the character and their goal.

For example; your character has to find an object such as a precious jewel. Sounds relatively easy, right? But what if the jewel is lost in the mines of an ancient people, amongst thousands of other treasures that look very similar? What if no one has found this jewel because it’s guarded by a fire breathing dragon? What if the ancient mines and dragon are located in a mountain which is miles and miles away across dangerous lands? What if your characters need to enlist the help of someone with a very specific skill set?

You take one simple objective (finding the jewel) and you put into play a series of obstacles that must be overcome in order to complete the objective. Your underwriting tendencies, like mine, might just mean that there aren’t enough metaphorical (or real) dragons in your story!

5)    Sub-plots.

A sub-plot is a smaller scale plot - often involving the supporting characters - which runs secondary to the main plot. It can be directly linked to the main plot, i.e. the info provided in the subplot directly influences events in the main plot. Or it can simply be linked through place, time or themes of the overall story (e.g. Hermione’s elf rights campaign ‘S.P.E.W’ in Harry Potter and the OoTP is linked to the overall theme of oppression.)

Sub-plots are great because they can serve as some respite from a traumatic main plot; your character is fighting a war (main plot) but also fighting and failing (in hilarious ways) to win the affection of their love interest (sub-plot).

Plus, sub-plots can also help with characterisation, can cause your main character to have the moment of realisation which allows them to overcome the obstacles they face in the main plot and is generally a better reflection of real life! Sub-plots often centre on side-kicks and other characters – people who might not be as devoted to the end goal as the protagonist is. In fact, well written side characters seemingly live their own lives with their own goals. You might choose to showcase this in your sub-plot by letting the conflict of interest cause more problems for the protagonist to overcome.

Either way you could find your word count sky rockets as soon as you add in a few clever sub-plots.

I hope this helped!

Got any questions? Send me an ask