Happy: “Kid–,”

TOM HOLLAND The Puppy Interview (Part Two)

Gwyn: On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?

Azriel: Pi.

Azriel: Low-scale but never-ending.

Gwyn:

Gwyn: Are you okay?

The 10 o’clock train

Okay u guys, so this is the first time that I post any of my writing, so if u got any comments or tips I’d be eternaly greatfull!!!

                       The sky suddenly opened up, and as the rain started to pour down, they ran across the street to the station. Already soaked, through and through, her otherwise loose dress stuck to her legs, as they made their way down the stairs. At the sight of an approaching lot of people, he gripped her hand tightly and pulled her closer, careful not to get lost in the swarm. Weaving in and out of children, couples and the occasional elder citizen, they held tightly on to one another. The crowd started to scatter, either hurrying up the stairs to the inevitable rain or further down the hall to the trains waiting to take them to their destinations. They got to the platform, and he made to loosen his grip, but she only held on tighter. He looked down upon her, meaning to tell her she could let go if she wanted, but she merely smiled at him, squeezing his hand for emphasis. Why on earth would I want to let go? Her eye seemed to ask. Her hair – which had been neatly arranged just 30 minutes ago – was now plastered across her face, her red dress no longer flowing in that special way, and yet she looked even more astonishing than ever before.

                         A train arrived at the platform, and they were once again crowded and pushed together by the countless people getting in and out of the train. She laid an arm around his waist, resting her head in the nook between his chest and shoulder. Above all of the noise, she could hear his heartbeat. She rather liked listening to his heart beating, especially when he’d be asleep, but she wasn’t, or whenever they were squashed together like now. The horde vanished as fast as it’d come once the train left, and the passengers started to make their way towards the exit. Above their heads, one of the speakers rustled as if clearing its throat, “Attention passengers, the 10 o’clock train towards the central station has been delayed due to weather conditions, we apologise for the inconvenience.” As the speaker once again rustled and went out, he turned his head to look down upon her, finding her already looking at him, with a displeased expression in her deep blue eyes. “Beautiful summer, huh?” he asked her with a crooked smile. Summer was always like this so they ought to be used to it by now, but somehow the poor weather always seemed to take them by surprise. “You’re not funny, you know!” she tilted her head back, looking at him as if she was getting cross. “Yes, I am. In fact, I’m so damn hilarious that only those of the highest intellect, might understand my impeccable sense of humour,” he looked away, pretending to think, “must be why you don’t get it, I suppose.” Before he saw it coming she withdrew her hand and whacked him at the back of the head. “Ouch!” he burst out, rubbing the spot with one hand. “You deserved it! And if my memory serves me right, when we first met, you proclaimed that I was ‘the funniest person, you’d ever had the pleasure of meeting’.” He shook his head, drops of rain falling as he did, and put both his arms around her small figure. Despite of the wet layers of clothes it felt nice, standing there his arms around her, as he snuggled her head into the comforting warmth of his body.

                         They stood like that for a while, his arms around her shoulders, her head half buried in his chest. After some time, she lifted her head, taking a step back to look him in the eyes. “So, how shall we pass the time? Seems to me that the train might not be here for quite some time.” He thought for a second, taking in the almost empty platform, and the few people scattered on various benches. He pulled back, letting go of her fully. Just as she opened her mouth to protest – already missing the heat from his body – he stretched out his left hand towards her. “Dance with me?” She started to laugh, but stopped abruptly as she laid her eyes on him. His face serious, eyes sincere and sparkling. “Well…uh…well there’s just the slight problem that I can’t actually dance.” His smile widened, “neither can I,” he conceded. “But we haven’t got any music either!” she protested. He merely ignored her, grabbing the headphones currently dangling out of his pocket and waved them an inch from her face. “Don’t we?” the crooked smile on his face grew.  

                         They each took one of the earbuds, as he dug up his phone willing it to play her favourite song. As the song started to play he once more stretched out his left hand towards her. While she put her small hand in his larger one – both of their hands still shaking because of the rain. He slid his right hand around her waist, leaving it to rest on her back. They both took a small step closer to the other, as she finally placed her remaining hand upon his upper arm. The music began to pour out and into their heads, as they started to move – clumsily at first, but with each passing minute more and more sure of themselves and their partner. As the dance grew more fluid, and their smiles grew equivalently bigger people started to notice them – the two teenagers dancing happily as if they hadn’t a care in the world. The minutes passed, just as the people around them, yet neither of them noticed, utterly infatuated with each other and the music only they could hear. Time passed, the arms on the clock above their heads moving around, trains arriving and leaving, neither of them bestowed with the pleasure of bringing the young couple home. No, they just stayed there at the platform, unaware of the time that passed – happy in the company of the other.

Bedtime

- Before I started reading fanfics «I’m going to bed» meant that I was going to sleep.

- Now «I’m going to bed» is actually fanfiction and Tumblr time!

Feyre: *singing* When your legs don’t work like they used to before…

Rhys: Damn it Feyre…my knee is FINE

Feyre: And you can’t sweep me off of my feet…

Rhys: That’s it…I am flying you to house of wind RIGHT NOW…

Feyre: Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love….

Rhys: House of wind can wait…say more things like that 😉😏😉😏😉😈

Feyre: will your eyes still smile from your cheeks…

Rhys: well I prefer roaring and moaning but smiling sounds good too 😉😏😉😈

Feyre: And darling I will be loving you ‘til we’re 70….

Rhys: You weren’t even born when I was 70..

I love how all of the Batman villains are like “ah he’s not at the manor, it’s defenseless! and then alfred just racks an AK-47 and is like pull up bitch

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

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

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