After Reading A Whole Lot Of Danmeis By Several Different Authors, I Find The Difference Mindsets On

nananananana Batfam!!

°˖ ✧◝(○ ヮ ○)◜✧˖ °

There was a tweet about Jingyi possibly being Jin Rusong, and this popped in my mind 🤣

LJY: What?! I’m your son? I’m Jin Rusong?!

JGY: Yes…Please und-

LJY: Is that why I’m short?!

JL: THAT’S YOUR BIG TAKE AWAY FROM THIS?!

LJY: SHUT UP! You don’t know what it’s like down here.

JL: You’re only 4 cm shorter!

LJY: 4 cm too short to reach the top of the shelf! This whole time I thought it was the bland food, but it turns out I came from midgets!

JGY: …

WWX: *Burst out laughing like a maniac*

JL: HOW ARE WE RELATED?

LJY: HOLY SHIT WE’RE RELATED?! No wonder I hate you!

JL: *In tears* Shut up! I hate you too!

LSZ: Guys, let’s calm down.

QS:…You know, I’m not so disgusted about the incest thing suddenly. But I want a divorce, and we’ll keep it a secret.

JGY: Unless you tell me who sent you the letter.

QS: No.

JGY: I need to know so that I can find out who else knows, and kill them so we won’t be slandered by the Cultivation World. Besides, who ever decided to tell you this now after all this time must be doing it for money.

QS:…It was Bicao. 

JGY: Thank you. Now excuse me future ex-wife. I’m going to go interrogate a maid.

*And thus Nie Huaisang gets found out, and it’s a whole different complicated mess where LXC is the one most shafted by it. In the mean time, Qin Su is happily living at Gusu to get to know her son.*

I've gotten more fond of svsss after @fatalism-and-villainy read it and liveblogged it to me, and I've been thinking so much about what it says about villains, and people's environments affecting what they do, and also/especially fandom and fandom interpretations of villains. obviously societal factors on behavior and how social pressures form villains is a theme through all mxtx novels, but it's really obvious in the contrast between alt universe versions of people!

shen yuan and shen jiu are the most obvious example of this. It's so clear why Shen Qingqiu was the role chosen for Shen Yuan! He's grumpy, demands perfection from himself and others, has a very sharp tongue, is very Intellectual, and has the type of mind to want to write bestiaries and focus on scholarship. He has an enormous wealth of knowledge about xianxia tropes in general and PIDW worldbuilding in particular. ALL of those are Shen Qingqiu traits! He just doesn't envy children who have good childhoods, and therefore doesn't Do Child Abuse.

Originally, he dismisses Shen Qingqiu Original Version as a one dimensional, irredeemable "scum villain." Shen Jiu's backstory doesn't show up in the original work, and Shen Yuan dismisses it as irrelevant.

And this is a mistake. Not only does Shen Jiu's backstory explain why he's the way he is, it continues to affect his life and by extension the life of any Shen Qingqius. Understanding his past and feelings are ESSENTIAL for Shen Qingqiu v2 to keep himself alive! He struggles with interacting with the remnants of the Qiu family, SQQ's past as a slave, and is distressed by the memories he's shown of child SQQ being raped and abused. He needs to know these things, and he needs to have sympathy for the original occupant of his body!

It's not that Shen Yuan seemed to have a good life -- he was a hikikomori, "waiting around to die" -- but the circumstances of his life took his base characteristics that he shares with SQQ and molded him into a totally different person.

It's also visible with LBH1 and LBH2. Original Luo Binghe is not a good person! He responds to his traumatic early life by conquering the world, forming a harem of hundreds of women he doesn't care about, and eventually dies unfulfilled, unloved, and unhappy. SVSSS Luo Binghe has problems for sure -- definitely traumatized! so many mood swings! -- but his positive experiences with Shen Qingqiu v2 were just enough to make him a good person. "People improve when they receive external love and support!"

there they are

Solidarity

Nuts and Bolts: “Thought” Verbs

In six seconds, you’ll hate me.

But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.

From this point forward – at least for the next half year – you may not use “thought” verbs.  These include:  Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use.

The list should also include:  Loves and Hates.

And it should include:  Is and Has, but we’ll get to those, later.

Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write:  Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…”

Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like:  “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave.  Never his.”

Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them.  Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.

Instead of saying:  “Adam knew Gwen liked him.”

You’ll have to say:  “Between classes, Gwen was always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it.  She’d roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume.  The combination lock would still be warm from her ass.  And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.”

In short, no more short-cuts.  Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling.

Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph  (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later)  In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph.  And what follows, illustrates them.

For example:

“Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline.  Traffic was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits.  Her cell phone battery was dead.  At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up.  Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…”

Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows?  Don’t do it.

If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others.  Better yet, transplant it and change it to:  Brenda would never make the deadline.

Thinking is abstract.  Knowing and believing are intangible.  Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing.  And loving and hating.

Don’t tell your reader:  “Lisa hated Tom.”

Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail.  Present each piece of evidence.  For example:

“During role call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout: ‘Butt Wipe,” just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.”

One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone.  Writing, you may be alone.  Reading, your audience may be alone.  But your character should spend very, very little time alone.  Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.  

For example:  Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take..”

A better break-down might be:  “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57.  You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus.  No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap.  The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late.  Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…”

A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives.

Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember.

No more transitions such as:  “Wanda remember how Nelson used to brush her hair.”

Instead:  “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.”

Again, Un-pack.  Don’t take short-cuts.

Better yet, get your character with another character, fast.  Get them together and get the action started.  Let their actions and words show their thoughts.  You – stay out of  their heads.

And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.”

For example:

“Ann’s eyes are blue.”

“Ann has blue eyes.”

Versus:

“Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…”

Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures.  At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it.

And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for:  “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.”

Please.  For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use “thought” verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t.

[ Essay by Chuck Palahniuk on August 12, 2013]

A dating service where matching is based on people’s search history exists. You’re a serial killer. You go on a date with a writer.

Oh my gosh lqg zl is too perfect. Would sy still transmigrate? What would that look like?

yes sy will still be there to be a disaster

but z!lqg is not gonna have any of his bs. this is on the premise that there’s a system (bc without a system, all of sv falls apart) he’ll be skirting the line of driving sy!sqq crazy with ‘does lqg actually know things or am i just crazy?!’ and lqg is ‘god this face and its monosyllabic grunts are perfect. no one knows i noes’

but seriously, he’d try to help with lbh’s single-minded obsessive love (his attachment issues, essentially), but unknowingly get roped in a la the lqg/lbh/sqq ot3 type bs

(”look i’m only here because none of you know how to suck dick to save your mom’s life i- okay sorry, i meant, none of you know how to suck dick. just. okay. stop looking!” “asking shishu, how can we learn if we cannot watch?”)

Z!lqg is waiting for the perfect moment to drop the transmigrator fact. let’s say he’s escorting both sqq and sqh soemwhere and they’re being all secretive and millennially, and at them talking semi-seriously and trying to convince z!lqg to take them somewhere with z!lqg refusing their cheap excuses and grievances bc it’s funny, they just drop a ‘hmm. so sad. alexa, play despacito’ and walks away

(airplane and cucumber go insane trying to figure out which username z!lqg is. finally: “i’m not any username, i’m a reader of your own transmigration novel. so technically, my god-mode tier is higher than either of you”)

(sqh: ”you can’t just say shit like that!” sqq: “you fucking douche, you -” lqg: “cucumber man, i hold the secrets to keeping your chrysanthemum unplucked, i suggest you shut your mouth” sqq: “okay... chrysanthemum-bro” lqg: “okay fuck you, good bye, you can ride airplane express home” sqh: “no, liu-juju, come back pls, don’t leave me with this bitch” sqq: “airplane you fucker, you’re the btich)

the peaks will have no peace. everyone feels like they’re in a mass hallucination at the sight of their friend-amosity.

Nie Mingjue will regret this in the morning.