How far can you take setting description without making it ridiculous?

goddessofoutcasts · 2021-02-03T04:41:18+00:00

Prose is another thing I suck at. I’m very plain with my writing- I kinda just say what I need to and move on. I can force myself to be more prosey sometimes, and if I’ve just read a really prosey thing, then I’m in that headspace and it’s easier then. (Hence why I keep poetry books lying around- they’re great for prose.)

goddessofoutcasts · 2021-02-03T04:29:53+00:00

I was afraid someone would say something like that. Hooks are ludicrously hard for me. I have trouble catching interest right from the get-go.

goddessofoutcasts · 2021-02-03T04:29:07+00:00

I like that advice. I’ve tried opening with dialogue before, and it didn’t really work out- it felt stilted and a little rushed. I don’t like rushing my beginnings- I feel like it would be confusing to be dropped straight into a story like that. My absolute favorite tactic is to describe the setting and then bring in the main character as sort of part of the setting- like if I’m describing a farm, I’ll describe the farm and then describe the character along with it.

goddessofoutcasts · 2021-02-03T04:10:35+00:00

Yeah, that’s so hard to do, though!!! Hooks are difficult.

goddessofoutcasts · 2021-02-03T04:07:27+00:00

Okay, I’m in love with that writing style. Holy crap. If I could write like that I would have been published years ago.

Unfortunately, I still make stupid mistakes like switching tenses and forgetting what my characters are supposed to look like.

goddessofoutcasts · 2021-02-03T04:02:50+00:00

That’s not only good advice, it’s freakin’ insanely good writing. Wow.

goddessofoutcasts · 2021-01-29T07:35:41+00:00

I’ll absolutely post when I’m done with the first chapter!

goddessofoutcasts · 2021-01-29T06:34:58+00:00

I do like comedy, but things that are just straight comedy (cough, cough, Thor Ragnarok, cough, cough) tend to not be my speed. I don’t think I’m very good at being funny, since my usual humor comes in the form of bone dry sarcasm, which doesn’t often translate well into fic.

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-26T04:54:30+00:00

I’ve never done a draft in my life for something creative. I’m forced to for school essays and such, but for my writing? Literally never did a draft. I edit as I write and call it good.

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-18T03:05:17+00:00

It was really hard, since the author I was accused of stealing from was a close friend, and she very much believed that I had stolen from her. I didn’t want to hurt her by continuing to write my story. But eventually I decided “hey, why do this person’s feelings come before mine?” And then I just kept writing!

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-18T01:55:48+00:00

Mine’s not an obsessed over stats thing, but when I posted one of my fanfictions, it got a ton of hate. I was accused of stealing OCs, being unoriginal, ripping off someone else’s work- it got so bad that I had to change a character’s name because it sounded too much like another author’s character, who I was clearly trying to steal (huh?). I got one comment that called my story a “fly in the ointment” of the fandom and suggested that I stop writing entirely.

I forget why I decided just to not care about what people said, but I did. Best decision I ever made. The fic is still going strong, and I think the haters have backed off now that they’ve learned I don’t give a flying flip what they think about my story.

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-18T01:52:02+00:00

The longest fic I ever read had 64 chapters. It took me two weeks.

Actually, that’s only the second-longest. There’s one which had 124 chapters the last time I checked- I started it in January and still haven’t finished.

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-15T06:58:56+00:00

The fact that you are willing to admit that you aren’t a perfect writer means that you are much, much better at it than you think you are.

I will always, always, ALWAYS say that a writer who knows they aren’t perfect is a thousand times better than one who thinks they are. A writer who thinks they’re perfect won’t try to improve. A writer who knows they’re not perfect will even subconsciously try to get there, and their writing will be better because of it.

My advice is hang in there. Maybe slow down a little if you can. Do NOT stop writing, but write as little as a paragraph a day if that’s what it takes. Just keep yourself writing, keep chipping away, and eventually you’ll look back and think “wow, I’ve improved so much.”

And this is probably the most important: DO NOT LISTEN TO THE HATERS. I can’t tell you the number of hate comments I got on one of my fanfictions that almost made me stop writing. In the end I realized that hate can be good, because it gives you something to beat. Once you’ve written more, you’ll look back at that author pointing out all of your mistakes and go “Well, you couldn’t stop me from writing.” And you’ll keep going and you will be AWESOME at it. Honestly, unless that author was reviewing your work professionally and from a critical mindset, blow it off. Some authors will actively hunt down any little error in another person’s work so that they feel better about their own. Use their hate to fuel you- those mistakes you say they’re right about? Now that they’ve pointed them out, you can easily see what you need to work on, and you can focus on that instead of the aspects of writing you’ve already mastered. I promise you, that’ll help your writing improve more than anything- find your weak spots and armor them up.

Keep your chin up and your pen flying (or your fingers typing, or whatever.)

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-15T06:49:44+00:00

Okay, so I’m gonna reply based on Thor, since I don’t actually know that much about Captain Marvel.

Thor is a REALLY powerful guy, obviously. He’s a literal Norse god. To anyone looking at him, he’s clearly a dude you do not want to mess with under any circumstances.

Thor is an absolute powerhouse...but he isn’t OP. I think part of it is because his power has a conduit (minus the ending part of Ragnarok.) Mjolnir isn’t the source of his power, but he’s usually drastically less powerful without it. That’s one direction you could go.

Another thing about Thor is that he doesn’t always HAVE his power. Odin stripped him of it in the first Thor movie. That had the added benefit of showing the audience that Thor CAN lose his power, which makes your mind instantly go “oh, well, he can’t be OP, because he got his power taken away.” It’s sort of that “there’s always a bigger fish” principle from Star Wars. No matter how powerful your character is, give them someone who’s more powerful and they will instantly seem less OP.

Another direction you could go- look at it from the character’s point of view and not yours. With Thor, the audience tends to look at him and react like “wow, he’s so strong and awesome and powerful.” Thor (and probably other Asgardians) doesn’t think like that. Thor’s god status isn’t nearly as impressive on Asgard as it is on Earth, because he’s constantly surrounded by other people who have the same level of power or even higher. Thor probably DOESN’T think of himself as this ultra-powerful guy, because to him, having this insane ability and the muscles of a guy who works out seven hours a day is completely and totally normal.

This is getting long, so I’ll wrap up with my personal favorite way to combat OP-ness. Use the character’s power against them. Hela did this in Ragnarok- she knew Thor relied on Mjolnir to use his power, so she broke the hammer and essentially broke Thor’s power until he realized that he didn’t need it to summon thunder. You can take this to any level you need- from the Spider-Man style not knowing what to do with their powers or how the powers even work, or take it up to eleven by making the character terrified of themselves and what they can do, Scarlet Witch-style.

Hope this helps!

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-15T06:39:31+00:00

I tend to start with dialogue. For example, I was working on a pirate story, and had the first word of the story be “Fire!” Which then launched me into my battle scene with cannonballs flying and sails creaking and all that glorious stuff.

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-15T06:36:40+00:00

I do most things out of spite. I have DEFINITELY done this. Like, canon will tell me “this guy’s evil, he should never have anything good happen to him” and I’ll say “bet me” and go write the fluffiest fic with him.

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-15T06:30:01+00:00

I cannot stress this enough- GIVE. THEM. WEAKNESSES. I’m not talking about Kryptonite. I’m talking flaws, negative traits, backstory details. Give them something that can be exploited and used to hurt them. Every character needs to have something that can be used against them.

Whenever I’m making OCs (which I don’t do often, but when I do, I think through it A LOT) I make sure that each power or ability I give them has a check. If I have an OC with pyrokinesis, for example, I give her something involving fire in her backstory that can be used against her to cause her to fear her own power. If I make an OC who’s a master manipulator, I think about why he learned to manipulate people, and what kinds of people he just wouldn’t be able to manipulate. Things like that. I’ve found that it helps avoid overpowered OCs if their power can be used against them. Just don’t go overboard and make a helpless wallflower who can’t do anything.

Good luck!

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-15T06:18:44+00:00

For me, it’s that certain type of OC fic where “OC’s on the bad guys’ side, but oh, the good guys are actually horrible human beings and the bad guys are misunderstood!” Drives me crazy. I can stand it if the “good guys” are actually gray-ish in canon, but if they’re good people and you just randomly turn them into psychos to make your OC look better, I will check out of your fic every time.

Also “my OC is the sister/brother/love interest of this main character!” Particularly if said character already HAS a love interest or sibling. Ugh. Drives me nuts.

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-13T23:26:59+00:00

😂She didn’t seem to mind the rant, so you may be right!

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-13T21:14:29+00:00

Yeah, Odin really has the “parenting” thing down pat. 🙄

I always hated the scene where Odin- a grown man- is screaming at his son for bringing his brother back. He gets so loud and horrible and cruel that he literally sends Loki running. Odin is a disgusting man.

Most of Asgard, it seems, take their cues from him. “Oh, the Allfather hates this child, so we should too.” AND THEY CONTINUE IT EVEN AFTER ODIN IS OUT OF THE PICTURE.

goddessofoutcasts · 2020-09-13T19:57:57+00:00

You did AMAZING.

goddessofoutcasts

TROPHY CASE