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@noah-cochran

I’m afraid to say that the feedback is all over the place. xD Some of my betas really liked a couple of the characters, and others thought those characters had serious problems (and vice versa).

I suppose the most common agreement is that the fight scenes to be edited and shortened (though one of my beta’s likes them a surprising amount xD)

Ooh, that’s hard! It’s interesting and also really shows you how it depends from person to person, especially with characters and why you like them.

What’s the piece of feedback that surprised you the most?

I personally really enjoy books with multiple PoV’s that are on vastly different places in their arcs.

Exactly, I think it’s great to write because while one character is slowly doing character development the other one can be somewhere else doing cool fighting stuff XD

I think something really interesting in this book is that one of my POV characters just… doesn’t have much plot throughout the first half of the book. All of the driving force and stakes is emotional and internal.

He isn’t in danger but he feels like he is, there isn’t something huge that’s going to happen if he messes up but he feels like there is, he’s literally his own villain and all the stakes are ‘phantoms’ he’s inflicting on himself and it’s facinating to write.

(Cathy, you know exactly who I mean XD)

I once read that plots are interesting when something changes from the character’s daily life. This character’s status quo is being constantly in danger so I just flung him into just a safe, normal enviornment and it’s hilarious and also so sad because he just can’t cope with it because it’s so abnormal to his expectations.

(Honestly while I’m writing I’m constantly torn between “Just relax for goodness sake, don’t be so dramatic, you’re not going to die” and “I’m so sorry, oh, goodness, I feel so guilty, you’re so messed up”)

It’s something interesting that I’ve never actually written before. This time it’s necessary simply because I can’t throw any more plot at him. I’ve used him as a plot device just a little too often *Sheepish but evil writer chuckle*

And… I went on an extremely excited tangent again, but you’re used to it by now XD

A wise idea. What do you usually end up writing on average each day?

Oh, who even knows? XD

I can’t accurately say what so far because I’ve only been writing for two weeks or so on this project, but I’d say 2000 is a pretty accurate average figure. Often less, sometimes more.

There is no predicting it, there is no changing it, I just sit down and see where it goes. XD

Wow, 30k in one week? That’s great! I’ll have to look into this crazy-writer-week thing. When does it usually take place?

It used to be in January, April, and August, but now it’s just in January every year! (Most of the writers are teenagers and college age so they try to plan it in the holidays, which helps a lot XD)

(Also I’m not going to manage 30k this week because my brain was fried after 4k today and school starts tomorrow so I’m not managing 6k tomorrow so… not gonna happen but I’m already overachieving XD I also partially blame this on my extremely large cat who decided to sleep on my lap while I was taking a break and of course I couldn’t just ruthlessly shove him off so my five-minute break turned into an hour XD A classic case of feline paralysis XD)

I’ve considered reading that for a while now. Perhaps I shall sometime.

Absolutely do!! The prose still changes how I write, it’s facinating, though expect a slow plot XD It’s heartwrenching though and Death as a narrator is just such an exquisite literary choice! It’s just… it’s beautiful.

It’s invaluable, and it’s fun.

I know, and I will do it, but there’s always the little voice in my head that says “But what if my writing is terrible and I didn’t realize it?? This is going to be embarassing” It’s scary XD

Oh, definitely. The words and sentences come easier, and I’m able to write for longer periods at a time.

I realized the exact same thing! I remember how hard it was to just form coherent sentences when I started and now I don’t even think about it! It’s very statisfying when you can feel how much easier it is.

The plot on the other hand, is actually quite a bit harder to present. It is way more complex than TTD, and presenting that in a coherent way gets rather difficult.

That’s actually a good thing in itself, it means you managed to think of a more complicated plot and work it out! As you get better your plots often gets more complicated and that makes it harder to write but that does mean it’s getting better!

I’m a firm believer in humor or lightheartedness in a book to make it less dark or grim, but it gets difficult to balance that with character arcs or flaws that stem from rough experiences or pasts. In other words, balancing grim reality with humor gets difficult.

That’s a really interesting point! Balancing light and dark is often very hard, it’s something I’ve often struggled with.

Something that helps me is to remember that people often use jokes to cope.

I know when I’ve just been through something scary my first urge is to crack a joke about it, partially to reassure everyone else and partially because it gives me something to think about instead of panicking.

And I have characters that use dark humor to deflect and distract from the things that hurt them, and other characters who force themselves to always be happy because it’s their one use even when they’re so very scared they have to make everyone else feel better.

And characters who use bravado to hide fear, honestly my one weakness. (Hugon does that quite a bit, it was very fun to read!) Even better when they keep up the bravado to a certain point and then it’s just too much and they just break down. That’s just flawlessly glorious to read!

Things can read as lighter even if the characters aren’t happy, though every book needs a handful of “all vibes, no plot” scenes where the characters are just having fun or playing with puppies or whatever cute, lighthearted thing you can think of. I love those scenes, they make me so happy and I always remember them because they stand out so much from the heavy plot stuff around it.

Something else is to make the world around the characters beautiful. It can be tempting to use pathetic fallacy and that’s good up to a point, but my one weakness is a beautiful, rich, fairy-tale setting to contrast the darker plot. There’s just something about terrible, heartbreaking things happening in a beautiful enviornment that I find really poetic.

Same with little things like clothes. The first thing that pops up is Great Expectations, how Ms. Havisham always wore her wedding dress, and it’s objectively beautiful or used to be but the grief has ruined it.

Whenever there’s a scene that characters have to dress up for a formal event to infiltrate it for a spy event and they end up fighting and possibly wounded and it’s such a contrast with their fancy clothing, it’s just stunning imagery and I find it exceptionally cool every time XD

If you couldn’t tell, I’m having a lot of thoughts tonight XD That means it’s too late for me to actually be writing this but I’m still going to do it.

@this-is-not-an-alien

FYI, Cavirmablablah,

This really turned into the most absurd game of telephone XD How am I supposed to remember what Cavilmiblasomething was originally supposed to be? XD

FYI, Cavirmablablah, I AM GETTING TO IT AND I HAVE STARTED TTD 2 WHILE I’M BETA READING FOR SOMEONE WHO’S PUBLISHING FEBUARY!!!!!!

Huh, never thought a written message could give me the urge to cover my ears XD

Now excuse me while I yell at rose-colored-fancy for her horrifying display of efficiency and absolutely ridiculously high wordcount, THAT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL TO BE THAT GOOD IT’S A HATE CRIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHAHAH!!! I’m doing this purely to aggravate you XD Lemme guess, it’s a hate crime because you hate it? XD Every exclamation of annoyance builds my throne of finished manuscripts *Evil laughter*

Oh is the Book Thief any good?!

ABSOLUTELY IF YOU LIKE TO SUFFER!! Of course you do, you’re a writer!! Yess, you will suffer and you’ll enjoy it. XD Every one of my friends said something like “I was absolutely sobbing while reading this here read it too”

I didn’t sob but I definitely got weepy which is quite a lot for me from books XD

There’s something very interesting because it has an outside narrator. There’s very heavy foreshadowing and the narrator even tells you what’s going to happen in the finale but you’re still in denial and you’re practically in agony trying to prevent it and these characters are on such set paths and both you and the narrator can see it coming and then it happens. 

Besides that, it’s just beautifully written, I loved all of the characters so, so much, they just make me so happy. It’s kinda a slow book, more character than plot.

The movie is also 10/10. Flawless casting, beautiful set design, pretty faithful to the book except for a few changes. For a book that’s so heavily focused on prose it’s a beautiful film. Didn’t quite make me cry though, but it was still good.