Freckled Lili

Man, Cinder is lucky that she wasn’t one of the people that went over because if she wound up in a land where survival hinges on a strong, accurate sense of identity, she’d probably spontaneously combust the instant she hit the water.

I titled the file “amity blight being a gay disaster for nearly 2 minutes” and I regret nothing.

delighted to listen to a nine year old discussing his thoughts on star wars. his dad’s been introducing him to the movies in release-date order, and they’re now halfway through The Force Awakens. here are his hot takes:

- best movie: phantom menace. qui gon and obi wan and yoda and anakin are all really cool.

- worst movie: return of the jedi. it took too long to save han solo; jabba is gross to look at and slave leia was weird to watch, ‘and they call it PG!’

- best characters: luke skywalker. anakin skywalker is second-best because he becomes darth vader. (this was very disappointing to discover)

- best villain: darth vader (even if he’s anakin). but dooku was also very good. palpatine is ugly.

- favorite jedi: yoda.

- biggest complaint: it would be better if anakin wasn’t darth vader. and, why did they kill padme? she would be a better vader. they should bring back anakin for the new movies. no, not as a ghost, just bring him back.

happy birthday weiss! we’re taking you to the nearest mcdonalds to celebrate!!

Expanding a thought from a conversation this morning:

In general, I think "Is X out-of-character?" is not a terribly useful question for a writer. It shuts down possibility, and interesting directions you could take a character.

A better question, I believe, is "What would it take for Character to do X?" What extremity would she find herself in, where X starts to look like a good idea? What loyalties or fears leave him with X as his only option? THAT'S where a potentially interesting story lies.

In practice, I find that you can often justify much more from a character than you initially dreamed you could: some of my best stories come from "What might drive Character to do [thing he would never do]?" As long as you make it clear to the reader what the hell pushed your character to this point, you've got the seed of a compelling story on your hands.

this connects to some REALLY good writing advice i remember from @batshaped

Characters are contradictory, just like people are. What would it take for them to do the thing they've told themselves they'd never do, and how would they try to justify it?

Dog Date