Katherine Frances's Blog, page 111
November 28, 2017
sixpenceee:
Sződliget is a misty waterside town in Hungary,...
Sződliget is a misty waterside town in Hungary, whose eerie atmosphere attracts many tourists.
allegedgreywarden:
I see a lot of writing advice, particularly about giving characters flaws. The...
I see a lot of writing advice, particularly about giving characters flaws. The main advice is “everyone has flaws! make sure to give your character flaws or else it’s not realistic!” And after thinking about it… I would like to challenge this.
It essentially posits a view of human nature that there are good and bad traits, and that these traits can be neatly diagrammed into separate columns, one set of which can and should be eliminated. It tends to go along with a view that posits character development should be about scrubbing away of “flawed” traits until the character achieves more a higher level of goodness, or else the character doesn’t and falls into tragedy. This is not untrue, necessarily. There are definitely some “flaws” that are 100% bad and sometimes a good arc is about slowly losing them. However, I could call this advice incomplete.
Consider thinking about it this way. Characters have traits and often whether or not that trait is a flaw is purely circumstantial.
For instance, fairy tales I read as a child. In some, when an old beggar asked for money on the road, it was a secret test of character. The prince who gave the old man money or food would be rewarded. But in other folktales I read, the old beggar would be malevolent, and any prince who stooped to help him would be beaten, punished for letting his guard down. Now, in a story as well as in real life, either of these scenarios can occur–a stranger who asks for help can be benevolent or malevolent. So which is the flaw? Is it a “flaw” to be compassionate? or is it a “flaw” to be guarded?
Trick question–it’s purely conditional. Both traits are simultaneously a strength and a weakness. Either has an advantage, but either comes with a price as well. And whether the price is greater than the advantage depends on circumstance. The same can be said for most character traits, in fact!
An agreeable character who gets along with everyone will be pressured into agreeing with something atrocious because it’s a commonly held viewpoint. A character who’s principled and holds firm even under great pressure will take much, much longer to change their mind when they are actually in the wrong. A character who loves animals and loves to shower them with affection will get bitten if they try the same on every animal. As the circumstances change, flaws become strengths, and strengths become weaknesses. And even a trait that’s wholly virtuous, such as compassion, comes with a price and can be turned for the worst.
You don’t have to think about inserting flaws into your character. Your character, even the most perfect “Mary Sue,” is already flawed the moment you give her any traits at all. The problem with Mary Sue isn’t a lack of flaws, it’s a lack of circumstances to challenge her properly, to show her paying the natural price. Your job as an author is to create circumstances in the narrative that 1) justify why these traits exist in your character 2) show what your character gains from these traits and then 3) change the circumstances to challenge her.
Make your character pay the price for their traits, for their choices. And then, when challenged, you can make a hell of a story by showing us how they adapt, or why they stick to their guns anyway.
November 27, 2017
goodwitchbrassbitch:Alright so you take that pain, you take that guilt, you take that panic attack...
Alright so you take that pain, you take that guilt, you take that panic attack and you mash it all together in a mother fucking blender, and you throw in some of that self loathing for texture, and you blend that shit up, you puree that rot in your soul and you drink that bitch, you pour it down your throat like a mother fucking green smoothie and you harness the negative energy you’ve been living with for a decade and you devour it instead of letting it devour you, and it won’t taste like raspberries but it will fuel you and you will get off the couch and you’ll go out on a Tuesday night and laugh and waste precious time and money and youth and you’ll be okay because you ate your pain before it ate you and you’re alive because you didn’t kill yourself last night and you’ll be alive tomorrow because you won’t kill yourself today
the-moogle-of-your-nightmares:
villains who switch sides due to personal convictions and not because...
the-moogle-of-your-nightmares:
villains who switch sides due to personal convictions and not because they fell in love with a hero
villains who fall in love with a hero but refuse to switch sides due to personal convictions
villains who have feelings for heroes but aren’t willing to just ditch their life and everything they’ve worked for
sympathetic villains with goals and motivations other than heroic bonkybits
Kim Shimmers and the Black Prophecy
A Harry Potter Fanfic by me (and the 3rd installment of the Kim Shimmers series)
This Harry Potter fan fiction (as long as all goes according to plan) will be posted at the beginning of every week. The pictures above are not mine, though I edited some.
Chapter 24
Hallowed Prophecy
Harry was begging for some kind of deal to be struck at the bottom of the amphitheater-like room, and Kim was just leaning against the stairs beside an unconscious Ron, her mind gone numb with overwhelming fear. She tried to collect herself, think of a strategy, think of spells she could use, think of something. But it was no use. She and Harry couldn’t face this group alone.
“He’s dot alone!” yelled a congested voice, and Kim was stirred as she watched Neville fly down the stairs towards Harry. “Stubefy, Stubefy, Stubefy!” he yelled, shaking his wand to no avail. Bellatrix laughed as another Death Eater grabbed hold of Neville, restraining him easily.
Bellatrix… Bellatrix… Bellatrix Black! That’s how I knew that name and those crazed eyes! She goes by Lestrange now, but I saw her picture on Sirius’s family tree!
“Don’t gib id do dem!” Neville cried as Bellatrix pointed her wand at him.
“Give it to us, or else…” Bellatrix said with a wicked smile. “Crucio!”
Neville screamed, drawing his legs up to his chest as a gut wrenching cry broke from his mouth. Bellatrix lifted the spell and the Death Eater dropped Neville. He fell, legs still curled to his chest as he moaned in agony.
“No?” she said crazed, eyeing Harry. “Again?”
“No, stop!” he cried, but was still clutching the prophecy, unsure of what he should do, fidgeting where he stood.
Bellatrix looked over her shoulder for a mere instant and then back at Harry. “What about the girl?” she asked shrilly, and in a blur of motion was bounding up the steps madly at Kim. Wide eyed, Kim started to peddle back, knowing she needed to get to her feet, to run, to raise her wand and cast a spell, but it happened so fast and unexpectedly that she didn’t have the chance. Bellatrix grabbed her by her hair and wrenched her up. The pain was almost undetectable compared to the throbbing in her leg, but still it gave her leverage to drag Kim farther into the isle of steps so she was in Harry’s view.
“How about her?” she said with a wild smile, pointing her wand at Kim in gesture. Harry’s face of course gave away all, his jaw tightening and his brow set. Kim didn’t know what was the right thing for Harry to do. She didn’t want to die. Didn’t want to be tortured. She didn’t want Voldemort to get his hands on something he needed either, but at this point she didn’t know what choice they had. All she did know, was that pain was coming. The likes of which she’d never endured.
“Crucio!” she said, but Kim barely heard the curse finished.
Her body was suddenly alighted, on fire, every piece of her flesh burning, every bone aching and pulsing with pain. She screamed and then clamped her lips shut, biting down so hard she feared she might loosen her teeth from their gums. She moaned inside her mouth, screaming silently as tears spread down her face and her body started to twitch uncontrollably. She writhed and contorted involuntarily, her libs trying to escape the pain. Finally it subsided away and her body was left sensitive to the touch, as if every hair had been plucked from her dermis and left her raw and chapped and sore. Her moan grew quiet, allowing Bellatrix’s laughter to rise up into her hearing.
“Now, Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your little friends die the hard way!” she said, wrenching Kim’s head up by the hair, making her whimper as her sensitive body thrummed with an aching sensation of movement.
Harry, looking utterly broken, extended his hand with the orb. Lucius Malfoy jumped forward to take it. But then, a banging sound broke the moment. The door at the top of the room had flung open, making everyone turn, and now a cluster of people sprinted into the room: Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley.
Kim nearly cried in relief as Ballatrix released her hair to raise her wand, shooting spells already. She let her body slump to the stairs, not wanting to move. Not sure she was even capable. We’re saved, she thought, but her insides twisted uncomfortably as spells flew overhead.
It’s not over yet.
And for the last time her prediction slid through her mind: The time for his reveal is near, when none can deny his existence, his presence unshrouded. He will find what he seeks amongst the struggle with the Order. Black will face black and the darkest shall triumph, veiling the other into abyss. With this, the tides of fortune will shift toward evil.
Black will face black… or Black will face Black.
Kim dared to sit half up right, resting on her elbows as she searched the scene. The spells still whizzed overhead so she had to duck and dodge, but finally her eyes fell past Harry and Neville struggling up the stairs, and onto Sirius. Sirius Black and Bellatrix Black facing one another in battle. The darkest shall triumph. Bellatrix will win, Kim thought as Sirius narrowly dodged a blast of green light, making Kim’s heart flip in anticipation, and then relax when he still survived. The darkest shall triumph, veiling the other into the abyss…Death. But not just death, she realized, her eyes drifting up to the archway resting on the stone dais in the center of the room. Not just any death, not just any veil. He will be veiled- sent through the veil and into the abyss… the realm of the dead.
“No,” Kim breathed, forcing herself over onto her hands so she could carefully stand on one foot. I have to warn him, she thought, ignoring the nagging sound in her mind that said you are powerless to change it.
I will not sit back and do nothing.
