Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!
Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It’s me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here’s the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.
Modern writing advice: Yes your protagonist should have flaws but ultimately we should root for them and like them from the beginning :)
Charles Dickens: Here is the worst ugliest rudest meanest nastiest bitch you’ve ever met in your life.
Modern writing advice: Make sure your POV character goes through a significant arc! Make sure they are changed by the narrative! Make sure they learn a lesson!
Narrators of every book of the 19th century: the lesson I learned is these people fucking suck, sayonara you freaks
Modern writing advice: It’s all about the character overcoming obstacles and learning! They learn their lesson so they can fix their mistakes and make good choices in the future! It’s a character arc! It’s called growth! Readers love it!
Everyone from ancient times through the 19th century: would you like to watch a Guy fuck up twenty times in a row
Yeah you’re right. It WOULD be pretty fucked up if you were a swan but you were raised by ducks and you grew up never seeing another swan or even knowing that such a thing as a swan even existed so you just thought you were a duck with something super wrong with it.
she asked me if i believed in god and i told her that when i was four i almost drowned in a public pool and in my panic mistook a stranger for my father. i clawed my way up his leg. four years later he’d send my parents a picture of the scars alongside a tin of cookies. he said, “i hope she’s still okay. i carry her with me. it isn’t every day you save a life. it isn’t every day you feel like you were here for a reason. when it does happen, you have to cherish that memory. for once, i had a purpose. just being there was enough. she tore me open but she taught me a lot about love.”
STOP GIVING THEM MONEY! stop trying to make crab day or whatever else happen. paying for stuff from the shop is rewarding them for ignoring the userbase continuously and doing things the majority don’t want, even if the things they’re doing and allowing can cause actual deaths. staff shouldn’t be praised and get profit for ignoring their users in exchange for trying to turn tumblr into twitter 2 ft. tiktok. at this point i don’t even care for “staff are people 🥺 be nice” arguments, because even when people are being very polite in feedback, they’re perfectly fine ignoring it in exchange for implementing changes nobody wants or asked for, all because new users may like it more (and forget anyone who’s used the site for years, apparently).
leave bad reviews. don’t buy things from the shop. send feedback, even if they never reply. email them and @ the staff, send asks to the wip blog. don’t just blindly buy into “we need to support the site, buy xyz shop product”, they don’t deserve more money for giving a worse product.
She’s the second one i made after Silco and i keep getting back to her face, trying to get it right. So far she’s the most challenging character, feels like the pretty face should be easy but somehow it isn’t :D
