So right now I'm in a pickle. I kinda got writers block, and I can't find a way to fill in the gap to two major plot points. I want to write a little bit more on my character's relationships, I just don't know how to avoid making it mundane and generic at the moment. Any tips?
Try putting the life of one of the said characters companions, that you want to work on their relationship with, at risk. I find this moves along their relationship and the story.
The things is, I don't know how. I don't want to derail from the story and I really want to focus more on telling the readers their history, not furthering their relationship. (Darn, I hate writers block)
what sort of story is it?
It's fantasy, but I haven't gotten to the fantasy part yet (the character’s don't know about magic and whatnot etc) (if that makes sense)
sorry if I sound nosy, its just that background could help with ideas for your writers block.
ah
I'm writing the moments before they find out about it (which is the next plot point)
were the characters childhood friends? you could always include a flashback
sorry if I sound nosy, its just that background could help with ideas for your writers block.
You don't sound nosy at all :)
My story is about a suicidal, Rvan, who can't commit suicide because his brother, Erik, sold his soul to demons. Rvan thinks his life is a normal, every day human life, but Erik found out about a demonic society that make bargains with desperate humans to steal their souls
The characters I,m focusing on are the brothers, Rvan and Erik
for one thing, that sounds like a brilliant story. second, you could try a notable childhood memory concerning the brothers, one that really affects their daily life. if that doesn't work, you could try brainstorming everything you can think of about them on a different page and see where that takes you
Thank you so much! You really helped me with this!
no problem :)
Tell me when you finish that book. . . I'd love to read it!
Aww, thanks :D
Hi! So, I'm currently very stuck with this story I'm writing. I thought I had a pretty good introduction, but I'm not sure if it'll come across clear to anyone who reads it. It's about a mob leader, who is trilingual. Another thing, does anyone have any good tips for writing bi/trilingual characters??
I don't mean to intrude, but could you give some context about how your introduction sounds? Also, for your trilingual character, maybe have him forget to switch languages when he's talking to other people, or forget a word in one language and have him take a second to remember it, like "And I was on my lawn and I was… I was… j'ai oublié… Ah! I was mowing! I was mowing my lawn."
So right now I'm in a pickle. I kinda got writers block, and I can't find a way to fill in the gap to two major plot points. I want to write a little bit more on my character's relationships, I just don't know how to avoid making it mundane and generic at the moment. Any tips?
What are the two plot points you are trying to connect?
maybe have him forget to switch languages when he's talking to other people
I've met a lot of people who are billingual and no one does this but I still see it all the time in writing. The other thing I see a lot is where people will sub out a random English word for the same word in a different language. Like they'll say something like "I love your kitten! She is very mignon" Like, just say cute. No one talks like this.
If you want to make it realistic, I think that forgetting an English word is probably a better approach if and only if English is not their first language. You could also have scenes where they're speaking other languages with other people who speak that language.
Or else, depending on the language, sometimes there's words in other languages that don't have a direct English translation. It would require a bit of research, but you could have them say something like "We don't really have a word for this in English, but in [language] we call this [word] and it means [definition]."
Another thing to maybe consider, but you could just have your character be really smug and pretentious about it. I have a character who speaks 3 languages, he rarely speaks anything other than English, but he likes to remind the other characters how smart he is, and he often brings up the fact that he speaks Armenian and French as well. It works well for him because he's pretty arrogant, but if you've already got their personality figured out then maybe you don't want to go this route.
edit: I guess another thing to consider is why they're fluent in multiple languages to begin with because you can use that as a way to bring up the fact that they're billingual without them being a complete jerk like my character.
I've met a lot of people who are billingual and no one does this but I still see it all the time in writing
Yeah, listen to starfast, they gave better advice then me lol
What are the two plot points you are trying to connect?
I am connecting the points where the main character of the story goes from a normal life with regular activities to finding out about the demon world in my story. I don't want it to come off as poor writing, like the main character is just like "oh, a demon world, cool, I'll just accept that and move on!" But I also don't want to full on halt the story because of his shock of this world.
What are the two plot points you are trying to connect?
I am connecting the points where the main character of the story goes from a normal life with regular activities to finding out about the demon world in my story. I don't want it to come off as poor writing, like the main character is just like "oh, a demon world, cool, I'll just accept that and move on!" But I also don't want to full on halt the story because of his shock of this world.
Yeah, I hate in a book where the MC finds out about something crazy, and they spend most of the book denying it or freaking out…
If something crazy like that happened to me, probably at first, I'd think I was going crazy, but then I would totally accept it, maybe fangirl a bit…
It's like, when you're watching a show, and something is going on, and the characters have no idea what is happening, and you're just like, come on it's ghosts! it's zombies! those guys are vampires!
Anyway, I know what you're saying.
Since his brother sold his soul, maybe strange things happen around Rvan? Maybe he's knows something is off about himself, or his environment, so when he does find out, he's not completely shocked, because he always had a feeling…
What does selling one's soul entail? What happens to that person, when they have no soul? (do they have no soul, or is their soul still in their body, it just doesn't belong to them?)
Well, the effects of selling ones soul vary from person to person. Some demons appear very human like, while others are clearly demonic (for example, one of the more prominent demons in the story is a drider (a spider centaur kind of thing)). All of them still have their soul in their body, but it doesn't belong to them. My protagonist's situation is kind of different, you see his brother, Erik, made the deal kind of specific. It was that if the protagonist committed suicide, he would not actually die. If the protagonist ‘successfully' committed suicide, the demons could only collect the mc one year after he actually ‘died’ (cause Erik loves his brother so much and he thought through his bargain).
So, the protagonist did die when he purposely crashed his car to kill himself. He woke up in the hospital with a strange ”tattoo” of raven wings on his back (The mc gets wings later in the story because of the bargain). Everyone suspected that he got a normal tattoo, but Erik has his suspicions about it, but he didn't want to bring it up because he felt guilty about selling his brother's soul.
The story starts roughly a year after the car incident (btw, the mc's suicide attempts happen in flash backs before the protagonist finds out about the demon world). I was thinking maybe the protagonist could make eye contact with a human-like demon (who is prominent in the story later on) and the demon is like, "Why hello, Rvan." (The protagonist's name is Rvan) Or is that too forward if some random ‘guy’ knows the protagonist's name? (<—From the mc's perspective)
Well, the effects of selling ones soul vary from person to person. Some demons appear very human like, while others are clearly demonic (for example, one of the more prominent demons in the story is a drider (a spider centaur kind of thing)). All of them still have their soul in their body, but it doesn't belong to them. My protagonist's situation is kind of different, you see his brother, Erik, made the deal kind of specific. It was that if the protagonist committed suicide, he would not actually die. If the protagonist ‘successfully' committed suicide, the demons could only collect the mc one year after he actually ‘died’ (cause Erik loves his brother so much and he thought through his bargain).
So, the protagonist did die when he purposely crashed his car to kill himself. He woke up in the hospital with a strange ”tattoo” of raven wings on his back (The mc gets wings later in the story because of the bargain). Everyone suspected that he got a normal tattoo, but Erik has his suspicions about it, but he didn't want to bring it up because he felt guilty about selling his brother's soul.
The story starts roughly a year after the car incident (btw, the mc's suicide attempts happen in flash backs before the protagonist finds out about the demon world). I was thinking maybe the protagonist could make eye contact with a human-like demon (who is prominent in the story later on) and the demon is like, "Why hello, Rvan." (The protagonist's name is Rvan) Or is that too forward if some random ‘guy’ knows the protagonist's name? (<—From the mc's perspective)
Okay, wait so first two lines, gives the impression that one turns into a demon when they soul is sold?
(ooh, that spider centaur drider sound amazingly horrifying!)
I'm a little confused about the suicide/not dying/successfully dying. You said that Rvan can't die (in an earlier post) because of the deal his brother made, but then say, if he successfully kills himself he will have one year before his soul is collected. So, is Rvan just unsuccessful in his suicide attempts up until the car accident, or has something been 'saving' him or stopping his attempts from killing him? (possibly his brother; and I can tell that Erik loves his brother so much that he sold, not his own soul, but Rvan's hahaha [is there a reason he did that? because Rvan is suicidal? only a year after a successful suicide seems kind of like a .. shitty deal. do you mind telling me what Erik (or Rvan) gets in return?] also, I think that would seriously mess you up in the head if you're trying to kill yourself, but you can't, and then you do, but guess what you don't have a soul that belongs to you anymore hahahahaha and you still have a year left on life)
I don't think it's too forward, definitely be bizarre, and with thinking that he did kill himself, Rvan is probably starting to wonder what the hell is going on, and then waking up with the wings tattooed on his back. So, if a demon came up to him and started talking to him, it would confirm suspicions that something strange and dark is going on. Is there something in the way that demons look in human form that could give Rvan (or Erik) an off feeling?