What Otome Players Really Want

Words to Describe Someone's Voice

I went scouting through the internet for words to describe a character’s voice. Here’s a handy list for all you writers:

Adenoidal/Nasal - Some of the sound seems to come through the nose.

Appealing - Shows that you want help, approval, or agreement.

Breathy - With loud breathing noises.

Brittle - You sound as if you are about to cry.

Croaky - Sounds as if they have a sore throat.

Dead - They feel or show no emotion.

Disembodied - Voice comes from someone who you cannot see.

Flat - Spoken in a voice that does not go up and down.

Fruity - Deep and strong in a pleasant way.

Grating - Unpleasant and annoying.

Gravelly -  Low and rough.

Gruff - Has a rough low sound.

Guttural - Deep and made at the back of your throat.

High-Pitched - Very high and shrill.

Hoarse -  Low rough voice, usually because their throat is sore.

Honeyed -  Falsely sweet voice.

Husky - A husky voice is deep and sounds hoarse often in an attractive way.

Low - Quiet and difficult to hear / in a deep voice.

Matter-of-fact - Used about someone’s behavior or voice.

Modulated - Controlled and pleasant to listen to.

Monotonous -  Boring because it does not change in loudness or become higher or lower.

Orotund - Loud and clear.

Penetrating - So high or loud that it makes you uncomfortable.

Plummy - This word shows that you dislike people who speak like this.

Quietly - In a quiet voice.

Raucous -  Loud and sounds rough.

Ringing -  very loud and clear.

Rough - Not soft and is unpleasant to listen to.

Shrill -  Very loud, high, and unpleasant.

Silvery - Clear, light, and pleasant.

Singsong - Rises and falls in a musical way.

Small - A small voice or sound is quiet.

Smoky - Sexually attractive in a slightly mysterious way.

Softly Spoken - A quiet gentle voice.

Sotto Voce - A very quiet voice.

Stentorian - Loud and severe.

Strangulated - One that someone stops before they finish making it.

Strident -  Loud and unpleasant.

Taut - Shows someone is nervous or angry.

Thick - Voice sounds less clear because of an emotion.

Thin -  High and unpleasant to listen to.

Throaty - Low and seems to come from deep in your throat.

Tight - Shows that you are nervous or annoyed.

Toneless - Does not express any emotion.

Tremulous - It is not steady because you are afraid or excited.

Wheezy - Has difficulty breathing.

Wobbly - Unstable tone due to fright or emotions.

Writing vs Storytelling Skills: Improving Storytelling

Though “writing skill” is often used to refer to all aspects of story crafting, it can be divided into ‘storytelling concepts’ and the ‘actual writing’. Addressed in the previous post: Writing vs Storytelling Skills (link embedded), now I’m here to tell you how to work on that specific storytelling skill.

1. Read a variety of books. Various authors, various genres, the more you expand your examples the better. Variation of reading means you’ll be exposed to more ideas, more ways of thought, more storytelling patterns, more everything that you can critique and help make decisions on how your own stories will unfold. Even take up books you may not like. Give them a chance, and if you still don’t like them then at least be able to explain why.

2. Learn genre expectations (and that tropes aren’t bad). Genres exist to classify stories into familiar concepts. Sometimes, novice writers try to throw out genre ideas because they’re all “cliche” or they want “something different”, yet they fail to grasp why those patterns exist in the first place. Familiar storytelling concepts (tropes) can be cliches, yes, but more often they fulfill one or more of these requirements:

A way to fast-track info to the reader without having to explain every ounce of meaning (Color-coded symbolism, character archetypes, etc.)

To create a familiar base, allowing for further growth of the concept with less time than it would have taken to set up something new. 

Promises to fulfill a certain type of story (You can’t say you want to write a romance, but with no romance)

Those things only become cliche when executed poorly or if they cause predictability when the story is trying to rely on unpredictability. A story full of tropes is not automatically a bad story. Writing in a way that subverts expectations well requires having a strong understanding of the genre you’re trying to twist. A genre is a promise of a specific type of narrative– you can’t just throw it out the window and expect readers to be satisfied. It’s fine to write cross-genre or mess with tropes, but be wary of it coming from a place of “it’s all the same so I’m going to do it completely different!”.

By learning genre expectations, you can gain that knowledge that lets you subvert better, or the knowledge to play into it better. You can figure out where the true heart of the stories are and why readers care. You can figure out how to write in a genre that works with your personal goals and desires for the story. 

3. Learn best practices for different storytelling mediums. “I saw this awesome scene on TV and I want to write it in my story, so I imagined how it’s going to play out and it’ll be perfect!” No, it won’t, because what works in visual media isn’t the same for books and what works in your head isn’t a clear idea of how it would work on paper. (link embedded)

TV, and other forms of visual media, are presented very differently than the written word. They can rely on music, camera angles, subtle background events– and endless list of things that writing cannot replicate and isn’t made to. Becoming a better storyteller means learning the strengths and weaknesses of different media so you can tailor stories to best fit how they’ll be told. The imagination is similar to visual media, but better and worse. Better, because you can learn over time how to tailor your imagination for the written word. Worse, because it can create unrealistic expectations and is harder to look past.

It’s natural to want to mimic what you see in other forms of storytelling, but one of the most important things a writer can learn is to get over the fact that they can’t translate ideas in every situation. It’s fine to be inspired by other forms of storytelling and what your imagination creates, but don’t become a slave to the unrealistic expectations. Learn to work with the paper, not against it.

4. Stress test plot ideas to catch issues before they become a problem. While this isn’t going to always work and there will still be times that you have to adjust in the middle of things, stress testing your ideas can help teach you where you keep going wrong so you can work on fixing it. There are two main things to keep in mind when doing this:

The plot structure (link embedded): Overarching plot concepts should fit into a specific structure. The structure can have small variations, but there should be an average line of best fit that naturally overlays against the story. The higher your skill, the more you can mess with the lines and have it not blow up in your face.

Plot is essentially cause-and-effect (link embedded): The events of a plot should be a relatively smooth slide from start to finish. Not “smooth” as in “no conflict or tension”, “smooth” as in “logically glides from one point to another”. Make sure you can connect the dots.

If you catch and fix enough of your own mistakes then you can start teaching yourself not to make them. 

5. Critique the storytelling of others. What did you like? What didn’t you like? What choices did the writer make and what were the consequences of those choices? I’m going to repeat that last one again because it’s one of the most important things a writer can learn: Every story is made from a set of choices and those choices have consequences. Not all bad, not all good; it’s a neutral term that just refers to outcomes. One of the biggest separators of storytelling skill is how well a writer can work with the natural consequences of their choices. 

When you critique others, you look at those consequences and weigh them against what you consider to be a “good story”. While a writer can only critique at a close level to their skill, the more they critique, the higher skill climbs, and the better they get. To become a better storyteller, you should get used to tearing other’s, and your own, work apart. It can help to keep a journal or some kind of record of critiques, since writing thoughts down helps bridge the gap between the mind’s assumptions and reality (just like the bridge between an imagined scene and actually writing it down).

6. Brush up on literary concepts. They’re not just for English class! While some are more technical in nature, there are plenty of storytelling-inclined literary techniques that gaining a better understanding of can improve your own work. Also, literary concepts are just tropes that happen to apply to “work of literary merit”. They’re not fancy or pretentious to include– just study and practice them well so they work with your story rather than against it. (Study tropes too!)

All that said, there’s no such thing as a “perfect storyteller”. Brushing up on storytelling skills isn’t about being perfect, it’s about getting better relative to where you were before (and potentially helping close the gap between writing and storytelling skills). 

Keep writing, keep practicing– keep storytelling.

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Got to save up energy and coins

Brave Heart

Fandom: Samurai Love Ballad: PARTY

Pairing: Hideyoshi/MC, Kojuro/MC (broken relationship)

Summary: Hideyoshi is curious about his newest retainer’s wife. The one who traveled alone across lands to be with him. He realizes, over time, that his curiosity might be turning into something else, something familiar.

Words: 2198

Tags: broken marriage, angst (?)

A/N: This is something I started after having finished Kojuro’s Act 2 and hence, has spoilers for his Act 2. Originally planned as a smut/angst fic, it now lies incomplete and rots within my WIPs.

Putting this out here because of Mitsunari’s Act 2 now. I wanted to write something for Hideyoshi, dark cape Lord of my heart. Someday, I’ll finish this… I think.

Might take it down later when I’ve stopped sobbing over Mitsunari’s Act 2.

Unedited as well, so please excuse the errors.

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Hideyoshi had no other word for her except that she was a hindrance. An anomaly he hadn’t predicted; couldn’t have predicted. She was a mere chink within his Kojuro’s perfect armour, albeit a small one but a defect nonetheless.

Kojuro’s frosty denial of a relationship between them had been enough to confirm his suspicions. She was important to him, perhaps in the very capacity she had so confidently declared when she had first met him; the conjugal bond between them, however, swiftly betrayed as soon as the news had reached her said husband’s ears.

Hideyoshi couldn’t exactly pinpoint what exactly it was about her that had caught his gaze - more than anything had in a long while.

It hadn’t been blatant interest but rather, a flickering curiosity that had taken him, as he had looked down upon her kneeling form, her quivering lips pressed into a firm line as she had lifted her head to meet his eyes.

It had been a look lacking of any remorse or fear that had taken her features as she had gazed at him. It was not the way enemies looked upon him with defiance in every line of their bodies, but with a quiet sort of strength that refused to be moulded, pierced through him as he stared into her quivering eyes.

She hadn’t shed a single tear as might have been expected of another samurai’s noble wife; back straight with no hesitance in her, even as he had requested of her – no, she had known it was a command, even delivered with his usual easy smile – to serve him as his page.

It had been a split second decision on his part, and that was an unusual thing for Hideyoshi, to not tread carefully wherever was possible.

He would later convince himself into believing he had acted as such in order to prevent Kojuro and his wife from being together, lest she take away more of him with her.

Keep reading

I am X, god of all evil NPCs.

😈😈😈😈

I am Arran, god of the most important thing

EDIT: if y'all don’t wanna use your name use your username

To anyone curious...it's actually 5k+ (checkpoint from somewhere between Chap 2 or 3 not sure) But once you finish Ep.6 you will be asked 23,800points to unlock Chapter 7.

Anyone playing Yasu Act 2?

How many Skill Points do I need to finish Episode 6? Thank you 😀

😭😭

“Everywhere you will find that the wealth of the wealthy springs from the poverty of the poor.”

— Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread

Summary:

He is a noble samurai, she is just a lowly maid. For all intents and purposes, she could only watch her lord from afar, serving him as his maid, not harboring any forms of desire for him..Knowing his character, he could easily marry a lot of beautiful ladies and frankly, she doesn’t want to be in that difficult situation where she had to share him...So, even if he is unmarried, even though she was secretly in love with him, she can only swallow her feelings inside.

Inspired from "A Date with Tsunamoto" a story from Grand Samurai Street Fair. NO SMUT.