Faust-the-plague - Crime Scene Instigator

“what that mouth do” gnaw on bone and chew through ligaments

Tips from a Beta Reading Writer

This one's for the scenes with multiple characters, and you're not sure how to keep everyone involved.

Writing group scenes is chaos. Someone’s talking, someone’s interrupting, someone’s zoning out thinking about breadsticks. And if you’re not careful, half your cast fades into the background like NPCs in a video game. I used to struggle with this so much—my characters would just exist in the scene without actually affecting it. But here’s what I've learned and have started implementing:

✨ Give everyone a job in the scene ✨

Not their literal job—like, not everyone needs to be solving a crime or casting spells. I mean: Why are they in this moment? What’s their role in the conversation?

My favourite examples are:

The Driver: Moves the convo forward. They have an agenda, they’re pushing the action.

The Instigator: Pokes the bear. Asks the messy questions. Stirring the pot like a chef on a mission.

The Voice of Reason: "Guys, maybe we don’t commit arson today?"

The Distracted One: Completely in their own world. Tuning out, doodling on a napkin, thinking about their ex.

The Observer: Not saying much, but noticing everything. (Quiet characters still have presence!)

The Wild Card: Who knows what they’ll do? Certainly not them. Probably about to make things worse.

If a character has no function, they’ll disappear. Give them something—even if it’s just a side comment, a reaction, or stealing fries off someone’s plate. Keep them interesting, and your readers will stay interested too.

soooo limbus company, eh canto iv spoilers under the cut

Obligatory Gregor doodle because he deserves one from me too 🌟

THERE IS. a website. that takes 3D models with seams and pulls it apart to make a plushie pattern and informs you where things need to be edited or darts added for the best effect. and then it lets you scale it and print off your pattern. and I want to lose my MIND because I've lost steam halfway through so many plushie patterns in the mind numbing in betweens of unwrapping, copying all of the meshes down as pieces, transferring those, testing them, then finding obvious tweaks... like... this would eradicate 99% of my trial and error workflow for 3D models to plushies & MAYBE ILL FINALLY FINISH SCREAMTAIL...

H͎o͎w͎ ͎m͎u͎c͎h͎ ͎f͎o͎r͎ ͎a͎ ͎t͎e͎a͎r͎ ͎f͎r͎o͎m͎ ͎t͎h͎e͎ ͎t͎y͎r͎a͎n͎t͎?͎

drew these gregs + physically shipped them out for some mutuals n they both got them finally 👍

Could it be... a new Sinner??

Haha just kidding, only a bunch of fake Ratched sprites I made of his default ID and two mirrors. Please say something nice, so maybe I'll do Hyde next, or some EGOs for him too, because I've definitely had too much fun with crafting these ✨

Just a silly little chibi doodle of my favorite old people (Ratched and Winston) 🤍

Winston is in Ratched's custody to help her deal with the paranoia. Of course she likes her hegemonic therapist, why wouldn't she?--

Winston belongs to @faust-the-plague