Sophia Pt. 2

heya! could you continue the prompt where the hero and villain had revealed their relationship to the public? im super curious as to what happens next!

Hmm, *looks back and forth between stranger and Villain with a knife in my hand* … What does happen next? Oh, OH! Yes, I has an idea.

Wait I messed up! Here’s the previous post.

Hero rushed to the hallway to find Villain rolling around the floor with a stranger, and it was clear by the pain on the Villain’s face that they were hurt, straining to keep a secondary knife from falling down onto their face.

Hero snapped. Weeks of pressure, anger, and fear finally curdled together and met their breaking point. They ran at the stranger and tackled them away from their lover. They were on top and managed to snatch the knife from their blood-soaked hands. Everything seemed to slow around them, for a terrifyingly numb moment, they were without morals. The knife went down into their right shoulder and the stranger cried out in pain. Hero twisted it relentlessly.

“Leave us alone!” Hero screamed down into their face, the final word was drawn out and as loud as they could manage. It was only after that outburst that the red curtain came away, drained out of them, and Hero realised what they’d done… how much worse it could have been. They felt a hand grab onto their arm and realised it was Villain, trying to stop them from hurting them anymore.

“It’s okay,” Villain managed, “Breathe.” As quickly as it came, it was gone. Hero threw themselves away from the stranger, trying to scamper back from the blood on their hands. The blood. The blood! They couldn’t look away, couldn’t think straight. What had they just done?!

“S.See!” The stranger stammered, “They’re turning you into a monster.”

“The only monster here is me, and you’d best get out here before I have to drag you inside and demonstrate,” Villain snapped.

The stranger dragged themselves to their feet and ran down the street as best they could.

Villain winced and tried to take a deep breath before slowly getting to their feet. Their face drooped with nausea, but their heart sank seeing Hero. They had their knees close to their body head in their hands and they were yanking at their hair. Their breathing was uneven and tears flowed freely amongst their shallow breaths and hiccups. 

Tucking away their pain as best they could, Villain approached Hero and out a hand on their cheek. “It’s okay. It’s okay, shh… We’ve got CCTV if he tries to lie. It was self-defence. You can’t get in trouble for that. Deep breaths, please try to take some deep breaths.”

Villain took Hero’s bloodied hand and pressed it against their chest. They could feel Villain’s chest rising and falling, fast, but deep even breaths. The only problem was, they didn’t know how much longer they could keep it up. Their own wound was bleeding badly and the initial numbness was quickly wearing off. When the stranger had first attacked, Villain managed to swat it away, but the stranger managed to plunge it into their left side.

Hero seemed calmer, to at least have their breathing under control. “Listen, sweetheart. I really need you to keep your head. We need to go, and I’m bleeding. Can you go upstairs and get me the first aid kit and the money out of our room? Bring them back here, then ring [Henchman] for me. Ask them to drive here and get us.”

“I can’t just run away from this…” Hero moaned.

“You’re going to have to. Either way, the first aid kit, come on, focus for me.”

Hero shook themselves out of it and the severity of what they’d said clicked into place. They saw the wound on Villain’s side and suddenly rushed upstairs on all fours to get it. Villain fell back and leaned against the wall. Breathe, they reminded themselves. It looked like Hero and Villain were going to have to help each other out of this mess. And for what? All because some group of insignificant strangers decided they didn’t like the fact Villain had found someone to care about, and now they were hurting Hero.

It was pushing them far too close to Villainy again, and if they kept pushing, Villain was going to make the entire city drop to its knees in fear. They would not hurt Hero.

hi grandma! i’ve written most of my story, but i skipped over the fight scene in the middle bc i was struggling with writing it. do you have any tips for writing fight scenes?

Hi anon!

Ah, fight scenes.

Don't try to focus too much on descriptions of every move in the fight. Writing is not a visual art form and putting too much emphasis on how the characters are moving their bodies (or weapons) will take too much emphasis off why they are fighting. In visual art, like movies, they can use music/facial expressions/lighting to create an atmosphere that keeps you in the moment of why the characters are fighting.

Also, visually? Fights are exciting.

I do have some tips for writing -

Beneath this cut is violence/blood.

Pick your words wisely Why are they fighting? Desperation? Anger? Fear? If you're fighting out of desperation, like a fight for your life then you'd pick words to convey that sense of absolute urgency. Your descriptions would focus on how close you are to losing and your character would always be trying to either get away or end the fight as fast as possible. If anger, your concentrate is like a rage and your words would feel/sound violent and their concentrate is on destroying what they're up against. Etc.

Use the length of your sentences to convey the pacing of your fight. For a fast, desperate fight you would either use shorter sentences or longer ones with short clauses conveying a lot of action. For slower fights, you can throw in more introspection and use sentences as normal.

Keep track of limbs and injuries If someone has been stabbed in the left arm, that's now a weakness. The fight should be changed because of it. Also, nothing worse than finishing your fight scene, getting ready to pat yourself on the back and realizing you gave Bertidude the Bouncer 3 arms.

Create a sense of space for yourself before you start writing or your fight will get out of hand. Unless they're on a literal meadow, there's almost always obstacles and boundaries to your fight.

An example of a fast, desperate fight:

(WHEN I STARTED WRITING THIS I DIDN'T INTEND DOMESTIC ASSAULT BUT IT HAPPENED SO TW: DOMESTIC ASSAULT)

The sting of the first hit hadn't even faded off her face before he was rearing his arm back to strike again. There weren't many options, with his other hand fisted in her jacket and her back up against the wall. He was expecting nothing of her but what he'd always gotten, a meek acceptance of the things he did to her. He wasn't guarding himself, he wasn't braced for attack, he was set to hit her until his arm got tired. But he'd forgotten the knife in her hand, from the vegetables he'd insisted she chop. He'd forgotten it, she'd forgotten it, until the fast-fast beat of her heart felt like it was jumping into her throat and the paralyzing reality that she fought now or she fought never. He wasn't and she wasn't expecting how the knife seemed to quiver in her fist, how the tip of the blade must have struck a bone, how it vibrated up her arm and up his. His fist tightened reflexively and then loosened. He hit he'd aimed for her face landed against the wall. He was gasping, stuck like a pig, leaning into her space, staring down how she was staring down at the slimy string of blood running over her fingers.

Short, fast clauses, a bit of repetition, it was a short fight so far but someone has been stabbed.

A slower, chill fight:

A gentleman provided the opportunity for his opponent to make an ass of himself. Bertitude was nothing if he was not a gentleman, and that was why he had not so much as lifted his arms in attempt to defend himself. Not that there would be much need to defend himself from the jumpy little man shifting his weight from foot to foot in front of him. While most civilized men who found themselves engaging in fisticuffs had the good sense not to use the moves they learned from video games, this clown before him seemed to be doing his best to imitate the character selection screen of a street fighting game. God help them all if he tried for an uppercut, or this whole fight was going to end before it started. Bertie's mother had always told him not to hit a stupid person because they couldn't afford to lose the brain cells. Still, by the time this rabbit of a man finally closed the gap between them, the crowd had gone quiet for lack of gleeful anticipation. They knew, how Bertie knew, that it wouldn't take much more than a solid thump on the head to knock this man flat. He was torn between letting him get a shot in and putting him out of his misery. He hadn't quite decided when the wee bunny man jabbed him in the chest with his fists one after another. A lack of training, experience and sense to be humiliated by himself rendered the attempt to punch him an utter failure. Bertie was practically performing a civil service, punching the restless chipmunk man in the face hard enough to send him falling over backward. He hit the concrete with a spattering of metal sounds, all the bits and bobs attached to his jacket making a ruckus of a noise. The only sound he made was a groan (and not of embarrassment) that could barely be heard over the crowd leisurely working its way back inside.

WriterofthePrompts Ultimate Ask Masterlist 2

Wow, first of all I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the support on the First Ask Masterlist! Obviously I had to make a second one with all the asks I’ve answered since then so here you go. As last time, some of these posts have notes from lovely people who have added onto my answers with their advice and you can also help out fellow writers by adding your tips or ideas to the posts in the replies or by reblogging. Hope you enjoy! 😊

Writing Tips

Writing unnecessary scenes with your characters just for fun

The “organized chaos” form of outlining

Resources for writing a story synopsis

Can a comedy also have a good message?

Writing a fantasy fit for most ages (also under Fantasy)

When you’ve got an idea but don’t know how to expand it

Building on your story yourself  

Will posting writing online hurt publishing chances?

Using a prompt for a series

Story Structure Tips

Travelling scenes: when to skip and how to make them impactful

Moving back and forth in time in the story

difference between inciting incident and plot point 1

Blending backstory with present to further the plot

Writing scenes with a lot of characters

Writing a story as a journal or video log style

Third or first person?

Motivation and Positivity

Worrying about “originality” with your writing

Staying focused on writing

Turning off the editor voice

starting to write and keeping motivation

quick tip on writing down inspiration in the moment

Character Development

Tips for writing a fully-fledged peppy girl

Teen raised by twenty-year-old family member

Mentor/Mentee relationship

Describing nature the way a nature-lover would

Showing a dead family member’s impact on the MC

Writing about a character losing loved one

Ways to give information to a character

Why the “White Saviour” thing is a cliche and sucks

Villains who do things like “killing the dog”

Good and bad reasons to kill off a character

Writing Types of Characters

Writing a good guy MC who turns out to be the villain

Bad guy turning good and making them sympathetic

Dr. Doof: how to write a great villain

A character raised by a computer

Bilingual character tip

Interracial couples

Some negative traits for someone in a zombie apocalypse

a character trying to learn the language on a new world (also under World Building)

Good guy vs bad guy stories aren’t a cliche

Writing a CIA/FBI/Military character (also under Thriller)

writing a drunk character with some heartfelt moments and humour

World Building

Creating a creation myth

History research post

Making an acronym from an organization

strange weather ideas

ideas for ridiculous rules to join an excuse club

Why someone would put on a massive tournament

a character trying to learn the language on a new world (also under Types of Characters)

Fantasy/Paranormal

Why gods would abandon their world

Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Ares: the original love triangle

basing gods on multiple gods

Why someone would control dreams

Dark fantasy with a dream shop

Writing a fantasy fit for most ages (also under Writing Tips)

Vampire and human couple meeting

Angel and ex-demon hanging out together

Ways to break the curse to get the Prince out of the tower

Prince/ss of one kingdom raised by another king

why a princess would run away

which fairytales deserve retellings

mythical kids meeting humans

Sword fight resources

demons that feed on love and joy?

Haunted house story from ghost’s perspective

Does the afterlife have to include religious aspects?

Thriller/Crime (aka I-swear-I’m-not-a-criminal-just-a-writer asks):

writing assassins

Clues that would make a character suspect another for murder

Writing a CIA/FBI/Military character (also under Types of Characters)

Serial/mass murder…causes?

Quick reasons why genocide doesn’t just happen

tests to get into secret organization

Superheroes

Sidekick wanting to be a superhero

Super villain cause ideas

Sidekick and villain falling in love (also under Romance)

Superhero story originality

Romance

How a princess and a pirate fall in love

two exes who end up working together

How two random kids could meet at school

Sidekick and villain falling in love (also under Superheroes)

Miscellaneous

Prompts about being abandoned

Character who has never danced in pressured into it

Futuristic space pirates

The best ask ever

Professional screamer

So that was an interesting 4 minutes of a staring contest

What I liked about it was the subtlety, cuz we’re used to somewhat spotable things right? But This was all character and expression work

I mean look at this

That change from kinda nice, a small twitch and then we have a not so nice boi looking at us. If that’s not amazing idk what it.

Cuz nothing indicated a change in character apart from that twitch. And like clockwork we immediately knew what was going on, at this point were trained to know on sight what’s going on.

And his words to us, telling us we HAVE to know what happens, WE have to watch to the end. Not because he wants us to, but because we need to see what happens. He’s got us figured out too, and that means we ain’t in control like we think.

We may think we are, but then again if a puppet can’t see the strings it wouldn’t know it was a puppet…

(via meanboysclub)

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“We’re not free,” They whispered. “We never were.”

It’s hard to keep your friend’s channel running when you’re exhausted and he just won’t wake up, you know? Slip ups might happen.