fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4095 ]

[ SECRET POST #4095 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4095 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 12 secrets from Secret Submission Post #586.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Because I need some advice.

Has anyone ever wrote a fic from the POV of someone mentally unstable, and if so, are there any specific pieces of advice you can give?

This character is a villain and a sociopath. I've written him before. But not in this particular period of his life, a period where he becomes completely unhinged. And I find I'm struggling more to write his perspective. Arrogant, sadistic villain I can write. Villain who isn't always even sure why he does things anymore and whose mind keeps shifting to the past and who is completely reveling in pain and death at the same time he's feeling completely lost and alone and broken? That I'm having a hard time with.

Well, what is it about this that you find difficult to write? Is it challenging to make an asshole have feelings and sensitive moments, or do you have concerns that if you write him as a complex individual, it will give the impression his horrible behavior is in some way justified?

No, it's the mental instability that I'm struggling with. I want to write his mind as rather fractured and wandering. But I'm having a hard time doing that.

It might depend on the reason(s) for him becoming unhinged, I guess? Does he have everything, only to have it all ripped away? Is he just in a downward spiral? Is it one of those existential crisis things?

How does he feel when "reason(s)" occur? Does he have a burning desire for revenge, or is he in a frequent state of IDGAF? Maybe a little bit of both? Is he fixated on something/someone he lost? Is it something he forgets a little bit over time? Does he just get a sort of "high" from doing bad things, maybe a little more each time?

If it's difficult going back and forth, maybe having an occasional trigger/reminder of who he used to be or what he lost could help it along. Depending on what it is, he might even use it as justification (in his mind, of course) for the way he's becoming. Or, quite possibly, it could shame him into doing what he can to forget. Again, it depends... I'm not sure how much of it could apply to your guy.

Very definately both. Burning desire for revenge, but also frequently in IDGAF mode. And also fixated on someone he lost. And yes, I do think he has always gotten a high from doing evil things, but even more so once he's lost everything (and also through magical means enhanced the worst parts of himself).

You could do very distracted, moving from one thing to the next and then back again. Short, choppy thoughts can help convey that.

You can do obsessive thoughts, whatever he's trying to do, he keeps coming back to something.

You can do a sort of spiraling stream-of-consciousness and it can be a bit of both, it can start out sort of coherent, but get less so as it goes on.

Agreed. A lot of different thoughts interjectng could be done by way of hyphens or parentheticals, italics or new short grafs.

Good ideas, but I can see this getting real old, real quick if there's a lot from this character's POV.

I need some advice on an Agents of SHIELD fic. Spoilers for aired episodes:

So, I want to write a story where the first half is May/Coulson basically spending a week wrapped up in bedsheets making up for lost time with a bit of amputation angst/kink.

But I want the second half to be Coulson & Yo-Yo having a heart to heart about disability and the ways they can - and can't - relate to each other. In my head, it's all one story, but I'm afraid each half will alienate readers who would be into the other half.

Is that dumb? Or likely?

Not dumb at all. I think you maybe might want to keep the fic from Coulson's POV. That would connect the two halves more.

Wellllll...the first chapter that's already written is May observing his weirdness about taking the arm off after it starts shorting out and ends with her initiating some lovin'...that gets picked up in the second (mostly unwritten) chapter from Coulson's POV and remains throughout. Guess I'll just finish it and see how it shakes out, thanks.

To flesh it out a little, you could try to loop back to May and Coulson through a conflict and resolution. Yo-Yo and Coulson's interaction and Coulson's personal experience of both situations can still have an equal balance, but it might feel more finished and cohesive that way?

For example:

Coulson and May reunite, it's intense/happy/whatever but there are some things Coulson is avoiding talking or thinking about, and it causes him to distance himself.

He talks with Yo-Yo and through the course of their interaction he comes to a better understanding or acceptance within himself and maybe the other character relates something personal that Coulson can then apply to his own life and relationships.

May and Coulson reunite again with less urgency, but more emotional intimacy.

It's kind of set up so that May is the catalyst for Coulson realizing he never *really* came to terms with losing a limb, which then sends him to Yo-Yo whose loss is still fresh. I was planning to have her be really insecure and angry about how helpless and dependent on other people she feels. By it's nature, that has to touch on the Mack/Yo-Yo relationship. I guess that would be a good time to loop May back into the conversation...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #4095 ]

Writing thread

Re: Writing thread

Re: Writing thread

Re: Writing thread

Re: Writing thread

Re: Writing thread

Let's see.

Re: Let's see.

Re: Let's see.

Re: Writing thread - mixed genre-ish

Re: Writing thread - mixed genre-ish

Re: Writing thread - mixed genre-ish

Re: Writing thread - mixed genre-ish

Re: Writing thread - mixed genre-ish