Id Be Alarmingly Good At This

I’d be alarmingly good at this

the employees: WHERE did you get that lockpick set that is NOT one of the props

me: wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy

Escape rooms exist but we’re all sleeping on the concept of a break-in room.

Within 50 minutes you and your group have to break into a room and steal something valuable. Themes include: 

The White House

Art museum 

Jewelry store

Best Buy 

Your ex’s apartment (where they have embarrassing and/or incriminating photos of you)

Rival scientist’s lab 

CEO’s summer home

Area 51

Looks like I did everything wrong :(

Five Tips for Running a Circus (Handling a Large Cast of Characters)

Have you ever tried juggling? I have, and I’m terrible at it. To be honest, sometimes writing with a large number of characters can be a lot like juggling. As the author, we need to keep one character’s story moving while keeping all the others in the air, too. This can be really tricky. So how do we do this?

Make each character count. When you are creating your characters, ask yourself how important this character is to the story. If you definitely need them and they are big enough to be named, then make sure you treat him or her like any other important character. Make the character relatable, engaging to the reader, and have an emotional connection. Give them a specific job or purpose to the story.

Take your time introducing new characters. Not only will this help the reader to keep your large cast straight, but it will also help them to forge that all-important emotional connection to the person (or creature or object etc.). Try not to introduce them all at once. It’s overwhelming and doesn’t help your story. If it feels like you have no other way to introduce them, try asking for an outside opinion (Beta readers).

Focus on a few. I’ll come back to this a little in the last point. Basically, make sure that you are still focusing on your major characters and not becoming side-tracked with all the other characters. Also make sure that you are spending the most time with these characters… don’t stay away from them for too long (30-40 pages without one is too much). If you don’t have enough to say with that character, it might be an indication to downgrade them to minor.

Be careful with naming. This is true regardless of the number of characters in your story. I once named a pair of twins Garan and Gwylan (in my long ago high school days) only to realize that they were almost impossible to tell apart. And they needed to be identifiable. Another example was in my current query, I had two groups of djinn: the Candrima and Candrani. I couldn’t even keep them straight, and I wrote them! I ended up cutting the name for the Candrima. But this same principle applies especially here. If your characters’ names are too similar, they will become indistinguishable from one another and only serve to confuse the reader and slow the pace.

Be careful with how many POVs (points of view) you use. While it may seem like a good idea to let every character have their fifteen minutes, it’s not. Too many points of view can be frustrating and confusing to the audience. This is especially true in young adult and younger stories, where publishers often encourage authors to stick to two or fewer major POVs due to the age range of the intended audience. Check into how many are typically acceptable in your genre and age range. And remember, authors like George R. R. Martin can be exceptions to the rules, so learn what is expected so that you are able to decide whether to stick with it or break them with intention.

So there you have it! Five tips for juggling large casts of characters. That being said, how many of you are struggling with this? How many of you are writing many characters in your current work? I’d love to hear about it, so send me an ask or reblog with comments!

And the clones! Rex, Cody, Fives, Echo, Jesse-all better than the confederates.

star wars: the clone wars technically lasted longer than the confederacy. i propose confederate monuments be torn down and replaced with statues of ahsoka.

GOD’S A FUCKING GLYPTODON 

Idk how I hadn't seen this yet, BUT

Proper introduction, I guess

Hi everyone! This is technically a writrblr now, and I’ve bothered you guys with memes about my characters without context for ages, so I guess I’d better give you a proper introduction to my manuscript 

I’ve got three active WIPs, though one is in the editing stage and one is barely started. 

The WIPs are:

1. Dungeons and Dipshits (AKA Magical Maniacs), a high-fantasy story that goes off the rails about a quarter of the way in-this one is barely started

2. The Making of Romeo and Juliet: by Verona City High, a modern retelling of romeo and juliet but also macbeth and also much ado about nothing and also hamlet, kind of (this one’s a movie and its first draft is done)

3. The Guild of Useless Superheroes (AKA Blood-Pink.), a superhero story about a bunch of people who probably shouldn’t be superheroes (This one is my main focus as of now). 

This blog right now is going to mostly catalogue the third one. 

You can find my characters masterlist here and a brief summary here. 

OH FUCK WRONG BLOG

@rainbowcoloreddays do I have to tag you again? I’ll do it just to be sure.

Have a scene were the forces of good are rallied by a big epic speech but done in the style of that one Superwholock “grab your wands!” tumblr post.