Scribbled Fiction

We haven't done a list in a while! Let's do another, shall we? Seeing as how we seem to have the same three girl characters over and over again in stories anymore, let's look at some unique tropes that I don't see nearly enough. * Redheads, especially redheads that aren't Balls of Fire™ Girl characters who are tough but don't hate on children or girly things, it's just not their thing. They admire other girls who do such things, but it's just not for them. Ones who wear skirts?? Where are my girls who like wearing skirts? Girl heroes who wear glasses and find a way to work with the glasses in order to fight rather than just not wearing them(because bro you will be blind, plz save yourself) Girls who exist without any kind of trauma. I love angst, I really love angst, but it's nice sometimes just to see characters who are living life without trauma. The whole Broken Girl trope can be a little overdone. Girls who care, really care, about other people. ...

This is about to be your new favorite thing. I'm currently watching through Once Upon A Time with my sister, and I couldn't help but notice- Snow and Charming have a certain... something about the way they see everything. It's all 'love wins' and 'it'll be all right, I know it' and 'I believe in you'. It really grabbed my attention. I was about to label it as just standard character angst, but it wasn't. It was like angst, but... in the other direction, you know? I'm calling it light angst. As in, like angst but the other way. The opposite side of the spectrum. The other extreme, if you will. While regular angst, or 'dark angst' as we'll call it so we can tell them apart for the post, is a dedication to believing that everything is terrible, tragic, empty, you know the gist. Picture the opposite of that, and you have light angst. Unashamed, open dedication to the belief that everything is okay and will turn out for the better ...

Whether you recognize the term or not, we all know the trope of the single-trait character. These guys show up at least once in every book, movie, and TV show, and they're useful because they fill up space and they're easily identified. A single-trait character is someone who appears in a story and is recognized/identified by (you guessed it) a single, solitary trait. The tall one. The loud one. The one who loves soccer. Characters such as these are useful as background characters, and they're easy to tell apart because they each only have one characteristic to be remembered by. Aside from Jamie, none of the kids in Rise of the Guardians strictly have  any deep characteristics, but since we were already dealing with such a large cast of  characters,  none of the kids strictly *needed* a complex personality . Now, before we go into how to use a single-trait character, let's first talk about how not to use a single-trait character. As always, this isn't necessarily wr...

I first noticed this whole thing while watching Avatar: The Last Airbender(also known as one of the best written shows I've ever seen). Specifically, I noticed something about Prince Zuko, the antiheroic, morally ambiguous ex-prince who is chasing down for Aang most of the show. Granted, Zuko is AngstBoi extraordinaire, but something about him was just. . . different. Better. Even the way the artists made him move and pose seemed somehow more true to life than the other characters. And that's when I first started noticing all the stuff that I'm going to talk about today. I think he definitely looked his best when he had hair like this. Antiheroes are written to be attractive. Deep in our minds, we already know that antiheroes are the cool ones, the favorites, so when we write our own, that's how they come out on the page. But there's even more than that. Antiheroes are also written in a more realistic light than most of the other characters, especially if the antihe...

 I've written very few girl protagonists. No, it's true. If you were to look at the list of all the protagonists I've written, the list of girls would be much shorter than the guys. Even when I think about my latest WIP, it's pretty guy-heavy. Let's take a look, shall we? Jack, Thief's Son : The protagonist is Jack, a guy, and the villain is a guy. Javi and the Boats in the Sky (2018), has a boy as the protagonist.  NaNoWriMo 2017, Spectacular:  Guy protagonist. Robbing Centaurs and Other Bad Ideas (2019): Not one, but 2  guys as the protagonists. In addition, the mentor is a guy, and most of the main characters are guys too, something that I'm trying to fix, because I want more girls in there. Why do I write so many boys, you ask? *scratches head* Honestly I'm not sure. That's what I'm here to explore. Honestly, I couldn't even figure out all these reasons by myself, so I had my sister discuss with me. Thanks, Rach, you're the best. <...

Time to talk about another one of my favorite tropes! This time it's the Rabble King, another trope that may already have a name but I named anyway. For the record, I'm pretty sure I had a better name for this trope, but I forgot what it was, so we're going with the Rabble King. So who is the Rabble King? The Rabble King is a trope I've been noticing more in some of my favorite stories. In essence, he's a subgenre of the anti-villain trope. He's normally one from the underbelly of society, and he runs his own kind of kingdom. Some rabble kings own casinos, some run pubs, some just have a bunch of lackeys that do things for them, but they normally tend to be in charge of somebody. (Let me quickly clarify that while I'm using the word 'he' for this post, the Rabble King can also be a she.) Another strong trait of the Rabble King is his morality. The Rabble King doesn't care about sides. He'll just assist whoever can afford to pay him more. He a...

I got here to preview this post before I published it, only to discover that I had written the list and nothing else! No intro, no elaboration, no wrapup. I shake my head in my own self-disappointment. Ah well, here I am now, a little late but here anyway! I like it when characters have skills. Even if the skills aren't super important to the plot. I don't think they have to be important, so long as the character has them. It just provides a little extra intrigue and a little extra well-roundedness to the character. Not to mention, who knows if they'll be useful in the future! So here's a list of random skills your character can have. If you have any other ideas that I didn't include here, let me know what they are in the comments! Maybe I'll do a part 2. Random cool skills for characters: Wood carving Drawing Painting Oil Pastels Knot Tying Sailing Fencing Playing Spoons Beatboxing Street Drummer Knows random trivia Customizes clothes/Tailor Memorizes stuff eas...

Hey look another tag that nobody technically tagged me in! But I was looking for blog post ideas and was sent this one by Nicole , so I will thank her anyway. Thanks, Nicole! I owe you one.  I have no other words in my brain, so here we go! Las Reglas parra Tag: Regla Uno:  Thank the blogger who tagged you and provide a link to their post. (see above) Regla Dos: Answer the inquires, including any added ones by means of "Regla Seis". Regla Tres:  Always  use your own characters. No exception, unless you don't actually have sibling characters (in which case you need to go write up some) or you don't write (in which case you need to start ASAP). Regla Quatro: Tag three other bloggers. Regla Cinco: If you happen to have any siblings who blog, they are automatically tagged and cannot count towards your three. Regla Seis: Add one question or prompt to the list of questions the person before you answered relating to siblings and/or characters. Answer the...

Ah, Eddie Brock. Look, if you didn't enjoy Venom, we need to have a serious talk. Because that movie was amazing, even if the trailers were totally false advertizing from beginning to end. Sure, it could have been spruced up in a couple small ways, but ultimately I think it was an amazing movie and I am always in the right mood to watch Venom. I think one of the primary reasons why I loved the movie so much was because of Eddie Brock. That guy was a fantastically written character and actually had a lot more depth than I expected?? (also are we going to talk about how Tom Hardy's American accent sounds more realistic than his actual, real-life British accent? I don't get it.) So if you don't mind, I'm about to gush about Eddie Brock and pretend it's a real post(jk it's a real post, plz don't leave :|  ) Always wants to do what's right(to a fault) If I had to describe Eddie's character at the bare minimum, I'd just say that he wants to do what...

I haven't done a list post in a while, and this isn't exactly a list post, not like  A List of Quirks To Give Your Character  or  Subtle Details You Can Add To Your Character's Look , but I think all of these things need a little more attention and a little more representation in stories. So without further ado, let's go! Platonic relationships I can't stress this enough. People can be friends. Just friends. They don't have to get romantically involved. People can care about one another and be willing to die for one another and hug each other and not fall in love. Some friendships be strong like that. Parents and siblings that are involved in the conflict Pretty sure right now the only stories that let parents or siblings get involved in the main story are contemporary stories. Y'know, realistic fiction and stuff. Why can't the parents get involved in other genres? Horror, fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, all of those? Families should be involved mor...

Not everyone can be good at drawing. I get that. For some of you, you can try to draw something and you end up with a cucumber? In a hat?? Not everyone has super artsy genes. SO HERE I AM AS YOUR ART FAIRY GODMOTHER TO ASSIST YOU. TODAY YOU SHALL DRAW CHARACTER ART. I'm going to give you several different techniques, from 'super beginner' to 'just ok at art' and everywhere in between, and you shall find the magic touch that will make you able to make character art. So have a seat, and I'll tell you what you can do! Level 1: Tracing over a picture If you are the most beginner-est of all beginners, fret not, I got u. Even if you feel that you don't have a drop of artistic talent, trust me, you can trace. Print up a picture that resembles the character you want to draw and make sure you print it big enough to be around the size you want your drawing. Place another piece of paper over the printed picture and slap both of them against a light surface so you can s...

I love love love the movie Black Panther, and I could probably watch it every week. I love the way they balance culture with innovation, and how T'challa himself is super cool but also very human, and I just love every character in the movie. It's just awesome. It deserved every award it received for its awesomeness. What I love especially(other than everything) are the girl characters . This is not about sexism or feminism or anything like that, but rather just about good writing . Girl characters have had a problem for a long time because normally there's only one girl in a whole book or because their personalities are flat and useless. But not in Black Panther! I talked about Cara Dune as being the perfect 'strong female character', now I'm going to bring up the most perfect female representation I've seen in film. *Mario voice* Lets-a go! Why are these characters awesome? They're all very different All people want to know that they're not being s...

I'm just going to include the hot take right here up front: I think the protector character has fallen out of style because our society has become extremely focused on the self. Social media and just modern-day society, in general, has us constantly questioning ourselves: Who am I , who do I want to be, how can I become everything I want to be? And I think because of this, all our characters end up with that same mindset. They wonder who they are, and how they can become everything they want to be. Thus, characters like the Protector are no longer written because a lot of people no longer wonder instead about how they can help and protect others. But it's not too late to fix that. ;) So who is the protector character? I don't know about you, but when I think of a protector character my mind automatically goes to the gentle giants. Like Fezzik from The Princess Bride . Characters who are big and strong, but are so sweet and care so much about their friends that ...

Seriously, I am dried up for ideas today! So here's hoping that anyone actually opens this post. *laughs nervously* ANYway, here are three splendiferous templates that I made myself for Instagram stories! You can follow me on Instagram if you want btw, my handle is  @scribbledfiction , or you can just click on the handle to be taken straight there! I made this one first, when I first realized I could make templates in Picmonkey(free website, btw, so good! Some of the features cost money, but you can also use it without a subscription) As for the template, all you do is mark off all the terrible things you've done to your characters. XD This one is for your novel soundtrack!! I got so excited about this one. Come to think of it, I made this one in quarantine as well. Quarantine is officially too long now. Anyway, you put the questions sticker on it and people can put in numbers telling you what song from your playlist they want you to share. It's fun! This is the new! ...The...