Mallory O'Bier

@daeus Happy trails. I got interrupted with a long and heated debate about character arcs with my sister, so I’ll be going a while yet.

@ethryndal I’m going to take a break now. I may be back, but I have to decide what I’m going to do next.

@ethryndal Cool. Here we go.

@Daeus I’m here.

Hey, y’all. I’ll be writing for a bit if anyone wants to join.

@Ethryndal *gives you moral support and commiseration* I had to rewrite my entire WIP as well. It seemed impossible at the start, but now I’m almost done and though it still makes me want to tear my hair out sometimes it’s really not so bad. It gets better, dear. It does. We promises. 😉

@ethryndal *doesn’t laugh* There, there. It’ll be alright. We writers make sacrificeses for the world, doesn’t we, precious?

@emma-flournoy @graciegirl Let me say that again… Um…yeah. 😛 😀

@hope It seems that you have two character arcs in your story. One, a positive arc on trust. Two, a disillusionment about the sureness of temporal victory. There might be a third one around responsibility (her growing to consider herself responsible for more than just those she loves), but I doubt it because she doesn’t seem to change in that…[Read more]

@Aratrea The second experiment in living is built off the first. In the first, victory is merely defined by keeping everyone she loves safe. In the second, she has added an element of physical freedom and the overthrow of tyranny as qualifications for victory because she is convinced that the original goal of safety for those she loves will never…[Read more]

@Aratrea The second experiment in living is built off the first. In the first, victory is merely defined by keeping everyone safe. In the second, she has added an element of physical freedom and the overthrow of tyranny as qualifications for victory because she is convinced that the original goal of safety for those she loves will never come…[Read more]

@hope That’s a great point that hasn’t been brought up yet! Those sorts of instructive moments can definitely change someone. They’re a bit trickier to use in novel form since it’s really easy for that to become a preaching moment, but I think it can be done when you do it in a way that’s true to the instructor’s character. I think I discuss that…[Read more]

@hope That seems like a good character arc–I like it! I’m not completely sure, though, on what distinguishes the beginning experiment from the transitory experiment. Is it just how she applies the experiment, or are the experiments themselves different?

Sometimes it’s the very people who no one imagines anything of, who do the things no one can imagine.

@emma-flournoy No. I was just seconding what you said. 😛

@emma-flournoy

Oh. My. He sounds odd.

Um…yeah.

@dragon-snapper Well, if it’s any comfort, I doubt you’ll have to do as much rewriting as me. My rewriting entails the entire book. Literally. If it weren’t so sad, it actually be kind of funny. But I hate rewriting, so it’s NOT FUNNY. At all. *gnashes teeth and tears out hair*

Carry on. 😀

@Aratrea

This is the protagonist of a trilogy. She goes through a disillusionment arc through the first two books, then has a positive arc in the final book. I’ve done some major work on her arcs recently, but some points might still need to be straightened out.

Beginning: Protagonist starts by believing that good will always win and victory…[Read more]

Though not dramatic enough for most books, a series of teaching and reasoning can change people. Generally, I’ve found that a repetition of pounding the same point home in different ways, by different people, and being able to see the logical reasons for why I should change as well as the threat of the results if I do not change, can cause a…[Read more]