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Post by Brownie on Oct 10, 2023 1:13:26 GMT -5
Okay y'all I need a little brainstorming help. I have a character who desperately wants to be loved (in all ways), but he lacks a proper understanding of what love is. So he often falls short and struggles to understand why the "love" he achieves doesn't feel quite as fulfilling as he wants. But he's also just desperate so he takes what scraps he gets from others. What I need help with: what are some things that a person might reasonably confuse for love? So far I'm thinking recognition, affection, and attention. They can be neutral, positive, or negative in their own right, just anything someone might mistake for being loved by someone. I think attention is a huge one, or maybe someone giving genuine complements/saying they admire them for x traits. Perhaps even just a character who defaults to spending time with them, even when they could be doing something else? Like someone who obviously enjoys their company? but in a way, that is a kind of love even if it's just platonic; a more "mistaken" might be a character who spends time around them for their own means/goals, but your character is so blinded by their politeness/charisma/whatever that they mistake the forced proximity for companionship or emotional connection
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Aroace
🎃ᦓρ꠸ᥴꫀᠻꪖꪀᧁ👻
does the candy hunting remind anyone else of cookie clicker? no… just me? okay.
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Post by 🎃ᦓρ꠸ᥴꫀᠻꪖꪀᧁ👻 on Oct 10, 2023 6:06:20 GMT -5
Okay y'all I need a little brainstorming help. I have a character who desperately wants to be loved (in all ways), but he lacks a proper understanding of what love is. So he often falls short and struggles to understand why the "love" he achieves doesn't feel quite as fulfilling as he wants. But he's also just desperate so he takes what scraps he gets from others. What I need help with: what are some things that a person might reasonably confuse for love? So far I'm thinking recognition, affection, and attention. They can be neutral, positive, or negative in their own right, just anything someone might mistake for being loved by someone. Attention and approval are the first that come to mind.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2023 6:57:56 GMT -5
I want to hug your character, he sounds lonely.
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#f0a9e4
Name Colour
Captain Americat
"Don't frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile." - Teen Wolf
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Post by Captain Americat on Oct 11, 2023 7:13:50 GMT -5
Okay y'all I need a little brainstorming help. I have a character who desperately wants to be loved (in all ways), but he lacks a proper understanding of what love is. So he often falls short and struggles to understand why the "love" he achieves doesn't feel quite as fulfilling as he wants. But he's also just desperate so he takes what scraps he gets from others. What I need help with: what are some things that a person might reasonably confuse for love? So far I'm thinking recognition, affection, and attention. They can be neutral, positive, or negative in their own right, just anything someone might mistake for being loved by someone. What the others said and what you’ve said, definitely. But also just general kindness and being given the time of day. Just a casual conversation with another person (even just a hello in passing) might instantly make them feel like that other person loves them bc maybe they aren’t use to that sort of engagement from other people so they instantly associate it with love. But on the opposite spectrum, also easy conversation and maybe sarcasm. Someone else asking for advice, maybe even said other person making jokes about them, smiling in their direction, or coming to them first instead of someone else. Maybe they also stand close to your character and seem clingy (even if that’s just their personality) and your character thinks it’s love. If this person doesn’t know what love is, they’ll probably associate any kind of interaction as the other person liking them.
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Post by *Ɗαɾƙρσσℓ* on Oct 11, 2023 10:56:08 GMT -5
I think being trusted/relied on could be misinterpreted as love. But tbh it's kind of a mindset, a character who is just desperately looking for love of any kind is going to find a way to misinterpret any interactions with their target as loving, regardless of whether or not there's anything about the action that's objectively ambiguous. It's kind of like when a person has a consuming crush and takes literally any vague coincidence as a sign the other person likes them back; if you're desperate enough even stuff like someone getting mad and yelling at you can suddenly be a sign of love.
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Oct 11, 2023 13:00:45 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback, y'all! My list right now is affection, attention, recognition, respect, possessiveness, need/dependence, jealousy, and acceptance. Non-exhaustive of course but it gives me some good ideas.
For context, the character has been emotionally neglected in childhood and often feels like he's never anyone's "first choice". So whenever someone comes along who seems to value his person and elevate him to a more central part of their life, he's very quick to bond with that person. It makes him a fiercely loyal friend.
Unfortunately, due to his past neglect and desperation to be valued, he can become unhealthily attached to unequally yoked social relationships. He is easily taken advantage of. E.g., the character has an on-and-off romantic relationship with a woman who does legit care for him, but she kinda just uses him for her own pleasure and calls it "love". It's toxic and she lowkey manipulates him emotionally - and he sorta knows it - but he mistakes her attention and possessiveness and such for love, so he has a very hard time letting go of her. But in his desperation to feel loved he's taking scraps and then wondering why he feels miserable.
The ideas y'all gave help me form a better idea of who his character is (and isn't), and how I might show that through my writing.
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Post by *Ɗαɾƙρσσℓ* on Oct 11, 2023 14:07:07 GMT -5
the character has been emotionally neglected in childhood and often feels like he's never anyone's "first choice". damn he's literally me
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Oct 11, 2023 16:03:39 GMT -5
the character has been emotionally neglected in childhood and often feels like he's never anyone's "first choice". damn he's literally me
😭 nooo Joking aside, one of this character's main struggles is being "unremarkable" - he lacks any particular talent, skill, or quality that would make him exceptional and thus struggles with feeling like he has nothing to offer the people around him. (This self-esteem issue makes him then feel like he's sorta "in debt" to anyone that does value him for overlooking his deficiencies, thereby feeding into his issue of getting attached to anyone who shows him a smidge of "love", since he doesn't think he's worth it). I've known a lot of people who struggle with that kinda of unremarkable perspective of themselves and wanted to explore it through a character arc that they could perhaps connect with.
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#f0a9e4
Name Colour
Captain Americat
"Don't frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile." - Teen Wolf
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Post by Captain Americat on Oct 11, 2023 16:44:29 GMT -5
man, that's me, too.Glad we could help
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#a3c5e6
Name Colour
𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵
Warrior Fanatic
All hail me, the flower-flushing queen of Prague
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Post by 𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵 on Oct 12, 2023 13:45:49 GMT -5
So I'm writing one of those "what happens after the villain is defeated" stories and basically what had happened previously is that the main character and then her love interest had both been cursed by the villain and it was expected that once the villain was killed, the curse would be broken.
It wasn't.
What I'm trying to figure out is how part of the curse could still be active as a sort of side effect without the main villain secretly still being alive. I kinda like the idea of it being a kind of soulbond thing, but I don't know.
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#f0a9e4
Name Colour
Captain Americat
"Don't frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile." - Teen Wolf
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Post by Captain Americat on Oct 12, 2023 16:35:55 GMT -5
Maybe the villain actually hid the curse in an inanimate object? So now the main characters have to find the object and destroy it to break the curse?
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#a3c5e6
Name Colour
𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵
Warrior Fanatic
All hail me, the flower-flushing queen of Prague
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Post by 𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵 on Oct 12, 2023 16:40:25 GMT -5
Maybe the villain actually hid the curse in an inanimate object? So now the main characters have to find the object and destroy it to break the curse? Thanks for the suggestion, but that's not really gonna work in this case. Sorry, should've made this clearer, but the curse is cast onto the main characters by means of physical contact. The closest comparison I can give right now is like a vampire or werewolf bite.
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Post by Brownie on Oct 12, 2023 17:11:53 GMT -5
Maybe the villain actually hid the curse in an inanimate object? So now the main characters have to find the object and destroy it to break the curse? Thanks for the suggestion, but that's not really gonna work in this case. Sorry, should've made this clearer, but the curse is cast onto the main characters by means of physical contact. The closest comparison I can give right now is like a vampire or werewolf bite. plot twist: they're the villains now
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#f0a9e4
Name Colour
Captain Americat
"Don't frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile." - Teen Wolf
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Post by Captain Americat on Oct 13, 2023 19:01:12 GMT -5
I tried, ha.
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Post by Tealraven 🎃 on Oct 17, 2023 0:28:46 GMT -5
okay i never post here (tho i do lurk occasionally) and this prolly sounds strange but. do you guys ever see a character that has a VERY SIMILAR design to one of your own characters (or at least how you imagine your own if you don't draw) and then feel weirdly paranoid about people accusing you of copying the other one??? or maybe even a teensy bit annoyed that the other creator/company beat you to it??? especially when your character has existed in your head way longer but you don't have enough proof of concept to show you're not just plagiarizing??? or is that just me
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#a3c5e6
Name Colour
𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵
Warrior Fanatic
All hail me, the flower-flushing queen of Prague
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Post by 𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵 on Oct 17, 2023 0:29:59 GMT -5
That has never happened to me, but I can definitely see why it would be scary.
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Aroace
🎃ᦓρ꠸ᥴꫀᠻꪖꪀᧁ👻
does the candy hunting remind anyone else of cookie clicker? no… just me? okay.
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Post by 🎃ᦓρ꠸ᥴꫀᠻꪖꪀᧁ👻 on Oct 17, 2023 6:03:26 GMT -5
okay i never post here (tho i do lurk occasionally) and this prolly sounds strange but. do you guys ever see a character that has a VERY SIMILAR design to one of your own characters (or at least how you imagine your own if you don't draw) and then feel weirdly paranoid about people accusing you of copying the other one??? or maybe even a teensy bit annoyed that the other creator/company beat you to it??? especially when your character has existed in your head way longer but you don't have enough proof of concept to show you're not just plagiarizing??? or is that just me Oh gosh, this happens to me all the time! I’ve honestly learned that when it comes to unique designs for my own characters I just freak out trying to think of one. I look on Pinterest for inspiration sometimes lol
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Post by *Ɗαɾƙρσσℓ* on Oct 17, 2023 7:32:31 GMT -5
It's happened very occasionally. Most recently the mmc of my now-secondary WIP had certain design similarities to Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows. I was kind of aware of this bc I'd seen fanart of him before, but I hadn't read the books at the time I started working on the WIP so didn't really think too much about it. I finally read the books a couple years back, realized that apart from the design there were also a handful of character trait/arc similarities that ppl might view as copying, especially given how much of a mainstay SoC is in recent spec-fic circles, and made the decision to slightly redesign my boi so there would be a smaller likelihood of people suggesting plagiarism. But ppl will call pretty much any book that's vaguely organized crime/heist related an SoC ripoff these days so if I ever manage to get it to publication I probably still won't dodge those accusations entirely lol Anyway at the time it was annoying bc I was attached to how I imagined him, and there was a level of irrational frustration that Kaz kind of defines that character archetype these days despite it not being a particularly unique archetype, but I got used to the new design and at this point it's hard to imagine him as ever being the old design.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2023 7:44:22 GMT -5
It's happened very occasionally. Most recently the mmc of my now-secondary WIP had certain design similarities to Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows. I was kind of aware of this bc I'd seen fanart of him before, but I hadn't read the books at the time I started working on the WIP so didn't really think too much about it. I finally read the books a couple years back, realized that apart from the design there were also a handful of character trait/arc similarities that ppl might view as copying, especially given how much of a mainstay SoC is in recent spec-fic circles, and made the decision to slightly redesign my boi so there would be a smaller likelihood of people suggesting plagiarism. But ppl will call pretty much any book that's vaguely organized crime/heist related an SoC ripoff these days so if I ever manage to get it to publication I probably still won't dodge those accusations entirely lol Anyway at the time it was annoying bc I was attached to how I imagined him, and there was a level of irrational frustration that Kaz kind of defines that character archetype these days despite it not being a particularly unique archetype, but I got used to the new design and at this point it's hard to imagine him as ever being the old design. Same, I still struggle with this problem in my stories. As they can be seen as a Warriors rip-off, but the characters have more depth and story to them than meet's the eye.
I'm glad you were able to solve some if not all of the problem, I wish you luck on your writing journey!
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Oct 17, 2023 9:32:00 GMT -5
I don't think I've personally encountered that. I mean all my characters will inevitably share some traits with other people's because that's how archetypes work, but nothing specific so far.
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#f0a9e4
Name Colour
Captain Americat
"Don't frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile." - Teen Wolf
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Post by Captain Americat on Oct 17, 2023 14:46:12 GMT -5
Hello!
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#f0a9e4
Name Colour
Captain Americat
"Don't frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile." - Teen Wolf
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Post by Captain Americat on Nov 1, 2023 11:14:15 GMT -5
HAPPY NANO MONTH!!!!
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Post by Brownie on Nov 1, 2023 11:29:27 GMT -5
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#f0a9e4
Name Colour
Captain Americat
"Don't frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile." - Teen Wolf
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Post by Captain Americat on Nov 1, 2023 11:31:16 GMT -5
Are you going to be participating?
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Post by Brownie on Nov 1, 2023 11:35:59 GMT -5
I don't think so. Not formally at least. I have so many short stories I need to submit to journals by the end of the month uwu
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#f0a9e4
Name Colour
Captain Americat
"Don't frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile." - Teen Wolf
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Post by Captain Americat on Nov 1, 2023 11:42:05 GMT -5
Same. I have never actually done a formal NANO. But in the past I’ve used the month as a time to write more than I usually do. And I have done 100k + words in November before. I’d like to do that again (: Use it as time to write towards my current projects.
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Post by Brownie on Nov 1, 2023 12:08:30 GMT -5
same I've written 50k projects in a month just... never in november lmaooo usually a february/march type deal for me
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#f0a9e4
Name Colour
Captain Americat
"Don't frown, someone could be falling in love with your smile." - Teen Wolf
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Post by Captain Americat on Nov 1, 2023 12:39:10 GMT -5
I only ever kept track of November so I’m not sure what I wrote in the other months, haha. I should keep track of the other months too… just out of curiosity xD
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Nov 1, 2023 12:46:44 GMT -5
I've never done NaNoWriMo! Probably never will haha
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#a3c5e6
Name Colour
𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵
Warrior Fanatic
All hail me, the flower-flushing queen of Prague
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Post by 𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵 on Nov 1, 2023 12:55:34 GMT -5
I've participated, I've just never taken it seriously (as in, writing anything that comes to mind) until now. I plan on focusing on this one story that's meant to be a sequel of a classic work, but because this is technically historical fiction and I'm someone who tends to focus on the tiniest details, I'm probably better off having the story be in a purely fictional setting rather than, say, the actual Regency era.
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