The Thing I Remember You Most For Is The Tragic Backstory Of Nethen And Elain, And How It Relates To

The thing I remember you most for is the tragic backstory of Nethen and Elain, and how it relates to the relations between elves and humans in general in your world!

Thank you, @clairelsonao3! I love that part of my WIP, and among the many backstories of The Last Wrath, it is one of the most compelling -despite its tragic nature. Also, I love using backstory as a storytelling tool to bring forth worldbuilding, so I am glad to hear that my attempts to do this paid off! (As in, I'm glad Elain and Nethen's past showcases the relationships between their species in Agrannor, as such is the intention of their story!)

I'm very happy that you remember this part of the story so vividly and that you liked this backstory! (:

For Writers:

Reblog if it’s okay for your followers to leave you an ask telling you what the one thing is they remember you for as a writer.  Is it a scene or a detail or a specific line? Is it something like style or characterization?  Is it that one weird kink they never thought they’d be into, but oh my god wow self-discovery time?

Happy STS!

Has anyone given you a compliment on an aspect of your writing that you personally weren’t fond of or didn’t think you were good at? What was it and how did you react?

Happy Storytelling Saturday! Thank you for the wonderful Ask, @clairelsonao3!

Has anyone given you a compliment on an aspect of your writing that you personally weren’t fond of or didn’t think you were good at? What was it and how did you react?

Yes. While I usually like the things I write, I sometimes tend to feel uncertain about certain things, dialogue being one of those in the past. I received many positive comments from my writing friends about the way I write dialogue, and it's become one of my favorite parts of my writing now, as I see it in a different light!

Happy Storyteller Saturday! Today I'll send two questions (which are connected):

Question 1 - Imagine that your characters enter a magic labyrinth that shows them their biggest dream (s) come true. What do they see? Is their dream something they can achieve in real life?Question 2 - In the same labyrinth, your characters enter a room that puts them face to face with (an illusion of) the person they hate the most or their worst fear. How do they react? Are they able to put up a fight against the illusion or do they need to be rescued? How do they feel in the aftermath of the confrontation?

Happy STS, Mystic!

Imagine that your characters enter a magic labyrinth that shows them their biggest dream (s) come true. What do they see? Is their dream something they can achieve in real life?

HOHOHO! Bold of you to assume something like this doesn't exist in AASOAF lore already hehe. I can't go into what they see because it's kind of spoilers so excuse my vague-ing on this question 😅

In the same labyrinth, your characters enter a room that puts them face to face with (an illusion of) the person they hate the most or their worst fear. How do they react? Are they able to put up a fight against the illusion or do they need to be rescued? How do they feel in the aftermath of the confrontation?

Ooo okay so one of the big themes in AASOAF is personal growth, so to answer this question, if I were to drop any of the characters into something like this at the start, they would all need to be rescued even if they don't think they do. Predictably they'd all feel defeated and extremely fearful. At the core of each character is a single, but very real, fear that drives them forward and pushes them to do things to soothe that feeling. The goal is at the end, that when put in the same situation they would be able to overcome on their own based on what happened throughout the series and the people they've met along the way.

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

Today I'll send two questions (which are connected):

Question 1 - Imagine that your characters enter a magic labyrinth that shows them their biggest dream (s) come true. What do they see? Is their dream something they can achieve in real life?

Question 2 - In the same labyrinth, your characters enter a room that puts them face to face with (an illusion of) the person they hate the most or their worst fear. How do they react? Are they able to put up a fight against the illusion or do they need to be rescued? How do they feel in the aftermath of the confrontation?

Happy last week's STS! I love the questions that make me think more deeply about my characters, and this is definitely one of them, so thank you! It took so long because I wanted to do a thorough job and find snippets to illustrate my points (because people seem to like those, I guess!)

Both my characters from Good Slaves Never Break the Rules, despite coming from wildly different backgrounds, dream of surprisingly similar things, and they both have to do with putting their fractured families back together.

Below the cut for snippets and mild spoilers for Ch. 6 onward.

Sadly, [Name redacted] can't go back in time to save his mother from dying or his sister from being sold, or to know and have a relationship with his father (which is something he's never admitted to dreaming of, but deep down he does), or for that matter, to have been born into a different life altogether where he'd actually have any chance of being able to do any of those things, so I would say, no, his dream is not really achievable. Within the course of the story, he finds other things to dream of that may be achievable, but they're not his BIGGEST dream.

From Ch. 5

There was a storm cloud forming in his amber-gold eyes. “You’re going to argue with me about this? I couldn’t even—” He turned away suddenly.

Louisa's goal at the beginning of the story was just to make it through university and her o-chem course in particular, but we soon find out that that's really just a byproduct of her attempts to cope with her dysfunctional family and make it on her own so she doesn't have to be dependent on them, or worse, some awful guy (Corey) she's only with because of his money. Thankfully for her, that is achievable, but if she had to choose, she'd rather heal them and bring them all back to the way they were. And thankfully, they're all still alive, so I suppose that's also achievable theoretically, but it's definitely not something she can do all on her own (which she comes to learn).

From Ch. 19

"...And I thought if I had just tried harder, just said something different, I could have made things okay, but I tried and tried and — “

Fears?

For [redacted], his loved ones dying/being tortured right in front of him and not being able to do anything about it. If that were to manifest as a person, I'm almost sure it would be in the form of the evil, sociopathic son of his first owner who basically ruined his entire life in the course of a month. And yes, it would be difficult, but of course he would fight back!

From Ch. 20

It was the fear behind her eyes, much as she tried to hide it; the fear that he once again had failed to prevent. Fearful, sullied, violated, terrorized, discarded, just like everything that had ever been precious to him. Maybe the streak could never be broken.

For Louisa, I had to think about it. My first thought was being trapped -- not physically, although that might be part of it, but just that feeling of a lack of choice and/or options. But then, her conscience also haunts her, especially because she feels she has blood on her hands from living in an evil, corrupt system for so long and doing nothing about it. So maybe "inertia" would be the best way of describing it. Not being able to grow -- to be forever condemned by the past and forced to repeat it or never being able to atone for it. Idk, maybe her fear would manifest in the form of Corey, because when she looks at him, she sees the person she's afraid of being or could have become. 😂 Fight back? She's already started.

From Ch. 25

She made a promise, then and there. If she ever got out of this room, she would do nothing but good, for the rest of her life. Wherever she found to do it, whether she owed it or not. And if she didn't get out? Well, that was just doing penance in a different way.

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday!In the world of your WIP, what is the family structure that is considered "typical"? Why? As for the MCs in the story, would their family be considered atypical or different in any way, or do they come from a background considered "standard" in the world of your WIP?

Happy late WBW, Mystic!

OOOO I love this question!

In the world of your WIP, what is the family structure that is considered "typical"? Why?

Cue the sighs from anyone who reads any answer I have to anything: it varies lol. Humans keep with the typical, nuclear family structure that we are familiar with. Dwarves also have this but grandparents and extended family are a lot more involved with the nuclear family than in human families. As such, Dwarves have very caring relationships with each other and will live in the same neighborhood or town as their relatives. It should also be added, that the nuclear families of these two include same-sex or otherwise queer relationships!

Lizardfolk tend to have really big families, esp if the man of the house has multiple wives. Children are often looked after by their mothers and nannies exclusively, fathers only become involved around ikismal prep season. Seeing extended maternal extended family is not normal, since women move to their husband's hometown to support his clan and raise their kids.

Elves are communally raised once they get past a certain age. This is because their numbers tend to be on the smaller side and they want to prevent all sorts of infighting with each other so they want to socialize their kids as much as possible. It's common for children to call anyone older than them mother or father even if they aren't biologically related.

As for the MCs in the story, would their family be considered atypical or different in any way, or do they come from a background considered "standard" in the world of your WIP?

Mariel: Typical but despite this, her upbringing is atypical because of her circumstances.

Axtapor: Typical for a nobleman of the Empire but he doesn't like it.

Fay: Atypical. Her family was extremely impoverished and her parents were not very good parents so she was mostly left to fend for herself.

Wilkes: Atypical. He was orphaned and before that, his birth mother ran away from her husband's home with him.