Idea: create a character. Make a memory box for that character. What would they put in it? What is important to them? Is it full of official documents? Do they have a secret?
the funniest #otherworldly trait concept i can imagine is
you when like. magical and nonhuman characters are described in a book and the protag like. hears the rustling of grass or smells woodsmoke inexplicably whenever they see them.
i’m just thinking about like. Wrong Versions of that.
every time someone sees me they inexplicably smell a shoe store which is like, not bad, I guess… they hear the distant and quiet but distinct sound of a lawn mower……
When I was in middle school, I found a chocolate-scented aroma oil that I dabbed on my clothing. The one time I went to a ‘Battle of the Bands’ type event, I wore it on a dark brown dress and near the end of the evening, this kid just turned to me and said, in obvious distress, “I don’t know why, but being around you makes me crave chocolate cake?!”
Guys this completely changed my writing, heed it. I often do an entire draft just looking at sentence variation and oftentimes the results are absolutely transformative in the difference.
It works this way with telling stories in images too. Varying the level of detail, scale, media from panel to panel in comics. Contrast. Contrast with an architecture to it. A music to it. Visually as well as with words.
Star Trek can make as many new series and movies as they like, and still nothing will ever truly beat the golden awkwardness of this one shining minute of dialogue.
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