PHYSICAL PRESENCE AND GESTURE. 1. How do they move and carry themselves? Pace, rhythm, gestures, energy? 2. How much physical space do they use, active and at rest? 3. How do they position themselves in a group? Do they like to be the center of attention, or do they hang back at the edges of a crowd? 4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does? 5. How do they dress? What styles, colors, accessories, and other possessions do they favor? Why? 6. What are they like in motion–in different environments, and in different activities? What causes the differences between these? 7. How do they physically engage with other people, inanimate objects, and their environment? What causes the differences between these? 8. Where and when do they seem most and least at ease? Why? How can you tell? 9. How do they manifest energy, exhaustion, tension, or other strong emotions? 10. What energizes and drains them most? 11. How are they vocally expressive? What kind of voice, accent, tones, inflections, volume, phrases and slang, and manner of speaking do they use? 12. How are they bodily expressive? How do they use nonverbal cues such as their posture, stance, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and hands?
DISPOSITION AND TEMPERAMENT. 13. How do they greet the world — what is their typical attitude towards life? How does it differ in different circumstances, or towards different subjects? Why do they take these attitudes, and why do they change? How do these tend to be expressed? 14. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings, or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed? 15. What kind of inner life do they have — rich and imaginative? Calculating and practical? Full of doubts and fears? Does it find any sort of outlet in their lives? 16. Do they dream? What are those dreams like? 17. Are they more shaped by nature or nurture — who they are, or what has happened to them? How have these shaped who they’ve become as a person? 18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take, (best, worst, most likely?) what would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why?
CONNECTIONS WITH OTHERS. 19. How do they behave within a group? What role(s) do they take? Does this differ if they know and trust the group, versus finding themselves in a group of strangers? Why? 20. What kind of individual relationships do they have with others, and how do they behave in them? How are they different between intimate relationships like friends, family, and lovers versus more impersonal relationships? 21. What kind of relationships do they tend to intentionally seek out versus actually cultivate? What kind of social contact do they prefer, and why? 22. How do people respond to them, and why might these responses differ? 23. How do they respond to difficult social moments? What makes them consider a social situation difficult? 24. How do they present themselves socially? What distinguishes their “persona” from their “true self”, and what causes that difference? 25. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it? 26. How do they view and feel about relationships, and how might this manifest in how they handle them, if it does?
ACTIVITIES AND PREFERENCES. 27. What do they strongly like and dislike, in any category? Why? 28. What are they likely to do if they have the opportunity, resources, and time to accomplish it? Why? 29. What kind of activities, interests, and hobbies do they have? What significance and impact do these have in their lives, both positive and negative? 30. What is their preferred level of activity and stimulation? How do they cope if they get either too little or too much? 31. Is there anything that counts as a “dealbreaker” for them, positively or negatively? What makes things go smoothly, and what spoils an activity or ruins their day? Why? 32. Do they have any “props” that are a significant part of their life, identity, activities, or self-presentation somehow? What are they, how are they used, and why are they so significant? How would these props’ absence impact them, how would they compensate, and why?
THINKING AND LEARNING. 33. How do they learn about the world–what is their preferred learning style? Hands-on learning with trial and error? Research, reading, and note-taking? Observation or rote memorization? Inductive or deductive reasoning? Seeking patterns and organization? Taking things apart and putting them back together? Creative processing via discussing, writing about, or dramatizing things? 34. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why? 35. How and why do they internalize knowledge? What effect has that had on them? 36. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions? What is their opinion on this? 37. Have they had any special education or training that colors their means of learning about or understanding the world? Conversely, do they lack some kind of education considered essential in their world? What kind of impact has this addition or lack had on them? 38. Is there anything they wish they could change about their worldview or thought processes? What, and why? 39. What sort of questions or thoughts recur in their lives, either specifically or as a theme? Why are these never answered, or answered permanently to their satisfaction? 40. What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is?
FREE FOR ALL. 41. What associations do they bring to mind? Words or phrases, images, metaphors or motifs? Why? 42. I have a question of my own!
The cavalry have those. The scimitar is a blade specifically designed to be used from horseback. It’s the grandfather of most cavalry blades, including those used in Europe down through the centuries. The curved design and single edge meant it could slash enemies with less risk of losing the blade as you traveled past at high speeds. A stabbing weapon that buries itself in an enemy and you’re at risk of it getting stuck as the horse races past, then you lose your weapon. It was so successful a design that it traveled throughout the world.
The scimitar is a very visually distinctive weapon which is why you see
it everywhere, but it’s not an infantry sidearm. It also wasn’t the only sword in use.
The basic rule of thumb
for swords in the (mostly) western world is curved for cavalry and
straight for infantry.
The curved, single edged sword like a saber is also the weapon of choice for boarding actions in naval combat. The reason being that the single edged blade can’t be forced back into you when in tight quarters. (I know someone out there is crying, but katana. The Japanese thought that too about British/Naval sabers, they were wrong.)
It’s probably worth remembering as you begin your investigation that “Moor” was the European term for Muslim, and that covers a vast variety of different ethnicities and cultures from Persia to North Africa; many of whom practiced distinct variations of their religion. Because these cultures are so different, it’s important that you narrow your search down to specified groups. This will help you when it comes to determining weapons, troop movements, battle strategies, and tactics.
Some things to remember, the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula was one of the (many) factors that kicked off the Crusades. The Muslims of the period were more scientifically advanced than the Europeans. If you wanted to see a doctor in the Middle Ages, and wanted to live, you went to see a Muslim. It’s one of the many inventions we can thank the Middle East for, including our numerical system and the survival of Aristotle. You know, an interesting period in history.
However, in the beginning, at least, the conquered Spain was part of a larger empire that spanned the Middle East and North Africa. So, if you really want to know what weapons were carried then its important to look to the invaders and their culture. Whether the scimitar was even in use really depends on the period you want to reference. 711 A.D? 1011 A.D? 1212 A.D? Or when the last Muslim foothold on the Iberian Peninsula finally came to an end in 1492, around the same time Columbus sailed the ocean blue?
It’s a huge period in history that covers a lot of ground. Try to remember that military evolution happens very quickly, and is influenced heavily by the enemies engaged.
When it comes to Moorish battle tactics, I know very little about them. I can tell you they tended to favor lighter armaments and light horses/coursers rather than the heavy. Here’s an overview of the Umayyad conquest that includes troop movements.
The answer to your question, though, of what did the infantry use is spears.
More nerds discussing Medieval Arab warfare, strategy, and tactics on the Historum forums. (Love your nerds.)
Always remember: Wikipedia is a jumping off point for research, it is not the end. It’s a decent overview that will give you a grounding to start from but, as any good college professor will tell you, you want the citations at the bottom not the article header or the words in the middle.
The subject of warfare is complicated, to say the least, and covers a vast array of
cultures across both Europe, the Middle East, Eastern
Europe/Byzantine/Ottomans, and, occasionally, Central Asia.
Hopefully though, this gives you a jumping off point for more specified research into the time period and the armor worn/weapons wielded/tactics used.
I’ve said this to my non-techie friends countless times. It’s no secret that being able to code makes you a better job applicant, and a better entrepreneur. Hell, one techie taught a homeless man to code and now that man is making his first mobile application.
(note: yes I realize that 3/5 of those links were Google projects)
But most folks are intimidated by coding. And it does seem intimidating at first. But peel away the obscurity and the difficulty, and you start to learn that coding, at least at its basic level, is a very manageable, learnable skill.
There are a lot of resources out there to teach you. I’ve found a couple to be particularly successful. Here’s my list of resources for learning to code, sorted by difficulty:
Novice
Never written a line of code before? No worries. Just visit one of these fine resources and follow their high-level tutorials. You won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but don’t worry about it for now:
w3 Tutorials (start at HTML on the left sidebar and work your way down)
Intermediate
Now that you’ve gone through a handful of basic tutorials, it’s time to learn the fundamentals of actual, real-life coding problems. I’ve found these resources to be solid:
If you’re here, you’re capable of building things. You know the primitives. You know the logic control statements. You’re ready to start making real stuff take shape. Here are some different types of resources to turn you from someone who knows how to code, into a full-fledged programmer.
Programming problems
Sometimes, the challenges in programming aren’t how to make a language do a task, but just how to do the task in general. Like how to find an item in a very large, sorted list, without checking each element. Here are some resources for those types of problems
If you learned Python, Django is an amazing platform for creating quick-and-easy web applications. I’d highly suggest the tutorial – it’s one of the best I’ve ever used, and you have a web app up and running in less than an hour.
I’ve never used Rails, but it’s a very popular and powerful framework for creating web applications using Ruby. I’d suggest going through their guide to start getting down-and-dirty with Rails development.
If you know PHP, there’s an ocean of good stuff out there for you to learn how to make a full-fledged web application. Frameworks do a lot of work for you, and provide quick and easy guides to get up and running. I’d suggest the following:
If there’s one point I wanted to get across, it’s that it is easier than ever to learn to code. There are resources on every corner of the internet for potential programmers, and the benefits of learning even just the basics are monumental.
If you know of any additional, great resources that aren’t listed here, please feel free to tweet them to me @boomeyer.
Best of luck!
I’d also like to add some more specialized resources!
SpriteKit (2D) and SceneKit (3D) which are built into the official compiler to create iOS apps (see iOS apps for more resources)
also all of the above game engines (cross-platform)
Game console development:
Game Maker Studio (with a paid subscription)
Unity
Unreal
CryEngine
Note that games can also be created on more general platforms like iOS and Android apps, but the resources listed above are specialized for game development.
iOS apps:
In order to develop iOS apps, you’ll need to purchase an iOS developer program membership for $99 a year, which requires an Apple account. Here are some general resources:
Xcode (the official IDE for iOS apps; can be installed on OS X)
Xcode also has SpriteKit, SceneKit, and Metal built in, all of which are incredibly useful for creating apps that require elaborate graphics, particularly games.
Also, in order to publish iOS apps, you’ll have to juggle certificates, app ids, and provisioning profiles. This process can be convoluted at times so here are some resources:
Blender (can also be used to create games; Python script; free and open-source; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)
Maya (specialized script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux to an extent)
3ds Max (Python script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows and OS X)
RenderMan (specialized script; free for non-commercial/educational use and pay-per-license for commercial use; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)
Misc. resources:
Stack Overflow is an ask-and-answer community for programmers. It’s amazing and will save your life. Sign up and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Github offers a student pack (here) if you create an account and prove you’re a student. This gives you free access to a bunch of great programming resources for free for a certain period of time, such as Unreal Engine. Also, Github in general is a site that you can host your code on. Other users can see it, and “fork” it to make a copy of your code and modify it.
Parse is a backend service that allows you to store data in databases it hosts on its own servers. It lets you use push notifications, create users, store and retrieve data, etc. It’s compatible with iOS apps, Android apps, Windows apps, Xamarin, React, Unity, OS X, Windows, JavaScript, PHP, .net, Arduino, and Embedded C. It’s free up to a certain limit that depends on the services you use.
Cloud9, Codebox, and Squad are online IDEs that allow for real-time collaboration and support a variety of languages, so they’re useful for team projects.
And some general advice:
Your program will not work right away, 99% of the time. That’s okay. Do your best to figure out where the error is. Here is some advice on debugging (written for PHP but the methods can be generalized).
If you’re stuck, Google. Google like there’s no tomorrow.
Ask questions on a community like Stack Overflow.
For that matter, browse relevant Stack Overflow questions. You can probably find some solutions there.
Don’t be afraid to copy and paste.
Take breaks sometimes if you’re getting burned out. But don’t stay away from your projects for too long or you’ll lose track of its status.
Backup your code. On the cloud, on a USB drive, wherever. If your IDE has a backing up feature like snapshots, use it whenever you hit a milestone.
If your project is big, split it up into milestones and set goals. Don’t tackle everything at once.
Like the OP said, coding isn’t just for professionals and “geeks” anymore. Anyone can learn it if you really try, and with the rapidly expanding tech industry, learning coding can really broaden your opportunities.
If any of the links are broken, or you have a question or some information/resources to add, you can contact me through the askbox or the OP through his Twitter (as mentioned in his post).
If you’re interested, try some of these out and best of luck!
Great work expanding on my humble list to include a much fuller collection of resources for learning how to code! Cheers!
i didn’t wanna reblog this just cos it doesn’t deserve to get seen but:
a) dwarves don’t share the gender binary that humans use, heterosexual versus homosexual is meaningless to them
b) gnomes have such a predilection towards illusions that gender is primarily based on presentation. because of consistent interaction with humans, they tend towards visually hetero relationships just for sake of public ease but gnomes all know gender is an ilusion
c) halflings are super community oriented. they would be incredibly accepting of homosexuality because frowning on someone for liking a particular gender is counter to community building
d) goblins don’t believe in sexuality they believe in food
e) orcs are 100% butch lesbians and bears. they are totally gay with a small side of being attracted to muscles and soft hairy bellies “but if they’re all gay how do they reproduce?” magic rituals motherfucker it’s a fantasy world
f) tieflings never have a predominant culture and tend to ascribe to human values, with a bit of “i’m already an outcast, so anything goes”. i don’t wanna say tieflings are super gay just because there is a lot of baggage that comes with the evil demon race being super gay but tieflings are super gay
g) dragonborn carry a lot of draconic values, one of the most notable being vanity. if a dragonbron is gay, they will literally be the embodiment of that “move, i’m gay” video. taboo my ass just try to stop that dragonborn, they’ll show you the meaning of flaming
bottom line here is really that if you thought the dnd races were straight you were so wrong. i am going to find you and rub my gay ass on your player’s handbook
So I really don’t care much for formatting questions – the normal default way you learned to make documents in school is perfectly fine – make sure you use a legible typeface and 12-point font and normal margins and put your name on it and number the pages – but I really don’t care how big you make the title, or whatever.
THAT SAID – there is a something that almost NONE of you do… that ALL of you should do when submitting mss.
From Laura Bradford:
Yep – it is ridiculously annoying to tell one of your mss from the other when reading on an e-reader. So like, here’s all you have to do:
GO INTO PROPERTIES
CLICK AND SEE – probably there is nonsense there that you didn’t ever add, like the name of your school or workplace, the nickname of your computer, etc. Whoops!
FIX IT – make the title and author match the title and author on your actual doc, and get rid of any other weirdness.
PRESTO! Now you should stand out on our reader! Yay!
(BTW when I say hardly anyone does this – I absolutely include my own authors. I add title, author, category, and my name to every ms I send out, it’s usually gibberish when it comes to me.)
as most of you know, I was in the hospital this month. why? my heart. again. always. two cardiac arrests within a fifteen minute span as I was getting ready for work; an ambulance came and got me and everything. after that, it was two weeks of tests and surgery and new medications and short-term disability and ultimately, no answers. my heart condition remains a rare and mysterious jewel. so good news: I’m alive. bad news: I’m an american who just spent two weeks in the best electrocardiology ward in new york city. which means medical bills. so many fucking medical bills.
now, I have insurance, but before it kicks in I have a significant deductible to meet. every scrap of every paycheck is going towards those bills for the foreseeable future. which isn’t great, considering I took two-thirds of my closet off to a consignment store about a month before this happened. You guys know me, I’d like to be able to fill it out again. so I’m proposing a trade: I’ll dress you if you dress me.
style consulting – rates and services
$15 option – one time occasion styling! if you have a wedding or a graduation or a big date coming up, I’ll hop on skype with you for a half-hour and see what we can do with the clothes you already have.
$20 option – fashion guidance. I’ll ask you to send me five to seven pictures of outfits, styles, or fashion icons that you like. from there, I’ll write up my impressions of your fashion goals, advise you towards certain trends, and help you solidify your sense of personal style. (here is an example)
$40 option – fashion guidance + personal shopper. You’ll receive all the services of #1, plus I’ll discuss your budget and then go shopping for you. I’ll put together ten items within your price range that will help you meet your style aspirations.
$65 option – fashion guidance + personal shopper + skype consult. You’ll receive all the services of #1 and #2, plus I will set up a 45 minute in-person skype consult with you. We’ll go through your closet (or whatever items you choose) together, and I’ll help you pinpoint which garments will work with your new look, and which ones won’t.
**request via an ask – include your email address, your name, and which service you want – I’ll send you an email and we can begin the conversation there.**
(note: all these prices are suggested. obviously if you’re willing to donate more, I’d appreciate it, each option takes about an hour and a half more to do than the option preceding it. if you want something different than what I’m offering, send me a message and we’ll talk details.)
(second note: I’ll be doing these requests in the order I get them. When I get your inquiry, I’ll let you know where you are in the queue.)
I’ll still be giving out style advice all the time on this blog, don’t worry! But in-depth, individually tailored stuff takes me a lot of time, and I’d like to be able to turn that into something I can use to buy shoes that won’t fall apart with nyc wear.
While this video creates the impression that this technology is new, intelligence and Hollywood have been using technology far-advanced to this for many years; possibly decades.
This is what a small team of computer scientists came up with – using facial capture and facial reenactment software, students in college are able to, in real-time, create facial expressions and even insert audio, to make you believe that people like world leaders are doing and saying things that are not happening – so imagine what’s available for use by the CIA, NSA, MOSSAD (etc.), and all of their mainstream media propaganda arms.
I feel torn about tumblr’s love of southern gothic. There’s a lot of cool stuff in that genre to be admired, but I feel like sometimes those posts (especially when made by people who don’t live in the south- and hey, neither do I) come across as “aren’t poor people spooooky?”
As a born-and-raised southerner, I was surprised to discover this literary convention because a lot of modern southern gothic fantasy written by southerners focuses on old-money families who turn out to be [witches/werewolves/vampires/etc]. I didn’t encounter the “scary redneck mountain people” variant in non-fantastical media until later, and it baffles me because the modern southern elite are TERRIFYING.
Endlessly smiling hypocritical senators in tacky palatial houses with wives who espouse “traditional values” while being poisonously sweet and cutthroat? Those make much more frightening antagonists for gothic heroes/heroines to fight. If you live in the south you will probably never meet backwoods demon sibling-spouses but you’ve definitely seen the void staring out of a “Live, Laugh, Love” picture frame.
ACCURATE
“bless yer little heart” can have a special twist in scare tactics if you use it wisely in southern gothic
I PROMISE you the old rich white “respectable” people in any given Southern town are the most terrifying things in it. I guarantee you. I don’t care who you are. I am white and originally from the South and I tell you the world of the genteel Southern white is the realm of nightmares. On that topic, real and semi-universal things to incorporate into your Southern Gothic re: rich old white “respectable” people:
– a large china cabinet. Made of nice wood, large glass windows, full of porcelain or crystal with gilding and has a lot of flower or fruit motifs. May have a mirrored back, to make it look twice as big and show off the contents from multiple angles
-mirrors in general, I don’t know why
-everything is varying shades of pastel or brown, with sudden transitions between brown rooms and pastel rooms. The brown rooms are full of leather furniture and smell faintly of leather and pipe smoke. The pastel ones smell like powder and potpourri. The smells also abruptly transition between each other
-alternatively everything is cream and color is prohibited
-old white Southerners rival the Fair Folk for gatherings where not knowing all the rules and obeying every one will have seemingly unrelated but dire consequences
-gilt and flowers on everything
-including weaponry
-painting of a landscape, hunting dogs, or ducks, relatively skilfully executed but something’s not right about it. You can’t put your finger on what. When you ask about the painting, someone says their cousin/aunt/mother painted it and aren’t they such a talented artist?
-painting of a battle from the Civil War in which someone is heroically raising a Confederate flag. It is not even remotely historically accurate but it’s painted like it was meant for a history book.
-perfectly arranged quilts on perfect beds you’re pretty sure nobody has ever slept in. The sterility of the arrangement somehow deprives the quilt of its essential quilt-ness, rendering it a kind of uneasy anti-quilt.
-family photos posed around a large dead animal
-family photos where everyone looks like they came off a fashion shoot but they’re all holding guns, even the small girl whose gun is pink
-walls of family photos in which these two are the only ones taken with a modern camera, and everything else is in blobby old-school color, sepia tone, or black and white
-framed obituaries
-THOSE SMILES. SOUTHERNERS KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. THOSE LITTLE SMILES AND THE LITTLE LAUGHS LIKE THEY’RE GRANDMOTHERLY/GRANDFATHERLY IF YOUR GRANDPARENTS WERE PERPETUALLY DEBATING THE PROPRIETY OF TEARING YOUR THROAT OUT WITH SUDDENLY TOO-LONG TEETH
-framed illustrated bible verses
-framed cutesy inspirational quotes
-personalized stationery
-Too Many Rooms For One House
-Too Many Rooms combine with the mirrors everywhere to make the house’s layout uncertain and confusing
-brass letter openers shaped like daggers
I’m literally not going to interact with ANY cishet white person from the southern states for ANY lengh of time longer than it takes to order a meal at McDonalds because Creepypasta has taught me to suspect that every single one of them are PROBABLY either serial killers or connected to a cult and actual southerners here on Tumblr have basically been like “YES THEY ARE”
Y’know i really ought to use my own family for some story inspirations. My mother, a midwestern woman from a VERY poor german jewish/irish (possibly probably faerie, her surname used to be Elvin for christs sake) background MARRIED INTO ONE OF /THOSE/ southern families. y’know, the ones who basically own the small town they live in? Her whole life has been a dramatic attempt to keep her children from falling prey to the gross and weird relatives.
… I cannot believe i hadn’t noticed my mom was a gothic heroine before now.
What is a “Gaelic Gasp”? You might ask that, but if you live in Scotland or the Maritimes, chances are you’ve heard it before.
A Gaelic Gasp is a linguistic phenomenon that originates from the Scottish Highlands, however is also commonly found in the Scottish Lowlands, Nova Scotia, PEI, and New Brunswick. It is characterized as being an intake of breath while saying words such as “yeah”, and is often used in agreement.
What makes the Gaelic Gasp so interesting is that most people are completely unaware of doing it. And many people will deny doing it. Another interesting thing is that sometimes people will actually become competitive and use the Gaelic Gasp more when put in a conversation with another person who is using it.
The key that keeps readers interested in your story is conflict. If nothing is at stake, then there is not much to see. So, here are a few general tips to cause some ripples in the ponds of your characters’ lives.
“Prioritizing”: Your character has two main motives that they have been working towards, but they end up in a situation where they have to sacrifice one to save the other. Depending on how easy or hard the choice is, this range from “disappointing” to “devastating” in the sacrifice.
Character Flaws: As I talked about in my cornerstonespost, every character should have a flaw. Flaws are flaws and not strengths for a reason- they get in the way. Have your character have a moment of weakness, where they lose their values and give in to temptation or get carried away.
In addition: Even without their key flaws, characters can sometimes just… be wrong. Maybe they miscalculated. Maybe they misunderstood. Maybe they made the wrong guess. They did what everyone does: They Done Messed Up, and now they have to deal with the result.
Liar, Liar: Someone is lying, or even keeping secrets, and now, it’s causing problems. They can’t go forward without the truth, or worse, they are making mistakes due to a warped perception of the situation.
Draw backs: Let the good things come at a cost. One key rule for worlds with magic or superpowers is that all power should come at cost- equal to or greater than the power itself.
“Because I Said So”: Don’t forget, there are other characters in your story, and even if they are on the protagonist’s own side, they are not always going to just merrily go along with whatever the protagonist said. Maybe they disagree. Maybe they are powerful enough to get in the protagonist’s way, and maybe it’s that important to them that they try. If fighting an enemy is hard, fighting a friend is harder.
Take It Back: Your character makes a decision that seems right at the time. Maybe it was the obvious choice, or maybe it was taking a risk. But uh-oh…now there are unforeseen consequences.
Or, the opposite…
Decisions, Decisions: Maybe your character has to make a decision where there is not an immediately obvious choice. Make sure that both/all the options have both positive and negative possible or certain outcomes. There is no obvious right or wrong choice. Bonus, it’s funny to watch the fandom debate it later.
Strip Them Down: Remove your character’s greatest strength. For whatever reason, your character’s most valuable asset is not available, and now, they have to live without it. Bonus mode- it would be really, really helpful if they had it right now!
Or, do the opposite…
Boss Fight: Maybe, instead of your protagonist getting weaker, it’s your antagonist that gets stronger. Strengthen the opposition and see if your characters can adapt to survive, or if they lack what it takes.
Change of Plan: The rules of the game have changed. This can mean different things depending on your story. They could be literal rules, or more general. Think Hunger Games- did I say two tributes? I meant one, after all. Fight to the death now, please.
Amplify the Emotions: … And the results that come with. People do crazy things in the heat of the moment. You can’t think straight when all you can do is feel. Blinded by anger, sadness, or even joy, your character makes a bad choice.
*Pile It On: You know what a full plate needs? Even more stuff. Your character is already juggling, trying to balance a variety of responsibilities. So add one more ball. Do they crash and burn immediately? Does it take a while? Do they succeed? Any which way, the stress is high.
*Note: this one can be difficult on the author, too. Make sure that with all these plot lines, you’re not losing track, yourself.
“Murphy’s Law”: Simply stated, this is a plot tool that says, “whatever can go wrong, will.” I’m just going to say right away… be careful with this one. It’s really frustrating for your audience to watch the characters fail or lose or face misfortune over and over and over again. It makes it feel like nothing will ever come out of rooting for them, so you may as well give up now. Murphy’s Law can be great in the proper proportions, please, let your characters have some victories, or there’s no point to it.
And hey, don’t forget about your inner conflicts.You never know when those are going to have the opportunity to cause trouble.
Give ‘em hell, kids!*
***disclaimer: you do not have to be a kid to give them hell.
Avelera 