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Hello, fellow writers! Got any question that you can't find answer from Google or Wikipedia, but you don't think it needs a separate thread for? You came to the right place!

Don't be shy, and just ask away. The nice folks here, writers and non-writers, experts and non-experts, will do their best to help you.

The folder below contains links for special interest threads, mostly at OTC, but also from Yack Fest and Troper Coven.

    Special Interest Threads 

Also take a look at Useful Notes on various topics. They can be pretty useful.

Now, bring on the questions, baby!

edited 11th Apr '18 6:31:51 PM by dRoy

Codae Since: Aug, 2022
#31001: Sep 4th 2025 at 1:09:37 PM

[up][up][up] The Latin's not quite right—we need to translate "rage" as a verb, not a noun, and I think raging against the actual extinction of the light makes more sense than raging against the dead light itself. Here's my attempt.

Astra serva. Fure contra extinguendum lucem.

Edited by Codae on Sep 4th 2025 at 1:14:20 AM

MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#31002: Sep 4th 2025 at 1:33:44 PM

[up] thanks.

now who knows what the "rhythm" of lyrics would be in a 3/4 waltz time signature?

MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#31003: Sep 7th 2025 at 12:02:18 PM

new question. What personality do you think fits a Narcissus themed Plant Person (beyond the obvious)

Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#31004: Sep 8th 2025 at 7:42:14 AM

[up] @ Morning Star 1337:

I'm assuming by "the obvious" you mean being obsessed with their own appearance/beauty or being incredibly self-centered?

Well, you could turn things around by having them be the opposite of a narcissist or better still a recovering narcissist. They are trying to deconstruct their self-centered and vain former persona while struggling with the balance between detrimentally devoting themselves to others and being completely self-absorbed.

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#31005: Sep 8th 2025 at 7:56:19 AM

[up] yeah.

Interesting but I feel that that still gets close to the stereotype. It's good as a secondary trait but not quite the most rounded of characters IMHO.

Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#31006: Sep 8th 2025 at 8:05:06 AM

[up] @ Morning Star 1337:

Yeah, the problem is that it isn't much to work with. The idea I had was the best I could think of while keeping the overall "theme" and stretching it to its limit. Apart from overwhelming self-focus (or turning it to the opposite, exploring its effects, showing someone trying to get over it, etc) there is little else.

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
C105 Too old for this from France Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Too old for this
#31007: Sep 8th 2025 at 8:12:33 AM

For what it's worth, checking Wikipedia taught me that narcissus are toxic to human and animals when ingested in large quantities (but they don't taste very good so there is little chance of these happening by accident), but have some uses in medicine. But right now the only suggestion that comes to mind after reading this would be a personality akin to Pepé Le Pew, which may not fitting with the tone of your story.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.
MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#31008: Sep 8th 2025 at 8:19:22 AM

The general idea here is that the alraune in question is a reincarnation of an earthling who is the average isekai protagonist archetype. ...And therefore sees themselves as God's gift to the otherworld and developed an entitled and well narcissistic personality as a result.

I want to frame them as a Romantic False Lead to the actual MC, and a Jerkass with a charming facade who can rare from ally to antagonist depending on the role, if not playing both at once.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Sep 8th 2025 at 8:19:30 AM

Marchen Too hot (Hot damn) from Somewhere Out in Space (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
Too hot (Hot damn)
#31009: Sep 8th 2025 at 8:37:22 AM

So for a personality trait... Something about echoes? It's, like, the other thing about the myth, right? So maybe this guy's bit of a social chameleon? Kinda just... echoing what people want to hear? But not necessarily a lot of substance? Onion style? I think Daffodils grow from onions... And a habit of Parrot Exposition?

Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#31010: Sep 8th 2025 at 9:47:16 AM

TLDR: Character has wanted to become a werewolf since his teenage years but has long since given up on it due to how impossible it is. Villain offers him a guaranteed chance of turning into one, but he rejects it due to who it's coming from. Does this make sense or make him come off as an idiot?

More Detailed Explanation:

I'm trying to think of a reason a particular character would have to remain human, especially under his specific circumstances.

My main character's father has wanted to become a werewolf since he first discovered his town's pack when he himself was a teenager and indeed was heartbroken when he was both turned down and told how rare it is for a human to become one. Even though he has accepted that he will always be a powerless human, it's a deep wound in his heart that feeds his inferiority complex towards supernatural beings.

Here is the question: In Part 2 of my story, he makes a Deal with the Devil with one of the Big Bad Ensemble. One of the rewards she offers for their "partnership" is to make his adolescent dream come true, since she has a 100 percent chance of changing any human she bites unlike the roll-the-dice chances of other werewolves.

However, he turns her down pretty empathically although he accepts working with her for other rewards and perks. What I'm wondering is if this makes any kind of sense? It's a huge deal to just turn down the one chance of something he wanted so badly and had long since given up on. .

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Sep 8th 2025 at 2:43:54 PM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#31011: Sep 10th 2025 at 2:40:51 PM

It sounds like a character development moment to me. After extensive self-reflection, and struggling with conflicting feelings toward his dream and toward her, he finally gives up his adolescent dream for what he now realizes is a more mature attitude.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#31012: Sep 11th 2025 at 6:53:59 AM

[up] @ De Marquis:

I'm glad it doesn't sound like he just threw away such a personal and poignant dream for something like moral posturing. Nothing wrong with a character having a strong sense of right/wrong but ffollowing it at the expense of themselves and others is a bit much.

It is intended to be a milestone for him in both an emotional and practical way. His inferiority complex isn't even close to gone but he realizes that he has responsibilities and a life that he can't just throw away. Practically he knows that as a werewolf he'd be bound to her will and that's just not ideal.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Sep 11th 2025 at 9:54:12 AM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#31013: Sep 11th 2025 at 7:27:23 PM

Any thoughts on this party?

  • The leader is a dandy alraune who is very conceited, narcissistic and yet still capable of charming friend and foe alike. Somewhat savvy to isekai hero conventions.
  • His main lancer is a Stock Light-Novel Calamity Princess (here a disgraced heiress to a railway empire instead of a literal princess) with uncontrollable fire magic and an unwanted exaggerated reputation stemming from being at the right place at the wrong time.
  • his other lancer is also his Childhood Friend a (male) elven bard who has a bromancic relationship and sees the heiress as an obstacle to it. Love triangle shenanigans ensue
  • A pair of female satyrs who were completely obvious to the idea of love and end up learning about it in strange ways
  • a stoic cleric who sees himself as the Only Sane Man among wacky fools and lunatics.
  • and a living palace with the heart of a little girl who sees the alraune as her father (and is one of only two who wouldn't have any romantic infatuation with him)

What do you think about the dynamics?

Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#31014: Sep 12th 2025 at 6:09:57 AM

[up] @ Morning Star 1337:

I'm a little confused; if the protagonist is an isekai hero (from what I'm gathering from this brief description), how does he have a childhood friend? Unless of course he's one of the "reborn in another world as a child with his previous life's memories fully intact" types.

Also, is the idea of the satyrs who do not understand love and must learn about it a Shout-Out to the 1911 novel Alraune?

Those questions aside, the characters seem solid enough, although I would point out that in a situation like this, it is the dynamics and chemistry between them at really carries the story. You seem to have worked that out well though.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Sep 12th 2025 at 9:56:06 AM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#31015: Sep 12th 2025 at 7:21:10 AM

[up] it is a Reincarnate in Another World type, yes.

As for your other question. No, I have not seen nor heard of that work, but the satyrs are partly reference to an old Greek book called "Daphinis and Chloe" (which if your wondering featured an alt origin story for Echo)

That said I will do some research on it and see if references will be more deliberately woven in. The timeframe already matches well.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Sep 12th 2025 at 7:22:07 AM

Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#31016: Sep 12th 2025 at 7:58:18 AM

[up] @ Morning Star 1337:

Okay that makes some sense, particularly the childhood friend aspect. Since there seem to be two types of isekai protagonists, I figured that if he had a lifelong friend the guy was either transported to the other world with him (which would actually make a pretty good plot) or that he had been raised alongside this person in his new life.

As for the Alraune reference, I guess the only reason I thought of the book was because you addressed the protagonist as "an Alraune" and the book I mentioned had similar themes of an entity without the concept of love slowly learning what it means and its ups and downs, pains and pleasures.

That said I will do some research on it and see if references will be more deliberately woven in. The timeframe already matches well.

Good luck then!. I would give a slight heads up that it is a rather grim work, featuring unethical human experimentation and the Frankenstein-esque concept of creating life solely for one's scientific curiosity and the disastrous fallout of those actions on the creation and creator alike. So, if it fits with your story go for it, but that's just a bit of information about it in case it doesn't match.

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#31017: Sep 12th 2025 at 9:05:41 AM

How would one go about describing (especially from a first-person perspective) having Super-Senses but without the Required Secondary Powers of the brain being able to process/regulate those sensations?

One of the "symptoms" of a young werewolf growing into their abilities (or in much rarer cases a bitten human changing into a werewolf) is that their senses sharpen to superhuman levels before their first full moon transformation. Unfortunately, they still have the brain/nervous system of a human, which makes this sensory sharpening an unpleasant process.

I'm trying to think of a way to describe what this would be like and how it would look to people around them.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Sep 12th 2025 at 12:58:48 PM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#31018: Sep 12th 2025 at 9:24:45 AM

[up]I'd look to Synesthesia symptoms to start.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Sep 12th 2025 at 9:24:56 AM

Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#31019: Sep 12th 2025 at 10:01:58 AM

[up] @ Morning Star 1337:

I guess synesthesia is a place to start. Although I always interpreted it as the combination of multiple senses at once, causing a chaotic and confusing "message" (like tasting colors or hearing smells).

What I'm going for here that every sense stays "in its place", they're just expanded far beyond what is normal. I guess an example would be that the faintest trace of smoke from a single cigarette down the street feels like its being blown directly into their nostrils. That kind of thing.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Sep 12th 2025 at 1:03:57 PM

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
Allisterarch Water-Breathing Human from Ridiculous Procrastination zone (Striking Back) Relationship Status: love is a deadly lazer
#31020: Sep 12th 2025 at 10:05:59 AM

Not to randomly chime in here again, but speaking as a someone who's actually a synaesthete — I am... not comfortable with this idea. Hearing colors in sounds and seeing colors in letters is just how the world works for me, and it's not really heightened senses. I think even cases of people gaining temporal synaesthesia via, say, drunkeness would be more a confusion of senses rather than heightened senses, and it's often paired with a general sense of numbness, kaleidoscopic vision etc. (although I can't attest for that situation as a teetotaler :p)

Not the best person to weight in here, because I am not much of a fan of werebeast tropes in general :p but I think in this scenario it would be just... sensory overload? I can attest from Teh Autism that any time I get sensory overload I kind of feel itchy as if every sound is scratching my brain and every glare irritates my eyes, and I really just can't think straight because there's a... how could I describe it... pressure on my mind as if my nerves are going to explode? It's just a really irritating situation, generally. (And yes, cigarette smoke as well as other kinds of smoke and smog can and will cause that kind of reaction on my nostrils :p uugghh) Depending on the person a sensory overload can trigger either a meltdown or a shutdown (for me it's usually a meltdown). Though of course portraying werewolf transformation in this scenario as a full-on meltdown may run the risk of falling into the pitfalls of the Neurodiversity Is Supernatural trope. EDIT: Ninja'd

[down] Welcome ^^

Edited by Allisterarch on Sep 12th 2025 at 2:29:41 PM

If Aquaman is "Nobody's favorite superhero", then I am Odysseus. (They/Them) (Troper Wall)
Swordofknowledge Spreading literacy with book and blade from I like it here... Since: Aug, 2012 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Spreading literacy with book and blade
#31021: Sep 12th 2025 at 10:28:26 AM

[up] @ Allisterarch:

ot to randomly chime in here again, but speaking as a someone who's actually a synaesthete — I am... not comfortable with this idea. Hearing colors in sounds and seeing colors in letters is just how the world works for me, and it's not really heightened senses. I think even cases of people gaining temporal synaesthesia via, say, drunkeness would be more a confusion of senses rather than heightened senses, and it's often paired with a general sense of numbness, kaleidoscopic vision etc. (although I can't attest for that situation as a teetotaler :p)

Thank you for chiming in. As I said above, I think synesthesia isn't exactly what I was going for—it was more about the logical conclusion that if a person gains heightened senses but lacks the ability to "regulate" those senses then they'll have a bad time until they develop that particular example of Required Secondary Powers.

Though of course portraying werewolf transformation in this scenario as a full-on meltdown may run the risk of falling into the pitfalls of the Neurodiversity Is Supernatural trope.

Well, definitely wasn't trying to make that implication at all (honestly if any unintentional metaphor could be made for my werewolves it is about the effects of generational trauma and how unresolved hatred can "curse" entire swaths of people).

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Thank you very much for that explanation of sensory overload and what it could look like to an outside person.

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#31022: Sep 13th 2025 at 3:07:45 PM

I need Watsonian reasons for why a miko of the "mystically powered exorcist" sort would have a persistent problem of being haunted/harassed by all manner of ghosts and spirits everday, not including vengefulness over her having exorcised many of their kind.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Marchen Too hot (Hot damn) from Somewhere Out in Space (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
Too hot (Hot damn)
#31023: Sep 13th 2025 at 3:14:12 PM

[up] Is this the kind of setting where just about everyone can see ghosts? Because if not, being able to directly see them would probably motivate them to interact with the one person who can see them.

Alternatively, maybe she, as a spiritual maiden, just has a natural draw for spirits? Like, kinda like a magnet for supernatural stuff? So ghosts are just drawn to her holy energy subconsciously?

Read Otr of the Flame (She/Her)
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#31024: Sep 13th 2025 at 3:25:07 PM

No, most people lack either the innate ability to see incorporeal entities or need to diligently train it in order to push it beyond the kind of vague chills/dread that IRL is experienced by people in response to infrasonic sounds note .

I guess having unusually "tasty" ki can drive ghosts — especially the less intelligent or more suicidal ones — to continually harass someone for the chance of getting a morsel of it, even when it's obvious that person is a professional ghost-exterminator. Any other reasons, though?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
ArsThaumaturgis Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: I've been dreaming of True Love's Kiss
#31025: Sep 14th 2025 at 12:43:25 AM

[up] Perhaps a sort of "fate": by the laws of the universe, or the decrees of whatever deities/authorities the setting may have, the two opposing sides are destined to meet and clash again and again? (Or, conversely, the miko is guided in such a way that she keeps encountering them.)

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