Author of CHILLING EFFECT and PRIME DECEPTIONS and stories and poetry. Repped by @qnrisawesome. Such mom jokes, very Miami, guau. Cuban-American. She/her. VP20!
Aug 18, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
I’ve been thinking about antagonists and how for some folks it’s tough to come up with ones that aren’t mustache twirlers. Not every story needs an explicit antagonist, but it’s often helpful to create a character who represents the antagonistic forces in a story.
Depending on the protagonist’s goals, it can be difficult to find believable or relatable reasons why someone would be working against them. Some thoughts on possible avenues of interrogation that might lead to useful options.
Jan 11, 2019 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
I was helping a friend yesterday and it was suggested I share these tips more widely, so, behold:
HOW TO STOP HATING YOUR WORK-IN-PROGRESS AND GET BACK TO IT
This is mostly geared toward writing, but some stuff can be applied more broadly.
In my experience, the bad feels are a big tangle of separate individual feels. Dealing with any single feel can maybe help unravel the tangle, or sometimes you have to deal with all of it at once to get moving again.
Oct 31, 2018 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
So. In preparation for #NaNoWriMo, a friend of mine asked about how to come up with subplots in novels. Here are some ideas, with a little discussion of TV writing as one easy way to think about structure.
In a typical TV show, there are at least three plots in every episode, called the A, B and C plots because simple is good. The A plot is the main story, the overarching drama or mystery or conflict that takes up most of the screen time and involves your main characters.
Jul 23, 2018 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
So you said/did something foolish and now you're getting dragged online.
Step one: apologize. Not for getting caught, not because of the way people felt or reacted, but because you screwed up. Be specific and sincere.
"I'm sorry I said/did X and I'm sorry for the harm it caused."
Jun 8, 2018 • 25 tweets • 4 min read
Hey, friend. Were you a smart kid who always heard about how smart you were and are now not feeling so smart? Are you, in fact, feeling fairly shitty about yourself? This thread is for you.
It can be extremely difficult for smart kids to decouple their sense of self-worth from external validation. Especially praise for supposedly innate qualities instead of hard work.
