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So we get to one of the revelations I have been trying to build towards, the moment Shadow finds out about Nymphia's past. Since this is one of the big revelations of the story, I do want talk a little bit about how I write stories and what I hope to get out of it. To start with, I want to talk about this scene specifically first. Specifically the liar revealed story and how I have decided to tackle it. I've discussed that trope before, usually in my movie reviews, but I wanted to discuss it again and why exactly it annoys me and how I intended to do it differently here. So if you're unfamiliar or just need a refresher, the way it works is a character lies about something (usually who they are, what their past was, what they are able to do, that sort of thing) and due to the lie, they get put into a situation where what they lied about is put to the test and they're revealed to have been lying. Well after that, everybody suddenly feels incredibly hurt, betrayed, etc and all the characters wonder off to mope about it until the liar realizes in some way they really were what they lied about and race off to apologize, usually during the climax. Well the thing about it is, it's predictable, it's boring, it doesn't work at all because we already know long in advance how they'll feel, the moping scenes are just a dreaded failed attempt at drama, etc. So the way I wanted to handle this is to present a few things that change up the trope a little bit:
  First of all, give them a reason to think they should lie. To do that, Solar catches her with the ball and he has a violent reaction to it, confirming the fear she had. She also cares greatly for Marina, so despite the fear and Solar's reaction, she's not willing to give it up.
  Second, she doesn't get caught by some artificial means, she gets "caught" because she feels guilty about lying to Shadow and that is why he finds out about it. She flat out tells him because she feels she has to not because she is forced to.
  Third, Shadow doesn't mope around, he already knows how he feels about her. To me that it is a much stronger dedication of his feelings towards her when he hears something he doesn't like about her and that she isn't perfect but accepts her anyway.
  Fourthly, Shadow and Solar do not have the same reaction to it. People don't all have to react the exact same way to things and both of these guys have personality and back story reasons for believing what they do. They don't believe that just because the plot needs them to.
  Fifth, the lie is not the only conflict or even the main one. It is one of several things going on. Ergo drama is coming from a different source, with the lie and the characters reactions to the lie being ways to demonstrate the differences in their personalities, their priorities, etc. For instance, Solar and Shadow's feelings towards it are very different, demonstrating the differences between characters, their opinions on things, the things that are important to them, potential to explore why they feel the way they do, etc.

Anyway, that was the concept and how I wanted to tackle it. Long term readers of my work will probably see this a lot. I tend to want to challenge literary tropes, norms, etc. It's not uncommon at all for me to say that I don't like how this is usually done and then proceed to make a story with that concept showing a way I do think it should be done. Shining Consequence even has challenging literary norms and tropes as a central theme and has already taken on at least two classic do not do topics in writing and I intend to continue doing it. I've said this before and I will say it again, if my stories have any connecting concept to them, it's the desire to make the audience feel/ think something, even if it's not necessarily what I wanted you to think or feel. To me, if you finish a story I've written and then the next thought in your head is what am I going to have for dinner, that is a failure to me. I don't necessarily know if I'm succeeding at that goal since I can't decide how people feel about something but hopefully I am.

First Part: Next part: , Previous Part:

From December 1, 2018- February 28, 2019, I am running a contest revolving around these scenes where you could win up to 1000 points and make a cameo appearance in Shining Consequence! If you're interested, consider entering it. Details can be seen here:

Solarshadow Anniversary Contest Solarshadow has just finished Chapter 2 officially and as promised, I want to run a contest to celebrate it. Specifically, I want to focus on what I had called the big events of that chapter. Significant events of Shining Consequence going on at the time will also be accepted. Goal will be to depict one of these events in some sort of way, be it drawing a picture based on one of these scenes, an alternate ending or reimagining to one of these events, predictions on future things based on one of these, etc. Below is a list of all of the events that qualify and the pages that featured them for quick reference:
Solar and Shadow's Past: , , , , ,
Solar's Argument with Crystal: ,
The Dance Sequence and kiss: ,

Description
So we get to one of the revelations I have been trying to build towards, the moment Shadow finds out about Nymphia's past. Since this is one of the big revelations of the story, I do want talk a little bit about how I write stories and what I hope to get out of it. To start with, I want to talk about this scene specifically first. Specifically the liar revealed story and how I have decided to tackle it. I've discussed that trope before, usually in my movie reviews, but I wanted to discuss it again and why exactly it annoys me and how I intended to do it differently here. So if you're unfamiliar or just need a refresher, the way it works is a character lies about something (usually who they are, what their past was, what they are able to do, that sort of thing) and due to the lie, they get put into a situation where what they lied about is put to the test and they're revealed to have been lying. Well after that, everybody suddenly feels incredibly hurt, betrayed, etc and all the characters wonder off to mope about it until the liar realizes in some way they really were what they lied about and race off to apologize, usually during the climax. Well the thing about it is, it's predictable, it's boring, it doesn't work at all because we already know long in advance how they'll feel, the moping scenes are just a dreaded failed attempt at drama, etc. So the way I wanted to handle this is to present a few things that change up the trope a little bit:
  First of all, give them a reason to think they should lie. To do that, Solar catches her with the ball and he has a violent reaction to it, confirming the fear she had. She also cares greatly for Marina, so despite the fear and Solar's reaction, she's not willing to give it up.
  Second, she doesn't get caught by some artificial means, she gets "caught" because she feels guilty about lying to Shadow and that is why he finds out about it. She flat out tells him because she feels she has to not because she is forced to.
  Third, Shadow doesn't mope around, he already knows how he feels about her. To me that it is a much stronger dedication of his feelings towards her when he hears something he doesn't like about her and that she isn't perfect but accepts her anyway.
  Fourthly, Shadow and Solar do not have the same reaction to it. People don't all have to react the exact same way to things and both of these guys have personality and back story reasons for believing what they do. They don't believe that just because the plot needs them to.
  Fifth, the lie is not the only conflict or even the main one. It is one of several things going on. Ergo drama is coming from a different source, with the lie and the characters reactions to the lie being ways to demonstrate the differences in their personalities, their priorities, etc. For instance, Solar and Shadow's feelings towards it are very different, demonstrating the differences between characters, their opinions on things, the things that are important to them, potential to explore why they feel the way they do, etc.

Anyway, that was the concept and how I wanted to tackle it. Long term readers of my work will probably see this a lot. I tend to want to challenge literary tropes, norms, etc. It's not uncommon at all for me to say that I don't like how this is usually done and then proceed to make a story with that concept showing a way I do think it should be done. Shining Consequence even has challenging literary norms and tropes as a central theme and has already taken on at least two classic do not do topics in writing and I intend to continue doing it. I've said this before and I will say it again, if my stories have any connecting concept to them, it's the desire to make the audience feel/ think something, even if it's not necessarily what I wanted you to think or feel. To me, if you finish a story I've written and then the next thought in your head is what am I going to have for dinner, that is a failure to me. I don't necessarily know if I'm succeeding at that goal since I can't decide how people feel about something but hopefully I am.

First Part: Next part: , Previous Part:

From December 1, 2018- February 28, 2019, I am running a contest revolving around these scenes where you could win up to 1000 points and make a cameo appearance in Shining Consequence! If you're interested, consider entering it. Details can be seen here:

Solarshadow Anniversary Contest Solarshadow has just finished Chapter 2 officially and as promised, I want to run a contest to celebrate it. Specifically, I want to focus on what I had called the big events of that chapter. Significant events of Shining Consequence going on at the time will also be accepted. Goal will be to depict one of these events in some sort of way, be it drawing a picture based on one of these scenes, an alternate ending or reimagining to one of these events, predictions on future things based on one of these, etc. Below is a list of all of the events that qualify and the pages that featured them for quick reference:
Solar and Shadow's Past: , , , , ,
Solar's Argument with Crystal: ,
The Dance Sequence and kiss: ,