#tropes — Public Fediverse posts

Cover Your Story Scaffolding, Or, Grumbling About Monarch Season 2

Really, put in some effort.

Archive: ia: https://s.faithcollapsing.com/fncc9

#craft-of-writing #writing #godzilla #plot #story #tropes
https://ideatrash.net/2026/04/cover-your-story-scaffolding-or-grumbling-about-monarch-season-2.html

Cover Your Story Scaffolding, Or, Grumbling About Monarch Season 2

“Never let your readers hear the dice roll.”

It’s common advice from genre writers at gaming conventions, and it’s good advice.

It’s not a prohibition from using the framework or scaffolding of a game system — Honor Among Thieves uses initiative order and D&D’s time pacing during its combat scenes. It’s done well and feels natural even if you’ve never heard of the game before. While that stands out to D&D players, that scaffolding is not obvious, even though it is present.

The principle applies more broadly; when the scaffolding shows, the story suffers.

Plot stupidity, deus ex machinas, anything where it leads the reader (or viewer) to suddenly realize that the only reason certain things are happening is “because there has to be a plot.” (The variant “Only the Author Can Save Them Now” is definitely what I mean here.)

I’m only three episodes into season two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and it seems determined to strip away the facade and show off that scaffolding.

Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoyed the first season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters; it was nuanced, layered, and smart. While characters made occasional stupid choices, it made sense within the context of the story and the nature of that character. The hotheaded military guy is aggressive when that’s not a smart move? Makes sense. The idealistic person is blindsided by humans being awful? That tracks. The burned-by-the-system cynical character doesn’t trust anyone enough to share information? Of course not.

In season two, a world where Godzilla is known to exist, Monarch is still ill-funded and ineffectual. A few real examples from the same episode: It absolutely makes sense that corporations would try to profit from Titans (thank you Pacific Rim), but a third of a way through the second season seems like a strange place for a group you’ve never heard of before suddenly be ultra-influential and an outsized factor. Ah, there’s giant billboards showing some of your party’s faces as wanted fugitives? Let’s have them go run a simple errand instead of laying low, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Oh, you just happen to have an old “prototype” of the exact doohickey we need? How convenient.

Of course we all know that, yes, it IS convenient for the authors and writers. Those things drive the plot. You need scaffolding to give the story structure and shape. But when those convenient coincidences (or lapses in judgment or memory) are too large or too common, your readers and viewers are having to mentally duck and weave around that scaffolding to follow the story.

They are paying more attention to the structure than to the story itself.

There are outliers — House of Leaves immediately comes to mind — where the structure is very obvious, but rather than detracting from the experience, helps draw one into it. I found Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories compelling, not because I just wanted to “win” and get the best ending, but seeing how the story changed with those decisions. Even my pet peeve of “clap for Tinkerbell” — in the stage versions, at least — increases the immersion for the young audience it’s meant for.

If you’re thinking about your work in progress, TTRPG campaign, or what you’ll write in the future, there is a fairly easy solution. You know what decision you want the characters to make. You know where the next scenario or scene should happen. You know they’ve got to survive this unsurvivable fight somehow.

All you have to do is to rationalize it. And if you can’t rationalize it right away, add small details until you can.

One more actual example from the same episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters:

Our protagonists are being pursued by primitive religious zealots at night. It is a poorly lit night, and in some kind of wilderness, so everyone is just fast-walking. The zealots, who are maybe 100-200 meters back, want the protagonist’s camera, but are probably going to kill our protagonists as well. Ah, take the film out of the camera! That way we can keep the film and … leave the camera on the ground which may “buy them some time”. Immediate hard cut to one of the zealots walking carefully and examining the ground…and the camera pans down to show us our protagonists crouched in a small depression only 4 meters away.

Obviously they wanted this tense, life-in-danger scene. Across three different “will they be revealed” moments it both tense and provides a character moment for one of the zealots as well.

But to get to this scene, our protagonists had to wait for the zealots to catch up. They had to just…twiddle their thumbs instead of using the time the camera supposedly bought.

It would be easy to fix.

The ditch might be the only place to hide they could get to. One of them could have the classic “twisted ankle”. They argue too long about whether or not to give up the camera. Then they have a reason to be in the situation they’re in.

The same story beats can happen. The same scenes.

It just takes a little more effort and thoughtfulness.

This may seem like a small, unimportant quibble, and to a degree it is. We’re all aware there has to be some degree of scaffolding. There will be small imperfections here and there.

It’s what I said above, though. All those examples above are from a single episode. Even if any of them wasn’t big enough to kick me out of the story completely, having it happen over and over again was just too much.

You want the ways you get the story from one scene to another, or get your characters from one location to another, to at least try to make sense within the fictional universe.

It shows that you care enough about the story to make sure the scaffolding doesn’t show.

(1) Yes, I know there are some times that is acceptable or expected, work with me here.

Featured Image by Bruno from Pixabay

Ah, the #classic 🤦 "we discovered something obvious and decided to blog about it" trope. Apparently, #regex engines have been lying to us for decades, promising #speed but delivering #molasses 🐢. Who knew a computer science relic from the '70s would be today's tech bloggers' favorite bandwagon? 🎉
https://iev.ee/blog/the-quadratic-problem-nobody-fixed/ #techblogging #computerScience #tropes #HackerNews #ngated

Review: Azumi

https://mangaispolitical.noblogs.org/post/2026/03/14/review-azumi/

Review: Azumi

https://mangaispolitical.noblogs.org/post/2026/03/14/review-azumi/

Tip to anyone who likes to write the "amnesia trope": FORGETTING IS SCARY, It is UPSETTING, and TERRIFYING. Look at people with dementia, and alzheimers - they are NOT having a good time when they realize they have forgotten something and everyone is unknown to them. It is HORRIFIC.

I say this as someone who has intense memory issues - you also can't hide it. It is clear to people around you something is OFF. They will notice.

#writingtip #writing #amnesia #tropes

I’ve always found it deeply disturbing how women are treated in the James Bond films. In almost every entry, a woman—or several—is brutally killed, often soon after sleeping with Bond. It’s one of modern cinema’s most normalised examples of misogyny, hiding in plain sight. 🧵

#JamesBond #FilmCriticism #Cinema #FilmAnalysis #MovieDiscussion #CulturalCritique #FilmHistory
#FeministFilm #RepresentationMatters #WomenInFilm #GenderInMedia #MediaCritique #Tropes

I’ve always found it deeply disturbing how women are treated in the James Bond films. In almost every entry, a woman—or several—is brutally killed, often soon after sleeping with Bond. It’s one of modern cinema’s most normalised examples of misogyny, hiding in plain sight. 🧵

#JamesBond #FilmCriticism #Cinema #FilmAnalysis #MovieDiscussion #CulturalCritique #FilmHistory
#FeministFilm #RepresentationMatters #WomenInFilm #GenderInMedia #MediaCritique #Tropes

I’ve always found it deeply disturbing how women are treated in the James Bond films. In almost every entry, a woman—or several—is brutally killed, often soon after sleeping with Bond. It’s one of modern cinema’s most normalised examples of misogyny, hiding in plain sight. 🧵

#JamesBond #FilmCriticism #Cinema #FilmAnalysis #MovieDiscussion #CulturalCritique #FilmHistory
#FeministFilm #RepresentationMatters #WomenInFilm #GenderInMedia #MediaCritique #Tropes

I’ve always found it deeply disturbing how women are treated in the James Bond films. In almost every entry, a woman—or several—is brutally killed, often soon after sleeping with Bond. It’s one of modern cinema’s most normalised examples of misogyny, hiding in plain sight. 🧵

#JamesBond #FilmCriticism #Cinema #FilmAnalysis #MovieDiscussion #CulturalCritique #FilmHistory
#FeministFilm #RepresentationMatters #WomenInFilm #GenderInMedia #MediaCritique #Tropes

# Trump escalated attacks on liberal #billionaire #GeorgeSoros - saying he and other #Democratic #donors be investigated for allegedly funding “#leftwing #terrorism,” despite no evidence; critics say the move weaponizes #antisemitic #tropes and aims to intimidate major #Democratic contributors ahead of the #2026midterms by making #Soros a #political #scapegoat and deterring donor support. #democracy #elections #martiallaw #maga #dictator #government #politics #constitution

#PennedPossibilities 780 — Do you have any favorite tropes (not clichés) that you enjoy writing?

I'm not altogether sure what a #trope is.

Dictionaries define it as a figure of speech, the use of words in a non-literal sense. But people (myself included) have tended to use it to mean something like a theme or motif. Perhaps it is something writers need more clarity on

#writing #writingcommunity #tropes

#Reading
Alright, I have a question about a trope I have come across now twice in book descriptions and I have absolutely no idea what it is supposed to mean:
"Who did this to you?"

What's the subtext here?
"Tell me who it was so I can punish them?"
Or is it more general: "Who would ever do such a thing to a person?"
Or does it means something else?

#tropes #trope #writingcommunity

Where did the ridiculously large sword trope come from? I'm talking swords so broad they look like ironing boards with pommels. These look unwieldy and preposterous to me, yet most folks seem to view them unironically (pun semi-intended). #swords #TropeTalk #tropes

The 'I never heard about that' defense is back! | @destiny

#FeigningIgnorance #Tropes #Antisemitism #FourthOfJuly #Destiny

Do you choose books by seasonal focus? If you're looking for some summer reading #tropes , you'll find them here.
#LetsDiscuss2025 #bookstodon #reading #SummerReading

Book Discussion: Summer Reading Tropes https://jannghi.blogspot.com/2025/05/book-discussion-summer-reading-tropes.html

#Antisemitism absolutely on rise #Trump buddy #Kanye releasing song “Heil #Hitler,” his co-prez openly campaigns 4 #German #NeoFascism party. Trump accepts luxury #jet [threatens ABC 4 reporting] from govt bankrolling #Hamas. All seem to B doing a lot more 2 directly mainstream anti #Jewish sentiment than univ offering #MiddleEastern Studies. #tropes baked in2 campus crackdown efforts. WH thinks #Neonazi rally on campus is just “very fine people on both sides.” https://abovethelaw.com/2025/05/top-law-school-faculty-issue-letter-defending-rule-of-law #ruleoflaw

Are you the steady stoic type or the teacher's pet? Maybe you like to give orders. Or take them? Get to know the cast of Callers: Emergence, our debut novel available at callersbooks.com

https://youtube.com/shorts/HlMhnoO2dy0?si=j_ASjJGFNcwPb74_

#callersbooks #fun #personality #typecast #tropes #archetype #fantasybook #scifibook #anime #lol #books #bookstodon

Are you the steady stoic type or the teacher's pet? Maybe you like to give orders. Or take them? Get to know the cast of Callers: Emergence, our debut novel available at callersbooks.com

https://youtube.com/shorts/HlMhnoO2dy0?si=j_ASjJGFNcwPb74_

#callersbooks #fun #personality #typecast #tropes #archetype #fantasybook #scifibook #anime #lol #books #bookstodon

Are you the steady stoic type or the teacher's pet? Maybe you like to give orders. Or take them? Get to know the cast of Callers: Emergence, our debut novel available at callersbooks.com

https://youtube.com/shorts/HlMhnoO2dy0?si=j_ASjJGFNcwPb74_

#callersbooks #fun #personality #typecast #tropes #archetype #fantasybook #scifibook #anime #lol #books #bookstodon

Are you the steady stoic type or the teacher's pet? Maybe you like to give orders. Or take them? Get to know the cast of Callers: Emergence, our debut novel available at callersbooks.com

https://youtube.com/shorts/HlMhnoO2dy0?si=j_ASjJGFNcwPb74_

#callersbooks #fun #personality #typecast #tropes #archetype #fantasybook #scifibook #anime #lol #books #bookstodon

A quotation from Nicholas Taleb

We humans, facing limits of knowledge, and things we do not observe, the unseen and the unknown, resolve the tension by squeezing life and the world into crisp commoditized ideas, reductive categories, specific vocabularies, and prepackaged narratives, which, on the occasion, has explosive consequences.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist.
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, Introduction (2010)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/taleb-nassim-nichola…

#quote #quotes #quotation #categories #categorization #knowledge #mind #narratives #oversimplification #patterns #shortcut #simplicity #tropes #understanding

#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 16 Nbr 13 — What’s your favourite trope? Do you lean into it for your work or shy away?

I've little interest in tropes, which I see as cliched bits of plot found frequently enough that a critic (read: not an author) decided could be well summarized in a few words. In my opinion, every plot has been written before, as has every character archetype.

As authors, we should feel no shame, no angst, no fear borrowing ideas wherever we find them. We need combine our discovered treasures with whatever message and character moves us, and write. The self-harm of measuring against tropes, other authors, or critics needs be discarded for what it is: procrastination and insecurity. It stifles us from writing, it prevents us from realizing our characters' dreams when that's what we truly desire.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#WritingAdvice
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion #Trope #Tropes

#Sapphics pay #tribute to #queer #female #characters who’ve been #killedoff – and there are… a lot.

The #Lady-#loving-ladies being brutally #killedoff for no good reason, aka the “#buryyourgays” #trope’s #sapphic #edition, is the #bane of every #queer #woman’s #media #experience.

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Entertainment #TV #Hate #Bigotry #Homophobia #Tropes #Representation #Culture

https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/11/07/tv-sapphic-lesbian-bisexual-characters-death/

The perfect prosthetic is a super common trope surrounding amputees and people with limb differences who use a prosthetic limb, so let's talk about it!

https://youtu.be/JDRmoSIlNik

#Disability #Amputee #WritingAdvice #Tropes #Authors

#MikeJohnson’s #Shockingly #Pro-#Ukraine #Speech Really Sticks It to #MAGA

The #House #speaker’s #comments #wrecked one of the #farright’s most #ridiculous, #reprehensible #tropes.

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Louisiana #RepublicanParty

https://newrepublic.com/article/180808/mike-johnson-pro-ukraine-speech-maga-deep-state-lie

So, my husband and I got our snacks for a movie date night. Between COVID-19, homophobia, and mass shootings, we no longer feel safe going out, so we just stay in. That, or the experience isn’t worth the price. I found a movie for us to watch on Tubi called Don’t Look Away. I think it is a creature feature of a Quantum Locked monster trope.

I am a Science, Math, and Horror nerd. I am constantly amused by Quantum Physics that churns out horror tropes, albeit woo mysticism inspired by quantum mechanics is infuriating. The Quantum Locked creature trope that Weeping Angels belong to, that is also in Lethal Company, is rooted in a very real quantum phenomenon called the Quantum Zeno effect. It’s always entertaining when Physics spins off a new monster trope.

Sometimes this effect is interpreted as “a system cannot change while you are watching it”.[2] One can “freeze” the evolution of the system by measuring it frequently enough in its known initial state. The meaning of the term has since expanded, leading to a more technical definition, in which time evolution can be suppressed not only by measurement: the quantum Zeno effect is the suppression of unitary time evolution in quantum systems provided by a variety of sources: measurement, interactions with the environment, stochastic fields, among other factors.[3] As an outgrowth of study of the quantum Zeno effect, it has become clear that applying a series of sufficiently strong and fast pulses with appropriate symmetry can also decouple a system from its decohering environment.[4]

#Covid #Covid19 #cryptid #cryptids #DoctorWho #gunViolence #homophobia #horror #husband #LethalCompany #monsters #Physics #Quantum #QuantumMechanics #QuantumPhysics #SciFi #sciencefiction #tropes #Tubi #weepingAngels

The #majority of the #residents who spoke at the Dec. 11 #boardmeeting were in favor of retaining 720, repeating common #conservative #tropes, #painting #trans #kids as #dangerous; “#safety was a frequent refrain, as were #comments equating #Pride with #hate, #expressing such #sentiments as “#inclusivity needs #boundaries” and how #studies describing the nuances of #genderidentity were “#fax science.”

Your #False #Narratives About #Lesbian #Friendships Aren’t Just #Tired, They’re #Harmful.

There have been so many false narratives about #queer #women told that over time they have gotten so built up and solidified as truth. The one that I really hate is that nearly every #lesbian #friendship started as a #stalled #flirtation.

#Women #Lesbians #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #SexualOrientation #Relationships #Sexuality #Intimacy #Stereotypes #Tropes

https://www.pride.com/identities/lesbian-stereotypes

#Horror #movie makers ‘extremely #saddened’ by #accusation of ‘#monstering’ #trans #women after

“It’s #trans #femininity played for #laughs, and the #laughter of the #audience at the #reveal and the sound of the audience #heckling my #friend will stay with me a long time.”

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Entertainment #Movies #Tropes #Hate #Bigotry #Transphobia

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/10/24/trans-horror-movie-plot-twist/

I'm a huge fan of the "only one bed" trope both as a reader and a writer--it's like forced proximity at its most delicious!

So I just couldn't resist putting Crowning Courtship, with all its fake-relationship, traveling together, one-bed goodness into this tropetastic book fair. I hope you find something new to enjoy!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/onlyonebedoct/252ojo4uql

#BookFair #ebooks #amreadingromance #tropes #OnlyOneBed #romancelandia #FantasyRomance

I'm a huge fan of the "only one bed" trope both as a reader and a writer--it's like forced proximity at its most delicious!

So I just couldn't resist putting Crowning Courtship, with all its fake-relationship, traveling together, one-bed goodness into this tropetastic book fair. I hope you find something new to enjoy!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/onlyonebedoct/252ojo4uql

#BookFair #ebooks #amreadingromance #tropes #OnlyOneBed #romancelandia #FantasyRomance

I'm a huge fan of the "only one bed" trope both as a reader and a writer--it's like forced proximity at its most delicious!

So I just couldn't resist putting Crowning Courtship, with all its fake-relationship, traveling together, one-bed goodness into this tropetastic book fair. I hope you find something new to enjoy!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/onlyonebedoct/252ojo4uql

#BookFair #ebooks #amreadingromance #tropes #OnlyOneBed #romancelandia #FantasyRomance

I'm a huge fan of the "only one bed" trope both as a reader and a writer--it's like forced proximity at its most delicious!

So I just couldn't resist putting Crowning Courtship, with all its fake-relationship, traveling together, one-bed goodness into this tropetastic book fair. I hope you find something new to enjoy!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/onlyonebedoct/252ojo4uql

#BookFair #ebooks #amreadingromance #tropes #OnlyOneBed #romancelandia #FantasyRomance

I'm a huge fan of the "only one bed" trope both as a reader and a writer--it's like forced proximity at its most delicious!

So I just couldn't resist putting Crowning Courtship, with all its fake-relationship, traveling together, one-bed goodness into this tropetastic book fair. I hope you find something new to enjoy!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/onlyonebedoct/252ojo4uql

#BookFair #ebooks #amreadingromance #tropes #OnlyOneBed #romancelandia #FantasyRomance

10 #Sitcom #Tropes We're Glad Have #GoneAway.

As #TV #storytelling has #evolved over the years, the #sitcom has #struggled to keep up with the #demands of the #modern #viewer.

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Entertainment #TV #Representation #Culture
https://movieweb.com/sitcom-tropes-over/

Riddle:

Down dingy halls with checkered floors,
In rubber rooms, behind locked doors,
White-robed and wide-eyed, stark and raving,
My housemate screams. But I’m behaving
Perfectly normal, as you see.
I’m scheduled for lobotomy
To still the voices in my brain.
I swear to you… I’m not insane.

Where am I?

#vsspoem #bedlam

#riddlepoems #poetry #poetrycommunity #tropes #psychology #horror

Stop there, I say, I must insist!
You seek the side that’s lost in mist
But only see into the middle.
Although it’s safe and sound to cross,
The ropes are frayed, and planks are brittle,
And stone abutments caked with moss.
So first you must resolve my riddle,
Or answer to a Bigger Boss.

#poetry #smallpoems #riddlepoems #tropes #motifs #folklore #legend #riddle #school #poetrycommunity

Today’s Management-Speak Has A Lot In Common With 1930s Soviet Propaganda—And It’s Making People Miserable
--
https://fortune.com/2023/03/30/corporate-workplace-culture-soviet-union-1930s-increased-production-performance/amp/ <-- shared article
--
H/T @Gregory Babisinki
“Constant calls to express our passion, individual creativity, innovation and talents echo down through management structures…
#Stakhanovism #tropes
#Stakhanovism #tropes #HRM #HR #coporate #corporatespeak #businesslingo #sovietunion #sovietrussia #humanresource #power #work #management #people #employees #culture #creativity #talent #language #pressuretoperform #ManagementSpeak #SovietPropaganda #jobs #jobsatisfaction #jobperformance

Do you know any representation of Baltic nations in fantasy? Or in non-fantasy medieval RPG system? Do you know pre-modern tropes of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia or resources about them? #lithuania #latvia #estonia #baltics #balts #fantasyeurope #medieval #tropes

#vss365 prompt: "Change"

Here out under the open sky,
My last request: to bum or buy
A cancer stick or coffin nail,
So I won’t quiver, flinch or flail,
The same kind this good soldier has,
To calm my nerves one last time, as
I stand here on the firing range…
Don’t bother, you can keep the change.

#poetry #shortpoems #riddlepoems #war #execution #cigarettes #tropes #irony #firingsquad #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity

Here we go! The new #introduction post of some things I might talk about on here!

Mainly…
#mastowriter #romanceauthor #mmromance #darkromance #gayromance #tropes #writerslife #4thewords #reader #lgbtq

But also…
#gsdpuppy #artist #painter #drawing #sketchbook #duolingo #etymology #french #japanese #anime #fandom #fanfic #haiku #autism #film #TV #bl #crimedrama #kdrama #monbebe #crafts #crochet

Also also BLM & Trans Rights are Human Rights. If you disagree, you know where the block button is.

Think #bitcoin is the enemy™? You may have been #CambridgeAnalytica'd.

Over the past two decades easy #monetaryPolicy has given us #dotCons that are actively destroying civilisation now.

Yet #theCambridged have been so #indoctrinated by 'bitcoin is the enemy' #tropes they are actively seeking to undermine a fundamental pillar in the fight for #degrowth, to #reclaimTheOpenWeb and to #reclaimHumanity.

Think.

#useBitcoinCore #bitcoinCoreFixesThis #moneyPrinterGoDrr #stopFiatCurrency #clownWorld