Rationally Writing

Daystar and Alexander discuss character flaws; what makes for good ones, how to avoid Mary Sues, and why some flaws show up so often compared to others.

Timestamps

0:35 Flaws As Conflict Generators

5:53 Mary Sues

15:23 Brought Low

23:14 Most Common Flaws

36:02 Rarest Flaws

Twig by Wildbow

The Erogamer by Groon the Walker

Daystar and Alexander discuss the reasons authors abandon stories before they're finished, whether they want to or not.

Hosted by Daystar Eld and Alexander Wales

With thanks to Tim Yarbrough for the Intro/Outro music, G.A.T.O Must Be Respected

Time Stamps

1:26 Abandonment vs Hiatus

6:16 Different reasons for Abandoning

17:10 Alex's List

25:55 Managing Burnout

39:37 Other Authors

48:21 Author Trust

Daystar and Alexander discuss Ideological Turing Tests; what they are, why they're important in fiction, and how to try to pass them as best you can.

Timestamps:

0:34 Turing Tests

6:15 Avoiding Caricatures Isn't Enough

10:14 Passing ITT

25:48 Frames

37:53 Personal Challenges

47:11 Presentation

Daystar and Alexander discuss romance in fiction, particularly in finding meaningful romantic conflicts as either the major plot, or as a subplot in a broader story.

14:00 Source of Romantic conflict

21:43 Troubled vs Doomed

30:20 Extreme Romantic Contexts

36:29 Compatibility

43:06 Conflict from Change

50:38 New and Ongoing Conflicts

Daystar and Alexander discuss the value and pitfalls of using time skips, long and short.

11:51 Rules for Timeskips

25:27 Relationships

42:13 Extremely Long Timeskips

Bonus bit of conversation from Episode 46.