Unless the setting is like a weirdness anomaly magnet (like Gravity Falls if anyone else appreciates a well written children's show, haha), then all bets are off just based on location.
Also I see you saying that, but if Nick can be rule #34 of the Backstreet Boys, then collectively the Boys can be "if it could happen, it will happen." Is that a rule on the internet?
LOL I dunno, but it should be! Maybe it can be Rule #35.
In one of my volunteer groups, our motto has been "Creativity and Flexibility" this year, and I think that's a perfect motto to stretch into the rest of my life, especially when you're looking at other people. Like everyone has lots of things going on that they might not even talk about, you know? If nothing else, I hope everyone comes out of all this a little kinder to each other.
That's a great motto! For teaching as well as writing and just existing in general. We've all had to be creative and flexible in the last year just to adjust to how much life changed in such a short time. I hope people will be kinder to each other this year too. Not to get political, but I've never seen our country so divided. I hope having a different leader will eventually help make the United States more united.
Sometimes I find myself adding fluff, but only if it focuses on character development. Like I would write a million chapters of "they argue, but at the end of the day, they're a true family by choice" if it seemed like one of those scenes fit in there. I'm feeling a little bad about the beginning of PNecklace because they don't really physically go lots of places like they did in PBox, but the character(s) are growing and changing a lot! So, who knows?
I do think character-driven stories need more scenes that could be considered "fluff" in a plot-driven story. That stuff does help with character and relationship development. All of my super long stories included romance; I wrote more fluff in my romances because it helped develop the characters' relationship.
There's another question for everyone. What's THE story for you that you've written? Are you defined by it and how have you felt about that?
I think it's either Broken or Curtain Call, which are similar stories in some respects. Broken was the first "popular" story I wrote, in terms of how much feedback I got compared to what I had gotten for previous stories, and a lot of my online friendships started with that story. But Curtain Call has the best stats of all my stories on AC, in terms of reviews and favorites. I'm perfectly okay with being defined by either because they both represent who I am as a writer and what I like to write. Curtain Call is the better of the two, so if I had to pick which one I'd rather be known for, I'd go with that one, but I will always have a soft spot for Broken.
