𝖧𝗈𝗐 𝖳𝗈 𝖶𝗋𝗂𝗍𝖾 𝖺 𝙋.𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

27 | Life Outside

We all eat dinner. We all skip breakfast because we woke up late for school. We all come home after school and crash in our room. We all brush our teeth and shower-- or at least I hope you do. And Finally, We all do things outside of school, whether it's from sports or clubs to hanging out with friends to working for whatever your trying to save up for.

As you go through your daily life-- and I'm not saying this as make your entire life revolve around your book-- take note of those small things that make your day more bearable, or at least make it unique to you.

School lunchrooms are definitely not how some people describe them. Especially not public schools (and take if from someone who goes to the most chaotic public school in Texas). You wanna read a book, well to bad because someone is about to pop open a bag of chips louder than the bell that'll ring in thirty minutes, and after that, someone will scream and fall off the bench resulting in everyone laughing.

You want to have a nice conversation? That's cute because the jocks sitting next to you are building the worlds largest tower out of pizza boxes and lunch trays. Watch out one of the Assistant principals are coming I hope you have you school ID on.

Oh did I forget to mention its someones birthday and a girl just got asked to homecoming and now everyone is clapping. Hope your homework is done because you better NASCAR the heck outta that if you wanna be able to eat the lunch you waited fifteen minutes for.

Now, enough about school lunch rooms. Lets talk the most BASIC scene I have ever read. 

Rooftops.

I have only written one rooftop scene that I like, and it had a purpose to it. My OC-- her name is Nukka and yes this may or may not be a shout out to my book if you wanna read it it's titled 'balance'-- is Inuk. She's not used to the view of the city and I used the roof to show a contrast of 'Nature vrs. Industrialization'. 

Your OC doesn't need to be on a roof top to have a simple conversation with Peter, and if you so badly want to do a rooftop scene, don't do it again because they get redundant. Other places that are amazing substitutes for that 'oh-so-generic' trope are listed bellow.

   -closed (or open) construction sites: your oc could be scared of heights yet Peter has them on top of a crane and he/she are holding onto that ugly orange metal for dear life. If the construction site is open maybe they get yelled at and the two have to run from security and it's all cute.

   -fire escapes: yes, this can also be a tad redundant, but if you do it right, it's cute. Maybe they like to meet outside of Peter/OC's window with warm hot coco or something more unique, boba, or soda and a bag of chips, whatever your OC's guilty pleasure is.

   -the bay: there's many rivers and bridges in New York and even Queens. Have them sit on the ledge of a dock, or maybe the side of a bridge. Better yet, most bridges have architectural designs like those cool arches that they can sit on top of (I've been searching for what they're called and I still cant find it so if you know plz drop a comment)

   -between buildings: this one is odd, but bare with me. Peter can make web like hammocks, so if he puts them in between bridges, your OC and him can chill in one of those. There's also pipes or arches between some structures to add designs that you could have them sit on if their balance is good.

   -basements: this isn't so much of a Spider-Man thing as it is a Peter-x-OC, but have yall ever seen that 70's show-- I'm furious that they took it off Netflix--? I mean, I would have never though of a basement because in Texas we don't have them. My family lives up north and in practically every house I've been in, they've hung out. If your OC is like this, it could be a cool hang out where they drink (chapter coming up next to describe this because all high school kids do this at some point). It could be a repurposed room that's all cool and vibey, in fact, I might use this for my OC.....

   -work: here's a super cool one. Say your oc works at like a music shop, retail, or library. They can hang out there, drink boba/soda/coffee, whatever and maybe it's a small shop where no one goes. This provides places for separate plots like interesting chats, the back room where they can plan how they'll stop the villain or something.  

Moving on. You don't need to stick to scenes inside of school or places inside the plot. This may seem a tad random for you but stay with me. I'm a huge fan of avatar, and here's why: they don't stick to the plot on every episode. As they travel to their destination, they'll go on some dumb a$$ trip just because Sokka wanted a new map. 

They're scenes develop character as well as relationships between them. If you read 'Balance' (my book >:)) you'll see that I have a lot of scenes that don't happen in the movie. With Nukka being such a unique character with such a large backstory and family, she needs development to match.

So yes, make your OC eat dinner with whoever they consider family. Make them brush their teeth and Peter/Best friend face-times them. Make them walk their sibling to their soccer game. I need to stop saying make, Have them shopping in a grocery store while they talk about how Peter wants to fight the vulture and he needs your original characters help and they're like listen I have errands to run or something. 

Go throughout your day and find those little things that make your character human because if not your book will fail to show that your OC is an actual human being.

Once again, moving on.

Your character needs to have friends other than Peter and Ned. I get it if they have a personality that makes them antisocial, but they can't only talk to Peter. All of my, as well as Autumn's OC's have friends other than Peter and Ned, even other than MJ. 

It's important to have this because it gives the original character other people to fall to besides him. It shows their ability to have other people, other things going on in life.

Heck, it even adds to the plot. Lets say we have an oc named Sam and Sam has a friend named Tyler. Well maybe Sam is fighting a villain who says 'give up or Tyler gets it'-- please don't use this line it is the most 'pastel colored back drop with white font in cosmic sans and a sticker of Spider-Man lined up with the bottom of it' cover that I have ever read.

Having friends benefits more than your OC's sanity. It benefits the overall quality of the book, and tells us what kind of person your original character bonds with.

I know what your thinking, all of this is overly extra and if your just trying to write a romance with Peter, it's unnecessary. But it's not. Small scenes like this show us how our original characters act when not under the pressures that Homecoming, Infinity War and Endgame,(though you cant do a cute little coffee scene between these lol), And Far From Home force upon them.

So yes, add small things like these not because I advised it but because it'll add some extra ~spice~ to your book.

    -Until next time, Emerson :)