After the word crawl ends, Anna wastes no time getting another 5-pound bag of fair-trade coffee beans. After all, Yulia wanted enough coffee to last them through the rest of NaNo.
Because Anna got over her daily objective of 1700 words, she takes the time to read her writing buddies' stories. Like Gruesome IRGC, where the villain dies in a rather unspectacular manner by being caught in the crossfire between Iraqi troops and the IRGC. Or Expiry Date, where Mahsuri gets rejected from Villanova and therefore must come to terms with her relationship not surviving graduation.
While Anna is baking the apple pie bought along with the bag of coffee beans, Yulia, on the other hand, was busy preparing chicken Kyiv in lieu of stuffed turkey. Which was still stuffed poultry and breaded as well.
After the chicken is placed in the oven, on Discord, Anna realizes that her DM inbox contains messages from Rania and Douglas.
Maybe I should just let go of what critique Rania gave me earlier this month and help her with PTSD! Anna sighs while she is recalling what she can tell Rania about writing the survivors of this cat-and-mouse game against the IRGC through the 1980s Iraqi desert.
"First off, have the survivors be on edge all the time and attempt to avoid any reference to either Iran or Iraq at all costs. If, for some reason, Iran or Iraq is mentioned in any shape or form in front of them, do show what physiological reactions they get, make them falsely believe they're threatened in inner dialogue as well when that happens" Anna responds to Rania's request for help writing about PTSD.
"What about flashbacks?" Rania asks her, believing that flashbacks and nightmares are common symptoms of PTSD.
"Don't go overboard with flashbacks, please. It's a common misconception about PTSD that it's primarily about randomly reliving traumas in one's mind"
Because Rania knew about how to blindside characters when writing horror, it was not a stretch for her to start thinking in what could blindside the survivors upon arriving to their new countries. Obviously, since they're Sunni, they might feel at home among Sunni in other countries. However, I want my survivors to be at a crossroads, whether they would want to stay in Saudi Arabia in the long run. I am writing a scene where the survivors decide to leave Iraq behind and trek through the desert to get to Saudi Arabia, away from the threat of the IRGC, which, at this point, is concentrated mostly along the Iran-Iraq border. But she's right: flashbacks would only serve to repeat what already happened earlier. Might make more sense if I decide to write a sequel to Gruesome IRGC that's about the survivors' lives as war refugees, however.
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Meanwhile, Dutton, Sam's dad, decides to lecture his daughter about what makes a good romance while his daughter is writing a scene about what her characters deem to be the beginning of the end.
"Honey, it's obvious by now that you're not writing romance. You tend to have, yes, believable endings, but they're unhappy. So many will read romance precisely because the happy ending is guaranteed" Dutton starts lecturing his daughter.
"Yet life once together isn't conflict-free! Often, romance writers tend to focus so much on getting the couple together that they forget about what happens once they're together" Sam retorts to her father.
"You went into Expiry Date knowing that your couple will break up, and do so without any cheating whatsoever" Dutton scolds her.
"But most other writers tend to do as if anything that can go wrong, will go wrong! Too many complications that make readers not want to be in such a relationship!"
"In romance, good decisions don't make great books. A romance where all obstacles are external, and romance is the main genre, is monotonous"
"Cheating is so overused that I want to avoid this. I want obstacles to feel organic"
YOU ARE READING
Cliche Manifest
ComédieAnna, a psychologist working with gifted youth and other high achievers, takes to writing indie literature since she was disillusioned with what she managed to read. She decides to enter NaNoWriMo for the first time in her life. But little did she k...
