the tangent IS your fanfic

[bitchy_merlin]

me: I GOT IT

  the unsatisfying fic

4:48 AM with the sham poetic style

  ok

  it's like a tangent to a curve

  a tanget only touches the curve at /one specific point/

  right

  and

  reading really insubstantial fic

4:49 AM is like trying to define a curve only using tangents

  it's possible

  but

  in a tangent, the only point that really matters is where it intersects with the curve

4:50 AM a really grounded fic, with predictable, plodding plot and key story elements - that's like the curve

  it's steady, it's continuous, you can see where it's going next - in fact, writing like that may even be a bit too heavy-handed

4:51 AM you have to have some poetry

  but the flimsy thing that i just raed was like taking it to the other extreme

  instead of defining the curve by straight up drawing it

4:53 AM the author is trying to depict the curve /without actually drawing the curve itself/; they're only showing us the tangents, the ephemeral lines that hit specific points of interest that will, when taken together, give an inkling of the shape of the curve

4:54 AM the author is mapping every point on the curve but has no interest in the curve itself

  and the best writing IMHO

  is a combination of the two

  it's not all block-by-block plot/description/this-is-how-it-happened

4:55 AM it's not just the curve

  but it's also not only the tangents; it's more solid than that

  any curve can have an infinite number of tangents

4:56 AM I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK THAT WAS

  SORRY

  SHUTTING UP

  :/