ashleywrites-too

[ashleywrites-too]

[ashleywrites-too]

[ashleywrites-too]

This is a comment someone appended to a photo of two men apparently having sex in a very fancy room, but it’s also kind of an amazing two-line poem? “His Wife has filled his house with chintz” is a really elegant and beautiful counterbalancing of h, f, and s sounds, and “chintz” is a perfect word choice here—sonically pleasing and good at evoking nouveau riche tackiness. And then “to keep it real I fuck him on the floor” collapses that whole mood with short percussive sounds—but it’s still a perfect iambic pentameter line, robust and a lovely obscene contrast with the chintz in the first line. Well done, tumblr user jjbang8

[ashleywrites-too]

Do you guys remember how kidnap fantasies were popular on wattpad because young girls and queer teens were both made to feel shame at the thought of their own sexualities, so the fantasy of being kidnapped totally against their will was a way for them to engage with a romantic or sexual fantasy without feeling morally in the wrong for doing so? Added bonus that the fantasy involved being whisked away from repressive environments like home or school, right?

Finding out that Bram Stoker was in a sexless marriage and that scholars believe that he very likely was closeted gay puts the entire book into perspective as to WHY it reads EXACTLY like a self insert wattpad Dracula kidnap fic:

“I TOTALLY love my wife and would never do anything that an upstanding Good Straight Working Man wouldn’t do but oh nooo, big strong man with broad back and strong enough arms to carry me back to bed like a princess trapped me and claimed me as his, completely against my will 👉👈 But he protects me against the bad evil sexual women (who I assure you, I am TOTALLY sexually attracted to, as any straight man with a choice would be) but trust me, I do NOT want ANY of this. What’s that? The Count is not capable of feeling love? Would be a shame if I had the special ability to change tha-”

[ashleywrites-too]

The thing about writing is that either it is the most peaceful and satisfying activity ever, or you're wandering about your house at 2:30am with your laptop on 3% battery, 25+ tabs open, a cursor blinking away taunting your inaptitude as you try to remember what doorknobs are called. Or you're lying in a pit of darkness not writing at all.

[ashleywrites-too]

[ashleywrites-too]

I often think I could be such a good writer if I were better at writing

[ashleywrites-too]

calling that word document a draft by the way im dodging it haha

[ashleywrites-too]

love writing. writing is awesome. it’s a shame that it involves writing though

[ashleywrites-too]

guy who’s like “i need to be creative i need to write or my brain will rot i am going to die i have to create right now” and then he

#its me

[ashleywrites-too]

my writing fundamentally changed forever ten years ago when i realized you could use sentence structure to control people’s heart rates. is this still forbidden knowledge or does everyone know it now

[ashleywrites-too]

About Me

Hi! My name is Yedith Barraza. I write romance, horror, and sometimes a mix of both, almost always with queer themes and characters.

she/they | very bi | 27 | Chicana

WIPS

Good Friends: Ruben and Ari are best friends, and they do everything together. They're on their school's baseball team, they hang every weekend, and they have all the same friends. But Ruben is keeping secrets that might ruin everything.

Genres and tropes: Romance, older teen/new adult, best friends to lovers (with a lot of mess in between)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When We Close Our Eyes: Psychic Eva Montes left her ghost-hunting days behind when she left her childhood home and she's not eager to get dragged back into it. But her new co-worker Zander, another psychic, has somehow gotten himself cursed, attracting thousands of ghosts. And, unfortunately for her, she sort of likes him.

Genres and tropes: Paranormal, romance, horror, new adult, bi mc and bi love interest

Both novels are currently in revision.

I am also found on Twitter and Instagram, though I'm not very active.

Website | Twitter | Instagram

[ashleywrites-too]

writing sounds so awesome. i wish i knew more than three words though

[ashleywrites-too]

The devil walks into your work on a Thursday.

“Hi,” you say, “welcome to McDonalds.”

The devil clops up to the register, red eyes sliding from the cartoonish picture of Grimace, to the Coca Cola drying in the grout, to the ketchup stain on your pale blue button down.

“What can I get started for you today,” you prod when he continues to stare.

“Uh,” he says. “I came for your soul?”

Your smile slips for a moment before you can pin it back in place. Thank goodness your manager is on their lunch. “We don’t sell that, I’m sorry. Have you tried a Big Mac?”

“I know McDonald’s doesn’t sell souls,” the devil says. “Your parents sold your soul. Before you were born.”

“Oh,” you say. That would explain…a lot, actually. “Well. I’m at work, so…can you collect later?”

“I’m owed your soul on your 18th birthday,” he says.

“It’s my birthday today?” You glance at the register. “Wow. I forgot.”

“That is so fucking sad,” the devil says. He punched the bridge if his nose. “When is your shift over?”

“3am.”

“Jesus,” the devil says. He turns on his hoof. “I’m going to go buy you a cake or something.”

“Wow,” you say. You press a hand over your heart. “That—that actually would make my week.”

“And that’s sad,” the devil calls over his shoulder. “See you at 3!”

Now you have a reason to look forward to getting off work.

[ashleywrites-too]

I love time loop stories. Really, I do.

But I'd love to see a story about what happens after you emerge from the time loop.

When, after months or years of repetition, you have to learn how to live with a choice you can't redo tomorrow.

When you meet someone new for the first time and have to figure out how to navigate this brand new conversation.

When you reach for the same day's clothes and realize that you can't wear them because they got dirty. Your laundry, your dishes, your body, your teeth, all the tasks that reset with the loop are suddenly stacking up and you need to set aside time to do them.

When you reach that first weekend and your schedule radically shifts and you don't know what to do with yourself, which is terrifying but also exhilarating in ways you can't explain.

When you casually drop facts learned from those books you spent a dozen loops reading, and you realize you retained something worth keeping.

How your memory gets weirdly good all of a sudden, despite not having all that repetition to fall back on, because suddenly every experience is fresh and new.

And when the seasons change, and your hair grows long enough that you want to cut it, and when you realize it's shocking because you didn't think you'd ever see something as incredible as the passage of time.

[ashleywrites-too]

ɢᴇᴛᴛɪɴɢ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴏɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ꜰᴇᴇᴛ: 25 ᴅᴀʏꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ [ᴘʀᴏᴍᴘᴛꜱ]

write a letter from the pov of your mc. to a loved one, or their enemy, or their future self. one letter, however long or short it will be.

if your mc owned a home in the modern-day world, what would it look like? describe the rooms, who lives there, the smells and tastes and feelings.

your mc plans the *perfect* night out with someone they love. lead us through it.

describe your mc's happiest memory.

in return, describe a memory that put them through it.

suddenly there's television (or something akin to) in whatever world it takes place in—fantasy, sci-fi, dystopia. what kinds of shows are on? what shows do your main cast like to watch? what modern-day actors would play as the shows' characters?

look for a part of your wip that you struggled with—or begin a new page if you haven't begun it yet. write at least one line. write one more. delete it all, and start over. write the same scene (a scene lasts until a character leaves or enters) until you are proud. you wrote this. you should be. take as long as you need.

curate a playlist: one song for every character introduced.

make a theme for your wip. [theme = idea + opinion] the theme of Sleeping Beauty could be true love conquers all.

[take a break. you deserve it.]

write a letter from the main antagonist complaining about the protagonist.

take the first chapter of your wip, but as the mc's enemy.

all your main and side characters (evil ones included) joined a therapy group (they probably needed it, didn't they). write out the discussion in the form of a movie script.

the protagonist and antagonist sit down and have a heart-to-heart. what do they discuss? what do they confess?

you're now a—specifically—gen z blogger commenting on the actions of your characters, in any chapter you like.

write yourself into one chapter of your book. how would you face the terrifying evil, or manipulative politics? not your mc—you.

plop your characters into a whole other genre. they're sci-fi alien slayers? well, guess who's the new Sherlock Holmes. the kings and queens of Narnia? add a bit of a coming-of-age love crisis.

pick two characters. any two: pull them out of a jar, spin a wheel, I don't care. make a Venn diagram with them on either side.

pick your mc and make a bullet list of thirty things they've probably achieved in an au. skydiving world record? ultimate frisbee world champion? most books read within a span of 24h? it's up to you.

[rest. you're almost there.]

set a timer for ten minutes. in those five minutes, write out the death scene of an important character—whether of old age or to be clicked into the storyline later.

edit your work. find common errors and ask someone to proofread. you can use websites such as Hemingway Editor.

go on picrew (or any other website) and make your characters.

take a chapter or chunk of text you're unsatisfied with, and rewrite it completely from memory. this will leave the important parts and help sharpen the words. do this as many times as you like until you're satisfied.

set a timer for ninety minutes. pick up where you left off, and write as much as you can—screw the plot line, trash grammar, ignore sense. it's only a draft, and it can only get better.

if you decide to post anything, feel free to tag me in them!

you've got this.

[ashleywrites-too]

How do you guys write stammering dialogue?

“Uh, h–hold on,” she said.

“Uh, h–hold on,” she stammered.

“Hold on,” she stammered.

In the second one, it feels redundant to use stammer as the dialogue tag. I personally use the first when writing because I think it adds characterization to a nervous/anxious character, but I’m considering changing it if the majority of people think the third way is best/not annoying.