etjwrites

[etjwrites]

This is how I felt about 'Afallon'. We tussled mightily, but in the end I prevailed.

when the story is just not working, but you keep writing anyway

#now editing? editing is a different story

[etjwrites]

His name is Lach, and I'm digging deeper into his backstory in my current #WIP .

#amwriting #writeblr #tedenbarr of have lath #lach #my ocs #etjwrites #vids #also related to 'Stealing Freedom'

[etjwrites]

Writer life hack: don't delete it, just start again the next line down.

Deleting what you've just written messes with the creative process in your brain. You'll have much better success if you keep writing instead of essentially forcing your mind to reboot over and over again.

i type and then i delete i type and then i delete .. like sisyphus it never ends

#tips & advice from etjwrites #writeblr #writing tips

[etjwrites]

Can You Revise While Actively Drafting??

For a pantser like me, ABSOLUTELY. It's not that I specifically try to do it while drafting per se, more that (if I'm feeling particularly inspired), the sentences just burst out, rearranging themselves in my head before I've finished typing them, and if I recogise that the second (or third, or fourth!) configuration is better than the first thing I started to type, who am I to deny my instincts?

Or I get an awesome idea for something that definitely is going to be included in the second draft. I plunk that idea down, and keep writing as if that new canon has been there all along, mentally revising the story from a structural standpoint.

So for all of you who like to edit as you go, and find that it helps your process instead of hindering it, you have my permission! Now go, and have fun writing! Get that WIP finished!

#tips & advice from etjwrites

[etjwrites]

It's always that one little seemingly insignificant detail that ties it all together. 😁

#writeblr #am writing #writing memes #vids #etjwrites #my face

[etjwrites]

Do we get a photo!? 😃🏴‍☠️

my current outfit is ‘pirate glam’ or, looked at another way, ‘slaying’ but in multiple ways 🗡️✨

[etjwrites]

Quiet moments of reflection after a savage storm.

From Tedenbarr of Have Lath by yours truly.

#tedenbarr of have lath #tohl #writeblr #etjwrites #book quotes #vids

[etjwrites]

I like writing long books because I LOVE reading long books. 😁

#self reblog

[etjwrites]

huge fan of the smell of those paperback books printed in the ‘80s and ‘90s with slightly brown pages. 💛💛

#same

[etjwrites]

Also, crochet is MUCH easier to learn visually. I've been crocheting since I was a preteen, and I'm not half bad, and the written instructions still frustrated and baffled me.

That and origami became rdiculous easy to do once people started posting how-to vids on youtube.

When I was in middle school, I tried to learn how to crochet. I knew how to knit already, so I figured ‘how hard could it be’ and used my Christmas money on a brand new set of aluminum hooks and a how-to book.

To say it was difficult was an understatement. I spent hours pouring over my book, begging to gain some inkling of understanding from what felt like incomprehensible runes. My reward? One lopsided trapezoid of lumpy fabric and a resolve to never pick up a crochet hook again.

And so life went on, I finished middle school and high school without giving crochet so much as a second glance. In college, I read about how crochet couldn’t be replicated by a machine, it was unique in a way that knitting and many other fiber arts weren’t.

For Christmas last year, my girlfriend gave me what I now consider to be my most prized possession: a crocheted plush of my favorite pokemon. I raved over her skills and, since she never learned how to knit, we decided to have a yarn date at some point and teach each other our respective skills.

We never did get around to that yarn date. She passed a few months after our declaration, leaving me to inherit what was left of her yarn.

Nearly a decade after my initial attempt, I got ready for the toughest battle of my life. My weapons? One skein of yarn, a YouTube video, and a crochet hook that I had somehow never gotten rid of.

I slowly made my way through the video, redoing my work a couple times until I was satisfied with my product: a small, slightly misshapen rectangle.

I looked at my pristinely-made pokemon plush with hope for the first time in months and thought to myself, ‘maybe crocheting isn’t the hardest thing in the world, maybe you were just 12.’

Maybe this isn’t the hardest thing in the world. Maybe I’m just 21.

#crafting

[etjwrites]

#haha #YES

[etjwrites]

Dance 🐉

#Cute! #dragons #fantasy #art

[etjwrites]

I like writing long books because I LOVE reading long books. 😁

#books #book rec #thorunn #writeblr #etjwrites #vid #my face

[etjwrites]

this is blatant fanfic-ery aka I need Eli's shop for shenanigans. sorry

last line tag! @autumnalwalker @zmwrites @leng-m

this thing is coming to me in pieces, so here's some contextless Irregular Cartographies for you.

This is ridiculous. She's even more careless about making potions than he used to be. When she goes to pour her terrible substance into her jars without even letting it cool, he reaches out to stop her.

"Oh." Eli grips her hand a little harder, then promptly moves his palm up to her forehead. "You're sick."

"I'm not," Merylsa says, concentrating on ladling the unappetizing black goo into small ceramic jars that she'd brought with her, knocking his hand away with an elbow.

Eli still isn't sure how he was talked into this. He doesn't trust Merylsa to make celery soup, let alone a "blood clotting potion" in his old workroom. Merylsa brushes her hair back impatiently. The long purple curls are rather bedraggled at the moment, lying limply over her shoulders. There are beads of sweat on her neck and her skin is pale.

"You have a fever," Eli points out, frowning at the black stuff.

"It's just a symptom." Now Merylsa is straining boiled winterbuds into the jars, which, last time Eli checked, hated to be mixed into anything hot. "Don't worry about it."

Eli watched in fascinated horror as the black goo accepts the blue liquid and turns a worse grey but is at least less tar-like. "Yeah. It's a symptom of being sick."

"No, it's a symptom of consuming too much fen grass on an empty stomach." Merylsa caps a jar and shakes it vigorously. The potion jumps and settles, looking decidedly like glue. "It'll pass. This always happens."

"How often do you consume fen grass on an empty stomach?"

The elf shrugs, setting the jar down. "You got angelica around here?"

"Uh," Eli swivels around.

"Never mind, I can add that later. Thanks for letting me use your setup. I suggested the idea to Ambrose and he looked at me like I'd asked to set fire to the store."

Eli winces. "He's an excellent potioneer, you know. He's probably wondering why you don't trust him to make it."

Merylsa finishes stoppering the other jars. "I trust him. I just can't afford him, obviously."

Eli blinks. He follows Merylsa back out of his own shop, past the half-dismantled shelves and dusty counter. "You just came back from a quest. Didn't you accomplish anything?" He doesn't mean for it to sound that bad, but Merylsa doesn't seem offended.

"We always come back with something, but we always come back to Ransom's debts and with a new scar for Anise. After paying off some of the former and making sure Anise isn't going to lose a limb, there's not a lot left. I make do."

Wait. Eli actually puts a hand on Merylsa's shoulder to stop her from leaving. She stares down the street while he collects his thoughts. "Hold on. Are you saying you're the group's medic and, and treasurer as well as being a map-making archer?"

Merylsa looks back at him, and her face is mostly blank but Eli swears she's faintly amused by his distress. "I'm a lot more than that. Thanks for the cauldron."

And then she's off down the street, and has already turned right onto Oakhelm before he remembers that she still has a fever.

"Oh, drat."

@the-orangeauthor for your viewing displeasure @writerfae @zoya-writes @etjwrites @iparisaltanwing @akindofmagictoo OR ANYBODY

#Other people's writing

[etjwrites]

Find the Word Tag

I was tagged by @sleepyowlwrites (thanks!!) to find: lose, lesson, light, late. BONUS: lever, likely.

From Stealing Freedom:

Lose

Tiana brushed Anabella's hair away from her clammy forehead and pressed her fingers under her neck. “She's breathing,” she told Damien. She passed out from the shock of the pain, most like.” Tiana had seen a few similar scenes back on Have Lath. Every other harvest season somebody too old, or too fool-hardy, found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught under a plough or had some terrible other farming accident. The lucky ones only had to lose an arm or two.

Lesson

“You sound like me ma,” he responded, back further away. “What, you steal from her too?” He shook his head and said nothing. “Look, just stop stealing, and you won't be punished, it's as simple as that.” That was a lesson Tiana had learnt long ago, helping Myrc bake bread in the kitchens. She rubbed her wrist unconsciously. A wide woven bracelet covered a scar there.

Light

The walk was pleasant, as the day was warmer than the one previous, and Tiana left her hood down, content to let the light breeze ruffle her short hair. She nodded her head politely at people she recognised, but didn't stop to talk.

Late

“'Tween that, an' tide comin' in, the child is in grave danger.” The ghost stories Lach's friends insisted on telling about poor Æthelbert who drowned sprang to Tiana's mind. “Is it too late?” she asked, trying to push down the spinning, sick feeling that threatened to consume her. “If 'e can swim—” Heady shook her head violently.

Likely

She'd been lucky during her escape. No one but Tedenbarr had seen her leave, and the drug she'd given him had likely muddled his memories.

I tag @leave-her-a-tome , @akindofmagictoo , @zmwrites , & @raiswanson to find: Gain, Disciple, Shadow, Timely, and Golden

#I finally have enough content to do these without repeating the same passages over and over! #WIP: Stealing Freedom #etjwrites #find the word tag

[etjwrites]

Cute! I love that we've collectively decided to write dragons like cats.😁

DRAGONSONG: draft 2 update: 06/04

previous word count: 54,876

current word count: 56,692 (1816 words added)

notes: at this point in the draft it's a nice balance of "broadly similar to draft 1" and "tweaking stuff to make it fit properly". i think the character moments are much better this draft :)

snippet: (ft grumpy dragon <3)

As Sierra and Holly left their little campsite, Enya fluttered over and landed on Isi’s shoulder, then smacked her with her tail. “What can I do for you?” Isi asked. Enya grumbled, took off, and landed by the fire SB was halfway through constructing. When Isi stayed where she was, Enya huffed smoke and gestured with her head towards the half-finished fire. “Is she gonna help me light this thing?” SB said. Isi smiled. “I have no idea, but she is hungry, and thinks we should be eating already.” “She’s right. It’s getting late for an evening meal.” “Sierra and Holly will be back soon.” Isi directed her next words to Enya. “Soon, Enya. Soon.” Enya huffed again, then curled up on the ground.

TAGLIST

@isherwoodj @metanoiamorii @lilmissravingwriter @weekofwednesdays @the-unwrittenwriter @talesofsorrowandofruin @little-boats-on-a-lake @teriwrites @magicalwriting @magic-is-something-we-create @writingbyjillian @waysofink @perditism @thehellinsideyourhead @calicowrites @vellichor-virgo @google-plexed @therecouldbecolorsandlove @the-orangeauthor @ellatholmes @happyorogeny @ladywithalamp @ashen-crest @authortango @strangerays @moononherwings @nikkywrites @ambersky0319 @ambsthom @talesfromgringolandia @wickerring @wizardfromthesea @diphthongsfordays @e-lisard @enchanted-lightning-aes @emscribblings @teardropsandtherain @lowslore @fablewritten @copper-dragon-in-disguise @reneesbooks @dirtybarkshark

#other people's writing #a kind of magic

[etjwrites]

These are absolutely gorgeous poems! So much depth and emotion along with the lovely descriptive writing . Wonderful sense of poetic rhythm too.

I think my faves are the first, 3rd, 6th and 10th.

FTWT CCCLXXXIV-VI

yeah that's right. a three in one. that's 'cause this ornamental sword came with an ornamental shield and a ceremonial dagger and I can't break up the set. anyway the tags say they're from @zmwrites @diphthongsfordays and @on-noon

play (swamp, soup, pond, 2018)

My brain is a pond It always has been With lily pads for little frogs To play their games on and in And sometimes things go smoothly And sometimes they fall apart Sometimes my frogs have maybe A little too much fun with my heart The pond is often messy And frogs throw my stuff around But in the end it's still my brain And I prefer it this way: Unbound.

step (don't run with scissors, 2011)

But just as I was coming through the door I tripped There's a step there that I missed And those scissors They jabbed me Skipped my fingers and went for my knee Left an ugly slice in my jeans That's what you get for running with scissors

miss (one breath, 2015)

We said, one day We'd be stars in the sky Holding hands, in space We'd illuminate the night Now that day, it's gone And you left without me I'm lonely, I'm torn I miss having you beside me

scramble (hurried, 2014)

All the cars are useless, all the airplanes walk All the pigeons scramble before they are crushed All the people worry and laugh and sigh All the people know is how to die

dirt (jasper and juniper, 2022)

At the elbow crook of the valley there's a spring with calcite at the base, pink and yellow glittering up through the water to dance in our eyes. We dip our pots in and pull them back covered in ice. When we put down dirt with our long-stride boots as we hike back up to the houses, the ice melts and soaks into our skin.

soul (I feel purple inside, 2012)

I feel like my soul is purple And it would rhyme with orange Then suddenly it was silver Because everything was turning over And over, And over, Again

ocean (stars of the indigo sky, 2013)

You never know just how deep the sky is until you stare and stare and then realize that you can never see through to the end. And midnight isn't blue, but it's not black either. It's indigo, with a depth that sinks down into your eyeballs until the whole world is tinted rich purple-blue. On and in that indigo sea float the stars. The tiny spatters of light spread across the whole of the ocean sky and far up into it, glowing from generations away. Still, they always hear me when I need to talk, offering an empathetic shine.

busy (little laptops, 2011)

Little laptops in the skyscrapers Little laptops on the sidewalks Set on desks or inside bags Of the busy little people They went to the university To make something of their life But now they type on laptops And they all look just the same

hoping (to know your enemy, to know serenity, 2021)

present your weapon, meet me outside if you were hoping for something then put all your dreams aside

fit (you, a spectator, and I, a spectacle, 2020)

somebody painted the house today and I don’t like it. it feels clean and covered up, like it wasn’t fit to be seen before. but I saw it, I saw all of it (all of it, all of it): every crack and every blemish, every detail left behind by someone afraid to let go.

home (the dearest thing, 2016)

Something like arms is holding me close It's warm and it's comfortable, I love it the most The sweater that smell so exactly like you You're my home and my heart, and I love you

caught (my winter song to you, 2011)

I'd like to hear a song from my own mouth I'd like to hear some beautiful sounds I'd like to know that my own words Caught a person on the street who heard

compare (the book of lost lyrics, 2020)

Fend off the cold with angel’s warm glow The twinkle of stars floating like a halo “Stop comparing me to space dust” But you are so beautiful

lose, lesson, light, late. BONUS: lever, likely. a handful of petals of pressure tags for @etjwrites @sleepy-night-child @drippingmoon @vellichor-virgo @monstrouswrites @author-a-holmes OR ANYBODY

#poetry #find the word tag #other people's writing #sleepy owl