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Lunatic

“Turn the flaming lights off, Ed.”

“No bloody chance, mate,” Ed said, wrapped in his blanket. “No way.”

Marcus sat up, rubbing his face. His roommate was falling off the deep end. He woke up every night screaming. He flew off his handle whenever someone mentioned all those strange books he’d checked out from the library, and hardly ate anything worth eating. And now - now he sat there for the third night in a row, staring off at the wall like a man possessed. Marcus had half a mind to request a room change.

“Ed, mate, there’s nothing there,” he said.

Edward shook his head.

“Flaming hell, Ed,” Marcus groaned. “I’ve got class in six hours.” And, if he was being honest, Ed was starting to get on his bloody nerves, scaring him.

When Ed didn’t respond, moving back and forth in some kind of rhythm, Marcus turned his back on him, settling into his bed and pulling the covers up over his head.

“Lunatic,” he muttered, his eyelids drooping heavily.

The next morning, Ed the lunatic was dead. The lights were still on.

#4 years since this piece #wow #my writing

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Prompt #28

The crickets were singing, trying to outdo each other, as I fell asleep.

#blast from the past #my writing #writing prompts

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The sky is on fire, French Alps 2024

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the reef guardian 🦈

#🤩

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Untitled.

#there is still beauty in the world

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happy bathtime

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'Small Horned Owl on Maple Branch under Full Moon' by Utagawa Hiroshige, 1832

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If you mean webnovels or serialized fiction, I've had good success (in terms of readers who actually give you feedback and engage!) over on RoyalRoad. Highly recommend! But it helps to be engaged in the RR community too. Which is really easy with the forums.

I would love to have my own self hosted website where I could share my stories over time. I'd be able to access all stats and oversee security and all that other important jazz. But...

If you're looking for exposure as someone who hasn't built an audience, it helps to go where most audiences go. Because at the start, people aren't going to type in, for example, "hyba stories online" into their browsers. They're going to end up going to Wattpad and RoyalRoad and all those other super popular sites, and that's where you're most likely to build your readership before moving on to your own website. Once they know you and like your stories, they might check out your profile and click through to your website to see the rest of your stories.

Marketing wise...

I think what I've said definitely stands for the marketing side of things too.

You can also either pay to put up ads of your fiction on RoyalRoad, which is neat, and you can market your story by sharing juicy quotes/excerpts and other goodies on social media. I think writeblr used to be great for this. Writers and readers alike were very receptive and tag lists were a big thing. Now... not so much? It feels like writeblr either got super empty or got super quiet and while I have an inkling as to why, I don't know what more can be done to make it flourish again, since so many writeblr community members have done their best with still very minimal engagement.

Paid marketing is probably an OK way to market your stories (tumblr blaze, affordable ads on RR or other platforms, social media ads, etc.) but unpaid methods, while a lot tougher, can also yield great organic results.

Highly recommend getting a newsletter started. That's going to help a lot, even if it starts off slow.

If possible, maybe ask readers to leave reviews and share them in graphics or on social media posts... maybe ask book reviewers to review your stories if they accept digital formats... maybe consider cool and creative ways to market your book that are specifically related to your book! I saw authors sharing recipes based on foods in their books, or talking about issues that are featured in their books, and so on.

This answer was all over the place, I know! I'm actually a lot busier with Ramadan than I thought I'd be! Feel free to reach out if you wanna talk more marketing or have Qs about RR. 😄

Tumblr people!!! Hypothetically, if I wanted to publish my stories online, where should I do it? Would you make a website just for this or host it somewhere? And for marketing? I'm open to answers!

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整理

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Ramadan Mubarak!

As with every single year, I'm so excited for Ramadan. It holds a really special place in the hearts of all Muslims everywhere in the world. So, here we are, embarking upon our month of fasting and prayer.

I look forward to using this time to increase my knowledge, my faith, kick some bad habits, nurture some new ones, and to focus more on my spiritual development than my creative or professional development. I know it's going to be challenging. I know that I'll aim much higher than I can reach. But that's a part of it too. And wherever I do end up, it's still going to be better than it was before.

I spent most of today doing Ramadan prep, but I also spent today clearing a few more things from my plate so that I could focus on this month's goal with a clearer head. I don't think I succeeded, haha. I have so much to do in the coming weeks!

So, to everyone who celebrates:

I hope this Ramadan is filled with good intentions, good actions, good news, and good decisions, inshaAllah. I hope it finds you and your loved ones and lifts your spirits. I hope that it lightens the heart, the soul, the mind. I hope that it offers forgiveness and warmth. I hope that it exorcises corruption and instills integrity.

And I hope that this Ramadan brings us a little closer to that one big goal we all share.

Bismillah!

#writeblr #muslim writer #ramadan #ramadan 2024 #ramadan mubarak

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Managed to scrounge up a few more snippets to schedule for the next week, but I've gotta say, I really love being able to change gears and write literally anything else that's not my main projects.

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Managed to scrounge up a few more snippets to schedule for the next week, but I've gotta say, I really love being able to change gears and write literally anything else that's not my main projects.

#snippet #writing #writeblr #writers #also grigori is back in case anyone was following that set of snippets #writers on tumblr

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What a wild time to be alive.

#self explanatory tbh #the world is crazy and almost always has been 👍 #not writing

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Help me break even on my writing costs!

I bought myself a lifetime subscription to ProWritingAid which is an editing software I've used in the past. Now that I'm out of school and can focus on my writing, I'm buckling down on Runaways and I'm determined to get this story into your hands by October 31st, 2025. This is going to involve a lot more refining and editing, and I know that this purchase will be an investment not only for this book, but for all my work in the future.

I spend a ton of time and energy maintaining my website, reading and reviewing ARCs, interviewing authors, and supporting folks here on tumblr. If you've been following this blog for any amount of time and you appreciate what I do, this kofi is the best way to say thanks. I also want to turn this from a hobby to a career, which means eventually, my writing should pay for my writing instead of me funding all this out of my day job.

I'm not asking for donations. Instead, I'm asking you to buy my stories. Recently, I listed six explorations from the worlds of Runaways and the Real World Sequence, and there will be more to come soon. Each of them is just $1, or pay what you want. There are also stickers for sale if that's more your style. Get them for yourself as a NaNo reward (or consolation prize), as gifts for your writer friends, for Christmas gifts! The holidays are coming up and I'm participating in the shameless merchandizing.

If you don't have the funds to spare, there's certainly no obligation, but if you're feeling generous, I would appreciate reblogs just as much. The Writeblr community has been truly life changing and I cannot say enough how much I appreciate how much your support and enthusiasm means to me. <3 <3 <3

Happy reading,

Etta Grace

#boost!

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OC Inspirations Tag

I was tagged by @mthollowell-writes (thank you!!), whose tag post you can find here. (I'm particularly intrigued by Regina!)

Rules: Pick a character(s) from your wip(s) and tell who they were inspired by or from.

So, I basically imagine a shadow with a personality, haha. Generally speaking, my characters are faceless and shapeless in my head, but sometimes they have some characteristics. Even my character portraits are... not what I imagine. But I'll give this a shot for a few characters.

Laith from Murder in Heliopolis

Honestly, the inspiration here was just a clean-cut man with a trimmed beard and a nice face. I wanted him to have green eyes. That's... as much as I had in mind. But his portrait came out OK, and I think I'm happy with that look.

Ragnar from The Fall of the Black Masks

Burly rough beard man. Ifykyk 😂

He's just a really generic brooding warrior-type. I imagine him with dark hair and a beard. Muscular build, maybe some scars. That's pretty much it. The rest is up to the reader.

Rin from The Pirates of Sissa

A more minor character, but a very significant one nonetheless. I imagine her with a very thin and slight frame, dark skin, and long, voluminous black hair, very curly/coiled. The hair is supposed to make her more recognizable from far away as it's important to a specific plot point, and her thin figure is a result of undernourishment, but apart from that, I haven't given it much thought.

...

I kind of fail at this one big time, haha! I don't necessarily base characters' looks on existing people, so I can't list specific influences for any of my characters.

Tagging: @abalonetea, @agirlandherquill, @spideronthesun, and @poethill But of course, no pressure.

#character inspiration #tag games