previously-writer-zero

[previously-writer-zero]

Moving URLs!

Hello there, in case you missed my previous post, I will be moving this side blog onto my previously completely unactive main blog. You can follow me @writer-zero.tumblr.com

This blog will remain active at least until March, after which it will be deleted.

[previously-writer-zero]

Moving URLs!

Hello there, in case you missed my previous post, I will be moving this side blog onto my previously completely unactive main blog. You can follow me @writer-zero.tumblr.com

This blog will remain active at least until March, after which it will be deleted.

[previously-writer-zero]

Hey there! I was wondering if I could have some advice on villain writing? I'm trying to show that this character is shady and absolutely the villain here, but I'm worried its breaching into cliche? Any tips on how to keep the character of an unsettling and malevolent person, while avoiding cheesy pitfalls? Sorry for all the question marks I'm a very confused kiddo.

The best way to avoid cheesy pitfalls is to know them. TV tropes is a fabulous resource. Tropes are not necessarily a bad thing. If you’re aware of them and how they work, they can be a powerful tool of critique and satire. However, when used poorly or unintentionally, you could wind up in hot water.

A couple of my golden rules:

People don’t wake up and decide to be evil. What’re their motivations? 

You can do the right thing for the wrong reasons, and the wrong thing for the right reasons. Remember, they’re usually the heroes in their own story.

Be brave enough to give them a fucking point. It’s quite possible to be despicable and be absolutely right about something. What is your hero wrong about that the villain can call them out on?

Mental illness is not adequate reason The truth is mentally ill people are more likely to be victims of horrific crimes than commit them. Avoid this trope.

Ultimately, writing a villain is no different than writing a hero, or any other character for that matter. The only thing that’s different is their goals/motivations. Whatever time you’ve spent developing your hero, you should put just as much into your villain because the truth is, if you don’t have a villain that’s powerful enough to make your audience believe that they could beat the hero, you don’t have much of a story. Yes, we all know that in the end good wins, but what makes it work is the suspension of belief. That moment of doubt where we think all is lost so the hero can have this epic triumph.

Writing characters who’re gloriously horrible and malevolent can be a lot of fun. It can be emotionally draining and frankly scary to indulge that dark side of our imaginations. Here’s my favorite tips:

Limit your time in their headspace. I set a 2 hour limit for my most disturbing creations, but you may want to start with 30 minutes.

Make sure your environment is as peaceful and calm as you can make it. Have a favorite aromatherapy? Use that. White noise machine? Great. Whatever helps you chill, have that on stand-by.

If you’re going to be tackling a particularly tough session, let some people know and have them check on you when you’re done.

Depending on the material you created, give yourself a few extra days space between writing and editing.

[previously-writer-zero]

Moving URLs!

Hello there, in case you missed my previous post, I will be moving this side blog onto my previously completely unactive main blog. You can follow me @writer-zero.tumblr.com

This blog will remain active at least until March, after which it will be deleted.

#important notice #moving #new url #writer zero

[previously-writer-zero]

2020 writeblr revival, y’all!

Rules: tag 9 people you’d like to know better! I was tagged by @doesnotloveyou! (Thank you very much for being my first tag of the year!) (Was actually tagged as Aomory, but I intend to switch the blogs around, so I’m answering as Writer Zero.)

Top 3 chips: Hm, I’m not really a shipper, at least not to my knowledge??? If I had to think of at least one, it would be Cecil and Carlos from Welcome to Night Vale.

Last movie: That was Maquia. A wonderful anime movie about motherhood. Cried so much, y’all.

Lipstick or chapstick: I don’t use chapstick as much as I should, while I have to use a natural shade of pinky red for choir, which makes me feel bitchy and powerful. So lipstick.

Last song: That I listened from start to finish without skipping: Arrested Youth - What You're Made Of. I like the feel of it.

Reading: Just last night I finished Memoirs of a Geisha and I haven’t started a new book yet. Technically also slowly making my way through Journey to the West. Both are really good!!!

Watching: Ascendance of a Bookworm while knitting. Going through the comics before I start watching Umbrella Academy (the comics are *whack*).

Totally Spies or Power Puff Girls: Aw man, don’t make me choose between my babies! Both of these shows were some of my favourites when I was little. As for nostalgia, I think Power Puff Girls would win.

I’m not sure who I would tag because I just realized this is more of a tag game for girls, and I’m not entirely sure which pronouns all of my buddies use, so if you’d like to play, go ahead, and tag me!

#tag game #welcome to night vale #maquia #arrested youth #memoirs of a geisha #journey to the west #ascendance of a bookworm #umbrella academy #power puff girls

[previously-writer-zero]

IMPORTANT: The Move

I’d like to inform all of you that I’m moving blogs!

As some of you might know, I have two blogs: Aomory, my main, and Writer Zero, a side blog.

In the next month or so, I intend to switch them around! I would like Writer Zero to be my main, because it’s more or less the only one of the two that I use. I will change URLs, and I intend to reblog the same post over and over again that will encourage people to follow my main blog instead.

This blog will for the next month be called Previously Writer Zero so I can free the username and rename my main blog as Writer Zero. The process will be gradual and the constant posts will remind people that still wish to follow me to follow my main instead.

After this transfer process is done and a month has passed, this URL will be DEACTIVATED.

I have every intention to do my best and transfer all of my posts from my side blog onto my main blog.

#BLOG TRANSFER #IMPORTANT NOTICE #writer zero #aomory #side blog to main blog #THIS ONE WILL BE DELETED IN A MONTH #this is so scary tbh

[previously-writer-zero]

The two types of fantasy writers

1. Feverishly calculating the body mass of your dragon species, spent 5 hours last night researching the origins of steel, losing sleep over horseshoes, 20 tabs open, should a cockatrice be warm-blooded?, will die if they don’t immediately figure out when honeybees were first domesticated

2.

[previously-writer-zero]

Cosmos Market

Hello All

I spent yesterday writing up a GoFundMe for Cosmos Market and working on cleaning up the last details of my business plan that can be found on the Angel Investors Network.

This is what the GoFundMe says:

Greeting All, Between 12/24/2019 and 12/30/2019 I need to raise $10,000 if I wish to achieve my goal of opening a bookstore in the building I have picked out and an agreement for Lease to Buy with the owner.  The signing date is not until 1/1/2020 for the contract, but the money needs at least twenty-four hours to process, which is why I went for the 12/30/2019 as the last day.

I thought the original GoFundMe was still active, but it was not, thus I am making a new one. Otherwise I would have made this at the start of the month. That is my oversight, brought on by a lot of things going wrong this month. That said, I hope this goes right.

What will the $10,000 do? Get me a down payment on the store! I had an investor willing to do that amount, but he backed out at the beginning of the month while the negotiations with the realtor and business owners were happening.

I am also reaching out to several other investors, some for a second or third time as they have been on the fence.

Cosmos Market will be an indie and used bookstore, artisan craft market, and eventual farm market.

I know some are wondering: how will you stock it if you don’t have money Jaimi? I have stock, shelving, multiple vendors for the artisan crafts and farm market, several different indie authors to do different book signings, I even have at least one employee besides myself ready to go. What I do not have is a building for it!

Why support this bookstore and market? Reading is great! It builds imagination and worlds, hopes and dreams. More than that, Cosmos Market will have a variety of community based programs such as a Breakfast and Lunch Book Clubs where folks can come for healthy food, listen to a book, and discuss it; book signings with various local authors; writing programs; kids crafts time; children’s story time; poetry readings; and a book exchange program to name some of the programs. While not all the programs will be started at the same time, due to financial constraints, the goal is to have all of them up and running in the first year!

Cosmos Market started off as my life long dream of owning a bookstore. It has grown as I have researched the local area, spoke with current and past bookstore owners, and spoke with community members. It would mean the world to me if I was able to make this happen after years of struggling.

The goal of $10,000 is just the bare minimum to get the store, the GoFundMe goal is $11,000 to make sure all fees are paid on here and at the bank for raising the money.

If 400 people were willing to do $27, it would be instantly at the $10,000 plus cover all of the GoFundMe fees!

Right now I am at:

 $0/$10,000

Share this please so I can stop begging for help! So that even if the disability falls through I will have something (albeit very small something since I will be lucky to be able to work once a week with my health) to pay my bills and stop having to ask all the time!

I will update it as I have more information, hopefully numbers. 

[previously-writer-zero]

This post really freaked me out because I just finished researching some base facts for a new story I'm working on set before the whole mass colonization of North America.

So, time for fun facts: besides the British majority, other nations that also came over to look at the free real estate were the French, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the Germans, and also more unexpected candidates, such as the Swedes and the Russians! Though I think it's safe to assume the last of the bunch came the other, shorter way if we believe that the world is round.

To fellow Americans, it is kinda weird that we tease the English about the Revolution, regularly discuss the thirteen colonies, and laud the English pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower. I say this because most of the U.S. was settled by other peoples. Many of our states and major landmarks have Native names! The French owned and traded in large swathes of N. American soil! The Southwest is still very Hispanic from when the Spanish owned it! Even New York was once Dutch!

But twice a year Americans celebrate holidays that essentially give the English all the credit. Idk, I just realized that's really funny, wow.

[previously-writer-zero]

Really feel like giving up on my writing

[previously-writer-zero]

Tag Game:  Post the last line you wrote and tag as many people as there are words.

I was tagged by @aboutthatmelancholystorm thank you so much!!!!!

Here’s the last line of a Modern!AU Snafu that I’m writing as a prompt request fill:

So anyway he sends me a text asking me to pick up and I quote ‘A shit ton of booze’ on my way home from work.

I’ll tag some of you that I know write or even occasionally write.

You don’t have to participate if you don’t want to but this is kind of fun!

I’m tagging: @xmxisxforxmaybe @ramibaby @itsme690 @rami-malek-trash @r-ahh-mi @perfect-rami @mrbenhardys @ramimalekpeen @gingerwerk @justice-for-shayla @persipneiwrites

[previously-writer-zero]

Aisha, Chapter 6 (part 3)

I like too much of this chapter to only post two snippets. If you want to join @aruzeus @madammuffins and @ashesconstellation on the tag list, just let me know. 

“Towns are for people who’ve given up. Who don’t have any life left, who feel fine being stuck on autopilot for the rest of their miserable, uneventful days.”

In the town I’d be safe, but unhappy. Walking, I’d be free, but not safe. I feel like I’m being ripped in half.

“Don’t say that,” Noah snarls. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh sorry, do you want to stay in is town?”

“No, but—”

“Then leave.”

“It’s not that simple!” He pushes his hands into the ground as his shoulders rise. “There are people here who need me. I have responsibilities! Chores, and, and—”

“Brooding by a river?”

“I wasn’t brooding!”

“It’s different,” I find myself saying, and just like that, I’m back to being the scared little girl following Conall. “For people who don’t have the virus, I mean. We can’t defend ourselves like they can. It’s scary.” I meet Noah’s eyes. “You’re allowed to say you’re scared.”

He swallows. “I’m scared,” he rasps.

I nod. “I am, too.”

But I wonder, for a moment, how it would feel if I gave into the side that isn’t.

As always, my ask box is open for questions, comments, and critiques, and check out the WIP page for more info on this project.

[previously-writer-zero]

Grimm Tales finished and ready to read!

Hey there!

As I posted way back in April, I’ve finished writing Grimm Tales! And now, after a few months of subtle editing back and forth, I have finally posted it in its entirety on AO3! You can read it here!

I can’t possibly articulate how happy this makes me feel. I have never thought I’d ever be able to finish a story longer than a few pages, so having it not only finsihed, but ready and available for people to read (and provide feedback) feels like I’ve just become a published author.

So please, if you have a few minutes, give the first few chapters a go. I hope you like it and keep reading until the end!

Again, can’t describe how happy I am.

[previously-writer-zero]

Grimm Tales finished and ready to read!

Hey there!

As I posted way back in April, I’ve finished writing Grimm Tales! And now, after a few months of subtle editing back and forth, I have finally posted it in its entirety on AO3! You can read it here!

I can’t possibly articulate how happy this makes me feel. I have never thought I’d ever be able to finish a story longer than a few pages, so having it not only finsihed, but ready and available for people to read (and provide feedback) feels like I’ve just become a published author.

So please, if you have a few minutes, give the first few chapters a go. I hope you like it and keep reading until the end!

Again, can’t describe how happy I am.

#Grimm Tales #WIP #finished WIP #AO3

[previously-writer-zero]

Wait, I know this. ;)

Noah Chapter 5

(What I’m actually going to back to positing pieces of my work?)

If you’d like to join @madammuffins and @aruzeus on the tag list, let me know! I theoretically post on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

“If it makes you feel better,” I told her, “Everyone gets over-emotional when they’re twelve, even without corrupt governments and endless camping.”

She shoved me off, stood up and looked as haughty as someone could in outgrown pants and the first signs of acne. “I’m not the one brooding in the woods for hours!”

She had me beat there. “Race you back to the town?” I said and took off before she could react.

“No fair!” She shouted, and I smiled until she caught up. We burst into our clearing, Lizzie just a few steps ahead of me.

“I…I let you win,” I panted, but it probably had more to do with the multiple drownings.

She wasn’t gloating like I expected her to, just staring with wide eyes. “What?”

She raised a pointed finger. I followed it behind me to the three runaways in front of Frank and my mom.

“Come on, before they see us,” I said, and tried to pull Lizzie around the hill, but her feet weren’t moving.

“I want to see this,” she whispered.

“Runaways are dangerous, we can’t be over here,” I said. I really do sound like my mom. “Let’s go!”

She shushed me just as Frank said, “Get out. Before you make it worse for yourselves.”

I closed my eyes like that could stop me from hearing. This can’t be happening. My shirt was miraculously dry. The runaways found their way to the town. I should be in the clear. It had all worked out. It was supposed to all work out.

The world doesn’t owe you anything, said a voice in my brain that sounded suspiciously like Rose.  

“Wait!” I shouted, and went running.

[previously-writer-zero]

Getting tagged in a Last Line Tag after making .012 progress since the last time you were tagged

[previously-writer-zero]

Just a reminder that if you haven’t written in a while, be that a day, a week, a month, or even a year, that doesn’t make you any less of a writer. Life happens, and if you need to take a break for a period of time that’s ok. Your writing project will always be there for you to come back to when you’re ready, whenever that may be <3