rydykg

[rydykg]

something they don’t tell you about being autistic is that every character you write WILL end up autistic/autistic-coded whether you like it or not

#unwriting related #me with more ocs than i intended

[rydykg]

reminder to worldbuilders: don't get caught up in things that aren't important to the story you're writing, like plot and characters! instead, try to focus on what readers actually care about: detailed plate tectonics

#writing references #geology #worldbuilding

[rydykg]

thinking about aus for ocs is so funny. like i already put this guy in a situation but what if i put them in another totally different one

#me fr #kg says stuff

[rydykg]

(uses the “make your character say something while not actually saying it” writing advice i saw on here once)

(character interactions are now 200% more fun to write)

holy shit what

#writing tips

[rydykg]

A guy doing marine research into phytoplankton is far out to sea and waiting for the samples to be ready when he spots a fast-moving ripple in the water up ahead.

Fully aware that this spot is home to a migratory orca pod, he assumes he's stumbled across an orca hunting a seal and settles against the railing to watch, because it's not every day you get to see that.

The ripples get closer, the shadows in the water more defined, the water choppier, and suddenly the orca and its unfortunate prey are zooming directly towards the boat and he's waiting, breath held, for them to duck right underneath--

When the water breaks, the ocean sprays, and he's suddenly smacked fully in the face by a very wet, very confused, and very pretty merman, throwing them both down onto the deck while the boat rocks as a confused and now quite hungry orca dives beneath it.

The merman, it turns out, thought that the boat was an ice float and didn't realise his mistake until it was too late. But he's very thankful for the impromptu rescue, and wow don't you have nice arms, and holy shit you've got legs, can I touch them? Is that weird? Can I touch them anyway? And your hair--

So of course they get to talking because they're both utterly fascinated with the other, and soon the sun has set and the samples are long-since ready and the moonlight is making the ocean look black and they part with the knowledge that they'll never meet again, and a kiss, and a lingering look over the shoulder for all the things that can't be...

And the researcher gets back to land, moors his boat, readies his samples. He packs up his things, shoves them into his bags, and prepares to go home. He steps onto the jetty boards and thinks of the merman and the solid wood beneath his feet seems to sway for more than one reason.

There's a splash. He turns, pulled as if by the tide, and there's a ripple in the water. A face. A pair of eyes made black by the moonlight.

And this is how the researcher acquires a merman boyfriend who helps him find samples and the merman acquires a human boyfriend who rescues him from whales.

#other’s stories

[rydykg]

pssssst hey. hey. free and expansive database of folk and fairy tales. you can thank me later

#ideas

[rydykg]

Tips for writing black characters

Day-to-day practical and minor stuff, specially regarding hair

If you have curly/afro hair then you are only going to need to wash it one or twice a week

But it can take a while. When I had long hair it used to take me 2h in the bathroom to properly wash it. That's why I only did it once a week. But it really will depend of the thickness and lenght of their hair.

It can be a little harder to find products for their hair, because straight/wavy hair products don't work on ours

If you wash curly hair many times a week it will eventually lose its nutrients, differently from straigh hair

If your character originally had curly hair but straightened it, it's probably going to look a little drier than naturally straight hair. it's a case-case scenario, though

If they have a skin care routine or want one they'll also need products made specifically for black skin

Your character is not immune to sunburns. It's harder to see if it gets red depending on how dark their skin is, but it's there. The more melanin they have, the more protected from the sun they are, but it's not gonna 100% prevent them from getting sunburnt.

Oh, and it can be pretty hard to dye it because first, if your hair is very dark, you have to decolor it, and depending on how black it is it can take a while and a few tries to get in a tone good for dying.

If they have long hair they're probably going to take a while combing it because you have to apply the hair cream lock by lock

They may have a haircare routine every month or so. Not everybody does it but if your character is disciplined and wants their hair to be extra healthy and neat they'll probably have one

If they care a lot about their appearence they'll probably have a lot of hair brushes of different types because depending on your brush you can comb it in a variety of ways, making your hair look fuller, making the curls look defined, etc.

#writing tips #writing poc

[rydykg]

This ship dynamic remains superior

#wipseries: homewards found #seline & irina fr

[rydykg]

cinderella: redo

so i was watching cinderella while doing my nails and waiting for them to dry which was clearly a Mistake because now i can’t help but think -

the evil stepmother was always evil, okay. say her abuse of her own daughters was different than that of cinderella’s - but it was still abuse. giving them impossible expectations, telling them they were never good enough, never pretty enough, never smart enough. and then she gets married, and anastasia and drizella are ecstatic because this man seems kind and warm and maybe just maybe he can temper their mother, maybe with him around she won’t be so cruel. so they’re on their very best behavior in the beginning, they do just as their mother taught - they trot out their best upper court manners in an attempt to get their new stepfather to like them. but it just comes off as cold and snooty and they’re trying, they are, they’re just bad at it. and they see how he is with cinderella, the smiling girl their own age, and they are jealous. they don’t mean to be, they try not to be, they know it isn’t becoming of young ladies. but she gets hugs and kisses and affection and they get rulers slapped on their hands when they reach for desert and sharp jabs to their sides when they slouch and - soon they hate cinderella, not for anything she’s done, but for what she has and they dont

but then her father dies. and it’s all a tumble of things and cinderella is crying and they’ve lost their only chance at escaping their mother’s clutches and it’s terrible. and everything settles and there’s no reason to be jealous anymore but resentment is hard to let go of and they don’t know what to do. they’re only kids too after all. and they’re so terribly bad at comforting people, they can do flowery words and know all the right bows but cinderella is so sad and they just don’t know what to do with that, because they’re supposed to be sisters but they’re not even friends

and slowly but surely their mother starts abusing cinderella, starts making her a maid in her own home, and she’s their mother, what are anastasia and drizella supposed to do? she rules them with an iron fist, and cinderella doesn’t even like them anyway, it’s none of their business.

except one night anastasia crawls into her sister’s bed in the middle of the night and wakes her up. “i was thirsty,” she explains, eyes wide and shiny, and they’re bad at this with other people but drizella has no problems with pulling anastasia into her arms. the younger girl clutches her sister and continues, “i was thirsty and i went down to the kitchen to get some water and - and cinderella is still up! she’s doing the dishes, and she should be asleep, mom is going to make her make breakfast in the morning and -” she cuts herself off with a hiccup and whispers, “it’s not fair.”

“life isn’t fair,” drizella says, echoing one of their mother’s favorite phrases. but her sister is staring at her with wet eyes, and it’s not like their mother is likely to get up before sunrise anyway, she hates waking up, so she pulls herself and anastasia out of bed and off they go.

Keep reading

#long post #other’s stories #fairy tale retelling #cinderella #<3333

[rydykg]

Want quick tips to add instant chemistry to the relationships of your characters??

(🥳With examples🥳)

First of all, I want to say that you can also use most of them for platonic/ non-romantic relationships, so feel free to use this tips however you think they might work better in your story. So, without further adue, let's get to the tips!!!

Make your characters LISTEN to each other. Like, if A tells B they're not a morning person, B could make some coffee for A or lower the volume of their alarm.

This might sound quite obvious, but show that you characters care for each other. It might be as simple as one of them giving the other a glass of water when they feel a little dizzy, but it works wonders!

Make your characters physically close. When you are emotionally close to someone, you tend to be physically close too. But here is the thing. Make your characters react like it's second nature: "how would I not hug B when I haven't seen them in days?" or "Of course I'm gonna take A's hand when I feel insecure".

They don't have to be constantly thinking about each other, but when they do, MAKE IT MATTER!! For example, character A is out shopping, and they see B's favorite cookies. B didn't have a good day, and A knows that. But A also knows B is gonna fucking love the cookies, so they buy some.

Let them believe and trust each other. Also applies if one of them is a little distrustful: let your characters rely on one another, even if at the start they aren't as comfortable doing it. For a distrustful character, letting the other one help with chores might be a HUGE thing.

Other tips for writers: previous | next

#writing tips

[rydykg]

Bear with me here because I might end up torturing this particular metaphor, but when it comes to trying to get the image of a scene onto the page in the form of descriptive narrative, it might be useful to approach it like a visual artist.

If you've ever watched an artist do their thing (or if you're an artist yourself), you know that they don't just start at the top left corner of the page and draw the entire scene in all its detail, all in one go. I'm going to use an example of digital drawing with the use of software like Photoshop here because I have no idea if this metaphor will work with pencil and paper.

You have an image in your head. It might be super clear. It might be more vague. When you're starting to describe it, just sketch it in. Create a layer of broad strokes information like what the location is, how many people are in it, and what activity is happening.

Then add in a layer - whichever one is easiest. Let's pretend it's the location. Read through the sketch that you currently have and see where you have opportunities to describe the location. You don't have to front load everything at the top of the chapter, for example. You can add in details about the location as the characters move through it.

Add another layer. Are the characters' appearances different from what they previous were? Are you just establishing them at the start of the story? Do they have a "uniform" that they wear in canon that you've opted not to change? You can add in whatever details here you want, and again don't feel like you have to put it all in the same place. You can talk about a ponytail falling loose partway through an action. Or wait until someone else comments on a character's new pair of shoes.

Add another layer. What are the characters doing? How are they moving? Interacting?

Another layer. What are they saying? How do they sound?

Another layer. What other sounds are in the room? What smells? Do these change? Appear or disappear?

Keep going back and forth, toggling your way through your layers, adding things in here and removing them there. Every artist knows that sometimes a line just doesn't go in the right place and you have to erase it and draw it again.

Remember that no amount of works will give your reader a perfect representation of the vision in your mind, but also please know that that's okay.

By the time you finish your scene, some of those early layers might not exist anymore, and that's okay too. They were the sketch that started your verbal drawing. The base you used to guide your inks. Your final render won't have every line or brush stroke in it, and it'll be all the better for it in the end.

#writing tips

[rydykg]

People love to talk about the immortality of the machine, but I'm a mechanical engineer, so I know they delude themselves. Most machines are far more mortal than flesh.

How long does a machine last? A car is a very solid machine, expensive, precision designed, and you're lucky if you get more than three decades out of them.

Your enemy is not the flesh. It's entropy. It's the death knell of the energy imbalance. If you want to live as a complex machine you will, by necessity, generate a great deal of entropy until your machine breaks irrevocably.

You want to be immortal? Then don't worship the machine, worship the stone, the forest. Seek that which is either simple enough to never know death or diffused enough to accept every death.

#ideas

[rydykg]

writeblr intro

hello! i'm a college student who got into writing as a hobby and finally decided to make a writeblr after only privately writing for a while because i wanted to see more stories and meet more writers! i love sci-fi and supernatural elements (especially if the supernatural is in a modern setting!!) or stories that involve reluctant protagonists, enemies to lovers, or unreliable narrators but i'll read anything and everything if it catches my interest more info about my own wips:

Reverence Project

genre: fantasy, horror

A still unnamed project that explores the consequences of worshiping normal people to literal godhood. Simon Lacoste is a quiet, shy historian who simply wants to study the Gods as a distant observer, avoiding his heavily involved religious family in the process. This is not what happens. Shortly after finding out a secret that he shouldn’t have but had no intention of sharing, Simon finds himself stuck in between power grabs and petty squabbles of the Gods. He just wanted to record history, not make it.

All Roads Lead Home

genre: action, enemies to lovers

A story about grief and self-destruction that follows Damon Miller, ex-mercenary sniper turned reckless competitive race car driver through a series of unfortunate events and an accident involving his late brother. Once he begins to put his life back together, he (wrongly) assumes that the past he tried to shove down as much as possible will stay down.

Oasis Project

genre: fantasy/sci-fi (it's complicated)

The last and least developed project, the Oasis project is a story about girl named Nedra who worked extremely hard for the prestigious position of a botanist working in the Oasis that keeps her desert kingdom alive and thriving. Heavy worldbuilding with a found family.

#eyeing reverence project ! #writeblr

[rydykg]

what do you do to get out of writers block? bonus question: who are your favourite characters & why!

tfw you answer asks a year late. sorry :’’’’’

step 1: loop through song playlists or go watch animatics on yt

step 2: if #1 doesn’t work, scroll through tumblr posts until one of those ones hit in the right spot

step 3: if #2 doesn’t work, read other ppl’s works and see if that sparks up anything

step 4: if #3 doesn’t work, spin a wheel of aus/alt prompts/etc

step 5: if #4 doesn’t work, do something else and see how the mood is later

bonus question: my fave characters are currently ocs for a fandom BUT for my original works i don’t particularly have a fave, just a rotating cast of characters that occasionally get the spotlight each while some sit in the corner and wait until i remember them—

#asks #writing #👍 exams are the most hellish things on earth

[rydykg]

Writeblr Re-intro!

Hello! I'm Sunny (he/they) Here to give writeblr another shot. I'm hoping to engage in the community and make some friends! So feel free to tag me in games, DM me or send me asks!

About me:

I'm an aspiring kennel/cattery attendant, I own a menace (cat) named Pebbles

I write in a variety of genres; but my favorite are fantasy, supernatural and horror mainly centered around teenage casts. I always end up accidentally sprinkling horror of some kind into all of my wips. All of them. Terrifying monsters? End of the world, body horror? Yep yep. I apologize in advance

My favorite book is currently Gideon the Ninth, I adore Tamsyn Muir's writing. I'm also a huge fan of Dungeon Meshi and Witch Hat Atelier among other things! (as you can see above, digimon)

My wips are under the cut! I have many more; these are the ones I'm currently focused on. I'm more than happy to share more spoiler-y details and brainstorm in DMs!! Especially in exchange for info on your wips ;)

Click the titles to be transported to the wip's intro post!

Wanderlust (my main)

A story about a pair of young twins trapped in a fantasy world who, with the help of local kids, embark on a treasure hunt to track down five magical rings contrived from an old legend in order to return home.

Shadow Knights

A story set in a near futuristic city grappling with rapidly developing technology, centered around a young woman who accidentally discovers a science experiment that went wrong, leading to artificially created monsters stalking the city streets and killing residents. She joins a team to hunt them down. (aka the wip with the most body horror and psychological horror BY FAR.)

STRAY

A post-nuclear apocalypse story about a band of teenagers and their journey across the rotting world in search of a safe-haven called "Paradise".

Dragonborn

A story about three kids on the Australian coast who fall through a sinkhole and accidentally uncover the secret population of dragons living in their underground cave systems.

By the seashore

A story about a young boy named Louis who decides to stay with his father at a small coastal town for the summer after the death of his mother, and finds an amnesiac, mute boy washed ashore the beach after a thunderstorm.

(divider by @\cafekitsune!)

EVEN MORE WIPS!!! (link to be added)

+ bonus pebbles. look into her eyes.

#sunny :) #writeblr intro #writeblr

[rydykg]

crying and sobbing y'all when people said that you only add scenes that advance the plot they didn't JUST mean the overarching plot. they meant the plot of the book... entirely. like a conversation between two friends can advance the plot by characterizing them and grounding them with a meaningful relationship. if your book doesn't have "filler" it's missing emotional beats. which are plot. which are important. fun and whimsy aren't mutually exclusive from what "needs" to happen in your book. the advice isn't bad it's just taken too literally stop come back.

#writing tips

[rydykg]

i know every writer says "oh yeah i write for myself and not for the comments blah blah blah" but literally nothing is more discouraging than writing something and posting it, and then getting absolutely zero feedback. did you love it? did you hate it? did it make you want to throw your phone across the room? give me something to work with here. a keyboard smash. an emoji. something.

#writing