#and like yeah i have a fantasy novel i'm working on which is very inspired by tortall & emelan but also

[bluenotemagpie]

i thought that making the cats powerpoint (tm) would free me from my anguish to focus on, idk, usual stuff again. instead it has apparently freed a part of my brain that needs Something to Be Unhinged About and which has therefore flung itself back into tamora pierce's novels. for the first time in years it has occurred to me that i could, theoretically, write emelan fanfiction if i wanted to. like. i could just do that. i might start making a powerpoint about why keladry of mindelan is best character of all time. it is sunny out and i am going to take my kindle to the park and reread terrier.

#i reread the ending of squire this morning and like. i don't have any tattoos. but the idea of getting a kel tattoo is itching at me #she just means so much to me AGHHHHHHHHHH #and like yeah i have a fantasy novel i'm working on which is very inspired by tortall & emelan but also #i am craving the familiarity #i have read some very good tortall fic today #but what if i wrote lark/rosethorn stuff about the beginnings of their time at discipline cottage #emelan #tortall #tamora pierce

[despairforme]

Have you ever think about writing a novel?

      That was a question he never thought he'd receive. Nnoitra had SUCH a hard time writing and reading. It had always been like that. Not his fault that he had heavy dyslexia, and that he had never gotten any help managing it. The fact that he only had one eye made it worse. His head would start to hurt if he had to read for longer periods of time. It was just not his thing. Never had been. So, writing a NOVEL? No fucking thanks!

      ❝ Nah, I ain’t no nerd. Readin’ ‘n writin’ ‘s ‘da most borin’ shit ever. ❞

#[ i wasn't sure if this question was for me or for nnoitra :o ] #[ so answering for both! ] #[ for me YES ABSOLUTELY! ] #[ my dream since i was 6 years old is to become a published author ] #[ UNFORTUNATELY i'm ??? sO bad at finishing stuff ] #[ i finished a really bad fantasy novel like 10 years ago fjfjfj ] #[ but the personal projects i'm working on NOW is a novel about a lighthouse keeper ] #[ ---- and also a very self indulgent starwars oc story --- ] #[ but yeah my lighthouse keeper story? sO good ] #[ completely different from what i usually write ] #[ which is PROBABLY why i have such a hard time with it ] #[ writing in norwegian is really Not My Thing ] #[ but i try ] #[ oh and also - ] #[ i have a huge original crime story that i'm also working on ] #[ but tbh it's been a couple of months since i've touched my personal projects :V ] #[ i really should just ???? sit down and write my stories ] #[ i don't even have any good excuses why i'm not doing it t-t ] #[ BUT YEAH thank you for the ask anon! ] #[ definitely inspired me to look at my projects and see which ones i'm the most interested in continuing ] #despair for me. ╱ in character. #talking shit. ╱ answers. #burn the city. ╱ main verse.

[qqueenofhades]

just saw your offer for book recs and would love some fantasy/sci fi books, it seems like we have similar taste. i just finished nk jemisin's broken earth trilogy, and also loved the city we became by her.

Aha, I am at work right now and thus do not have my bookshelves at hand to make sure I'm not missing something blindly obvious. However, I will start you off with these:

The Rook and Rose trilogy by M.A. Carrick (The Mask of Mirrors, The Liar's Knot, Labyrinth's Heart). Yes, this is the series I have been screaming about nonstop for the past few weeks and thus craftily suckering unsuspecting passersby into reading. An AMAZING world, an OT3 who own my entire ass, lots of political intrigue, cultural and social commentary, a unique magic system, and also plenty of humor. It really has it all. I continue my one-man quest to make this fandom bigger. Ahem.

The Green Bone trilogy by Fonda Lee (Jade City, Jade War, Jade Legacy). Another fantastic fantasy series that NEEDS more readers. Inspired by Chinese/Hong Kong kung-fu movies, set in a gritty modern universe, kind of like the Godfather but with magical jade-wielding families. Tons of discussion of empire, culture, violence, appropriation, power, war, family, Asian identity, more. They're likewise nice and long to keep you busy.

The Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty (The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, The Empire of Gold). Another you-gotta-read-this trilogy (yes, I have many of them). Set in the 18th-century Middle East and the magical djinni kingdom of Daevabad. Politics, empire, religion, history, intrigue, magic, scheming families, ancient wars, and my most beloved, Muntadhir al-Qahtani. What is not to love.

The Priory of the Orange Tree and its standalone prequel, A Day of Fallen Night, by Samantha Shannon. Absolute doorstopper (800+ pages apiece) epic-with-dragons-and-medieval-worlds fantasy, like Game of Thrones if Game of Thrones was a) good b) gay c) feminist and d) had people of color. She is also the author of the Bone Season series (four books thus far) which is a unique blend of futuristic sci-fi and fantasy set in an alternate totalitarian London and a ruined Oxford.

Winter's Orbit and Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell. Two M/M space opera romances (set in the same universe, but can be read independently). She got her start as a fanfic writer and it shows; these are both delightful, plotty, funny, and full of sassy gay disaster homosexuals in space.

A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (I have read the first one, need to read the second one). Historian of medieval Byzantium writes space opera set in Space Constantinople which is also Space Tenochtitlan. Explores language, history, memory, power, identity, assimilation, and more, and is also very funny.

Autonomous, The Future of Another Timeline, and The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz. High-concept social-commentary dystopian science fiction; of the three, Terraformers (the newest one) might be my favorite. They're not related so you can read them in whatever order.

Two books that I have not read yet but I really want to: Swim Home to the Vanished by Brendan Shay Basham and To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose. Both are fantasy novels by Native American authors; Basham's is magical realism and Blackgoose's is about a Native American dragon-rider facing assimilation at an English (Anglish) boarding school.

Likewise coming soon and I am excited: The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu. Middle Eastern-inspired fantasy, cyberpunk, techno-magic. In space!

There are definitely more that I will get home and be like oh wait yeah. But this should get you started.

#sinistershit #ask #book recs

[fleamontsoleill]

Hullo tumblr!

My name's Kordian.

I'm a guy who fell in love with stories at a young age, and decided to make their life about them.

more info lower!

Some stuff about me:

my preferred pronouns are they/he, but I don't really care about how someone refers to me

genderqueer

i love everything chocolate and cinnamon

ENTP and 5w4

autistic

i love learning languages

I'm from Poland

If you want to message me, don't hold back! Any topic, almost anytime, I'm always open to a new conversation! (Also, I'm very random, so if you message me with the most random thing, there's a high chance of me being into it at some point)

my main account is @fleamontsoleil, so if I follow you there, yeah it's me

https://en.pronouns.page/@fleamontsoleil

What do I write?

I'm not really active, but i try my best

I write mostly fiction and fantasy

I tend to focus more on characters than their surroundings, which causes a lot of under describing the world, but I try to work on that

I write things that are inspired by things I know. I have a great imagination, which sometimes is not so fun, but when I write it's really useful. I can sit in any place and make it into a story.

All my works include LGBTQIA+ representation.

Characters of different ethnicities, disabled and neurodivergent ones are also included in most of my works.

Some of my works might be graphic, but I will put trigger warnings before any of them.

My current works:

If it comes to longer WIPs, I am used to working on one/two at once, but giving it my whole attention for the time of writing. Even though I can read seven books at once, I can't write them at once.

I also write a lot of short stories, but I will not be listing them here.

"The Tangled Sun" - a fantasy novel (1st dratf)(the title still might change, but, well, I don't have any ideas now) tag: wip : tts

-----

"Darksun" (working title) - a post apocalyptic novel(1st draft) tag: doesn't have a tag yet

"All of Us, Strangers" - an All Of Us Strangers destiel AU(1st draft) tag: aousd

That's pretty much all. Like I said, I'm open to new conversations, so don't hesitate to message me anytime. And I'm ask/tag game friendly!

My main account is @fleamontsoleil and you'll probably find out some more on the intro post there. It's where I reblog and sometimes post fandom stuff, here it's just, I don't know. Writing, ao3 and the rest of random stuff.

Have a nice one!

#writeblr #writeblr intro #writeblr introduction #writing blog #writer #writing #new to writeblr #writers of tumblr

[space-blue]

wait hold on… can u elaborate about the australian slavery situation??? what did it inspire u to write??

Hah, sure! You'll find a lot of it answered in this previous ask!

Basically in Australia if you want a second year on your working holiday visa, you have to do work in some countryside postcodes. The laws have changed around it, but back then (2014?) it was basically a hellscape of modern slavery. There's a horror film about that sort of job actually! Very funny--may not watch lol

I went to a lady who lived in Grafton and who was certified batshit. It was very very bad. I worked without equipment, sometimes ankle deep in mud, in the rain, feeding horses in my bikini because that way I could hose myself down.

I had to carry and lift bags of feed, 25 or 50kg... And make feed at night, boiling it. The room we kept the feed in was a container, and from the moment the sun set, the walls would come alive. tapestry of dancing roaches.

That's me ^ and the feed 'shed'.

The horses, of course, were great and always good company...

(that's not me but a fellow slave).

The worst though was not the insects crawling in, the black widows by the dozen, the flying roaches in my face or me having to sic the dogs on nesting mice... It was the barking.

One of the bitches had pups and was underfed. The neighbour threatened to kill her if she didn't stop killing his chickens. So instead of feeding her better, they turned the cage like space I'm in on that first pic, into an improvised kennel for SEVEN dogs. The puppies? Kept alone across the yard.

That bitch barked all night, non stop. It drove me to madness. It drove me to dark, dark places. I considered killing her myself. It was so bad, I eventually wrote a short story where Obi-Wan Kenobi breaks on Kadavo due to sleep deprivation! Then it turned into my first finished long-ish fic fix it, I'm very proud of it lol

He's lifting rocks, pushing carts, choking on his daily portion of mouldy bread, staring into the middle distance. He keeps his thoughts far from the things and people he loves, afraid that handling such precious memories might sully them, taint them with the same revolting grime that mats his hair and cakes under his nails. He feels his soul unravelling. The once thick and vibrant weave of his personality a moth-eaten rag, fraying under his touch. The person he was... The calm, collected man, sometimes to a fault... Sometimes a little too cold and obedient... Where has he gone? Like a shade into darkness, swallowed by something greater than himself.

Anyway, in the middle of that madness I started writing a 'novel' that was very much a vampire romance in which it's not *quite* vampires akchually... But then it evolved into an idea I really cherish, and wish I had the writing chops to work on soon.

So yeah anyway, I was mega broke as in '100$ and nothing else', was not paid, forced to work daily, even wash the family's stuff every day and roll the towels like in a 5 star hotel. I had no car and no money to get a way out.

The crazy horse lady kicked me out with no warning though, and I was rescued by lovely (and deeply racist) people. Before making my way to another horse person, a guy this time, who gave me a camping stove and a mattress in the room at the end of his stables.

I mucked shit every day while listening to Benedict Cumberbatch's reading of Kafka's Metamorphosis. There's a joke somewhere in there.

Here I am, over my pile of shit :

This is an era of my life where I had no money and no internet banking, and had to ask the cashier to 'please try again' after taking a can out of the shoping, and another can, and another...

I also, tragically, read The Collector, by John Fowles. That book left me so physically distressed, I was sick to my fucking stomach. I picked up the Exorcist to try and wash my palate! But finally I searched for fellow writers online, feeling my sanity was slowly unraveling...

And I found a forum of fantasy and scifi writers who ran a small monthly short story competition! I wrote my first in one day, while mucking stables... Sat at my diner of frozen potatoes and slammed my first 1.5k words short story ever. It featured an immortal gunslinger in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Strong beginings.

You can read most of those short stories here.

I participated almost religiously to this, for years. By the time I entered fanfic-world, I had almost 7 years of this under my belt.

I'm definitely sure it rescued my sanity.

#writing #irl stuff #modern slavery #australia #snip talks #anon ask

[grigori77]

Celebrating International Women's Day this year, once again I'm giving a shout-out to some of the amazing ladies, both real and fictional, that I really admire, both new on the scene and since my formative years. They all live rent free in my head and I think they're awesome!

COURTNEY LaPLANTE, the incredible frontwoman from up-and-coming new metalcore band Spiritbox, who are ALL pretty amazing, but she is in a whole different league. The way she can switch from beautifully husky, gently angelic clean vocals to bloody terrifying feral demon dirty vocals AND BACK at the drop of a hat is truly astounding ...

VIOLA DAVIS, one of my favourite actresses working in Hollywood today, an undeniable queen and now a bonafide BADASS too thanks to her recent starring role as Naniska, the General of the Agojie, the legendary Dahomie Amazons, in The Woman King. These days she's PROBABLY best known as THE BADDEST BITCH in all of the DCEU, ARGUS director Amanda Waller, but these are just two of a whole CAREER of incredible performances for which she's rightly become a true A-lister ...

ELLEN RIPLEY, as played by the equally awesome Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies. Quite simply THE GREATEST cinematic female lead protagonist OF ALL TIME, Ripley is about as definitive as strong female lead protgnonists get, the scourge of terrifying hostile aliens throughout the galaxy ...

POWER, from the acclaimed new anime series Chainsaw Man. I know, I know, she could SO EASILY have just been another classic teenage boy's wet dream anime girl, but half-demon fiend Power, like many of the show's female characters, is definitely a significant step away from the cliched norms, a total, undeniable force of (super)nature, unapologetic deluded self-promoter and thoroughly adorable chaos gremlin, who's quickly becoming one of my very favourite anime characters.

RINKO KIKUCHI, probably my VERY FAVOURITE Japanese actress EVER, thanks in no small part to her DEFINITIVE turn as Jaeger pilot Mako Mori in Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, although I first discovered her as gloriously idiosyncratic demolitions expert Bang Bang in Rian Johnson's criminally overlooked The Brothers Bloom. Also rightly known for her acclaimed turn in Babel, we most recently saw her in typically fine form in Michael Mann's agreeably edgy new true crime series Tokyo Vice ...

KRISTEN STEWART. Yeah, I know, some folk are STILL likely to be rolling their eyes at this choice, but ever since Panic Room I've ALWAYS thought she was something special, EVEN when she was doing Twilight. Okay, so it's taken her A LONG TIME to shake the godawful spectre of Bella Swan, but she's DEFINITELY pulled it off by now, playing some truly AMAZING characters in a bunch of really great movies, most notably Underwater (see above), the criminally maligned and unjustly ignored Charlie's Angels reboot and her incredible recent turn as the late Diana, Princes of Wales, in Spencer.

DELENN, as played by Mira Furlan (Lost), the ambassador of the alien race, the Minbari, in one of my very favourite TV shows of all time, Babylon 5. From humble (albeit also EXTREMELY mysterious) beginnings, Delenn went on to (rightly) become THE main female lead in the show, carrying the weight of one hell of a sprawling, epic sci-fi saga plot on her more-than-able shoulders.

KATY O'BRIAN. Basicallythe core inspiration (at least in a roundabout way) for the lead character in my ongoing online fantasy novel series Never Split the Party, Kesla Shoon, Katy is 100% what I love in a genuine physically powerful woman - tough as nails, sexy as hell and, paradoxically, an absolute sweetheart. I first stumbled across her as George, the very best character in Syfy's guilty pleasure TV series Z Nation, but she's finally REALLY getting the attention she's long deserved, already earning fast fan-favourite status as Jentorra in Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania.

ZOE SALDANA. Ever since she started to come up in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, she's been steadily growing herself one hell of a reputation playing a succession of strong, frequently badass women in cinema, most notably in The Losers, James Cameron's Avatar movies and OF COURSE as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy.

SOFIA BOUTELLA. Ever since I first saw her busting some truly incredible moves in those glorious "Keep Up" Nike ads from the mid 00s, I have always been SUCH a big fan of this incredible dancer-turned-actress. She first REALLY captured our attention in the first Kingsman movie, but she's shone ever brighter since in the likes of Star Trek Beyond, Atomic Blonde, Climax and Hotel Artemis. Personally I CANNOT WAIT to see what she does with THE LEAD ROLE in Zack Snyder's incoming new sci-fi epic Rebel Moon ...

ALISON MOYET. One of my favourite female vocalists when I was growing up, I recently rediscovered her music when I started one of my music fan deep-dives through her entire back catalogue, and I'm absolutely LOVING IT. Starting out in the frustratingly short-lived early 80s electro pop group Yazoo with Erasure's Vince Clarke, she truly came to fame with her dynamite solo debut album Alf, as well as a killer cover of That Ole Devil Called love, but she's been going strong ever since thanks to one of the greatest voices around.

ANNIE LENNOX, formerly of The Tourists and The Eurythmics. Another one of the 80s all-time great frontwomen, Annie is a statuesque Scottish goddess who is rightly best known for her SECOND tour of duty with multi-talented musician Dave Stewart, but went on to have an equally astounding career as a solo singer-songwriter with a string of masterful records from the 90s right up to the present. Add to that her undeniable ICON status in the LGBTQIA+ community and you've got a bonafide androgynous goddess on your hands ...

GRACE JONES. Ever since she played Zula in Conan the Destroyer, Mayday in A View to a Kill and one seriously STRANGE vampire in Vamp, I've been a fan of this Jamaican model/actress/singer and undeniable fashion ICON. She continues to be a wonderfully weird and truly unique individual with her own unapologetically challenging style to this very day, and I love her for it.

DEBORAH CHOW. A fantastic up-and-coming Canadian filmmaker, who made a modest splash with her feature film The High Cost of Living before cutting her teeth on a series of impressive TV directing gigs on the likes of Copper, Reign and Mr Robot before truly coming into her own on The Mandalorian, which directly led to her helming THE ENTIRETY of 2022's rightly acclaimed Obi Wan Kenobi series. I'm really looking forward to whatever she does next.

CHARLIZE THERON. If there's one actress I've become a fan of mainly through her playing GENUINELY UNSTOPPABLE kickass women, it's Ms. Theron. The South African-born actress looks ABSOLUTELY AMAZING when she's stalking down a catwalk in her Dior ads, but as far as I'm concerned she looks HER VERY BEST when she's taking roomfuls of men apart with her bare hands in Atomic Blonde or a big fucking axe in The Old Guard, which will soon get a sequel I for one CANNOT WAIT FOR ...

MARISHA RAY, ASHLEY JOHNSON & LAURA BAILEY, the Ladies of Critical Role. Sure, there have been other women who've come and gone in a variety of excellent guest slot roles through the years the live-play TTRPG webcast series has been going (from Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Ashly Burch, Sumalee Montano, Mica Burton and Aimee Carrero to, of course, the legendary Aabria Iyengar), but these three have always been the core, the heart and the undeniable BACKBONE of this amazing ongoing D&D adventure, and long may they all continue to reign ...

#international women's day #courtney laplante #viola davis #ellen ripley #power #power chainsaw man #rinko kikuchi #kristen stewart #delenn #katy o'brian #zoe saldana #sofia boutella #alison moyet #annie lennox #grace jones #deborah chow #charlize theron #marisha ray #ashley johnson #laura bailey

[galactic-pirates]

Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of?

Thanks for the ask! :) :)

19) Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it. Part of me wants to skip this and substitute another question but I am working on some art for the Librarians exchange at the moment. That has to be secret but I don't think it's too much of a #Spoiler to do one line like

"Librarians win with what they know - not magic!"

36) How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of?

I'm quite fond of song titles to be honest. Not usually lyrics, or not formatted as such anyway.

Another place I have looked for titles are episode titles. Not for the show I am writing for usually, but from any show I have watched and liked. I used to keep a text file with a list of titles I had seen that I liked, and when titling a fic I checked that list first to see if anything fit.

Sometimes there is a line in the fic, or the prompt that inspired the story, that just demands a certain title.

As for the one I'm most proud of? Monstrare, Monere perhaps. A Warehouse 13 oneshot. The actual fic itself I am a bit meh about after all this time, but the title and summary I am like "I wrote that?" I also really like and the Sins of Atlantis. Totally self-indulgent ridiculous fic which I enjoy more than I should. It uses the same episode title structure as the Librarians show (I did that for all my prompt month fics that year, which I loved). I particularly like this one though as I feel like there's so many layers to it. Sins - so evocative, so many questions. Atlantis - how? why? I don't know. It was fun.

(Under the cut for the writing advice because despite making myself stick to just one point, I still went on a lot. Oops.)

28) Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing? Ooooh boy ok. The answer is both lots, and nothing, because writing is very individual. I can advise based on what works for me but it's so much a YMMV situation. I always feel like any writing advice needs to be prefaced with this.

So I don't write an essay (and I probably will anyway) but I will stick with just one point so it's not thousands of words. It's actually something I read once and no it isn't the classic "I can fix a bad page not a blank page" (which is also good advice btw). It's actually a point I super hated for a long time and that is probably why I have forgotten where I read it, so I apologise for the lack of attribution. The quote was something like - "Write what you want to have written, not what you want to write." Now that's crazy talk right? Well yeah, and I hated it, but I see the wisdom in it now.

Now a personal anecdote to illustrate the point. Writing fanfic brought me joy. I loved the plots coming together, how I could sneak in references. I don't know if this is egotistical to admit but I still re-read my old fic sometimes - I was my own intended audience - and I love it. However, I have original novel ideas. I have a dream of publishing. It's a future that I would like to build. Possibly just a fantasy but it's a dream that I've held for decades and it scares the hell out of me. Writing novels is hard. It's facing the fear of never being good enough every day, and making myself do the work anyway. Writing fanfic is so much easier and (for me) it became a way to self-sabotage.

Now I owe fanfic a tremendous debt because it has broken through writers block, it has given me soooooo many ideas that I have mutated into something else entirely. Don't ever think I don't respect fanfic but I'm chronically ill and I only have a limited amount of spoons. I have written novel-length fanfic and pouring weeks/months into a fanfic, was weeks/months I wasn't spending on my original work and I hated myself for that. I was writing something that I really wanted to write but even in the middle of the process I was sometimes like "what am I doing???" and questioning my life choices. I love my fanfic ideas and I get so nostalgic sometimes for the ones on my list that I never got round to writing.

Fanfic was something I desperately wanted to write, but it was not what I wished to have written. It brought me short-term joy for long-term anguish if you like.

So my point - my writing advice - is essentially a riff off "life is short". Be damn sure before you invest so much of yourself creatively in a story (whatever that story might be), that you won't get hit by regret later. It's so easy with fandom events: exchanges, bingos, prompt months etc. to get bursts of inspiration and giddy FOMO, only to get months down the road and wish you hadn't happened that earlier WIP.

We all have a story to tell right? So don't write what you think will get you kudos/comments. Write what is in your heart to write. Not some surface level impulse, but what you will be proud to have committed to a year down the road.

I can't bring myself to regret any of my fanfics. Hell as I said I enjoy reading them. But I had to stop so my energy could be focused in a direction that brought my longer-term peace, rather than short-term joy.

Fandom can be a fickle place, and also playing in someone else's sandbox can turn to ash. When a show has gone in a direction I can't follow, or when there's drama in the fandom, it has stolen my joy. I suppose what I'm really get is with writing, it's a creative journey, it's pouring so much of your soul into something. Protect your mental health. Invest yourself wisely.

Write with joy.

#I answer things #sam talks writing

[sleepyowlwrites]

an introduction to Sleepy's wips (this time it's for real)

welcome.

I'd like to sort these by active vs inactive wips, projected novels vs short stories, most recently updated vs neglected, but that's not very helpful, as my wips regularly rotate like they're on a merry-go-round, and I could work on twelve wips in a month or one. or none. the best I can do is list wips I have, indeed, written something for/about them, and then the ideas that have nothing after that.

Category: WIPs

(this category contains content, from a few paragraphs to several thousand words. yeah. I've got range)

Youth: The Ephemeral Infinite (#wip: youth story)

a young adult novel about ten teenagers who have feelings and sometimes talk about them. set in Paris, 2018, over the course of one school year. all ten POVs, and the story is non-linear. it's a combination of the real and surreal, as time feels foggy and all the kids have superpowers. they're not important.

status: draft 0 complete

Dirt in the Doing (#wip: city story)

a new adult novel about attempting to deal with emotional trauma via physical, often violent means. Jet, our POV, will punch anyone who tries to hurt the people he's reluctant to admit he cares about. this particular story has all of my favorite tropes because I'm writing it so I can read it. it's realistic fiction but I call it ci-fi (city fiction).

status: writing draft 0

Spirits and Summoners (#wip: summon story)

a new adult fantasy novel about summoners dealing with spirits, bounties, secrets, and some guy who is spirit-possessing dead dragons. Zan, our POV, is not the main character, and he knows it. this wip is heavily inspired by video games and contains some tributes to their unique ways of storytelling.

status: not trying very hard to either write draft 0 or worldbuild

House of Favors/Swords/Blood (#wip: guild story)

a new adult fantasy novel? about the three guild houses and their apprentices. there isn't really a plot yet. I have two POVs with more planned, and an immortal sorceress with no name.

status: I have started writing draft 0

Mercenary Story (#wip: mercenary story)

an adult? fantasy novel about mercenaries, a princess, shenanigans and questing. and trauma. can't forget the trauma. multiple POVs with a lot to figure out.

status: I have started writing draft 0

Every Other Star is Silent (#wip: anxiety story)

a new adult contemporary novel about Aidan, and his anxieties. set in college, with a tremendous amount of discussion on mental illness. singular POV, with a slightly unreliable narrator.

status: draft 2/draft 1 rewrite (but I haven't worked on it in two years)

Spider Silk (#wip: magick story)

a novella about a small town whose history is being rewritten by someone trying to hoard all the magick, and the few people somewhat unaffected by this who are trying to stop him.

status: I occasionally worldbuild and make cameos for my friends

The Search for Petrichor (#wip: rain story)

a new adult duology about magic, family, control, trust, and powers that everyone forgot about. seven POVs with a vaguely fairytale/folktale retelling vibe. in the same world as Guild Story.

status: unknown (truly, I do not know)

The Score (#wip: death story)

a short story about Lawrence Whitely and his experience in the sideways death world of The Score, and all the lives he sees and remembers in it.

status: in limbo, which is very meta

Princess Rowena (#wip: princess story)

a middle-grade series about Rowena and her friends getting up to magical shenanigans.

status: hanging out in the archive

It's a Big Universe (#wip: space story)

a novelette? about a cosmic being travels around the universe in their little spaceship, all alone, until they're gifted some friends by an oracle. they don't understand the concept at first.

status: I've written some of it! and then I abandoned it

A City Asleep (#wip: apocalypse story)

a short story? about two boys roaming a city after the world falls apart. there is not plot but there are VIBES.

status: two whole scenes! and some thoughts

Trans-dimensional Ghosts (#wip: ghost story)

a ? about a junior warlock who is forced (by oath as a warlock) to help out a young man and the ghost attached to him before the ghost can consume all his energy. trouble is, the ghost appears to be from a different dimension. there's also a werecat, which is fun.

status: there are words for this thing but it's been dead for years

Home is Where the Heart Is (#wip: hunter story)

a short story about the annual quest to find and kill the Winterbeast in order to free the spirit of Spring that's been trapped inside its heart all winter long.

status: the winterbeast is very much alive

The Summer Gallery (#wip: summer story)

a short story about a gallery Jake works at for the summer that may or may not actually exist.

status: it has a great opening line, which is something

The Train Between Us (#wip: train story)

a novella about two strangers meet on the train to work and discuss their careers, emotions, and personal struggles while unaware that they're in a pocket dimension for the duration of the ride each day. They gradually help and comfort each other until the pocket dimension expires.

status: writing chaotically

Category: short fiction/misc.

(this category contains content, just brief)

Gang Up On Crime (#w: sleepy stash)

originally the fanfic of a fanfic, this is now just about gang wars but like, for children. there's violence but it's for babies. I don't know what to tell you.

status: I have more thoughts in my head than in my docs

The Girl From the Dimension Next Door (#wip: dimension story)

about Aaron and Sarah, who live two universes apart and regularly bend and break through spacetime to share their childhoods and their troubles.

status: I started writing it as a tumblr serial

The Phantom Thieves (#wip: thief story)

about a group of thieves trying to steal a bridge. there are pocket portals and banter.

status: I started writing it as a tumblr serial

Glow (#w: sleepy stash)

a very short story about the love between mother and daughter (I wrote it for my mom).

status: finished/unfinished

Previous Lives and Premonitions (#wip: college story)

a short thing about what the title says. it doesn't really make any sense because the context isn't in the story.

status: unfinished/finished

Beasts of the Garden (#wip: castle story)

a (so far) only dialogue story about a rosebush thief who has to work in an enchanted haunted castle for three months and survive. part of a larger universe of fairytale retellings. this collective currently has no name.

status: spontaneously updating

The Emporium Chronicles (#wip: worker story)

retail! but make it fantasy.

status: technically this doesn't have content but I do intend to write it so it didn't really belong in the ideas category

Tumblr Shorts:

Hell in a Handbasket

The Chosen One

The Grave Diggers (from the future!)

A Universe of You

You Were a Windshield

Guilt and Guns (in Space!)

Heavy is the Head, or Something

Kismet

A Name for the Road

The Girl From the Dimension Next Door (flash fic version)

Category: Ideas without wips currently

A Soul in Parts - sci-fi story about near death experiences causing your consciousness to split. there is cloning. (I will never write this.)

Forged Fates - fairytale story about being named after whatever the stars or sages or something have declared your fate to be. the protagonist is Jack of All Trades and he's not having fun.

Making of a Miracle - Chaos and Inevitability are entities that are tired of the universe dying so fast when they go up against each other so they decide to create a creature who can balance them out. it's like two supervillains doing arts and crafts and the poor plucky creations having to deal with them.

Library of the Mind - psychological dark academia about exploring too deeply into mind magic. guarding yourself against being manipulated in good, but you can end up tearing yourself apart instead of building yourself up stronger.

The Recollection - a series of shorts about the Recollection, an archive for memories people don't want anymore. memory erasure angers the sage of memory, so instead of wiping the slate clean, unwanted memories are stored in a vault and taken care of by the archivists, childlike beings who encounter the best and worst of humanity while never remembering anything they archive past a day.

The Hat Trick Man - I will not elaborate, because I can't.

Death by Midnight - fairytale where the times of day have personifications and they're a bunch of siblings and midnight (for reasons) is killing the siblings - not permanently, but it does confuse humans when afternoon suddenly disappears from the day for a week - and the other times of day have to team up to stop midnight.

Killing Time - similarly, time's personification has been split into several pieces and the unlucky protagonists have to time loop travel to kill the fast times and hope they're never taking out the piece that holds their reality.

The War of the Words - about godling writers who control the fate of the world and they can't stop writing or the world dies, but also they can't agree on how the story goes, so it doesn't make sense

The Planet Farm Beyond Oblivion - prequel to Space Story about Oblivion, where planets are homegrown from fallen stars and shipped off to spots in the universe but disaster strikes in the form of one of the Growers planting seeds with toxic elements.

Only the Night Knows - fairytale about how only the Night remembers how to wake the sun, and the newest prince and his best friends travel through Night's tower to reach the end of night and the birth of a new day.

Uncommon Ailments - a shop that encounters every ailment from secondhand depression to displaced souls.

A Quiet Cold - a small town slowly freezes while people don't really notice until it's too late.

Blood of Gold, Blood of Silver, Blood of Bronze - blood types are categorized by the kind of magic one wields. it's a well-known fact that anyone can have strong and unique magic, and that the system for tracking it is highly biased and false, but most of the people with gold blood are rich, so society skews in their favor anyway. a new blood type comes on the scene, and others follow after that: iron, copper, steel, etc.. with every new set of powers, the hold the gold bloods have on society weakens. and then one blood type goes rogue, and the world might have to crumble before a new one can be built.

The Cure for Depression and Other Mythical Creatures - mini comics about mental health

August Blue - Conrad and Elsie in the summer by the lake, a place no one else knows or can find. Little does Conrad know that he drowned while looking for Elsie, but as he discovers it, there might be a way to come back. But can Elsie come back, too?

Unearthly Appetites - a guy gets cursed to become a demon and spends the rest of his humanity trying to appreciate it better while encounting strange beings

The Cure for Insomnia - a guy gets turned immortal (or does he) and gets depressed about not needing things like sleep and food as much and has to be rescued from depression by some found friends

The Pennyman - a boy tries to collect 1000 pennies in order for the pennyman to grant him a wish

Making a Difference - kids of an elementary school work at gathering the ingredients for a "difference" in order to put on a school play

Blood Orange - something about magical assassins in the summer trying to achieve the same goal and also kill each other a little bit

Twelve Shadows - a vague Peter Pan retelling where Peter is haunted by and is currently haunting his lost boys while unsure of how to get himself out of a sticky bargain he made without anyone dying, especially him

Category: lore OR plot but not both!

The Silence Machine - a deaf guy creates a machine to generate silence in order to undo the hypnosis placed on his town caused by constant music

The Decaying of Shelara Da'Esti - a summon story prequel about our favorite twice possessed skeleton

stuff about dryads - weird lore about dryads, originally for the Teen Wolf universe, now just chilling in my brain (lore)

romance story - a retelling/crossover of Les Mis and Sense and Sensibility (plot)

Snow Fangs and the Poisoned Cinderella - shapeshifters + curses, merging a few fairytales and also there's no romance (plot)

Moss-rose and the Sleeping Swan - retelling mashup of snow white and rose red and sleeping beauty (plot)

Marriage of convenience - Hadley Jamison is going to have to marry his childhood friend and nemesis, Amelia Kinsey. There's an inheritance, a dowry, a debt, and a lot of family history riding on it (plot)

Pirate Story - a young women gets lowkey adopted by some pirates and there's angst (lore)

Wuxia Story - a woman from a family of assassins marries a young lord who is trying to dismantle said family to prevent from from succeeding in killing the entire royal family. There are three sides at play and the newly married couple don't trust each other whatsoever (lore)

Category: Fanfic

here is a link to the existing masterpost about fanfics because I am not going to retype or migrate all of that, thank you.

I am so tired.

#sleepy's wips #sleepy stuff #i'm not going to delete this post #not this time

[stellanslashgeode]

Okay so ya'll said you like hearing about wips so I'll talk about Let's Call it Love because it's consuming me right now.

I've been trying to abstract my favorite characters for a while now, trying to figure out what is essentially them. My Sundari stories are just a little conon divergence, what would Barriss be like if she left the war early. What would she do to find a new purpose. Then I wanted to write a pulp fantasy romance with Dusk of a Golden Age which is still set in the Star Wars universe but in the past and on world never contacted by the Republic and explore what Ahsoka would be like without her collogues, her mentors, her lightsabers. But she's still a Jedi.

And now I really wanted to write a modern-day AU and an all human AU. See what they'd be like in the real world. I am really drawn to romance stories about people in their mid-twenties. So, it's not like a first love or even the third. I just think it's a really vital very raw time of your life when you're out of school and trying to sort your life out, figure out what you want to do long-term.

I mentioned before I have started reading some romance novels to step up my game and yeah that's really been inspirational. The author I found tends to write about white main characters and one of them comes from wealth and Ahsoka and Barriss ain't white so that's different. I also don't want to read about rich people in love. I understand especially in this day and age some wish fulfillment is nice but I just can't. Besides, it's easy drama when one of your characters is broke and struggling. So that's Ahsoka's character arc, she fucked around and is finding out, had to move back in with relatives in shame and has to start over again. With Barriss I feel her best stories involve anxiety and dealing with trauma but in this case it is unhealthy past relationships. It's getting to trust yourself and being willing to be vulnerable again. Which I can relate to very well. There's no Clone War of course but there's still a Global War on Terrorism because I wanted to invoke this very specific 2005 feeling, this dread that was always in the air but at that point was beginning to get stale (but it still hung around). And I'm homesick so I wanted to set it in a town I really love.

It's weird planning things out because I'm having to come up with drama that is really mundane and not science fiction at all but I am excited to work on this!

#barriss offee #ahsoka tano #star wars fanfiction #fanfiction writing #star wars fanfic #barrissoka

[authoralexharvey]

Hi! What elements from books / shows / things you like are present in your WIPs? Can you trace each WIP back to their main inspiration source(s)? (hope the question makes sense, I'm lurking in inboxes trying to be more writeblr-active)

Hi Renu! Thanks for asking this question and sorry in advance if I start just spewing shit in incomprehensible fashion. Several of my works were inspired by something I read, watched, played, or listened to... and the answer is kind of surprising in terms of a couple of them.

Let's talk about Lilium for this. Lilium started off, originally, as a story-in-verse called Revenge Syndrome, which was very much inspired by the Vocaloid song, yes. I was... obsessed with that song (and a few others) in high school and wanted to write a story-in-verse about it, because I was in crowds on Wattpad etc. where that kind of storytelling was popular. So I did.

And then, some time later, I decided I didn't quite like it and wanted to write an original work based on the concept of the song and the title. Like "what is this song about. What can I think of plot-wise that could be titled this?" And so I started developing a plot about a super depressed teenage girl (because what else would a super depressed teenage girl write about?) and her dead brother who was haunting her. He was originally supposed to be an antagonistic force and I also introduced an exorcist-type character who would help the main character cope with the trauma of having a dead, demonic brother. But that wasn't working, either.

And so I workshopped a lil more. I ended up taking her brother's antagonistic tendencies and putting them into a whole new character. Gone was the exorcist character. Now, the MC's brother was suffering alongside her and was trying to keep her safe in his own way. And... yeah the plot has stayed relatively the same since that draft. I did change the title to Lilium (because MC was named Lilith, now Lily) because it fits better, and made it the "Revenge Syndrome duology" (because there is a sequel about the MC and her best friend)... Will I still keep that? IDK. I'll keep the sequel, at least.

Another one with a "wild" base of inspiration is ASMLP. You may not think so, because a lot of the larger throughlines are pretty obvious (Dungeons and Dragons, Bloodborne, the Radium Girls), but the idea actually started with just. Me and a notebook.

I got gifted a notebook for christmas one year that was this super pretty blue with gold stars and space stuff and I loved it, and I kept it as a writing journal for a while. I carried it... everywhere. Work, writing meets, around the house, etc. Idk one day I was carrying it at work and like. Just something about the way I was holding it reminded me of D&D Wizards with their spellbooks and I started thinking more about spellbooks and how I wanted to write a fantasy novel with a spellbook-based magic system, and how it would be super cool etc. And so while, yes, it does loop back to one of the main inspos, the real start of this idea was just... how I was carrying a notebook one day. I'm planning a whole behind the scenes post/series for my patrons about this lol

#ask and you shall receive #alex has the floor #lilium #asmlp

[scottxlogan]

Hiiiii

😅😈📈 for a game

😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists? Hmm...I mean everything I've written is a stepping stone to where I am today, but I mean in terms of stories that make me cringe a little in knowing I've penned them there are a few where I question what I was thinking at the moment of inspiration. I have a vaampire/soulmates/BDSM WIP that I penned a few years back where I was all like, "Hey I can write this story in less than a month no problem." lol I don't know what possessed me to write it, but I did and midway through (and we're talking a lot of pages into it) I was kind of like wow this is just...too much. There's one scene in there that kind of made me take a step back and return to what is more my comfort zone. I don't have any issues with any of the tropes I mentioned, but it felt like it was a touch darker than most of my work and I wasn't sure I was feeling the ship I was writing anymore in it with the darkness it was pulling out. I like exploring a character's psyche and the depth of darkness they can carry with it, but my two main characters were both pretty dark where I stepped back. So yeah, that's probably something I'm a smidge bit embarrassed that I penned, but it was good for knowing my limitations and strengths as an author and working on what I can improve. Maybe one day I'll revisit it, but for now it's sitting quietly on my hard drive hoping for an eventual return lol. 😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers? There's been a couple of instances where I've done something 'playfully mean' to the readers just because sometimes it's a fun way to bring people along on a ride and offer up a tease or some drama. In Damaged I have a sequence (spoilers here) where Scott wakes up and discovers all his worst nightmares are coming true. That he's too far gone to find redemption and he's lost Logan and he's married to someone else in this new world. There's a lot of drama there going on and that was a bit of a tease as there was a play on the flirtation between Scott and Tony. Speaking of which in Better Together I have a chapter titled The Death of Cyclops after Scott and Tony are finally at a point where it looks like they can enjoy being together. Very angsty dramatic, which the more I share these the less playful they sound lol. I guess my biggest 'playfully mean' moment as of late was in Blindsided where Bucky has a daydream/fantasy about Tony that feels entirely real until Bucky snaps out of it and we learn it is not the case. I don't often toss in the fantasy sequence trope into fics but every now and then it can be a fun way to throw people off for a second :) 📈 How many fics do you have? I currently have 171 on AO3, but if I'm honest through the years and other fandoms I've been a part of and with original things I would say it's probably more than double that. I wrote my first 'novel' when I was like 8 by hand and was hyped that it was 100 pages. Writing is just a huge part of my daily life I guess. Keeps me grounded in a lot of ways.

Thanks so much for the asks! They were a lot of fun anon! I really appreciate you asking!

#writer emoji asks #anonymous #writing

[kenyizsuartblog]

Hey! I dropped by to ask if there is any book/s which blew apart your perception on life and writing alike, books that opened new perspectives and challenged old ones? Books that inspired you.

Hi! Thank you for the question! :D

I'll be honest I'm a very "commercial" kind of reader - I like adventure stories, group dynamics, saving the world a thousand times over, fantasy shenanigans left, right and center. The stories usually do not blow my mind up because of that.

But.

I do have have a few inspiring ones, yes. In no particular order, under the cut, that is. Cuz I can’t keep things like this brief, I’m sorry. XDD

Az ember tragédiája ("Tragedy of Man" by Imre Madách) Setting #1, to be precise. Tragedy of Man tells the story of God creating the world, kicking Lucifer out of Heaven, then Adam and Eve meet him, eat the apple, get kicked out, yaddayadda. THEN Adam asks Lucifer what will happen to his offsprings now that they are out of Paradise. Lucifer takes him on a dream travel across various ages of history, and into a dystopian future as well. Lucifer’s goal is to show Adam how rotten humanity will become and he is better off killing himself to stop it from happening. Adam almost does so by the end when he wakes up in his own time, however, Eve announces that she is pregnant, which would make his suicide pointless. The final lesson of the story is that even if we know one possible outcome, we should always fight and keep hoping to change things. Setting #1 was the most impactful to me, even though the ending message is important as well. At the time I’ve read Setting #1, I was very... on the fence about Christianity. It didn’t feel right to me, but I couldn’t articulate why I didn’t want to go to church. And then I read the start of the book. After creating the world, God takes a break while all the angels praise him like there is no tomorrow... except for Lucifer. He points out that God demands respect and adoration from everyone, even though he, Lucifer, could see the flaws in the creation already. In fact, Lucifer is not some “big evil”, he is the “Spirit of Denial” to be precise. God kicks him out from Heaven for not praising him, but in the meantime they make a deal - God gives him two trees in Paradise (The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Immortality), and Lucifer swears he can use those two trees to ruin God’s creation. And he almost succeeds, although his plan is foiled in the end. Now I get that Lucifer is not the good guy in this, in the slightest. He’s an asshole, by all accounts. But the stuff he says to God, about how arrogant and mighty he is - that resonated with me. This constant begging for forgiveness and praising a (more than likely made up) god who appparently created a world so damn flawed, that innocent children can die of the most horrible diseases out there, and he won’t help anyone... yeah, screw him. No, I did not become a satanist. I am more of an ateist, or a deist. The latter being - I can imagine there had been some kind of higher being/sentience that set in place the rules of physics and chemistry that later formed the universe itself, but that sentience has long since buggered off and doesn’t care about what is going on in that vast place. -

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (before he got unbearably super woke) Percy Jackson is the typical YA adventure-novel series that mixes Greek mythology surprisingly well into the modern world. The guy’s knowledge of the source material is incredibly detailed and well-researched, he goes far deeper than the typical “kid’s story” would. That alone earns him respect. But the story has an incredible style about it, the smoothest and most captivating I have ever read in anything. It is genuinely difficult to put the books down, even after multiple readings. Rick Riordan is a big inspiration for me... I mean, before he got superwoke. Thankfully his earlier works, Percy Jackson, The Kane Chronicles and Heroes of Olympus are all safe from that. Trials of Apollo is on the very edge of this, I could still enjoy it, thankfully. Magnus Chase? From what I’ve heard with my half ear, I’ll pass, thanks. -

The Inheritance Cycle (”Eragon series”) by Christopher Paolini I actually never read the Lord of the Rings. I am sure it is a wonderful work. Maybe one day I will tackle it. My first introduction to a more realistically built fantasy world with an actual medieval setting was with Eragon. Random farmer kid finds a dragon egg and accidentally becomes a dragon rider, realizes he is not such a random farmer kid after all, and ends up saving the kingdoms from a mad king and his big-ass black dragon. The basic settings is very simple, but the twists and turns and obstacles Paolini puts into the book makes it far more complicated than it first appears. And makes the world a more living, breathing place with a complicated long history that has some of its details lost to time. And on the side, many aspects of the medieval life itself is shown very well, as well as warfare, and how do dragons screw up the rules. The world also features a hard magic system as well, with well defined rules and interesting ways to use. First time I’ve ever read one such system and since that day, I also want to create more well-defined magic systems for my stories as well. It is far more work than the so called “soft magic system” (what Diablo has, for example), but coming up with solutions to a problem using a well-defined magic is far more satisfying for both author and reader on the long run, in my opinion. Not gonna lie, soft magic systems are also hella fun, tho... -

Storm of Light (Diablo 3) by Nate Kenyon Now I will be the first to admit that the Diablo books are mostly... okay. Nothing great, nothing terrible, they serve their purpose. Storm of Light has a special place in my heart, tho. For one, it is the piece of media that, to this date, shows the most details about angelic life, and you all know me - I’m a huge Diablo angel fan. Like... goddamn astronomical. Any lore crumbs I can squeeze out of the Diablo media about them is a gold nugget on its own. Second, in the book Malthael is just... holy fucking shit. If you have seen evil. Like, real, ACTUAL evil. Not that bitch-ass Diablo and his army of shitbags, all they can do is destroy this, corrupt that, posses some people and summon lesser shitbags in their wake. Nah, bro, that’s amateur hour. That shit is so obvious, so straightforward it is not impressive in the least bit. Diablo is goddamn overrated. There, I’ve said it. This is the hill I am damn willing to die on. Malthael is so, sooo much worse. It comes from my own experiences, definitely, but the lengths he is willing to go to in a seemingly noble goal (to end the Eternal Conflict) hits so damn close to home, it’s painful. The manipulation. The scheming. The willingness to throw his own family to ruin. Holy hell. Even his shitty Chalice is an absolute bundle of evil.The thing makes you actually addicted to it, and AND it makes you insensitive towards other people’s feelings and experiences on the long run. Cuz that is what Wisdom is, right? RIGHT?! The series finally has a true Prime Evil - and his name is Malthael, Angel of Death. Don’t ask me why I am trying to redeem him in my fanfic, I guess I am just unwilling to give up on a compelling character like him. -

Gergő és az Álomfogók (”Gergő and the Dreamcatchers”) by Gyula Böszörményi An amazing multi-book series that is once again a YA “urban fantasy” adventure story. The catch is - it is entirely based on nomadic Hungarian pagan religion. I’m not sure if it got translated to other languages, unfortunately. This series had been a staple of my childhood, it paints a vividly beautiful and intriguing world of magic our nomadic ancestors had once believed in. Featuring old-school shamanism (not this bullshit New Age kind), throwing curses at each other using small magical leather whips, spirits, totem animals and a World Tree of the nomadic belief kind, Gergő and the Dreamcatchers is one hell of a ride into a world just below our own, and was one of the main nurturing sources of my now undying-love for fantasy adventure stories.

And thus, with that, I think I listed the most important ones. I actually read a shitton when I was small, but I think these are the ones that stuck with me the most. I hope I could interest you with some of them at least! :D Take care!

2022.07.18.

#eragon #tragedy of man #storm of light #diablo #gergő és az álomfogók #gergő and the dreamcatchers #inspirational literature #ephemeracrux #kenyizsu askbox

[zorilleerrant]

I've been looking through my old bedroom and found a bunch of books I loved as a kid to reread.

The Song of the Lioness Quartet, by Tamora Pierce - the one that started it all. That is, I've been seeing Tammy's books everywhere this year, characters that yes, I do know, book recs, nostalgia posting, everywhere. So, yeah, I'm getting on board this train. I'm going to start with this series, because that's where I started the first time, but I'm going to read through a lot of Tortall, hopefully. Anyway, that's why I wanted to look through my old books.

Batman Forever, by Peter David - yeah, it's the official movie novelization. I was obsessed with this book as a kid. I read it over and over again. So I have to include it.

The Last Vampire series, by Christopher Pike - I picked this up as a kid because I was like, omg, like THEE Christopher Pike??? and I figured someone who would name himself after THEE Christopher Pike would write great books. And I did really enjoy the series, so it worked out. I saw at some point there was a sequel series to this or something? I was excited to learn that years ago and then never did anything with the information.

Time Cat, by Lloyd Alexander - this book was so inspiring to me as a kid. I don't remember if it's any good or even if I thought it was good at the time. But it made me write a whole bunch of terrible short stories about cats with magic powers, which largely resulting in adults in my life telling me I couldn't spell. Which was true but wasn't even the point, okay, maybe cats have their own language which is just like English except spelled bad because they can't spell because they're cats. It's fine.

Star Split, by Kathryn Lasky - I saw this on my shelf and I have no idea what it is. It gave me very warm and fuzzy vibes to look at, though, so I think I must have liked it. I guess I'll figure it out!

Replica series, by Marilyn Kaye - this is about clones or something. I don't recall details because at the time I was willing to read anything and everything that so much as hinted at clones and anyone grown in a test tube or vat. It's probably either good or bad. I don't know how many there are and I literally don't even remember the main character. She's named Amy? Okay, sounds good to me, I believe you. Why's she cloned tho

Cirque Du Freak series, by Darren Shan - I loved the conceit of this, which is that they're a true chronicle that no one would believe. Oh, but that's very common - yes, but no one actually committed to the bit by making the main character and author share a name, which I loved. I don't remember how far through this series I read, either, so there's probably a lot of story past the point where I stopped, which is going to be fun.

Twitches series, by H.B. Gilmour and Randi Reisfeld - Okay, I'll admit, I only read the first one. I tried to find the rest at the library and they didn't have them, and then I forgot completely. Finding the movies as an adult was fucking amazing? They're great, if you like campy silly fantasy, and seeing some of my favorite actors in those roles was so much fun, so I've been meaning to go back to the series (but, again, forgetting). Just. Twins. Who are witches. It's just the distilled wishes of every SFF book kid.

Rascal, by Sterling North - I double checked and nothing horrible happens to the raccoon at the end of the book, which is weirdly common in kids books? Anyway, I just remember this being my introduction to all the cool things raccoons could do with their tiny thumbs and being very impressed and enamored and yes, of course I wanted a pet raccoon, but that's not special, I still wish I could have one of those they're adorable.

I Was A Sixth Grade Alien, by Bruce Coville - someone requested this for Yuletide, and I was like. Okay, I have for sure read that book, and I remember literally nothing about it except what's written on the tin. I think I only read the first book, or the first couple? Like, this is a series, right? I have no idea! I just saw the title and went I really have to figure out what that's about before it drives me crazy! It's a great title, though, isn't it?

Julie of the Wolves series, by Jean Craighead George - I have definitely read two of these books, but not, I think, all three. Other than this one, I don't know which of the two I read. Maybe I did read all three, but just not all at the same time? You have to understand, I was a Wolf Kid. When I saw there was a book not only about wolves, but where the main character was friends with wolves? Family even? I was the most excited I've ever been to read a book, and they really delivered. Excited to hang out with Julie again, and make sure I've definitely read all of her stories this time.

Jedi Apprentice series, various authors - I might read the Young Jedi Knights or Junior Jedi Knights series too/instead, but this was the one I apparently had on my shelf. I loved it so much. I was in love with the former apprentice sith who wanted to take over the world, which is par for the course, really.

Holes, by Louis Sachar - a children's classic. Also the movie is one of the best adaptations of a book I've ever seen, and I might give that a rewatch, too. The song in this story gets stuck in my head randomly since I read it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Diadem series, by John Peel - I only read the first three books of this, because even though I searched for more than a year, the fourth volume was out of print and not in any library I could find. The rest of the series wasn't out of print! Only the fourth one! I wanted so badly to read the rest of the series because it had everything I was looking for as a kid. Alternate worlds. Kids who grew up in entirely virtual environments. SFF old timey places with archery. Some ambiguous villain that our heroes were intent on stopping despite not knowing who he/she/it/they even were. Hopefully I can find the fourth book this time somehow or my reread will also be cut tragically short.

Fearless series, by Francine Pascal - I also don't know how far I made it through this series, but I am very nostalgic for a character who just does stuff because she doesn't feel fear. Everyone wants to give me characters with tragic backstories, or who have to overcome their phobias. Nobody wants to give me someone who gets a bloody nose fistfighting a stranger because she forgot she wasn't supposed to. ADHD relatable? Okay, yes, maybe. But she's also one of those 'this person was an asshole so I bit them' characters, so I love her.

Among the Hidden series, by Margaret Peterson Haddix - a series I kept up with in real time, for a while, and I think I read to the end? Or almost to the end? Whatever, I love most of her books, they were my favorites as a kid, and despite the awkward xenophobic loading of the premise, the idea of a whole underground world of hidden children trying to find connection is an interesting subversion of the SF trope, one that actually has the scaffolding to make sense, instead of just 'yeah, we kept them in a cupboard their whole childhood but they're normal somehow'. It's heartbreaking and cool.

Goosebumps and The Nightmare Room, by R.L. Stine - I'm definitely not going to reread one whole series, let alone both. I've got to find highlights lists somewhere and go back to the popular ones, but, still, a lot of these were some of my favorites.

The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer - This has a sequel, which I never read, and I'm very much looking forward to that. The whole story had such a huge impact on me, both for what I look for in elaborate worldbuilding (this book has the best worldbuilding ever), and in how I write emotional arcs. I used to try to write plot driven things exclusively and, you know, I'm not really a plot writer. I'm all about the characters, and I feel like people try to hide that from kids. Chapter books are always plot driven! They only slowly let the character driven ones in, and then the worldbuilding ones, and how often is a MG or YA book allowed to be structurally driven? Basically never. Anyway. Huge impact on my attitude towards narrative. It was also just really emotional for me. One of my favorite books, and I really hope it holds up on rearead.

#look i said something

[bigskydreaming]

This is probably random, but what would you say are your favorite Silvia Moreno-Garcia books? You're one of the few people I know who also knows about her and loves her work

Oh no worries, I love her stuff and it always feels like there's too few avenues for talking about books we love in general, unless they're central to an established fandom. Like I literally do love everything she's written and its hard to rank them because aside from just really enjoying her prose and world-building in general, she has this really neat tendency to write books that are wildly different from each other and somehow manage to each cater to really specific trope/thematic preferences I have. LOL, it makes me feel very special.

I'd say Gods of Jade and Shadow is for sure my favorite though, but that has a lot to do with the specific myths and legends she pulled from as the basis of her world-building for this one. I'm a total mythology and folklore nerd, have been since I was a kid, like I would legit spend most of my lunch periods chilling in the school library reading every mythology or folktales book I could find. And so of course, I've always been pretty quick to pick up sf/f or magical realism books based off myths or legends I'm familiar with, and the fairly recent uptick in books inspired by Mesoamerican myths is actually what led me to her work in the first place. I was reading Aliette de Bodard's Servants of the Underworld series (which I got onto after first finding her through her Dominion of the Fallen series, which is also fantastic), and then someone brought up GoJaS a couple years ago as a comparison point, and I was like omg you had me at the Hero Twins references. Like, I always loved those stories in particular, so I was a shoo-in for this novel and then like, read everything else in her bibliography the second I was done with it.

But yeah, the world-building in this one is just exquisite, and the setting and time period is rendered so vividly, and I adore how she weaves in tropes from all parts of the world so you end up with like a coming of age story revolving around Mayan mythology but with the framework of a Cinderella story and so on and so on, and it all just is woven together so naturally and seamless, I love it. Fave book is fave.

Veeeeery close behind it though would have to be Mexican Gothic.....another fave trope of mine is maybe pretty niche but like.....dynastic stories about squabbling families of immortals has been a go-to fave of mine ever since I got hooked on The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny as a kid. Again, this one is a very different book from Gods of Jade and Shadow, but the world-building is great here and the whole basis for the family's longevity, and I LOVED how she tied all that back into giving not just the family but the house they lived in its own kinda almost magical properties, with the whole thing with 'the gloom' and the way the house retained memories.

And again, she does such a great job bringing together totally disparate elements from different genres and regions, to make something really new and unique. Like, the gothic in the title isn't kidding, lol, at times this one really feels like...a fantasy version of something like Rebecca.

(Also, apparently there's an adaptation of Mexican Gothic in the works at Hulu. Fingers crossed. Also, kinda random but I've been seeing trailers for the upcoming vampire movie The Invitation, and its had me thinking of this book again a lot just because I get similar vibes from it).

Signal to Noise is also a really fun one - its a little less....mmm, polished, I wanna say.....than her later works? Like you can tell its her first novel, but at the same time, she's talked about it being a lot more personal for her, and based on her parents and their relationship, and that emotional grounding really shines through as well. So although this book doesn't have the same expansive world-building or intricate plotting of some of her later books, its very immersive and just feels more intimate, like the literary equivalent of being right there in the room with these characters, watching their more slice-of-life adventures unfold, as opposed to the more distanced 'sitting back and watching this cinematically unfold on the screen' feel of books like MG and GoJaS.

Plus, I loooooove magic systems or powers that are based off music or listening to music - one of my fave obscure X-Men characters is a mutant called DJ who manifests different superpowers depending on what genre of music he's listening to, so everything about Mercedes' magic and casting spells based off of songs she was listening to was like, mmmm no longer just vibing with this book, am full on vibrating, actually.

The Beautiful Ones is another fave for its worldbuilding, and the way it treats things like telekinesis as commonplace in a historical setting, similar to Mary Robinette Kowal's magical Regency series, The Glamourist Histories. And just the love story and betrayals in this one are so well-crafted and its like a historical telenovela with superpowers and really how could it POSSIBLY be more up my alley, y'know? But even with all that, its the characters that really sell this one for me. Antonina's so adorably awkward and Hector may quite literally be 'three mysterious enigmatic love interest' tropes standing on each other's shoulders and wearing a trench coat but damn if he doesn't pull that look off well.

Velvet Was the Night is just a few hundred pages of what the fuck what the fuck what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Like seriously, what even IS this book, but I say that with alllll the adoration. She really just swung for the fences with this one, but it works, its just.....unabashedly noir with a comic book nerd in 1970s Mexico becoming an amateur sleuth trying to Nancy Drew her way to the bottom of mysterious disappearances and thus getting entangled with a hitman who becomes obsessed with her and omg this book is ridiculous but in the best way. The one gripe I had with it was I kept waiting for Maite's emphasized but then mysteriously disappearing kleptomaniac tendencies to be plot-relevant, but it never happened and so at the end of the book I was like....well that was certainly A Character Quirk but I mean the other main character kills people so, y'know, all things are relative I guess fhalsfhklafhaklfhla.

Certain Dark Things - I mean, she had me at vampires. By the time I got to this one I was like, its Silvia Moreno-Garcia, its vampires, what more do I need to know. But honestly, this one has some of my favorite world-building on top of that, and Domingo's a funky little sweetheart. Atl's like I am MYSTERIOUS and JADED and occasionally HOMICIDAL and I shall NOT be undone by your scrappy pluck and sweet charming naivete and cut to ten pages later OH NO I AM UNDONE BY YOUR SCRAPPY PLUCK AND SWEET CHARMING NAIVETE OH UNFORESEEABLE FATE, MUCH UNEXPECTED OUTCOME, HOW DARE.

Untamed Shore is probably the one and only book of hers thus far that's not like....been a miss for me, exactly, so much as it was just....fine? Like I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, I just don't have particularly strong thoughts or feelings about it one way or another. It didn't linger. Again, not a knock against it, and I'd still rate it a worthwhile read, its just comparatively speaking, juxtaposed with the rest of her bibliography I don't have much to say about it.

I still haven't managed to track down and read most of her novellas yet, though she's got a good half-dozen of those that look interesting and I plan to get to. But first I gotta get my grubby little hands on The Daughter of Doctor Moreau which I literally only found out about yesterday and just came out last month, because I fucking LOVE Doctor Moreau retellings in general, so am definitely eager to see her take.

Seriously, how does this author keep tailoring whole novels to my PRECISE niche interests, its driving me crazy but also omg never stop please and thank you, falkfhaklfhaklfhaf.

[relatablegenzwriter]

How to write erotic moments or short stories without making it convoluted, cheesy or tacky? I grew up very religious and although i no longer believe have lots of trouble with sexuality in general. I'd like to try writing stuff as exploration cause i find p*rn too exploitive and iffy and dont wanna support that industry. but i'm not really sure what to do to do it "right" instead of dull or cringy. I just sit for hours with a blank paper till i give up

Writing Non-Tacky Sex and Romance

I'll start right off the bat by saying that this is definitely not my writing area of expertise, and I don't know how much I can tell you that you don't already know. So I'm gonna offer a couple of tips and then send you to a lot of posts that might answer your question better than I can! (P.S. I know your question was about sex specifically, but as you can see from the title, all of this can be applied to romantic scenes as well, which I got similar questions about.)

1. Be careful with metaphors. Of course, no writing style is "right" or "wrong", but flowery language can often make or break any scene, especially romantic ones. Many times, the overuse of dramatic, romantic metaphors can overload a scene and make it feel cheesy and cliche. And let's face it, millions of tiny stars aren't bursting around a couple every time they kiss, and we all know that sex is not magical in the slightest. I think the biggest problem with these kinds of descriptors, though, is not that they make you groan with how sappy the writing is, but because they often feel impersonal to your characters. So instead of your character "hearing a symphony swell around them", maybe "for a moment all their worries about [plot conflict/subplot conflict] seemed to move toward the back of their head". (not my best descriptor i could come up with on the spot but you get it) Although, while this will remove the cliche aspect of your scenes, it can still go overboard. Bringing me to my next point…

2. Be realistic. Like I said before, not every romantic or sexual interaction your characters have is going to feel like a Nicholas Sparks movie. There are lots and lots of awkward, ordinary moments. Include these! Of course, you probably won't want to make every moment of every sex scene say "yeah it wasn't that special" (unless of course this is the direction you want your story to take). If your character enjoys kissing or sleeping with someone, say that. But there are very few people whose worldview has shifted after one night together, and I doubt this is true for your characters, either.

3. Be careful about your source information. It's okay to take inspiration from everywhere, but it's important to take everything with a grain of salt. Particularly with sex scenes, writers tend to take inspiration from two major places: porn and WattPad (you know, THOSE fics). Keep in mind that porn is not meant to be realistic in the slightest, and I could go on a whole other tangent about the horrible expectations it sets for sex in real life. And don't get me wrong about wattpad: there are great writers on there and it's a great option to share and read fiction (for free, too!). But a lot of the ridiculously smutty fics, while entertaining and well-written, depict fun-sounding but sometimes unrealistic sex, that may not fit into the fantasy novel you're writing, @sjmaas. (Disregard that last bit if you are writing something akin to wattpad smut) Also, just a little side note that you should never be treating porn or wattpad as legitimate sex ed for real life!

4. Try building your scene from the ground up. I did a post on this a while back, but I used to really struggle to write romantic scenes until I figured out a method that works for me. Basically, you picture your scene as a building that you first need to lay the framework for, then fill in the cement/bricks/whatever, then furnish and decorate. First, I go through and write all the dialogue that will be taking place and mark crucial events. (example: "Hey, can I tell you something?" "What?" "I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to me." [kiss]) Next, I rewrite the scene almost monotonously, in the plainest way actions can be written. ("They held hands." "She took her jacket off." "He walked across the room.") Once I have my "building", then I can go in and add all the emotions and little details. I do this so that I don't have to stare at a blank page, since I already know how my scene is going to go. Then all I have to do is fill in some little details that make the scene more personal to my characters. I highly recommend this to you, since you talked about how you know what you want to write but can get scared of a blank page (hey, me too!).

5. Extra Resources! Here's some people that can probably help better than I can with specifics:

Including Consent In Writing (SUPER IMPORTANT)

Non-Explicit Scenes

Explicit Scenes

Romance In General (with a section containing tons of nsfw writing advice)

Good luck with your story!

#answering asks #writing tips #writing advice #my advice posts #writing romance

[maddierussell04]

About my Godzilla storyline

So in case you're wondering, my fanfics are called Cold Blooded King and Godzilla : Alpha Blood

It's very heavily centered around Madison and the main idea original was gonna be a King Kong story like the 2005 remake but with Monsterverse Godzilla and Maddie.

Things spun around and I shifted my main focus towards it and added many more elements and essentially it became a second timeline to the Monsterverse, jumping off from King of the Monsters with only minor retcons.

Cold Blooded King had Madison find out and unlock ancient powers that humans had that would equal them to Titans. My idea was whatever gave the Titans power (and I don't mean just the radiation as there seems to be more to it) surely could've given humans similar powers, just over time as Titans and humanity had separated we lost them. Now that they are getting connecting again like in King of the Monsters, they started to appear again, Madison is the first because she and her parents had been near the Titans for some time and such was chosen to become the first human Titan since many millenia. I obviously added more explicit fantasy elements that were implied by Kotm and it's Novel, especially with Mothra, who outright has control over the afterlife as her soul wanders there and keeps in check that the energy in it keeps being understurbed.

Madison gets chosen due to what she did in the temple and Boston and is set to be the successor to Mothras power.

Basically this idea came from a bunch of old and new Toku, where human sized heros would be able to fight against Kaijus (I also now realized it kinda became like Raiden from Metal Gear Rising). I also had the idea from Ant Man, where while he is shrunken down, he still keeps the same amount of strength he would have if he was normal sized. While Madison is not gonna change size, it is the same principle that she has the power of a Titan compromised down to a human sized target.

Where was I, ah and Motrhas God rays kinda play into Madisons overall look, as she now manifests an aura around her, one with wings like Mothra making her look a bit like an angle and one with Godzilla plates and tail around her back. They aren't physical, but they do sign that she is using her Titan strength.

In Cold Blooded King it's mainly about unlocking and finding that power while she tries to cope with the situation and what happened in KotM.

I should have mentioned, Godzilla does take her away onto Skull Island, where there is another temple that looked like Mothras back in Kotm.

He sensed Mothras presence around Madison, as she was again in Castel Bravo as he got woken up by a rogue Titan, and while not exactly knowing her or anything what was gonna happen, he took her instinctively, as Monsterverse Godzilla had shown so far that he is very reliant and working on them.

I started writing in late 2019 and finished it in early 2021 and Alpha Blood is only on Chapter 10 now, so yeah I'm a little slow even if it's a passion project (has to do with some personal stuff).

After that we skip one year into Alpha Blood, which I'm currently writing and can be found on Ao3 and Fanfic. Net, which is more my take in Godzilla vs Kong (a movie I didn't enjoy much admittedly) with the things I had set out.

Future stories are gonna be a bit different, even if they are still inspired by other Godzilla movies and such.

#godzilla #madison russell #godzilla king of the monsters #alpha blood #cold blooded king #monsterverse