writingmoth

[writingmoth]

Going insane about kicked dog with rabies type characters

#thats valerian in a nutshell #bad things happened to him and now hes making it everyone elses problem too #i honestly find writing him very cathartic lol #hes toxic and angry and vain but i love my rabid little meow meow #valerian #tropes

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i love characters who lie. i love when a character is established as a capital L Liar and then we as the audience can’t take anything they say at face value. i love liars fakers schemers deceivers. characters whose tongues are outright necrotic with the rot of their lies. characters to whom truth is a stranger. i am kissing them on the lips btw it tastes disgusting

#tropes #valerian

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i hate you "pair the spares"/"everyone must be paired" tropes, i hate you forced last minute romances, i hate you implication that a happy ending means a romantic partner, i hate you amatonormativity

#this is quite literally my villain origin story #the damage you did to aroace teen me @ cassandra clare

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"How can you write romance if you're asexual?" The same way I write fight scenes despite never having elbowed some dude in the small intestine: Really badly and I don't know what I'm talking about pls I'm sorry-

#fantasy romance wip in a nutshell #i talked about it on blue sky the other day (im @nyphren there btw) #that fantasy romance wip is a romantasy book in clown make up who doesn't know how to allo #i love it but its such a mess lmao

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Zack Snyder really just had his characters sit down around the table the night before battle and go "all right now it's time for everyone to take turns having a brief exposition flashback to explain our trauma and motivations to the audience. That way they'll feel like they know us well enough to care what happens to us."

This man is so busy perfecting the art of playing with the camera and blowing shit up that he never worked out how to treat narrative, plot and dialogue as anything other a 'paint-by-number'.

#thats what trips me up!!!!!!! its such a bad idea WHY DID NO ONE STOP HIM #rebel moon

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Wait what did Freydis Moon do? :( I've read their books and really liked them, but I don't follow them anywhere online, so that last ask you got worried me

Freydis Moon has been exposed to be Taylor Barton, a white person from the state of Oregon, someone who had a history of faking their race, being racist, and general abusive behavior. You can read more here about this Taylor person here, and you can find an incredibly long thread here.

Freydis was a colleague of mine, and they took me under their wing when I entered the indie book scene. They presented themselves as a Latine, mystic, queer trans author — who was older than me, I should add — so I deeply admired them and confided in them. I don't think ABM would have ever gotten much attention if I hadn't received their guidance.

There had been some whispers that Freydis was really Taylor, but I'd seen Frey's seemingly darker-skinned hands and heard their real name, which was supposedly Daniela.

Two things I should say before the big reveal: Freydis briefly hired a publicist named Cordi, who was also an agent with their own agency, named The Lynne Agency. Cordi, very randomly, decided to leave the industry and left their clients, and Freydis, hanging. Someone else to mention is Saint Harlow, an author of gay, cannibal erotica. On twitter, Saint was known for peddling a lot of drama — sometimes, he was on the good side of things and sometimes the bad, but he tended to be a massive bully. Freydis allegedly comforted some of Saint's victims.

And the reveal:

Freydis is the race faker Taylor Barton. The evidence is substantial, but most notably, some of the files they shared with other authors, including me, had metadata with the names of Taylor Barton's other identities. I was able to check the files myself to confirm.

They were also Saint Harlow. Meaning Freydis was bullying people secretly on one account and comforting them on another. And the bullying was a lot more disgusting than you might think, but for the sake of the victim, I won't share details.

They were also the publicist/agent Cordi. Why did they pretend to be an agent at all? I'm not sure but they wasted a lot of authors' times, that's for sure. Were they just looking to plagiarize off manuscripts sent to them? Who knows. (A friend of mine who sent their manuscript to them fears so).

There were a lot of interactions between Taylor and I that are much much weirder in retrospect. They critiqued the industry use of #ownvoices, which I agreed about, but blew the issue out of proportion, like thinking #ownvoices gay-trans author book lists shouldn't exist because of potential outing, mlm books by mlm authors lists shouldn't exist because of potential outing, and that lists of books by people of color about people of color also shouldn't exist because... potential outing? Taylor was, to me, oddly sympathetic toward certain authors accused of racism and shot down my concerns of a certain book with what I felt to be pro-colonizer themes inconsistently — their response to racism seemed to depend on whether they already disliked a person or not.

I could say a lot more but as someone who spoke to Taylor in private at times, there were a lot of things I was unsure about even when I was on their side of things. To some people, apparently, Freydis had said they were part Mexican, but only ever told me they were Peruvian (they might've known I'd clock them as a faker). Regardless, when this all came to light, their response was shockingly dismissive.

This may be more info than you asked for but TLDR:

Freydis Moon faked their race and ethnicity, bullied and manipulated many readers and authors using various fake identities, took advantage of latine author resources, and so on.

#i was very shocked when i found out about it #even more shocked when i realized brooklyn ray/taylor brooke was one person who tried to start shit with the common bond anthology YEARS ag #anyway #im very sorry for their victims and hope they can heal with time #freydis moon #tagging for blacklist if ppl feel uncomfortable reading about this

[writingmoth]

#either self publishing or posting online probs #i dont think i will even attempt traditional publishing? doesnt sound feasible

[writingmoth]

best trope is the one where the character’s godlike power is also killing them btw. they don’t even lift a hand to kill the monster but now they’re delirious with fever. they save a friend’s life and said friend immediately finds them emergency medical care. they raze the enemy to nothing and it takes far too long to find their pulse with all the bruising. their friends just constantly having to patch them up and worrying over which feat will be their last. et cetera

#tropes

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#isra @ valerian basically #isra #valerian #antisnowwhite

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“How’s your WIP going?”

"Have you made any progress?”

“How close are you to being done?”

#askdjaksdjl same

[writingmoth]

I think more Hero-Villain teamups should end with the Hero betraying the Villain, because it defies expectations in an absolutely delicious way. We all expect villains to use underhanded tricks, to lie and cheat whenever it suits them. But we don’t expect a hero to use the same tactics, to use a villian as a means to an end with no regard to promises made. And we don’t expect villains to trust enough to be betrayed in the first place. 

#tropes

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we can never have an actual conversation about the bad parts of Booktok (racism, evil capitalist publishers, etc) because everyone is too busy throwing a fit over erotica, women liking things, and grieving the supposed Fall of books as a beacon of being intellectual. And gate-keeping reading for your, idk, dark academic aesthetic when the entire world is in a massive literacy crisis.

Half the "Booktok destroyed books" tweets I see are from non-readers, from random white supremacist accounts, from people that think the literary section of bookstores stopped existing ("i wish when books had meaning >:("), from non-romance readers who see trope maps as evil when tropes /are/ the story in most genre romance books.

I'm not an erotica or even a genre romance author so this has nothing to do with me but I'm really sick of thinly veiled misogyny and the virtrol that romance (even cringy and horny) books get. There are a billion issues in publishing and with book communities, but everyone is just looking for an easy target that they can bully

#im always wary of '[website/thing/community] ruined books' tbh #i do have my criticism of booktok as someone who only sees what comes out of it #that isnt related to racism evil capitalist publishers etc (i think those are common to every platform lol its not like twitter isnt plague #by the same things) #but said criticism comes from Not Being Catered To #and thats not like a booktok exclusive either #so you know #i can be vaguely annoyed at booktok while also not being a dick about it! #incredible #booktok

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wip questionnaire

thanks @worldstogetlostin for the tag!!!

rules: answer as many (or as few) of the questions about your WIP as you can.

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

probably the concept of a god of the forest saving a villager from the wild hunt. i didnt have loifa or rowan created, mind, just the vague idea of a god interrupting mischievous fairies who were about to kill/kidnap/do gods know what to a village boy who made a very stupid mistake. the whole scene is now an interlude in fantasy romance wip.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

no clue, honestly. shout out to queen's deception from the destiny soundtrack though, it'd have a similar vibe.

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

from fantasy romance wip? im risking being obvious here, but its between loifa and rowan. probably rowan, i think. the boy is just trying SO hard and loifa is just SO much to deal with. tbh he has older sister energy and i sympathize with that.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

that's a very interesting question. my wip is mostly inspired by the fifth season and ffxiv, but in very different ways, so it's hard for me to say that ppl who liked both would like it. bc you know... fantasy romance wip is a romance (allegedly!)... and the fifth season and ffxiv aren't...

(well, ffxiv is if you try hard enough but)

let's say i wouldnt be surprised if someone who liked nettle & bone and the cruel prince also liked fantasy romance wip. id expect that person to be aroace and/or queer in some way though, ngl.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

the middle!!! and the length!! it's kinda bizarre just how much needs to happen and how i need to fit so much into a standalone and i still have no middle to speak of?? like how does that even happen

also, you know... the romance.... :(

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

lots of animals!! or beasts in general. good honest folk (cows, horses, sheep just minding their business and being slaughtered for no good reason by Things) and the mischievous crowd (carnivorous deer, three eyed owls, said Things), etc. no little guys to speak of so far, though.

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

on foot. there are only like two horses left in the marrow (the village) and they are working horses, so they arent used for travel/getting around.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

(through blood, sweat and tears) [the beginning of] the middle!!!!

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

weird magical forest + god/mortal relationship + tiny town/village energy + secrets + the aroace lens. basically.

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

id be very contented if i finished it honestly :(

tagging @i-can-even-burn-salad @treesandwords @duskforged @ anyone else who wants to try!!

#me: fantasy romance wip is a romance!! fantasy romance wip: :) #problem is i came up with fantasy romance wip before knowing romantasy was a thing #so now fantasy romance wip looks like a romantasy book in a wig and clown make up #it doesnt fit it but where else can it go! #my dusty google docs wip folder likely #fantasy romance wip #tag games

[writingmoth]

#for loifa: a found family + getting shaken roughly #for rowan: a hug #and also getting shaken roughly

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i know i havent been very active but my life is a bit of a mess right now. after going through a layoff in august 2023, i went through ANOTHER just last month. this one i felt coming so i was already looking for new jobs. good news: i start said new job next week. bad news: i dont have the mental bandwidth to do much beyond prepare for it/work on some coding related personal projects. i do want to go back to fantasy romance wip so bad though :(

#ren.txt #i still need a title for it rip

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Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin (2018), dir. Arwen Curry

#ursula k le guin #i miss her :(

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last line tag

tagged by @worldstogetlostin (ty!!)

this is from the one shot i wrote for my dnd character. still can't post it anywhere bc spoilers for the other players </3

There are no flowers now. The place is quiet, the small table devoid of both his materials and the remnants of a half filled glass of water he shouldn’t know about. He stares at it, clutching his bloody hand, standing in the same spot his father had been more than twenty years ago. The angle is indeed different, he thinks, numbness tugging at the edges of his mind. His father was - is? - taller than him. He glances at his hand, ignoring the drying blood. The grayish purple tone seems boringly normal to him, no hint of a tint of blue in sight. He has the distinct impression that his father’s hair had been silver like his too - maybe from a quick glance from the corner of his eye? - but there is no face to attach these myriad characteristics to. The man himself is still a ghost, just like he was all his life.

not a line buuuuuuuut

i was going to say sorn has daddy issues but honestly he has mommy issues and sibling issues as well. whole family issues bus, basically.

tagging @i-can-even-burn-salad @treesandwords @duskforged and anyone else who wants to join in!

#how do i even tag this #the dnd campaign #sorn willowdew #last line tag