Sometimes I Look Back On My Past Writing And Think It’s The Worst Thing Ever Written But Occasionally

A year-end update on my original novel concept

Hey friends, it's been awhile since I've been able to put in any work on this! But I've been doing some world building and altering a few things, and thought it might be nice to send you an updated summary of my original novel. It is tentatively titled "The Pilgrimage", but who knows, that might change as well.

Alays Webster is a weaver in a small town on the edge of the Barrens in a country called Codor. Life in her hometown is pretty sedate, and more or less ruled by the country's religious hierarchy and its tenets, observing festivals and attending service and what have you. It is expected that everyone will go on pilgrimage to the capital at least once in their lifetimes, to witness miracles and see the Sleeping King himself, where he lies in state while battling in the spirit realm against false gods and keeping them out of Codor. Alays, though, was always a sickly child, and still has occasional bad days now that she's grown. So she’s put off making the pilgrimage until her childhood best friend, Vezian, now a priest, comes and cajoles her into making the journey with him.

The Barrens are a dead wasteland that surround Codor on all sides; as far as anyone knows, no one can live there, and the area is considered to be forsaken by everyone, even the Sleeping King. On her pilgrimage, Alays learns that her proximity to the Barrens causes others to look down on her, and she encounters concepts that she had never considered before, everything from how criminals are treated to “witches” and “demons”, from whose magic the Sleeping King's priests promise protection.

Alays's ill health improves the closer she gets to the capital, and this is touted as a miracle from the Sleeping King himself. It turns out, however, that Alays is sensitive to magical energies, and her health is improving because she is traveling through healthier land that has more magic available for her to draw from. Magic is secretly but strictly regulated by the priesthood, and anyone who tries to use it outside of their purview is labeled a witch, and sentenced to a terrible fate: either death, or “alteration” into Misbegotten monsters. Alays is now in terrible danger through no fault of her own.

Vezian’s mentor, Father Marcellus, explains this to Alays, and arranges for her to escape to the Barrens via airship, piloted by a man named Lucas. In my original version of this story, Lucas is a shady fellow who almost certainly can not be trusted, and Vezian is exiled along with Alays. In the updated 2023 version of this story, I want Alays to go to the Barrens alone, taken there by Lucas, while Vezian is left behind without even the first clue what could have happened to his childhood best friend. In that case, Vezian has to hunt for Alays himself, and learn a great deal about the secrets the upper echelons of the priesthood have been hiding from him. Though Vezian doesn’t know it yet, Lucas will be instrumental in helping him find Alays once more.

This is, incidentally, a plot that I write over and over again, no matter how hard I might try to to get away from it: “Character A is separated from Character B and they must reunite,” except that once they do reunite, Vezian discovers that Alays is dying, and with Lucas's help must go on a dangerous journey across the Barrens and into the unknown in order to save her life.

What follows is a tale of adventure, exile, betrayal, and trust, that tests not only their faith, but everything Lucas, Vezian, and Alays thought they ever knew. There will be magic, and gods, new lands not seen in centuries, and old tales not heard in just as long.

(My worldbuilding for this is extensive, and highly distracting. Now if only I could get the story itself to be half as interesting.)

REBLOG IF ITS OKAY TO TALK TO YOU.

Please.

i have the “Umino Iruka Adopts Naruto Uzumaki” tag favorited on ao3, it honestly brings me so much comfort

love to see them happy :)

Sometimes a calm afternoon with your adopted son is what you might need

MHA tweets pt.13- bkdk not-date

MHA tweets pt.23

aizawa didn't warn shinsou at all

updated intro post 🌱

hi! nice to meet you! my name's bi_focal, im 21, and this blog is a mix of writing and fandom content. asks/comments/DMs are always welcome!

fandom-wise, i mainly post about MHA (main ships including bkdk, togachako, seroroki, and more, though I enjoy platonic readings of shipped pairs as well)

for the writeblr, im always looking to connect with fellow writers so feel free to tag me in games or send asks/DMs to talk about writing things! theres no specific genre i really stick to but i enjoy coming-of-age stories and queer characters quite a bit

fic updates are pretty regular on here but as i spend more time on my original stuff ill prob be able to post more about those WIPs as well. for now ill include a brief overview of them at the bottom of this post (to be updated as i work on them)

for more info abt me/my blog pls check out my caard !

-for easy tag searching-

fulfilled writing requests (and posts about prompt requests being open) can be found under #request, fake tweets under both #fake tweets and #incorrect quotes, and anything writing related under #writeblr :)

-my most recent ao3 fics (w/ links)-

scraped knees and sunday dinners (bakugou & izuku, pre-slash, humor)

probably not (bakugou& izuku, friendship rebuilding)

still-beating, second-chance heart (demiromantic bkdk, post war)

-bi_focal's original WIPs-

Sealed (planning/ first draft stage) | Horror/thriller, mystery, sapphic

A sapphic, coming-of-age story set in a small town where ghosts are reviled, ghost-catcher's are revered, and violent attacks are starting to pile up. An unlucky medium named Nishtha forms an unlikely bond with Veronica, a Catching prodigy, when their secrets are exposed to each other entirely by accident, meanwhile the bond between childhood sweethearts Cherry and Carter is put to the test when Cherry is offered a Catching apprenticeship by her mysterious uncle and the medium cousin who almost killed Carter as a child is released form jail with a story to tell that Carter doesn't want to hear. (Multiple POV)

All It's Worth (planning/ first draft stage) | Sci-fi/fantasy, adventure, queer romance

Set on a dying planet fraught with drought, Meric thinks his life will finally change for the better when the Prophets announce that there are two from his farming town with a Calling. Instead, he accidentally thwarts an assassination attempt on the young heir of House Myre and is forced to watch on as his neighbors pay the price. Ten years later, Meric has finally faked his way into the Priesthood when a chance encounter with the boy he saved so long ago thrusts them both into the heart of a conspiracy far older and far more dangerous than they realize

Forest Fire (planning/ first draft stage) | Mystery, magical realism, new adult fiction

Lincoln was fourteen when he went crazy and got lost in the woods, fourteen when he was rescued from something he still refuses to talk about, and fourteen when he left his town behind without a second glance. It’s at 22, though, when Lincoln falls apart. Forced to bring Peggy, a young girl who can’t get in contact with her father, and Sylas, the little brother he never expected to see again, back to the town where everything went wrong, Lincoln will have to decide if it’s also the place where he can finally set things right or if the ghosts of the past will drag him down with them

Hi!

I voted for a discord server in the 50k novel challenge poll. I use discord a lot for various groups, both personal and community servers, so I wanted to offer to be an admin on the server to help with setting up and keeping everything running smoothly if Discord is what you choose to go ahead with.

I really love this idea and am looking forward to writing!

- Freyja

Thank you so much!

I’ll prob post the poll again at the end of Jan/beginning of Feb since there have been a few more interested ppl but so far discord is looking like the winner and I would def appreciate the help!!

writing accountability, day 26

sprints are fr my life-savers lmao. it's not guaranteed, but whenever I sprint with other people, I consistently get sooo much more done than I would otherwise. I really should employ them more often aaa. I'm writing quite well these days, but I don't expect to keep this pace up forever, so I'm just buffing up my word count for the inevitable drought lol

today's word count: 1273/800

so, I think I started act 2 today? the previous chapter does very much feel like the end to act 1 lol. which is good! I'm getting somewhere! WE'RE GOING PLACES AHHH. still, the fact that I'm almost 30k in and I'm just now ending year 1 is... um... 💀💀💀 well, okay, it makes sense, BUT STILL... oh boy

snippet (for context, Quilin has a condition which makes any plant matter he eats multiply extremely rapidly in his stomach, so he's essentially deathly allergic to it):

“Yes, there are many types of mutations we have yet to encounter,” the man sighed, adjusting his thin glasses. “Say, at what rate approximately do plant cells multiply when exposed to the affected tissue?” “Quickly,” Quilin said, very clipped. “Never thought to time it, however.” On the account of being in the process of dying was left unsaid. Which, should be noted, took no small amount of self-control. The man nodded, entirely unfazed. Either he was ignorant to Quilin’s annoyance, or he simply did not care.

wdym u never thought to time the speed at which death approaches . lame

see ya tmr