Reblog if you're a writer who re-reads their own work for funsies.
I am in a weird state. I want to do three different things for my current story. Each requires different levels of thought and different processes in general.
Which sounds fine. Just do them one at a time, right?
Wrong.
I want to do these three things all at once. I lack the number of brains and arms for that. And lack the laptop amount for that. I can't write on two different tabs at once on the same laptop. I also can't write in a notebook and type on a computer at the same time.
And none of the three things involve writing the actual story. I have the better part of two chapters written. I'm just trying to get lore and settings written out so I can reference these things.
My brain is just absurdly all over the place.
To explain the different processes thing
-I write my lore related things in a notebook. A notebook that is strangely perfectly themed for the story I am writing. Some setting things get mentioned, but they aren't the focus of the notebook. Plot things also go here. Except I don't write outlines for plot things. I know what I want to happen and don't plan things. Yes, it becomes a discombobulated mess.
-I do character profiles on my laptop. It is very easy to reference while writing. Just flip between tabs. Obviously, I could also write my lore on my laptop, but I personally like having the lore in a notebook because I can make myself a table of contents and use plastic tabs to note the themes of certain parts for the story.
-I am thinking of having more general worldbuilding that is unrelated to lore be done on my laptop. Yes, this is my admission that I don't do worldbuilding often. I just have ideas and write them out with no planning. But I realize that that process won't work as easily for the type of story I am currently writing.
You'd think with that idea in mind, I would want to world build more, but I... I want to do all of these things at once
I wanted those to be alphabetical. I am a chaos gremlin.
If you send ask from this, please include question and number/emoji. Save me the guessing game.
I am also procrastinating actually writing. If you’ve multiple works in progress you can give a different answer every time!
🦈Tell us the name of your/ one of your WIP(s)
🍄Decriscribe your wip/one of your wips in the format of “___ + ___ =___”
🌍What tags or warnings will your / one of your wip(s) need if you intend to share it?
🧭An alternative title to your/ one of your WIP(s)?
⚠️Which wip your most likely to finish or update next?
💾What is your document of your wip/ a wip called? (not the stories actual title but what you’ve saved it as)
🖍Post Any sentence from your wip
♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP
🤔What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?
🤡How many Wips are you actively working on?
🛠Is there a scene or anything in the WIP you are struggling with right now?
❤️Not a question, just a second kudos to send.
Enjoy!
what made you start your blog?
show us a picture of your handwriting?
From the 40 assorted questions
Here's both answers in one image!
There was no thinking, I just wanted to do the alphabet at first and type the response. It was also originally done in teal ink that was barely darker than the sticky note.
You are lucky I didn't go and tiny write. My handwriting gets neater the smaller it is.
what made you start your blog?
show us a picture of your handwriting?
From the 40 assorted questions
Here's both answers in one image!
My mood is balanced somewhere between "I should write until three am so I can sleep a good four hours" and "I should attempt to make a pinterest board for Hades"
Neither will go well.
Take over. Control everything. He is... ah... very creepily attracted to the main character. He wants to rule the world with her at his side and make her carry his children. Which is a bit hard considering she hates him and would hate him even more if he did something that would harm her brothers.
And he wants to see her eyes uncovered, which would kill him. Not the seeing her eyes part, but the her seeing him without her eyes covered.
Magic system
How many WIPs
And
Challenges you have faced with your WIPs
Thank you for the ask <333
There's an essay incoming, beware
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I have no less than four novel-intended wips (Flamebearer, A Healing for the Birds, Soulswapped and the Lady's Lament), plus a few shorter works (The Disappearance of Charimone Eschredaine, [Succession of the Underground*] and [The Assassin's Promise*]) and a developing anthology of certain characters' backstories (This Blood-Stained Charcuterie)
*Placeholders; I've no clue what to call them yet
A Healing for the Birds:
The main challenge with this is dealing with all the plot threads. One thing that has remained consistent even after all the changes since the first ever iteration of this wip (it used to be called Seafarer, then Obsidian Sapphires, and now this), is there being loads of plot threads. The difference is now those plot threads are more centred around the Allaitri Chalice and the political chaos of it being unearthed.
Up until recently, I wasn't sure what the core of the story was, but now I know. It centres around familiar ties and the things that people do in the name of love. (Sounds a bit corny out of context, though lol)
Flamebearer
I put this one on hold because I know it's going to be complex due to the heavy political themes in this. Unlike A Healing for the Birds, where the political situation is a little bit lighter and more petty, in a sense, the political scene is very charged here. There's a lot of resentment pointed towards the royal family due to things like Serrantine trying to rejoin Selade or the legacy of the Twenty-Year Winter, leading to unrest, death, grief, a lot more sombre and complex issues to deal with. I hope to be more confident in my writing so I can do Flamebearer justice, I find people seem to really like the premise and starting ideas, its associated Flash Friday pieces do quite well 😅
Soulswapped
Again, another wip put on ice to focus on the bird wip. I do want to get back to this at some stage, I have some vague ideas for how I want it to play out. I don't envision it to be as long as the two above, because its concept (the main character has to fight her way out of jail and the court it's in) is more constrained. There's nowhere near the amount of plot strings here. (The darker intrigue happens around the end/slightly thereafter 👀)
The Lady's Lament
I do not have experience writing contemporary stuff, which I think is what made it hard to start it. The concept's there, easy enough, but it's just actually sitting down and planning it that's the main thing.
Another challenge that is unique for this one to an extent, is the presence of Gaeilge here. The book is intended to be an ode to Irish culture, and if I was to complete it, I do intend for there to be a Gaeilge translation.
This Blood-Stained Charcuterie
One word: timeline. The setting for this collection has thousands of years worth of history, and so the challenge is figuring out who killed who and when. And not to mention all the stuff going on in the background, some of it is more influential than others.
Basically, it's based on the idea of magic being a biological substance present in the world. Most living things have a tolerance for it, but not all living things can actively use it.
Even then, there's two broad categories; faerie creatures, whom rely on simpler magic like moving things or simple tricks, and then the faeries/Carithaikh [start with one fae/one human parent, subsequent generations by any combination that isn't two faeries; these people can also be dubbed as witches], who can perform magic in a wide variety of ways.
Most people are born with an affinity to an element (such as fire, plant, water/ice, air, light, shadow, blood, lightning, dust, rock, metal, etc), which is then honed as the person gets older. It is also possible to learn certain elements, but some are harder than others, going on into near-impossible (e.g, it's hard to learn fire if one doesn't have an affinity for it [the genes of those who do are adapted to prevent burns and manage the heat more efficiently], but water is fairly easy to learn).
Another aspect that some people have but is much less common, are skill-based abilities. Shapeshifting and teleporting are the most common ones, but there's also a select few who can weave souls or see/interact with the domain of the spirits. Those last two are about one or few in a generation. (And interestingly, in Helinda there's no records of anyone who can interact with the spirit world, likely because Helindians burn their dead!)
But sometimes you'll get people with bespoke abilities. Some are merely unusual powers, such as purple fire, wood manipulation, blending with the shadows etc.
Others, are actual divine elements. They manifest as fire, light or water, and usage of then can have catastrophic effects. If the user doesn't die after using divine magic, it can cause things such as blindness, burns, nerve damage/neuropathy, constant dehydration, reduced magical abilities/stamina, chronic fatigue and/or other symptoms.
If the user has a part of a deity's soul entwined with them, then the effects are mitigated to an extent. (It occurs frequently with Fate's reprisals [her element is blue fire])
And then, there's also the external systems. These rely on the magic of the world instead of/as well as the user's. Things like runes, languages, diagrams, items, gestures and/or other tangible things are used for them.
These systems vary from place to place and between cultures, they're like programming languages in a sense. Each system has strengths and weaknesses.
For instance, Helinda's five-pointed star is great if you are a) in Helinda [or Morilaste]** b) looking to do things like a locating or summoning* spell, as well as anything relating to Helindian geography. It's great with maps!
However, it's not great for highly complex spells with lots of rules. That's where Seldaika's system shines. It has a four-pointed star, but the main mode of it is its language. It's a spell language, the grammar and vocabularly are tailor-made to support spells. Intention is also important, which is an aid in differentiating normal speech from a spell. Gestures also come into play, as do wands (syrchels), which are used as social indicators and statements of magical intent as well as to apply runes.
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*summoning items is perfectly fine, as long as it's not someone else's item. Summoning people/spirits is illegal under Helindian law
**there's a decent amount of lore underpinning the reason for this phenomenon
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I'm going to end it here, I hope you enjoyed it :D
reblog to tell your mutuals they’re lovely af.
✨♡♡✨♡♡✨♡♡✨♡♡✨
I love writing one story, going to another story--which is inevitably in the middle of a scene with an entirely different vibe--and bouncing between the two like a ping pong ball until my brain settles on a third, completely unrelated story.
Well fucks? Get to it!
I know her skin looks tan, but that's mostly because I hate trying to make skin color accurate.
Also, I made these years ago. The sitting pose was stolen, I think? Obviously, her design has changed slightly, but the overall look is there. One is cropped to hide her name because I can.
My main oc has me bsing my way through blacksmithing...
Anyway, she is a lovely, tall young woman who finds a passion in being aggressively protective of things, like her family or a village/community. Her narration reveals that she sees herself as disposable, which is also why I make a certain narration choice with her that becomes quite apparent initially. As her view of herself shifts from negative to positive, she starts seeing herself as a main character, which shows in the narration style.
She has a power she despises despite using it when she needs to--on animals, not people. She got traumatized the one time that happened. She covers her eyes due to her power, although she can still see. It's just that a thin cloth prevents her power from harming others. Anyway, her senses are extremely enhanced because of her power, leading to her narration mentioning her hearing sounds and such more often than not.
She got used by her birth world, which led to her fleeing and living in the woods for a year (which, in her world, is equivalent to two of our years). After which, she is brought to her chosen world. She's my little baby.