I Want To Start Doing Something A Little Different On This Blog.

Seven Sentence Sunday

Thanks for tagging me, @illarian-rambling , even though I have barely anyone to tag. This is the first time I've been tagged on Tumblr. Hope I did this right.

Rules: Post seven sentences of what you've been working on (:

The forest is alight with life, the rustling of leaves, and chatter of animals. The trees sway in a soft breeze, creaking and groaning as some limbs are stressed by the weight of leaves and wavering in the wind. Within a small clearing, a young girl sits, her eyes closed as her silver hair sways in the breeze. Her head is tilted down, her lightly tanned skin glowing where beams of sunlight hit her skin. At her side is a sheathed sword, her left hand resting on the sheath. She takes a breath, raising her head.

"Elders of the Clan, I make a request!"

This is a new story. That is all the context I will give. Honestly, I have no idea how to do these things. So I'm not even going to tag anyone because I am an uncertain bean.

(Do not take this as a "I did not want to do this." I would love to do these things in my tiny little corner here. I just won't tag anyone.)

(This is potentially a serious story. Potentially.)

questions I think would be fun to be asked

what are 3 things you’d say shaped you into who you are?

show us a picture of your handwriting?

3 films you could watch for the rest of your life and not get bored of?

what’s an inside joke you have with your family or friends?

what made you start your blog?

what’s the best and worst part of being online/a creator?

what scares you the most and why?

any reacquiring dreams?

tell a story about your childhood

would you say you’re an emotional person?

what do you consider to be romance?

what’s some good advice you want to share?

what are you doing right now?

what’s something you’ve always wanted to do but maybe been to scared to do?

what do you think of when you hear the word “home”?

if you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

name 3 things that make you happy

do you believe in ghosts and/or aliens?

favourite thing about the day?

favourite things about the night?

are you a spiritual person?

say 3 things about someone you love

say 3 things about someone you hate

what’s one thing you’re proud of yourself for?

fave season and why?

fave colour and why?

any nicknames?

do you collect anything?

what do you do when you’re sad?

what’s one thing that never fails to make you happy/happier?

are you messy or organised?

how many tabs do you have open right now?

any hobbies?

any pet peeves?

do you trust easily?

are you an open book or do you have walls up?

share a secret

fave song at the moment?

youtuber you’ve been obsessed with and why?

any bad habits?

(this post was stolen from @teenage-mutant-ninja-freak, since it couldn't be reblogged anymore)

April Fools! I'm hiding two dozen tiny plastic babies in your characters' house :3

Oh no! Whatever will they do?

Here's an AU where none of the characters hate each other to death and lived in the same house ig.

Hades would know immediately that the babies are fake. She can get a vague feeling of what around her is alive, and so she would know immediately... and say absolutely nothing to the others. Especially to those she knows are scared of babies. There... there is a story behind why there are people scared of babies. She isn't going to tell.

Zeus would try to relocate them, but he wouldn't be serious about it. He'd move them so they are a bit... harder to see, but what you can see is way creepier than the original. Like places where all you can see are the eyes or where you pull something out and there a tiny baby is.

Nyx would scream in an attempt to wake them up and, when they don't wake, she'd leave them. She isn't scared of them, she just likes freaking people out. Especially because she's the quietest of the group.

Eros would be confused. He'd know they aren't alive, but he'd want to know which of the people he's slept with are sneaking plastic babies into his house to tell him that he got them pregnant even though he takes all measures to not do that.

Ares would scream bloody murder. Then he'd try to burn the house down. He'd also somehow break his leg in the process. He would rather be homeless than exist in a house with babies.

Aphrodite would collect them all and put them in a fire proof clear case that blocks out any and all heat so she can see them all and scare Ares whenever she felt like. She's part of why Ares hates babies. She gave him the talk and has tormented him with it ever since.

reblog if you have skilled writer friends and you're damn proud of them

WRITEBLR - ASK GAME

NOTEBOOK - How many notebooks do you have, and how many of them are empty, used, or full?

PEN - Do you have good handwriting?

QUILL - What's your most controversial writer opinion?

LAPTOP - What do you use to write?

WORD - What word do you use too many times, but refuse to stop using?

SENTENCE - What are you best at?

PHRASE - Has your family read your writing? If not, why not?

METAPHOR - Do you use the oxford comma? Defend your stance!

SIMILE - How good are you at writing, compared to your favourite author?

IMAGERY - What's the best thing you've ever written?

HERO - How similar are you to your hero? Was the intentional?

VILLAIN - How similar are you to your villain? Was that intentional?

LOVER - Do you love your love interest?

BOOK - What are you going to do with your WIP when it's finished?

NOVEL - What's your favourite book?

NOVELLA - If you had to guess, how many words do you think you've written this year so far?

WRITER - Do you write because you want to or because you need to?

PUBLISH - Is your writing on the same level as published books?

CHAPTER - How long do your chapters/scenes tend to be?

PARAGRAPH - Give your best writing advice!

Reblog if its ok for your moots to stalk your blog and interact with everything you've posted.

Better than what I imagine the requirements of invoking anti-Dark-God magic are. (Who would want to recite a whole incantation in a different language while pouring your blood on the ground and hoping you have enough magic power to not fail and or die that could very easily be stopped by even a second of hesitation- I'd fail.)

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

—

How Many WIPs?

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

Challenges Faced With WIPs

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.

The Magic System

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.

—

*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

—

I'm going to end it here, I hope you enjoyed it :D

I have this habit of saving things I want to reblog to my drafts to reblog at a later date, sometimes because I want to write thoughts to reblog things with, sometimes because I see something interesting and want to save it where it wouldn't be buried in my likes. But then it gets lost in my drafts so I'm just juggling I guess.

Unintentional flex

I used to play games like this, where every hue had to be in the right spot, so maybe it was unfair.

I feel mean because I tried this on a whim, and I had strategies.

How well do you see color?

I’m cry I scored 60, I feel blind